OK-AHEAD Board Minutes

December 16, 2008

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Present: Denise North, Kahle Goff, Kimberly Fields, Sharla Weathers, Debbie Argo, Chimene Long, Amy Janzen, Stephen Glazier, and Kim Osmani.

Officer Position Open: Jenna Howard stepped down from her duties on the Board as the two-year representative due to her position change at Oklahoma City Community College. This position will need to be filled by the Board as soon as possible.

Treasurer’s Report: There is currently $8,663.73 in the account. Food expenses for the Fall conference have not be received or paid. Denise will check with MetroTech with regards to an invoice for OK-AHEAD. Money is still being received from conference registrars so the balance will fluctuate between now and the next board meeting.

Fall Conference Evaluations: The Board was pleased with the evaluations of the conference attendees and got an overwhelming response with regard to future topics, etc.

Spring Conference Dates: April 6-7th or April 16-17th as an alternate date dependent upon the availability of OCR. Denise will get in touch with them this afternoon. It was suggested that since April 6th and 7th is Monday and Tuesday versus the traditional Thursday and Friday that the conference start with a luncheon on April 6th to allow for travel that morning and conclude around 3 pm on April 7th instead of 12 p.m.

Spring Conference Location: Kahle to check on the availability of Career Tech in Stillwater or possibly the Meridian Tech Center which are just a few miles apart. The Career Tech has a seminar center that holds 150 and the Arch Alexander room that holds 75 and a conference room for serving dinners along with an atrium should vendors be invited.

Spring Conference Topics:

  • OCR
  • New case law
  • Overview of ADA and ADAAA
  • Writing policy to defend OCR complaints (both K-12 and Post-secondary)
  • Q&A
  • Adequate documentation for post-secondary educators
  • How to be a better DSS provider
  • Basic accommodations:
  • audio books (Ron – previous speaker)

Target Audience for Spring:

  • Post-secondary educators/providers
  • K-12 special education teachers
  • HR administrators – possibly providing a separate fee dependent on OCR’s topics
  • University/Colleges special education departments and students enrolled in special education programs.

Other Conference Ideas:

  • Live stream or record OCR sessions as to allow for members unable to attend to view for a cost at their own leisure within a set time frame via web. Denise to ask OCR for privilege/rights to do so.
  • Pre-distribute any power points, information to be used during the conference ahead of time to registered participants.

SOP: It was suggested that the Board (or higher ed task force) in lieu of providing information at a conference provide a formal document to send to the Department of Education with regard to SOPs and how they can be best utilized by post-secondary disability providers.

Audio Conferences: The Board recommends hosting the AHEAD Audio Conferences in the months of February, March, April and May at an Oklahoma location to allow for providers (members and non-members) to come together and gain knowledge in the variety of trainings being offered. Joining together will allow for collaboration afterwards between those present. Denise will host February’s conference at Metro-Tech. The sessions are 90 minutes in duration and begin at 3:30 p.m. eastern time. The fee for members will be free and $20 for non-members. The session topics and speakers can be found on AHEAD’s website ( The cost to OKAHEAD is $415 for 4 sessions or $139 each.

Volunteer Sign Up Sheets: Kim asked that Denise please send her the sign up sheets for both scholarships and awards committee which was distributed at the conference.

2009 Board Meetings:

  • Friday, January 23, 2009 at 9 am (conference call) – to last 1 hour
  • Friday, February 20, 2009, 9:30-12 p.m. at Metro Tech
  • March - TBA