Happy New Year! As we start another calendar year, we hope you are all ready to hear about exciting news from Ms. Wheelchair America.

Coordinator Updates

Due to the holiday season, no state pageants were held in December. Sincere apologies to Melissa Zwilling and the entire Ms. Wheelchair Alabama crew. We forgot to mention their successful pageant that was held in October. Sorry!

It is with sadness that we announce the passing of Lorelei Hodges, state coordinator for South Dakota. We will miss her enthusiasm and her generous spirit.

As a reminder to all coordinators, all state programs who are planning to send a representative to the national pageant in 2007 must hold their state pageants by the weekend of April 15, 2007. Please send all of the pertinent information about your upcoming state pageant (date, location, etc.) to Denise DiNoto or to your MWA Board Mentor.

News from Autumn Grant, MWA 2007

Happy New Year! Even with all the holiday festivities my duties as Ms Wheelchair America did not slow down in December. On December 2nd, I had the honor of handing out the trophies at Gaylord Hospital’s Quad Rugby Tournament in Wallingford, CT. The players were phenomenal. Midmonth, I had the privilege to speak at the NEMED (New England Medical Equipment Dealers Association) quarterly meeting in Nashua, NH. During my speech I mentioned that I still needed to raise money to attend the Rose Bowl Parade and by the time I left the meeting, the attendees had generously donated enough money to cover my flights! On December 29th, I flew out to Burbank, CA and was hosted by Ms. Wheelchair CA state coordinator Ruthee Goldkorn. We had the most fantastic time, visiting the Burbank Rose Parade float, meeting with the Rose Queen and her court, going to Santa Monica and attending the Rose Bowl Hall of fame luncheon. Thank you again Ruthee and the MWCA committee for a trip that I will cherish forever.

Swap and Share

Last month’s question came from Denise Woodilla, MWCT coordinator. In case you don’t remember, the question was:

Our state program here in CT is brand new. Do other coordinators have suggestions for how to promote a brand new state program?

We received the following responses from coordinators. Will Clark, coordinator for Tennessee, said:

This is my first year as coordinator but I was on the board 10 years ago when we started MWTN. For a new program to become successful at a faster pace I would have to say network, network & network some more. Contact all rehab centers, consumer organizations and nonprofit agencies dealing with disability issues. They could potentially become sponsors and/or generate some contestants. Print up some tri-folds to hand out & start a website. Being a Rotarian, I took the opportunity to speak to area Rotary Clubs in Tennessee . They all made a contribution to our program. Hope some of these ideas help!

Carrie Greenwood, coordinator for Kansas, offered the following advice:

Promoting a new program can be a hard, time consuming task, but it is a very important one. The sooner that you can get the word out, the better response that you will have. I would suggest putting together packets of information on your program (fact sheet, brochure, press release, etc.) and sending those out to any and every organization in your state that works with people with disabilities. I would definitely send to independent living centers, disability organizations, DME places, physical therapy places, and rehab hospitals. Also, try to go to different disability events and even have a booth. Getting the media involved can be a huge help too. This is a way to reach a large amount of people and can be a way to recruit contestants, committee members, sponsors, etc.
Lastly, I would establish a website, if possible. This is a great way to present all of the information about your program. It is much easier to just give someone a
website to find out all that they need to know. Good luck Denise!

Ida Esh’t, coordinator for Arkansas, recommended that all coordinators should try to develop a database or mailing list that they can go back to when preparing press releases or mailings.

Thank you to all coordinators who provided great ideas for all of us!

This month’s question comes from Gail McKoon. Please see her President’s Corner below for the details.

President’s Corner

Seeking Applications for MWA Executive Director

Prior to our annual fall board meeting in November, Denise advised the Board that she would be unable to continue in her role as Executive Director after this year. This re-opened a discussion we had held many times before on the possibilities of hiring an Executive Director. Robert confirmed that he would be able to secure half of the proposed salary needed for the Executive Director, and we are confident we can secure the rest.

We are currently seeking candidates for this position. If you know someone you feel would do a good job for us, please encourage him/her to e-mail their resume to Gail and Robert for review. We will be accepting resumes through the end of this month (January). The top three candidates will be interviewed by the selection committee prior to February 20.

Some necessary skills and abilities for this position are:

• Ability to maintain and answer national phone line, returning messages within a 24 hour period.
• Excellent communication skills, verbal and written.
• Excellent Public Relations skills.
• Excellent Organizational skills.
• Experience working with media.
• Ability to work a minimum of 3 to 4 hours per day, more during peak periods, i.e., month prior to national competition.
• Excellent computer skills, with some experience in maintaining website.
• Ability to work with the MWA Board of Directors.
• Ability to work with State Coordinators, Independent Delegates and our Titleholder.
• Ability to work with sponsors, potential sponsors/donors.
• Experience in maintaining an effective filing system.
• Experience in planning events/activities.
• Excellent record-keeping skills.
• Some travel will be required.

We feel this position has grown so much that it is virtually impossible for a state coordinator to do the kind of job we need in addition to the responsibilities of keeping his/her state program going, so we are not asking state coordinators to apply for this position. However, we feel you just might know someone who would be perfect for this awesome job!

We appreciate your support as we make these new efforts to serve you better and to “grow” the MWA program.

Gail McKoon

Ms. Wheelchair America 2008 in Maryland

We are happy to announce that this year’s national pageant will be held at the Doubletree Hotel in Bethesda, MD. The Dreams, Inc. trade show will also be at this hotel. The hotel is conveniently located in downtown Bethesda, with access to Washington, DC on the Metro line. Each room includes complementary high speed internet access, speaker phones and data ports. And, those of you who enjoy the aquatic life will be happy to know there is a pool on the hotel roof. To learn more about the hotel, visit the Doubletree website.

Finally….a note from the ED

Usually I am grumbling about winter weather, cold, snow and ice in early January. This year has been an exception to that rule - last Saturday it was 71 degrees in upstate New York! Unfortunately, our strange weather means that folks in other parts of the country have not been so fortunate. And it means those people who rely on winter snow and tourism for their livelihood have not had much of a season so far. The weather is forcing all of us to adapt to change all around us.

Things are changing with Ms. Wheelchair America as well. We are brainstorming a new website design and layout. This will hopefully make the site more user friendly while still getting information out in a usable format. We are also working to put our national pageant forms in electronic formats for the ease and convenience of our titleholders for whom writing on a paper form might be a challenge. And perhaps the biggest change is reflected in this month’s note from MWA President Gail McKoon.

Look for other changes at the end of the month when the summary from the MWA Board of Directors meeting is mailed. We hope that as we roll along with these changes, MWA will become an even stronger and vibrant organization!