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| Albany, NY |
The biggest vote of all the time I’ve been on the governing
board of NYSARC, the state agency that advocates for people with disabilities
with over 50 counties and 140 people on the board was about to begin. Sitting
next to my fellow Board of Governor representative, Jim who also doubles as our
local chapter president, took out his sheets of names of all our reps from all
over the state to follow the vote and get a sense as to how it would go.
The big hall, situated in the lower lever of the Hilton in
Albany was quickly filled not only the voters but: the spectators who had a
keen interest in the outcome. Executive directors, NYSARC staffers,
self-advocates and whomever else including parents and siblings from every
corner of the state hung on every vote. This was an historical time for the
organization, and Jim and I were excited to be part of it.
Since this vote was based on a regional decision of some of
the 5 regions in the state choosing a health care plan either from the one the
upstate chapters were developing but many did not want and the down state
chapters who had one already in place, it would have a huge impact on
everything, the downstate chapters decided singularly and on their own to
abstain when there name was called.
Starting with the Allegany chapter the vote began from the
secretary of the board. One by one Jim meticulously entered a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ or
‘Abstain’ next to each name depending on how each individual voted. It went one
way in clusters, then another, then shifted to abstention voters and then would
sway back to one way or another, once again.
Suddenly it was nearing the Suffolk chapter and soon we, Jim
and I along with our fellow reps, would cast our votes!
“From the Suffolk Chapter; Joe Del Bloggolo?”
Me: “Abstain!”
“Jim McEneaney?”
Jim: “Absent… I mean Abstain! Where am I anyway???”
Yes, he slipped up and had us all laughing at him. He, Jim,
the only man to create live absentee voting!
For his lapse in verbal tallying, he receives the newly
created Board of Governors OMG Award for 2014!
It seems every time we go to the board meeting in Albany
something funny happens to one of us, leaving our car keys or cell phone in our
room in Albany and getting home to discover we did, or calling someone at an
ungodly hour because we didn’t look at the alarm clock right at that hour.
Address: 1231 Taft Hwy, Signal
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Phone:(423) 886-6943
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DO YOU WATCH THE BIG
BANG THEORY?
You should!
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