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Your HLAA-SLC Chapter

Who is on our chapter steering committee? Karen Faddis is the president, Chelley Wyatt is the treasurer and we have Kathy Evans, Helen Droitsch, Charla and Kevin Dolan on the committee.  We meet every 3 months or so to decide on meeting topics, speakers and other chapter issues.
We have monthly meetings, one month will be a regular chapter meeting with a topic and presentation.  The next month is for social purposes which have decided to be a book club.  Both meetings have CART and the the hearing loop.  If you’d like to see another kind of social gathering, let us know.  We are open to new ideas.
 Our next regular meeting is Nov. 21, 2015 and the topic is “The Importance of Staying Social.”  With holiday celebrations ahead we know how hard it is to be social.  Let’s talk about why we shouldn’t withdraw and what we can do make these situations better.  Refreshments and coffee will be available.
Our last book club featured “Smilla’s Sense of Snow” by Peter Hoeg.  We enjoyed it thoroughly. The next book will The Giver by Lois Lowry which was made into a movie with the winter scenes being filmed in Utah at Solitude ski resort. It’s a quick read and if you haven’t tried the book club yet this is your chance.  I will set up a date for early December and announce it soon.
Also in December we will have our annual potluck social at our president’s house.  Our November theme fits right in with this except you are among your tribe so communication will be a lot easier.  We are shooting for December 12th. An announcement will be coming soon.
In 2016 we are changing our meeting times from 10am-Noon.  We wanted to make it an hour later in the mornings to give the ones who live further away a little more time to get to the meeting.  The meetings will still be at the Sanderson Center and every third Saturday of the month.  We are going to swap out the book club and regular meetings so it will be book club in January and our regular meetings in February and so on.
The national chapter leader resigned from his position so the national office is looking for someone to replace him. We look at this as a good thing and look forward to someone more active stepping into the role.
Kathy has forwarded some information from the national office, thank you Kathy for helping out. The latest one generated some discussion which is good. Here’s the website related to the discussion: http://hearinghealthmatters.org/hearingnewswatch/2015/pcast-issues-eye-opening-report-hia-strongly-opposes/  It’s report on Aging America & Hearing Loss: Imperative of Improved Hearing Technologies.
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Sept. 19th Meeting with Detective Aaron Rosen

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The HLAA Salt Lake City chapter is having their meeting September 19th at 9 in the morning to 11:00. It will be in classroom B/C at the Sanderson Center with the hearing loop and CART available.
The topic this month: How We Can Improve our Relationship with Law Enforcement as Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Aaron Rosen will be speaking and taking questions from our audience. He currently works for the Bluffdale City Police Precinct. He is in his 16th year of Law Enforcement. He serves as a Training Coordinator, and School Resource Officer; in addition to his normal patrol and investigative duties. He is the agency’s Crisis Intervention Team Coordinator and SWAT Team Negotiator. He has worked with the Utah Deaf community since he began his career, and has even worked as the Law Enforcement Liaison for the World Deaflympic Games in SLC (2007). He is developing an ASL curriculum for police training, and is preparing to travel to teach this program, in order to raise awareness regarding police/deaf interaction. He lives in South Jordan, with his son, Jordan. His girlfriend, Julie McCleave is also a staff member of the RGSCSDHH.

This is Detective Aaron Rosen.

This is Detective Aaron Rosen.

Detective Rosen will be our first presenter starting at 9:00.  When he is done, Kevin and Charla will share what they learned at the national HLAA convention in Missouri.  Here are some photos they shared with us.

HLAA get aquainted

The Get Acquainted Party


Vendor Hall

Vendor Hall


Vendor Hall

Vendor Hall


HLAA's Keynote Speaker: Senator Tom Harkin

HLAA’s Keynote Speaker: Senator Tom Harkin

Don’t miss our great meeting!

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HLAA Book Club, Up Next: Smilla’s Sense of Snow

Last Saturday a group of us met to discuss our last book Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. Fablehaven is a preserve for magical creatures.  Two young children stay with their grandparents, who are the preserve’s caretakers, for the first time.  The oldest, Kendra is a rule follower and her brother Seth is a natural rule breaker.  The kids get in plenty of mischief and then end up saving the preserve.  This is book one in a series.

While it may not have been a favorite among us, the discussion was great between the book club members.  Sharing our thoughts on the book helps us see the book in a different light.  Anyone is welcome to join us, we have CART (real-time captions) and the hearing loop.  Our meetings are at the Sanderson Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in classroom B/C.

Our next book is Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg and Tiina Nunnely. This is Amazon’s blurb: Smilla’s Sense of Snow presents one of the toughest heroines in modern fiction. Smilla Qaavigaaq Jaspersen is part Eskimo but she lives in Copenhagen and keeps to herself. When her six-year old neighbor is killed, Smilla doesn’t believe it was an accident and begins her own investigation of a case that even the police don’t want to get involved in.  The book was turned into a movie in 1997 with Julia Ormond.smila

Read the book and join us October 17th from 9-10:30 at the Sanderson Center for a discussion on this book.

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August’s Bookclub Selection: Fablehaven

The HLAA chapter is having meeting for it’s bi-monthly book club on August 15 at 9 am until 10:30 at the Sanderson Center in classroom B/C.  The room is looped for those with t-coils in their hearing aids and we also have CART (real time captioning) available.  We cover a wide variety of genres and the book chosen for this month is Fablehaven by Brandon Mull.

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Fablehaven is a series of books a member has enjoyed and compared it to Harry Potter.  A couple of kids visit their grandparents for the first time on magical refuge and trouble is brewing.  It doesn’t help that one of the kids is a rule breaker.

Anyone is welcome to join us in our book discussions.

Some past selected books include:
These Is My Words by Nancy Turner
Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson
King Peggy by Peggielene Bartels

Contact Chelle Wyatt for more information.  hearinglossutah@gmail.com
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Summer Social Friends

Last night HLAA-SLC had their summer social.  We had a great group of people with fairly easy to understand conversation.  We talked a little louder, slowed our speech some and repeated as necessary.  We started out sitting in a circle so we could easily face one another.  Sometimes there were two conversations at once (we can’t help that in a group larger than 6) but we could choose which conversation to follow.  Most of the time we had one conversation to follow.

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Dinner was prepared as appreciation for the chapter members.  Dinner was served around 3 tables put together which could have made it a little harder for people to follow conversation except we were conscious of the fact and people shifted to allow everyone to see.  Anyone could have made a communication request and it would have been seen to, that’s the great part of socializing with others who also have hearing loss.   FullSizeRender (4)  Two of our members attended the HLAA convention in St. Louis and they told us about Tom Harkin (the keynote speaker) and how wonderful his presentation on getting accommodations for the Deaf and hard of hearing.  They talked about several workshops they attended and also about the banquet where they got to know other HLAA people.  Here a couple of pictures they shared with us:

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Charla and Kevin attended the 2015 HLAA convention in St. Louis.

Tom Harkin was an impressive keynote speaker.

Tom Harkin was an impressive keynote speaker.

Our next gathering is our bi-monthly book club which is August 15th at 9am.  A post about the book will follow soon.

Our next chapter meeting is September 19th.  More information will follow soon.

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Summer Social July 2015

  It’s time for our annual summer social which will be July 18th at 6:00 at my house near the Canyon Rim area. Don’t let the word ‘social’ scare you because you can’t get a better group of people for socializing with hearing loss as we know how to accommodate each other.  Don’t be shy bringing that ALD that helps you along, in fact bring it to show it off!
  We will have dinner for you, barbecue pork sandwiches with a few sides.  We’ll have water and some punch for you but you can bring your favorite drinks too.
  RSVPs are needed!  You can email us at hearinglossutah@gmail.com.   Please let me know if you are coming and I’ll give you the instructions to get here.
Karen was crowned our chapter president at last year's summer social.

Karen was crowned our chapter president at last year’s summer social.

More scenes from last year…

Fred, Kathy and Karen

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Robin and Helen

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How to Talk to Your Audiologist: March 21, 2015

  Our next meeting is March 21st at the Sanderson Center from 9-11am in classroom B/C.  We have CART and the Hearing Loop.  We have a great topic for you and a wonderful presenter so save the date and visit with us.
Picture from the Phonak website.

Picture from the Phonak website.

  Our topic this month is: How to Talk to Your Audiologist.
Gain some idea on how to better prepare for those meetings when your hearing aid or cochlear implant will be tuned up, how to bring up the problems you are having and how much you can actually expect them to improve your listening experiences.
  Bring your questions to our meeting featuring Lisa Dahlstrom AuD from the University of Utah Otolaryngology/ENT Division.  She’s worked with hearing aids and she works with cochlear implants.  She has answers.  We hope to see you there.
By the way, the picture above came from this website:  http://communityblog.phonak.com/2014/07/10/your-audiologist-a-life-long-relationship/
It’s a good read so check it out.
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HLAA Book Club: What Dreams May Come

Our next HLAA book club gathering is on Dec. 13th from 9am-10:30.  It will be at the Sanderson Center in Classroom C with the hearing loop and CART.

What Dreams May Come

The next book being discussed is “What Dreams May Come” by Richard Matheson.  It’s on Kindle for $8.89, there’s used on Amazon starting at $1.50 and it can be ordered through the library too.  Click HERE for the Amazon link.  Even if you haven’t read the book come on in as the discussion are a lot of fun.  Come help us pick out the next book for February.  (The book club alternates with the HLAA bi-monthly meetings.)  Here’s the questions that will lead the discussion….

Describe a situation where you have felt a feeling of a presence. Who do you believe it was? Why do you believe they were there? If you have never felt such a thing, describe one someone you know has experienced. How does this affect your belief in an afterlife?

How is Ann’s refusal to believe in Chris’s afterlife existence affecting her and her family? Explain how she is affecting the belief of her children.

How does Summerland compare with the typical concept of heaven? Explain.

Discuss why souls that have evolved, such as Albert and Leona, are still in Summerland.

Is Ann’s suicide a predictable plot point? Why or why not?

Is suicide as wrong for someone not in his or her right mind? Explain.

Discuss free will and Ann’s suicide. Use your arguments from Albert’s position and from Chris’s position.

Multiple Choice Questions

  1. Why does Ann want Richard to stop trying to console her?
    (a)She wants to have time to find Chris alone.
    (b) It only makes her feel worse.
    (c) She thinks he is coming on to her.
    (d) She does not believe Chris is alive in spirit.
  1. Who do Leona and Chris met?
    (a)A man who will find out what Chris wants to know.
    (b) An angel.
    (c) God.
    (d) Chris’s mother.
  1. What place does Chris visit?
    (a)The Hall of Unbelievers.
    (b) The Hall of Literature.
    (c) The Hall of Religious Theory.

(d) The Hall of Good and Bad Deeds.

  1. Who writes a letter about Chris?
    (a)Ann.
    (b) His daughter, Marie.
    (c) Richard.
    (d) Ian.
  1. What do the damned do in the vacuum of Hell?
    (a) Live pretty much the way they’ve always lived.
    (b) Talk to themselves about the same things over and over.
    (c) Ponder non-spiritual matters.
    (d) Plot revenge against God.

Short Answer Questions

  1. Who is with Ann?
  1. How do the works of literature exist in this library?
  1. When is Ann to join Chris in Summerland?
  1. Why is it hard for Ann to believe that Chris is still alive in some form?
  1. How does Chris’ heart beat?
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November 15, 2014 Meeting

It’s about time for our next meeting!  It will be at the Sanderson Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the conference room from 9am-11am.  CART will be available.

With the holidays coming up, we thought we’d cover Holiday Blues.

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Depression is a common feeling during the holidays and it’s even more common among those with hearing loss.  As Marilyn Call says in her “Grief” workshop, “Feelings not felt…STAY.  Feel what you are feeling.  Becoming aware of a feeling and letting yourself feel it somehow neutralizes it.”  Reach out at our meeting and learn how others cope with it.

The group discussion will be led by Dr. Susan Chilton the first hour.  There will be a short break afterward and the second hour will be devoted to HLAA-SLC business.  Learn what’s going with your chapter and in the area.