minutes 12/2/96

Editorial Committee Meeting
December 2, 1996, 1:00 PM

Present:  Roland Sykes, Chairperson; Kathleen Kleinmann,
Secretary; Gene Leber, ACILS; Paul Spooner; NAIL; Laural Richards, ILRU;
Mark Leeper, APRIL; Winifred McGraw, Independence Associates; Lou Diehl,
Berks CIL;  Alan Cochran, ACILS; Ken Golden, Univ. of Kansas; 


Absent:  Larry Robinson, NECILC; Anne-Marie Hughey, NCIL;
June Kailes, Disability Consultant; Todd Eggert, Capital Center for IL;
Carla Lawson, Ability Resources.


Purpose of meeting to discuss how to obtain financial support to the
DIMENET nodes and the overall project.

Laurel, Paul, and Roland recounted the history of how Federal support of
DIMENET occurred in the past.

Paul suggested that letters of support from Editorial committee members to
NIDRR or RSA could focus attention on the need for funding.
  
Kathleen asked if we could get more information on projects that NIDRR and
RSA are currently funding.  She believed that the arguement could be made
that this is a project more worthy of support than many projects already
funded.

Lou pointed out that access provided by DIMENET was critical to the field.

Kathleen suggested that NCIL and APRIL request a meeting with NIDRR and
RSA to discuss funding.  Paul and Mark indicated that this would be
explored.

Ken mentioned that a recent survey of 400 CILs indicated that relatively few
CIL's were using the Internet and hosting WEB pages.  He said the
information from the survey would be available and he could post it in
Editorial Newsgroup of DIMENET next week.

Paul and Laurel expressed frustration that Federal funding of DIMENET is
missing now that the interest in using DIMENET and the Internet systems are
taking hold.  

The group decided that the Editorial Committee write a letter with attached
letters of support form APRIL and NCIL requesting a meeting with both RSA
and NIDRR.  Letter should be sent to Judy Huemann, Assist. Sec. of OSERS.

Paul will contact Bonnie O'Day to see if National Council on Disability has an
interest in taking a position on accessibility of the government data systems.

Alan will collect drafts.
Lou will write something on Access.
Roland will write the history and building community.
Paul will discuss training needs.
Kathleen will write about expansion. 
Ken will share survey results.
Alan will write about Internet use.
Laurel will edit finished product.
Mark will do support letter from APRIL.
Paul will obtain letter from NCIL.


Get drafts to Alan by Dec. 10.
address:  alan@acils.com

Next call 1 PM EST, Friday, Dec. 13.