ADAPT NASMD action
Capitol Area ADAPT pulled off a regional action yesterday at the annual meeting of the National Association of State Medicaid Directors. My friend, Bobby Coward, wrote his take on the action, and sent it to me with his permission to post it here. I’ve made a couple of edits for punctuation and spelling errors.
Greetings all!
On Tuesday November 14, 2006, Capitol Area ADAPT, Delaware ADAPT, Maryland ADAPT and Northern Virginia Disability Advocates (NOVADA) joined forces to act at the Nation Association of State Medicaid Directors 2006 Annual Meeting held at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel located in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia.
A group of 25 ADAPT members converged on the NASMD meeting to achieve our objective, which was to disturbed flyers addressing MFP and community involvement as well as demand a meeting with the NASMD. Our mission goal was completed with the highest level of success.
As the group entered the Gateway Marriott, we began passing out flyers and speaking about the need for community based services for individuals with disabilities and how MFP implements that need. We passed out over 300 flyers as we sought to sit in on the workshops to gain the attention of Chairperson Nancy Atkin, Commissioner, Bureau for Medical Services Department of Health and Human Resources, and Martha Roherty, Director, NASMD. We entered the conference room and passed out flyers to everyone in the room as we moved to position ourselves at the very front of the room. As we reached the front, Matt Barkley started passing our flyers to the panel presenters while their presentations were in progress. This act drew focused attention to ADAPT’s presence. One presenter tossed the flyer back at Matt in outrage.
As the workshops drew to an end, Gwen Gillenwater, formerly with NCIL and AAPD, and a strong supporter of National ADAPT, informed ADAPT that Nancy Atkin already left the meeting after a brief conversation with her. So ADAPT began the hunt for Martha Roherty. We found out there was a meeting agenda change and Martha Roherty wasn’t moderating the scheduled workshop that we were attending. ADAPT began stalking all conference rooms and staff inquiring about were was Martha Roherty. Our action became a very major concern to meeting participants and disruptive to the NASMD Annual meeting.
Word got out that ADAPT wouldn’t stop disrupting until Martha met with us. Mrs. Martha Roherty appeared without warning in the presence of ADAPT. ADAPT made our request to meet with NASMD before the end of ‘06. Mrs Roherty agreed. Editor’s note — It looks like that meeting may happen in the first week of December.
ADAPT then sought to sit in on plenary session in which former Secretary of HHS Tommy Thompson was featured speaker.
As ADAPT began to move to the ballroom where the plenary session was to be held, NASMD staff informed us that since we didn’t pay to attend the meeting, we couldn’t go in. ADAPT completely disregarded NASMD staff and entered the ballroom; we told NASMD staff to call the police to stop us. Once we were in the ballroom, NASMD staff knew we were focused on entry, so they said it was OK for us to attend, but ADAPT would have to stay in the back of the ballroom. ADAPT responded that we will sit up front near the platform stage, which we did. ADAPT waited for Tommy Thompson to arrive and when he arrived, he greeted ADAPT with a heartfelt welcome and acknowledged National ADAPT for their voice and role in community base living efforts for the disabled and MFP, and encouraged NASMD to work with ADAPT and community organizations.
I WOULD LIKE TO TRIBUTE OUR SUCCESSFUL ACTION TO ANITA CAMERON
Anita is leaving Capitol Area ADAPT
bobby c.
Thanks, Bobby, for the article, and the tribute. I am honored, but, as you probably know, embarassed, but you know how I am. As Bobby stated above, I am leaving Capitol Area ADAPT to take a job in Rochester, NY, so I’ll be with Rochester ADAPT. I’ll be leaving on Saturday, and can’t wait to get up there and get to work. The Rochester folks are ecstatic as well. With that in mind, there was no way that I could leave without going to a final action in DC. To be honest, I enjoyed working with the community, and will miss everyone here. I hope that I will be as successful, and even more so, in Rochester.