Update on transportation conference (funded by the DD Council)

At the DD Council Transportation Work Group meetings, we have been talking about a statewide Transit Partnership Conference.

It was originally schedule for September, 2009 in Mt. Pleasant, in conjunction with another event. Because of state budget cuts, the other event was canceled, so we are reworking our plans.

We will replace that conference with 2 events.

First, we will be supporting people to attend the MASSTRAN Frontline Employees conference. Frontline employees are dispatchers, drivers, and others who work directly with riders. Their conference will be covering topics such as customer service, disability awareness, and the ADA.

The Frontline conference is in Bay City the weekend of Sept. 12. We will be covering the conference registration fees for about 20-25 advocates with disabilities to attend.

If you are interested in one of those slots, please contact me, Glenn Ashley, at 517 --203 --1200 or Ashley @ ucpmichigan.org.

We will also collaborate with MDOT and Michigan Public Transit Association (MPTA) on their Program Managers conference in April, with some additional sessions for people with disabilities and other advocates to develop action plans on important issues. Those dates will be April 1 and 2. The conference will be in Mt. Pleasant.

We will post more details as they become available.

Please pass this information on to other transit advocates with disabilities.

Thanks.