Recap of NAD Town Hall
Here is a recap of the NAD’s town hall that was live-streamed on Zoom and Facebook last night. Many of those watching, including me, were expecting a significant update on the NAD’s review of its advocacy of access to the Super Bowl and the NAD’s endorsement and conflict of interest policies. There were outside consultants hired to do this process over the past several months.
Unfortunately for the public, there was almost zero information about what the consultants discovered.
If you remember, one of the major concerns from the Deaf community regarding the NAD-NFL partnership was on how certain Deaf performers were selected and the outsized influence of an independent business, Love Sign, operated by Alexis Kashar, on the NAD and NFL relationship. The controversy probably caused the NAD to part ways with its former CEO Howard Rosenblum. We’ve covered all of that in the past.
Was there any information about the NAD’s role in recent Super Bowls, potential conflict of interest issues, or anything of this sort shared last night? None was shared.
NAD President Jenny Buechner said what the consultants reviewed is confidential and that she cannot share what was found nor the results of their work. She said the identities of the consultants are confidential but did say they were deaf HR (Human Resources) professionals.
The NAD did say that there would be a committee established to establish procedures on the process of selecting talent for Deaf performers. They said the NAD Board is in touch with the NFL and would discuss what their relationship looks like and what the next steps are. The NAD said they’ll continue this conversation with the NFL and as they learn more, they’ll share it with the community.
NAD President Buechner said she understands that the community wants transparency but said “transparency doesn’t mean full disclosure.” She said unfortunately, the NAD can’t tell us everything and that there’s a lot of information they are keeping confidential for a certain reason — but didn’t say what this reason was.
Buechner asked the community to watch what the NAD does in the next months and it’ll reveal what changes the NAD is doing. NAD Board members said the interim CEO Bobbie Beth Scoggins is working on this process and that the new CEO would continue this process.
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Interim CEO Scoggins did give remarks at the beginning of the meeting. She said she’s met with all of the NAD’s attorneys with the goal of stabilizing their legal advocacy center and to see what they can do with litigation and legal cases. The former NAD CEO Rosenblum is an attorney and was a leader in the NAD’s legal cases, so one can imagine that his departure would have an impact on pending cases.
Scoggins said she’s heavily involved with the upcoming NAD Conference in Chicago on July 1-6. She said she’s “looking forward to seeing you for the next 12 to 18 months,” which gives us a general expected timeline of how long Scoggins will be in as interim CEO and the search process. The NAD said they would appoint a point of contact for the new CEO search process.
The NAD Board pointed to the upcoming conference in Chicago as a key event to see the path that the NAD will take going forward. They said they’ll provide online polls to see what is important to community members. They also encouraged community members to be active in state associations and affiliate organizations.
That’s all that I have to share for this recap. If you want to watch the meeting, the link to the Facebook video is in the description and transcript.
NAD Town Hall Link: https://www.facebook.com/NAD1880/videos/860623519213369