Important Updates from VRID President, Carrie Humphrey:

Video Transcript: 

Hello!

I’m Carrie Humphrey, the current president of VRID.

This video is to celebrate, update our membership, and ask our members’ opinions.

VRID is 56 years old!

The first meeting of VRID was on January 18, 1969. Attendees included the President of VAD, the Principal of VSDB, the President of RID, and 20 Virginia interpreters. 

During the second meeting, April 26, 1969 we adopted our first bylaws and constitution.

From 1969 to now, VRID has focused on increasing accessibility for people who are Deaf, hard of hearing, DeafBlind, and Deaf disabled by supporting the professionalization of interpreting. We have provided workshops, developed the QAS interpreter screening, and provided networking opportunities for novice to seasoned interpreters. 

During these 56 years we have certainly been registered at the federal level with EIN identification, paid taxes, non-profit status, and functioned as a business. One thing we need to do is file as an organization in Virginia. Because we have been established for 56 years, we are not new, so the process can be complicated. We have recently hired a legal team to help with filing with the State Corporation Commission (SCC).  

These are the first two parts of this video: celebrating 56 years as VRID and informing our members of the changes we are going through while filing with the SCC.  

The legal team has provided some fresh eyes on our organization and have asked about our organization’s history to get to know us. They asked if we have a licensing agreement with RID to use the “RID” portion of “VRID”.  We do not - no states have a licensing agreement with RID to use RID name. Because of this, the legal team advises us to take this reorganization and filing opportunity to develop a different legal name. 

We would still be “doing business as” VRID. We will continue to do business as VRID, sponsorship, website, emails, logos, etc. 

Now, we come to you, our members, for your preferences in a name. This is the third purpose of this video. We have a survey with three main questions:

Should we keep the word “Virginia” in the new organization name?

Do you prefer sign or signed language

Which of these three words best represents your vision for VRID: network/organization/association?

Our quarterly board meeting is March 29th on Zoom. We will use your feedback and preferences from your responses to develop a new legal name during that time. 

Thank you for the time and investment you have given VRID. We will continue to support interpreters and the interpreter profession here in Virginia.  We will continue to collaborate with our members as we move forward.