NZSL Board Meeting February 2022 Summary

1. Board met via Zoom to keep work progressing. Working online is hard so the meeting was split up into 2-3 hours chunks over two days. The Board had many guests sharing information on different topics.
   
   
2. The NZSL Board are pleased to see the NZSL team expanding to support the work programme. While we welcome Ryan and Darryl, new Advisors to the team. We also want to acknowledge Hannah who has supported our work over the past year.
   
   
3. Current work underway:
1. Establishing NZSL Interpreter standards. This is a complex topic. The Board and ODI shared information about the possible use of NAATI who are working with MBIE and how that could fit with NZSL interpreters.  The Board welcomed SLIANZ committee members who shared results of recent consultation with interpreters.
   
   
2. The Board were interested to hear progress about the establishment of the new Ministry for disabled people and the Accelerating Accessibility legislation and governance group.  The Board believe that both need an NZSL sign name and will lead work to identify an appropriate sign name to match the roles and functions.
   
   
3. NZSL Week is very important to the NZSL Board as it helps to create awareness and positive attitudes towards NZSL. A new contract will be tendered this year to deliver NZSL week from 2023 – 2025.  The Board want to acknowledge the work of Deaf Aotearoa who have the current contract and thank them to sharing their experience of promoting NZSL across New Zealand.
   
   
4. There is a lot of interest in helping Māori Deaf to connect with Te Ao Māori and Te Reo Māori.  The Board have committed funding support this work and have developed a position statement with principles of how to work with Maori Deaf. This starts with understanding Māori Deaf priorities and Māori Deaf leading work for Māori Deaf. The Board encourage everyone to read the position statement which will be released soon.

• The start of this work includes setting up a rōpū kaitiaki group to work with the NZSL Board. Nominations for this group will open soon.  If you are Māori Deaf and interested in working with the  Board, please put up your hand to support the Māori engagement and development work. Nominations will open soon.

5. The next round of NZSL week community grants will open on 14 March 2022. We encourage any groups with projects to promote and maintain NZSL to apply for a community grant. Projects need to be a maximum of one year and up to $50,000.
   
   
6. The Board want to support increasing skills with governance within the Deaf community. Last year workshops were held in Palmerston North and Christchurch. There were more planned but with Covid in the community (spreading) these will be put on hold. We hope to organise more after July 2022.