Debbie Mahoney has been with SWC for ever a decade on the Vistas list. She says, “SWC is a great place to connect with people anytime of the day, and to discuss both hearing loss and get support in our daily lives. When you have a hearing loss it is not always easy to make connections to others who share the same challenges, SWC makes it easy to ‘meet’ others who understand. She started volunteering for the SWC convention committee in 2010 for the Denver mini-con. She helps out behind the scenes picking up various responsibilities.
What do conventions mean to you? Conventions are a great way to connect to people in person, and have a great time getting to know the people you ‘talk to’ through email or online. The workshops offer so much information, I always learn something new. The activities are so much fun, it’s great to be able to visit the area and do something I might not ordinarily do on my own.
What’s your goal for the SWC Boise 2016 convention? To help make this convention a great experience for those who attend. I hope that people who have not attended in the past take a chance and register. It’s a life changing experience that you don’t want to miss!
Linda Settle has been with SWC for 4 years now and she says, “What’s not to like about SWC!? I was first impressed with the consistently high level of kindness, concern and mutual respect from everyone. Yet it took no time at all to realize that SWC is a fun-loving group with a great sense of humor. I have learned a lot from my friends here about all aspects of hearing loss. SWC keeps me sane when it comes to coping with hearing loss.
This is Linda’s first year on the convention committee. This will also be the first SWC con she’s attended. The convention committee asked her to be a local host since she lives in Boise. “Of course I was excited to find out that the SayWhatClub is coming to my wonderful city.”
Since this is your first convention, what are you thinking? I’m looking forward to it. It will be fun to meet my friends in person and learn about new aspects of coping with hearing loss. Once I experience the Boise con, I’m sure I’ll want to go to all the future ones.
What’s your goal for the Boise Convention? My goal is to have several of my friends with hearing loss attend at least part of the con. Hopefully because the presence of SWC in Boise, we can raise the level of ‘hearing loss awareness’ in the area. Another important goal is for the con to enrich the lives of all SWC members, whether they come to Boise or experience it through our discussions/encouragement online.
Arthur Veen (no picture available) joined the SWC fall of 1998 after a SWCer on another mailing list mentioned it to him and then introduced him to Bob (president of SWC then). Bob invited him to the join. “At the time you had to be introduced and asked unlike nowadays,” Arthur says.
What do you like best about SWC? No hearing problems and being able to have nice, long, interesting discussions with interesting people once in a while without worrying about not hearing things, though miscommunication can still happen as even e-mail is not the perfect means of communication. Plus everyday discussions are fun as well.
In 2000/2001 Arthur was involved with the convention planning, mostly for the convention program book and some behind the scenes assistance. In 2015 he joined the convention steering committee once again. This year he is helping with PR but he also helps a lot in behind the scenes technical assistance.
What does the SWC convention mean to you? These days it is first and foremost about meeting old and new friends. Second it’s about learning new things on new and familiar topics; some subjects just keep coming back after a while but it is always nice to find out how things have developed over time and what the current developments are. There is always some new interesting technology every year.
What’s your goal for the 2016 Boise convention? We already have an interesting group of speakers and presenters for the Boise convention so the expectations are high. I hope this convention will be the best one we have had so far, to live up and to exceed Jazzy’s expectations. It is the combination of size (not too big), workshops and social interaction that makes the SWC conventions such a pleasure to attend and above all, makes us feel we’re more than just hearing loss and my hope is that we’ll achieve this again.