About
Five generations Deaf. One minute book.
A short story about why this product exists.
1891.
The founding generation of this family was Deaf. The year on the wordmark is the year that branch of the family was first written into a school record. Five generations later, we are still Deaf, and still writing things down.
1940 Gertrude Wilson.
My great-grandmother Gertrude Wilson was the first President of the Monongahela Valley Silent Club, founded in 1940 in southwestern Pennsylvania. The club met in steel-mill towns and signed the business of the day in church basements and union halls. Robert's Rules of Order were on the table. The minutes were kept by hand.
The minute book Betty Mowl.
My grandmother Betty Mowl was the first Secretary of the MVSC. The minute book she kept is the document this product is descended from: motion, second, vote, result, signed at the bottom. The format hasn't changed in eighty-six years because the format works.
Merrill Wilson, MVAD.
My great-grandfather Merrill Wilson served the Monongahela Valley Association of the Deaf for decades. The MVAD records that survive are part of the same lineage of paperwork. We hold them in the family archive.
Anthony's training.
I learned parliamentary procedure three ways. First, in workshops with my Deaf parliamentary mentor in middle and high school. Second, in a parliamentary procedure class at Gallaudet University. Third, as parliamentarian of the Texas School for the Deaf PSA. By the time I was the parliamentarian on the Maryland School for the Deaf PSA, I had run the rules in three different rooms and lost patience with the binder.
Why 1891. Why now.
The rules of order are 150 years old. The minute book is older. The reason to do this now is not that the technology is new; it's that the room finally has a screen and the members finally have phones. The artifact has not changed. The format has.
Built in Frederick.
The product is built in Frederick, Maryland, where I live with my family. The Maryland School for the Deaf is twenty minutes away. The first version ran an MSD PSA meeting. Everything since has been added because a real room needed it.
Anthony Mowl
Frederick, Maryland