Grant Laird, Jr. Blog

Dallas Association of the Deaf (DAD) announced that they are seeking member’s approval for selling its club building. I remember when I was board member at Deaf Action Center (DAC) of Dallas in late 90’s – we discussed about possibly selling DAC building & apartment complex. It is big project and we have to go over this every quarterly meeting to decide if we should do it or not. To make it short, they decide to abandon the project – it is big money talk and long term process.

Anyway, DAD club had this building for more than 30 years and it’s paid off few years ago. The building itself is a lot older – probably 50 years old. This building used to be warehouse for airplane parts and very close to downtown Dallas.

The biggest questions is can we find better place for DAD club. Yes but it won’t be easy – as long as they are doing it with 100% effort and as well as 100% support from community. It will be challenging especially its long history between DAD officers and deaf community in general.

In the past, I know that some of the officers accused some event like Deaf Happy Hours and Deaf Chat Coffee events that hurts their business. It is no secrets to everyone – it’s been like that for some time now. Also, DFW is in what they called “The Bible Belt” which means there’s heavily religious everywhere including deaf-related activities. Often, they are against deaf club because of they are serving alcohol.

However I respectably disagree with them because they could have done better job with their activities and recruiting new volunteers. Over years, they shut down sports department, stop mailing hard copy newsletter but they remains strong in annual bowling tournament activities and as well as low price alcohol that you cannot find cheaper anywhere.

NEIGHBORHOOD: The club is in so-called high criminal area for years even it is next to church building. I used to work there as “security guard” at club for extra money before they building new parking lots. It used to be no concrete/fence at all – no grass, muddy all over.

It was not that bad since they had its new parking lots with metal fence. Also, the parking lot is so small (hold 45 cars) – which means people had to park outside which is not very comfortable for many people. Often stranger or some pissed-off deaf individual came over and stab car’s tires, pour paint all over car, break-in & steal stuff and more. It used to be bad years ago but it has gotten better over times now. Unfortunately, DAD club got bad reputable because of this.

BUILDING: The building itself have numbers of problem over years especially its roof repair. Few years ago, they hire deaf roofer to fix the roof. DAD paid up front on repair cost but he never finished its job or at least he did awful job. They never made attempts to sue him for poor performance. They had to hire someone else to do the job all over again.

The building is about 4675 square feet which can hold up to 200 people. (Kinda crowd, really) The land itself is about 23351 square feet. Of course, they want better accommodations like bathroom and kitchen. They want better parking lots without worrying about the security. They want plenty of room to expand in long run – maybe something for Deaf Community Center of the Deaf (DCCD) project in near future. 

VALUE: The land space is very limited – they cannot “expand” the building otherwise it will be costly revamp. They could have bought out next hearing bar club building for approximately $200,000 in 80’s but they did not. (Rumors) It was too late now since the value is up right now.

In Texas, Dallas and Austin are only one that still have its own building and in operated. Houston is biggest city in Texas and yet they don’t have its own building – they usually rent a place for its deaf event. I know they are struggling to end meet with its bills to maintenance the building due to low admission, low membership, not enough donation, and/or buying its alcohol sales.

To learn more about DAD, go to http://www.dccd.org

Read DAD’s announcement:

Attention members of Dallas Association of the Deaf:
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Please come to the general meeting on Saturday, June 17, 2006 at 2:00 PM.
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The main issue of the general meeting is to start the process of the sale of the building and to buy the building. The executive board of Dallas Association of the Deaf is urging all members to come and be a part of the decision-making process for the future of the Dallas Association of the Deaf.
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If you are Deaf and interested to be member and be part of the historical event, please come and pay the active membership fee of $15.00 plus $2.00 photo fee. If you were a member and still has an expired active membership card, just come and have it renew for $15.00.
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We hope to see you at the general meeting!
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Steven Whitworth – President
Howard Costello – Vice President
Cathy Edler – Secretary
Laura Moore – Treasurer
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Board of Directors
Preston Ashley
Lawrence Campero
Sonjia Duarte
Darryl Greer
Maxine Satarino
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http://www.dccd.org
Email: president@dccd.org

Grant W Laird Jr.
http://blog.grantlairdjr.com