RID Fundraiser - It's easy! It's fun! Interpreters love it!
The Interpreter Photo ID Badge Fundraiser was launched in 2002 as a volunteer fundraising effort for the very active Freelance Committee of the Minnesota Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (MRID). It was initiated and managed by Freelance Committee members, Arlyn Anderson and Ander Bolduc.
We heard that freelance interpreters wanted to have photo ID badges to identify their professional status and certification. Deaf people we talked to strongly agreed!
Here's how we did it. The committee set up a booth at one of the larger annual conferences and with a digital camera on a tripod, a backdrop, good lighting, a current membership list and order forms began to snap pictures and collect data for the ID badges. Interpreters had been forewarned to bring their certification cards (both RID and NAD) because proof of certification was a must.
The MRID membership took to this project right away. Seventy-five badges were sold that first day!
We sent the photos and collected data to a badge printer and and a week later, the badges were in the mail. They were a hit! Interpreters and their consumers were so enthusiastic that discussions began about how to make ID badges available to interpreters at the national level and to ensure the reliability of the production source locally.
With the support of the Freelance Committee and the MRID Board of Directors, the project was privatized by Arlyn Anderson and ID Matters was born!
