Asperger Adults

of Greater Washington

Autism NOW Webinar

April 28, 2011
We’re are an exclusive club – you
have to be born with the right
membership qualifications! ;-)
 AAGW’s Mission

We're here to help our members convert

uncertainty into confidence, inactivity into
advance, isolation into friendships, and public
unfamiliarity into understanding and support.
 AAGW’s Purposes
•Create camaraderie, friendships and mutual
encouragement.
•Organize social activities.
•Connect members with appropriate services and
treatment professionals and information on helpful
nonprofits and government agencies.
(Autism NOW will be very helpful with this.)
•Fight common enemies: fear, anxiety, isolation,
loneliness and depression.
 Membership Criteria
•At least 18.
•Live in D.C., Virginia or Maryland.
•Have -- or might have -- Asperger’s or another autism
spectrum condition or a “cousin” condition like
Nonverbal Learning Disorder or Pragmatic Language
Impairment (Semantic Pragmatic Disorder).
•NLD/NVLD and PLI/SPD very similar to AS but lack
critical mass for their own Washington support groups.
•“Cousin” condition concept from Jim Sinclair of Autism
Network International and Autreat.
 Disclosure
• Membership and discussions are confidential.
• Many members keep their autism private for
employment and other reasons.
(Eventually we hope to overturn any stigma
against autism.)
• All our Officers keep their autism private.
 Origins of AAGW
• Chuck and Mark met on “Aspie Hangout” Web
bulletin board.
• Neither had ever before knowingly met
someone with AS in person.
• Chuck and Mark met in person in downtown
Washington in spring 2004.
• Soon thereafter they established an e-mail
group for Greater Washingtonians with AS.
 Some Stats on AAGW
•Founded February 20, 2005 with six AS adults.
•Now 275 e-mail group members from the
District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.
•About 40 to 50 members attend monthly
meetings, which are held at Teaism at Penn
Square, in downtown Washington, D.C.
•Probably among top two or three Asperger
support groups in USA in terms of attendance.
•Still growing.
 Helpful Source of Advice
•Roger N. Meyer
Our “Management Consultant”
Portland, Oregon Asperger Support Group Facilitator.
Author.
 Helpful Factors for Success
•Meeting place near an extensive public transportation
system like Washington Metro.
•Large enough geographic area to generate a critical
mass for membership. (Metropolitan Washington has
many autistics.)
•High ranking in search engine results for key terms like
“Asperger” and “Washington.”
•Services like a Library of Asperger/autism books.
•Compelling meetings and social activities.
 What Our Meetings Are Like
•A written agenda is distributed for every meeting, to give a
sense of structure.
•Meetings start and end with socializing.
•“Business” part of meeting starts with new members
introducing themselves, if they wish.
•We discuss a different topic every month, such as relationships,
stress, depression, executive function, and procrastination.
•Sometimes we have guest speakers.
•Meetings are closed to non-autistics, except that new members
may bring up to two friends and/or family members to their first
meeting. We make this exception to make new members feel
more comfortable.
 Social Activities
•Hans Asperger Memorial Dinner.
•Potomac River cruise.
•Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal mule-drawn barge ride in
Georgetown.
•Picnic at the National Zoo.
•Cherry Blossom Festival excursion.
•Smithsonian Folklife Festival guided tour.
•And more.
 Online Presence
Web site: AAGW.net
E-mail: info@aagw.net

•Web site created for free by an friend of Mark’s.

•Many new members have discovered us from the Web.
•Web site lists upcoming meetings and activities.
•Lists forthcoming area Festivals as ideas for social activities.
•Links to Asperger organizations around the world.
•Web site and Yahoo E-mail Groups page drive traffic to each
other.
 Online Experiments
•We just established a Facebook page.
•Free Skype conference calls are a means for
isolated members to communicate. (Requires
mike or headset.)
•May use Second Life “Brigadoon” as a non-
speech-based virtual autistic community.
 E-Mail Group
• We use Yahoo Groups for our e-mail group. Google
Groups, Majordomo, Mailman and (for a fee) L-Soft
LISTSERV are also options for groups.
• Our active Yahoo Group ties all our members
together, building a sense of community.
About 275 members.
• List also used for announcements.
 The Future

•Incorporation
•501(c)(3) IRS tax-exempt status
•Funding
 Asperger Adults of
Greater Washington

Web site: http://AAGW.net/

E-mail: info@aagw.net
 Conclusion
• This concludes our presentation.

• Questions and comments from Webinar

participants?