An Arc chapter in the Finger Lakes Region of NY just unvieled a whole new branding effort. The agency rearranged their name from "Seneca Cayuga Arc" to "Arc of Seneca Cayuga", released a brand new logo, complete with with a brand new tagline.

As someone who geeks out over marketing stuff, I was intrigued to hear about the changes, interested to see what their thought process was, and really excited to see the end result.

As explained in this article  in a local paper, "Agency leaders knew the time was right to update its branding and decided to take an inward look at its outward expression."

You guys, today is #GIVINGTUESDAY

What is #GIVINGTUESDAY ? It's a "holiday" that makes a whole lot of sense to me. As the Giving Tuesday website explains, "we have a day for giving thanks. We have two for getting deals. Now, we have #GivingTuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back."

Today, Tuesday, December 1, 2015 is a day for charities, families, businesses, community centers, and students around the world to come together for one common purpose: to celebrate generosity and to give.

There's no question that we (society and this industry) still have a long way to go when it comes to how we support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. But with tomorrow being Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a few moments to be grateful for some of the positive things.

This has been a big year for us here at MediSked and it’s been a big year and in the I/DD world overall. Being grateful only seems right.  

While there’s still much work to be done, we can't sell ourselves short. Our hearts are in the right place and we’re heading in the right direction – and those are both big things that we can all be thankful for.

Here are a couple more:

1. Progress
We’re not where we need to be just yet – but we should all be ridiculously thankful that we’re not where we used to be (because that was an embarrassingly bad place to be!) State transition plans have been submitted, revisions are being made, and everyone is thinking about how to get better and do better. Final Rule changes are being implemented, technology is being introduced, and all eyes (and brains) are focused on the future. That in itself is a beautiful thing. Shifts of this magnitude aren’t easy – and any forward movement is worthy of our recognition.

NY's Governor Cuomo has vetoed a bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo.