[Cabs-talk] Action Plan, Part 2

[Michael Peterson]

    Your right Angela Many times workshops work much better for students 
than preaching sessions. Both can be integrated in to the mix but the 
workshops get people more involved in one on one.
Also on the State and local level we could probably put a reasonabley good 
workshop together for $300 to $500 I imagine the biggest cost would be 
production of materials.
On the national level another aspect I like is the idea of the nations 
capital perhaps getting legislatures to the event to see blind people really 
want to work when we meet in Sacramento too this could be a strong component 
of the  workshop
We normally have 40 or so students assuming we could get 100 ideally groups 
would be about 10 participants and a leader teaching resume skills etc.
We could set up a couple different workshops and run them 6 hours on 
Thursday and 6 hours on Friday probably 9:00 a.m 3:00 p.m with lunch break
In addition to the workshop we could have a panel discussion with VR service 
providers and a panel discussion with community employers not success 
stories.
Both of these panels would allow questions from the floor.
We could also change a pannel discussion to college services and have 
cordinators from several local colleges dialogue with the students
outside of the job fair I have thought about an advocacy program where 
pannel discussions happen
with lots of questions and discussions from the audience
Vr service panel
College and trade school placement panel where "experts come and talk to us 
about programs they offer"
Scholarship pannel where services like jobtraks scholarship  search and 
various agencies come and tell us about available scholarships and how to 
find them.
Also a workshop or a pannel on self advocacy.  Students there are encouraged 
to talk about specific problems they are encountering and the group 
brainstorms for solutions.
Random thoughts here probably many more if I thought about it.
Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Angela fowler" <fowlers at syix.com>
To: "'California Association of Blind Students Mailing List'" 
<cabs-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 6:09 AM
Subject: Re: [Cabs-talk] Action Plan, Part 2


> Joe, I love this stuff! When you get it all written, are you going to have
> it published somewhere?
> OK, Californians, let's bring this to a more local level. A job fair
> like Joe was saying at the 2010 or 2011 state convention? We've got a lot 
> of
> membership building to do to make it worth it, but we have over a year to 
> do
> it.
> Two things Joe said I really like. The first is having break-out
> sessions rather than making people listen to a lot of speeches. students,
> particularly younger students, get yammered at all the time. There parents
> are always yammering at them, their teachers yammer at them the rest of 
> the
> time, so when we do it they go "Oh boy, here we go again." If we give them
> an opportunity to network with people who will listen to them and take a
> particular interest in their skills and abilities, that'll be something
> different.
> The second point Joe made that I liked was that when a division does
> an event independently, with little or no help from the state or national
> organization, it shows leadership and self-starter power which will 
> impress
> not only our fellow federationists but the very employers we are 
> networking
> with. They will look at the folks who were part of that and say "these 
> folks
> definitely have something to offer."
> A bid event like this costs money, so this means fund raising, fund
> raising, and then maybe a little more fund raising. I hate asking people 
> for
> money. I mean really, this march for independence thing is going to take 
> me
> out of my comfort zone a bit, but I'm willing to learn. Its easier of 
> course
> when you have something tangible to give them in return, so let's do some
> brainstorming.
> These are just some very general thoughts. Its 6 AM, and the coffee
> hasn't quite kicked in, so I hope it all makes some sense. Meanwhile, I'd
> love to hear your thoughts on this fun stuff.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cabs-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:cabs-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] 
> On
> Behalf Of Joe Orozco
> Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 8:58 PM
> To: 'Arizona Students'; 'California Students'; 'Colorado Center'; 
> 'Colorado
> Students'; 'Florida Students'; 'Illinois Students'; 'Kansas Students';
> 'Kentucky Students'; 'Louisiana Students'; 'Michigan'; 'Minnesota 
> Students';
> 'Missouri'; 'National'; 'Nebraska'; 'New Hampshire Students'; 'New Jersey
> Students'; 'North Carolina Students'; 'Ohio'; 'Pennsylvania'; 
> 'Presidents';
> 'TABS Students'; 'Tennessee Students'; 'Utah Students'; 'Virginia 
> Students'
> Subject: [Cabs-talk] Action Plan, Part 2
>
> Dear all:
>
> In a landscape of grim statistics and dismal editorials regarding the bad
> economy, the hope of the unemployment rate among the blind appears equally
> worrisome.  While NABS should not make job readiness the centerpiece of 
> its
> operations, it should provide its membership one more added incentive for
> sticking around.  To that end it is my opinion that NABS should consider
> hosting a job fair at Washington Seminar.
>
> In general, planning for Washington Seminar should begin in July, 
> relatively
> soon after the new board has been elected.  There is the obvious point 
> that
> the longer you have to plan, the less likely you are to stress out the
> board, but for strategic purposes, the earlier the agenda is finalized, 
> the
> sooner you can begin selling the event to prospective funders.  Enter the
> Strategic Initiatives team.
>
> The team needs as much time as possible, at least four solid months, to
> create the type of noise befitting the country's leading blindness student
> organization.  Actually, there is no such thing as "too soon," but four
> months will give this team the opportunity to shine at what they know how 
> to
> do best.  The team needs to be able to draft excellent marketing materials
> to lure the students that are not yet planning to join the division at its
> winter seminar, and in the case of my proposal, they need to be able to
> recruit the participation of organizations and companies in the fields 
> where
> the membership is interested in becoming employed.  There are always job
> fairs going on in the nation's capital, and there is no reason why an
> organization like NABS could not partner up with the Independent Living
> centers, Light House, the city's Department for Disabilities, local-area
> universities  and the DC NFB affiliate to put together a well-organized 
> job
> fair.  With sufficient time, I do not see why the Washington Post could 
> not
> be enticed into scheduling its routine job fairs to meet that of the
> Washington Seminar.  If it does not, the paper could still be used to
> advertise the event on behalf of the division.
>
> The Benefits:
>
> 1. Hands-on practice will always be preferable to living vicariously. 
> There
> is great benefit to listening to three people in a row talk about how cool
> their jobs are, but there is a greater impact to be enjoyed from having
> those people tell you how to draft your cover letter, your resume and how 
> to
> polish your interview skills.  Besides, I've sat next to people who wind 
> up
> not listening to these speakers because they're perceived as stuck-up and
> full of themselves.  I think they would shake off that perception if the
> speakers gave concrete advice on how they did things to be successful. 
> Over
> time I've become a fan of breakout sessions over general group speeches.
> There is simply more room for personal dialogue.
>
> 2. Summer internships are not far around the corner from Washington 
> Seminar.
> DC is attractive to many college students.  Why not make a concerted 
> effort
> to ensure that our students get a unique opportunity to compete for those
> positions.
>
> 3. Job prospects.  Students are not students forever.  Everyone is looking
> for a permanent job.  On the surface the job fair would expose students to
> potential employers and give them a very real means of practicing their
> personal selling skills.  It makes NABS look proactive in helping its
> members secure future employment.  On a subtle level things like job
> readiness sets the stage for a NABS alumni network.  Many students 
> graduate,
> leave the division and do nothing more with the NFB because they never
> participated in chapter meetings.  Integrating students into the larger
> movement is an ongoing process, but what better way to keep people around
> than to place these graduates in a position to help up and coming 
> students?
> The thing is, there is no grounds for an alumni network if the graduates
> themselves were never given anything tangible in the first place.
>
> 4. Membership incentives.  As I've previously mentioned, people want a
> reason to belong to your organization.  In this case we are looking for
> reasons for people to want to come to Washington Seminar.  You bring them 
> in
> for a general session of well-chosen speakers.  You showcase our esteemed
> NFB president.  You break out to smaller groups to talk job readiness, and
> then you turn the crowd loose on your collection of potential employers.
> The crowd moves out dressed to impressed, because one of the breakout
> sessions will have talked about social skills and swagger.  True, some of
> the locals may only come out to be a part of the job fair, but with
> carefully planted board members about the room you ensure that every new
> person is approached and given the pitch on why they should join the
> greatness that is NABS.  Dedicate four or five hours to the event.
> Coordinate it with the National Office to ensure it can be carried out in 
> a
> way that the maximum number of people can participate.  Besides, you 
> should
> be coordinating the event with Baltimore anyway to ensure that the success
> to NABS translates to success for the organization at large.
>
> Even though the meeting space is graciously provided by the NFB, there is 
> no
> reason why the student division should not begin learning how to carry its
> own weight to help offset expenses.  It would take a few years to get to a
> point of self-sufficiency, but things like the student annual banquet are
> things that could be potentially picked up by a finely cultivated sponsor.
> When you throw a job fair into the program, you're providing sponsors one
> more layer of credibility, because you show them how you've been able to
> partner up with a number of businesses to come out and be a part of your
> activities.
>
> So, from the top, the online registration process is modified to include a
> question about future job aspirations.  The NABS board compiles the data,
> and with the Strategic Initiatives team working at the helm, a database is
> created of businesses and organizations in the fields identified by the
> registered membership.  The task may seem daunting, but not when you have
> other members in the organization in various occupations.  And, contacting
> businesses out of the blue is not altogether a bad leadership building
> exercise anyway.  Specific offices should be targeted in the Washington DC
> metropolitan area with a well-written letter that is accompanied by a 
> small
> but compelling packet of what NABS is and what it does.  With the right
> amount of sponsorship, the board may very well be able to afford to 
> feature
> these employers at the job fair with little or no cost to the businesses.
> In truth, NABS could charge a very nominal fee for businesses to 
> participate
> even if sponsorship is available, money that could be used to create or
> revise job readiness materials for the future.  I'm all for volunteer
> service, but I am sure that carefully budgeted stipends to the board would
> not raise too many complaints from the board members who are doing the 
> hard
> work.
>
> But, it is important to plan and solidify the agenda early on to 
> accommodate
> this venture.  The agenda should be included in the pitch to businesses so
> that they see how they will fit into the larger scheme of the winter
> seminar.  It tells businesses you are prepared, organized and ready to be
> taken seriously.  Businesses do not have to send representatives to your 
> job
> fair.  Make them feel ignorant for not participating.  By businesses I 
> mean
> nonprofits, government agencies and corporations.  Ideally they will have 
> a
> national scope so that the student from Ohio and Oregon are just as likely
> to find an opportunity back home to take advantage of.
>
> Now, the database of businesses and organizations would serve two 
> purposes.
> First, it would provide a springboard for the job fair idea, but second, 
> it
> would set the stage for a mentoring program.
>
> I am thinking of a mentoring program where our students are mentored by
> current professionals in their field of interest.  If the professionals
> happen to be blind, excellent, but my recommendation would be that the
> program not be tailored that way.  Students need to understand they're 
> going
> to be competing in a sighted world.  I would encourage sighted mentors to 
> be
> recruited to take on outstanding blind mentees.  First, it helps create an
> avenue for education for the mentor.  He or she will be teaching the 
> mentee
> about a career while at the same time learning about blindness and what a
> blind person really is capable of doing in the workplace.  The exceptions
> are, of course, in situations where the student wants to go into the
> blindness field, in which case it only makes sense that they speak to
> someone in that chosen profession.  Second, the arrangement for the
> mentoring program sets up networking opportunities.  In some cases the
> mentor may even be able to offer the mentee's name for vacancies in their
> office when the mentee has graduated.  We want people employed.  The
> mentoring program could be one more vehicle to move people further in that
> direction.
>
> Perhaps this mentoring idea could be integrated into the existing NFB Link
> program.  At the very least NABS should inquire into whether or not the
> modules could be borrowed to create a mentoring program specifically for
> students.  The initial work can be gleaned from the current registration
> process, but thinking long-term, NABS should make the investment in a
> web-based system that can match, track and promote both mentors and 
> mentees.
> There are free CRM systems out there to accomplish this, but the right
> people need to be recruited by the Director of Online Strategies to help 
> him
> or her shape the project in a way that works smoothly and simultaneously
> promotes NABS and the NFB.
>
> This is an initiative I believe the Department of Labor would find worth
> making a time or financial investment in.  Here again the Strategic
> Initiatives team would need to spend time developing a case for why Labor 
> or
> some other national entity would find it beneficial to contribute services
> or finances.  Talk to the American Foundation for the Blind about how 
> their
> system might be integrated into this proposal.  They're going to be just 
> as
> interested in a good case for why it is necessary as anyone else.  Do not
> assume that just because an organization does work for the blind that they
> have to do anything with or for you.
>
> Like most everything else I've written about up to this point, these are
> ideas that could be integrated at the state level.  Substitute the
> Washington Seminar with your affiliate's state convention.  A convention
> will draw the right volume of people and lend itself to a good public
> relations campaign that should attract the right level of interest from
> businesses.  If nothing else, the mentoring program could work better at 
> the
> state level because creating a curriculum for the program that involves
> face-to-face meetings between the mentors could be more feasible, though
> national planning should not overlook the means to bring mentors to the
> National Convention to get the full depth of what the NFB stands for.
>
> In summary, the problem of unemployment among the blind needs to be
> addressed.  No doubt the argument will be made for how such an initiative 
> is
> beyond the scope of the student division.  I think the argument is without
> foundation.  There are scores of blind people who leave the division to 
> take
> on a myriad of careers.  The problem is that the number is not high 
> enough.
> We need more students out there with a good job that is not always related
> to the blindness field.  NABS can and should teach students how to be
> productive students, but college is nothing more than an academic 
> training
> ground for future success in a student's chosen profession.  We often tell
> students that there is not going to be a DSS office in their future place 
> of
> employment and that they should begin to learn how to be independent. 
> True,
> but there is always going to be an NFB, and if we can begin to cultivate a
> sense of loyalty to the NFB by way of a proactive student division that
> plays a major role in job readiness and job exposure, graduates will be 
> able
> to thank the NFB for the success they achieve and be more likely to stick
> around and help younger students coming up behind them.  I am of course
> willing to entertain arguments to the contrary.
>
> The job fair can be a part of Washington Seminar 2010.  Use the success of
> that event to build the resources necessary to build a mentoring program
> that could be fully operational by 2011, and in the meantime, start 
> putting
> people to work in their chosen field.  Education students can work with 
> the
> Director of Education to write curriculum enhancers for teachers of blind
> students.  Business administration and marketing students can be put to 
> work
> writing grant proposals, business plans and strategic plans that analyze
> current strategies and make projections for future improvement.  Math
> students could be enhancing a wiki project to show teachers and students
> alike how it might be possible for a blind student to excel in required 
> and
> specialized math and engineering courses.  Journalism students ought to be
> heavily involved in the production and marketing of the Student Slate.
> Science students ought to be playing a bigger role in the planning and
> execution of youth Slam.  Computer science and information technology
> students should be working with the Director of Online Strategies to push
> the web site forward to reach larger audiences.  David Dunfy, for all his
> posts about the DJ Invasion, could be persuaded to host a NABS podcast? 
> The
> point is, people are more likely to help you if you give them the capacity
> to do something they would have been doing anyway.  If you can build NABS 
> so
> that students use the organization to complete classroom projects, there 
> is
> a win/win situation for both the student's grade and the improvement of 
> the
> organization.
>
> Ambitious?  Of course it's ambitious.  Ambitious organizations create
> legacies.  Mediocre organizations may as well stay home and play 
> tiddlywinks
> for all the impact they will accomplish.  The greater the goal, the longer
> the list of objectives required to achieve the goal, and the more 
> objectives
> necessary to accomplish the goals, the more likely it is to learn how to 
> use
> all those objectives for the benefit of other goals in the future.  People
> should not think of how difficult it would be to put on a job fair and
> mentoring program.  People should be thinking about how the steps involved
> in preparing for the job fair and mentoring program can help with the
> preparation of student seminars, fundraising campaigns and general
> membership recruitment, all of which will be addressed in future
> installments.
>
> To be continued...
>
> Joe Orozco
>
> "A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the
> crowd."--Max Lucado
>
>
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