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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>I started teaching this week, and although I’m sad to see summer coming to an end, it is exciting to start a new year. I hope you had a great summer, and let me just tell you I am so excited about the football season beginning on Thursday evening, September 9<sup>th</sup>. Maybe one day it will stop raining? <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><u>Fall Board Meeting</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Our Fall Board Meeting will be held on Saturday, September 17<sup>th</sup> at the Gethsemane Lutheran Church, located at 35 East Stanton in Columbus. The meeting will start at 10:00AM, and probably end at or around 3:00PM. Remember that we are returning to our Wendy’s fast food lunch orders for this board meeting, so please if you will be having lunch with the rest of us, get your orders into Eric Duffy (<a href="mailto:eduffy@pobox.com">eduffy@pobox.com</a>) or Carol Akers (<a href="mailto:purplecakers@yahoo.com">purplecakers@yahoo.com</a>) by at least September 14<sup>th</sup>. Also remember we are asking for at least a five dollar contribution to cover the cost of your lunch, unless of course your order exceeds that amount. We will have a guest presentation from a Columbus resident that is concerned about providing services for the blind and visually impaired in terms of physical exercise and other health related issues. She will be with us for about 20 or 30 minutes, appropriately after lunch. Additionally, Carol Akers will present a fundraising opportunity during our lunch time, so stay tuned. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><u>Convention is Coming</u><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Our state convention will be held at the Wyndham Garden South Hotel (formerly the Holiday Inn), in Dayton, Ohio, or specifically Miamisburg, Ohio, from November 4<sup>th</sup> to November 6<sup>th</sup>. The agenda is shaping up nicely, but if you plan on attending you should make sure to get your hotel reservations in as soon as possible, but no later than October 13<sup>th</sup> to get our excellent rate of $75.00 per night. The hotel is located at 31 Prestige Plaza Drive, Miamisburg, Ohio, and the phone number is 934-434-8030. Additionally, you should be getting your convention assistance requests in to me as soon as possible as well. Once again, our funds will be very limited, but I’m sure all of you will agree that we will do everything in our power to get as many people to attend the convention as is possible. The newsletter should be in your hands in one format or the other, very shortly, and thus you will have all the information you will need for preregistration, but I encourage you to save money and to make it even more convenient for all concerned, so try and preregister for meals, and of course the convention itself. This year, we will be having a very important Leadership Breakfast on Sunday morning, November 6<sup>th</sup>, complete with a guest speaker and I’d like to have as many Chapter and Division presidents and vice-presidents or their designees attend as possible. I think this is a very critical time for us in terms of identifying and encouraging affiliate leaders, and giving them opportunities for additional education in all aspects of who we are and what we do. Finally, I’m very excited that my good friend Ever Lee Hairston will be our national representative this year, because I have no doubt that she will be an extraordinary source of inspiration for all of us. You will not want to miss her banquet address. I’d also like to encourage you to please stay and participate in our after banquet activities. IN recent years, I’ve noticed a considerable drop off in this area, in terms of attendance and enthusiasm. I know that not everybody is a party animal, but I think it’s a great thing to fellowship with each other after the banquet, and I know that our Miami Valley Chapter is planning some great fun and entertainment for us, so please don’t just go to your rooms, or have your own separate parties when we could all have so much more fun together.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><u>Meet the Blind Month<o:p></o:p></u></p><p class=MsoNormal>October has been designated as “Meet the Blind Month” so I hope that Chapters and Divisions are thinking about appropriate activities. Obviously, the activities that combine education and even a fundraising component are probably the best ones, but let’s all do what we can to spread the word about what it is really like to be blind and visually impaired in an effort to change some of the negative attitudes that currently exist in the general population. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><u>Gavel Award and Other Reports<o:p></o:p></u></p><p class=MsoNormal>Don’t forget to get your Gavel Award Reports into the Awards Committee as soon as possible. Remember, however, even if you do not submit a Gavel Award Report, you need to send me some kind of Chapter or Division report, understanding that failure to do so will result in a financial penalty. I would really like to give the awards committee a lot of work this year, and make it very difficult for them to pick the Gavel Award Winner. If you need the information once again, just let me know. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:#0F243E'>Dr. J. Webster Smith<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#0F243E'>President, National Federation of the Blind of Ohio<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#0F243E'>PO Box 458 Athens, OH 45701<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#0F243E'>740-592-6326<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#0F243E'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#0F243E'>“Changing what it means to be blind”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#0F243E'>For more information go to nfbohio.org<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>