[Coagdu] {Disarmed} Fw: [NFB_Colorado_guide_dog_users] meeting minutes from 2/9/14

[melissa R green]

---- Original Message ----- 
From: Marty Rahn
To: NFB_Colorado_guide_dog_users at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, March 08, 2014 8:33 PM
Subject: [NFB_Colorado_guide_dog_users] meeting minutes from 2/9/14





Hi all,

Please find the minutes from our last meeting below. Thanks.

2-9-14



The meeting was called to order at 1:08 PM. People present were Marty, 
Melissa, Beth, Becky and Daniel. Shon is participating in a race today and 
will not be on the call. Andre Vanhall, Mike Hinkson and Penn Street were 
all present as guests. The seminar is all set for May 31 at CCB. We have the 
center for the day. We first began by discussing the food arrangements. The 
committee was waiting on a date and will get together now that a date has 
been set. Becky said that she contacted Guiding Eyes and hasn't heard 
anything back from them about sending literature and other materials from 
their school to give out at our seminar. Melissa has contacted Pilot, Leader 
Dogs and The Guide Dog Foundation. GDF will send out a rep for our state 
convention. Leader and Pilot said that they would both send literature. We 
need to contact businnesses to see if they will donate door prizes. Mike 
Hinkson asked if anyone had contacted GDB. Beth said that she had contacted 
them but had not heard anything back yet. Andre said that he was the Alumni 
association president for GDB and that he could help reach out to puppy 
raising clubs and also alumni from GDB that are in the area. Penn suggested 
that we have someone who can speak about the law and guide dogs come to do a 
presentation at our seminar. Mike suggested that we create an agenda. We 
talked about opening our access rights and law session to taxi drivers, RTD 
drivers and others to help educate them on the law. Regarding the law and 
our guides, Mike explained that there are requirements that state that 
public transit agencies  must have someone for you to speak with upon your 
request if you are having issues with someone at that company requesting 
your ID which is not something they can legally request of you. He also said 
that there was an airport service number for people with disabilities that 
one can call to get help in resolving issues. We decided to put the topics 
of transportation and also of the law into our agenda. Andre will see if he 
can get someone from RTD to come and speak with us. Beth said that she would 
try to get contacts from the taxi industry to come to our seminar. Regarding 
format, we decided that we should have a pannel for the transportation piece 
with up to 20 minutes for each person to present and then allow those people 
to go out into the hall to talk further with individuals. It was also 
suggested that we get someone from HUD to come and talk to us about laws 
pertaining to guide dog users in the housing sector. We would also like to 
have a tosic on getting a dog so that those considering getting a dog can 
ask questions. Beth suggested breaking the seminar up into sessions for 
those who are dog users and those who aren't. She stuggested splitting the 
seminar into parts, with the first half dedicated to those looking into 
getting a dog and the second half dedicated to topics that would   interest 
the more exserienced dog user. It was suggested that a vetrinarian come to 
talk about basic dog care also. Beth and Becky will help find a vet for this 
purpose. We then moved to discussing how long each  topic should take. We 
discussed having a general session in the morning, followed by lunch and 
then breakout sessions in the afternoon. Our general session would be about 
the laws, transportation, housing, etc. This would begin at 10:00 AM and 
last until noon. At lunch, we talked about having discussion groups at each 
table with at least one to two current guide dog users at each table to 
answer questions from those who are looking into getting a dog. We also 
discussed getting door prizes and creating some time in the agenda for 
people to explore venders and exhibits. Penn said that she would be willing 
to contact businnesses for door prizes. She also said that she would be 
willing to put together the flyer for the event. The format of our seminar 
is shaping up so that we will have a pannel discussing access rights, 
transportation, etc in the monrning, a working lunch where we divide people 
up into groups to discuss dog use, and then have breakout sessions in the 
afternoon dealing with vetrinary care and other aspects of having a dog. We 
decided that we needed to have people RSVP in order to get an accurate count 
for lunch. We also decided to charge $5 for lunch, and also to have a table 
for people to register for door prizes and join our division if they so 
choose. Melissa will send out the tax letter statthe that we are a nonprofit 
that is needed to request donations from businnesses out to people. We will 
look at having a wrap up at the end complete with a big door prize to keep 
people interested. Melissa then said that she was looking at setting us up 
on a site called Amazon Smile. This is a site where when people shop and 
pick us as their charity of choice, then we would get five percent of each 
purchase. We further decided that we would focus solely on making our 
seminar good and then concentrate on fundraising. Our next meeting will be 
on March 2nd at 1:00 PM. We had a brief discussion about how people deal 
with dogs in their neighborhoods that are off leash. The meeting was 
adjourned at 2:35 PM.



Respectfully Submitted,

Marty Rahn, Secretary

Colorado Association of Guide Dog Users




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