[Colorado-talk] convention announcement

Tue Oct 18 20:36:05 UTC 2011

57TH ANNUAL NFBCO CONVENTION

Greetings Friends, 

The 57th Annual Convention of the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado is coming soon and excitement is mounting.  It will be taking place from November 3rd through November 6th at the DoubleTree Hotel located at 3203 Quebec Street in Denver.  Rooms are $86 a night regardless of the number of people in them and we have already exceeded our original room block.  However, the hotel has extended our deadline until October 20th and allocated us some additional rooms.  Hurry up and get your rooms quickly before they are all gone.  Please call 303 321-3333 and tell reservations that you are with the NFB Colorado convention.  You can also go to our website, www.nfbco.org, and follow an online reservation link to book your room that way.  Online convention registration is still open at this time and will be through October 24th.  Again, go to our website, www.nfbco.org, and preregister for the convention.  It is less expensive to preregister.  With preregistration, convention registration is $15, Friday's luncheon $15, Saturday's luncheon $15, and the Saturday Banquet $30.  After October 24th, everything goes up, Convention registration $20, Friday's luncheon $20, Saturday's luncheon $20, and Saturday evening's Banquet $40.  

This year, we are delighted to have Patti Chang from Illinois as our national representative.  Patti serves on our National Board of Directors and as our Illinois affiliate president.  In addition, she very ably chairs our National Scholarship Committee.  She is a supervising and trial lawyer for the City of Chicago and overall a wonderful addition to this year's convention.  She will be delivering a keynote address at the Saturday Evening Banquet and giving us a national report on Saturday morning.  

We are still in the process of finalizing the agenda and will release the final version sometime next week.  However, I can tell you that we have many exciting and substantive items in store for you.  I am delighted to announce that the Lieutenant Governor of the State of Colorado, Joseph Garcia, will be joining us for the Friday Luncheon and will be delivering a keynote speech addressing the status of education and its effect on our community.  Additionally, are assembling a panel of experts to address the status of education for blind and visually impaired children in the State of Colorado.  We will focus on rehabilitation services available to us and how the severe budget cuts will affect us.  It is time to ask the question of whether the Colorado Commission for Individuals Who Are Blind and Visually Impaired is of benefit to us and whether we should urge that the Commission be allowed to sunset in 2012 as the current law dictates.  How do we get better public transportation in our state under the current fiscal climate?  We will hear all about our BELL, Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning Program and how we are changing young lives in dramatic ways.  These topics and many others will be addressed at our Convention.  We will also hear from our 2011 NFB Colorado scholarship winners.  We cannot hold a NFB Colorado convention without the always inspiring, My Blindness, Myself panel where we will hear the personal stories of a few of our members and how they have dealt with their blindness and why they became active in the NFB.  General Sessions will run Friday morning, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning.  The Friday and Saturday sessions will be followed immediately by a luncheon.  

In addition to the general sessions, we will conduct several substantive breakout sessions on Friday afternoon including a technology seminar, parent seminars, a hands-on art room featuring Ann Cunningham, and a seminar sponsored by the Colorado Center for the Blind addressing vocational rehabilitation and employment issues.  Saturday afternoon will feature special interest meetings such as the blind students, parents of blind children, the senior blind, blind merchants and more.

Once again this year, we will have an exhibit hall where you can explore the latest and greatest in products and services.  We will have an exclusive session Friday morning where only exhibits and registration will be open.  Exhibits will also be open throughout much of the convention.  

We also plan to have some fun during the convention while raising money and shattering stereotypes about blindness.  Our three host chapters, the Denver Chapter, the Mile High Chapter and the North Metro Chapter are planning fabulous social events where the theme will be sports and recreation.  My understanding is that you will be able to try your hand at several different challenging activities Friday evening such as a climbing wall, air hockey, and other games.  We will also have excellent food and socializing throughout the entire weekend.  We will have a great deal of fun with a fundraising auction where we hope to raise big bucks for our BELL program.  Anahit LaBarre, Chairperson of the NFBCO Auction Committee, tells me that we have collected over six thousand dollars worth of goods and services which will be auctioned off.  Anahit has been publishing an auction announcement each Friday featuring some of the items appearing at the auction and she will keep publishing this announcement right up until the convention.  We will also conduct a raffle drawing for a Book Sense XT with IVR.  This interactive digital book player is valued at $499.00 and the funds we raise from the raffle will also be dedicated to the BELL Program.

Stay tuned for more announcements and look for the agenda next week.  If you have any questions, please contact me at slabarre at labarrelaw.com or 303 504-5979.  

Looking forward to seeing all of you soon!

Scott C. LaBarre, Esq.

President NFB Colorado