[Community-service] Workshops

Thu Apr 17 22:57:29 UTC 2014

Ashley,

I'm glad to hear that you would be interested in writing for the blog. We'd 
definitely love for people to write about their experiences with the service 
project at Convention, but we are also looking for blog entries all the time 
from people who have participated in a wide variety of community service 
activities. If you or anyone has an experience they would like to share, 
please feel free to write me at christine-parsons at sbcglobal.net.

If you have ideas for workshops and you want to contact Mary Ann directly as 
opposed to replying on the list, you can find her e-mail address in any 
message she has sent to the list. This is also true for Michele of the 
research and resource committee or any other members of the leadership who 
have posted to the list.

I hope this helps.

Chris

-----Original Message----- 
From: Ashley Bramlett
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2014 3:06 PM
To: Community Service Discussion List
Subject: Re: [Community-service] Workshops

Chris,
I'd be interested in writing for the blog. If you need submissions, let me
know. Then I'll chat off list about specifics.
I assume the blog should be about our own experiences and thoughts about the
service project.
I could also go on about why people should do community service and how it
benefits us and the community, but I would probably be preaching to the
choir then.

As for workshops, I'll attend the next one via phone. Sorry to hear you had
no participation in the past.

Can you post contact info for the resource list committee?
Also how do we reach Mary Ann? I certainly have ideas.

Thanks.

Ashley
resource
-----Original Message----- 
From: Chris Parsons
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 9:43 PM
To: Community Service Discussion List
Subject: Re: [Community-service] Workshops

Hi Cheryl and all,

Cheryl, thank you for your thoughtful response. You have a lot of really
good ideas about workshop topics and structure. If you are interested in
doing so, I agree with Mary Ann that I think you would have a lot to bring
to the workshop committee.

As Mary Ann mentioned, there is a particular flurry of e-mails about
Convention activities right now because Convention is the time that brings a
lot of people together from across the country, and we want to take
advantage of this to plan a handful of activities. However, we have in place
or are working on developing opportunities for people to network, share
ideas, and get involved outside of Convention.

We have this listserv, which depends on the posts and collective efforts of
its members. To anyone who is reading this, if you have a question about
community service, feel free to ask it here. If you have participated in a
service project, you are encouraged to write about it here or see if it
could be included on our blog (nfbcommunityservice.wordpress.com). If you
have a service-related resource or article that you find interesting or
helpful, please share it. Michele Mitchell currently chairs a committee that
is putting together a resource list of community service-related
organizations, Web sites, etc. that we hope to be able to use to point
interested people to service opportunities in their area.

We have begun our organizing efforts on the national level; however, because
service helps those in one's local community, one of our ultimate goals is
to have one person in each affiliate who will coordinate the community
service efforts of that affiliate and the chapters within it. Cheryl, I love
the idea of a national project outside of Convention in which each affiliate
would participate.

We also have the conference call workshops that Mary Ann's committee
develops. If anyone has ideas for workshop topics, please don't hesitate to
let Mary Ann know.

Finally, Cheryl, you state that it is difficult to define what the purpose
of the group is. I see that Mary Ann has included a brief description of the
group's purpose in her response. Does this make the purpose clearer? If not,
what do you, or anyone else on the list, believe we could do to make this
purpose clearer? Cheryl, you are right that as a group seeks to become a
division, we must have a clear and well-defined purpose, and if this is not
happening, we certainly want to know this and also what we can do to make it
clearer.

Chris Parsons

-----Original Message----- 
From: Cheryl Fields
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2014 5:04 PM
To: maryann at jmendez.us ; Community Service Discussion List
Subject: Re: [Community-service] Workshops

Maryann,
I am delighted you asked these important questions! Yes I would attend
workshops, teleconferences that include meaningful topics, speakers,
and offer interesting and timely round table discussions.
Topics, my preferences are, building community connections,
leadership skills, fund raising , and how to create diverse volunteer
groups.

Roundtable discussions, can be a wealth of knowledge for discussion
list participants if guided properly. A friendly, mature,
knowledgeable and engaging moderator is key to the success of any
roundtable discussion,  especially one that is held over the
telephone. Providing opportunities for participants to share
experiences, how they solved problems/ barriers and sharing future
plans. some on the list may have a grander idea for service and
connecting with grant writers, and how to write a business plan could
assist them greatly. Maintaining a list of locations in each state
that provide other workshop opportunities for larger community
projects to participate in may be helpful. For example I live in
Cleveland and we just hosted the Cleveland International film
Festival, this event could not happen without a vast amout of
volunteers. This summer Cleveland will host the Senior Games and an
annual jazz festival again a huge number of volunteers will be
recruited for these events. Who do we contact to become involved, what
is needed for that involvement and how can we best represent the nfb
by becoming involved?

Speakers, it would be beneficial to involve some of the existing
community partners on list, members as speakers to provide overview of
the opportunities available through the projects they have been
involved with. Identifying the challenges and satisfaction levels of
these endeavours. Organizations. Other types of speakers could
include, local grassroots organizations that provide training,
information on faith based service opportunities, how can parents of
blind children exchange service for other important services such as
day care or transportation of children to school. saving them much
needed funds. Speakers could include persons with unusual/ exotic
skills, feeding animals at the zoo or persons that collect used
computer/ electronics to be refurbished. This could open conversation
about how many blind people would like to have access to technology
but lack the funds for hardware and software. Possibly opening new
avenues, brainstorming with others to enhance the lives within the
blind community. The more diversity of speakers may create more
interest from listeners and encourage others to join the list. Hearing
from, our Latina community, the African American community, the
parents of blind children as well as blind parents with sighted
children and others. We all want to hear from those that share other
unique challenges that include blindness.  Marketing the
teleconference/ workshops to all nfb members may be helpful to
stimulate new ideas and encouraging to others that never thought about
community service projects. Any speaker should be engaging and open to
answering questions when asked, and following up when necessary. To do
this properly the speaker should have a interview process so that the
moderator of the workshop is  familiar with the speaker/ orgainization
, in this way the moderator can move the discussion along with
confidence, introduce other related topics and convey to listeners
that he/ she is prepared. Speakers can also be nfb members with
experience and proven success in the community with his/her outreach
projects.

I feel it would be beneficial to have 1 national project, outside of
the covention structure. something simple, meaningful and inexpensive
for every affiliate to complete within some predesignated time frame.
This may create interest in this list, participants can share
experiences on line, post photos, and share the success of the project
together.

I don't think this list is the place to post employment possibilities
for others. This list may be better served by explaining how
volunteering can boost a resume, provide training for new skills or
maintaining expertise of existing skills, and help a job seeker with
networking.

Finally, I know I have written lots here, but I was glad to have the
chance to get it off my chest. I was very excited when I first joined
this list, but have become disinterested and disappointed with the
content. Community Service exists for many different reasons and not
everyone is seeking employment or attending the national covention.
Some of us want to serve our communities and enhance the quality of
life for our neighbors and our selves while proudly representing the
philosophy of the nfb. Because of the unique barriers we face, I
thought this list would provide some support and suggestions. When I
initially joined, there was the sense that this is what we were
accomplishing. Then the list became flooded with issues surrounding
the national covention, this was interesting to me, because most of
the list users stated that they are not attending the covention. There
seemed to be no other conversation. I called once and was engaged in a
conversation where the names of officers and committees was guarded,
not available to us. There were only a few of us on that call and it
was a complete disaster, this is the reason I have not participated
again. it is my understanding that at some future time the committee
and officers intend to create a division from this list. Well, good
luck, because it is difficult to define what the purpose of the group
is. I have not given up on being hopeful to read in exciting and
engaging topics and will hang in there for a while longer. I am
willing to assist with the growth of this group, it's worth salvaging!
I really hope others respond to assist you and the other leaders in a
positive way to redefine what this list/ group and future division
will become. Thank you for asking and listening, have a great day!

Blessings,

Cheryl Fields

Contact information; 216.932.6644 or cherylelaine1957 at gmail.com

On 4/8/14, Mary Ann Mendez <maryann at jmendez.us> wrote:
> Hi everyone.
>
>
>
> I want to share with you that there were 0 participants in attendance for
> the March 31 workshop.
>
> Here are some questions that can help us develop meaningful opportunities
> for our service-minded community service group participants. Feel free to
> respond to me directly with any thoughts. I will not share your individual
> responses with others. instead, I will use the data to put together a
> meaningful report based on all feedback.
>
>
>
> *         Would you attend teleconferences that serve as workshops to
> improve community service? Why or why not?
>
> *         Would you attend teleconferences that showcase a guest speaker?
> Why or why not?
>
> *         What inspires you to attend a teleconference event?
>
> *         What do you like and dislike about round-table discussions?
>
> *         What do you like and dislike about guest speakers?
>
> *         What  would you like to see in workshops?
>
> *         What would you like to see from guest speakers?
>
> *         And lastly: What would have inspired you to attend the previous
> workshop on ways to become involved in community service?
>
> *         What have I missed that you would like to add?
>
> Thank you for any thoughts you would like to share about this. Our group 
> is
> only a product of what each of us brings to it. I look forward to offering
> opportunities for us to grow in service learning.
>
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Mary Ann Mendez
>
>
>
>
>
>

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