[Flagdu] thanks to all who participated/FLAGDU roundup

Thu May 31 17:20:48 UTC 2012

Dear Sherrill,

I was surprised by the event, at the back of the hotel where the relief area 
was.
Suddenly, it was just there.  We were given no warning about it, nor an 
alternative route to take to get to the area.
We just had to deal with it.
The hotel did not mention it in the staff meeting, we had on Friday and if 
they had, I would have said something then, but no one knew until it was a 
fact.
It has never happened before in all of the 6 other times we have met in the 
Embassy Suites.
If we have a convention here again, I will make sure it is addressed 
Pre-convention.
On another note.
I would like to see us have some discussion about relief areas, at 
conventions and at airports and on ships.
I think that we could lead the way in making these areas more beneficial and 
convenient for guide dog users and others with service animals and pets that 
are traveling.
A guide dog user should not have to leave the security area to relieve their 
dog and chance missing their flight, nor have to go through screening 
multiple times, just because they have a guide dog.
We could advise the TSA as to how to better handle guide dogs users and 
other animals owners as they travel by plane or ship
This might be especially timely as we are considering having a state 
convention on board a cruise ship in the future.

Another idea I had was what to do with your guide dog if you want to go on 
rides at Disney World and you can not take them with you on rides such as 
Thunder Mountain Railway or Space Mountain and you do not want to put them 
in the kennels.
Maybe we could organize a special tour group for guide dog users, that would 
have a couple of people who stay off the rides and just hold or mind our 
guide dos while we ride the rides.
Disney has special services for visitors with the "fast pass" that lets you, 
and your group, go right to the head of the line and provides a guide person 
that helps expedite your ride and tour group around the park.
We might even be able to sell special tickets to this as a fund raiser, not 
just for Nagdu but to the sighted NFB members too.
We have 2 years to think about and organize it.

David Evans and GD Jack.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sherrill O'Brien" <sherrill.obrien at verizon.net>
To: "alexis collins" <alexiscollins123 at yahoo.com>; "Florida Association of 
Guide Dog Users" <flagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2012 10:53 AM
Subject: Re: [Flagdu] thanks to all who participated/FLAGDU roundup

David and all,

Thanks for that vote of confidence, and sure, I'll answer to that! Maybe we
can get a soundbite from the song and use it at convention when I give the
FLAGDU report!

Sherrill

-----Original Message-----
From: flagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:flagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org]On
Behalf Of alexis collins
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2012 7:23 AM
To: Florida Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [Flagdu] thanks to all who participated/FLAGDU roundup

we, the bord and members are happy to have sherroll o'brien back as the
leader of the pack !!!!!!!!!

________________________________
 From: Sherrill O'Brien <sherrill.obrien at verizon.net>
To: FLAGDU List <flagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2012 5:50 PM
Subject: [Flagdu] thanks to all who participated/FLAGDU roundup

Hello to all FLAGDU members,

I know we're all glad to be home after a convention in which so many people
worked very hard to make it successful. I wish to thank all of you for what
you did to help make our FLAGDU meeting and hospitality suite go smoothly.
There are folks who jumped in to help who aren't on this list yet, as they
have just joined our division, so I'll make sure to thank them in a personal
email, and invite them to become members of this list. I thank all who
renewed their membership, and who came to our hospitality suite for
delicious food, prepared by my dear friend and our Vice President Merry
Schoch. Merry always puts her heart and soul into whatever she does, but
this time even I was amazed at her commitment and effort. Thanks also to
those who jumped into help with the food serving without even being asked!
Tom Belone and Stephen Stokes were especially helpful, and thanks to those
whose names I don't know. I so appreciated Kathy Davis's offer to help me
with the collection of dues as people came to our suite to eat lunch on
Saturday.

I heard very few complaints about the relief area, thanks in great part to
the vigilance and clean-up efforts of Michael Bearden and Stephen Stokes.
The one wrinkle of course was the big party which was suddenly dropped into
our tranquil relief area, with it's velvet ropes, red carpet, valet parking
and extremely loud music! I will let those in charge of our convention know
that it would have been prudent to at least tell me about this in advance,
so I could have given you a warning at the FLAGDU meeting.

At our FLAGDU meeting, I was so pleased to have reports from Peter Duffy of
Guiding Eyes, and Chuck and Debby Hietala, representing Guide Dog
Foundation. It was great that we could hear from our national Association of
Guide Dog Users president Marion Gwizdala via cell phone. And I know we all
enjoyed and learned alot from our TSA speaker Richard Pryor.

We welcome two new members to our board, secretary Jody Milisivic and board
member Tracie Inman, as well as David Bearden, elected for another term I
would like to thank outgoing secretary Laurel Brown and board member Sherri
Brun for their hard work and commitment.

Please share any comments regarding the convention with the list.

Warm regards
Sherrill

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