<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><b>Subject:</b> <b>[NAGDU] Announcing the 2022 snarky guide dog T-shirt</b><br><b>Reply-To:</b> "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" <nagdu@nfbnet.org><br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><span>Greetings,</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>We are happy to announce the pre-order for our 2022 Snarky Guide Dog</span><br><span>T-Shirts has begun.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>This T-shirt is being sold as a fundraiser for the New York Association of</span><br><span>Guide Dog Users. however, as was the case last year, the shirt does not</span><br><span>contain the logo of the New York Association of Guide Dog Users, the</span><br><span>National Association of Guide Dog Users, the NFB, or any other</span><br><span>organization. We encourage individuals to join organizations such as the</span><br><span>NFB, the ACB, etc., or the specialized divisions within such organizations,</span><br><span>such as NAGDU, GDUI, etc. However, we wanted to provide a T-shirt that</span><br><span>would have appealed to, and be applicable to, guide and service dog</span><br><span>handlers, no matter what organization(s) they choose to belong to and no</span><br><span>matter what school their dog is from. Upon request, we’re happy to provide</span><br><span>information about the New York Association of Guide Dog Users, and we</span><br><span>certainly wouldn’t refuse a donation at any time that is not related to the</span><br><span>purchase of a T-shirt. However, this fundraising campaign is purely based</span><br><span>on our annual T-shirt sale.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>This year’s shirt is made of the same material as last year’s shirt. That</span><br><span>is, thin, of medium to high quality, and very soft. This year we have opted</span><br><span>for a shirt that is black, rather than blue. Most of the writing on the</span><br><span>shirt this year is produced in puff ink, just like the writing last year,</span><br><span>although our color is a very light, very bright blue. In addition to the</span><br><span>puff ink there is also some glitter ink in silver. The distribution of the</span><br><span>different inks and colors will be as follows:</span><br><span></span><br><span>A black shirt feature’s the following message “It isn’t dog fur its guide</span><br><span>dog GLITTER!” This message is presented on several lines, with a left</span><br><span>alignment, so that it appears as the body of a letter, albeit a very short</span><br><span>letter, where a graphic appears in the positioning, preceded by a dash,</span><br><span>such that it looks like it serves as a signature for the letter. The</span><br><span>graphic is a large paw print, facing with the toes upward, with braille</span><br><span>lettering contained within the paw print, the letters LOVE on the toes from</span><br><span>left to right, and the word DOG inside the heel of the paw print. The paw</span><br><span>print, the braille within it, the – preceding it, and the word GLITTER! are</span><br><span>all presented in the silver glitter ink, with the rest being presented in</span><br><span>the light blue puff ink described above. The format of the shirts makes it</span><br><span>look as if the message is being sent from the guide dog to the general</span><br><span>public, having been signed with a paw print reading love dog, Where dog</span><br><span>functions as the sender, and love functions as the degreeting, such as</span><br><span>sincerely, cordially, etc. this T-shirt is a little bit more flashy than</span><br><span>last year, but we have selected colors and formatting that tend to be quite</span><br><span>gender neutral, and could read a little bit on the masculine side, with the</span><br><span>black, blue, and silver color combination.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>We strive to use messages that are fun, so that our purchasers can enjoy</span><br><span>wearing the shirt, so that our potential buyers will want to purchase the</span><br><span>shirt in the first place, and so that the public is more likely to not only</span><br><span>enjoy the shirt but be open minded and taken its message. While it is true</span><br><span>that it is not acceptable to bring a truly filthy dog into a public place,</span><br><span>regardless of the ADA and other such laws, it is equally true that a</span><br><span>well-groomed and clean dog, will shed a small amount of fur. This is not</span><br><span>the toxic substance, or menace to society, which some peoples over the top</span><br><span>reactions would seem to indicate. We want to send a message, in a fun and</span><br><span>snarky way, that a few guard hairs from the coat of a dog that is clean,</span><br><span>well-behaved, well groomed, and working hard, should be seen in a neutral,</span><br><span>or even perhaps, in a fun or appreciative way by those who happen to be</span><br><span>blessed with a small amount of guide dog glitter in their life when they</span><br><span>encounter a guide dog team.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>This year our shirts will be a little less expensive if you purchase more</span><br><span>than one. A single shirt will be $22, and any additional shirts will be</span><br><span>only $20 apiece.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>If you would like to purchase a shirt, you can use PayPal to</span><br><span>NYAGDUDivision@gmail.com. If you do not have a PayPal account, and would</span><br><span>like help setting one up, please feel free to reach out and we will help</span><br><span>you with that.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>If you do not have, and would not like to have, a PayPal account, please</span><br><span>contact me at Heather.L.Bird@gmail.com <heather.l.bird@gmail.com> so that</span><br><span>we can work out an alternative payment arrangement.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>These prices include the price of the shirt, whether you need an extra</span><br><span>small up to a 4X. While we do pay a slight up charge to the manufacturers</span><br><span>of the shirts for plus size shirts, we do not pass this cost along to the</span><br><span>purchasers of our shirts, no matter what size they happen to be. This cost</span><br><span>also already includes the shipping, and there will be no additional</span><br><span>shipping cost, whether you purchase one shirt or 10, whether you are a mile</span><br><span>away from us or all the way across the country.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>We are utilizing a pre-order. Such as the one we used last year, which will</span><br><span>be three weeks in length this year, as we had many individuals who found</span><br><span>out about the shirts after we had already placed our order with the</span><br><span>manufacturer. Many of which took place within 1 to 7 days after we ended</span><br><span>the pre-order.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>The pre-order period begins today, Friday, July 29. Therefore, will end,</span><br><span>with us placing our order for the shirts, on Friday, August 19th.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>The turnaround time for the shirts to be completed should be like last</span><br><span>year, or shorter, as some supply chain issues have been improving, and we</span><br><span>will not have winter weather to contend with to impact the shipping of the</span><br><span>shirts to our manufacturer, or our shipping of the shirts out to those who</span><br><span>purchase them. Everyone who purchases a shirt will receive an email when we</span><br><span>order the shirts, another email when we receive the shirts, and an email</span><br><span>when their shirt is shipped.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>Last year, we purchased the type of shipping that included tracking</span><br><span>information. Out of around 90 shirts ordered, we had a grand total of one</span><br><span>shirt that did not arrive. And the tracking information for that shirt,</span><br><span>didn’t clarify things for us, as the date and time on which it was</span><br><span>delivered, did not enable the individual to find the shirt which may have</span><br><span>been misdelivered, porch pirated or otherwise gone astray.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>My experience with the blindness community, in particular, the guide dog</span><br><span>using community within the blind community, has been overwhelmingly</span><br><span>positive, so we will be operating on the honor system. This year we will</span><br><span>not be utilizing tracking information, and if you have not received your</span><br><span>shirt within the timeframe of the estimated shipping date we sent you,</span><br><span>please contact us, and we will do what we can to locate the shirt, and if</span><br><span>we cannot, then we will send out a replacement.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>To place an order, please send an email to NYAGDUDivision@gmail.com and let</span><br><span>us know the following information:</span><br><span></span><br><span>· Your full name as you would like it to appear on the shipping</span><br><span>address, especially important if you’re purchasing it as a gift and don’t</span><br><span>want someone else living with you to open it and find it prematurely.</span><br><span></span><br><span>· We will need your full shipping address including ZIP Code so</span><br><span>that we send it to the right place.</span><br><span></span><br><span>· We need to know how many shirts you would like to order, and what</span><br><span>quantity of each size you need, especially if you are purchasing multiple</span><br><span>shirts, and even more so if you are purchasing multiple shirts in a variety</span><br><span>of sizes.</span><br><span></span><br><span>· Please provide us with your email address that you would like</span><br><span>notifications to be sent to, especially if this email address is not the</span><br><span>one from which you are emailing us initially, otherwise we will simply</span><br><span>capture that from your email.</span><br><span></span><br><span>· We would also like a phone number, so that we can reach out to</span><br><span>you if we need to update you on anything specific to your shipment that</span><br><span>will not go out in the large, blind, carbon copy email that will go to all</span><br><span>individuals in a particular batch of shirts being shipped.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>You can also send questions to this email address, but if you need help</span><br><span>specifically with arranging a different payment method than PayPal, please</span><br><span>reach out to me at Heather.L.Bird@gmail.com <heather.l.bird@gmail.com>.</span><br><span>Once you have sent us your information, please send your payment, to PayPal</span><br><span>at the same address to it you sent your email that is</span><br><span>NYAGDUDivision@gmail.com.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>Would you like to win a free T-shirt, or, an additional shirt for free to</span><br><span>your order? Then please see below.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>If you would like to be entered into a drawing for one free T-shirt, in the</span><br><span>size of your choice, please answer the following short survey questions, in</span><br><span>an email to Heather.L.Bird@gmail.com <heather.l.bird@gmail.com>. I promise,</span><br><span>folks, these are not hard, or invasive questions. And if you answer all of</span><br><span>them, your name will be entered into a drawing for a free shirt, and we</span><br><span>will conduct that drawing before we order the shirts, so that we can add to</span><br><span>the order the free shirt in the size of the individual’s choice who has one</span><br><span>said shirt. you do not need to be purchasing one of our shirts this year to</span><br><span>fill out the survey and be entered to receive a free shirt from this year’s</span><br><span>order.</span><br><span></span><br><span>1. Last year, many people missed out on ordering a shirt, or have</span><br><span>expressed that they wish they had ordered an additional shirt. If we were</span><br><span>to do a re-print of last year shirt, would you be wanting to purchase one?</span><br><span>Just indicate a number from zero to however many you might want to buy, if</span><br><span>we were to do such a reorder of last year shirt, in addition to this year</span><br><span>shirt. Obviously, zero represents that you would not want a shirt, and</span><br><span>whatever number above zero you might indicate would let us know roughly how</span><br><span>many people might be wanting approximately how many shirts from a re-order.</span><br><span></span><br><span>2. This year shirt is worded in a way that is very specific to Guide</span><br><span>Dogs and Guide Dog handlers. We have an alternative shirt design, with the</span><br><span>same message, and logo, except, that it substitutes the words Service Dog</span><br><span>Sparkle in place of Guide Dog Glitter. You’ve got to love the</span><br><span>alliteration. Please indicate with a number, zero representing no interest,</span><br><span>and other numerical values representing the number of shirts that you might</span><br><span>want to purchase, or, the number of people you know, who are service dog</span><br><span>handlers, who might appreciate an alternative printing of this your shirt,</span><br><span>that says service, rather than Guide, dog on it.</span><br><span></span><br><span>3. We will never harvest anyone’s data, and would not in a million</span><br><span>years, dream of asking you to provide us with anyone’s contact information,</span><br><span>however, you should please feel free to forward this along to anyone who</span><br><span>might be interested, not only in a guide dog related shirt, but also in the</span><br><span>service dog related option, so that they may, if they wish, send us their</span><br><span>survey answers especially regarding this question and the previous</span><br><span>question. if you know of, any lists, forums, or other venues, where</span><br><span>advertising is allowed, this is very important, that are open to service</span><br><span>dog handlers of all types, where we might be able to promote an alternative</span><br><span>release of the shirt with the service dog wording, please share the name or</span><br><span>names of such venues with us so that we might post about such an</span><br><span>alternative release in the future. We absolutely will not post any emails</span><br><span>advertising this or future shirts on any lists where it is indicated that</span><br><span>either sales, or fundraisers, are not allowed. We would love to get the</span><br><span>word out, but we do not want to cause any hassle, or extra work, for list</span><br><span>or group moderators.</span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span></span><br><span>And there you have it folks, if you have any additional questions regarding</span><br><span>this year’s T-shirt, please feel free to reach out, and please feel free to</span><br><span>share this wherever appropriate, and with whomever you think might be</span><br><span>interested.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Heather Bird</span><br><span></span><br><span>President</span><br><span></span><br><span>New York Association of Guide Dog Users</span><br><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>NAGDU mailing list</span><br><span>NAGDU@nfbnet.org</span><br><span>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org</span><br><span>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NAGDU:</span><br><span>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/marsha.drenth%40gmail.com</span><br></div></blockquote></body></html>