[nabs-l] Washington Seminar Conference Call Follow Up

[Chris Nusbaum]

Hi Elizabeth,

That was a wonderful summary; thank you for that! I was 
unfortunately unable to attend the conference call last night (I 
hope it was recorded,) but your summary was very helpful to me.  
Maybe you or someone else could do this for all of our calls, 
just to follow up and keep us up to date! Thanks again!

Chris

"The real problem of blindness is not the loss of eyesight.  The 
real problem is the misunderstanding and lack of education that 
exists.  If a blind person has the proper training and 
opportunity, blindness can be reduced to a mere physical 
nuisance."
-- Kenneth Jernigan

 ----- Original Message -----
From: "Elizabeth" <lizmohnke at hotmail.com
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:14:22 -0500
Subject: [nabs-l] Washington Seminar Conference Call Follow Up

Hello All,

It seemed as though several people had some trouble gaining 
access to
tonight's membership conference call about Washington Seminar.  
Regardless if
you experienced problems using the access number, or you simply 
forgot about
the conference call altogether, here is what I recall taking 
place during
the meeting.

Lauren McLarney, Government Program Specialist of the National 
Federation of
the Blind, served as our special guest for this conference call.  
She began
the call by giving us a brief overview about Washington Seminar, 
and
highlighted the three issues we will be presenting to Congress 
this year.
Issues for this year's Washington Seminar include the following:

1.	The Fair Wages for Workers with Disabilities Act of 2011 
(H.R.  3086)

2.	The Home Appliance Accessibility Act (HAAA)

3.	The Americans with Disabilities Business Opportunity Act 
(ADBOA)

If you would like to learn more about these issues, I suggest 
reading over
the fact sheets that have been distributed on the general mass 
email list,
and have been posted on the national website under the section 
about
Washington Seminar.

Lauren was then asked to provide information about how Washington 
Seminar
works, and the Great Gathering In meeting.  She explained that 
each morning
of Washington Seminar, she sits down with her colleagues from the
governmental affairs office, and goes over the information that 
people bring
in to the Mercury room.  For those who may not know, the Mercury 
room is
where people report what took place during their meeting with 
their member
of Congress using a ratings scale.  This information is then used 
to help
prioritize the actions taken by the governmental affairs office.

Lauren explained that sometimes a member of the governmental 
affairs office
might tag along on a meeting with members of the state 
affiliates.  She
explained that this is not because the governmental affairs team 
believes
that affiliate members are not confident enough to present the 
issues to the
member of Congress, but rather because they may feel as though 
this meeting
is important, and would like to be able to follow up with this 
member of
Congress after Washington Seminar concludes.

The Great Gathering In meeting will take place this year on 
Monday, February
6, 2012 at 5:00 pm in the Columbia Ballroom.  I suggest you get 
to the room
early as seats generally fill up quickly.  Lauren said this is 
her favorite
night of the year since it is where everyone gets to hear about 
the
legislative issues we will be discussing with members of 
Congress.  Sometimes
there are also special guest speakers from outside the 
organization who come
and speak to us as well.

Meetings with members of Congress then take place from Tuesday 
through
Thursday depending on how each state affiliate schedule these 
meetings.  If
you have any questions about how your specific state affiliate 
schedules
their meetings, I would encourage you to contact your state 
affiliate
President.  Your chapter President may be able to give you this 
information
as well.

Lauren then spoke about how students can get involved even though 
they may
not be able to attend Washington Seminar.  She explained that 
meeting with
members of Congress is only the first step in advocating for our 
legislative
issues.  The real work continues after Washington Seminar as 
members of state
affiliates continue to contact their member of Congress to follow 
up with
the meeting that took place during Washington Seminar.  The way 
our
legislative issues pass is not simply done by meeting with 
members of
Congress during Washington Seminar, but through continued 
constant follow up
throughout the rest of the year by general members of the 
organization.

Please note this is simply a summary of what I recall taking 
place during
the conference call.  Anyone is free to correct me if they 
believe any part
of this summary of the conference call is incorrect.  I just 
simply wanted to
make sure everyone could receive this information regardless of 
whether or
not they were able to attend or access the conference call.  
Hopefully this
summary proves to be helpful to those who were not able to join 
the
conference call.

Elizabeth



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