[nabs-l] NABS Notes May 2016

[Hindley Williams]

Hello Fellow Students,
See the May edition of the NABS Notes below. You will see many
exciting announcements relating to the upcoming national convention,
as well as other must-read information from our student divisions
across the country. See the Notes attached, at the following URL, or
pasted below.
Here is the URL:
http://nabslink.org/content/nabs-notes-may-2016

And here is the text:
NABS Notes May 2016

The National Association of Blind Students --
A proud division of the National Federation of the Blind.

In this edition of the NABS monthly bulletin:
1.	Have You Registered for the 2016 NFB National Convention?
2.	Volunteering with NABS at National Convention
3.	NABS at the NFB Healthy Fair
4.	May NABS Blog Update
5.	State Updates
6.	May NABS Board Meeting Minutes

Have You Registered for the 2016 NFB National Convention?

National Convention is swiftly approaching! With only a month left
until the convention begins, make sure you preregister and make your
room reservation. You will not want to miss the networking
opportunities and the exciting events that our annual convention is
sure to provide. For more information about how to preregister, as
well as convention location, please visit the following link:
https://nfb.org/convention
NOTE: The last day to preregister is May 31.

Volunteering With NABS at National Convention

National Convention is just around the corner! Whether this is going
to be your first convention experience, or you are a familiar face
among us, we look forward to seeing you at all of the various events
that NABS has planned. Our annual NABS social will kick it all off,
followed by our business meeting which will feature informative and
engaging presentations that you won’t want to miss. And, right before
the convention week has ended, come socialize and play some fun card
games with your fellow students. We will also be having an Exhibit
Hall table, and details are soon to follow on what you will find
there. But, in order to make all of this happen, NABS needs your help.
>From marshalling for these events, to staffing the Monte Carlo night,
to volunteering at the Exhibit Hall table, we want to work with you.
If you have any initial interest in volunteering with NABS at this
year’s National Convention, please email Bre Brown at bbrown at nfbtx.org
 or Kathryn Webster at kathrynwebster.nfb at gmail.com. We look forward
to working alongside you, and reconnecting and meeting students from
all across the country at this year’s convention!

NABS at the NFB Healthy Fair

On Thursday, June 30 from 10-4pm, as part of this year’s fun and
festivities, the National Federation of the Blind Sports and
Recreation Division and WE Fit Wellness™ are planning an exciting and
dynamic Try It Seminar and NF-Be Healthy Fair. The Try It Seminar will
be an opportunity for blind and visually impaired individuals, and
their families, to try out a variety of sports and recreational
activities. The NF-Be Healthy Fair will be a wonderful chance for
participants to explore their personal health, check out
blindness-specific health products, and learn about sports and
recreation opportunities in Florida and across the nation.  We will
gather in the ballroom to learn about nutrition, tips and tricks to
exercising right, and have an opportunity to donate blood at the blood
drive!
 The National Association of Blind Students is proud to be a silver
sponsor of this event.
In addition to selling bottled water throughout the event in order to
keep our members hydrated, we will be marshalling and interacting with
many of the stations. To make this possible, we need your help! If you
are interested in learning about health and nutrition, want to help
NABS fundraise, or just love to hang out with some cool athletes,
students, and newcomers, then sign up for a shift!
Please email Kathryn Webster at kathrynwebster.nfb at gmail.com for
additional details and to volunteer for a morning or afternoon shift!
NABS, We Fit Wellness, and the Sports & Rec Division appreciate your
help!

May NABS Blog Update

In this month’s blog article, you’ll have the opportunity to read
about an affiliate leadership Seminar that took place at the beginning
of May at the Jernigan Institute. Kathryn Webster, along with Virginia
students, reflected on the impact of such a weekend.
Visit http://nabslink.org/content/embracing-our-membership-our-meaning-and-our-movement
To read about the impactful experience had and to learn about how you
can build relationships with your own affiliate!

State Updates

All updates are printed below as they were received from their senders.

Kansas:
KABS is increasingly becoming an active division, and we have done
several exciting things together throughout the month of May that we
would like to share with the rest of our NFB family. First of all, we
are proud to announce that Kabs has launched its Facebook page. We
post our upcoming activities, pictures of events, and a lot more.
Please like us on Facebook and learn about our division! The weather
was delightful, and everyone enjoyed one another’s company and
delicious food that KABS provided. Unfortunately, not everyone was
able to come, but we still had a wonderful time.
Finally, we did an outreach at the Kansas school for the deaf and
blind. We had a great presentation and luncheon there, and some of the
students became interested in joining our student division. We are
looking forward to getting new members and making our division bigger
and stronger. All of our students are enthusiastic about the upcoming
national convention, and we are very grateful to our state for
providing the financial assistance to our students to make the trip to
Orlando possible.

Maryland:
The Maryland Association of Blind Students just concluded a busy and
exciting spring by putting on our first student seminar in 3 years! On
May 14, 17 blind students from across the state gathered in Laurel for
a fun time of working out at the gym, making friendships, and
empowering each other to get active in all aspects of our community
lives, showing that we as blind people can and do live the lives we
want. The afternoon of fun and learning concluded with an insightful
philosophical discussion led by leaders from both the affiliate and
the student division. Thanks to our dedicated and enthusiastic
Membership/Communications Committee, under the able leadership of
Nesma Aly and Ellana Crew, for leading the planning of one of our most
successful seminars yet! As national convention approaches, MDABS is
looking forward to
Gathering with our Federation family from across the country, and to
participating actively in our work at the national level to ensure
that all blind people can live the lives we want. See you in Orlando!

Utah:
Hello Federationists! The Utah Association of Blind Students recently
had a change to our board with Chelsea Peahl being elected as the new
president. We are currently talking with members on the NABS board to
brainstorm ideas on how to make our division as strong as it possibly
can be! We are also planning a new fundraiser for the year and are
also beginning to think about some activities to have this year!
Please be patient with us as we get our division going once again!

Virginia:
>From May 6 to 8, the Virginia Association of Blind Students (VABS)
held a weekend seminar on leadership at the National Federation of the
Blind Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. During this event,
students were able to learn invaluable skills, such as time
management, interviewing tips, and accessibility options for both
employment and curriculum. Most importantly, we engaged with our
national president, Mark Riccobono, and reflected on the significance
of building relationships with local, state, and national leadership.
Between the large turnout of students in comparison to recent events
and the enthusiasm of the group, the conference was a huge success! We
were grateful to have the majority of the Virginia student board,
several members all across our state, and our national state liaison
Kathryn Webster join us alongside our entire Federation family of
Virginia. We look forward to seeing you in Orlando!

May NABS Board Meeting Minutes

May 15, 2016

Meeting called to order at 9:06 p.m.

Members Present:

Sean Whalen (President)
Candice Chapman (1st Vice President)
Bre Brown (2nd Vice President)
Kathryn Webster (Secretary/Treasurer)
Hindley Williams (Board Member 1)
James Garret Mooney (Board Member 2)
Chris Nusbaum (Board member 3)
Michael Ausbun (Board Member 4)

Treasurer’s Report:
Checking account: $6,083.33
Sending check to Sean for $464
Sending check to Jeannie for $100 toward Convention planning
Awaiting $240 from a fundraiser in January

Committee Reports

Communications:
Lots of blog articles coming for May
New section within the blog called: “Living the life we want” for old
students and current students
Continue to grow Twitter followers and friends on Facebook
NABS blast on KJFC radio Tuesday night from 8-9pm with special guests
Kathryn Webster and Syed Rizvi
NABS Notes: lots of info this month with National Convention and NABS
events there. Scholarship page will be posted. Blog updates and state
updates will be featured.

Fundraising:
Penny Wars: emails and phone calls to presidents of national divisions
done this week by Kathryn
Exhibit hall: water and soda; snack packs
Flash drives: sold for $8; lots of cool stuff on there for blind students
SeaWorld ticket raffle: sold at Exhibit Hall table, by Board members,
and Fundraising committee members
Door prizes: grand cash prizes, four smaller prizes to draw during
business meeting
Monte Carlo Night: $5 for entrance; $10 for one bag of chips; $15 for
two bags of chips
During our meetings, we should sell drinks and snacks in the back of the rooms

Legislative:
Three different letter templates written
Online form for equal access to education testimonies

Membership:
Training center testimonies being collected. We are working on a
template. Reach out to Garret Mooney with questions.
Membership directory will be uploaded soon!
Mentoring program at National convention: Sean will send out blast
email to membership

Website:
Preregistration is up for National Convention.
Mentoring Program links are on home page.
Kathryn put up a new Find Your State menu on home page.
Preregistration for our meeting will be up soon!

Recruitment strategy for National Convention:
Reaching out to Paul to get more students from around the area to come

Meeting adjourned at 11:46 p.m.


As always, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions,
concerns or suggestions. The NABS Board works for you, and we want to
know how we’re doing! Thanks for reading, and we’ll be back in June.

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.





-- 
Hindley Williams
hbwilliams16 at gmail.com
(443) 823-0867
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: NABS Notes May 2016.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 25073 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/attachments/20160531/b5f9c301/attachment.docx>