[nabs-l] NABS Notes.November 2017.docx

chelsea peahl chelsea.peahl at hotmail.com
Tue Dec 5 02:01:27 UTC 2017


 Hello students,

We hope you have had a successful semester! Attached to this email are the NABS Notes for the month of November!


NABS Notes: November 2017

In this issue, you will find:

• President’s Note
• Board Meeting Minutes
• Grand Canyon Sound Academy Program Application
• NFB 2018 National Scholarship Program: Apply Now
• NABS Legislative Toolkit
• 2018 Washington Seminar
• Monthly Blog Post
• Monthly YouTube Video
• Committee Updates
• State Updates



President’s Note

Happy holidays, fellow students! For the NABS Board, November was full of traveling, planning, and innovation! NABS reps were sent out to build our student divisions and strengthen our movement in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Louisiana, Texas, Nevada, and Washington DC! With the fall convention coming to a close, we amplified our preparation for Washington Seminar. This year, NABS is planning a Student Leadership Seminar alongside our national president. The weekend before Washington Seminar, 30 students will gather at our national headquarters to learn, share, and grow as dynamic leaders in the national Federation of the Blind. We have a special opportunity to collaborate with our affiliate presidents the same weekend, as we interact with our state leaders during their weekend of growth. Upon conclusion, we will travel to Washington DC to fight for our rights as active participants in society!

AIM HIGH is of the greatest priority this year. So, please get your personal testimony letters to our Legislative Advocacy Chair, Syed Rizvi, at syedrizvinfb at gmail.com<mailto:syedrizvinfb at gmail.com>the sooner, the better. Our Fundraising Committee did an excellent job with Giving Tuesday this year, recognizing that without funds, NABS cannot continue improving the lives of blind students. A promotional video and support site was create. Visit www.supportblindstudents.com<http://www.supportblindstudents.com/> to learn more.

I am excited and thankful for you during the holiday season, particularly because it points to the appreciation we have for our extended Federation family. As many of you know, it has been a difficult time for me with family matters over the past couple of months. I was showered with overwhelming support and love from blind students in so many of our states. The NABS Board wants to be that love and support to you, so please start the conversation. The Federation is more than a resource-base; we are a family. As we kick off the December month, I want to wish each of you success in your finals as the fall semester wraps up. I encourage each of you to relax when finals conclude, whether with family or friends. You deserve it!



Love always,

Kathryn C. Webster

President



Board Meeting Minutes

National Association of Blind Students-A Proud Division of the National Federation of the Blind

Call Minutes: November 5, 2017



On the call: All present minus Tarik

Announcements:

Dustin Cather will be serving as Assistant Treasurer to Cody.



Treasurer’s Report:

Treasurer’s Report 11/5/17

Total Revenue: $318.56

PayPal: $311.56

PayPal Revenue includes funds raised by Fantasy Football.

Square: $7.22

Total expenses: $271.95

Pack Plan: $15

Reimbursement checks: $240

Website domain renewal: $16.95

Balance: $7,048.17



Committee Report:

Fundraising: Fantasy and restaurant fundraisers coming in. Cookbook is coming together. Auction items are coming together. Still looking for donations. Video is coming together for Giving Tuesday.

Outreach: New video coming out. Working on new YouTube videos.

Legislative Advocacy: Push for 60 letters by Washington Seminar. Looking for 3 more AIM HE support letters before Washington seminar. Working with a few more states. Going to do presentations at schools. Challenge to states: Get at least 5 letters, the state that gets the most letters wins. Working on an incentive.

Event Planning: Working on Washington Seminar. Collaborating with other committees to make it all happen. Midwest Regional Seminar April 20-22. Luke will have our responsibilities to us my Jan 1.



Michael and Kathryn will be working to help committees. Will be more formalized. Working to keep consistency.Michael is the point person for Outreach and Event Planning. Kathryn is the point person for Fundraising and Legislative Advocacy.

Ed Shaham will be taking a step back for the time being.

Committee Reminders:

• Send Chelsea committee updates on the 22nd of every month.
• Meeting announcements need to be sent one week beforehand and one day beforehand.
• Minutes must be sent to the board. This is how we grow.

Leadership updates:

• Matthew Gip = Cali student president
• Pipi Adams = Colorado student president
• Pennsylvania and Minnesota have had affiliate president changes.

Funding for Washington seminar applications will be open from November 6-November 26.

2018 student leadership seminar Jan 26-28, 2018. 30 students will be invited by Kathryn. From there, we will be taking a bus to DC.

NABS Cafe: Monday, January 29.

Liaison: Please work with your states. Call them, message them. Etc. Build relationships. Let them lean on you, so you can lean on them.

Adjourned at 10:00 EST



Leading the Way: Grand Canyon

We are excited to announce that twenty teenagers who are both blind/visually impaired and fully-sighted will be selected to receive scholarships for an once-in-a-lifetime leadership adventure! On this 10 day expedition, students will:

• Journey down the Colorado River into the heart of the Grand Canyon
• Hone their interpersonal and leadership skills through the No Barriers Life curriculum
• Learn about the importance of natural sounds with support from the National Park Service Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division
• Participate in meaningful science projects
• Much, much more!

The early application deadline is December 15th and students can apply now!

Application and more information:

http://www.nobarriersusa.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2015/10/Grand-Canyon-Sound-Academy-Program-Details.pdf

NFB 2018 National Scholarship Program: APPLY NOW

http://www.nfb.org/scholarships<http://www.nfb.org/scholarships>

Are you legally blind? Do you reside in the United States, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico? Are you pursuing or planning to pursue a full-time, postsecondary course of study at a U.S. institution in the 2016 scholastic year? Are you available to attend the entire NFB National Convention in Orlando, Florida from July 3-July 8, 2018? Are you eager to meet Federation leaders and network with some of the brightest, most passionate mentors out there?

If you said yes to all of these questions, then we strongly encourage you to apply to our 2018 National Scholarship Program! To recognize achievement by blind scholars, the National Federation of the Blind annually offers blind college students in the United States and Puerto Rico the opportunity to win one of thirty merit-based, national-level scholarships ranging in value of $3,000 to $12,000. All scholarships awarded are based on academic excellence, community service, and leadership. Visit our website at www.nfb.org/scholarships<http://www.nfb.org/scholarships> to begin your application!

Remember: applications, along with all necessary documents, must be submitted no later than March 31, 2018. Do not wait until the end of February to start gathering additional information and beginning the online form.



NABS Legislative Toolkit:

The NABS Legislative Toolkit is a complete and comprehensive guide for all blind students to more actively participate in the fight for equal access. Included are step by step instructions on how to write your personal testimony, how to approach your university for support, and even how to hold a legislative workshop with your student division. The Legislative committee exists to further explain and assist students in their implementation of the kit. The National Association of Blind Students Legislative Committee knows that through changing laws, we can change lives. Join us, use this invaluable tool. Together, through collective action, we can achieve equality for the blind in the classroom, and beyond. This toolkit will be up on our web site soon, as well as distributed to student presidents.



2018 Washington Seminar

What: The Washington Seminar is an annual event of the National Federation of the Blind to introduce the agenda of blind Americans--the priority issues requiring congressional attention over the coming year. The issues are selected from official positions of the Federation and will certainly address concerns regarding to equal access to education, the legislation affecting blind students across our nation!

When: Sunday, January 28, through Thursday, February 1, 2018

Where: Holiday Inn Capitol

550 C Street, SW

Washington, DC 20024

Phone: 202-479-4000

Please reserve your room at the Holiday Inn Capitol (550 C Street, SW Washington, DC 20024) for Washington Seminar by Tuesday, January 2, 2018. Check-in at our booking rate begins Friday, January 26, 2018 with a check-out by Friday, February 2, 2018. The rate is $192.00 per night. This rate does not include DC sales tax, currently 14.8%.



Monthly Blog Post

Matthew Gip is our newly elected California student division president. Matt is 19 years old and was born and raised in Fresno, California. He currently attends Fresno City College as a freshman, majoring in psychology. He hopes to become a writer or potentially pursue a career in the blindness field of teaching cane travel in Orientation and Mobility. Please join us in reading his experience as a growing leader in our organization.



Earlier this month on November 2-5, I attended my very first state convention in my home state of California. I started off the day by taking the Amtrak train for the very first time. It was a phenomenal experience and the ride was very smooth, but something happened… I ended up missing my stop at Stockton, where I was supposed to get off to meet the Northern California bus with other convention attendees to get to the hotel. The conductor apologized for not letting me know when to get off, but needless to say, with the training I learned and gained from BLIND, Inc., I was able to locate where I was and I got off a couple of stops later and took an Uber to the hotel. I ended up arriving before everyone.

This was truly a historic and memorable convention for me. I am proud to announce that I was one of the state scholarship finalists, as well as being elected as the new student division president of CABS, the California student division. I am honored and humbled to be in this leadership role and I hope to set an example and be an asset for students. I would like to give a special thank you to the immediate past student president, Carla Scroggins, President Ever Lee Hairston, and President Kathryn Webster for all the support and continuing to mentor me as I go through this new transition. There was so much love, energy, and passion at convention and I loved every single moment of it. We had an awesome national rep, NFB of Colorado President, Scott LaBarre, where he gave an outstanding and motivating speech about breaking down barriers for blind people and he also told us about his airport experience.

I would like to wrap up by saying how grateful I am to have attended this year’s state convention. I have learned so much, including advocacy, mentoring, leadership, and much more. I am truly honored to be a part of the Federation and to have my Federation family with me. I see a very bright future in not just our student division, but the entire affiliate. The main goal of the Federation is to increase membership and I am proud to say, if it wasn’t for the National Federation of the Blind, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.



http://nabslink.org/content/blog-post-month-november-weekend-remember



Monthly YouTube Video

Please enjoy our latest video of students explaining what NABS Means to them. Love, watch, and share!

https://youtu.be/izAXe7Z275U



Committee Updates

Get Involved With NABS by Joining Our Committees

If you have ever wanted to get involved with the work the National Association of Blind Students is doing, this is your chance. We have recently reorganized our committees and are looking for students with a passion to work beside us in building the Federation. If you are interested in joining one or more of our committees, please select the committee(s) you are most interested in and send an email to the Chair of the committee. Or, join the conference line at the designated times when it is most convenient to you. We look forward to working with you to build the National Federation of the Blind.



Legislative/Advocacy:

The Legislative Advocacy Committee is buzzing with excitement as Washington Seminar quickly approaches. As always, we are collecting personal testimonies and university letters. We will be hosting the legislative workshop for students at seminar and have been developing the agenda. There will be interactive breakout sessions and some friendly competition with prizes. If you need guidance with writing a personal testimony, collecting a university letter or wish to contribute to seminar planning, email Syed Rizvi at SyedRizviNFB at GMail.com<mailto:SyedRizviNFB at GMail.com>.



Fundraising:

1. Giving Tuesday takes place on Tuesday, November 28! NABS needs support in order to support you!

Please share:

• Our web site www.nabslink.org<http://www.nabslink.org/>
• Our Giving Tuesday site www.supportblindstudents.org<http://www.supportblindstudents.org/>
• Our promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izAXe7Z275U&feature=em-upload_owner
• And, of course, what NABS means to you!

2. Visit our NABS cook book order form to purchase our second annual cook book, chalk full of delicious recipes that range from vegan to Pamlico to smoothies, and so many others.

Order form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdkhzrqVB9WFrHWcTeeC0o95SH5DgOC82NT8BUZKs872AyfsA/viewform?c=0&w=1

3. Our Annual NABS Auction is coming soon! This year, we will be auctioning items online prior to NABS Cafeé for those not present to participate. Stay tuned to browse our great items on our web site!

4. If you have any questions or would like to join the Fundraising Committee, reach out to Chair Shannon Cantan at ShannonCantan.NFB at gmail.com<mailto:ShannonCantan.NFB at gmail.com> or via telephone at 808-785-5186



Event Planning:

The NABS event planning committee is busy planning the staffing and logistics of the annual NABS cafe for Washington seminar. We are also in the beginning stages of planning s Midwest student seminar for April in Chicago.



Outreach:

Our Outreach Committee is working on reaching out to more students! If you have any ideas on what you'd like to see in a blog post or YouTube video, please reach out to Tarik Williams: williams.Tarik20 at gmail.com<mailto:williams.Tarik20 at gmail.com>, Ellana Crew, or Chelsea Peahl: chelsea.peahl at hotmail.com<mailto:chelsea.peahl at hotmail.com>.

As a reminder, membership calls happen on the last Sunday of the month at 8:00 EST, and committee calls will happen on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 9:00 EST. We'd love to have you on our committee!



State Updates



Hawaii

In Hawaii, we recently held our state convention, where we elected a new board of directors: President Justin Salisbury, Vice President Gloria Tuuao, Secretary Jove Watson, Treasurer Shannon Cantan, Board Member Scott Tokunaga. Since elections, we have been building our organizational infrastructure while also planning some future events. We have created an email listserv through the NFBnet system, thanks to help from Dave Andrews. We have acquired an Employer Identification Number through the Internal Revenue Service for banking purposes and will soon establish our own formal bank account. We are planning a holiday dinner and fundraiser, and we are discussing a new event for the spring. This new workshop will involve experiential, hands-on interview training for blind students as we prepare for gainful employment. Other future workshops may focus on career choice and career planning. These events are not meant to replace the student seminar but will rather provide additional support to blind students and bring us together in person more often. Last, but certainly not least, we are continuing to collect student testimonies to support AIM HIGH as we prepare for Washington Seminar.



Louisiana

The Louisiana Association of Blind Students had a very successful student seminar from Friday, November 3-Sunday, November 5. We had twenty-five students in attendance at the Louisiana Center for the Blind from a corner of our great state. We listened to speeches from Federation leaders like Pam Allen it Edward Bell, engaged in spirited debates and skits about self-advocacy and NFB philosophy, and came together in friendship to help and support each other. Thanks so the LABS board for making it a wonderful weekend and to all who attended. LABS wishes everyone a happy holiday season and a successful end of the semester.



Utah

It is time to apply for a National Federation of the Blind of Utah Scholarship. The application deadline is March 31, 2018, but you are highly encouraged to apply early. No late or incomplete submissions will be accepted.

This is the first year we have created our own application, so please email any problems you may have to deja.powell at gmail.com<mailto:deja.powell at gmail.com>. The following link is for the NFB of Utah scholarship application only:

https://goo.gl/forms/wPN4aG2o7YRSbhuw2 Documents to help with your application:

1. Proof of legal blindness.

2. Submission checklist. Please contact Deja Powell: deja.powell at gmail.com<mailto:deja.powell at gmail.com> with any questions.

Washington DC

The NFB of DC is looking for motivated blind students to volunteer at our NFB BELL Academy 2018! Dates: July 30th to August 10th 2018  A stipend will be provided. If you are coming out of state lodging will be provided. More details on link. We would love to have you!! Apply here:

https://goo.gl/forms/Me59R8e7D4xQ0mHK2

Contact Conchita Hernandez with any questions: hernandezlegorreta at gmail.com<mailto:hernandezlegorreta at gmail.com>



The national Association of Blind Students

 A proud division of the National Federation of the Blind

www.nabslink.org<http://www.nabslink.org/>

Live the Life You Want


Respectfully yours,

Chelsea Peahl

Secretary, National Association of Blind Students

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