[nabs-l] NABS Notes For The Month Of September

[Bryan Duarte]

Greetings NABS,

Here are the NABS Notes both in a word format, a link on the website, and posted in the body of this email. Enjoy.

http://nabslink.org/content/nabs-notes-month-september-0 <http://nabslink.org/content/nabs-notes-month-september-0> 

September 2017 NABS Notes

In this edition, you will find: 

list of 4 items
• NABS Board Meeting Minutes:
• Committee Updates:
• Blog Post:
• State Updates:
list end

NABS Board Meeting Minutes:

National Association of Blind Students

A proud division of the National Federation of the Blind

Board Meeting Minutes: September 3, 2017’

Called to order: 9:05

Members present:

list of 9 items
• Kathryn-President
• Michael-First-Vice
• Syed-Second-Vice
• Cody- Treasurer
• Chelsea-Secretary
• Luke-Board Member
• Bryan-Board Member
• Tarik-Board Member
• Shannon-Board Member
list end

Treasurers report:

Revenue: 1,252.85

Total convention revenue: $6, 677.59

 Expenses: $1768.81

Expenses are high because of airline tickets purchase for NABS reps. 

Committee updates:

list of 1 items
• Fundraising: Fantasy football 3 leagues,
list end

Do you dream in color? Viewings on campus:

Auction items

Pushing for 6 restaurant fundraisers by the end of the month.

list of 3 items
• Outreach: blog post and YouTube video coming out. Getting committee updates. Keeping up on social media updates. 
• Event planning: planning meet the blind month event. 
• Legislative: toolkit is done!
list end

Washington Seminar and NABS Cafe’

list of 5 items
• Working on what day/time to host NABS Cafe’.
• Ideas ‘on meeting fundraising goals/Monday or Tuesday. Pros and cons
• Will propose final day and time at next board call
• NABS and the national treasury will match $2,500 to send people to national seminar.
• Kathryn and Michael will serve on the committee, with one other member.
list end

Mentoring program:

list of 2 items
• Working to have mentees paired with many mentors to help people feel involved. 
• Will launch in January with 5-7 affiliates. Nabs will have a key role. 
list end

Accountability:

list of 1 items
• It is our job to make sure the criticism received helps us grow, not hurt us. We all need to give each other feedback. Be respectful and fair. Communication
is key!
list end

Call adjourned at 9:41

Committee Updates:

Outreach Committee: 

In the outreach committee, we are doing our best to reach as many people as possible.  We have been very active on social media. In addition, our Blog posts have been consistent and prompt.
 This month’s blog post was by Miss Holly Carneal who is currently a student at the Colorado center for the blind. We are
currently working on different ways to grow membership and reach out to blind students.  if you would like to contact the committee, my email
address is 
williams.tarik2- at gmail.com.
Sincerely yours, Tarik Williams.

Event Planning Committee:

The event planning committee is currently working on hosting some regional student programming at the Arkansas State Convention in mid-October.  In addition
the committee is in various planning stages for multiple meet the blind month events in Utah, Virginia, California, and Arkansas.  These events are to
raise awareness of blindness and to provide a forum for the public to question blind students to gain a better understanding of blindness.  Some of the events
include non-visual cooking demonstrations, Sound scavenger hunts, and screening of the documentary "Do You Dream in Color".  If any one has any questions
about these events or would like to become involved with the NABS Event Planning Committee please contact the committee chair, Luke Schwinck at Luke.Schwinck at hotmail.com.

Fundraising Committee:

Aloha,

The Fundraising Committee has been hard at work pushing programs to help achieve our goals by financially securing our proud division.

This month, we have once again started our Fantasy Football League.  There are a total of 38 participants, and we hope to go even higher next year.  

We have also begun to push restaurant fundraisers, restaurant fundraisers are a great way to help raise money, while doing the 1 thing we will all do anyway,
eat!

If you are interested in hosting a restaurant fundraiser in your town, please reach out to Dustin Cather, at 
Cather.Dustin at gmail.com  

This upcoming month will see us create our 2nd annual NABS cookbook, we are accepting recipes from all who would like to help.  If you have an interesting
and delicious recipe you would like to add to our cookbook, please reach out to Edward Shaham, at 
personal.edward at gmail.com.

In January, we will again be funding 50 students to attend Washington Seminar.
 At this amazing event, we will also be holding our annual NABS cafe, which will hold host to our annual auction.  We hope to make this year better than
ever, but this can only happen with your help.  If you, or someone you know would like to donate a basket or an item towards our auction, please reach out to Fundraising Chair Shannon
Cantan at 
ShannonCantan.NFB at gmail.com.

Legislative Committee:

The Legislative toolkit is now complete and breaks down into sections on how the legislative process works! Prepare now for Washington Seminar! It’s imperative
to have a nice, large group of students at Washington Seminar (January 29-February 02). If you have any questions, please reach out to Syed Rizvi at 413-250-3523.

Blog Post:

I believe the 55th annual state convention of the national Federation of the Blind of Missouri was a success. I enjoyed the fellowship that convention
always brings. It was wonderful to catch up with friends, as well as meet other Federation family members. It was great to have so many Federationists
who serve on the national level give presentations. One of the highlights of the convention weekend was getting the opportunity to celebrate Gary Wunder,
our immediate past president, who held the office for thirty-seven years. Many people shared their favorite memories of Gary and thanked him for his service.
Our banquet was also themed to honor Gary. He has acquired the taste for donuts, so the two hosting chapters decided to create doughnut-themed centerpieces.
The banquet speech, given by the national representative, Ron Brown, was entertaining an encouraging.

Another highlight of convention was having the opportunity to attend a one-touch seminar. One-touch is a self-defense course designed to empower those
with disabilities. We learned basic techniques for defending ourselves. The instructors clearly explained the techniques and gave us scenarios we may encounter
where they would be useful. One skill we learned was what to do in the event that someone attempts to assist us in a street crossing when we do not wish
to have assistance. I left the session feeling more confident and armed with valuable knowledge.

I was fortunate enough to attend a seminar for blind parents. The committee discussed techniques for caring for children of all ages. We were also given
the opportunity to look at items such as thermometers for infants. We were able to practice tools such as pulling a stroller behind us. The committee put
a lot of thought into this seminar. I learned many skills and feel more confident in my parenting abilities should I choose to have children.

The convention was a great experience. The speeches and sessions were filled with positive information that reflects the philosophy of the National Federation
of the Blind. We heard from the Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, and individuals from Congress. There was also someone representing each of the three NFB
training centers. We had two interesting and thought provoking presentations. A Federationist, who works for the FBI, talked about his career and how a
blind person could go about getting a job with the FBI. We had another Federationist, who shared memories of him turkey hunting without vision. The speakers
were well prepared. When it came time to hold elections, there were quite a few positions open. I believe the Missouri Affiliate has a very bright future.
We have a strong leadership in our state with many mentors. In the next few years, we will see a lot of growth in this affiliate. We have some newer members
who have extraordinary ideas and older members who know the ins and outs of the organization and are open to implementing new initiatives. If everyone
works together, we will be building the Federation and reaching more blind people with our positive philosophy on blindness.

State Updates:

Arizona:

Greetings from the great hot state of Arizona. We have survived another summer with high temperatures well above 110. We did make things even hotter this
summer by firing up our students during our 2017 Arizona State Convention. We are so pumped after our convention where we had Kathryn Webster serving as
our NABS Rep. President Webster delivered well organized and truly powerful messages to our student membership. Thank you Kathryn for your inspiration,
support, and leadership in Arizona. We would also like to introduce our 2017-2018 Arizona Association of Blind Students board.

President | Bryan Duarte

1st Vice President | Brittany Bombay

2nd Vice President | Jessica Rojas

Secretary | Katie Cuppy

Treasurer
 | Isaac Zwinger

Board Member | Christian Able

Board Member | Amanda Abel

Thank you to the previous board and welcome to the new board members. Let’s go build this federation!

Pennsylvania: 

Hello Federation Family!

The Pennsylvania Student division has been hard at work preparing for the student seminar and events at our state convention to be held during the first
weekend in November.  If you know any PA students in your state, or students from your state studying in PA please share the following information with
them:

The Pennsylvania Association of Blind Students is proud to announce our 2017 PABS seminar: LIVE!!! To be held at the 77th Pennsylvania State convention

from Friday, November 3
, 
through noon on Sunday, November 5
, in State College, PA.  Join us for pizza, ice cream, good music, fun people, and real talks about whatever is on your mind.  Meet students and young
professionals your own age and ask the questions about life that you can't ask your sighted parents, friends or siblings.

It'll be fun, informative and you're guaranteed to make new friends by the end of the weekend.  Come for our Seminar and pizza party on Friday night; Student
breakfast on Saturday morning; and outing to the nearby creamery over the weekend.  It's time to LIVE!!! (Lead an Independent, Vibrant Existence)

Logistics: 

  Pennsylvania will graciously assist in covering student expenses if you reach out to either student president Lizzy Muhammad (484) 624:9778 
lizzym0827 at gmail.com
 or State president Jim Antonacci (215) 988:0888 
?pres at nfbp.org?
Before October 15th.
  Don't wait!!! See you there!

Wisconsin:

WABS is attempting to put plans in place for a seminar late next month. This seminar's focus will be on recruitment, teamwork, and socialization, (as we
hope to include a community interaction component should the opportunity be there to do so), and a fun, confidence-building activity in the form of rock-climbing
at a local climbing gym in Madison. We are holding off on fund-raising until after this fall seminar has passed. We are small in number, and need to grow
and thrive as a student division. Any suggestions for accomplishing this task would be most welcome. Thank you.

Utah:

Greetings students! I hope this semester is going well for you all! The Utah Association of Blind Students (UABS) is excited to announce our Fall Student
Seminar to take place on October 21, 2017 from 3-7pm at the Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired (250 North 1950 West Salt Lake City,
UT) Come meet fellow students, learn, eat yummy food, and have fun! If you have any questions, please reach out to Chelsea Peahl, President of the Utah
Association of Blind Students at 
chelsea.Peahl at hotmail.com.
We look forward to seeing you on October 21st!




Bryan Duarte | software engineer
ASU Computer Science Ph.D Student
Alliance for Person-centered Accessible Technology IGERT Fellow
National Association of Blind Students | Board Member
Arizona Association of Blind Students | President

The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and friends who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation’s blind. Every day we work together to help blind people live the lives they want.