[Ncabs] August 2014 minutes

[Currin, Kevin]

Hello fellow blind students of North Carolina and everyone else:

Below are the minutes for our Monday call. I seek your generous forgiveness for my delay in sending them to the list. However, I had to do some post-call editing of the minutes due to the aweful connection that we had on the conference line. Nevertheless, they are now a beautiful, finished product (thanks to Alan's gracious additions) and I hope you all have significant enjoyment reading them. 

Thanks and happy start of the semester,

Kevin

Attendance
Alan Chase (President)
Kevin Currin (1st vice president)
Kathren Webster
DJ Robinson
Ashley Coleman
John Dyson
Trey Roach
Zoe Groves
Devante Lewis
Preston Davis
Josue Pena
Brittany Simmons
Elizabeth
Jonathan Kirk
Daria Bannerman

Meeting called to order at 9:44 pm.

President's Report
NCABS has worked to develop a wider membership base over the last year. We hope that our newly established membership will help to implement the ideas
that we have for NCABS in the future.

First Vice-President's Report
NCABS is developing a plan to work with restaurants to produce braille menus. We currently plan to charge the restaurant a small fee in exchange for brailling
their menus and potentially advertising for their restaurant. We would like to expand this program to as many parts of the state as possible. If you are
interested, please contact Kevin at 
kwcurrin at live.unc.edu.
NCABS has also been implementing our new version of student seminars called Students United for Purpose (SUP). SUP are 3-4 hour panel discussions over
lunch during which our officers and other members discuss topics relevant to blind students and take questions from the audience. Our first SUP seminar
was at UNC Chapel Hill in January of this year and had over 25 participants. We want to continue these seminars around the state to reach out to as many
students as possible.

Treasurer's Report
We will spend about $200-$300 at State convention. We previously voted to have our business meeting at state convention over lunch and we will give our
attendants a bit of money to help with lunch.

NCABS Elections
Below are descriptions of the 5 NCABS officers:
President: attend board meetings of the NFB of NC, provide an annual report, serve as external representative of the organization, and complete any other
tasks required by the organization

First Vice-President
Assist the President in carrying out his/her duties.

Second Vice-President
Assist the President in carrying out his/her duties.
Under Alan's administration, the vice president's have generally been tasked with internal management of the organization's activities. 

Treasurer
Responsible for collecting membership fees, collecting money at NCABS events, making purchases approved by the membership, making treasury reports, and
providing quarterly reports to state board

Secretary
Sending meeting reminders, taking minutes, sending out minutes to the listserv within 48 hours of the call, making announcements and maintaining a membership
registry.

If you are interested in running for any of these positions, let us know.
The NCABS elections are held at the NFB state convention in September.
You can run in person at the convention or you can submit a speech for Alan to read if you cannot make it.

Committees
Committees can change as needed.
Committee chairs are appointed by the President; they are not elected positions.
We currently have 4 committees:
Fund raising
Publicity
Social
Scholarship

The state convention registration fee is $15 for everyone.
However, there is a student discount through NCABS.
If you register by August 22 online, the registration fee is $5.
Although you need to register online, you will need to pay the $5 registration fee in person at the convention.
To register, go to 
nfbofnc.org.

The state convention is September 18-21.
The student track is on Saturday September 20.
There is a banquet Saturday night at state convention.
The banquet tickets are $35 for everyone, including students.
The hotel rate is $69 per room per night.
Finding a roommate is a good way to reduce hotel costs.

Devante wants to run for president.
Kathryn wants to run for either Vice-President position.
Trey wants to be considered for webmaster.
DJ wants to run for treasurer.
Ashley wants to run for secretary.

Meeting adjourned at 10:15 pm.