[Ncabs] March Monthly Conference Call Minutes

[Travis Sherrill]

Hi all:

We missed most of you on our monthly conference call.  I know these minutes
are extremely long, but they have tons of important information in them.
Read them carefully so you will know what you missed and can be prepared for
our next meeting on Monday, April 14, at 9:30 p.m.  

Thanks

Travis

 

North Carolina Association of Blind Students (NCABS) March 2014 Minutes

Attendance: 

Alan Chase

Travis Sherrill 

Eric Galindo

Kevin curren

Patti chang 

Bobbi pompey 

On Monday, March 3, 2014, the North Carolina Association of Blind Students
(NCABS) held the monthly conference call. 

Patti Chang spoke on the NFB scholarships that are available to college
students.  Some notes:

To find out information about the scholarships, go to
www.nfb.org/scholarships <http://www.nfb.org/scholarships> .  The NFB awards
30 scholarships ranging from $3,000 to $12,000.   All scholarships are based
on academic excellence, community service, and leadership.  To be eligible
you must:

--be legally blind in both eyes and provide documentation through your eye
doctor, your teacher of the visually impaired, or your vocational
rehabilitation counselor. 

--Must be residing in the United States, the District of Columbia, or Puerto
Rico. 

-- You must be pursuing or planning to pursue a full-time, postsecondary
course of study in a degree program at a United States institution in the
2014 scholastic

year, except that one scholarship may be given to a person employed
full-time while attending school part-time.

--You must participate in the entire NFB national convention and in all of
its scheduled scholarship program activities. In addition to a scholarship,
each

winner will receive assistance to attend the 2014 National Federation of the
Blind Annual Convention at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Florida, July

1-6 (departing July 7), providing an excellent opportunity for high-level
networking with active blind persons in many different professions and
occupations. 

If you are going to college, and you will be enrolled in college in the
fall, you need to apply for this scholarship.  In 2013, the NFB received 720
scholarships.  Thus far for 2014, they have only received around 100-200
applications. The committee will determine which scholarship you will
receive.  That will not be determined until you get to the convention.  You
will find out by May 15, 2014 if you won one of the available scholarships.

Online students:  If you are an online student, you are eligible for these
scholarships as well.  In your 750 word essay, you need to state why you are
taking the courses online instead of in a face-to-face environment.  The
committee will frown on the fact if you say you are taking courses online
because you don't have good transportation skills. You also must be enrolled
in an accredited online program.  Many online programs are not accredited. 

What do you need to submit?  You need to submit, your eye report stating
that you are legally blind.  

You need to submit two (2) letters of recommendation.  On the letters of
recommendation, it is best not to get a vocational rehabilitation counselor
to write these because they don't really know you.  The only thing they can
likely say is they turn materials in on time.  You need to pick people who
can write a letter about your skills and talk about your accomplishments.
You don't want them to talk about your necessarily, but just the skills you
have. 

Official transcripts for all colleges you have attended.  If you have
attended less than one year of college, submit your high school transcript.


If you are a high school senior, you need to submit your report from your
college entrance exam (SAT, ACT, or other). 

A state president's interview is required. 

You must submit the complete scholarship application.  

You must submit a 750 word essay explaining why you feel you deserve a
scholarship.  What sets you apart from every other student applying for
these scholarships? The essay is also the place where you tell the committee
anything you feel they need to know.   

All documents must be in Doc, DOCX, RTF, and PDF.  Note that no faxed
materials will be accepted. 

The deadline for scholarship application submission is Monday, March 31,
2014 by midnight eastern time.  All materials must be postmarked or received
by March 31.  For additional information, see the frequently asked questions
page on the nfb.org/scholarships website.  If the FAQs page does not answer
all of your questions, email scholarships at nfb.org
<mailto:scholarships at nfb.org>  or call (410)-659-9314.  The extension for
scholarships is 2415.  The office is open Monday-Friday 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.
eastern time. If you have further questions, email is preferred over a phone
call.

On Saturday, March 12, NCABS will be attending a beeping Easter egg hunt at
the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh, N.C.  Kevin and Eric
provided us with the report on what NCABS has planned for the students.
They are going to play some form of beep ball, either actual beep ball or
beeping kick ball.  Kevin has written an auditory computer game that the
kids are also going to play.  Alan is going to purchase some candy for the
children as well. We got an update on the fundraising from the Ruby Tuesday
fundraisers.  Sorry, I didn't catch those numbers.  I think it was around
$115 but I could be incorrect about that. 

Attendance is a huge concern with NCABS.  At the last several meetings, the
attendance has only been the officers who have to be at the meetings.  Alan
has decided that he will go out and purchase some gift cards.  If you are on
the NCABS conference call, your name will be put into a hat and one name
will be drawn out after each meeting.  Whoever's name is drawn will win a
gift card.  The gift card will be mailed to you.  Tell your friends about
us.  We want to grow and get as big as most of the other National
Association of Blind Students chapters across the USA.  On that note, our
next conference call will be held on Monday, April 14, 2014 at 9:30 p.m.  We
look forward to seeing all of you.