[Ncabs] May 2014 Conference Call Minutes

[Travis Sherrill]

Hello all:

Below you will find the minutes from our May conference call.  These minutes
contain some extremely important information so read them carefully please.
I hope you all had a wonderful ending to the semester and I hope your exams
and grades turned out the way you hoped they would.  A reminder: our next
NCABS conference call will be held on Monday, June 9, 2014 at 9:30 p.m.
That will be an extremely important call as we will have lots of business to
discuss so we need you all to attend because your opinion is extremely
valuable.

Travis Sherrill

Attendance:

Travis Sherrill

Alan Chase

Bobbi Pompey

Kevin Curren 

On Monday, May 12, 2014, the North Carolina Association of Blind Students
(NCABS) held the monthly conference call. 

Alan Chase, the North Carolina Association of Blind Students president won
one of the 30 scholarships awarded by the National Federation for the Blind
(NFB).  Alan will travel to Orlando, Florida July 1-6 to the national
convention and receive his scholarship.  Congratulations to Alan!

National Convention:  Speaking of the NFB national convention, it is rapidly
approaching.  If you plan on going to national convention (July 1-6 in
Orlando, Florida,), your hotel reservations must be made by Sunday, June
1st, 2014.  If reservations are made after June 1, 2014, there is no
guarantee that you will get a room.  Slots are quickly filling up so make
those reservations today.  You have just under two weeks to get it done.

Also concerning National Convention:  If you plan on going and you are
wanting some financial assistance from NCABS, you need to get in contact
with Alan Chase absolutely no later than June 1st.  Note that the financial
assistances you receive from NCABS will not cover your entire trip, but it
will help some.  You can contact Alan via email at aachase1 at gmail.com
<mailto:aachase1 at gmail.com> . 

EYE Retreat:  A limited number of spots still remain for the upcoming EYE
Retreat.  If you know someone who would be interested in this wonderful
opportunity, let them know that they still have time to register.

Maze Day:  Kevin attended a Maze Day and brought a computer game for the
visually impaired that he created.  Unfortunately, he was put in a spot
where not many people went and played his computer game.  Of the
approximately 90 participants at Maze Day, only around 6-7 people went and
played Kevin's game. 

Brochure:  NCABS has decided that we want to create a brochure that we can
take with us to different events, whether it be SUP seminars, or other
events where we will be interacting with visually impaired students.  A
draft of the brochure has been sent to Alan and we are going to discuss it
on our next conference call.  We need to decide what we want it to look like
and what information we want to go in it. 

Google Hangouts:  It's no secret that the attendance on our monthly
conference calls has been in a steady decline this year.  We are looking at
different avenues of conducting our conference calls as opposed to using the
phone line like we do now.  One thing we are looking at is using Google
Hangouts.  Google Hangouts is a video conferencing tool within GMAIL.
Hangouts is free and easy to use.  All you need is a Gmail account and to
use Hangouts, you will need to install a free plug-in.  The thought process
behind it is that for our intended demographic (college students), at 9:30
at night, chances of you being on the computer online are extremely high.
So, if you are already online, why not participate in our conference call
online through the utilization of Google Hangouts?  Also, for anyone who
does not get free cell phone minutes after 9 p.m., this would get rid of
having to use your valuable cell phone minutes.  We want your feedback on
this.  This is something we believe could help our attendance and the more
people we have on our monthly conference calls, the better it is.  Explore
Google Hangouts a little bit and give us your thoughts on the list serve on
whether you think this would be a good idea or not.  Don't just say, I think
this is a good idea or a bad idea.  Tell us why you think it's a good idea
or a bad idea.  We are here for you and we want to do whatever we can to
reach as many of you as possible.