[Nfb-idaho] FW: State President's Update July, 2015

[Dana Ard]

From: Dana Ard [mailto:Danalynard at q.com] 
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2015 5:47 PM
To: 'NFB of Idaho Discussion List'
Subject: FW: State President's Update July, 2015

 

 

 

From: Dana Ard [mailto:Danalynard at q.com] 
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2015 3:11 PM
To: 'NFB of Idaho Discussion List'
Subject: State President's Update July, 2015

 

The month of July was a very busy one for me. 20 Idaho NFB members,
including 3 college students and our Jernigan scholarship winner with her
four year-old grandson, made up our delegation. We manage to crowd into our
hotel room, but we were really cozy. It was a good problem to have. We all
participated as part of the 2480 people who broke the Guinness World Book of
Records for the largest umbrella mosaic. We were arranged to form our logo
and spell the words "live the life you want." The logistics to get the
people organized were phenomenal! What an accomplishment and statement to
the world. I enjoyed the excellent presentations celebrating our
accomplishments over the past 75 years and reminding us that our work is far
from done. We still have situations where children are removed from the
homes of their blind parents, and we are still fighting to get rid of
subminimum wages for people with disabilities. I attended some meetings on
ways to build our organization, and hope to implement some of the ideas in
the coming months. 

The Treasure Valley chapter had an exciting sports activity morning with the
ICBVI Summer Work Experience Program students. We played beepball, road
tandems, and had a soccer goal activity. It was great to partner with
members of the senior softball league, tandem captains, and a former ICBVI
staff member, Brian Jain, who facilitated the soccer game. Brian also was
the driver for the Boise BELL program. After the activities, students and
NFB members returned to ICBVI for a great lunch provided by members Ramona
Walhof and Sue Sebranek. SWEP students sat with, and were mentored by NFB
members. Hopefully we will see some of these great students in our chapters
in the next few years. 

The week before convention, Ramona Walhof and I assisted with the ICBVI
College Days program. I led a presentation on self-advocacy, and Ramona
presented on useful resources. We both assisted students in preparing a
lunch for participants and panelists to presented that were part of the
college days event. 

Both Idaho Falls and Boise had successful BELL programs. Boise had 11
students ranging in age from 4-12. Idaho Falls finished with 6 students. I
enjoyed teaching braille writing and plan to do it next year. This weekend
there will be a 1 day camp for blind children and their parents at a camp
near Moscow. We had hoped to do a 3 or 4 day BELL experience with blind
children and parents, but scheduling was a problem. However, this will be a
good start and will plant seeds. I am extremely appreciative for all of
those who make our programs with young people possible. 

Sean Malone was able to get some good coverage of the Idaho Falls BELL
program. We have spoken by phone and he has other good ideas for fundraising
and media coverage. I am looking forward to further partnerships to increase
media coverage around the state and raise funds for the organization. 

Our Fall board meeting is scheduled for September 26 at ICBVI. We will be
discussing fundraising, convention planning, committees, membership
building, our website and other important issues. This is an open meeting
and all are welcome. 

I am happy to announce that Al Schneider, who is a member of Treasure Valley
chapter and a former high school English teacher, has agreed to be the
editor of Gemstate Milestones. We will work on the upcoming issue together.
Hopefully those who have helped in the past will continue to be part of our
newsletter team. 

I presented at the ICBVI board meeting. I asked to be notified of any
legislation that ICBVI would like help with, and offered to help new
subscribers to Newsline learn how to use the service. 

Yesterday, I met with Soren Dorius, who is a staff member for representative
Mike Simpson in the Boise office, to discuss the TIME act, and try to get
our representative to co-sponsor HR188. Soren was unfamiliar with this
legislation and I think it will take continuing effort to get the
co-sponsorship to happen. I plan to meet with representative Labrador, or an
office staff soon. I have also sent an email to the committee that is taking
comments on the elimination of section 14c of the Fair Labor Standards act
and the elimination of subminimum wages. If you wish to support this effort,
direct emails to IntegratedCompetitiveEmployment at dol.gov. You can get
information on the Time act from the NFB website, or I can forward an email
with the fact sheet if you want. 

I am looking forward to my visit with the Central Idaho chapter on Monday,
August 10, and I plan to visit other chapters in the coming months. As
always, if you have questions or issues that I need to address, please let
me know. My email is danalynard at q.com, phone 208 345-3906. 

Dana Ard, President

National Federation of the Blind of Idaho