[NFB-Maryland] NFB National Convention Close Out: Odds and Ends

[president at nfbmd.org]

All,

Thank you for joining us for an incredible 80th Annual National Federation
of the Blind National Convention.  We collectively attended nearly 250
unique meetings over five days, had dozens of exhibitors, engaged with
numerous sponsors, and had nearly ten thousand participants.  In Maryland
alone we had 593 registered participants and an additional 200+ attendees
with whom I personally spoke, texted, or chatted.  We had an amazing
convention because of you.  We learned, we laughed, and we grew because of
you.

 

Because of your involvement, we shattered the attendance record, we blew the
Pre-authorized Check Contribution Program amounts out of the water, and we
had tremendous engagement in all workshops and activities.  

 

I enjoyed meeting with many of you at the Maryland Caucus on July 17 and
hearing your perspectives on resolutions.  It was a great deal of fun
speaking with many of you at our daily virtual breakfast club when we walked
through each day's events and activities.  It was fun chatting with you in
the CrowdCompass app, and literally hundreds of you emailed and texted me
each day to tell me your thoughts and opinions about just about everything.
I also had a great time with MDABS at our breakfasts on my balcony
(appropriately social distanced and with the affiliate Board at the
appropriately social distanced banquet.  

 

We owe this incredible convention to President Riccobono and the staff of
the National Federation of the Blind.  I was fortunate to be elected as your
delegate, and with Zoom, users can have a virtual background.  Delegates
were on camera during the convention much of the time.  This means that
instead of seeing my very boring apartment walls, I can put up a picture of
something else that shows up behind me when my camera is on.  I chose to
have Hogwarts, which is the school where Harry Potter learned how to perform
magic in the Harry Potter books and movies.  I did this as a tribute to the
staff of the NFB who literally conjured this convention from thin air and
made all the magic happen.  

 

I also wrote the below message to them and wanted to share it with you.  I
hope you'll join me in expressing your appreciation to our staff at the
National Federation of the Blind for putting on a truly spectacular
convention.

 

 

I can't tell you how impressed I am with all of your hard work, creativity,
flexibility, and all the other adjectives that apply to you.  Most of you
know that I'm not usually one who experiences a loss of words, but all that
you have acomplished leaves me speechless (almost).  Each of you played such
a vital role in bringing the 2020 NFB Convention to fruition, from the
exceptional technology geeks that gave us platforms for the convention
engagement to the Exhibit Hall to the voting system to sound to registration
to door prize collection and on and on; to the Zoom moderators who made sure
we adhered to our Code of Conduct (seriously, some of those meetings had so
many moving parts my head spun); to those who handled fundraising,
sponsorship, and marketing; to those who handled communication and social
media; to those who generated registration lists, verified membership, and
then verified voting eligibility; to those who set up the National Center
for our Banquet party and created the most delicious banquet food I or my
Board have ever tasted; to those who shared and organized login information
for literally over 200 meetings; to those who kept the building TVs and AC
running; to those who organized the agenda; to those who ran youth track and
co-led Resolutions and supported the Scholarship Committee; to those who did
all the things we don't even know about; and on and on and on.  You truly
conjured this convention with magic and elbow grease, and you did an
outstanding job.  Thank you!  Thank you! Thank you!

 

I've always been impressed with you all, but now I'm in awe!

 

Yours,

Ronza

 

 

 

Ronza Othman, President

National Federation of the Blind of Maryland

443-426-4110

Pronouns: she, her, hers

 

The National Federation of the Blind of Maryland knows that blindness is not
the characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfb-maryland_nfbnet.org/attachments/20200726/f8efd441/attachment.html>