[Nfb-or] Student Meeting in Portland

[Haben Girma]

Dear all,

I suggest we discuss some ideas for what we'll cover in Friday's meeting 
in Portland.

Last time we met it didn't occur to us until near the end of the meeting 
to go around introducing ourselves in length. In fact, we ran out of 
time before everyone had the chance to share their history with the NFB, 
their field of study, etc. I suggest that for this meeting we start off 
by going around the circle sharing background information. This may be a 
bit on the formal side, but I think we can all manage to keep things 
entertaining.

Then we'll have Joseph update us on the status of the Oregon School for 
the Blind, as Bill suggested. I can follow that with another summary of 
the leadership seminar in Baltimore.

I really hope there will be time left after all of this, because it 
would be great to give everyone the time to talk about the experience of 
being a student in Oregon. What unique problems do students face in 
Oregon? What do we like and not like, and what should be changed?

Also, during one of these meetings I think it would be really great for 
us to discuss some NFB philosophy questions. During the leadership 
seminar I attended in Baltimore, we broke up into groups to discuss 
questions like:

1. Your parents or family members are happy with the increased 
independence you have found since joining the NFB, but when going places 
with you, they say, "You don't need to use your cane, you're with me!" 
What do you do?

2. You mention in one of your classes that you need a reader. One of 
your classmates offers to read to you and insists that she doesn't want 
to get paid. What do you do?

3. You sign up for eHarmony (a dating site). Do you mention that you are 
blind in your profile? Do you post pictures of yourself with your cane?

4. As blind people we are offered lots of opportunities--SSI, reduced 
fares, rehab services, special treatment and lots of freebies. How can 
we decide what we should accept and what we shouldn't?

5. Constantly feeling like we are ambassadors for the blind community 
can get old. Do we always have to be role models?

Since we only have an hour, or at least that is the current plan, I 
strongly suggest that we create an agenda and allocate time for each of 
these talks/discussions. It could be something like this:

1:00-1:25: Everyone's Introductions. If there are five of us, then 
everyone would get about five minutes to speak. Oh, and I'm thinking for 
this to be just a rough outline, by know means should we limit ourselves 
to this agenda.
1:25-1:35: Joseph's updates on the Oregon School for the Blind.
1:35-1:40 Another summary of my attendance at the NFB Leadership Seminar.
1:40-2:00 Everyone's  experience of being a student in Oregon, and if we 
have time, we could discuss one of the above NFB philosophy questions.

I feel that all of these things are important and should be addressed at 
some point, but we will probably decide to spend more time on one topic 
than another. Again, I'm suggesting this as only a very rough guide.

Bill, please find out if the meeting space would allow us to bring 
food/snacks.

best,
Haben