[Nfb-or] Blind Students Update
T. Joseph Carter
carter.tjoseph at gmail.com
Sun Mar 29 23:17:31 UTC 2009
Haben,
Thank you for your very detailed report--sounds like a great weekend!
You are right that, prior to February, we haven't had an Oregon
Association of Blind Students since about 2003 or so.
Typically in Oregon we have our convention and annual business
meeting in October/November, and our members seminar in February. I
don't know that the students in Oregon have traditionally met at
other times. But then, this is OUR division, and we can meet
whenever we want to. *grin*
I loved the meeting we had in Portland a couple of weeks ago. I
imagine it was a little harder on you because it was so informal, but
even so I'd hope to do it again soon. Domonique is brilliant for
suggesting that more formal business meetings happen before people
eat in that encourages people to debate things less. *smile* Right
now though, we don't have a whole lot of business because we haven't
got a whole lot of students yet, so I think the informal meeting we
had was a good thing.
I think I'd like to do that again this term. Perhaps you can suggest
a good location? I don't know of any pizza places with meeting rooms
in the Portland area--but the idea of reserving a meeting room so
that we can hear ourselves think somewhere that serves good food is
an appealing concept.
The Imagination Fund funded our members' seminar in Salem this year,
and has done a lot of good elsewhere in the country. I think any of
us who are going to the national convention should sign up for the
march for independence--and those who aren't going should consider
signing up with those who are. Tina Hansen can perhaps tell us more
about that?
Renee and I are the NFB-Oregon webmasters, but the process seems to
be stalled at the national office giving us some place to put a site
and a template to use in constructing it. Art is working on this,
and I figured our student site would likewise be hosted there. James
Ewell and John Berggren are the point people at the national office,
but John hasn't been moving as quickly as we've needed here in
Oregon, given all the crazy stuff that's been happening legislatively
and otherwise. There's also AcornHost in Portland if we need it, and
I am beginning to think that we may--their rates start at $8/month,
with $16 and $25 options. The $8 plan may be enough for Oregon.
That'll be my project for the next week or so. One way or another,
Oregon needs a website, and so does its student affiliate.
Joseph
On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 11:24:45AM -0700, Haben Girma wrote:
> Hello everyone, below is a message I sent out to members of the Oregon
> Association of Blind Students. In case there are other students out
> there who are interested in getting involved with the Oregon Association
> of Blind Students, or non-students interested in supporting and working
> with us, I'm sharing this message with the list:
>
> Hello Everyone!
>
> As some of you may know, last weekend I attended the National
> Association of Blind Students' first ever leadership seminar. It was
> held at the National Center for the Blind in Baltimore, an enormous
> building that takes up the whole block. The architecture is beautiful,
> and it houses the world's biggest library on blindness related topics,
> the world's biggest collection of international adaptive technology for
> the blind--I saw giant braille embossers from Norway and an Apple
> Mac!--and lots of meeting rooms, dining rooms, and dormitories. About
> forty students and several NFB leaders spent the past weekend there
> sharing ideas and strategies for improving the National Association of
> Blind Students (NABS).
>
> Until several weeks ago, Oregon did not have a state division of NABS.
> The current president of NABS, Terri Rupp, had met me in the summer of
> 2006 when we were both attending the Louisiana Center for the Blind.
> Arielle Silverman is First Vice President of NABS as well as the
> regional representative to the Northwest. As Terri Rupp planned the NABS
> leadership seminar, she wanted to find representatives from every state
> to attend the seminar in hopes that those students would develop the
> leadership skills to start and improve the student divisions in their
> respective states. So, Arielle Silverman contacted me back in October to
> see if I would represent Oregon. So that's how I ended up representing
> Oregon at the seminar, and that's how I began looking for other blind
> students in Oregon.
>
> On the first evening of the seminar, Dr. Maurer, President of the NFB,
> welcomed the students. He explained that the magnificent building, the
> National Center for the Blind, is ours. He said it was odd to welcome us
> to a place that belonged to us. Terri Rupp had approached him one day to
> ask if NABS could have a leadership seminar at NCB, and Dr. Maurer said
> yes. So there we were, students from all over the country sharing in the
> spirit of the NFB. Dr. Maurer acknowledged that it takes a lot of hard
> work to be a blind student, but most of all it takes an imagination. We
> are all imaginative to some extent, and that is absolutely important to
> succeed as a blind student, as a blind person.
>
> We heard from several student leaders about various ways of improving
> NABS. Many students complained that their meetings were boring, which
> diminished the number of people who attended. Dominque Lawless of
> Tennessee shared that her division tried to keep a fun and social side
> to the meetings. Sometimes they would hold their meetings at a pizza
> parlor, and as soon as business was over, they would eat pizza and just
> hang out. Someone else said that her division was planning a seminar
> that would hold informative/business meetings in the morning, then go
> rock climbing afterwards. Still another person suggested that social
> dancing be incorporated into the NFB meetings. He suggested that sighted
> people be invited to the meetings, such as the state conventions or
> student seminars, and the evenings could be spent ballroom dancing, or
> rocking it to the preferred dance style of the group.
>
> Fundraising
> Jason Ewell, who I think is the Communications Director of the NFB,
> talked to us about fundraising and the March for Independence. During
> National Convention hundreds of blind people take to the streets of
> where the Convention is being held, and march for freedom, independence,
> and the NFB. (By the way, Bill Casson has participated before!) The
> March for Independence is also a huge fundraiser, for those who march
> ask family and friends to sponsor them and donate money to the NFB. At
> the seminar, Jason Ewell asked if any of us were planning to contact
> sponsors for the march. Darrell Kirby was one of those who said yes, he
> was planning to contact someone. Then, Jason Ewell asked Darrel to show
> the rest of us how it's done. With all of us silently listening, Darrel
> called up a friend on his cell phone, told the friend how the NFB has
> positively influenced his life, and then asked the friend if he would
> sponsor Darrell. With that simple and honest phone call, Darrell raised
> $100 for the NFB! Another source of funding is the Imagination Fund. The
> NFB has the Imagination Fund to support the activities of its various
> divisions across the country. The process of applying for an Imagination
> Grant is not complicated, so we might want to look into it if we do a
> regional event.
>
> Regional Event
> During the seminar we got in small groups comprised of representatives
> from our respective regions. Jedi Moerke is President of the Washington
> student division, and Lora Ireland is from the Idaho student division.
> The Washington and Idaho divisions are both small, each having less than
> six active members. Since all three of our student divisions are small
> and not that strong, we discussed the possibility of having a regional
> event. The event would have a combination of educational and
> recreational activities to build community, leadership, and spread the
> word about the NFB. Jedi suggested the Tri-Cities region of Southeast
> Washington as a good location for the event. Sadly, we only had fifteen
> minutes to talk about it. We talked about maybe doing a river rafting
> trip, or renting a meeting space in the Tri-Cities, but nothing definite
> was decided. How do you guys feel about doing a regional event?
>
> Regional Representative
> Members of the NABS Board represent different regions of the US so that
> the work of supporting the various state groups is more evenly divided
> among them. Our representative is Arielle Silverman and she asks that we
> update her every now and then to let her know how things are going in
> the Oregon Division. Arielle is from Arizona and attends college in
> Colorado, but she knows a few of us in the Northwest. Her email is below:
>
> Arielle Silverman, First Vice-President; Northwest regional advisor,
> Arielle71 at gmail.com <mailto:Arielle71 at gmail.com>
>
> Recruiting
> Recruiting new members is something many of the other leaders were
> interested in hearing about, too. Advertising in local newspapers, over
> the radio, and on the website of National Public Radio were ideas
> suggested.
>
> Leadership Retreat
> An awesome idea I heard, though probably best for larger groups, is to
> hold an officers retreat just after elections. The division of labor,
> goals, and commitment of each officer can sometimes be vague. So, one
> idea is to have all the new officers get together to clearly spell out
> goals, expectations, and responsibilities.
>
> Website
> Joe Orozco is the webmaster of the NABS website and is making a list of
> the various websites all the student groups have. I mentioned to him
> that we have a Facebook Group page. He says he would be happy to create
> a website for us, which I think would be more accessible for
> non-Facebook users. I told him I would check in with the group to see
> what they thought of a website. So, what do you think of having a
> website for our group?
>
> Important Notes
> Centers for Independent Living often have vans that they are willing to
> provide for disability purposes. We do seem to already have a system of
> transportation in Oregon, though.
>
> It was stressed at the seminar that students should not sign contracts
> unless they are absolutely sure that they will handle full legal and
> financial obligations. Students should have the state affiliate
> president, Art Stevenson in our case, sign the contracts. So if we were
> to rent a place in the Tri-Cities for a regional event, we would
> definitely want to have Art in the loop.
>
> Treasury: Renee is our Treasurer and he has experience as Treasurer of
> his NFB chapter. You're probably already familiar with the following
> information, Renee, but some of the others may be interested in the
> following information. With the bank of choice, we should be listed as a
> 501c organization. Whenever a new treasurer is elected, the change
> should also be legally acknowledged by the bank. Just a business detail
> I thought it would be good to share...
>
> A CD with lots of information and advice was handed out at the seminar.
> Everything on the CD should be on the NABS website by the end of this
> weekend. However, I am attaching a document that is really ;helpful to
> where we are now, the developing/recruiting stage. In the document there
> are suggestions for finding blind students in Oregon, and a sample
> letter to send off to agencies that serve the blind and colleges/high
> schools in Oregon. There are a lot of such agencies and schools, so I
> suggest that we make a list of all of them, then divide up the task of
> contacting all these places. Who would like to work on making this list?
> I think two or three people should work on it. I'm up for it, too.
>
> For some fun entertainment, check out these lyrics to NFB songs!
> http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm07/bm0708/bm070815.htm
>
>
> Best,
> Haben Girma
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