[Nfb-or] Blind Students Update

[Bill]

Hi,
My personal choice for activities would be either hiking or climbing.  We
should try to have a meeting earlier then later because semester schools
have finals near the beginning of may and everyone will suddenly be very
busy with studying and end-of-semester papers.  I will be gone from the 16
or 17 until the 19th.

As for the website, I think there are technical variables that will
determine where our site is hosted.  I would let Joseph worry about the
website stuff.  He is also looking for a place to park the NFB-OR page so we
will probably end up hosting both in the same place.  I imagine that Joseph
has Joe's email address already or can get it if that is what he feels is
the best option.  We will have a website soon and i think the rest of us
should not worryourselves about it.

As for the meeting of the wa and ID state associations i think it would be a
great idea and a lot of fun.  Of course the legistics of a larger meeting
like this would be slightly more complicated.
Bill
On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 7:58 PM, Haben Girma <habnkid at aol.com> wrote:

> Hey Joseph,
>
> I would love to have another meeting in Portland! We need to divide up the
> labor of sending letters to agencies for the blind and schools in Oregon.
> What do you think of combining the business meeting with hiking, tandem
> biking, rock climbing, or social dancing? Hiking would involve no costs,
> rock climbing and social dancing would be about $10 per person, and tandem
> biking would, I have to say, probably be out of our financial reach to
> organize. I'd be fine with the food or meeting room, of course.
>
> Joe Orozco is the webmaster of the NABS website and he made it sound like
> he could easily have a site up for us. If I understand you correctly, Oregon
> definitely needs a website so since Oregon will get one, might as well have
> the student page at the same place. Right?
>
> How do you all feel about a regional event with Washington and Idaho?
>
> best,
> Haben
>
>
> T. Joseph Carter wrote:
>
>> 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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