[Nfbc-info] The 21st Century NfBC East Bay Chapter

[Lisamaria Martinez, NOMC]

> Hi All,
>  
> I’ll just come out and say it. Sometimes, it can be very challenging to fit in regular chapter meetings into our very busy lives. Many of us work full time jobs, are full time students, full time parents, have a real social life and much, much more. Giving up a significant portion of a weekend afternoon can sometimes mean not doing laundry, paying bills and what not. The East Bay Chapter, a chapter since May of 2010, started meeting on the first Thursdays of every month at seven p.m. at a local Starbucks, which is different than the typical chapter which meets on Saturdays.
>  
> For some reason or another, the last several months have proven to be challenging and it has been difficult to have everyone come together as a group. Many of us are friends and have known each other for quite a long time. We are all dedicated Federationists with a lot on our plates. We want our chapter to survive and we want our chapter to grow. In order to achieve this we have decided to shake things up again and we’re inviting you to join us.
>  
> Every first Thursday of the month at seven p.m. we invite you to call into our business meeting. At these meetings we will do the typical chapter stuff, which can sometimes be a little tedious and perhaps scare off new chapter members and challenge old ones to attend. At many of our meetings, we line up guest speakers, we have a philosophy chat, and we hash out important details about conventions and fundraisers. But we asked ourselves why can’t we do this over the phone making it even easier for members to attend. We’ve got members from San Francisco to san Ramon, Berkeley to Fremont, and everywhere in between. So, we’re going to try it and see how it goes. We are positive this will give us a unique opportunity to grow beyond the 8 or so folks who come to every meeting.
>  
> Here’s the fun part of our facelift…
>  
> Every month, we will plan a social outing so that we do have the chance to meet with each other in person and we have a chance to be seen by the public. So many times, our chapter meetings are held in buildings and no one knows why the blind people meet where they do. The East Bay Chapter has tried to be a little unique in our meeting location by meeting at a Starbucks—unfortunately, we meet in a back room which is away from the public eye, but the public sure does see us come in and buy our lattes. Anyways, every month we will go on an excursion and change what it means to be blind.
>  
> Our very first outing is this Sunday, March 2. We will meet outside the Asian Art Museum, in San Francisco, at 10:30 a.m. The museum is free every first Sunday of the month. What a cool way to change the public’s perception about blindness, right? Blind people at an art museum. After our museum outing we’ll gather again for lunch at a nearby restaurant.
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> This particular outing will be a bittersweet outing because we invite all of you to help send off our Federationist sister Serena Olsen to the peace corps in a style that is suitable to her personality. Her fondness of all things Asian inspired us to add an Asian twist to our first monthly chapter outing.
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> If you have made it this far into my email, thank you for sticking in to the end. I’ve written a lot but I had a lot to report to you all. Here is the recap:
>  
> ·        Join the East Bay chapter Sunday March 2, at 10:30 a.m. for a chapter outing to the Asian Art Museum. (bring money for lunch.) Please RSVP by calling/texting Lisamaria Martinez at 510-289-2577 or emailing nfbceastbay at gmail.com.
> ·        Join the East Bay Chapter in our first-ever phone conference on Thursday, March 6, at 7:00 p.m. Please call (712) 432-1500. Use participant access code: 1082284#. Guest speaker TBA.
> 
>  
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> If you have any questions for me or want to know more about our chapter, please email nfbceastbay at gmail.com or call me, Lisamaria Martinez and chapter president, at 510-289-2577. I’ll be happy to subscribe you to our chapter listserv.
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> Yours in the Federation,
> 
> Lisamaria Martinez
>