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<DIV>I certainly understand your concerns, but I’m going to put up a friendly
challenge to what you have said. And please keep in mind that what I am
going to say is just my opinion. Concerning last year’s convention, the
elevator systems in both hotels were a challenge and took some patience getting
used to. But I actually found the system to be quite accessible once you
knew what to do. The elevators even spoke to you if you pushed that long
button at the bottom of the key pad. I think that’s a whole lot better
than listening for a door to open and hoping that this particular car was going
up or down. Street intersections and traffic patterns in many cities are
becoming more complex and, well, crazy, so that does seem to be an area where
the national organization has some work to do, researching intersections between
hotels and explaining how they actually work. I would also say, however,
that in Houston, the two hotels are connected by an indoor walk through a
convention center. It’s always a terrible thing when someone gets hit by a
vehicle, so perhaps further attention to traffic safety should be
considered. But even in the past, we have often had overflow hotels at
national conventions. Take Chicago, 1988 when the main hotel was the
magnificent Hyatt but there was at least one overflow hotel, the Executive House
Ramada. And anybody can challenge me on this, but most of the time it
seems to work. I say that, of course, as someone who likes to visit new
urban areas. But I do think that it would be a whole lot fairer, regarding
virtual voting, for national to relax that policy. Yes, as members who
take the NFB pledge, we pledge to “abide by its constitution,” so we do have to
respect that. So maybe the thing to do is to phone and email National to
see if amendments can be considered in this
area. </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000">Mark Tardif
<BR>Nuclear arms will not hold you. </DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=nfbf-l@nfbnet.org
href="mailto:nfbf-l@nfbnet.org">Lauren Bishop via NFBF-L</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, June 03, 2023 12:50 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=nfbf-l@nfbnet.org href="mailto:nfbf-l@nfbnet.org">NFB
of Florida Internet Mailing List</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Cc:</B> <A title=laurenalexis96@gmail.com
href="mailto:laurenalexis96@gmail.com">Lauren Bishop</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [NFBF-L] My resignation</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr>It seems like NFB is no longer considering the needs of its
membership. For example, the convention was held in New Orleans. People had
difficulty with getting to their hotel rooms because one had to find a keypad
and enter the number of the floor. They were trying to travel to, and identify
the correct elevator. One was not able to efficiently do that when there were
roughly 3000 blind people trying to do the same thing. Furthermore, the
exhibit hall was located in another hotel, and people had to cross a
complicated intersection to get to that other hotel. I know a seasoned
traveler who was struck by a vehicle, trying to cross that street. This
year, the organization has chosen yet another convention location that will
prove problematic for a lot of people trying to attend that convention.
If the NFB wants to be an in person organization, they should actually think
through things, and endeavor to make the experience equitable. An
organization can’t demand accessibility when they failed to provide it
themselves. </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>
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