[Nfbk] Meet the Blind Month activity

Wed Sep 25 22:53:17 UTC 2013

I almost wish I hadn't brought up the throwing away the bag issue, that was my second issue and not as big of a deal as the first.  Melanie, I might have misunderstood what your main goal was with this activity.  I read it as we wanted to give out the tips for dealing with blind shoppers and the business cards so that they could be used to benefit shoppers and be given out to customers.  That part needs a manager.  (I also want to point out it's not that hard to find a manager, there's usually a couple on every shift, there's nothing extra we'd have to do to talk to them.) If  the goal is to educate as many people about us and be seen by the general public then I really like your idea and think we could even hand out bags to shoppers to get information to even more people.
Katie
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From: Nfbk <nfbk-bounces at nfbnet.org> on behalf of Jennifer Hall <jenny26 at tds.net>
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 3:59 PM
To: NFB of Kentucky Internet Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Nfbk] Meet the Blind Month activity

Melanie,
I was planning on going home on 10/11 for our new flea market.  However, if you would be willing, Leonard & I love St. Matthews & would be more rhan happy to visit the stores there. I know you had intentions of it being a chapter event, but we believe it can still work!  Everyone made valid points-Katie was right on about getting a manager instead of a CSR. However, in my experiences of leaving or passing out our materials, you just have go out on faith. 98% of the time, it probably goes in the trash or stays in the floor of their car until the next cleaning. We can only hold out hope that someone, somewhere will take it & absorb who & what NFB is. Anyway, you take time to consider it & let us know. I am always up for the chance to swing by & get my Pumpkin Spice Latte!

In Federation love,
Jennifer Hall

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 25, 2013, at 12:55 PM, "Melanie Peskoe" <mpeskoe at twc.com<mailto:mpeskoe at twc.com>> wrote:

I was  thinking of a short 1-2 minute introduction and leave them with some literature and candy. I think it would be good for the general public to see us at the mall doing outreach and I think any time we provide information to people you never know when they might use it (either at work or at home, etc.) In any case, if most of you think we should scrap the idea that’s okay. We can brainstorm other ways of doing it. I was just trying to come up with some creative things we could do for MTBM. Thanks for your feedback.
Melanie

From: Nfbk [mailto:nfbk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Denise Franklin
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 8:01 AM
To: NFB of Kentucky Internet Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Nfbk] Meet the Blind Month activity

 Here is another thought. Do you think it would be possible to encourage store managers around town to send a representative from their store to a training session which we would provide. Perhaps on Saturday morning or Thursday evening, or what ever worked out for everyone. I think we could probably get quite a bit of training in if we had just an hour or two.I think what Katie says is probably true.

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 24, 2013, at 1:06 PM, "Penny,Kayla null" <kcpenn01 at louisville.edu<mailto:kcpenn01 at louisville.edu>> wrote:
I like the idea, but I would suggest that we try and talk with managers instead of just any employee.  Every retail place I ever worked at showed new employees a video that taught them the proper way to deal with disabled shoppers (the one's I saw were actually not that bad) average employee's have to follow the guidelines of those videos regardless of what we suggest, managers on the other hand can actually change policies in some stores and would be able to bring up our suggestions during team meetings.  I also think we'd have a better chance of managers actually doing something with the materials in the bag instead of just throwing stuff in the trash after they get the candy out of it.
Katie
________________________________
From: Nfbk <nfbk-bounces at nfbnet.org<mailto:nfbk-bounces at nfbnet.org>> on behalf of Hellena Keaton <hellena.keaton at gmail.com<mailto:hellena.keaton at gmail.com>>
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2013 11:38 AM
To: NFB of Kentucky Internet Mailing List
Cc: NFB of Kentucky Internet Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Nfbk] Meet the Blind Month activity

I think this is a great idea-count me in!  I do a lot of shopping with store employees therefore I feel as though I have helpful information to share.

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 23, 2013, at 12:27 PM, "Melanie Peskoe" <mpeskoe at twc.com<mailto:mpeskoe at twc.com>> wrote:
Hello fellow Federationists,
I have a great MTBM activity idea that I’d like to run by you for feedback. Chapter members could meet one Saturday morning at the mall and split up in pairs of two to three people. Each group could go to a designated list of stores and talk with an employee about the NFB and  give them bag of “goodies”. In the bag they would find candy, an alphabet card, maybe a few business cards for the chapter and a kernel book. I thought everyone, young or old, likes to find their name spelled out in braille. Also, with chapter contact information on business cards they could give them out to blind customers or friends/family who may be blind. Here’s my question – is there a document that may list helpful tips about retail staff should work with blind customers? I know we have the Courtesy Rules of Blindness, but I’m thinking more specifically related to shopping. If we don’t have anything like this already, maybe we could compile a list of tips for store employees about how to assist blind patrons. What would you include on this list?

We could also take this idea into grocery stores or other big box stores.  I would think the success of this activity would depend on showing up at a slow time during their business hours and not taking too much of the employee’s time. Maybe we could develop a short script or opening line such as “Hello, my name is Melanie and I’m from the National Federation of the Blind of Greater Louisville. We wanted to share some information with you and give you some candy to brighten your day. Have you ever encountered a customer who uses a long white cane or a guide dog, or is otherwise visually impaired? Here is a handout with some tips on the best ways you can be helpful. Would you mind sharing this with your coworkers please?” How does something like that sound?

What do you all think about this idea? Have any of you done anything like this and if so how did it go?
Regards,
Melanie

Melanie Peskoe, President
National Federation of the Blind of Greater Louisville
502.262.1403
Vehicle Donations Take the Blind Further
Donate your car to benefit the National Federation of the Blind today!
For more information, please visit: http://www.carshelpingtheblind.org<http://www.carshelpingtheblind.org/> or call 1-855-659-9314

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