[nfbmi-talk] Save The Date: Friday, April 7, 2017 - 2nd Annual BEET Conference @ Goshen College of Goshen, Indiana

[Kane Brolin]

People who are blind or visually impaired frequently get jobs in
retail, medical billing and transcription, shipping and receiving,
information technology, and manufacturing--not to mention positions as
attorneys, engineers, financial and insurance professionals, writers,
and musicians--even scientists. And we excel at those jobs. Find out
how. Take part in Q&A, problem solving and brainstorming with guest
speakers who are blind themselves and who have more than 75 years of
collective experience in preparing blind persons for and matching them
with the right jobs.

Doors open at 8:30, when a continental breakfast will be available.
Lunch will be provided for all attendees.  Tickets are available at
the door.  A $5 suggested donation is welcome.

Blind youth and adults are encouraged to attend.  Also welcome are
those working for rehabilitation agencies, private and public
secondary schools, colleges, trade schools, universities, vocational
rehabilitation agencies, and workforce development agencies.  What's
more, we invite you to come if you're just curious but don't know
where you fit into all this.

While you're thinking about it, please visit the NFB Michiana Facebook
page, like us, and confirm your attendance at this exciting event.
https://www.facebook.com/NFB-of-Michiana-412752602094987/

BEET stands for "the Blind in Education, Employment, and Technology."

The 2nd Annual BEET Conference is co-sponsored by Goshen College and
by the Michiana Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind.

Friday, April 7, 2017 from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Newcomer Center (Room NC19)
Campus of Goshen College
Goshen, Indiana

Featured presenters are as follows:

•	Christine Boone.  This blind attorney has served as counsel for both
a general vocational rehabilitation agency and a separate agency for
the blind and has prepared work for the Pennsylvania Office of Equal
Opportunity.  Christine has provided legal support  for a
multi-faceted non-profit Maryland agency which included a large
manufacturing operation, a comprehensive training center serving blind
persons from transition age to senior citizens, and a series of base
service stores operating at military installations under the Javits
Wagner O’Day Program.  She has provided compliance reviews under the
Americans With Disabilities Act for some of the Country’s leading
resorts and hotel chains and has prepared winning arguments for State
Civil Rights agencies.  In addition, Christine has served the citizens
of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Michigan and Oklahoma as state agency
director, non-profit corporate counsel, comprehensive adult training
center director and school superintendent.
•	Dick Davis.  While not blind himself, Dick has worked tirelessly to
match blind people up with jobs—even with Fortune 500 companies--for
46 years, in the states of Iowa, New Mexico, and Minnesota. He has
served as an Orientation and Mobility (O&M) specialist; as a teacher,
counselor, and area supervisor in the field of blindness
rehabilitation; and as director of Minnesota State Services for the
Blind.  Until his semi-retirement at the end of 2016, Dick most
recently was associate director of BLIND Inc., a training center
operated by the National Federation of the Blind.  Dick now has his
own consulting company, and his passion is helping people who are
blind to find employment,.  Dick points
out that he still engages in direct job placement, and even now (in
his late sixties) he is known to unload trailer trucks at Federal
Express alongside the blind employees he helped to place there.

We also look forward to participation from Brian Norton, senior technologist for
Easter Seals/Crossroads, based in Indianapolis.  And Jeanette Shown,
associate professor of computer science at Goshen College, will do a
brief presentation about how a blind person can successfully write
computer code that may be used to create and manage Web pages.

Not blind or visually impaired, yourself?  Not sure if you've ever met
a blind person?  No problem.  It is our desire to educate, to inform,
to have fun while we're doing it, and to foster an inclusive and safe
learning environment where everyone shares honestly what is on their
minds.  Attending the BEET Conference is not just passively observing
a series of canned presentations.  We openly encourage Q&A, for the
purpose of problem-solving and arriving at strategies that will help
more blind residents of the Michiana region to complete college, trade
school, and university degree programs and then to engineer their own
successful transition into the working world.  The period following
lunch likely will be set aside for an open forum whose purpose will be
to discuss any challenges opportunities, frustrations, and suggestions
that are on the minds of either presenters or audience members.

Questions?  Phone (574)386-8868 or send a note to nfbofmichiana at gmail.com.

I look forward to see you at Goshen College on the 7th.

Cordially,

Kane Brolin, President
Michiana Chapter, National Federation of the Blind
(574)386-8868 (cell)
https://www.goshen.edu/
https://nfb-michiana.org/

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create
obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can have the life
you want; blindness is not what holds you back.