[NFBMI-Talk] Washington Seminar Update

[J.J. Meddaugh]

Hello everyone. I hope you had or are having a great holiday break. I'd 
like to share some info on our legislative efforts and how you can get 
involved.


As many of you know, each year, we typically travel to Washington, DC to 
advocate for issues of importance to us, such as access to medical 
devices or money for access technology.


IN 2021, this was of course an all virtual affair, and 2022 will be 
quite similar.


There will be a small number of people going to visit DC in person for a 
few of our meetings, and a scaled down in-person event. But most people 
are able to advocate virtually from home, and that's where you come in.


Many of our representatives are scheduling meetings virtually, in fact, 
a lot of them prefer it. This is great for people who have not been able 
to travel in person or can't take 3 days off work


Soon I will be working with Mike and others to set up teams for our 
virtual meetings. Each team will be expected to attend 3 or 4 group 
meetings with local representatives or their staff. These are done on 
Zoom, or sometimes another meeting platform. Despite the current 
political climate, our representatives want to hear from us. The issues 
we advocate for are often much less controversial than the ones that get 
all of the headlines, and we have a real chance of getting more than one 
of these into law next year. It's really important to find people from 
every congressional district so the members here from people that are in 
their own district.


The dates for meetings will be on or near February 8 to 10, 2022. Your 
team will work around your schedule to try to maximize attendance.


If you're interested in being on a team for 2022, please write me off 
list at vp at nfbmi.org.

If it's your first time, we'll guide you through the process, which is 
actually quite simple. Don't worry, you don't need to speak a lot at 
your first meeting.


Washington Seminar was the event that made me realize the power that the 
NFB holds to effect change. Many rights we currently take for granite, 
such as traveling alone on an airline or voting independently, happened 
largely because of the NFB's advocacy over the years.


I hope you'll consider joining us in 2022.


J.J. Meddaugh

Legislative Director,

NFB of Michigan