[Nfbmt] URGENT: Washington Seminar Update (Please share with your delegation)

Fri Jan 22 18:25:34 UTC 2016

Well, here we go.  The fun begins.  Joy 

From: President, National Federation of the Blind 
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2016 11:15 AM
Subject: URGENT: Washington Seminar Update (Please share with your delegation)

Dear fellow Federationists:

As promised, I am writing to update you on how the inclement weather forecast for the Washington, DC area is impacting plans for the Washington Seminar. Briefly, blizzard conditions are expected for the Washington area for today and Saturday, but conditions are expected to improve by Sunday morning so that the seminar can proceed largely as planned. We are of course aware that circumstances are making it difficult for many of you to get to Washington, but to date we have no indication that anything will interfere with the ability to keep appointments with members of Congress on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of next week, as originally scheduled. Also, the Great Gathering In is currently scheduled to take place as planned. Again, you should not take unwise or unnecessary risks, but please plan to try and be in Washington to keep your scheduled Congressional appointments if at all possible.

Washington-area airports, including Reagan National Airport, Dulles International, and Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall international, are closing Friday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. and are not expected to reopen until Sunday or Monday. This means that many of you will not be able to arrive when you had originally planned. As we advised yesterday, be proactive about contacting your airline to reschedule your flight so that you can get into Washington as soon as practicable. Also, you should contact the Holiday Inn Capitol to make any necessary changes to your room reservation. Please be advised that you will not be able to use the Washington Metro subway system over the weekend, nor will MARC commuter trains be available. Amtrak plans to operate throughout the weekend, but on modified schedules. You can learn more about the changes to Amtrak service at https://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Alert_C <https://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Alert_C&pagename=am/AM_Alert_C/Alerts_Popup&cid=1251632479463> &pagename=am/AM_Alert_C/Alerts_Popup&cid=1251632479463

Once you have confirmed the changes you need to make to your travel plans, if any, please contact either Parnell Diggs or Chris Danielsen to advise as to when you will arrive. Parnell's email address is pdiggs at nfb.org, his office extension at the NFB Jernigan Institute is 2222, and his cell phone number is (843) 267-2018. Chris can be reached by email at cdanielsen at nfb.org, at office extension 2330, and on his cell phone at (410) 262-1281. We expect a fairly high call volume, so consider using email, and if you do call and your call is not answered, leave a detailed voice message. Finally, if you need to reschedule a Congressional appointment, you should contact the Congressional office involved directly and work with the staff to do so. In the extremely dire circumstance that no one from your delegation will be able to make it to the seminar at all, please work with Parnell or Chris to develop a strategy to advise the affected member of Congress of our agenda and priorities. Please remember that the reason for Washington Seminar is so that our members of Congress can hear directly from their constituents. If your delegation cannot make it to the seminar, it is imperative that a strategy be developed so that your delegation will nonetheless be in contact with your members of Congress about our agenda. Of course, if your attendance at the seminar will be unaffected in any way, there is no need to contact us.

We will continue to monitor the situation and let you know if our plans for Washington Seminar substantially change. For now, though, let's plan to bundle up and storm Capitol Hill with the Federation spirit for which we are so well known.

Sincerely,

Mark A. Riccobono, President

National Federation of the Blind

Mark A. Riccobono, President

National Federation of the Blind

200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place

Baltimore, Maryland 21230

Phone: (410) 659-9314

Fax: (410) 659-5129

Email: officeofthepresident at nfb.org

Twitter: @Riccobono and @NFB_Voice

Web:  <http://www.nfb.org/> www.nfb.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 live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back.

We are celebrating our 75th year and planning for the future we will build together! 

Make your contribution <https://nfb.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1>  to that future now.

-------------- next part --------------
An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed...
Name: Untitled attachment 00653.txt
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfbmt_nfbnet.org/attachments/20160122/535551e5/attachment.txt>