[NFBNJ] NFBNJ: Reminder Second Notice Save The Date: Meet Our National Representative Scott LaBarre Wednesday October 11 at 8:00 Pm Eastern

[joe ruffalo]

Subject: Reminder Save The Date: Meet Our National Representative Scott
LaBarre Wednesday October 11 at 8:00 Pm Eastern
The information located on the state website pertaining to the 41st state 
convention is provided at the bottom of this email message.

Greetings to all!
I am pleased to announce that Scott LaBarre, President of the Colorado
affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind and a highly respective
lawyer has been assigned as the NFBNJ's national representative for our 41st
state convention, Live The Life You Want; Let's Make It Happen!
As you know, the state convention will be held from Thursday, November 9
through Sunday, November 12 at the Holiday Inn, 151 Route 72 East,
Manahawkin.
Items of Interest:
a. make your hotel reservations by calling the Holiday Inn at 609 481 6100
and use code, NFB.
Remember, the deadline to reserve a hotel room is Thursday, October 19.
Once the deadline passes, please call me to discuss the possibility to
secure a room.
If you have a room and can not use, before you cancel, please contact me as
we could locate some that did not reserve a hotel room.
b. pre registrations are due by Thursday, October 26.
Please visit the state website at www.nfbnj.org for updated details on the
state convention page.
c. I will discuss the state agenda, streaming procedures, Friday evening
activities and much more.

Scott will participate early on a conference call to introduce himself to
our
Federation family and you will have an opportunity to introduce your self to
Scott.
For those attending the state convention, please join us on the call.
If you are not attending the state convention, please join us on the call.
At the conclusion of the call, I will provide the latest updates
highlighting our state convention. At the bottom of this message is
information pasted from the state website featuring the state convention and
other items of interest.

Save the Date:
Wednesday, October 11
Time: 8:00 PM
Call: 605 468 8005
Code: 460994

Let's raise expectation to live the life we want!

****

State Convention
National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey 41st ANNUAL STATE CONVENTION
November 9th through 12th, 2017
Theme: Live The Life You Want; Let’s Make It Happen – Honoring Longtime
Member Jerilyn Higgins
Hosts: Central Jersey Chapter and the Braille Division

The 41st Annual State Convention of the National Federation of the Blind of
New Jersey will be held at the:
Holiday Inn Hotel
151 Route 72 East
Manahawkin, New Jersey 08050
Access Link accessible.

Mark your calendars and make every effort to attend the 41st annual state
convention of the NFBNJ. Get Involved. Make a Difference!

Room Reservations
The Holiday Inn is now accepting room reservations for the state convention.
To make your reservation, please dial 609-481-6100 and use group code NFB.
Rooms are $89 a night plus tax, breakfast is included for everyone in the
room for the following morning. The hotel will not charge your credit card
until you check into your room unless you cancel 24 hours in advance. If you
reserve your room and unable to attend at the last minute, contact Joe
Ruffalo at 973-743-0075 and he will arrange a substitute attendee for your
room. Our block of rooms are available until October 19th, then they are
released to the general public.

Child Care
Child care will be available during the convention upon request. Please
contact Joe Ruffalo at 973-743-0075 or nfbnj1 at verizon.net by October 20th to
request for child care.

Pre-registration
Please complete the pre-registration form by October 26, 2017. After that
point, pre-registration will close.

If paying via a personal PayPal account or a credit/debit card, please
complete the online registration form:

·         2017 State Convention Registration Form (Web)

If paying via check, please download and complete either the long or short
version of the pre-registration form:

·         2017 State Convention Registration Form (Word)

·         2017 State Convention Registration Form – short version (Word)

Make checks payable to NFBNJ and write 2017 convention in the memo. Please
mark what you want as your preferred agenda format. In addition, please mark
what you want as your meal choice if attending the banquet on November 11th.
Mail checks and completed fill-out section of the form by October 26 to:
Joe Ruffalo, President
254 Spruce Street
Bloomfield, NJ 07003

Food Drive
To all attending the state convention, the Barnegat Food Pantry will be
accepting all unexpired
nonperishable food items. In addition, the pantry will accept items such as
shampoo, soap, body wash, laundry soap, papertowels, toilet tissue, etc.
The staff will be guests of the NFBNJ and will join us at the banquet where
we will present all items collected. Please consider this outreach program.

Salsa Dance Lesson
Please contact Krystle Allen, coordinator of the Friday evening activity! We
want to encourage the individuals who are interested to participate in a
dress code for that session. Krystle could provide assistance with obtaining
a list of some salsa like attire. It adds to the festivity of the session.

Any questions or concerns, please contact:
Krystle Allen
862-600-2144

Step Challenge Hosted By The Sports & Recreation Committee
Get healthy and be entered for a drawing to win a $50.00 Amazon gift card by
walking or pedaling and tracking your steps for the month of October. You
will need to walk or pedal 7,000 steps a day, 49,000 steps a week for a
grand total of 217,000 steps from October 1 to October 31, 2017. The winner
will be announced at the State Convention Banquet. You do not have to be
present to claim your prize although it would be great if you are there.

Steps can be tracked by using the “Health App” on your iPhone or an Activity
Tracker if you own one. If you are using your iPhone to track your steps it
must be carried on your body in order for the steps to be acknowledge and
counted. Weekly or monthly results must be submitted by email to Linda
Melendez by November 2, 2017 to verify step activity totals. The email
address to submit your step log is lindamelendez220 at gmail.com. If you need
assistance setting up the Health App on your iPhone or have any questions
please call Linda at 732-421-7063.

NFBNJ Sports & Recreation Committee October Step Challenge Details:
When: October 1 to October 31, 2017
How: Walk or Pedal 7,000 steps a day; 49,000 steps each week for a grand
total of 217,000 steps. Walking 7,000 steps per day from October 1, to
October 31, 2017 equals approximately 109 miles. Get stepping together and
see how many miles we can do as an affiliate! Our total number of miles will
be announced at the state convention. So start walking and let’s see how far
our virtual miles will take us together!

SSP Interpreters
We are pleased to announce that Janet Parmerter DiNola will again be
organizing volunteer SSPs (Support Service Providers) for the National
Federation of the Blind of New Jersey’s 41st State Convention. Janet
organized SSPs last year, and her team received rave reviews. There are no
fees for these SSP services. The services will be available Friday, from 9
am to 8 pm, and Saturday, from 9 am to 11 pm. The deadline to apply is
OCTOBER 13, 2017.

Please contact Alice Eaddy, president of the New Jersey Association of
DeafBlind,with information about your needs for SSP services:

·         YOUR FULL NAME (First, Last):

·         CONTACT PHONE AND EMAIL:

·         PLEASE LIST THE DATES AND TIMES YOU WILL BE ATTENDING & REQUESTING
THE USE OF SSP SERVICES:

Please send this information to Alice Eaddy at 856-765-0601 or by email at
cheiro_alice at aol.com by October 13.

We would like to make your attendance at our State Convention as memorable
as possible. Please sign up by October 13 for the services of our fantastic
volunteers. We’re grateful to Janet and her team for this offer!

National Rep
We are honored and excited to have Scott LaBarre, president of the National
Federation of the Blind of Colorado and the National Association of Blind
Lawyers, as our national representative for our state convention. Please
read his bio to learn more about Scott prior to meeting him at convention.

Scott C. LaBarre, Esq.
LaBarre Law Offices P.C.
Denver, Colorado
Scott C. LaBarre owns and operates LaBarre Law Offices P.C., (LLO). LLO
specializes in employment law, disability rights, Randolph-Sheppard Act
cases, and some international policy work particularly in the area of
copyright law. Mr. LaBarre has appeared in federal and state courts
throughout the United States securing many important victories for his
clients such as Enyart v. National Conference of Bar Examiners, 630 F.3d
1153 (9th Cir. 2011)(securing the right for blind students to use assistive
technology as an accommodation on the multistate bar exam) and Cannon v.
Palmer College of Chiropractic, 850 N.W.2d 326 (Iowa 2014)(securing the
right of a blind student to pursue a doctor of chiropractic degree with his
requested accommodations). He is permanently admitted before the Supreme
Court of the United States, the United States Courts of Appeals for the
Second, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth and DC Circuits, the United States
District Court for the District of Colorado, the Supreme Court of Colorado,
and the Maryland Court of Appeals (Maryland’s highest court). LaBarre has
been named one of Colorado’s Super Lawyers, a distinction recognizing the
top five percent of Colorado attorneys.

Prior to launching his own firm in July of 1998, Mr. LaBarre acted as
general counsel for the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) of Colorado,
where he specialized in laws affecting the blind and disabled. Mr. LaBarre
served in that capacity for five years. Even after establishing LLO, he
remains very active in the NFB through his volunteer service in many
leadership roles. In October of 2005, members of the NFB of Colorado elected
LaBarre their President. He also serves as Chairman of the Preauthorized
Contributions Committee, one of the Federation’s major national fundraisers.
Additionally, he is President of the National Association of Blind Lawyers
and serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Colorado
Center for the Blind. The Federation has presented LaBarre with the Raymond
W. McGeorge Award in 2010 for his work on behalf of the blind in Colorado
and the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award in 2014 for his efforts to achieve
successful adoption of the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to
Published Works for Individuals Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, and
Otherwise Print Disabled.

Since 2010, LaBarre has acted as the NFB’s lead delegate to the World
Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO’s) Standing Committee on
Copyright and Related Rights to work on an international treaty to create
the international exchange of published works in accessible formats for the
blind and print disabled leading to the adoption of the Marrakesh Treaty in
June of 2013. This work has led to his election to the Accessible Books
Consortium Board, a body sponsored by WIPO and designed to serve as an
entity implementing the Marrakesh Treaty on a practical level, promote
cross-border exchange of accessible books for the print disabled, and to
encourage inclusive publishing.

As an original and current member of the Steering Committee, LaBarre helped
to establish the Federation’s Jacobus tenBroek Law Symposium on Disability
Rights which gathers leaders from all sectors in the arena of disability
rights to discuss the current status of the law and to plan needed reform.
LaBarre has presented at the Symposium on several occasions. He is active in
national, state and local bar associations through his service in many
roles. LaBarre is a founding member of the Disability Rights Bar Association
and serves on its Executive Board as Chairman. In September of 2016, LaBarre
began a three year term on the American Bar Association’s Board of
Governors. He has also been a Commissioner on the ABA’s Commission on
Disability Rights and served as its Chair from 2004-2007. Mr. LaBarre is
also active in the ABA’s Solo, Small Firm, and General Practice Division and
reassumed a position on its governing council starting in August of 2013,
previously serving on the Division’s Council from 2005 through 2009. In the
last decade plus, he has also performed the roles of a Director in the ABA’s
Young Lawyers Division, Vice Chairman and a member of the ABA-YLD Bar
Leadership Team, YLD Liaison to the ABA Commission on Mental and Physical
Disability Law, a member of the Colorado Bar Association Board of Governors,
and Treasurer and a member of the Executive Council of the Denver Bar
Association’s Young Lawyers.

Mr. LaBarre received his Juris Doctor from the University of Minnesota in
1993 and his Bachelor of Arts from St. John’s University in Collegeville,
Minnesota in 1990. He left Minnesota in 1993 to work at the National
Headquarters of the National Federation of the Blind. He moved to Colorado
in June of 1994. He is married to a wonderful woman who originally hales
from Armenia, Anahit Galechyan. Anahit and Scott have two children,
Alexander (born October 2002) and Emily (born December 2004).

Videos from Previous State Convention
Videos from a previous year’s state convention can be viewed on our YouTube
channel, NFBNJTransformDreams.

Here are the direct links to the playlist for previous state conventions.

·         NFBNJ 40th State Convention (2016)

·         NFBNJ 39th State Convention (2015)

NFBNJ Presidential Reports
Here are the NFBNJ Presidential Reports given by affiliate president Joe
Ruffalo during our state conventions.

·         2016 NFBNJ Presidential Report

Additional Information
If you have questions and need additional information, please contact:
Joseph Ruffalo, President
254 Spruce Street
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
Phone: 973-743-0075
Email: nfbnj1 at verizon.net