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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>May 9, 2018 <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Memo To: Executive Officers, Board Members, Chapter & Division Presidents & Others<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>From: Frank Coppel, President<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Positive Note 1656<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Greetings Fellow Federationists:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> There is only three weeks remaining to preregister for the 2018 NFB National Convention in Orlando Florida. If you preregister prior to May 31, registration for convention will cost $25 and a banquet ticket will cost $65. After May 31, the cost for convention registration will increase to $30 and the cost of a banquet ticket will increase to $70. Save $10 and also skip the need to stand in line for a long period of time at the convention by purchasing your convention registration and banquet ticket by the May 31 deadline. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> If you have not done so already, please make your hotel reservations for the 2018 NFB National Convention in Orlando Florida. The date of this year’s national convention will be July 3, to July 8, 2018 and will be held at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort. The 2018 room rates are singles and doubles, $88; and triples and quads, $93. In addition to the room rates there will be a tax, which at present is 12.5 percent. No charge will be made for children under seventeen in the room with parents as long as no extra bed is requested. Please note that the hotel is a no-smoking facility. For 2018 convention room reservations you can call the hotel at (866) 996-6338. You may also write directly to the Rosen Shingle Creek, 9939 Universal Boulevard, Orlando, Florida 32819-9357. The hotel will want a deposit of $100 for each room and will want a credit card number or a personal check. If you use a credit card, the deposit will be charged against your card immediately, just as would be the case with a $100 check. If a reservation is cancelled before Friday June, 1, 2018, half of the deposit will be returned. Otherwise refunds will not be made. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> Also, if you have not done so already please make your hotel reservations for the 2018 NFB of SC State Convention which will be held at the Marriott Hotel in Columbia August 10-12. Room rates are very affordable. Rates for this year’s convention are $109 per night for up to four in a room. In addition to the room rates there will be a tax, which at present is 14 percent. The deadline to make reservations will be July 15, 2018. There will also be a limited number of rooms available for the $109 rate Thursday, August 9, for those individuals wanting to arrive to the hotel a day prior to the official start of the convention. You can make your room reservations by calling the Marriott toll free reservation telephone number (800) 593-6465 or (803) 771-7000 and inform the reservationist you are reserving a room for the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina state convention. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> We are now accepting your $80 preregistration fee for this year’s State Convention. Please send your $80 preregistration fee to the Federation Center of the Blind, 119 S. Kilbourne Rd. Columbia, SC 29205. This year the NFB of SC board of directors voted again to offer a discount for families with children regarding the preregistration fee. Parents will pay the $80 preregistration fee and each child eight teen years of age or younger will pay $20. The board also voted to offer a discount to college students in the amount of $50 during the preregistration process. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> All preregistration fees are nonrefundable and nontransferable. As in past years, the $80 preregistration fee will cover the reception on Friday evening, continental breakfast Saturday morning, the luncheon, banquet on Saturday and a continental breakfast Sunday morning. The deadline to accept your $80 preregistration fee is August 3. If you wait until after the deadline of August 3, the registration will increase to $100. Save $20 and preregister early! <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> 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. Joining me for comments in this Positive Note is the President Emeritus of the NFB of SC. Here is Dr. Capps. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> In this week’s Positive Note we are featuring a longtime federation member. I am speaking of none other than Padgett McKenzie from our Clarendon County Chapter. Padgett was born and raised in the Lake City area of Clarendon County. He attended school at the School for the Blind at Cedar Springs in Spartanburg. His first job was at the Association of the Blind workshop in Columbia making brooms. This he did for four years. Then he went to Greenville to study becoming a medical transcriptionist. He put this skill to work in Columbia at the Good Samaritan Hospital, the State Hospital, Richland Memorial and Baptist Hospitals. After completing this work, Padgett became a canteen operator at State Printing in Columbia for five years. After this he retired and moved back to Lake City. Padgett has been married to Emily for 48 years and they had a boy and a girl and two grandchildren. Padgett joined the federation when the late James Sims invited him to a Men’s Supper meeting at the Federation Center in 1963. He joined the Columbia Chapter actively participating, serving two years as chapter President and as Vice President and Secretary. After moving to Clarendon County in 1998, they joined the Florence Chapter in 2000 and then have been members of the Clarendon County Chapter ever since. He has attended three national conventions in Chicago and also in Houston, New York and Orlando. He has attended about twenty state conventions. Padgett likes to read and he follows the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees in baseball. He is a member of the LDS Church in Florence. He and Emily love Rocky Bottom and enjoy going to Senior Camp. Let’s salute Padgett (and Emily of course) McKenzie for their five decades of service to the blind.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Final Thought: “Failure will never overtake me if my determination is to succeed.” - Og Mandino<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>