[NFBV-Announce] The Vigilant: November 2019

[Joe Orozco]

The Vigilant: November 2019


 


Joe Orozco, Editor


 


>From the President's Desk


 

It's November. Winter feels as though it has come, even if unofficially. For
my family, November's highlights are the National Federation of the Blind of
Virginia convention and Thanksgiving, and in my extended family in the
Federation, there is much to be thankful.

 


Thank You for a Great Convention!


 

After our great 2019 NFB of Virginia convention, I am invigorated and
excited for our work together.  As we look forward towards Thanksgiving, we
are grateful for many blessings including the tremendous love and support
within our NFB of Virginia family. If you were at convention, I am certain
you felt the sense of community and solidarity at this weekend's event. The
convention was a rich learning experience combined with the warmth of a
celebration of friends and family. Our Federation family reunion was vibrant
and exciting. Over the coming months, we will be sharing great content from
this event. 

 

If you attended the convention, we would like your feedback before Sunday,
December 1. Your feedback will influence the programming for the state
convention next year. Please complete our brief survey found at:

 

http://nfbv.org/survey

 

Please know we recognize the hard work by so many to make this convention
possible. Please know we appreciate your efforts and we could not have made
the convention the success it was without your help. Later in this
newsletter we will do our best to directly thank some of the people we are
aware who volunteered their time and energy.

 


Membership Coins


 

At the convention, each chapter president was provided the membership coins
for their chapter. We recognize that some chapter members were not at the
convention. Please make certain you attend your local chapter events so you
can be recognized and receive your membership coin. Each chapter should do
something special at a local chapter event to recognize members who were not
present at the state convention.  

 


Fundraising Success at the Convention


 

Our Virginia Federation community was extremely generous at the convention.
Between the auction, the Portsmouth Regatta, the NFBV VIP fundraiser, and
sales of membership coin pendant coin holders, we raised over $8,000.

 

Please take some of the exciting ideas from the convention and implement
them within your local community.

 


Final Thoughts


 

Words cannot do justice at expressing the gratitude I feel at having the
privilege to work with such a wonderful team in the Virginia affiliate. If
our state does so well, it is in large part because we have a deep bench of
leaders willing to step up and own a variety of tasks that push our programs
and services to a higher level. We raise the bar in our great commonwealth,
and I want you to know how blessed I am to count you in our ranks.

 

Organization aside though, I am individually grateful for you. I am
intrigued by your individual stories of success. I am saddened by your more
challenging experiences. Together, you and I make great fellow
Federationists, but friendship first. If I can ever help you with anything,
you need only call or write. If I cannot help you, I will connect you with
someone who can. All I ask is that you extend the same love and kindness to
those around you.

 

Please keep warm. Take care of each other. We've got a lot of work ahead of
us, but we are so fortunate to have one another to get it all done.

 

Yours in service,

 

Tracy Soforenko, President

National Federation of the Blind of Virginia

 


This Month's Words of Inspiration


 

"Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of
thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown
in acts."--Henri Frederic Amiel

 


Richmond Seminar 2020


By Nijat Worley


 

The National Federation of the Blind of Virginia is a powerful force
advocating for blind Virginians. Please join us for the Richmond Seminar on
January 20-21, 2020 to ensure our voice is heard in the offices of the
General Assembly.

 

If you have never attended a Richmond Seminar, we strongly encourage you to
attend and participate in representative democracy in action. Everyone is
assigned to a team with an experienced leader. The General Assembly members
and their staff are very receptive and welcoming. They know we are
organized, articulate, and well versed in the subject matter.

 

We will put everyone on the team to work, sharing our issues and answering
the questions of legislators and their staff.

 

The issues we will bring to Richmond are still under consideration but will
most likely include:

 

.  Expanding resources for the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision
Impaired; 

.  Special Hiring Authority for Virginia State Government jobs; and 

.  Web Accessibility standards. 

 

The final list of issues will be presented at the board meeting on Monday,
January 20. We have bills being drafted that will need co-sponsors. Chapter
Presidents should make contact with their General Assembly members in their
local offices before the end of the year. If you need assistance in
identifying them, contact Tracy Soforenko.

 

A meeting with our elected legislators in their home districts will go a
long way in establishing the recognition that is needed for our visit to
Richmond.

All Chapter members are encouraged to participate. If you intend on doing a
meeting or need help setting one up, please contact Nijat Worley or Tracy
Soforenko.

 

Our board meeting is scheduled for 1:00 PM Monday afternoon, January 20,
which is Martin Luther King Day.  lunch will be available at the cafeteria
on the premises. The Board Meeting will be held on the DBVI Campus on Azalea
Avenue in Richmond.

 

Our General Assembly visits will be Tuesday, January 21. The affiliate will
reimburse transportation expenses and hotel expenses.

 

Chapter presidents should arrange cost effective transportation for their
chapter members. Individuals are expected to share hotel rooms and must
obtain hotel reservations themselves at the NFB of Virginia rate. If you
need assistance identifying a room share, please contact Joe Orozco via
email: jsorozco at gmail.com.

 

Hotel rooms are available at the Delta Hotel.) The complete contact
information is:

 

Delta Hotels by Marriott Richmond Downtown

555 East Canal Street

Richmond, VA 23219

 

The group rate is $139 plus applicable taxes. You may begin making
reservations at any time by booking it online, or calling the reservations
line at 844-781-7397and referencing the National Federation of the Blind of
Virginia. Please note reservations must be made no later than Friday,
January 3, 2020.

 

If you run into any problems with making reservations or need assistance at
the hotel, please call our Operations Coordinator, Joe Orozco.

 

Chapter presidents must provide an initial list of the names of the
individuals planning to attend from their chapter to Nijat Worley by Sunday,
January 5, 2020 and additional names as they are known so we can establish
and update teams in advance.

 

Finally, if anyone in your chapter is interested in being a team leader,
have them reach out to Nijat Worley directly. If you have any questions,
please contact Nijat Worley at 720-219-9517, or nijatnfbv at gmail.com.

 


2019 PRESIDENTIAL REPORT


 

Editor's Note: The audio format of this presidential report will soon be
posted to our affiliate website when the item is migrated to our blog.

 

DELIVERED BY TRACY SOFORENKO, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND OF
VIRGINIA

Saturday, November 2, 2019

 

WELCOMING:

When I think of welcoming, I think of my family's traditional Passover meal.
Some of you might know this meal from the Last Supper.  Regardless of your
traditions in your family, all cultures and communities have large and
diverse family meals with a really complex family.  For our Passover meal,
we invite family, friends, and even strangers to a fabulous meal made by my
wife, Sharon. We have a lot of storytelling as we break bread together.  At
this meal, we welcome people into the tent of our home and family.  The goal
is to encourage questions and participate in the discussion. You can learn a
lot about people from the questions they ask.  Our family and friends are
really diverse. To encourage our children to ask questions when they were
young, we would give them a coin for each question they asked.  Even if they
were bad questions, we still gave them a coin. Each of you received a coin
over this weekend so I have you covered.  But at the end of my remarks, I
ask you to put that coin in your hand so we can participate together.  

When you look at a set of individuals in our Federation family, we're going
to describe them in four different areas.  They are the wise, the difficult,
the young, and the clueless.  Isn't that the worst soap opera title ever?  

The wise people ask certain kinds of questions.  

-          How can I get involved?  

-          How can I participate?  

-          What can we do together to make things even better?  

You know from the kind of questions they ask; you know that they want to
contribute and feel like they're part of the community.  They are a pleasure
to have at our table.

Yesterday morning, you heard from the McDonald Fellowship and Jernigan
scholarship winners.  They attended their first national convention to learn
and grew together with us and 3,000 other people in Las Vegas this year. We
are committed to growing our movement. Over the past four or five years,
we've been working to build the next generation of leadership. This is
consistent with what Jennifer Kennedy was saying on Friday about building
the next generation of leadership.  

Our chapters are the incubators building leaders by giving people new roles
and saying we believe in the capabilities of blind people. This afternoon,
we are going to run a chapter leadership university to help grow leaders in
our chapters. We are committed to bring exciting ideas back to your local
community. Our chapters are leading as well.  We have really been growing
through our chapters in many ways in the past four years.  Nine of our
chapters have new presidents. We want to recognize that many leaders in our
movement have lovingly supported new leaders to give them the opportunity to
learn and grow in new roles.  We recognize those leaders for the true gift
of passing the leadership mantle on to others.  

We have developed our Chapter Leadership Institute to develop and grow
chapter leaders by building on strengths and reducing weaknesses.  The
Chapter Leadership Institute or CLI takes the best of leadership concepts in
the marketplace and applies them to a Federation setting.  Joe Orozco and
Domonique Lawless have been key to making this happen as the leaders of this
program developing innovative programming. They have really pushed our
participants in this program and guided them in a supportive and loving way.
We are very grateful for the investment and compassion that has come from
these leaders. I want to highlight two of these leaders. 

 Jacki Bruce is in our Williamsburg chapter.  When she first started the
program, Jacki expressed concern about running a chapter meeting. We did a
mock chapter meeting. At the beginning of each chapter meeting, there is the
white noise that happens at every chapter meeting with all of us talking.
She could not overcome the white noise of our mock meeting. She was reduced
to tears because she couldn't get over this challenge.  Since then, she
worked in her chapter.  She worked with her husband at home to try to work
through this challenge. In August at the next exercise when put to the task,
she whipped us into shape.  

Brittany Ingram is a member of our Fredericksburg chapter.  She would
describe herself as shy and she had a challenge saying no and therefore,
couldn't always deliver on everything she signed up for.  Brittany has
worked hard in the program and she has really developed her inner voice and
her inner confidence is truly powerful.  She now uses that inner strength
advocating for her daughter's health needs and for her chapter. Brittany is
the new chapter president of the Greater Fredericksburg Area Chapter. We are
truly excited for these individuals and all the participants in our Chapter
Leadership Institute. We are really proud that we have another year for the
CLI.  

Instead, now let's talk about the second group.  We all have them in our
family.  They are the difficult ones. They ask:

-          Do we have to do this?

-          Is this really necessary?

-          Does it really make a difference?

-           Why can't we just eat?

I bet you have these people in your family. The trick about the difficult
people is they don't think they need to do the work of the family.  They
don't need to participate in the work of our Federation family. They believe
that discrimination is a thing of the past. Things are just going to get
better and I don't have to do anything about it.  There is a set of
employers who discriminate against us as they talk about their openness to
be a work force that allows for all.  I'm going to share a couple of
stories.

Edy Parker is a member of our Williamsburg chapter.  In the evenings, Edy
works cleaning for a contractor supporting the offices of the Colonial
Williamsburg Foundation.  She is really valued by her employer and she was
recognized by the CFO of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.  The contract
went up for renewal and a new nationwide company won the contract.  They
brought on all the existing employees, gave them a new badge and told them
they should keep doing their job. But they started asking Edy all kinds of
questions. Because Edy is a low vision person, they questioned whether she
could do her job.  She couldn't fill out the paper time sheet, an
unessential component of the job, and we came up with all kinds of
suggestions of how she could do this task non-visually. Edy's boss brought
her into the office and said, "We're worried.  You could hurt yourself.
You're a risk.  You're fired."  With help of the Disability Law Center that
we heard from yesterday, Edy has filed an Equal Employment Opportunity case
and is looking for a new job. But don't think this couldn't happen to each
and every one of us.  

Mitchell Ford is a member of our Potomac chapter.  For the past six years,
he has worked at George Washington University initially as a part-time
Arabic tutor and his students loved him so much, they demanded he start
teaching classes and GW brought him on full-time as an instructor in Arabic.
During evenings over the summers, Mitch used Skype to tutor students
remotely. As his vision continued to decrease, Mitch thought, "I should up
my blindness skills.  I should go to BLIND, Inc., our National Federation of
the Blind training center in Minnesota and develop the skills over the
summer while still working nights for George Washington University as a
tutor.  This was a reasonable accommodation George Washington University
rejected and Mitch went and asked the EEO office, "Hey, what's going on with
this?  Can I appeal?"  Within two weeks, Mitch was demoted to part-time,
stripped of his teaching responsibilities, moved to hourly at half the rate
he started at six years ago. You should know that Mitch is being represented
by NFB funded attorneys, Scot LaBarre and our very own Deepa Goraya.  Mitch
has also moved on.  He is now a teacher full-time at Fairfax High School
teaching Arabic and he is a Project RISE mentor.  

These examples talk about employment discrimination and they happen all the
time.  Discrimination happens and suddenly, oftentimes we hear people reach
out to me and say I've got a challenge.  When these people reach out to me,
maybe they're coming to the National Federation of the Blind for the first
time.  They've known about us, but they never thought they needed to get
involved.  We sometimes help them even though they're not members.  But the
first question President Riccobono asks me is, is this person an active
member?  

Low expectations are insidious, and discrimination does happen.  We need you
to be a member and actively participating in the National Federation of the
Blind when times are good and everything is okay because there may be times
when things are not so good and you're facing discrimination and you need
the support of the National Federation of the Blind.  We need you to be an
active member to be there to support others in their efforts.  

Moving on to the third group, the young, they ask different kinds of
questions.  

-          What is going on?  

-          Can I do what everybody else does?  

-          Can I dream?  

The National Federation of the Blind of Virginia is committed to ensuring
that students and their parents are able to be successful.  We support
students and parents in Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings.  For
students in K through 12, as Beth mentioned, Sandy Halverson, Nancy Yeager
and a number of others have crisscrossed the state to ensure that students
are getting the educational resources they need, that alternative techniques
are being taught and they get access to a quality education.  We are
grateful for their efforts.

The Braille Readers Are Leaders program is a national effort to encourage
Braille literacy and encourage people for academic success.  Virginia had
more than any other state; 23 students participated in the Braille Readers
Are Leaders program and we recognized every one of those students.

Our scholarship program led by Patrick Johnson had six finalists this year
and you just heard from them. We have our Virginia Association of Blind
Students led by Gerald Meredith that is an active force in our community
encouraging people to be members and helped us pull off a great seminar back
in August for students across the southeast.  

I want to highlight, though, our probably largest commitment which is
Project RISE.  As Kathryn mentioned, this is a pre-employment transition
program for students 14 to 21.  We have 35 students in the program across
the state.  We ran four statewide weekend-long seminars, five Saturday
programs in northern Virginia.  We have students from across the
Commonwealth and this program was just a dream two years ago and now is a
powerful force in our community.  

I want to highlight two of our students in the program who are really
achieving results but before that, I just want to give you a couple of
things to think about.  We had 15 informational interviews, four job
shadows, six summer internships.  How did that happen?  Many of that
happened because you, our members, helped make that happen.  We are focused
on delivering service that is remarkable because of the membership of the
National Federation of the Blind.  

Lizzie Schoen is a senior in high school.  She has a bright future and real
aspirations.  Before connecting with us, she had positive mentors, but no
one was blind.  She believed that blindness created true complication to
anything that she would achieve.  On day one of our program two years ago,
she would never be found with a cane.  Through Project RISE, she was able to
realize all-understand what could be possible.  Over her education, she had
received no Braille education and not a lot of access technology and she is
now struggling to keep up with her demanding academic course work.  Over the
summer, she spent two weeks at BLIND, Inc., our National Federation of the
Blind training center in Minneapolis and she had a complete immersion in
blindness skills.  She is now, with the help and advocacy of Kathryn
Webster, our program coordinator, receiving an hour of Braille every single
day of her senior year in high school.  You will not find Lizzie without a
cane.  She will always have her cane and you will find Lizzie is a
competent, confident adult ready to take on college.  She is currently the
vice president of our Virginia Association of Blind Students and I had the
pleasure of working with her both in Richmond and in Washington seminars
where she helped advocate for the issues important to us with our
legislators.  

A second student is Andrea Ortiz.  Andrea would describe herself before the
program as someone who was really fearful of her vision loss and she never
used a cane and she lacked confidence in her skills.  She had no blind role
models and she was hesitant each and every day of her life.  Through Project
RISE, she has connected with a community and she considers the Federation a
family.  She has now started using her cane all the time and started
learning Braille.  You heard from her yesterday as one of our McDonald
Fellowship winners and she really connected with people at convention-people
from across the country.  She worked the past two summers at the D.C. BELL
program and this year, she was using learning shades with the other students
to make sure she could-as she worked the program, learn from the program.  

This program has a dynamic team of leaders, Kathryn Webster and Arielle
Silverman, our program coordinator and deputy coordinator. Kathryn brings
creativity, positive energy and insights well beyond her years.  Arielle
brings intelligence, organizational skills, and a commitment to our
students.  These women love our students and our students love them.  In
addition, we have mentors.  over the past year, John Bailey, Marc Canamaso,
Sarah Patnaude, Susie D'Mello, Mitchell Ford, Vivian Friedtas, Deepa Goraya,
Jeremy Grandstaff, Jimmy Morris, Evelyn Valdez, and Joe Orozco served as our
Project RISE mentors. But really what worked was all of you also
volunteering and helping to make this possible.  All these individualized
things happen because all of you helped make these things possible.  

The last group is the clueless.  Most people don't have any idea how you get
anything done and they need us to explain how we do things and what we
really need.  It's our job whether we like it or not.  Legislators are
amongst that group.  They don't know and sometimes, they need us to explain
that to them.  Sometimes, I'm surprised by the things in the Virginia
General Assembly or the Congress, where things that are really important,
they have no idea should move forward and other things they think should
move forward are really, really bad ideas.  

Thank goodness for the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia.  You
have advocated.  You took-you have taken the call to participate actively.
In Richmond, 50 people participated in our Richmond Seminar and we kept
coming after you to help with our advocacy for rehabilitation services and
to fight off efforts to reduce the protections under the Americans with
Disabilities Act.  Through this effort, you have helped convince Governor
Northam that he should veto this horrible legislation and we know that we
accomplished this by all the work we did together.  

We partnered with other disability groups in a broad partnership, but it was
the leadership of the National Federation of the Blind and our members who
really were there calling members in the Virginia General Assembly and
making it clear that this was just bad.  Now the credit unions are probably
one of the strongest lobbyists in Richmond but they're not bad.  They're
just unaware and we stand ready to partner with them to show them all that
is possible because we know what is possible for blind people.  Derek
Manners, Mark Roane, and Earl Everett were key to many of the committee
meetings in Richmond and we are truly grateful for their leadership in our
legislative efforts.  

In Washington, we had 30 people-30 people participate in our Washington
seminar coordinated by Deepa Goraya.  Our efforts in Washington helped us
really connect with members of Congress and we had meetings with all of the
offices of our entire Virginia congressional delegation.  Through that, we
build relationships and I want to highlight one of those relationships
because Congressman Bobby Scott, chair of the House Education and the Work
Force Committee, is coming to our banquet.  He is the-Congressman Scott is
the sponsor of the Transition to Competitive Employment bill, bipartisan
legislation in the House and the Senate to eliminate subminimum wages.
People are getting paid below the minimum wage if they are a person with a
disability.  It is a discriminatory artifact of the 1930s that's still
around. Congressman Scott is a stalwart supporter, but he didn't start out
that way.  It happened because our members in our local chapters built
relationships, explained how horrible this was and how he could make a
difference. At our banquet, we should recognize his support and make sure
it's clear we want him to push hard to eliminate subminimum wages and move
this legislation forward. We really appreciate the Congressman's willingness
to be a champion. We also really appreciate the efforts of our members to
build these relationships.  

So, in addition to this, we have a whole effort to ensure that we reach out
beyond that to the general public and to the blind in the community.  Our
efforts include a variety of events like:

-          The Winchester Apple Blossom Festival

-          The rivers and Bays, Fredericksburg and Richmond walks with the
blind

-          The Potomac and Greater Alexandria Chapters efforts to read to
schools

-           The Fairfax Chapter's Rita's Ice event

We are ensuring we get our name out there and we are in the community.  

I want to highlight two of these events. In Richmond, I had the pleasure to
attend the Richmond chili cook-off this year.  The chili was great, but the
event was special because in addition to raising funds, we connected with
the community.  Many of the individuals in this effort were in the community
partnering with us.  I enjoyed the phenomenal Lucky Charms Beer.  That was
magically delicious. What I really enjoyed was the sense of our presence in
the community. What is really special, we are part of the fabric of our
community.  We are members of our community and we did things together.
Those are the kinds of programs we need to run. Our Potomac chapter ran a
high-and low-tech fair where we invited the general community and we had 25
people who we didn't know, come to this event, learn about technology.  I
had the opportunity to demonstrate at this event the Google Home which is
actually the only woman that actually listens to me in the Soforenko
household. 

But through this process, we were able to meet new people and some of those
new people are here at this convention today. 

-          What are you doing within your chapter to grow the Federation and
reach out to new people?  

-          How are we opening the tent and working to make sure that all are
able to participate and learn from our Federation?  

-          What are we doing to make sure that people learn about the gift
that is our positive philosophy?  

If you're wondering what is this philosophy thing that he's talking about,
come to our welcome lunch today and come to the banquet and learn about our
positive philosophy, where we share all of what is possible for blind
people.

When I think about what it takes to do this work, I think what a pleasure it
is to serve as your president and to serve and preside over this convention.
We appreciate the hard work within your chapters and across the affiliate to
make our efforts a success. We have the great work of our host chapters, the
Peninsula and Tidewater chapters. Our presidents, Uricka Harrison and
Stewart Prost have been instrumental to making this family reunion a
success. An affiliate runs because so many people work hard and tirelessly
to make it happen.  When I think about the people at the leadership table of
our Federation, I think of a few people.  

>From a financial resources perspective, there is no better steward of our
resources than our treasurer, Mark Roane.  Through our efforts in Project
RISE, the volume of our financial transactions has gone through the roof but
also Mark is often described as our man in Richmond advocating for us in the
Virginia General Assembly. Every leader needs somebody they can bounce ideas
off and my go-to person for that is our vice president, Sandy Halverson.
Sandy lets me bounce ideas around, encourages me, but also tells me when I'm
going off the deep end and you should be really grateful she ensures we
don't go off the deep end.  Thank you, Sandy. Joe Hobson is my special
advisor who encourages me to be bold but also tells me when I'm taking
myself too seriously. Joe Orozco served as boss dog for this convention.
This convention happened because Joe coordinated across so many of you and
he also keeps us informed through the newsletter. With the help of Sarah
Patnaude and Cathy Schroeder, Joe re-launched our web site. Sarah Patnaude
has increased our presence on Facebook and now on Twitter.  We are really
moving forward to make sure communication happens in the National Federation
of the Blind. At the head of the table, for my personal family, the rock of
my personal family is my wife, Sharon Soforenko.  I could not do this job
without her and I am so grateful to have her as my partner.  

Now I ask you to takeout that membership coin. Here's my charge to you. Take
the coin and put it in your hand.  On the face of it, it says tgr in
Braille, which is the contraction for together. All we accomplished, we
accomplished together.  It takes each and every one of you, while each coin
is exactly the same, each of us is different.  Our differences are the
strength of the National Federation of the Blind.  There is no cookie cutter
way to be a Federationist but each of you gets the same charge.  

Don't keep your connection to the National Federation of the Blind a secret.
Share our Federation with others in your local community.  Take ideas from
the convention on Friday's empowerment seminar to help us reach out to
underserved communities.  Take ideas that you learn at the convention and
bring them back to make our chapters more engaging and make yourself more
successful.  Find ways to share the gift that is our belief in the capacity
of blind people.  Invite people to the table.  Show them the love that
brought you into the Federation and together, there is nothing we can't
accomplish.  We are the National Federation of the Blind.  

 


Uno at Uno's


By Annette Carr, President - Fairfax Chapter


 

"UNO!!!" was the word of the day on Saturday, November 16 when The Fairfax
Chapter hosted their first, and not their last "Uno at Uno's Tournament"
fund raiser, held at Uno Pizzeria & Grill located in Falls Church Virginia.

 

If you have not already heard, the NFB partnered with Target to sell decks
of Uno cards with braille in stores and through Target.com.  To celebrate
this step in creating a more inclusive world, the Fairfax Chapter decided to
yell Uno from the rooftops and host a tournament style Uno card game.

 

The tournament started with 12 players in Round 1, with only 3 players
moving on to Round 2.  As with any game of Uno, alliances were made and
broken as these 3-finalist battled it out to be the first one to yell "UNO"
and be able to play their final card.  When it was all said and done, Sean
McMahone took home the 3rd place prize, Alex Diaz 2nd place prize, and 1st
place was taken by Joe Orozco.

 

The word on the street is that these 3 winners will be back to defend their
titles, and the other players are ready to take these 3 guys down.  

 

We will let Joe, Alex and Sean continue to think they are the big winners,
when in reality we were all winners.  We spent time with friends, made new
ones, enjoyed great food, and the Fairfax Chapter earned around $300 from
the actual tournament and from donations made prior to the event, plus a
$100 anonymous donation from a restaurant patron.  

 

If you have not already picked up your own deck of braille Uno cards from
Target, the sooner you do it, the better prepared you will be to try your
hand at being the next Fairfax Chapter Uno tournament "Numeral Uno Winner".
To learn more about the braille Uno deck of cards and how to play this
family friendly card game with a few new rules that guarantee equal access
for all players, visit:

 

 <https://www.mattelgames.com/en-us/uno-braille>
https://www.mattelgames.com/en-us/uno-braille

 


Thank You From the Bottom of Our Hearts!


 

Dear all,

 

Because I will inevitably forget someone who volunteered, please accept my
apologies in advance, and know that your service is no less valued.

 

First, I want to thank President Tracy Soforenko for taking it in stride
when, typically around mid October, I start to get a little snappy. He's
pretty resilient and knows not to take my pointed comments personally.
Tracy's a great guy and does so much for this organization all year long and
not just during the convention planning season. Do buy him a drink next time
you have the opportunity. And it would be ridiculous to leave out Sharon.
When we elect one person to lead, we invariably elect their spouse, and she
plays a key role in supporting Tracy and the organization at large.

 

Our contract examiners play a very early role in the convention planning
process. Joe Hobson and Charlie Brown help ensure all our contracts are fair
and reasonable. When there are issues, they help me come up with the right
language to negotiate better rates and amenities for our convention.

 

The following individuals were great in general. They responded reliably
each time they were called upon throughout the weekend for a variety of
tasks, and trust me, they were called often: Rich Tyas; Kathryn Webster;
newly elected student president, Nick Petrillo; and Syed Rizvi. I am
especially grateful to Rich for damn near being omnipresent. He was
especially instrumental with helping Project RISE, and anyone who takes
extra care of our students is a winner in my book.

 

Speaking of students, a warm thank you to Kathryn Webster, Arielle
Silverman, and Jerald Meredith for coordinating the student track. Though
Project RISE is its own entity outside of convention logistics, we should
take a moment to acknowledge our mentors: Evelyn Valdez, Susie D'Mello,
Deepa Goraya, Mitch Ford, John Bailey, and Jimmy Morris.

 

Of course the convention hospitality was in large part owed to our excellent
chapter hosts from the Peninsula and Tidewater chapters. It's possible I
like Uricka Harris a little more, because I found myself slamming Stewart
Prost with request after request from the affiliate. I figured I would try
to break his spirit a little, but no, he remained steady with anything I
threw at him. And Debbie, his better half? I'm so glad she has a great sense
of humor. A huge thanks to both chapters in general for training the hotel
staff, having our restaurant menus embossed, lining up hospitality
entertainment, orchestrating our opening ceremony, setting up child care,
and doing pretty much anything else I begged of them.

 

A huge thank you to President John Halverson and Sean McMann of the Potomac
Chapter for coordinating the bus from and back to Northern Virginia. Their
service made for an easy transportation experience door to door.

 

My two floor managers during General Session this year were Domonique
Lawless and Kris Lewis. I am highly selective about who I pick for these
roles. They keep the agenda moving seamlessly. They need to be reliable and
detail-oriented on a whole higher level and need to roll with the stress of
dealing with a variety of personalities. I was incredibly blessed to have
chosen well.

 

Our presidential runner this year was Jessica Reed. I'm grateful for her
debut on the convention floor team and look forward to cultivating another
reliable source.

 

In addition to others who will soon be mentioned, thank you to Lizzy Schoen
for helping to run mics for us.

 

Our audio team was once again led by Michael Kitchens. He was supported by
Jacob Hamm, Nick Petrillo, and Jeremy Grandstaff. Together the team was
responsible for mic positioning and availability across our various
sessions, music output, recording, and streaming. I am especially grateful
to Jeremy for figuring out the new streaming protocol. I later learned some
of the hotel staff were curious about our program and tuned into the banquet
keynote. They were understandably impressed by Mr. Ron Brown's remarks. A
big thank you to our audio guys for giving our convention a voice.

 

And speaking of voice, our social media team this year consisted of Sarah
Blumberg on photography as well as Sarah Patnaude, Desmond Walker, and David
Bartling on social media channels.

 

This year we roughly started a new program. Similar to our national
ambassadors, Christine Grassman led a team of people responsible for taking
an extra step in welcoming people to the convention. It's a program we hope
to further develop at future conventions. Her team consisted of: Jennifer
Blinsman, Joe Hobson, Chris Walker, Naim Abu-El Hawa, Bobbie Cohen, and
Mausam Mehta. Our special guest handling, including the congressman's
escort, was tackled by Uricka Harris and Tasha Hubbard.

 

Our marshals this year were led by Lois Fritz. She was joined by Jennifer
Blinsman, Brittany Ingram, and Renee Rogers. Thank you to them for allowing
us to more easily find our way on time.

 

Also thank you to Brittany for coordinating this year's roommate assistance
program. I think the role helped cut down some traffic on the mailing list.
Perhaps she'll agree to coordinate again next year?

 

Last in our hospitality category was Jacki Bruce. She was very helpful in
keeping the traffic moving in our hospitality suite. Friday evening alone
saw five different groups moving in and out of the space, so thank you so
much for keeping those trains firmly on the rails.

 

Our door prize coordinator was Debbie Prost. She was assisted by Stewart
Prost, Rich Tyas, and Michael Matthews. Talk about an excellent collection
of door prizes this year!

 

And of course, a big thank you to our auctioneers, Jacki Brown and Laurie
Wages. We are so incredibly lucky to have spirited people to generate so
much revenue for our programs and services. They are best, second to none
when it comes to auction management. They were assisted by Syed Rizvi and
Rich Tyas.

 

Rounding off our staff on the external partnership front, Annette Carr was
fantastic as exhibits coordinator. She does so much more than even I give
her credit, and we are incredibly lucky to have her in our corner.

 

This year our information desk was staffed by Alex Castillo and Nijat
Worley. This year the information desk generated so much activity that next
year I'm kicking them out into the hallway where they can deal with the
frenzy a little more comfortably.

 

Our box lunch distribution was handled by Diane Johnson, Jim Walker, Collin
Bruce, Rich Tyas, and Nick Petrillo. Yes, I'm aware of the issues there, for
which I sincerely apologize, but thank you to this team for hanging in
there. We will improve.

 

Our banquet ticket scanners were Mary Durbin, Rachel Schreiman, and Nick
Petrillo. I'm aware of the issues there too, and while I already have some
ideas to make next year flow a little smoother, I consider myself very
fortunate to have been able to count on this team to help with one of the
more stressful points of the convention agenda this past weekend. A special
thank you to Mary Durbin for stepping in at the last minute.

 

Last, but never least, our registration team was once again led by Sandy
Halverson. Among many other tasks, Sandy directly oversaw our special
dietary requests. Our webmaster, Cathy Schroeder, handled online
registration. Jessica Reed was among those who assisted with on site
registration. And Mark Roane is presently tackling the hardest job of all,
settling our master bill with the property.

 

Though these names will mean little to the vast majority of you, I want to
include some of the hotel staff who specifically helped me make Tracy's
agenda come alive. Lee Heft was our technical lead on sound. Debra Hill was
our dedicated point person on guest rooms. Krystyn King was our catering
manager. Denise Creasman was our lead sales manager who doubled up as event
planner at the last minute, and though I am ashamed to admit I have since
forgotten her last name, she is so awesome she can be one of those
celebrities who only needs a first name. Raff was the person I harassed most
about unlocking rooms, servicing meeting spaces, fixing meal orders, and a
myriad of tasks I am sure I must have driven her crazy over.

 

Again, I am sure I have left out some names. This is not intentional.
Everyone is valued, and any oversights are my own fault.

 

On behalf of our president and our entire membership, thank you, thank you,
thank you. Truly, the convention could not have happened without you. You
are the backbone of this annual gathering, and we could never adequately
express just how truly wonderful you are.

 

Most sincerely,

 

Joe Orozco, Convention Operations

 


NFB Pledge


 

 

I pledge to participate     actively in the effort of the National
Federation of the Blind to achieve equality,     opportunity, and security
for the blind; to support the policies and programs     of the Federation;
and to abide by its constitution.

 

 

 

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