[NFBV-Announce] Closing Credits and Compliments

[Joe Orozco]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm sitting next to Michael Kitchens during general session this past
Saturday morning. Everything was moving along smoothly enough. All of a
sudden, my sight became noticeably dim, as if someone had turned down the
lights. It reminded me of an incident when I was younger when a blood vessel
had ruptured in my eye as a result of the pressure from glaucoma. I know
that glaucoma will eventually claim all of my remaining usable sight, but I
hadn't banked on it happening during the convention. And, what was there to
do? I couldn't freak out, not while sitting at the front of the convention,
but I also remember thinking: Well, hell, if I'm going to lose what's left
of my sight, no better place to do so than at an NFB convention, right?

 

>From an operational standpoint, even if I had needed to excuse myself from
the event, I would have done so feeling confident that the show would have
moved on, because I have a tremendous team of people who take it on
themselves to ensure you get a great experience. The role of the convention
coordinator, while heavy, is made ever so much easier by the dedicated
people who volunteer to do their part to make the affiliate as wholesome as
it is.

 

What follows is a list of individuals who helped the 64th state convention
get off the ground. I do not pretend to have captured everyone, because
often, people jump into a team at the last minute, but please know we lift
our glass to you in celebration of your service to the organization, the
movement, but most importantly, to your fellow members in Virginia.

 

Thank you first to our Vanguard sponsor, Clusiv. This promises to be the
start to a long-lasting partnership, and we are grateful for their
investment in and friendship with the Virginia affiliate.

 

Thank you to all sponsors at all levels for their new and continued support
of our important work of serving the blind community in the commonwealth:
Allied Instructional, Trailblazer; PS You Are Fabulous, Pioneer; Non-24
Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Pioneer; Vispero, Pioneer; JW.org, Pioneer; and
Volunteers for the Blind: Fredericksburg, Pioneer.

 

This year's sponsorships and exhibits efforts were carried out by Rodney
Neaely, Fairfax Chapter; Bob Meter, Williamsburg Chapter; and of course,
Annette Carr, Fairfax Chapter. Annette continued coordinating activities
even after she'd started training with her precious new guide dog, a black
lab named Chloe, but the spotlight I want to shine on this team this year is
Becky Keller from the Richmond Chapter. Becky had already committed herself
to assisting with the auction and convention experience, but when our
friend, Rodney, fell ill, I tapped Becky to take over, and she flew with the
task with minimal supervision. I think Annette would be proud to know her
exhibit space was seen after with the same degree of detail and care. Jimmy
also stepped in to assist. On the whole, this was a great year for
sponsorships and exhibits, and we thank once again the companies that chose
to invest in our movement.

 

Thank you to all the speakers, breakout facilitators, and division heads who
did a spectacular job of making the agenda come alive with engaging content.

 

John Paré was an outstanding national representative. We're grateful for the
time he gave us to learn from his experiences and to learn all about the
efforts going on outside of Virginia to make this movement deliver the
impact we've all grown accustomed. I think his stories were my favorite so
far in a banquet address.

 

Thank you to Logan Stenzel for being an equally phenomenal national
representative for the students. He was very engaging, involved, fully
invested in the program, being not just helpful to our students but to our
affiliate president.

 

Sharon Soforenko, the affiliate's first lady, deserves an enormous thank
you. Yes, for her direct work with the convention, but also for the months
of losing her husband to convention planning season. It can't be easy when
your partner is on the phone or at the computer or in a meeting in an effort
to keep the train on the rails. Sharon also was the driving force behind the
Olympic Chocolate Tasting alongside Tracy Yeager and Renee Valdez. Sharon
helped set the final draft of the convention agenda, prepare for the welcome
reception, helped set menus for our meals, helped take payments for the
auction, and attended to all the final details that made the chocolate
tasting the success that it was. What I said back there about not capturing
everything? Sharon likely does a lot more than I'm giving her credit here.

 

Julie McGinnity can likely compare notes with Sharon on losing a partner to
convention planning. I'm grateful for her patience during what was our
busiest convention planning season ever. Julie coordinated our door prizes.
She was assisted by Sarah Blumberg, Greater Alexandria Chapter; Jessica
Reed, Fredericksburg Chapter; and Melody Roane, Richmond Chapter.

 

>From the Richmond Chapter, Mark Roane's work begins before the convention
and spills over until after the convention. This year's event set the
affiliate back more than $26,000. He and I are comparing notes to ensure
everything is accurate, but he is ultimately responsible for balancing the
books. And I haven't even sent over the invoices for our affiliate programs.
Without Mark, we would be lost.

 

This year I stepped in at the last minute to assist at the audio table. The
audio function is Michael Kitchens' domain, and he runs the board with a
steady hand. It helped me see the convention from a unique perspective.
Rounding off the audio and Zoom team was: Jacki Bruce, Williamsburg Chapter;
and Michael Fish, Richmond Chapter. Michael Kitchens is an excellent
ambassador for the Tidewater Chapter. He is also a mentor with Project RISE
and pulled double duty with finesse.

 

The other Project RISE mentors in attendance to help shepherd our students
were: Stephanie Flynt, Alysha Hiller, Vivian Fridas, Anna Walsh, Renee
Valdez, Evelyn Valdez, Gary Grassman, Jenny Blinsmon, Jacki Bruce, Ronak
Patel, and Sean McMahon. With the exception of our president, most of the
affiliate leadership breathes a sigh of relief after banquet; the bulk of
the work is over, but our mentors were fully expected to be up and at it on
Sunday to keep building the momentum with our kids. Thank you to them and to
our mentors remotely for their ongoing efforts to help shape the next
generation of leaders. Jacki Bruce and Julia Ford in particular are to be
commended for their steady leadership support in the areas of outreach and
curriculum development, respectively.

 

Stewart Prost of the Tidewater Chapter is one of my favorite people. He's
reliable, on time, and has never dropped the ball on anything I have ever
asked of him. The down side to this compelling characteristic is that I find
myself placing him on tasks I need done a certain way within a certain
timeframe, and I need to brace myself for the day when Stewart will simply
say no. This year, however, he coordinated our Sunday Interfaith Breakfast,
played a role on our Convention Experience team, and served as our floor
manager on Sunday morning during our board meeting.

 

Speaking of floor managers, Kris Foley and Domonique Lawless of the Richmond
Chapter served as our floor managers for Friday and Saturday morning,
respectively. Our floor managers round up our speakers and play a critical
role in ensuring the agenda keeps humming along in an efficient manner.
Project RISE followed a different track on Sunday morning. I wasn't there to
witness the timeliness of Sunday's session, but I'll note that Friday and
Saturday the general session was adjourned in a timely fashion, thanks to
Tracy's time juggling and the efforts of these wonderful ladies. They too
take their roles seriously and never let me down.

 

Auctions would not be the same without Jacki Brown of the Winchester
Chapter. Silver BELLS brought in $9,250, the highest earnings ever for
auctions, thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of Jacki and her team:
Domonique Lawless; Marc Canamaso, Prince William Chapter; Becky Keller; and
Sharon Soforenko.

 

A special thank you to Chris Walker of the Winchester Chapter for his
donation through the Lions Club toward this year's CPR class. The CPR
instruction was co-hosted by Christine Grassman and Accessibility, Inc.

 

Mike Fish played a key role in providing the JAWS training to this year's
convention through Allied instructional. In partnership with Vispero, he
helped us in providing effective outreach to teachers of the blind and
visually impaired in the local region as well as blind students and their
parents. This was the first activity of its kind, and we're excited for this
new activity that will hopefully not be the last.

 

Patrick Johnson of the At Large Chapter oversaw the voting system. He put in
a lot of effort into ensuring the system accurately captured votes from
those participants who chose to take part in the elections and voting on
resolutions. It's actually a huge undertaking considering the accessibility
hurdles on the back end of the platform, and my only candid wish is that
more people would have made use of the platform.

 

The voting system, and door prizes for that matter, would not have been
pulled off had it not been for the coordination of our registration queen
and first vice president, Sandy Halverson. Sandy collects online
registrations, fields technical support requests, manually switches from
virtual to in person and vice versa, generates meal tickets, purges our
voting lists for eligible members, creates our registration packets, and
oversees the staffing of our registration table. All of this on top of her
regular duties as coordinator for Silver BELLS. Sandy is one of those unique
people we don't fully value until we realize how much labor she puts into
this component of the convention experience. Thanks to Sean McMahon, Greater
Alexandria; and Jessica Reed for their assistance at the registration table,
among others, I am sure.

 

Thank you to Patty Droppers of the Potomac Chapter for handling the
embossing of our Braille agendas and for the rush job on the embossing of
our restaurant menus.

 

Thank you to Anson Parker from the University of Virginia for his work on
helping to prepare this year's online registration system and for the banner
placement of our vanguard sponsor.

 

Our convention experience team--led by Chimere Roberts, Richmond Chapter,
and Nancy Yeager, Potomac Chapter--provided that extra mile to help folks
feel welcomed and oriented to the hotel. I'm sure they added that extra bit
of ingredient to help the convention feel that much warmer. They were
assisted by: Becky Keller; Bonnie Stowell, Potomac Chapter; Kris foley; Mary
Durbin, Chesapeake Bay Chapter; Nolan Wilson, Richmond Chapter; Stuart
Prost; and Uricka Harrison, Peninsula Chapter. The banquet team that doubled
up to assist Saturday evening included: Pam Balensiefen; Lois Fritz,
Peninsula Chapter; and Brian Duarte.

 

Following in that vein of hospitality, Billie Ruth Schlank and Lorraine
Magnussen of the Potomac Chapter provided the food and beverage for the
presidential suite, starting with the welcome reception on Thursday evening.

 

Also from the Potomac Chapter, Christine Grassman, its president, did a
great job with coordinating responsibilities for the host chapter. We
appreciate her efforts with hospitality in general and the opening
ceremonies for Friday morning, amongst the other various roles assigned to
the host chapter.

 

Did you leave it all out on the dance floor at Friday night's Latin Fiesta??
If you thoroughly enjoyed yourself, you can thank Evelyn Valdez, Greater
Alexandria Chapter; and Renee Valdez, Greater Alexandria Chapter and chair
of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, and their team for
putting on a great event. They were assisted Friday night by Maria Valdez,
Chris Valdez, Jessie Valdez, and Matilda Donovan.

 

Returning to this hotel is always a little bitter sweet. Before me, there
was Brian McCann, and before him was Joe Hobson. Both were powerhouses at
convention organizing. Joe Hobson is still fondly remembered by the hotel
staff, and I am still grateful for the mentorship Joe Hobson has passed
along in the running of an increasingly complex event.

 

Let's acknowledge the work of our affiliate president. Tracy Soforenko and I
agree this year was exceptionally taxing. He and I kept pace in managing the
overlapping circles of this sprawling operation in what often felt like a
marathon. It gives me pleasure to be able to work in sync with our leader
since 2017, but even I cannot fully appreciate his role in overseeing the
sum total of the convention on top of his regular responsibilities as
president of this vibrant affiliate. We are grateful for his leadership. I
am grateful for his friendship and his capacity to let me try and learn new
things. We should be grateful for a president that is innovative enough to
plant the seeds that eventually blossom into the success we see today.

 

I confess it is a bit vexing to hear comments that it appears as though the
same people appear to carry the work of the affiliate. As you can see, this
is only a portion of the team that made NFBV 2022 a mission accomplished.
There are many more unsung heroes whose names are escaping me, for which I
apologize. Anyone interested in lending a hand should always feel welcomed
to step forward. We won't bite. On the contrary, we'll work you hard, but
considering the number of people we touch in positive ways, the hard work is
always well worth it.

 

My sight, what little remains of it, eventually came back as the day
progressed. I will eventually lose it all, and while I will likely
experience a period of grief for what I can no longer visually enjoy, I will
also find comfort in this family that has adopted me and welcomed me into
its midst. It's Federation love in all its intricacies, and if convention is
a major way we can help others feel the same warmth, then indeed: Let's go
build the Federation.

 

At your service,

 

Joe Orozco, Convention Operations 

 

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