[nfbwatlk] Interesting Ideas!

Tue Nov 11 05:36:22 UTC 2008

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Evans" <drevans at bellsouth.net>
To: "NFB Chapter Presidents discussion list" 
<chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2006 2:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Chapter-presidents] meeting location

Dear All,

I have been a NFB Chapter president , Vice-President and
Treasurer  in my time as a member of the NFB.  I have also been a
State Board member  as well.
In my total of 18 years as a Chapter President, I have learned
allot and I wish to share some of this.

The things that seem to work best for defining a meeting place
are that it should be as centrally located to your area's
population and as accessible, by Public Transportation as
possible.
We found that we could find lots of places to meet that don't
charge, but that access to a transportation source was the
biggest factor in getting our members to attend and be active.
  We even moved our meeting place a couple of times to make our
meetings reachable by more people in our county.
  It is easy to get your mind locked into a certain meeting place
just because you have already found one, you have been meeting
there and you think, "why chage."

Over the years we looked at useing libraries, but we could not
bring food in.  We always have a number of people who are
diobetic or just want to be able to have something to eat and
drink too.
For this reason, we decided that meeting at a restaraunt , with a
back room, separate from the Public and their noise, was the best
choice for us.
  We found such a place in a shopping mall that housed a food
court and some restaraunts that included a Pickadilly's
 cafeteria.
We found the Pickadilly's to be great.  They had a back room we
could use and let us come in early before they opened to the
Public.  This let us hold our meeting and when it was over, our
members could just go an get in line and get their food at a very
reasonable price.  We were not charged for the use of the room as
long as most of our members stayed and ate something.  They even
gave us free coffee.
This location also let our members go shopping in the mall after
the meetings before they had to go home.
It was safe and open early and late and had lots of things to see
and do.
Transprtation was established and the place of drop off was just
outside the doors of the mall and the first door on the right,
inside, was the pickadilly's.  Our chapter grew and we had 97
people attend our first Holiday Party that year.  We averaged
about 44 to 47 members each month at meetings but, the parties
always draw them out of the woodwork.

I would like to offer this suggestion to you all, right now,
because of the just past National elections.  It is something
that my chapter has benefited from in the past, on a small scale,
but which I am going to take on in a big way this time around.
All local, state and federal politicians, who just ran for
office, win or lose, must Divest themselves of all of their
liftover campaing  funds.  They must give them away.
I will be drafting letters to go out to all of those politicians
to interest them in giving some of this money to my NFB chapter.
Some have done it before and I did not even ask them too then.

I saved my sample ballot to have a list of all the people who ran
for office, even the judges and dog catcher.  They are all going
to get a letter from our chapter , on its letterhead, reminding
them that we are a 501-(C)(3) non-profit organization and would
be like to be considered as they decide how and to whom to give
their leftover campaign funds too.
We got $1,200 dollars from just one politician before.  Now we
might get something from over 50.
Think about it.  Just by sending a letter to someone at the right
time can make all of the difference.
Tell them about your chapter and what the NFB does.  Tell them
that you would like to use some of the money for a scholarship
for a blind student or to send a blind person to a national
convention, to help a family with a blind child or a lonely
senior to learn how to cope with blindness or to help you go out
into the schools to talk to school children about how blind
people do things and educate them.

Think of the possibilities.
I will share some more of my fund raising ideas in the future and
you can join the NFB Fund Raising list and search it's archives
for more ideas people have already posted about fund raising and
how to do them.
If you have questions, I can be reached off list at
drevans at bellsouth.net   .

David Evans, NFBF
President, Palm Beach County Chapter Florida

Would you like to save money off of nearly everything you buy.
Would you like to have your own home business that helps you make
money from things you and all of your clients buy and use every
month?
Just shop at any of the over 300 major store web sites such as
Wall-Mart, Target, Best Buys, Amazone, Office Depot, Staples,
Office Max and more just by using my portal.
Try it free by going to www.shoptoearn.net/devans and shop or get
This is a new and fast growing business and you can get in on the
ground floor.

David Evans
details on how to sign up and get started.

> ----- Original Message -----
>From: "Sherry Ruth" <babyruth2 at alltel.net
>To: "NFB Chapter Presidents discussion list"
<chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org
>Date sent: Sat, 8 Nov 2008 05:19:55 -0500
>Subject: Re: [Chapter-presidents] meeting location

>Try checking with your local library to see if they have a
meeting room
>which can be used by non-profit groups free of charge.  Also, we
use the
>community room at our local police station for free.

>_______________________________________________
>Chapter-presidents mailing list
>Chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-presidents_nfbnet.
org
>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info
for Chapter-presidents:
>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/chapter-presidents_nfbnet.o
rg/drevans%40bellsouth.net

_______________________________________________
Chapter-presidents mailing list
Chapter-presidents at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-presidents_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
Chapter-presidents:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/chapter-presidents_nfbnet.org/k7uij%40panix.com