[nfbwatlk] OTC students at WCB conventions

[Cindy Bennett]

Hi,

I am not an employee of DSB, but I think I know the policy.

DSB will support a client, which would include a student in the OTC,
to go to one or the other of the state conventions. I think they may
even support a client in going to a national convention as well.

I am not sure how clients are informed of the consumer organization
conventions other than that I know that Marci went to the OTC during
their seminar class on Thursday to talk about the convention, and I
believe that the WCB will give a similar presentation next week. I
know that Marci took down some contacts and gaged interest from some
clients. But I am unsure whether the availability of financial
assistance from DSB was made obvious.

I do know that our presentations can be a lot more flattering if we go
in with an agenda ahead of time with events on said agenda that will
attract new members such as social events and technology training.

Like with many services, one has to ask their counselor and say they
are interested in checking out a consumer organization. It takes some
initiative. And I just don't know if the mechanisms currently in place
to inform clients about them are really sufficient.

Regarding staff, DSB is supportive of staff going to professional
conferences, which can include the consumer conventions, but anyone
who is an officer in said organization cannot be sponsored by the
agency. One interesting development will be whether Julie is supported
by DSB to go to WCB conventions since  she is the 1st Vice President
of WCB. However, her attendance will be pretty necessary given her
director position. Who knows? That information is hardly appropriate
to ask for. Perhaps she will have to alter her official officer roles.
But that will be interesting as some other employees have hit walls
when attempting to get financial assistance to attend consumer events
based on their officer status.

I reapplied for services recently because I am starting school in a
few weeks. It is well known at DSB that Mike is my partner, so when my
counselor sifted through the paperwork with me, she asked if I was in
the NFB. I said yes, and she said, "Well, you won't need that form."
so it was refreshing to know that there is a flyer that is included in
new client paperwork. However, it has been 2 and a half weeks since my
intake, and I have yet to receive the paperwork in an alternative
format; they did not have braille during the appointment so I asked
that it be sent to me electronically. I am unsure of whether they
offer large print.

In any case, I should have taken the flyer just to see what is on it.
Perhaps if we can't remember what is on it, maybe it is time to make a
new one?

My personal observations would be the following:

Strictly speaking, there seem to be more employees of DSB who are
active in the WCB. As in any situation, people are influenced by those
around them. The OTC offers a unique situation where the
professional-student role can sometimes be blurred. Given that I
graduated from a training center, I know this quite well. I would
never say that any employee of the OTC is ever unprofessional, but I
would say that a fulltime student is spending a great deal of time
with their instructors. And when we don't have a lot of
representation, students tend to not know about the NFB, or have very
narrow opinions based on what they have heard from others. Even still,
when professionals remain so, what is familiar to them versus what is
not familiar to them can make a difference. I would note the amount of
notice we are given when asked to present at the OTC.

I can't imagine that Julie would change any policy related to DSB
supporting clients to attend the convention of one consumer
organization. But I think we need to be more proactive than we have
been about being more present at the OTC.

I hope that we can continue to improve our relationship with DSB.
Moving to Washington was quite a transition for me. Regarding the NFB,
I had never witnessed such politics. As a 19-year-old, I organized a
pretty grassroots, no budget student seminar in NC. And I got
immediate support from NC DSB because there was nothing else
blindness-related going on for young people. NC DSB would say that
they had to give out flyers for both organizations, but because we
were the most active, our flyers were always better, always came with
candy, and our events immediately gained the interests of
professionals attempting to get their clients out in the community
because they were the only thing going on. So we got financial support
in bringing students in the form of vans and drivers. I have gaged
little such support. I also think that we need to work harder as an
affiliate, but DSB in Washington seems a lot more reluctant to
willingly support us. And I think the politics are really unfortunate.
Grass roots events work on a pendulum; there are amazing things you
can do low budget or free, but we really need the support of agencies
whether it be DSB or TVI's to reach the people. I have literally
witnessed the change in attitude of some people when they find out I
am in the NFB. It honestly boggles my mind since I was introduced to
the NFB under such different circumstances. I have literally had
people joke with me that they don't like me anymore or can't be
friends with me anymore. And they have just met me!

Although not particularly relevant to the subject at hand, the
politics is one reason I am particularly excited about the prospect of
BELL. It has a curriculum created by educators of blind people. It is
being run in over 20 other states so it can't be ignored. And it's
educational nature provides a platform where parents will want to send
their kids, and  TVI's will want to include it in IEP's which could
warrant potential school system support in getting kids to the
program.

Cindy

On 9/6/14, debby phillips via nfbwatlk <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi all, I'm asking for informational purposes only at this point,
> but are OTC students given a choice about which convention they
> will go to, ours or the WCB convention? And are their rooms paid
> for by the state or by the organization whose convention they
> attend? Can students go to both? What kind of ability do we have
> to present NFB and our philosophy at OTC? How will this change
> when Julie Brannon becomes manager? Just questions that are
> filtering through my brain on this Saturday night.    Debby
>
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-- 
Cindy Bennett
Graduate Student, University of Washington
Human Centered Design and Engineering

Treasurer of the Greater Seattle Chapter and of the National
Federation of the Blind of Washington
Affiliates of the National Federation of the Blind

clb5590 at gmail.com