[Njabs-talk] Njabs Minutes for June 13, 2010

EVELYN E. VALDEZ tweetybaby19 at comcast.net
Tue Jun 15 19:37:15 UTC 2010


Hey Ben, 
Outstanding minutes, you forgot to write that Marie Lomax was present. 
Thanks

----- Original Message -----
From: Benjamin Vercellone 
To: njabs-talk at nfbnet.org
Sent: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:47:17 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: [Njabs-talk] Njabs Minutes for June 13, 2010

NJABS Conference Call Minutes for June 13, 2010

Members present:

Evelyn Valdez - President.

Shafeka Hashash - Vice President.

Benjamin Vercellone - Secretary/treasurer.

Greg Rivera - Board member.

Melissa Hurff - Board member.

Danny Romero.

Guillermo.

Philip So.

Bryan Mackey.

Missy Lomax.

Jessica Scannell.

8:00 PM: NFB Pledge read by Ben Vercellone

8:02:

Melissa Hurff introduces Andrew Ligus. He is a chef at Johnson and Wales 
in Charlotte North Carolina, and has been there for a year and a half. 
There are other campuses for Johnson and Wales in FL, RI, and Denver. He 
cooked since he was 8 years old. Cooking for him is a little more 
challenging than for other students, but this doesn't affect him too 
much. His other senses work very well like smell and hearing and touch. 
He has 2400 in both eyes. One challenge for him is the time it takes to 
learn new materials. He uses both his vision and blindness techniques, 
but more of the latter. For example, he can close his eyes and cut using 
a knife. He uses time and smell among other things to judge the progress 
of his cooking. He said that you need to show people that you can do it. 
His favorite thing to cook is Italian food, and he is more into cooking 
than baking. His classes range from garnishing plates to serving lots of 
people. Working for places with Find dining is hard. For example, it is 
hard to know how to set utensils up perfectly. The school year is in 
Trimesters. There are new classes every 9 days. Students are required to 
complete an internship before the end of their sophomore year, and in 
some of them students are paid and in others not. Andrew was in clubs 
for cooking before high school.

8:26 PM:

Evelyn says we should invite him again to be a guest in the fall maybe 
because he will acquire more knowledge as he goes through his classes.

Shafeka talked about planning for the NJABS Summit to be held in 2011 
near the end of the school year. The month needs some negotiation 
because of the difference in high school and college years and finals. 
This will be a conference. Students can come together and have a great 
time, and also learn a lot about making the most as a blind student. Our 
goal is for 1 very low cost. Students may just need to pay for 
transportation. Everybody is encouraged to contribute ideas. We want it 
to be all ages. There should be meetings, new Technology, and maybe 
something with fashion so we can know how to better dress independently. 
We want this to be funded in the future. It should be less formal. It 
should have a panel of college students and professionals. We may have 
lessons on mobility. We need to get people involved, and we should get 
the media involved. There will be a meeting in august to plan these 
things. All board members are already on the planning committee.

8:46

Congratulations to Shafeka Hashash our vice president and Missy Lomax. 
Both of them will be participating in The Youth Ability Summit to be 
taking place in Damascus Syria, and they are 2 of only 10 Americans to 
be selected with different disabilities and ranging from age 15 to 21. 
They are representing NJ to the fullest with this great opportunity.

The NFB national convention will be from July 3 to 8. Instead of the 
March for Independence, this year we are raising money for the Race for 
Independence. The money raised will go into funding the car that the 
blind can drive. This is not a physical race. Go to 
www.raceforindependence.org.

John Rowan stepped down from the board on Tuesday.

Respectfully submitted,

Benjamin Vercellone

NJABS, Secretary

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