[Njabs-talk] NJABS Minutes for Sunday, September 09, 2012

[Benjamin Vercellone]

NJABS Call for Sunday, September 9, 2012
Members present:
Evelyn Valdez - President.
Shafeka Hashash - Vice President.
Ben Vercellone - Secretary.
Mark Colasurdo - Treasurer.
Maxine Lomax - Board Member.
Porsche.
Alphonso.
8:05 PM - Call began. Evelyn introduced the kick off call. Project innovation was the topic of discussion. It Occurred this past July.
8:06 PM - Shafeka introduces Mark Colasurdo. He was a Project innovation mentor. Porsche was also a mentor and she was  our guest today.
8:06 PM - Maxine read the pledge.
8:07 PM - Mark began. This project was a week long event in July held at the NFB Jernigan institute. It was an investigative driven science camp. There were students ranging from high school to elementary school. THey came with ideas or experiments to follow through with. They had already been working on these ideas for a whole week. At this gathering, they were given supplies to work with. Some projects they worked on included designing a space elevator and a Hover craft. THey worked with Batteries and liquid acid. There was a wide range of projects and experiments. Mark was invited as a mentor. It was a great experience. Before the students came, they were already working on projects for a week. The mentors including Mark and Porsche were mentoring the high school students, and the high school students were mentoring the elementary school students. THey taught  non-visual techniques. THis was not just done with the projects but also in other settings such as the kitchen. Students took part in activities outside of the center. These included a hiking trip and a trip to a rock climbing facility. It was a good experience and it helped with cane travel. It took people out of their comfort zones. All the students took part in these trips. Project Innovation was all around a great experience for everybody. It may take place every other year. Youth Slam takes place every other year, and did not occur this year. Project Innovation occurred this year, so it may happen every other year in between the Youth Slam years.
8:13 PM - announcements. THe NJ state convention will take place on Veterans' Day Weekend. It will be held from Friday November 9th to Sunday the 11th. NJABS will have a big kick-off meeting. Our meetings have been rushed in the past. It will be later on in the day now. We will have our meeting and then a meal slot. If we run late, we can go out or do something else for food. We want our meeting to have a social aspect and then to be mentally stimulating. The NJABS board is trying to put together a retreat for the end of the year. Several states in our region including Pensilvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware will attend. (Note, I may have included or excluded a state that will be there.) We are still super early in the planning now. We want this event to be just for students and by students. Students will apply. It will be small, like  35 kids. It will be for 4 days and in a really cool retreat center. No one will have to pay anything, except there will be a deposit to keep your place. It will be $50. The application for that will be sent out in the next month. We are really excited about that. We are also doing a boycott of Good Will at our state convention. There will be a section on that. Shafeka and Mark are on the panel for the retreat. They are  throwing the retreat idea out there. At the retreat, we will be taught how to begin a group. It will deal with group formation and leadership. We are wOrking really hard on fixing our Facebook group, and hope to implement new and current features. Shafeka and Mark have tried to switch up to a new list serve based on Google. If you have a question about anything including a braille display or jaws not working, for example, you can ask on this new  list serve. We will be revamping our board. If anyone wants to run for a position, please email the NJABS leadership at njabstudents at gmail.com
8:21 PM - Call ended.
Respectfully submitted,
Ben Vercellone -Secretary.