[Nmabs] NMABS Minutes from Student seminar.

[NMABS President]

Hi all,
Thank you all for joining or rejoining NMABS for another year! I am
excited to see how we grow this coming year. Welcome to the new
members. I am sending the minutes from our seminar which has the
information discussed at the seminar as well as contact information
for NMABS.
If you have questions please email me at this address: nmabs.president at gmail.com
Thank you,
Tara
New Mexico Association of Blind Students Annual Student Seminar held
on Friday April 9, 2010 at the Hilton Hotel in Albuquerque
Meeting called to order at 1:30 PM
Role Call Of current Members
Monica Martinez
Chris Chavez
Terese Garcia
Britannie Burden
Amanda Youngblood
Tara Sena
David Abraham
Michael Postlethwait
We introduced ourselves to the audience.

Terri Abraham from Central New Mexico Community College gave a lecture
about CNM's Special Services department. We also heard from Amanda
Butrum and Joan Green from the University of New Mexico Accessibility
Resource Center.  They both talked about how to succeed in college as
a blind person and told us about the various services that both
schools can offer.
To contact Central New Mexico Special Services at main campus call:
505-224-3259 or go to www.cnm.edu/depts/ss/index.php. To contact
Amanda at UNM's Accessibility Resource Center call 505-277-3506 or
visit arc.unm.edu..
Terese Garcia told us all about her high school experience, which
included extracurricular activities such as sports, dance, and ROTC.
She also talked about how she is fighting to become the first blind
student to attend the New Mexico Military Institute.

Britannie Burden told us about her experience in college. She told us
about her experience with losing her vision in college due to three
brain tumors and learning how to adapt to her blindness. She credited
the Orientation Center with helping her be independent. She graduated
at the top of her class with honors. We are very proud of you,
Britannie!

After the 5-minute break,Cheryl Fogle, a blind student from the
University of New Mexico Anthropology Department passed out
archaeological artifacts for everyone to look at and identify. This
served as an example of a career possibility.

Michael and Alexandria talked about their experience at Washington seminar.

Vickie Buchignani reminded us about the scholarships that students can
apply for, including the National scholarship and State scholarship.
The deadline for the National scholarship is March 31st of each year.
Students can apply online at www.nfb.org/scholarships when the next
scholarship is available.

We had a question and answer time for anyone interested in the New
Mexico Association of Blind Students to ask questions and get to know
us. session concerning NMABS, where the officers and board explained
what NMABS is, how we are working to include students anywhere in New
Mexico in our meetings with our website, www.nmabs.org, our conference
calls, our emailing list, and other information.

Elections were held. Tara ran for reelection as President. David moved
that Tara be reelected and Britannie seconded. Tara was reelected
president without opposition.

Monica ran for reelection as Vice President. David moved that Monica
be reelected and Amanda seconded. Monica was reelected.

David ran for treasurer. Monica motioned and Amanda seconded. David
was elected treasurer.

Amanda and Terese ran for secretary. David moved that we vote and
Monica seconded. Terese won the election.

For board position 1, Michael and Amanda were both nominated. Amanda
was elected as the first board member.

For board position 2, David nominated Michael. David moved that
Michael be elected and Amanda seconded. Michael was elected as the
second board member.

For board position 3, Shawndel was nominated by David, Brandon Baker
nominated himself, and Britannie nominated Josh. Monica moved that we
vote, David seconded. Brandon was elected as the third board member.

For the fourth board position, Shawndel and Josh were nominated. David
moved that we vote for board position and Britannie seconded. Shawndel
was elected board member.

Membership meetings will be held once a month as always. David
motioned that we vote for what time the meetings will take place,
Amanda seconded. We have decided to stick with our meetings at 7:00 PM
on the third Sunday night. Our next meeting for all members is going
to be held on May 17, 2010 at 7:00 PM. We will conduct our meetings
via a conference call. The number is (218) 339-2699 and the code is
725-279. We will send out e-mail reminders for our next meetings. We
also have a NMABS mailing list. We recommend that all students sign up
to this list so that they can receive messages from NMABS To sign up,
go to:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nmabs_nfbnet.org
Britannie moved that we adjourn the meeting, Terese seconded. Meeting
adjourned at 4:40 PM.