[Oagdu] NAGDU board meeting summary

[Aleeha Dudley]

Good evening All,
For the last two months, i have had the privellege of attending the
board of directors meetings of the National Association of Guide Dog
Users. These meetings are welcome to all and are certainly quite
informative if you have the time to go. My goal with this email is to
briefly summarize these meetings. Many of the same topics were covered
during each meeting, so I will combine both sets of notes as best I
can. Please let me know if you have any questions about this and I
will be sure to answer them as best as I can.
In the November meeting, we were informed that NAGDU has been
bequeathed 50,000 dollars. Per NFB policy, half of these funds will be
given to the national office, a presentation which will be made by
Marion Gwizdala at the annual Washington seminar in January.
     Everyonhe who has an iPhone is strongly encouraged to download
and give feedback on the new NAGDU app. It is an invaluable resource
for anyone with a guide dog. There are many efforts in progress with
this app. One of these is to create an Android version of the app.
Another is to get the app into the Canadian app store. An iPad app is
also in progress. NAGDU is also looking to put laws from other
countrie in the app. We are shooting for one thousand downloads by the
end of 2014, so be sure to tell everyone you know. It is possible that
the app, at some future point, could include service animal relief
area information for airports.
SOCIAL MEDIA: As of November, we have reached 297 Facebook likes. Our
current effort with this is to link the Facebook, Twitter, and
Wordpress sites together so that the information can be passed among
them.
I am told that if we would like something from OAGDU posted on the
nsocial media, we should contact Tina Thomas.
Fundraising: NAGDU has held a very successful fundraiser in October,
with many items being auctioned off and quite a bit of cash coming in
for the organization. There were a couple of things that did not sell
at the auction which we are looking into the best way to get the most
from them. After a while, for example, it was decided that NAGDU would
donate a pair of costumes to a local school with the suggestion, not a
requirement, that the students help with a bit of PR for the
organization.
NAGDU is looking into possibly selling nonspillable, insulated mugs at
convention this summer as a fundraiser.
Several board members of NAGDU have met with the secretary of state of
Florida to discuss a recent incident involving a blind woman at a
museum. We should hear about the results of this meeting at the next
board meeting. There is currently not a lot of progress with the suit
against Uber for not providing full access to passengers with service
animals. All we know is that Uber is challenging some of the complaint
and that the suit could take some time.
NAGDU has applied for the initial grant requested for our work in
training zoo staff and patrons with service animals.. The pilot for
this program will start shortly, which will lead to more grant
applications and a couple of surveys to be filled out by zoo patrons
with service animals and also by zoo staff. I have a lot of info on
this, which may be worth discussing at our next meeting.
Marion is interested in receiving any ideas that we might have about
initiatives that NAGDU can work on in the future.
It is time for NAGDU to print new brochures. As such, we need pictures
of you and your dog in your everyday life. They should be as high
quality as possible, although HDR images from a newer iPhone should
suffice.
Again, please write me or call with any questions. My cell phone
number is 937-733-0525. This is a very condensed version of these
notes, so some aspects may be confusing.


-- 
Aleeha Dudley and Seeing Eye Yellow Labrador Dallas
Vice President, Ohio Association of Guide Dog Users
Vice President, Ohio Association of Blind Students
Email: blindcowgirl1993 at gmail.com
Follow me on Twitter at @blindcowgirl199

The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse's ears.
- Arabian Proverb