[Oagdu] NAGDU board meeting summary

[Deanna Lewis]

Aleeha,
Great job, thanks so much for summarizing the last two meetings. I applaud you for doing such a great job!
I think that discussing the Zoo issues would be a great topic for our next meeting which will be on January, 11th.
Also, those insulated mugs sound great, I would definitely buy one! I don't think I am able to attend the Convention this year, but I may ask someone to pick up a cup for me.
Thanks for all you do!
Deanna and Pascal

-----Original Message-----
From: Oagdu [mailto:oagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Aleeha Dudley via Oagdu
Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2014 7:49 PM
To: Ohio Association of Guide Dog Users List
Subject: [Oagdu] NAGDU board meeting summary

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

_______________________________________________
Oagdu mailing list
Oagdu at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/oagdu_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for Oagdu:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/oagdu_nfbnet.org/dlewis%40clovernook.org
List archives:  http://www.nfbnet.org/pipermail/oagdu_nfbnet.org

--
This email was Virus checked by UTM 9. http://www.sophos.com

-- 
This email was Virus checked by UTM 9. http://www.sophos.com

Sent from the Clovernook email system