[Perform-talk] Hello, PAD!

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi, everyone,

Due to speaking engagements I had with the Human Services division at
convention I wasn't able to stay for the duration of our meeting, but
I wanted to introduce myself as the newest member of the PAD board to
those who might not have had a chance to speak to me, as well as those
who were not able to attend convention or our division meeting.

I'm going into my senior year of undergrad in the University of
Dayton's music therapy program.  Clarinet is my primary instrument but
I also play several others including guitar, piano, percussion, and a
few others on a hobbiest level like violin and viola.  I sing as well
and love everything from Mozart to Girshwin, but musical theatre is my
favorite.  I've been fortunate enough to have experiences in acting,
dance, and other sectors of the performing arts since an early age and
hope I can be a resource to the division along with Jordy, Julie,
Katelyn, Lizzie, Jim, and the rest of the board through next year.

I'm excited to serve you all as secretary.  This is a position I used
to hold in the Ohio Association of Blind Students before being elected
to the presidency, and the work of this position is something I've
missed in the two years since I last took down minutes.  I'm all about
lists, action points, and databases, so if something needs to be
written out and kept for records I'm your girl.  I've already been
working on forming a new system to gain information about activity of
our members in the performing arts that we can use to create a
mentoring program, and will start forming a database once that system
is modified if necessary and approved by the board.  One of the things
that you can hopefully look forward to in this system is a series of
experience levels to self-report your level of proficiency to be
matched with a mentor or mentee that is similar to you.

I can be reached at this email easily enough for the moment.  I look
forward to meeting more of you over the next year and further in the
future as we work to show that blind performers can-and do-participate
in the arts and can even outshine our sighted cast members,
colleagues, or ensemble peers.

-- 
Kaiti
President, Ohio Association of Blind Students 2013-Present
Secretary, The National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts
Division 2015-2016