[vendtalk] Introduction

[Mike Vandervoort]

Michelle,
Do you have any members who are vendors?  Do they have any issues or
problems?  This is a place where people in the Randolph Sheppard Program can
express their viewpoints and ask for assistance or provide help.

FYI - You may know that the annual NABM national BLAST Conference, called
Lonestar BLAST, will be in Austin, Texas this Nov 18-20.  Great place for
all to come who are in, or what to be in, the Randolph Sheppard Program, and
those who have, or want to have, businesses of their own.

As an example of potential discussions for the list, here is a topic area
not discussed in the recent past, but is becoming more important -

Should snack packaging, like a candy bar, or even a can of food, have any
tactile features that allows the consumer to know what the product is or
what type of food was inside??  There are plenty of technology solutions for
that, but I was talking about something much more direct - like touch, but
maybe less that Braille.  A number of years ago, the Can Manufacturers
Institute was asked whether they now have, or could provide, simple coding
standards of the metal rings found on the ends of virtually all cans of
food.  The answer was that there were no standards but they could push for
some if there was interest.  The question began with whether the distinctive
rings found on the top and bottom of cans meant anything to anybody.  If
they did, the blind could sort cans based on type - say fruit, vegetable,
meat, and so on.

Pushing that into vending, can the vending product manufactures at least
provide a tactile indicator as to which is the front and the top of a
product so that they can be placed properly in a snack machine?  This
becomes more important with new regulations for vending machines coming into
effect along with potential fines for non-conformance.

Any positions on these from anybody?

Regards,

Mike Vandervoort
Vandervoort's Vending
Abilene, TX

-----Original Message-----
From: vendtalk [mailto:vendtalk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kevan
Worley via vendtalk
Sent: Monday, November 3, 2014 11:07 AM
To: 'Michelle Clark'; 'Vendor Talk Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [vendtalk] Introduction

Hi Michelle,

Thank you very much for your work to build the Federation through chapter
building and outreach. I would say that this is an underutilized forum.
Mostly, folks talk about issues important in the vending industry, access
technology, food service, as well as issues regarding the Randolph-Sheppard
Act and the way the state business enterprise programs are managed. Others
may wish to chime in. This list used to have a lot of traffic, but now not
so much.   

-----Original Message-----
From: vendtalk [mailto:vendtalk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Michelle
Clark via vendtalk
Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2014 9:19 PM
To: vendtalk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [vendtalk] Introduction

Hello,

 

I  joined this list to get an understanding of what persons working as
vendors discuss and what topics are making the list.

I  am a  Chapter President and trying to learn what other areas in the NFB
are doing and want to expose members of the Chapter to different
alternatives. I  look forward to the posts and hope to be able to contribute
at some point. Perhaps, I  might run across something that make me try some
vending?

Thanks,

Michelle Clark
President
National Harbor Chapter
National Federation of the Blind of Maryland
Live the life  you want in Prince Georges County!

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