[Nfb-kzoo] Update on the Chapter

Sat Sep 26 21:02:08 UTC 2009

NFB Members,
Christine, that's a bummer, hopefully your on the mend and will be feeling well soon.  I'm sorry to hear about your mother in law, tell Doug I give him my condolences.  Tim, I'm sorry to hear about your life being so crazy, hopefully things will settle down for you guys.  Regardless of whether or not you guys are officers or otherwise, I would like to have you at the meetings.  Leanne and I were discussing whether or not another day of the week would be workable.  We thought that Thursday nights at the same time would be a better situation for most of our members?  I think for several it makes little difference, maybe that is an assumption, but let me know if that is incorrect.  For myself personally, Fridays are not as demanding academically, so to have a meeting Thursday night as opposed to Monday night would be much appreciated.  Not doing it on Fridays would also allow people to go out of town for the weekend if they so desired and not miss out on the meetings for that reason.  If everyone could let me know their thoughts on this, but I think that unless I get some negative feedback on this, we are going to go ahead and schedule the meetings for every second Thursday of the month, starting with Thursday October 8, at 6:30.

Another issue that needs to be addressed is notice of absence.  I'm not picking on anyone here, please note that, because I've been guilty of the same, but I want to stress at this point how important it is to have an early notice if one is not going to make the meeting.  One thing is that for Leanne and I, we have to schedule a babysitter, so in a sense, we have a financial investment into each meeting.  Another reason is that we have a potential member who will be attending meetings from Hopkins, which is about a 40 minute drive north of Kalamazoo, and it would be a shame for that person to come to our meeting and find themselves the only ones there.  Finally, all of us have been in a situation, perhaps with this chapter even, where attendants have not been present and your time is "wasted".  This is no fun and frustrating for those who attend.  This past meeting was worth the time for Leanne and I because we had a lot of fun with those who attended and ate some good pizza, however, we spent way more on pizza than was necessary for our family and those who attended, and though the pizza was consumed overtime, it would've been great to have had a better idea of the numbers attending..

Our future meetings, I am hoping, will have a few extra qualities, such as being more fun/exciting, having more people, and overall being a little more relaxed yet responsible.  We all owe some of our current lifestyle to some of the doings of the NFB, so it seems fair to me that we put in the time to pay it forward.

Your thoughts please, and take care,
Tyler Merren
President of the NFB of Kalamazoo
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Timothy Paulding 
  To: 'NFB of Kalamazoo Michigan List' 
  Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2009 7:32 PM
  Subject: Re: [Nfb-kzoo] Update on the Chapter

  Tyler,

  I am so sorry that I did not let you know that Jackie and I would not be
  present at the chapter meeting. Things have been so super crazy with our
  lives over the past month. Both Jackie and I are in grad school and working
  part time. I tried to email you Monday, but I don't think I had the right
  email address. I was in class and couldn't look up your address so tried to
  do it from memory.  Again, it was very flakey that we didn't even let anyone
  know that we would be there and I am sorry for that.

  It looks like this semester, Jackie and I will not be able to make it to any
  chapter meetings as we both have class on Monday evenings (the same class).
  I'm not sure what the group wants to do about this as I am the treasurer and
  Jackie is the vp and attendance of both of these important officers at
  meetings is pretty important. Please let me know your thoughts on this and
  we can discuss before elections. 

  Talk to you soon, tyler and thanks for all your hard work with the chapter.
  I love your ideas and enthusiasm.  

  _____________________

  Timothy J. Paulding

  217 Paisley Ct.

  Kalamazoo, MI  49006

  Ph: 269-598-7696

  tjpaulding at gmail.com

  -----Original Message-----
  From: nfb-kzoo-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-kzoo-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
  Behalf Of Tyler merren
  Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2009 12:38 PM
  To: NFB of Kalamazoo Michigan List
  Subject: [Nfb-kzoo] Update on the Chapter

  Fellow NFB Members,
  We had our last meeting on Monday September 14 at Leanne and I's house.  We
  had pizza and enjoyed some good conversation, so below is a quick update as
  to the conversations and the direction we are looking for the next year.  We
  just missed quarem, so no official minutes were taken, but here is the jest
  of the meeting.

  The meeting began around 6:30, at which time we ate pizza and began our
  discussion.  Those present were Tyler Merren (current president), Leanne
  Merren (current secretary), Jason Meddaugh (current member), Matthew
  McCubbin (current member), and Mike Torrez.  No membership fees were
  collected at this meeting.

  Jason Meddaugh indicated that his pet project of working with the Kalamazoo
  Metro Transit to have them purchase an audible announcement system for stops
  is looking hopeful, as they are about to purchase a GPS system for the
  buses.  He indicated that he will be working with them and updating the
  chapter.

  Jason also brought up the fact that the second millage vote will be
  happening this fall, and that it may be another situation where their will
  have to be some phone work done to help the millage pass, though he sounded
  hopeful that it wouldn't be as much of a challenge with this millage, the
  big concern would be more with the understanding that this millage would
  bring Kalamazoo back to the same point, and wouldn't be another increase.

  I emailed Kevin King, our contact from the library, to check on how the
  library project is progressing.  He indicated that due to some budgeting
  issues that the actual purchasing of the equipment would have to be pushed
  back to January 2010 approximately.  We are keeping in contact.

  I spoke with the group about the direction that I want the chapter to look
  this coming year.  One thing that I want to focus on is building a steady
  membership.  I feel that the one thing that will help out with this is to
  make the meetings a little more fun and enjoyable.  I don't think the
  meetings have been bad, but maybe just a little too serious?  Perhaps some
  feedback on this thought would be good.  We tried this out by playing some
  games at the end of the meeting, and I think it was a lot of fun.  Any ideas
  would be welcome.

  Elections will be held at our next meeting Monday October 12.  I will update
  the group as to the location of the meeting.  Put it on your calendars and
  we'll see you there.  In the mean time ideas would be appreciated as to how
  we can improve attendance at the meetings and increase membership.  Also, if
  you know that you will not be present at the meeting, a notice would be very
  much appreciated, however advanced it can be is also good.

  Thanks,
  Tyler Merren
  President of the NFB of kalamazoo
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