[nfb-talk] Future NFB Conventions

Thu Nov 26 19:31:54 UTC 2009

That's certainly a very charged and heavy statement, Bryan.

I'll agree with you that the week can be inconvenient. Often I'm torn between making a decision to spend my free week off during the summer with friends or in a hotel at a convention. Two summers ago I almost skipped convention to spend my July Fourth week with friends at a Dave Matthews concert.

In fact I'll go a bit farther and admit that the July Fourth week of convention almost makes me a bit upset. This July Fourth I was in a NABS meeting when I could have been with friends watching fireworks on the beach in my home state. To my amazement, blind people often collectively don't care much for fireworks so I was most likely one of only a few really bothered and inconvenienced by this.

However, saying that NFB and blind people in general isolate themselves from the public and would rather spend time at a convention than with friends is not true. Changing the week of convention would simply be too inconvenient for many people; the current week is the only week that people have a chance to take off work or travel, and any other dates would probably see much less attendance. Moreover, many people do not stay the entire convention week, choosing to spend part of it with friends and part at the convention or simply head back to work after a couple days.

It seems that convention attendees want everything -- low rates, different cities, tourist attractions, ETC. Personally I am very willing to deal with slightly higher rates to move to better and diverse cities. Many people do use these conventions as a place to attend meetings and also hang out with other friends around town [yes Bryan, blind friends]. If rates were higher but in more diverse and interesting cities, would we see attendance rise as people come to experience the best of convention and a new city? A better question might be, do enough people feel as disgusted with Dallas as I do to avoid conventions in favor of other plans? The traveler in me says yes, but it seems that popular opinion is against this idea. Finally, the main point of convention has nothing to do with the attractions around town -- so while I would love to travel to better locations it's most likely not a priority on the agenda.

Brice

> From: b.schulz at sbcglobal.net
> To: nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
> Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:32:43 -0600
> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Future NFB Conventions
> 
> hi,
> 
> nfb/blind people tend to isolate themselves from the sighted world and don't 
> consider that some members prefer to spend their fourth of july events with 
> sighted friends instead of sitting in a hotel.
> 
> Bryan Schulz
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Wm. Ritchhart " <william.ritchhart at sbcglobal.net>
> To: "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 6:46 AM
> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Future NFB Conventions
> 
> 
> >I would only add to this string with the comment that at the last national
> > convention I attended, this topic was brought up. Both the issue of 
> > paying
> > more and changing the time were presented. Overwhelmingly both items were
> > massively defeated.
> >
> > So long as the membership is determined to pay as little as possible and
> > keeping the convention in the first days of July, choices will be 
> > extremely
> > limited.
> >
> > I personally would rather undergo massive tooth extraction than spend a 
> > week
> > in Dallas in July. Especially when the hotel is basically isolated. So
> > that one cannot just walk out and access the city.
> >
> > Orlando holds great promise. Indeed I cannot believe that Marc allowed 
> > the
> > convention to be booked in such a desirable tourist location. Having 
> > stayed
> > in Orlando when attending the Daytona 500, I am aware of all the
> > distractions beyond Disney. There is enough in Orlando to make skipping 
> > the
> > boring guy from agency X look very attractive. And there are enough 
> > tourist
> > attractions to make skipping him easy.
> >
> >
> > Thanks, William
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> > Behalf Of Mike Freeman
> > Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 2:43 PM
> > To: nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
> > Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Future NFB Conventions
> >
> > True enough! This stems from at least two factors: First, the number of
> > convention attendees has increased greatly, making it harder to find a
> > single hotel that will hold a majority of them. In essence, we're too big
> > for the smaller hotels and not quite big enough for the megahotels.
> >
> > Second, despite the severe economic down-turn (or, perhaps, because of 
> > it),
> > hotels have become far tougher to negotiate with than in days of yore,
> > necessitating making of contracts farther out in order to get anything 
> > like
> > the rates NFB members are used to.
> >
> > Mike
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Gerardo Corripio" <gera1027 at gmail.com>
> > To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> > Date: Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009 11:32:06
> > Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Future NFB Conventions
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> I've noticed that in the past more cities were sites of NFB conventions
> >> whereas since about 2004 or so the only cities I've heard where
> > conventions
> >> are have been either Dallas, Atlanta whereas in years past I've heard 
> >> that
> >
> >> cities as Kansas, Houston, Denver and San Francisco I think was once site
> > of
> >> a convention.
> >> Gerardo
> >> ----- Original Message ----- 
> >> From: "Darian Smith" <dsmithnfb at gmail.com>
> >> To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> >> Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 11:00 AM
> >> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Future NFB Conventions
> >>
> >>
> >> You know, it might take some bit of nagotiation, but I would love to
> >> see National convention in San Francisco. I mean, think of the
> >> possibilities... You can have people touring the city, students could
> >> visit both San Francisco state and UC Berkley, Guide dogs for the
> >> blind is basically right across the goldengate bridge, oh, and did I
> >> mention the goldengate bridge? you can have the march crossing the
> >> goldengate bridge.
> >> and for those people who like baseball and tend to visit the ball
> >> yard... AT&T Park is about as pretty of a park as they come. you can
> >> take the bus and find some good food about anywhere in the city.
> >> Not to mention that you could get alot of attention by just being in 
> >> san
> >
> >> fran.
> >> Besides, one of our historically great leaders came from northern
> >> california.
> >> I think that's all amazing reasons to make a national convention
> >> a golden gate event.
> >> Darian
> >>
> >> On 11/25/09, d m gina <dmgina at samobile.net> wrote:
> >> > thanks Mike I will do just that.
> >> > Sure would love to see NFB in Colorado again.
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > --Dar
> >> > skype
> >> > dmgina23
> >> > every saint has a past
> >> > every sinner has a future
> >> >
> >> > Email services provided by the System Access Mobile Network. Visit
> >> > www.serotek.com to learn more about accessibility anywhere.
> >> >
> >> > _______________________________________________
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> >> > nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
> >> > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-talk_nfbnet.org
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >> -- 
> >> The National Federation of the Blind has launched a nationwide teacher
> >> recruitment campaign to help attract energetic and passionate
> >> individuals into the field of blindness education, and we need your
> >> help! To Get Involved go to:
> >> www.TeachBlindStudents.org
> >>
> >>
> >> "And if you will join me in this improbable quest, if you feel destiny
> >> calling, and see as I see, a future of endless possibility stretching
> >> before us;
> >> if you sense, as I sense, that the time is now to shake off our
> >> slumber, and slough off our fear, and make good on the debt we owe
> >> past and future generations,
> >> then I'm ready to take up the cause, and march with you, and work with
> >> you. Together, starting today, let us finish the work that needs to be
> >> done, and
> >> usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth."- Baraq Obama
> >>
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