[Oabs] Bookmark Update

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi OABS,

First, thank you to Emily for getting things going with the
fundraiser.  Although I have yet to see a prototype, I think that it
sounds great from the description.

This brings me to my next few points I was going to email out to the
group.  First, to committee leaders (Emily, Aleeha, and Amber) I have
not heard anything regarding committee members joining each of you.
So, to the group at large, please email Emily directly if you would
like to join fundraising, Aleeha if you want to join membership, or
Amber if you would like to join social media.  (Officers and board
members, you can join committees too.  I am planning to help on each
of the committees as I am able to as well.

This brings me to another point, since my email about it on
Thanksgiving morning did not go through at my roommate's house.  Joy
Mistovich is our board member #2, and our board is now complete.  Now
that all the slots are filled according to our constitution, the board
will begin meeting in addition to the regular business meetings to
discuss ways in which the division can improve and to work towards
building a bitter and better division in terms of members, revenue,
and support to the Ohio NFB.

A few other notes: in case you did not see it on Ohio-Talk, Washington
Seminar is scheduled for Jan 24-30 and the Ohio affiliate is planning
on going for the 27th and 28th.  If you can go, I strongly encourage
that you do.  It is a great opportunity to network and to be an active
member of the legislative movement.  As students school does come
first, and I'm in this boat myself as I have multiple classes on those
days that are crucial to my major, but even if you cannot attend this
year keep it on your radar for the future.
If you have not done so, please sign up for the OABS mailing list on
nfbnet.org.  This will very likely be the last warning I give before
the new year, since I have already given several and with final exams
and then christmas preparations taking up the bulk of my time in the
weeks leading up to our next meeting, I will probably not remind
people again.  Beginning the first of the year, all OABS notifications
will only be sent over the list and not to a roster of individual
people.  I have expressed how this will make communication easier for
leaders, and the group in general in terms of sparking conversation
between meetings.  I have given multiple warnings, so please make sure
to do this before the first of the year if you have not done so
already.
    Please remember that our next meeting will take place on Friday
Dec 20 at 7:00.  In the meantime, try to relax for a while in the
midst of studying and finishing papers.  Be sure to not overwork
yourselves, and get sleep.  For most of us our finals are next week,
so push hard through then and then celebrate with some Christmas
festivities.  Trust me, the month off will be work the difficulties
this week and next.

P.S: Committee leaders, please let me know if you have indeed received
emails of interest from members wishing to join your committees.  That
is all.

Good luck, guys!

On 12/3/13, Lillie Pennington <lilliepennington at fuse.net> wrote:
> Hi all
>
> I just wanted to add to what Emily said earlier in reguards to clarifying
> what the finished product will look like. I saw a possible prototype
> tonight.
>
> There will be the card with the bookmark, as Emily described. There will be
> a piece of string inserted into a hole punched hole in one corner of the
> bookmark. The card will be slid down the string so that it rests in the
> middle of the string. There will be two stickers with the whozit symbol
> produced by my dad. One sticker will go on each end of the string, by use
> of
> the adhesive backing on the sticker. Then, the stickers will be stuck
> together so that the string forms a circle.
>
> The possible idea is that the paper side of the bookmark will be inserted
> into the page being marked, and the string with the symbol will stick out
> of
> the book.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
>
>
> From: Emily Pennington [mailto:emilypennington at fuse.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2013 9:10 PM
> To: kaiti.shelton at gmail.com; lilliepennington at fuse.net;
> violingirl30794 at hotmail.com; thetraveler87 at gmail.com; dudleya2 at muohio.edu;
> bmisch2002 at gmail.com; macymcclain at yahoo.com; conley.53 at wright.edu;
> snappydog at ameritech.net; spangler.robert at gmail.com; joy.misto at gmail.com
> Cc: dkkendrick at earthlink.net
> Subject: Bookmark Update
>
>
>
> Hi, OABSters.
>
> As most of you know, we are beginning work on a fund-raiser that will
> involve selling custom-made bookmarks - which will appeal to both blind and
> sighted people - in and around our communities. At our last meeting a
> couple
> of weeks ago, we discussed what we thought would be a good layout for these
> bookmarks, and we agreed that it would be most economical and convenient
> for
> my dad, who is pretty artistic and can make use of our Tiger Embosser at
> home, to make them for us.
>
> In talking with our dad about logistics, Lillie and I agreed with him that
> we needed to make a couple of modifications to our layout for the sake of
> the bookmark's appearance and the cost to us. What with our embosser not
> being perfect and the resources we have, we came up with a layout for a
> prototype that will be similar to but not quite what we discussed in
> November. Here - to the best of my describing abilities - is the layout for
> our prospective bookmark.
>
> Are you guys familiar with those American Printing House Braille/print
> alphabet cards? They have the entire alphabet in print and Braille, and a
> sentence in Braille that says, "This is written in Braille. Can you read
> it?" It may have a couple of other things on it, but I can't recall what
> they are because I haven't seen one in ages. Anyway, 100 of those cards
> together costs only $7, and we were thinking that a couple hundred could be
> purchased for our fund-raiser.
>
> So, on side 1 of the bookmark, we would superimpose that card (which has no
> APH logo or anything that would relate it to that company specifically) on
> one side of a sheet of paper. Side 2 will begin with the following blurb
> written solely in print:
>
> Braille is based on a six-dot rectangular cell, dots 123 on the left, and
> dots 456 on the right.
>
> Using the alphabet on the reverse side, read the sentence below.
>
> Now, for the puzzle, my dad said he would be able to make Braille dots, but
> in print. So, the sighted people would be seeing print, but it would still
> be the Braille dots, and they would look identical to what we would read if
> it was actually in Braille. I believe he said this would be easier because
> of possible malfunctions in the Tiger. At any rate, the puzzle - which
> would
> be written in uncontracted print/Braille - would read:
>
> Seeing occurs in the mind
>
> (If the symbol for a period is included on the APH card, we can put one at
> the end of that sentence. If it's not, I don't want to confuse the sighties
> with that extra symbol, if you get my drift.)
>
> Then, below, the following will be in print.
>
> Ohio Association of Blind Students
>
> National Federation of the Blind
>
> Lastly, a bookmark looks more authentic if it has a hole punched through
> the
> top of it with a piece of yarn or some variation of that going through the
> hole. My dad thought it would be cool to attach the Whozit logo (in print)
> that way. To be honest, I'm having a hard time comprehending how said
> attachment would look and feel without seeing it, but he said he'd show me
> later.
>
> This brings me to my next point. If you like, we can easily construct a
> couple of prototypes and mail them directly to you so you can get a
> firsthand look at what the bookmark would be like. Besides, we could easily
> do this before our meeting on the 20th so we could move forward quickly
> with
> this project. If any of you want a prototype mailed to you so you can give
> feedback, give me your address, and I can send it.
>
> Of course, I'm sure there will be some controversy with the puzzle and the
> Whozit logo showing up in print - even if the puzzle is in print Braille.
> As
> I said before, this will be easier with the capabilities of the Tiger.
> Besides, even though I'm sure we will get a number of blind customers, we
> are appealing largely to a sighted market, so this layout will definitely
> work for them. So, regarding the feedback, maybe have a family member,
> friend, roommate, or some such person take a look, too; it would definitely
> be helpful to get some feedback from a customer's perspective. We don't
> have
> the plastic paper, but we have some really nice, colored paper that is
> somewhat glossy on one side, and which my dad assured me will look really
> sharp with the final product. Think about it, guys: If we bought, say,
> three
> sets of 100 APH alphabet cards for a total of $21, then sold each bookmark
> for about a dollar, our funds would be amazing. Depending on who is on our
> next call and who wishes to take part in the sale, we could distribute 40
> or
> 50 to each person and have them sell those in their area. Additionally, we
> could get counter space at local places like CABVI or Clovernook in order
> to
> sell them more quickly.
>
> Obviously, I went into a lot more than the bookmark layout, but these are
> all important issues that warrant some thought and discussion. I know we
> meet in two and a half weeks, but I wanted to get the ball rolling so we
> could move ahead more quickly and efficiently with our plans come the 20th,
> and maybe even start sales soon after second semester begins. Feel free to
> reply with feedback, and as I said before, shoot me your address if you
> want
> a prototype mailed to you.
>
> Take care, and stay strong during these next weeks of pre-finals
> pandemonium!
>
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Emily
>
>