[Oabs] Reminders

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi all, 

 

Just a few reminders:

 

We will be having our December meeting this Friday at 8:00, call information
will follow in a few days.  We will be having Patti Gregory-Chang, the chair
of the NFB scholarship committee, speak to us about the national scholarship
program.  As I've said before the Ohio affiliate has a 3 year streak of
scholarship winners, with two Ohioans winning in 2011 and 2012, and myself
in 2013.  Aleeha (2011) and Emily (2012) along with myself can also provide
insight into the experience of being a scholarship winner, so this call with
Patti should be a good one.  If you have never applied for an NFB
scholarship I would encourage you to call in and ask questions.  If you have
applied in the past and were not selected, please apply again.  I was one of
those people who was selected the second time they applied, so just because
you aren't picked the first time you go for it, it doesn't mean you are not
a worthy candidate for the program.  The experience is definitely worth a
second, third, fourth, or X-many try.    

 

After Patti speaks, we will briefly review the changes that have been made
to our constitution, and will spend some time getting committees set up.  I
have still not heard anything from committee chairs, so my guess is that
they have no members to report.  Since no one has emailed their ideas to the
committee chairs, we will need to set up the committees while on the call.
All active members will be placed on at least one committee.  I don't
anticipate these committees will take up a lot of extra time outside of our
regular meetings, and the meeting times could be even more flexible since it
is a smaller group of people in each committee.  If you can send an email to
Aleeha, Amber, or Emily by Friday please do.  It will speed up the process.
(Committee chairs, please keep me in the loop if/when you do get someone on
your committee as I will try to make a roster of committees this week).  

 

Officers, if you have yet to draft a bio and send it to Joy for editing
please do.  Now that finals are done for most of us, it is the perfect time
to get these OABS items out of the way.  I know Aleeha has already done
this, and I will finish my bio and send it to Joy tonight.  I really want
January to be the month when a lot of things, including the web site, get
off the ground.  Please get your bios to Joy ASAP, and no later than the end
of this month.  

 

I have finished the process with the IRS and our EIN number is ready and has
been sent to Abby.  Once Eric drafts a letter authorizing the OABS bank
account, she can set it up and we'll be ready to go with our fundraiser.  

 

A general reminder as we move into motion with this fundraiser.  Our
division is off and running, and I think that the start we have is a good
one.  We are lucky to have members at fairly large universities, including
UD, Xavier, Wright State, and Miami.  We also have connections throughout
the affiliate, including various divisions and employees at sight centers
and agencies for the blind who might be able to help with sales.  We need to
really put this fundraiser out there.  I know this may sound like common
sense, but everyone, do what you can to ask your various clubs, Greek
groups, faculty you might be close to, etc.  Ask your roommates, friends,
and anyone you can think of.  If you go to church, ask if a note about the
fundraiser with your contact information can be put into the newsletter or
something.  The more we get this out there, the more likely people are to
buy it.  This is especially important if we want sighted people to buy it,
which we do for educational purposes.  Don't be afraid to pitch the product.
Try to come up with at least three groups you can announce the fundraiser
to.  I know I will be doing this at a chapter meeting for my fraternity, at
Music Therapy Club, and with my co-workers at our second semester briefing
for a start.  I also plan to put announcements out over various lists
including NABS once Emily has the supply to meet the first batch of demands,
and of course we know the affiliate will want to buy to show support.    

 

Just as we need to get out there for the sake of the fundraiser, we all need
to be recruiters.  Aleeha's committee has the charge of coming up with
strategies that we can use statewide, but each of us has the responsibility
to make contact with any blind students we may come into contact with.
We've been saying for a long time that we know the blind students are out
there, we just need to draw them in.  The best approach for this is to
personally invite them to a meeting.  Those of you who have connections at
places where there are a large number of blind students are especially
important.  I am particularly interested in getting in touch with some of
the students from Wright State.  I see them around campus when I am there,
and I wonder how they haven't gotten involved with OABS or the Dayton
chapter.  I very recently talked to Richard and he is interested in helping
us find students in the Dayton area as a partnership to recruit members for
the Miami Valley chapter and our division, but we need to all be active
recruiters.  Please reach out to these, and any other blind students you all
may have connections to.  

 

That is all I have for now.  Those of you who took finals, enjoy some much
deserved RNR.  To those who may have finals left, keep going!

 

Kaiti Shelton

University of Dayton---2016

Music Therapy Major, Psychology Minor, Clarinet

Ohio Association of Blind Students, President 

Advocates for Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP), Vice President

NFB Community Service Group, Service Project Committee Chair

Sigma Alpha Iota-Delta Sigma, Usher Coordinator