[Oabs] Off to a Good Start

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi OABS, 

 

I am pleased to report that last night's meeting was a great success, and I
feel like we had good conversation that will lay the foundation for
everything else we will do this year.  Minutes from Lillie will follow, but
I wanted to call your attention to a few particular matters so that you can
be aware of what is going to go on in the next few weeks.  We're going to
try to have everything settled by our January meeting if at all possible.
For those of you who missed the meeting, I have attached a copy of our
constitution so you can reference the points that I will discuss in this
email, as well as what you will see was discussed in the copy of the
minutes.  

 

As you have all probably read in previous emails, we have three great
committees that are available to us (See Article VIII).  They are
Fundraising (chaired by Emily Pennington), Membership (chaired by Aleeha
Dudley), and Social Media (chaired by Amber Herrin-Meloy).  I will leave it
up to the chairs to deligate assignments within their committees.  If you
are interested in joining these groups please email the chair(s) of the
committee(s) you want to join directly.  I will write their email addresses
at the end of this email.  It would be great if everyone could at least join
one committee, preferably two.  Please make these decisions as soon as
possible, as it would be great to have an idea of who will be working on
what by our next meeting.  Committee chairs, I will ask about this at our
next meeting, but if you get two or three people besides yourselves before
then let me know so I can try to steer others towards committees that don't
have that many people and even things out.    

 

Our constitution states that OABS should have a president, vice president, a
secretary, and a treasurer in office, as well as two at-large board members.
In order to become compliant with our constitution (Article V section 1 and
Article VI), we will do email voting for the two board members because it is
the quickest way to get the elections done.  We will start with a nomination
period for both positions, elect board member number one, and then board
member number two.  Anyone who does not already hold office may be nominated
and run for either or both of these positions.  Additionally, since I have
split the responsibilities of secretary into recording and corresponding,
the possibility of making Amber's position of Corresponding Secretary into
an office instead of an appointed position was discussed.  We will need to
take a vote on that matter as well, and will do that in the form of voting
for an amendment to be made to the constitution.  If the amendment to make
corresponding secretary an officer position passes, then Amber's position
will immediately become an officer position (See Article XIII).    

  

Abby and I have selected a bank, and I got the go ahead to get an EIN number
for the business account Thursday night.  Once I do that and the bank
account is set up, we will request that all who wish to be active OABS
members pay dues (Article IV section 2 and Article X).  We will ask that
checks be sent to Abby to be deposited into the account.  Either she or I
will let you know when we have the account ready and what name to put on the
check.  The fiscal year for the affiliate begins in January, so it would be
great if we can have everything in and ready to be paid to the affiliate no
later than our January meeting (See article XI).  Please note that in order
to be compliant with our constitution, you must pay your dues if you vote on
the board member positions or on the proposed amendment.  Any member will
not be permitted to vote in elections or on any OABS issues in the future
until their dues have been paid.  (Article IV section 2).    

 

We will be having a meeting on Friday Dec. 2nd at our regularly scheduled
time.  This was a unanimous vote on the call, and was also a majority vote
of the overall group.  If you cannot make the meeting due to holiday plans
that is understandable, but do try to make it if you can.     

 

Please note that after the first of the new year, those of you who are not
on the OABS list serve hosted at nfbnet.org will not be individually emailed
with OABS meeting reminders and other information.  It is important that we
streamline the process for getting information out to all members, and the
list serve was set up specifically for that purpose.  Additionally, NABS and
the NFB send general announcements over that list as well, so it is also
worth signing up to be privy to that information.  As I have said before, if
you need help getting onto the list please do not hesitate to ask.    

 

Committee chairs and their email addresses:

Fundraising: Emily Pennington.  emilypennington at fuse.net

Membership: Aleeha Dudley.  Dudleya2 at muohio.edu

Social Media: Amber Herrin-Meloy.  Thetraveler87 at gmail.com

 

Be on the look out for election and amendment emails in addition to the
minutes.  Have a great week!

   

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

 

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