[Oabs] Quorem and business matters

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi all,

I know that Emily and Aleeha have spoken up about this problem as it
relates to their respective committees, but I am very concerned by the
lack of attendance at tonight's business meeting.  I know that it is
the first week back to school for most of us, but I think most of
those people effected by a new semester starting just a few days ago
were the ones who showed up.  Emily, Macy, and I were the only ones on
the call.  Elif made an effort to come but somehow could not get
through, and Aleeha could not make it but made sure to convey her
understandable reason for being absent to me.  However, even if Elif
was able to get through and Aleeha was able to make the call, we still
would have fallen short of quorem.  This is even excluding the Maurers
from our membership list since they will most likely not attend any
meetings.

Every member is part of the nuts and bolts of this group, and like a
piece of machinery things break down without a lack of support.  I
know the semester is just starting; believe me, at 20 credits this
semester I can tell I'm going to have a lot on my plate, too.  I also
know this was the first time we met on a Thursday night, but please
make an effort in the future to attend meetings so discussion time is
not left to waste.  Our poor committees have practically been at a
stand-still, and as bad as that is we absolutely can't afford for the
division itself to come to a grinding hault.  If not for that reason,
then please do it out of consideration for other OABS members who
dutifully call in to continue the work of the division.  We really
can't do it without you.

Here are the business items I wanted to discuss at tonight's meeting.

1.  Bookmarks.  Emily has emailed me the design, huzzah, and I will be
talking with Nicole from NBP over the phone tomorrow to see what they
can do for us now that we have a design.
2.  Membership committee has struggled with attendance, but if we're
going to have a membership retreat this summer we will need to find
and book a location fairly soon, at least by March.  This location
could be a church, a retreat/camp site, etc.  I had a few ideas about
making it a bigger eent, inviting blind students from the Columbus
area/OSSB to join.  This could be great for recruiting, but also would
increase the group size and therefore lower our rates most likely.
Cons would be that we would be more like peer mentors or counselors
than peers working on team building, and things like food would be a
bigger consideration unless we're at a camp which staffs a mess hall
or a church which has cooking facilities and decides to donate food or
something.  If you are interested in this, or the original team
building retreat, possibly with other student divisions from
neighboring states, come to the membership committee meetings.  You
can also send Aleeha emails with ideas as well.  I was also thinking
that we could start writing to Lions Clubs if we would like to try to
get some help with funding this endeavor.
3.  We still have to have an official vote to make the name of our
newsletter final, but I think we need to at least start prepping for
it even though we could not make the name official tonight.  If you
have any articles you would like to write about your experiences as a
student or a blind person in general, please write them up.  When you
are ready for editing, please email joy.misto at gmail.com and carbon
copy me on the message.  I've discussed this with Barbara Pierce who
for a long time edited the Braille Monitor, and she thinks it is a
fabulous idea.  As she edits the Buckeye Bulletin now, she thinks our
newsletter could also produce some great material for the affiliate's
newsletter.  If you would like to see your name in print for either of
these two exciting publications, writing for our newsletter would be a
good way to start.
4.  Membership video.  Please send me pictures of you doing things.
Any picture is great; riding a bike, working on a computer, chatting
with friends, walking down the street, playing sports or musical
instruments, etc.  Odds are we can use it in the video.  Board
members, please get your videos to me as soon as possible.  I don't
want my pictures and video to be the only ones in there; let's
diversify this a bit.  My goal would be to get everyone in there
almost equally, so send me what you've got.  All major file extenions
should work, and I am familiar with paint so I could convert the image
files if necessary.
5.  Our next meeting will be on Feb 19 at 7:30 PM.  Remember that this
is a part of our change from Fridays to Thursday nights, and that
we'll use the same access code and phone line.

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.


-- 
Kaiti Shelton
University of Dayton 2016.
Music Therapy, Psychology, Philosophy
President, Ohio Association of Blind Students
Sigma Alpha Iota-Delta Sigma