[Arizona-students] AABS Monthly Meetings?

[Ben J. Bloomgren]

That's what I thought, but I wanted to be sure.
Ben
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Silverman, Arielle" <ASilverman at nfb.org>
To: "Arizona Association of Blind Students List" 
<arizona-students at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 6:23 AM
Subject: Re: [Arizona-students] AABS Monthly Meetings?


> Good point, Ben! I think the idea would be to mention the discussion topic 
> at the beginning of the lunch, and maybe have everyone go around the table 
> once and offer some answers to the question. After that initial go-around, 
> the discussion could take off however the group wants it to go.
>
> Arielle
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: arizona-students-bounces at nfbnet.org
> [mailto:arizona-students-bounces at nfbnet.org]On Behalf Of Ben J.
> Bloomgren
> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 11:36 PM
> To: Arizona Association of Blind Students List
> Subject: Re: [Arizona-students] AABS Monthly Meetings?
>
>
> I love the idea. I'd prefer that the topic of discussion be simply
> integrated into the normal conversation taking place at the place.
> Ben
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Silverman, Arielle" <ASilverman at nfb.org>
> To: <arizona-students at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 7:20 PM
> Subject: [Arizona-students] AABS Monthly Meetings?
>
>
> Hello everyone,
>
>    I hope that those of you who attended our most recent NFB national
> convention were inspired, energized, and are ready for another exciting 
> year
> for the NFB!
>
>    While walking to the banquet on Thursday evening, I happened to bump
> into (almost literally) the president of the New Mexico Association of 
> Blind
> Students. I told her that I am the president of the Arizona Association of
> Blind Students, and in the course of our conversation she asked me if our
> student division holds monthly meetings. I had to admit that as of yet we
> have managed to have only quarterly meetings. Afterward, though, it 
> occurred
> to me that there is nothing stopping us from having monthly meetings and
> that, in fact, doing something once a month, however informal, will help 
> us
> to grow and stay connected.
>
>    On the flight back from convention, I came up with some ideas for how
> our monthly meetings could work, which I will describe below. This is just
> one idea, so we welcome your opinions. What do you guys think of the
> following plan?
>
>    Ideally, a different AABS officer will be in charge of each meeting,
> which will take place on the last Saturday of each month over lunch. The
> person in charge (from now on referred to as the meeting host) will choose 
> a
> restaurant where the lunch will be held, and will announce this on our
> listserv. The host will also call as many students as possible during the
> week before the meeting to encourage them to come, and will keep a rough
> count of how many people to expect. The meeting host will come to the 
> lunch
> meeting and will bring a blindness-related question or scenario to be
> discussed during the lunch. Examples of topics may include, "When should
> blind students use additional time when taking exams?", "What's the best 
> way
> to find a part-time job while in school?", or "When is the best time to 
> get
> blindness training?" We will also invite NFBA officers to come to the 
> lunch
> and update the students about local, state, and national NFB activities.
> Finally, if the meeting host is ambitious, he/she will organize a 
> post-lunch
> activity that is fun and that also gets us out in the public doing 
> everyday
> things. Examples of after-lunch activities could include a trip to a local
> movie theater, shopping at a mall or shopping center, hiking, rock 
> climbing,
> ice skating, serving food at a soup kitchen, and many other things that I
> haven't mentioned.
>
>    Since a different officer will host each meeting, the meetings will 
> take
> place in different regions of the state. The goal would not be to get all
> our members to each and every meeting, but simply to give students a
> frequent chance to connect with each other in a setting that facilitates
> confidence building, networking, and learning about our organization and 
> our
> philosophy. I would hope that some of the meetings could occur in regions 
> of
> Arizona that have less AABS activity and so can bring in new members. For
> instance, when it is Ryan's turn to host, the meeting would probably be in
> Flagstaff and may include mostly NAU students, but the NAU students would
> have a chance to meet AABS at some point before the next division-wide
> seminar. We would still, of course, encourage students to join their local
> chapters as well as coming to the local AABS meetings.
>
>    Again, this is a work in progress, so please share your feedback and
> suggestions on the list regarding monthly meetings. Our board will discuss
> this briefly at our July meeting and if we approve the idea, I would be
> happy to get the ball rolling by hosting the first meeting on August 26.
>
>    Thank you in advance for your contributions to this effort to 
> strengthen
> our student division. It is through all of your efforts that we can make 
> our
> dreams a reality for Arizona's blind students.
>
> Arielle Silverman
> President, Arizona Association of Blind Students
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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