[NFBWATlk] Fwd: Important NFB Washington Seminar information

[Marci Carpenter]

It is time once again to plan for the 2022 National Federation of the Blind Washington Seminar. Seminar dates are Monday, February 7 to Thursday, February 10. There will be some changes to accommodate safety and you can be on one of our Washington state teams.

Some Congressional offices are excepting in person appointments with a limited number of constituents. Others are holding appointments virtually. in order to maintain some social distancing and accommodate for the changes in the way appointments will work our national policy team has allocated each NFB affiliate a certain number of delegates to attend Washington Seminar in person based on the state’s number of Congresspeople. We can have 4 Federationists from Washington state attend in person and, as we did in 2021, have a larger group attend the virtual meetings. Each Congressional meeting will be either in person or virtual but not both.  Each state will have two teams of people for this Washington seminar. One team will be in person in Washington DC attending those meetings which will occur in person with Senators and Congresspeople. The other team will be here in Washington state attending Congressional meetings that happen virtually.

Here’s how we will select our NFB of Washington in-person team members:
1. Each member wanting to attend in person will send me an email with their name, contact information (street address, email address and phone number), reason for wanting to attend in person, Congressional district and Congressperson. It is easy to find one’s district and representative online (so no one gets to call me and ask :-)). All applicants must also state that they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and be prepared to provide proof of vaccination. All emails are due no later than 11:59 PM on December 18. Anyone applying after that date and time will be disqualified.
2. All in-person attendees must arrive at the hotel in Washington DC on Sunday, February 6 and return home on Thursday, February 10. All applicants must be able to commit to these dates at the time of application.
3. I will appoint a team of affiliate members who have been to Washington Seminar before but who do not plan to attend in person in 2022 to select the in-person attendees. The committee will make its decisions by December 20. 
4. Students are strongly encouraged to apply. The National Association of Blind Students (NABS) will hold a student Seminar during the day on Monday, February 7. Any student selected an in-person attendee must attend that seminar.
5. Consideration will also be given to selecting attendees from a variety of congressional districts.

Once the in-person attendees have been selected we will ask members to apply to be on the larger, virtual appointment team. 

After holding all our meetings virtually for the past 21 months I am very excited that we will be able to have an in person team at the 2022 Washington Seminar. Please contact me if you have any questions. Whether you have attended Washington Seminar in the past or will be attending for the first time I encourage you to apply!

Marci Carpenter, Presiden
National Federation of the Blind of Washington
206-604-5507
mjc59 at comcast.net