arc Autumn 2003.html

Page 1 of 15 THE STYLUS Autumn 2003 OREGON COUNCIL OF THE BLIND PUBLICATION Affiliated with the American Council of the Blind Available in large print, via e-mail and on cassette Edited by Darian Hartman Contributions by Members of the Oregon Council of the Blind Page 2 of 15 Editor’s Note If you receive this newsletter in recorded format, it is no longer necessary to return the cassettes. In order to produce an interesting, informative and creative newsletter, articles of interest; chapter reports; etc., need to be submitted in a timely manner. The Stylus will come to you quarterly in March, June, September and December. Please submit materials by the 1st of February, May, August and November. Please note, Darian Hartman has moved; she has a new street address. Due to the constantly changing difficulties with the editor’s e-mail address, which will continue as long as she stays with Attbi, soon to become Comcast, she has decided to go with her always-constant e-mail address. So please note, send e-mail to darehart56@hotmail.com. Materials may be submitted in Braille, on cassette, in print, on computer disk or via e-mail to: Darian Hartman 12820 NE Prescott Drive Portland, OR 97230 Phone (503) 253-9543 E-mail: darehart56@hotmail.com Those wishing to receive “The Stylus” via e-mail should contact Darian Hartman, by e-mail. Please include the words “Stylus via e-mail” in the subject line. Please submit any address changes or requests to receive “The Stylus” in a different format to the Membership Chairperson, Joan Hill: (541) 882-9967, 4332 Meadows Dr., Klamath Falls, OR 97603, E-mail: joanh@cdsnet.net. Page 3 of 15 From the President’s Desk By Bev Rushing A number of our members attended the ACB Convention in Pittsburgh this year. Joan Hill attended as our first timer. Sharon Coverstone was one of only four, nationwide, the recipients of the Durward McDaniel first-timers award winners. I hope everyone enjoyed the convention, and found it very worthwhile as I did. Next year the 2004 ACB Convention will be in Birmingham, Alabama. 2005 will be closer to home in Las Vegas, Nevada. Saturday July 26 was our summer board meeting. There was much discussion concerning the cost of the convention busses. It was decided due to the high cost of transportation, we would set a price of $20.00 to ride the bus to the convention. We started the bussing in 1998, before that time, everyone traveled on his or her own. If the rider ship drops any lower, we may have to return to the former method. Due to such an expensive upcoming convention, and a decrease in our income, the board decided to drop the expense of sending the first vice-president to the A.C.B. convention, as well as the $400 National Convention Assistance Program. Should our income increase again, we can always reinstate them. As I write this, the registration forms are sitting on the kitchen table ready to be mailed. Included is a page with two by-law changes. Be sure to read them and be ready to vote on them at the State Convention. Page 4 of 15 We will be having (2) two workshops on Friday afternoon, which should be very interesting. One is Jackie Bryant from the Oregon Commission for the Blind. She will be doing a Daily Living Skill presentation. Nolan Crabb will host the other. Whatever subject matter he chooses is guaranteed to be interesting. After 10 years of doing the registration, Bob had a Senior Moment. So, those of you wishing Braille programs, please indicate this on the registration forms. State Convention News By Charlotte Noddin Remember to mark your calendars for the ACB of Oregon State Convention. The dates are October 16, 17 & 18. This is election year for new state officers, so you need to be there to place your votes. Make reservations at the Ramada Inn, 225 Coburg Road, Eugene, Oregon 97401. The telephone number is (541) 342-5181. Room track #3342. Remember, this will be a three-day convention. The state board meeting will be on Thursday evening, October 16, at 7 P.M. Guide Dog Users of Oregon (GDUO) will have breakfasts and lunches together and others will join for meals in another room. On Friday afternoon, October 17, there will be two workshops; attend the one Page 5 of 15 of your choice. Mary Lee Turner will lead one from the Eugene office of the Commission for the Blind. She will discuss adjustment to blindness and nifty tips for daily living. Don’t skip this even if you have lived with blindness for a long time. Mary Lee Turner is a dynamic speaker and creative in her own right. She may have new things and different perspectives up her sleeves. Nolan Krabb will facilitate the second workshop. He’s keeping the topic a secret. Don’t miss him though, he is another excellent speaker and writer with years of stories and down-to-earth tips to share with us. Saturday will feature other general sessions including speakers from the Oregon State School for the Blind and Talking Book and Braille Services Library along with other interesting highlights to complete the program. The banquet will be on Saturday evening. Our keynote speaker will be Mr. John Learned; he is the president of our vehicle donations program. See the winter issue of “The Stylus” for updated information about this program if you are unable to attend the workshop. This will complete the ACB of Oregon convention program. Participants are free to leave late Saturday evening or catch the busses back home early on Sunday. Hope to see you there. Bus Schedule: People traveling south from Portland to Eugene, will need to meet at Sherry’s Restaurant 1832 NE 122nd in Portland phone (503) 252-9590. Check with your chapter presidents for departure and return times Page 6 of 15 Proposed Changes In the A.C.B. of O. By-Laws: October 17th 2003 By Ted Noddin and Bob Rushing, Bylaw Committee Please read these changes to be voted on at the Convention. They are important to our Organization. ARTICLE IV MEMBERS SECTION 1. MEMBERSHIP Change to Read: (b) Associate Members. There shall be one class of associate members. Any person, who shares an interest in the objectives and purposes of the Council, shall be eligible to be admitted as an associate member. Associate members shall have all the privileges of a regular membership, except an associate member may not hold the office of the President or Vice Presidents. They may hold the office of, Secretary or Treasurer of the Council. ARTICLE X SECTION 4. (NEW) In the event a chapter should for, any reason dissolve, their treasury would revert to ACB of Oregon. Page 7 of 15 Candidate’s Corner Candidate Joan by Joan Hill I am announcing my candidacy for second vice president. It will be an opportunity for me to use my talents and experiences to help our organization grow and to continue to improve communications. As president of Klamath chapter and as Oregon membership chairperson, I have strived to get information to members in accessible format including email. This enabled us to unify as a chapter and work on pedestrian safety issues. For the past 10 years I have been self-employed teaching computer & business skills to disabled adults about half of these clients have been legally blind. I have also been a classroom teacher and grade school principal. My work and volunteer activities have given me lots of opportunities for group interactions including being on the hot seat at times. I hope you will vote for me! Multnomah Chapter News By Patty Bessant *jaf* We began our summer with a picnic in Trish Kennedy’s lovely backyard. Trish is such a gracious hostess, and we all enjoy being there. Page 8 of 15 Mike Yamada from the Oregon Commission for the Blind contacted several of us to ask us to encourage ACB of O. members to participate in a research study being conducted by the University of North Carolina’s Highway Safety Research Center. This study is sponsored by the National Cooperative Highway Safety Research Program. The goal of the study is to establish guidelines for audible pedestrian signals. The intersection we worked in was located in the Lloyd Center area. Temporary poles were placed, and a constant humming sound was used to help us identify the pushbuttons. Three different sounds were used: voice identification, steady clicking and a cuckoo sound. We were asked to identify which sound we preferred. The research is designed to learn whether the location of pushbuttons and the sounds for the walk/don’t walk signals help people to determine the correct button to push for the street they desire to cross. Researchers also want to know whether pedestrians will understand which traffic is stopped and which crosswalk may be crossed. The ultimate goal of this study is to make crossing streets easier for all persons. Mildred Groves fell and broke her left hip. She had planned to attend summer camp, but alas, a broken bone sure can put the kibosh on summer plans. Mildred is home now, taking care of herself and in good spirits. Page 9 of 15 The Becker family continues to battle cancer. David’s last test showed tiny metastic brain lesions. He and Glennys were able to travel to Idaho and spent two weeks with their son and grandson, Andrew. Andrew’s abdominal cancer has recurred. He will not be receiving treatment, and time is short now. In July, Dick Nixon’s youngest son, Reed, passed away. Reed was remodeling his home and living an active life when he when he began having severe back pains. When he consulted his doctor, he was told it was a heart attack and was hospitalized. He developed breathing difficulties that became much worse. He passed away in the hospital. The family was told that Reed had lung cancer. What can be said about trials and tribulations? We were never promised an easy journey. These families are in our hearts and prayers as are other families mentioned in this newsletter. Southwest Chapter News We have sad news. Marlene Black passed away on Thursday, July 31. We, two of her sisters, were with her as well as Bob, her husband. Sincerely, Marilynn Shaw Page 10 of 15 South Coast Chapter News: Brookings, Oregon by Joanne Massa, Secretary The South Coast Chapter has been quite busy this year. We participated in the Azalea Parade last June. Carol Mallard, president, and Tahoe her guide dog led our group. They were accompanied by two cheerleaders from the local high school who were kind enough to carry our banner, and Arthur Frenzel, our vice- president, who drove a convertible donated by the local Ford dealer for those members who wanted to participate but were unable to walk the route. Several members of our group participated in the health fair that was held at the Gold Beach fair grounds. Our chapter has been actively trying to get the local “fathers” and ODOT to install talking and blinking lights at several intersections in Brookings. We have been told that they cannot do anything until the master plan for Highway 101 has been decided upon. On October 24th we held an afternoon meeting called “Meet the Candidates” for mayor at which time the public was invited to attend. Our two mayoral candidates answered questions from the floor, and expressed their visions about Brookings. Page 11 of 15 Carol obtained a descriptive video for our group to preview. We then decided to hold a fundraiser showing a descriptive video at the local theater. This was held in November and shown during matinee times. Our holiday luncheon was held at the Tea Room in Brookings. This June, Janet Norwood provided our group with a wonderful walk through the redwoods at the Simpson/Reed Grove. We lunched in Hiuchi. We are sad to end this brief glimpse of our year with the mention of the passing of two of our beloved members, Penny Keefe and Florence Opelt. Willamette Chapter News Several members of our chapter returned from Pittsburgh just in time for our annual picnic and penny auction fund-raiser. We were extremely fortunate to have the Roth grocery chain join us as partners by donating the broiled chicken. Not having to pay for the chicken increased our funds by many dollars. We look forward to being able to help the kids from the Oregon State School for the Blind even more this year. We are going to have a garage sale later this year in hopes of raising even more money for good causes. So far we have had many offers of furniture, kitchenware and helping hands to sort and price the items. Page 12 of 15 Since our chapter has no summer meetings, it is hard to keep up with all the comings and goings of the members. We are sad to report that the state lost a valued member when Tony Valles died in June. He will be missed, not only as parliamentarian, but also as a wonderful human being. Very seldom do we find someone who can touch both the hearts and minds of their fellow beings. Tony was just that person. Hope to see you all in Eugene for our own state convention. We will try to make it just as exciting as Pittsburgh. The American Council of the Blind is offering the use of their domain to have a State list serve. It is very simple to sign up, and it's free. We have a link on the ACB web page to sign up, or you can sign up by E-mail. You sign up by E-mail by sending a blank message to: oregon-l-subscribe@acb.org You don't need to type anything in the subject line or in the body of the message. You will then get a message confirming that you want to be on the list, and you just reply to it, and you are on. To subscribe to the list, send a blank message to: oregon-l-subscribe@acb.org. To remove your address from the list, just send a blank message to the address in the List-Unsubscribe'' header of any list message. If you haven't changed addresses since subscribing, you can also send a blank message to oregon-l-unsubscribe@acb.org. It’s simple, so why wait? Join now! Page 13 of 15 The list is for ACB of Oregon members, ACB business and other related information. It's another way to keep up with what’s going on. Please sign up and help keep ACB of Oregon informed. Please, no gossiping and/or rumor spreading on our list. Use the list, don’t abuse it! Of course if you don't want to read something, you can press "Delete." This is our list, so let’s use it to spread the word about what is happening in our chapters, towns, cities, and state. Our list is also a way to keep up with what is going on at the national level with ACB. Please tell all your friends who are members/ and or friends of ACB of Oregon to join the Oregon-L list. It’s another way that we can help to make a difference. Page 14 of 15 State Officers President: Bev Rushing 4730 Auburn Rd. N.E., Space #52 Salem, OR 97301 (503) 362-4151 E-mail: b.rushing@juno.com Past President: John Fleming 106 NW "F" PMB #258 Grants Pass, OR 97526 (541) 846-6981 E-mail: bj2kiowa@internetcds.com Oregon-List moderator www.acboforegon.org / Web Master First Vice Pres.: Bob Johnson 4915 Swegle Rd. NE #69 Salem, OR 97301 (503) 361-8693 E-mail: bobfellow@open.com 2nd Vice Pres.: Ed Ripplinger 4730 Auburn Rd. NE, Space 91 Salem, OR 97301 (503) 391-7114 E-mail: edripplinger@hotmail.com Page 15 of 15 Secretary: Gery Hallisy 746 Browning Ave., SE Salem, Oregon 97302 (503) 364-5561 e-mail: ptrockendoors@msn.com Treasurer: Bob Rushing 4730 Auburn Rd. NE, Space #52 Salem, OR 97301 (503) 362-4151 E-mail: b.rushing@juno.com District Rep. #1: Jerry DeLaunay Golden Hours Radio 7140 SW Macadam Ave. Portland, OR 97219 (503) 293-1902 E-mail: jerry_delaunay@opb.org District Rep. #2: James Edwards 1075 Laurel Ave. Reedsport, OR 97467 (541) 271-1226 E-mail: jamese@harborside.com District Rep. #3: Jan Chance 1505 Madison, Space #67 Klamath Falls, OR 97603 janchnc@aol.com

Last updated: November 6, 2006