The 2003 Washington Seminar

The 2003 Washington Seminar

The Braille Monitor

March 2003

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The

2003 Washington Seminar

by Barbara Pierce

Priscilla

McKinley and Brian Miller of Iowa and Jerry Darnell of Louisiana enjoy

the student banquet.

In lots of ways this

was the largest and busiest Washington Seminar in our almost thirty years of

conducting this event early each year. The Capitol Holiday Inn provided us 200

sleeping rooms for about 500 visitors from across the country. An increasing

number of workshops, seminars, and meetings took place during the weekend preceding

our Monday morning descent into the halls and tunnels of Congress on our way

to meet with our legislators. Forty-seven states were represented at this year's

seminar. In fact, more than 200 people attended the banquet following the National

Association of Blind Students mid-winter conference on Saturday, February 1,

the first full day of pre-seminar activities.

As usual, the students

kicked off activities with their Friday evening party and then conducted an

excellent day-long seminar on Saturday. Also meeting that day were the lawyers

and, at the National Center for the Blind, the Research and Development Committee.

Dr. Fred Schroeder was the featured speaker at the Saturday evening student

banquet. As part of the festivities the students conducted their most successful

auction to date, raising funds for division activities during the coming year.

The

great gathering in meeting in the Columbia Room.

Sunday and Monday

mornings, buses ferried Federationists to Baltimore for a quick tour of the

National Center and a chance to browse in the Materials Center and the International

Braille and Technology Center.

Sunday afternoon before the Great Gathering In at 5:00

p.m., various events of interest took place in meeting rooms at the hotel: a

background session on the Help America Vote Act; a conference considering quality

orientation and mobility training; workshops on obtaining NFB-NEWSLINE funding

and making the case with state vocational rehabilitation agency officials for

quality blindness training; and a meeting of the National Association of Blind

Merchants.

Jim

Gashel and Jim McCarthy work on their electronic notetakers at the head

table while President Maurer addresses the crowd.

With all that to

do during the afternoon, one might have expected that by 5:00 p.m. Federationists

would have been anywhere but preparing for yet another meeting. But NFB members

are always ready to work hard, so by the time the Great Gathering In began in

the Columbia Room, no chairs, virtually no floor space for sitting, and very

little wall space for leaning were to be found. The area outside the meeting

room, which was equipped with loudspeakers, was full of those who could not

get any closer. President Maurer briefed the group on what has been happening

recently in the organization and with the capital campaign. Then Jim Gashel

and Jim McCarthy of the NFB Governmental Affairs Department reviewed the three

issues for discussion with Congress this year. The texts of the legislative

memorandum and the three fact sheets follow this article.

The

Mercury Room is almost always busy. Here, Sandy Halverson takes a phone

call at her post near the boxes of congressional reporting cards. Jim

Antonacci in the foreground gives a report.

For the remainder

of Sunday and throughout the next three days and evenings the Mercury Room became

the nerve center of the Washington Seminar. Sandy Halverson and her superb team

of volunteers assembled the schedule of congressional visits as they were turned

in and took reports after those visits. They entered the data in the computer

so that the staff knew where to appear for key meetings taking place on the

Hill. People came and went, gathering materials to assemble into presentation

folders to present to each legislator.

If you have never

experienced a Washington Seminar, you cannot fully appreciate the intense and

purposeful activity that goes on every hour of the day and many hours of the

night. It's gratifying to note how quickly and easily Federationists are absorbed

into the daily pace of our nation's capital. Cab drivers migrate to our hotel,

knowing that fares will be plentiful. The security guards at the entrances of

the House and Senate office buildings call to those coming in the doors to direct

them to the

The

hallway outside the Columbia Room just after the Sunday evening meeting

broke up.

security conveyer

belts. Those in the halls give casual directions before going on their way,

rightly presuming that blind citizens who have gotten themselves this far are

going to have very little trouble finding the offices for which they are looking.

By late Wednesday

the final reports were coming in, and the file boxes were being packed up for

another year. The Washington Seminar had come to a close, and the 2003 legislative

work of the National Federation of the Blind was just beginning.

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