Chapter News
WCB
Newsline, September 2009
By Berl Colley, Immediate Past President
We had 5 CCCB members who attended the WCB Leadership training and board
meeting in Silverdale on June 12-14. One of our members, John Guydish was part
of the 2009 class. Denise and Berl went to Silverdale from Vancouver where they
attended the School for the Blind’s graduation of its largest class and a
meeting of the Board of Trustees.
At our June chapter meeting we had two guest speakers. They were representing
the Olympia Dragon Boat club. They invited us to try it and on Sunday, August
16th, seven CCCB members and friends paddled out on Puget Sound and were given
some basic training on paddling a Dragon boat. We were given lots of praise for
our efforts and compliments were generously disbursed. Well, except for that
pratfall that Berl took on the dock after we were all done.
In July, Kevin LaRose and Denise and Berl Colley attended the convention of
the American Council of the blind, in Orlando Florida. In addition to Berl’s
duties as an ACB board member he participated in the Rack Watermelon 5k
walk/run. Read more about the walk elsewhere in this issue.
Our July meeting was dedicated to hearing about the national convention and
making arrangements for our annual picnic in August.
There were thirty-one members that turned out for this year’s picnic.
Organizers Kathy and Dan Matsen made sure that there were lots of fried chicken,
salads, pop and desserts. After eating they gave out a number of prizes, some
via a number drawing and others to winners of Trivial Pursuit games.
Now we are preparing for our annual candy sale, to be held the last weekend
of September and the first weekend of October.
We will talk to ya-all in December.
WCB
Newsline, June 2009
By Berl Colley, Immediate Past President
It has been a pretty quiet three months for members of CCCB. Carl Corbin, the
manager of the Lions Low Vision Center spoke to the club in March. The Low
Vision Center, which is located in Lacey, is an outgrowth of the Lions low
vision fairs that were held in 2008.
Our special guest at the April meeting was Emily Bergkamp. She is the new
manager of Paratransit in Thurston County. Transit is looking at new phone
technology to notify scheduled riders 5-10 minutes before their van arrives.
The weekend of May 16-17, was busy for CCCB. Some of our members were working
with the Lacey Lions writing kids names in Braille at the Lacey Fun Fair. We
still had 15 members show up at our May meeting to enjoy a presentation from
Washington Talking Book & Braille Library Program Manager/Librarian, Danielle
King. She talked to us about WTBBL and brought two of the new digital players
which were passed around for members to look at.
More from the state capitol in September.
WCB
Newsline, March 2009
By Berl Colley, Immediate Past President
We were affected by the weather in late December and early January, just like
the rest of Washington state was. Fortunately, it didn’t effect our CCCB
activities that much. On the 3rd weekend of December we had a small, but fun
Christmas party at the Chamber’s restaurant, at Panorama City. The food was
excellent, as usual, and we had a fun gift exchange. Most of our members stayed
home, because of the weather during the Christmas and New Years holidays.
Due to the 3rd weekend of January being the holiday weekend, we didn’t meet
until the 4th weekend. Our speaker was Barbara Thomte, the president of the low
vision support group at the Panorama City retirement center. She told us about
their group and that they had one hour each week on the center’s TV station.
Later that meeting Barbara became a new member.
In February, Don Alveshere, Assistant Director for Customer Service at the
department of Services for the Blind, spoke to us about the agency and we talked
about some of the changes that are being proposed, because of the state budget
crunch.
On February 14, 6 CCCB members went to the Lucky Eagle Casino to see Mathew
and Gunner Nelson, 2 of the 4 kids of Ricky Nelson do a tribute concert to their
Grand parents, Ozzie and Harriet and their dad. The trip was made even better
when some of us came home winners.
Congratulations to Dan and Kathy Matsen who became grand parents for the
first time on February 17. See the Hat’s off column for details.
Welcome to Dee Delgado and Barbara Thomte as new members of our chapter. Both
ladies joined in January.
Go to our
In the Media page to find out what is
happening in the blindness community.
Upcoming Events
The CCCB annual Christmas Party will be held at The United Churches of
Olympia at 110 11th Ave SE (11th & Capitol Way).
From the President's Desk
by Denise Colley
WCB Newsline,
June 2009
As I sit at my desk writing this article, it’s already the end of August, and
I can’t figure out where summer went. A number of activities have occurred since
I last wrote in the June Newsline.
First of all we had another very successful Leadership training on June 12
through the 14th 1at the Oxford suites in Silverdale. Cindy Van winkle and her
Leadership committee put together a great training program for the 19 WCB
members that attended. Read about it elsewhere in this issue. Good work
Leadership committee and trainees.
Our mid-year Board meeting was held on June 14, in conjunction with the
Leadership training. About 50 members were in attendance and heard updates from
committee chairs and participated in discussions about WCB business. See the
Board meeting report later in this issue.
Nineteen WCB members traveled to the 48th annual convention of the American
Council of the Blind, held in Orlando, Florida, July 4th through the 11th.
Malissa Hudson was our first timer to convention and it was fun watching her
enthusiasm. Members spent a busy week attending general sessions, committee
meetings and special interest affiliate activities, and once in a while found
time to sleep. We had 27 people at the WCB Thursday morning caucus breakfast,
including a first time ACB scholarship winner from Puyallup Washington. His name
is Daniel Guenther, and he is currently attending Boston University and hopes to
major in music production. The first ACB walk and Run fundraiser was held on
July 4. Cindy Van winkle, WCB’s 2009 Alternate delegate, was a virtual walker
and Berl Colley was the only Washington member to enter the walk. Both received
medals for their fundraising efforts. See Berl’s article about his participation
and Malissa’s First Timer article elsewhere in this Newsline.
Our 2009 state convention is coming up on November 5-7 at the Red Lion in
Pasco. I am pleased that ACB President Mitch Pomerantz is going to be our
national representative and banquet speaker. Janice Squires is chairing this
year’s nominating committee and she is joined by Peggy Shoel and Carl Jarvis.
Positions up for election are president, first vice president, treasurer, and
the three board positions currently held by Vivian Conger, Alan Bentson, and
Carl Jarvis. Also up for election is the alternate delegate to the 2010 ACB
convention in Phoenix Arizona. Please contact one of the members if you would
like to place your name in for consideration for one of these positions. Janice
Squires: janicesqu@verizon.net or (509) 582-4749; Peggy Shoel: pshoel@aol.com or
(206) 722-8477; Carl Jarvis: carjar82@gmail.com or (360) 765-4239. Marlaina
Lieberg has agreed to be this year’s Resolutions committee chair. If you have a
resolution that you would like to write and submit, please e-mail it to her at
1guidedog@gmail.com. Frank Cuta will once again, chair the Constitution and
Bylaws committee. If you have an idea or issue you wish this committee to look
at for purposes of the Constitution, you can contact Frank at frank@cuta.net or
(509) 967-2658. You should have received your registration bulletin by the time
you read this article. See the state convention article in the following pages
for more information about convention activities and deadline dates.
Since we are only a couple of months removed from ACB’s convention, I want to
congratulate those WCB members that are chairing or have been appointed to ACB
committees. All of the appointments haven’t been made, as I write this article,
but we can already say that WCB will have a very obvious presence in the work of
the American Council of the Blind.
I look forward to seeing all of you in Pasco in November.
Getting Around Our Website
At the bottom of each web page a navigation bar links you to information
about our chapter and its officers and committees, upcoming chapter events,
meetings, links to helpful and interesting community resources, fundraising
efforts, chapter documents including the constitution and bylaws, website
policies including our privacy policy, contact information, and finally a site
map listing all our pages with an option to search the text of the entire
website.
WCB Vehicle Donation Program
| 
![[Blind & VI Web Ring]](http://www.viguide.com/images/bvi1.gif)
