Hosted by The United Blind of the Tri-Cities.
November 3, 4, and 5, 2011
All WCB meetings are open to members and non-members alike. The WCB is pleased to offer this program to assist you in locating all activities of this convention along with times and room assignments. Meetings & meal functions will take place in the Olympic Ballroom area; hospitality will be held in Project-Design which are located at the lobby end of Wing 2. Throughout the general sessions, the Friday luncheon, business meeting and banquet, door prizes will be given out to those registered for the convention and in attendance at the time their name is drawn.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm Information/Registration desk open, pre-registration only. (Olympic Ballroom foyer)
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm WCB Lounge open: Drop by to meet old and new friends or find a partner for dinner or someone to go through the program with you – hosted by the WCB First-Timer Committee. (Spruce)
7:00 pm Pre-convention Board meeting. (Bronze-Silver)
9:30 pm Constitution & Bylaws Committee meeting, following the Board meeting – Facilitator: Frank Cuta, Chair, WCB Constitution & Bylaws Committee. (Bronze-Silver)
9:30 pm Resolutions Committee meeting, following the Board meeting – Facilitator: Marlaina Lieberg, Chair, WCB Resolutions Committee. (Oak)
10:00 pm Hospitality – sponsored by the United Blind of the Tri-Cities. (Project-Design)
Friday, November 4, 2011
7:00 am – 4:00 pm Information/Registration desk open. (Olympic Ballroom foyer)
7:30 am General breakfast (Gold)
7:30 am First-Timer breakfast – Facilitator, Julie Brannon, Chair, WCB First-Timer Committee. (Oak)
7:30 am Presidents breakfast, Presidents only. (Spruce)
8:00 am – 10:00 am Exhibits set up, vendors only. (Olympic)
10:00 am – 4:00 pm Exhibits (Olympic)
8:45 am – 11:55 am General Session (Bronze-Silver)
8:45 am Call to order – Denise Colley, President, Washington Council of the Blind; Flag ceremony – Tim Van Winkle, Veteran, United States Army, Peninsula Council of the Blind; Invocation – Pastor Mel Haug, The Living Room Church, Kennewick, WA; Welcome to Pasco – Mayor Matt Watkins, City of Pasco; welcome from the host chapter – Bill Hoage, President, United Blind of the tri-Cities.
9:05 am President’s report – Denise Colley, President, Washington Council of the Blind.
9:25 am Nominating Committee report – Bill Hoage, Chair, WCB Nominating Committee.
9:35 am Constitution and Bylaws Committee report – Frank Cuta, Chair, WCB Constitution & Bylaws Committee.
9:50 am Cutting to the Chase: How To Best Communicate with Your Legislator – Senator Jerome Delvin, 8th Legislative District.
10:10 am Break
10:25 am Serving the Underserved! Learn how the Independent Living Program is doing what it can for older blind people in our state. – Sheila Turner, Rehabilitation Teacher, Edith Bishel Center for the Blind, & Carl Jarvis, Director, Peninsula Rehabilitation Services.
10:50 am Gardening Made Easy – Frank Cuta, United Blind of the Tri-Cities and Eric Hunter, Peninsula Council of the Blind.
11:10 am Having Vision to Vacation without sight. – Dan and Brenda Dillon, Tennessee Council of the Blind
11:40 am What’s New At WATAP: Learn about outreach efforts, assistive technology advancements and services offered by the Washington Assistive Technology Act Program. – Samantha Murphy, Program Specialist, Washington Assistive Technology Program (WATAP).
11:55 am Break
12:00 pm Awards Luncheon: MC – Cindy Van Winkle, Chair, WCB Convention Committee; presentation of internal WCB Awards – Joanne Hunter, member, WCB Awards Committee; recognition of WCB life memberships – Denise Colley, President Washington Council of the Blind. (Gold)
1:15 pm Tours: Meet in the hotel lobby promptly to load on buses. (pre-registration required)
Rock Climbing at the Tri-Cities Court Club;
Winery tour at Thomas O’Neil Cellars.
1:30 pm 3 concurrent break out sessions:
Getting Older with Vision Loss: Whether you’ve been blind for a long time, or are more recently experiencing vision loss, one thing we have in common is that we’re all aging. Let’s discuss some of the unique challenges we face. – Facilitator: Barb Crowley, Chair, Aging and Blindness Committee; Presenter: Kurt L. Johnson, Ph.D., C.R.C., Director, Center of Technology and Disability Studies, University of Washington; panelists: Frank Johnson, member, King County Chapter and Karen Johnson, member, Aging and Blindness Committee. (Bronze-Silver)
Getting Through Security: What’s Up with Airport Security and What Does It Mean for Travelers with Guide Dogs. – Facilitator: Marlaina Lieberg, Secretary, American Council of the Blind; Presenter: Jim Dugan, Senior Instructor and Supervisor, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Boring, OR. Sponsored by Guide Dog Users of Washington State (Oak)
Yogalates: Come learn about Yoga and Pilates; it’ll be the most fun you’ve ever had sweating! – Facilitator: Janice Squires, member, United Blind of the Tri-Cities; Fitness Trainer: Leslie Spoone, Certified Personal Trainer and certified Arobics and Cycle Instructor, Florida Council of the Blind. (Spruce)
2:45 pm Break
3:00 pm 3 concurrent break out sessions
Eyes On the I’s: Hear about and have hands-on experiences with the many I technologies, smart phones and more. – Facilitator: Denise Colley, President, WCB; Presenter: Debbie Cook Lewis, Technical Advisor, Washington Assistive Technology Program (WATAP). (Bronze-Silver)
Diabetes Management: Knowledge is your greatest tool! – Facilitator: Karyn Vandecar, member, United Blind of the Tri-Cities; Presenters: Kitty Dissing, RN, CDE, and Amy Hegarty, RD, CDE, Kennewick General Hospital, Diabetes Education Sector. (Oak)
Give Your Guide a Break: Come sit and chat with other folks who work guide dogs; we may even have a little game of Simon Says, but we know we’ll have a lot of info to share! – Facilitator: Marlaina Lieberg, GDUWS; Sponsored by Guide Dog Users of Washington State (Spruce)
7:30 pm 9th Annual WCB Talent show: come and enjoy the many talents of some of our conventioneers – Host:Frank Cuta, Secretary, Washington Council of the Blind. (Bronze-Silver)
9:00 pm Good Ol’ Fashion Sing-Along, directly following the Talent Show (Bronze-Silver)
9:00 pm Hospitality – sponsored by the United Blind of the Tri-Cities. (Project-Design)
Saturday, November 5, 2011
7:00 am – 12:00 pm Registration/Information desk open. (Olympic Ballroom Foyer)
7:00 am Guide Dog Users of Washington State breakfast/business meeting. (Oak-Pine)
7:30 am General breakfast (Gold)
8:45-11:55 am General Session (Bronze-Silver)
8:45 am Call to Order and Announcements. – Denise Colley, WCB President & Cindy Van Winkle, WCB Convention Chair.
9:00 am Giving S.O.S. a New Meaning! A special treat as we hear from our friend and advocate. – Sam Reed, Secretary of State.
9:20 am The Jobs People Do: a panel discussion – Facilitator: Sue Ammeter, 1st Vice President, WCB; panel: Michelle Denzer, Production Worker, Injection Mold Shop, Seattle Lighthouse for the Blind Inc., Seattle, WA;Dan Spoone, Business Reengineering Program Manager, Siemens Energy Inc., Orlando, FL; Dodie Brueggeman, Owner, Keys With Ease Piano Studio, Wala Walla, WA.
10:10 am Break
10:25 am Nationally Speaking: Learn what ACB has been doing for you and all people who are blind or visually impaired – Brenda Dillon, 2nd Vice President, American Council of the Blind.
10:55 am State of the State, hear what’s happening with our three state agencies serving the blind during challenging times. – Lou Oma Durand, Director, Department of Services for the Blind (DSB); Dean O. Stenehjem, Superintendent, Washington State School for the Blind (WSSB); Danielle Miller, Program Manager/Librarian, Washington Talking Book & Braille Library (WTBBL).
11:55 am Break
12:00 pm General lunch (Gold)
12:00 pm GDUWS lunch and program. (Oak-Pine)
1:30 pm WCB business meeting: In memoriam; elections; adoption of WCB budget; resolutions; constitutional amendments & bylaws; old business; new business. (Bronze-Silver)
4:30 pm Adjourn
5:30 pm Scholarship reception: Come hear from & celebrate with this year’s scholarship recipients – sponsored by the WCB Scholarship Committee. (Oak-Pine-Spruce)
6:00 pm No host social hour, Silent Auction & entertainment. (Gold-Olympic)
7:00 pm WCB annual banquet: Mistress of Ceremonies – Meka White, Board Member, Washington Council of the Blind; Invocation – Debby Phillips, United Blind of Spokane,; Scholarship presentations – Tim McCorcle, Chair, WCB Scholarship Committee; Awards presentations – Joanne Hunter, member, WCB Awards Committee; Banquet address – Brenda Dillon, 2nd Vice President, American Council of the Blind. (Olympic-Gold)
10:00 pm Hospitality – sponsored by the United Blind of the Tri-Cities. (Project-Design)
A special thank you goes to the members of the 2011 Convention Committee, our many presenters, volunteers & those who worked behind the scenes to help make this convention such a success!
Phone Extensions
Front Desk: 50 or 0
Housekeeping: 4907
Room Service: 5400
Room to room: dial room number
Dialing out of the hotel: 9 (No charge for local calls.)
Hours of Operation
Seasons: 6:00 am to 4:00 pm daily, open until 8:00 pm on Thursday-Friday (for our convention).
Bin No. 20: 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm week nights, and 10:00 pm on Friday-Saturday.
Grizzly Bar: 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm daily, Closes at 2:00 am on Saturday.
Snack Bar: 6:00 am to 10:00 pm daily.
Room Service: 6:45 am to 10:00 pm daily.
Fitness Center: 24 hours with room key entry.
Description of the Pasco Red Lion Hotel
The hotel floor plan is basically shaped like a capital letter U, with the left upright of the U being twice as long as the right one. The left upright of the U is the main facility hallway. It’s a wide hallway which has on it the hotel restaurants and hotel registration desk. The right upright of the U is a fairly narrow hallway which provides primary access to most of our convention meeting rooms.
As you come in the main hotel entrance, you’re at the lower left of the U; this is the northwest corner of the building. The main hallway is the north hallway. The smaller hallway, which has all the meeting rooms in it, is the south hallway. The base of the U that runs across the bottom goes from north to south and will be referred to as the west hallway. When you come in the main entrance and proceed straight down the main hall you are going east. The first thing on the left is the bellman desk, then the registration desk. A little farther on, off to the right, is a small sitting area with TV, followed by a small fountain and nestled between the sitting area & fountain is a small hallway heading south which will take you to the east end of the south corridor which is where the main meeting rooms are located.
Now back to the north corridor traveling east, you come to wings of guest rooms that branch off to the left and go north. So as you proceed down the main hall going east, about halfway down you have a branch that goes off left into the first wing of guest rooms and at the end of the hall you have a branch that goes off left into the second wing of guest rooms. It is in this second wing that most of us will be staying.
At the far east end of the main hall you have three choices: you can go left into the corridor which takes you into the second wing of guest rooms and some auxiliary meeting rooms; you can go straight ahead into another corridor which would take you into the third wing of guest rooms which we will not be using; or you can turn right and go down a corridor which has the bar and restaurants. So describing the last choice first, if you go all the way to the end of the main hall, as far east as you can go and turn right, you will then be in a corridor which has on the left the Grizzly Bar. Then a little bit farther on there is an opening to the right which is the entrance to the Seasons Restaurant and if you continue farther south down this corridor it opens up into the Bin 20 which is the more exclusive restaurant. In between Seasons & the Bin 20 there is a small snack bar selling juices, muffins, etc.
Going back to your decision point at the far east end of the north corridor, if you turn left and go north you enter a rather long hall that opens up into another west-east-corridor. Turning right and going east down this corridor there are more meeting rooms on your left and a ramp at the far end which enters the second wing of guest rooms. We will be using these meeting rooms. As you walk east down this corridor the rooms on the left are in order the design room, the project room, the health center, the women’s bathroom the pop and ice machines and the men’s bathroom. After you get to the top of the ramp at the far east end turn right and you will enter the hall which has the guest rooms for wing two.
Going back to the main entrance, you’ve just come in at the lower left corner of the U. Instead of proceeding straight down the main corridor, if you turn right you’ll head over toward the south corridor. Going along the base of the U, To the left are the main restrooms for the conference room area. At the end of this hallway going south you’ll be at the southwest corner of the U. Here you will run into the Olympic Room, and this is another decision point. If you turn left at this point you’ll go down the south corridor which has all the general meeting rooms for the convention along it. On the left are the Spruce, Pine and Oak rooms; on the right are the Olympic, Gold, Silver and Bronze rooms. If instead of turning left and going east down the south hallway you turn right, and go west you will find a secondary hotel entrance. Just outside of this door is a guide dog relief area. It is about 10 feet out the door and to the left and as you then go farther south you’ll find on your left an area of wood chips, farther south an area of grass, and on the right an area of concrete.
The corridor area in front of the Olympic room and inside of this second entrance is wider than the other halls and will accommodate the conference registration/information table.
There is one other guide dog relief area which branches off from the second wing of guest rooms. If you are coming from the guest room wing and proceed down the ramp going west continue all the way to the far west end and instead of turning left to go over to the main north hall proceed through a door on the west wall into a stairwell. At the far north end of this stair well there is a door which opens onto a west-going sidewalk that connects to a corresponding door on the first guest room wing. On the south side of this sidewalk is a grassed area for dog guide relief.
Hotel Description submitted by Frank Cuta