WASHINGTON COUNCIL OF THE BLIND
DREAM BIG
Hosted by The United Blind of the Tri-Cities.
Program
October 26, 27, and 28, 2017
Welcome to the annual convention of the Washington Council of the Blind this year held at the Red Lion Hotel in Pasco.
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, exhibits, and silent auction 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.
For the security of this event, conventioneers are asked to wear their convention name tag at all convention functions.
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.
The majority of this weekend’s events will be streamed live on ACB Radio www.acbradio.org or by phone at 605-475-8130 and recorded for future enjoyment on www.wcbinfo.org.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm Information/Registration desk open, pre-registration only. (Olympic foyer)
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm WCB Welcome Lounge open: Drop by to meet old and new friends, find a partner for dinner, or peruse the program with someone and ask questions about the convention. – hosted by the WCB Membership Committee (Oak-Pine)
7:00 pm Pre-convention Board meeting (Bronze)
9:30 pm Constitution and Bylaws Committee meeting, following the Board meeting – Facilitator: Frank Cuta, Chair, WCB Constitution and Bylaws Committee. (Bronze)
9:30 pm Resolutions Committee meeting, following the Board meeting – Facilitator: Deb Cook Lewis, Chair, WCB Resolutions Committee (Oak)
10:00 pm Hospitality: mingle with old and new friends over snacks and beverages – sponsored by The Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc. (Project-Design)
Friday, October 27, 2017
7:00 am – 12:00 pm Information/Registration desk open (Olympic Foyer)
7:30 am General breakfast (Silver-Gold)
7:30 am First-Timer breakfast – Facilitator: Danette Dixon, Chair, WCB First-Timer Subcommittee (Oak-Pine)
7:30 am Presidents breakfast (presidents or their designee) – Facilitator: Steve Fiksdal, WCB President (Spruce)
9:00 am – 10:00 am Exhibits set up, vendors only (Olympic)
10:00 am – 5:00 pm Exhibits – Coordinator: Carol Brame (Olympic)
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm WCB Silent Auction – Coordinator: Lisa George (Spruce)
8:45 am – 11:55 am General Session (Bronze)
8:45 am Call to order – Steve Fiksdal, President, Washington Council of the Blind; presentation of the colors: Color Honor Guard, American Legion, Post 54; Invocation: Pastor Dave Hilliard, retired, Bethel Church, Richland, WA; Welcome to Pasco: Councilman Bob Hoffmann, Councilmember, City of Pasco; welcome from the host chapter: Sherry Dubbin, President, United Blind of the Tri-Cities
9:00 am President’s report – Steve Fiksdal, President, Washington Council of the Blind
9:20 am Nominating Committee report – Janice Squires, Chair, WCB Nominating Committee
9:30 am Constitution and Bylaws Committee report – Frank Cuta, Chair, WCB Constitution and Bylaws Committee
9:50 am Raffles and More: learn the do’s and don’ts of fundraising in our state – Mark Richart, Agent, Washington State Gambling Commission
10:15 am Break
10:30 am Keynote Address – Megan E. Dodd, Director of the Center on Vision Loss, American Foundation for the Blind, Dallas, Texas
11:00 am Education Enlightenment: let’s involve ourselves in the education of students, birth through 21, who are blind in our state – Emily Coleman, Director of Outreach, Washington State School for the Blind and State Vision Consultant, Washington Sensory Disabilities Services and DeEtte Snyder, M.Ed., State Coordinator, Birth to 3, Blind/Visual Impairment, Washington State School for the Blind
11:55 am Break
12:00 pm Awards Luncheon: presentation of internal WCB Awards – MC: Julie Brannon, Chair, WCB Awards Committee (Silver-Gold)
1:30 pm Tech Talk: how to Stop Robo calls, protect your tech during a disaster, and pick only the roses that are red – Presenters: Frank Cuta, WCB Secretary; Deb Lewis, Technical Assistance Coordinator, Washington Assistive Technology Act Program; Peggy Martinez, Founder and President, Creative Inclusion, LLC
2:15 pm Nutrition, Fact or Fiction: natural vs organic, label reading, and more – Kelly Sherman, Personal Trainer, Nutrition Consultant and Bod Pod Specialist
2:45 pm Break
3:00 pm Meet the Edith Bishel Center: learn about this local nonprofit serving those who are blind in the Tri-Cities area – Daniel Lipparelli, Executive Director, Edith Bishel Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired and Joy Kelly, Board Member, United Blind of the Tri-Cities
3:30 pm Exercising our Advocacy Muscles: – Paul Edwards, Past President, American Council of the Blind
4:00 pm Gardening Within Reach: explore patio gardening and hydroponics – Alice Allison, Master Gardener
4:30 pm Break
7:30 pm 15th Annual WCB Showcase of Talent: Come and enjoy the many talents of some of our conventioneers – Host: Meka White, First Vice President, Washington Council of the Blind (Bronze)
9:00 pm Life Member’s Reception: WCB life members only – hosted by the WCB President (Oak-Pine)
9:00 pm Hospitality: mingle with old and new friends over snacks and beverages – sponsored by the United Blind of the Tri-Cities (Project-Design)
Saturday, October 28, 2017
7:00 am – 12:00 pm Registration/Information desk open. (Olympic Foyer)
7:00 am Guide Dog Users of Washington State breakfast/business meeting. (Oak-Pine)
7:30 am General breakfast (Silver-Gold)
8:45-11:55 am General Session (Bronze)
8:45 am Call to Order and Announcements – Steve Fiksdal, WCB President
9:00 am ACB Headlines: let’s learn what ACB is doing on a national level to impact the lives of people who are blind – Paul Edwards, Past President, American Council of the Blind, Miami, Florida
9:30 am The Jobs People Do: a panel discussion – Facilitator: Sue Ammeter, Second Vice President, WCB; Presenters: Andy Arvidson, Sa Bom Nim (Master Instructor), Anacortes Soo Bahk do, Anacortes, WA; Reginald George, Assistive Technology Specialist, Department of Services for the Blind, Yakima, WA; Sheila Turner, Rehabilitation Teacher, Edith Bishel Center, Kennewick, WA
10:20 am Break
10:35 am Audio Description Live: learn how easy it is to bring audio description to live theater in our local communities – Frank Cuta, WCB Secretary
10:55 am State of the State, hear what’s happening with our three state agencies serving the blind. – Scott McCallum, Superintendent, Washington State School for the Blind (WSSB); Danielle Miller, Program Manager/Librarian, Washington Talking Book and Braille Library (WTBBL); Michael MacKillop, Assistant Director, Department of Services for the Blind (DSB)
11:55 am Break
12:00 pm General lunch (Silver-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 and bylaws; old business; new business (Bronze)
4:30 pm Adjourn
5:30 pm Scholarship Reception: meet and celebrate with this year’s scholarship recipients – sponsored by the WCB Scholarship Committee. (Oak-Pine)
6:00 pm No host social hour and Silent Auction (Silver-Gold)
7:00 pm WCB Annual Banquet – Mistress of Ceremonies: Cindy Van Winkle, Immediate Past President, Washington Council of the Blind; Invocation: Sherry Dubbin, President, United Blind of the Tri-Cities; Scholarship Presentations: Tim McCorcle, Chair, WCB Scholarship Committee; Presentation of Awards: Julie Brannon, Chair, WCB Awards Committee; Banquet Address: Paul Edwards, Past President, American Council of the Blind (Silver-Gold)
10:00 pm Hospitality: mingle with old and new friends over snacks and beverages – sponsored by the United Blind of Seattle. (Project-Design)
The Washington Council of the Blind extends a sincere ”thank you” to each and every person who played an active role in making this convention a success: The members of the 2017 WCB Convention Committee, United Blind of the Tri-Cities, and Yakima Valley Council of the Blind; members volunteering with registration, streaming and recording, sound, door prizes, silent auction, hospitality, exhibits, and so much more; and all of our volunteers who helped in numerous ways to ensure conventioneers could truly access all aspects of convention.
Hotel Information
Phone Extensions
Front Desk: 0
Voicemail: 58
Housekeeping: 4907
Room Service: 4500
Room to room: dial room number
Dialing out of the hotel: 9 (No charge for local calls.)
Hours of Operation
Seasons: 6:00 am – 4:00 pm daily, open until 8:00 pm Thursday-Friday (for our convention).
Bin No. 20: 4:00 pm – 9:00 pm Wednes-Thurs and 4:00 pm – 10:00 pm Fri-Sat.
Grizzly Bar: 4:00 pm – 10:00 pm Sun-Tues, 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm Wednes-Thurs, 5:00 pm – 2:00 am Fri-Sat.
Snack Bar: 6:00 am – 10:00 pm daily.
Room Service: 6:45 am – 10:00 pm daily.
Fitness Center: 24 hours with room key.
Description of the Pasco Red Lion Hotel
Including tactile art and guest room details
The halls and meeting rooms
The basic hotel floor plan including the restaurants, registration area and conference rooms is simply shaped like a print 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 entrance is at a slight angle so if you come in and proceed straight ahead you walk directly to the hotel registration desk. If, instead, you come in the main entrance and angle slightly off to your right you find yourself at the end of the main hallway which extends straight due east from the entrance; I will refer to this hall as the North hall. The smaller hallway, the right side of the U, has all of the meeting rooms in it; I will call it 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 proceeding straight down the north hall you are going east. In some places this hall is about 30 feet wide. There is a string of support pillars that run down the center of this hall.
Proceeding east down this hall, the first thing on the left is the bellman desk, then the registration desk. A little farther on, close to one of the pillars is an ATM. Farther Off to the right, is a small sitting area with TV. Proceed a little farther down the north hall and you will hear a small fountain off to your right. If you turn left here you will go up a few stairs and enter the first wing of guest rooms. Turn right just before the fountain and you will enter a cross hall that runs parallel to the west hall and is an alternative way of getting to the south corridor which is where the main meeting rooms are located.
Now back to the north corridor hug the right to avoid obstacles and continue east, and you will come to a corner which marks the end of this hall. If you turn left at this intersection you enter a short corridor running north which takes you into the second wing of guest rooms. It is in this second wing that most of us will be staying.
Back to the intersection at the end of the north hall if you go straight east you run into the Grizzly bear/lounge. If you angle off slightly to the left and proceed east you enter the third wing of guest rooms which will probably not be used for our convention.
Last, if you turn right at the intersection and go south down this corridor you find places to eat. First on your right is the entrance to the Seasons Restaurant. Just past this entrance is a coffee bar where you can obtain special coffee drinks, cookies, and muffins starting at 6:00 A.M. if you continue farther south down this corridor it opens up into the Bin No. 20 which is their more exclusive restaurant.
Wing 2 of guest rooms
Going back to the intersection at the far east end of the main 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. Across the corridor from these meeting rooms is the entrance to the swimming pool.
After you get to the top of the ramp at the far east end if you turn left you are at the elevators and if you turn right you will enter the hall which has the guest rooms for Wing 2. As you proceed down this hall there are several bends to the right and at each bend there are stairs, and an emergency exit.
The conference rooms
Going back to the hotel main entrance, coming in at the lower left corner of the U, instead of proceeding forward, turn right and head over toward the south hallway. The base of the U is the west hallway which is quite wide. Continuing south, along the left are the main restrooms for the conference room area and on the right will be the volunteer and registration/information tables. At the end of this west hallway, you will come to the southwest corner of the U with the Olympic Room in front of you. At this point, off to your right, going west, is a secondary hotel entrance. If instead you turn left you’ll go down the south hallway 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.
Guide Dog Relief Areas
The guide dog relief area near the conference rooms is just outside the southwest entrance doors. 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 guide dog relief area nearest the guest rooms can be accessed from both, wings 1 and 2. If you are coming from the guest rooms in Wing 2, proceed down the ramp going west continuing 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. Accessing this area from Wing 1 is through a similar exit configuration as Wing 2 and is located behind the Wing 1 elevator.
Overall shape of this facility
As long as you follow the halls in the guest wings it is not really important but it is interesting to know that you have left behind the regular square U shaped structure and are in one of 3 long curving tentacles that resemble the legs of a sea monster. Hall 1 is shorter and curves to the left while halls 2 and 3 are very long and curve off to the right. For those who are interested in examining this monster in detail we have a tactile map of the facility available for viewing. See Frank Cuta.
Details for guest rooms in Wing 2
(our primary wing)
1. The thermostat is located on the bathroom side of the room just past the bathroom door and around the corner facing the beds. It has a knob on the left and 2 rocker switches on the right. Turning the thermostat knob clock wise is hotter The top switch controls the fan From left to right: low, medium, fast. The bottom switch is from left to right: heat, off, cold
2. The facial soap is in a round dish and contains aloe Vera. The bath soap is in a small box. The shampoo bottle will be marked with a piece of tape or rubber band.
3. The hotel is energy conscious. If you want clean towels leave the used ones on the floor. If you want to conserve energy and reuse towels, hang them up. Hung up towels will not be replaced
4. All sleeping rooms have hair dryers, irons, and ironing boards.
5. All rooms in Wing 2 have refrigerators and microwaves. Turn the temperature control on the fridge clockwise for colder; the knob is on the front face adjacent to the door hinge. The microwave has the standard glass touch panel. Roughly speaking, the bottom left is stop and clear, bottom right is start, and in the middle about 2 finger widths down from the top edge is beverage.
6. Rooms no longer have coffee makers, but all guests may get one complimentary cup of coffee from the snack bar each day.
7. Some notable controls for the TV remote are as follows: upper left corner by itself is power, About mid-way down the left side is a rocker switch for volume up down, and in the same area on the right side is a rocker switch for channel up down.
8. On request, the red lion has available: combs, shaving cream and disposable razors, tooth paste and toothbrush, sewing kits.
Tactile Art
At the east end of the north hall is where you turn left to enter wing 2 or turn right to enter the restaurant area. If you instead, proceed straight ahead and veer off at a 45 degree angle to the right you enter the grizzly lounge. You should check out the carved wooden grizzly bears on each side of this entrance — they are great. There are also 2 more large bears inside the lounge.
Closer to the entrance there are tactile murals on the wall across from the hotel registration desk. Although you would normally enter the oak, pine and spruce meeting rooms from the south hallway, there are also “back” entrances here in the north hallway along this wall across from registration. As you walk along this wall from east to west heading down back toward the front entrance you come to doors for the oak then the pine then the spruce. There are more carvings in the walls around the hotel but this is the best of it. Between the oak and pine you first come to a beaver that is chest high then a swan that is head high.
There is not much between the pine and spruce but carvings of plants but just past the spruce you come to a bear very high on the wall with claws that go way up out of reach. . Last on this wall is a cute rabbit with tail and ears very obvious.
General Notes
Most sleeping rooms will be in Wing 2. Wing 1 is a little closer to the main meeting rooms, but it is mostly made up of suites. Wing 2 is also where hospitality is located. Smile
General sessions, pre-convention board meeting, business meeting, and Showcase of Talent all take place in Bronze. All main meal functions including the banquet, take place in Silver-Gold. The welcome lounge, First Timers breakfast, guide dog meals, and Life Member’s and Scholarship receptions are all being held in Oak-Pine. The Presidents breakfast and silent auction on Friday take place in Spruce. Exhibits is held in Olympic.
All guest rooms have a 4 digit room number example room 2139 is in wing 2, first floor, Room 39.