Triple Threat Comes to Northern Virginia

From President Tracy Soforenko:

We are thrilled to announce that National Federation of the Blind President Mark Riccobono has agreed to come to our August 17 meeting at the Westin Tysons Corner. All members are welcome to come to the lunch and meeting to meet President Riccobono and engage in an exciting program. We expect there will be significant time for questions and we hope you can help us learn and grow together.

We can now provide more details about our special August 17 Membership Seminar and Board of Directors meeting. If you are considering attending the Virginia Membership Seminar and Board of Directors meeting, we want to be explicitly clear that the program is available to all members, not just members of the board of directors.

Concurrent Student Seminar

If you are a student attending the Southeast Regional Student seminar, pricing information and details on the schedule provided below are not applicable. However, students should register right away for the Southeast Regional Student Seminar using the student registration form found at:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScNNgaOlJrOfR7ubUXte95TF8TLX7Gn...

Student questions should be directed to Mausam Mehta.
mausam.mehta.nfb@gmail.com

CLI Participants

If you are coming as a participant of the CLI program, please follow the instructions provided by your program coordinators, Joe Orozco and Domonique Lawless.

Location

WESTIN TYSON’S CORNER
7801 Leesburg Pike
Falls Church, Virginia 22043
(703) 893-1340

Schedule

11:00 AM to 12:00 Noon Virginia Meet and Greet Willow Room

As people arrive for the program, please come to the Willow room located just to the left as you enter the conference center. This is also where you will meet with our registration team to pay for the boxed lunch and obtain your boxed lunch ticket.

12:00 PM to 1:00 PM Combined Membership and Student Lunch Oaks 1 Ballroom

President Riccobono will be our featured speaker for the lunch meeting.
Boxed lunches will be available outside of Oaks 1. You will need a ticket to pick up a boxed lunch. Since we must give the hotel our lunch order in advance, we can’t accept same day lunch registration. Everyone is welcome to attend but we will be charging $15 for each boxed lunch. If you need to pay by credit card, an additional $1 will be charged to cover the credit card processing fee. The $15 boxed lunch charge is a subsidized price with the Virginia affiliate paying nearly $5 per person to make this lunch more affordable. You are not required to order a boxed lunch to attend the lunch but outside food is not allowed in the hotel meeting rooms.

12:55 Students Depart for afternoon programming

1:00 PM to 4:00 PM NFB of Virginia Board of Directors Meeting & Membership Seminar
Oaks 1 Ballroom

We will be running a membership town hall with President Riccobono where you will be able to ask questions. President Riccobono will have a few questions as well. This program will be better if people are prepared to ask meaningful questions and we welcome an engaging discussion. We will do a special recognition event for members of the board of directors, and we will run our normal August board meeting. While a detailed agenda will be provided in August, we will certainly cover planning for the 2019 NFB of Virginia State Convention from November 1-3 in Portsmouth.

4:00 PM to 5:00 PM Blind Parents Meeting in the leadership suite

The Virginia Blind Parents group will hold its first in person meeting and informal get together with President Riccobono. Details on the suite number will be provided at the Board meeting.

Lunch Registration

We need to know who will be attending the lunch in advance so we can secure lunches by July 31. We are asking individuals to contact Mausam Mehta to RSVP for the lunch. Please contact Mausam with your name and chapter. Please arrive in advance and pay at the Willow room so we can ensure everyone is available for the lunch at 12:00 Noon.

Mausam can be reached at mausam.mehta.nfb@gmail.com

Hotel Registration

The National Association of Blind Students (NABS) has negotiated a special $89 plus tax rate for this event. Please use the national Association of Blind Students room block for hotel reservations. Please ensure you ask for the NABS Rate. Please make your reservation quickly because the cutoff date for the room block is Wednesday, July 31.

Hotel Shuttle

The hotel runs a shuttle between the Tysons Mall, the Metro, and the hotel. The schedule will be provided as the date approaches.

Parking

The hotel provides complementary parking.

Dog Relief

There will be a defined dog relief area. Details to be provided in subsequent updates.

If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Tracy Soforenko
President, National Federation of the Blind of Virginia
202 285-4595
Tracy.soforenko@gmail.com