PERISCOPE
A Quarterly Newsletter sponsored by the
Mississippi Council of the Blind, Inc.
March - May 2008
Tax deductible contributions may be sent to:
MS
Council of the Blind
P O
Box 31112
Jackson,
MS 39286
Anyone wishing to remember the MS Council of the
Blind in a last will and testament may do so by including a special paragraph
for that purpose. If your wishes are
complex, please contact MCB for clarification.
Contributions to the James Doyle Case Memorial
Scholarship fund or to the Carter Gable Memorial Technology Assistance Fund
should be appropriately marked, and sent to the above address.
Phone MCB at 601-982-1718, or 888-346-5622
Visit our web page at http://www.acb.org/mcb
Editor:
Alison Smitherman
1412 Wilhurst St., Jackson, MS 39211
601-366-5523 or E-mail: amduo@bellsouth.net
By Gary Austin
To All MCB Members:
I hope this issue of the Periscope finds each of
you safe and healthy.
I recently attended the ACB Mid-Year President’s
meeting and Legislative Seminar in Washington. Also attending the legislative
seminar were Kenny Maddox, Ralph Smitherman, Kenneth Reed, and Amanda Austin
Bass. We discussed ACB’s position on telecommunications and video
accessibility, quiet cars and commercial web access. Talking with members from
other states was informative. On Tuesday we split into two groups and met with
representatives in the offices of our Mississippi Senators and Congressmen.
Our trip to Washington was enjoyable except for
a few weather and airline problems. The food in Washington is outstanding. I
hope next year others of you will attend these meetings.
Our state convention will be in Tupelo in April.
You should receive your registration packet shortly. Please don’t delay
returning your registration form.
There will be an election for two 3-year board
positions at the convention. If you are willing to work and contribute, please
consider running for a board position. The newly elected members will be
immediately placed on committees.
The MCB Board will meet March 15th at
1:00 p.m. in Becky’s office. If you have suggestions or concerns, try and
attend or contact me at one of the numbers or email listed below.
See you in Tupelo!
Gary L. Austin, President
Contact me at any of the following:
Office: 662-887-5398
Home: 662-887-1780
Cell: 662-347-9998
Email: austingl@bellsouth.net
MISSISSIPPI COUNCIL OF THE BLIND
By Tammy Cantrell
Don’t look now MCB members, but it is getting
that time of year again. The weekend of April 18th, 19th, &
20th, 2008, you are ALL invited to Tupelo to take part in the MCB State
Convention. We will be holding this year’s Convention at the Quality Inn. Please get their telephone ringing and make
those reservations. Be sure to let them
know that you are with the Mississippi Council of the Blind Convention so you
can be given the rates of $62.99 plus taxes per night. The telephone numbers are (662) 841-2222 or
toll free 800-424-6423.
Please start watching your mailboxes for the
registration forms. I know Ralph will be
getting those out to you in the very near future. You will want to hurry and get those forms to
Eddie with your $40.00 registration fee.
Don’t get caught being late because there is a late fee. After the deadline, you will get the chance
to pay $60.00.
I would like to request assistance from each
chapter. It is always fun to hear your
name called out as the winner of a door prize.
Would you please take the time to search out that special something to
use as door prizes. Keep in mind that
the more you bring, the more likely you will hear your name being called as
that winner. You do have to be present
to win. I know you have to travel a long
distance, but the more prizes, the less time we have for presentations. Heh heh heh!
Just teasing there, but seriously, the more prizes, the more fun. I would greatly appreciate any assistance you
can provide in making this Convention fun and rewarding.
Friday, April 18, you will be arriving, getting
checked into the hotel, visiting the registration table, vendors and the
hospitality rooms. The Board will have a
Pre-Convention Board meeting. That night
we will have a nice dinner and several hours of live music.
On Saturday, we will hopefully learn something
that will benefit us from our informative speakers. Do you know anything about protecting
yourself from Identity Theft? If you don’t
know anything about this subject, come join us and be ready to learn something
new. This is a serious problem which we
are not exempt from. Learn how to
protect yourself and what to do if you become a victim.
The Scholarship Committee has been busy making
sure applications are sent out, collected up and a scholarship recipient
selected. Join us Saturday at noon to
make these presentations.
Naturally, we have to give President Gary Austin
time to conduct a bit of business. He
will be given this opportunity Saturday afternoon. When the General Session is over, everybody
will have the opportunity to join us in a special hands-on tour of a select
group of vintage vehicles at the Tupelo Automobile Museum. I had the great pleasure of meeting with the
curator of the museum and was given the opportunity to touch each of the
vehicles that will be made available to you.
There are over 100 vehicles housed at the museum. Each vehicle has a recorded message that is
available to the public. We will be
allowed to go under the chains and put our hands on a vintage pickup,
Volkswagen and even a 1994 Viper. How
many opportunities will you ever get to touch a $57,000.00 vehicle in your
life? Ladies, I know you might think
this is just for the guys, but it isn’t.
The more, the merrier. I hope you
come and enjoy this tour as much as I already have. If you would rather rest and visit, the
vendors will be available to you. The
hospitality rooms will also be open for visiting, munching and merriment. Just as a note to those that are diabetic,
your needs will be provided for, also.
We want everybody to be considered.
The Awards Committee has been busy, too. They are anxiously awaiting your nominations
for the many awards they are ready to present.
The Awards Banquet will be that Saturday night. After the Banquet, you
can continue to visit with friends in the hospitality rooms. The hostesses will treat you so many ways;
you’re bound to like one of them. Heh heh heh!
Sunday morning will be the time for breakfast,
the Post Convention Board meeting and all of those goodbyes until next
year.
Before I wrap up this little article, I would
like to take the time to say thanks to Gary Austin, Ralph Smitherman, Eddie
Turner and Maxine Meadows for offering suggestions and support for this
Convention effort. I hope every member
is able to show their support by attending.
We look forward to seeing each of you up here in Tupelo.
By Dr. Michael Gandy, Director
MDRS/Office of Vocational Rehabilitation for the
Blind
The administrative staff of the Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation
Services has begun a process of learning and renewal using Jim Collins'
landmark book Good to Great. Unlike other management texts, Collins'
work involves methods of operation that have proven to be effective in 11
companies using data going back over thirty years. Collins identified common
methods of operation that caused each of these publicly traded companies to
generate stock returns three times or more greater than the market. To help
public sector agencies and organizations, Collins wrote an additional monograph
titled Good to Great in the Social Sectors. Both are being studied by
MDRS.
Some of the factors identified by Collins include defining greatness for your
organization, confronting the brutal facts of what keeps your organization from
moving into greatness, determining traits that are possessed by the best (Level
5) leaders, deciding whether people are in the position in the organization
that best fits their personalities and talents, among many, many others.
While the MDRS administrative staff continues to study and learn from the book,
OVRB program directors have been provided with copies to study and have begun
discussions of how to apply Collins' techniques to MDRS programs serving blind
Mississippians, including the Addie McBryde Rehabilitation Center, the Business
Enterprise Program, Independent Living Services for the Blind, the REACH
Rehabilitation Center, and Vocational Rehabilitation Services. Once the program
directors have a thorough understanding of Good to Great, methods of
bringing mid-level management and service delivery staff into the Good to
Great discussions will be developed. This is the point in which it is
expected to have the greatest impact on service delivery.
Note: The
following poem is dedicated to all of our military serving overseas.
Submitted by John Erickson
Loving a soldier is not always gay,
And loving him is a high price to pay.
It is loving him mostly with nothing to hold,
It is being young, yet feeling old.
It is having him whisper his love to you,
It is whispering back that you love him, too.
Then comes a kiss, a promise of love,
Knowing you are watched, approved from above.
Reluctantly, painfully, letting him go,
While you are dying inside from wanting him so.
Watching him leave, with eyes full of tears,
Standing alone, with hopes, dreams, and fears.
It is sending a letter with the stamp upside
down,
To a faraway love, to a faraway town.
It is going to church to kneel and pray,
And really meaning the things you say.
And though you know that he is far away,
You just keep on loving him more each day.
Being in love will merit your dreams,
With thoughts of heaven where love’s light
gleams.
Days go by and no mail for a spell,
You wait for some word to hear that he is well.
Then the letter arrives and you are given joy,
You are like a small child with a shiny new toy.
With fingers atremble and heart beating fast,
You tear open his letter and read it fast.
And it’s filled with love, you wanted to know
Yes, he’s well and misses you so.
Weeks are months and months are a year,
You are awaiting the day you will have no more
fear.
Time passes slow, yet it’s gone very fast,
You are barely awake, it’s here till it passes.
Yes, loving a soldier brings bitterness and
fears,
Loneliness, sadness, and despondent tears.
Loving a soldier really is not much fun,
But it’s well worth the price when the battle is
won.
Remember, he is thinking of you each day,
He’s sad and he’s lonely for being away,
So love him, miss him, and try to bolder,
And always be proud of loving a soldier.
Submitted by Ralph Smitherman
Tattoos for the blind - One student has thought
of a way where the visually impaired can express themselves through tattoos
that can be read.
The Braille Tattoo, designed by Klaara Jirkova,
a student at the University of the Arts, Berlin, is a series of implantable
surgical steel, titanium, or medical plastic that is placed under the
skin. The tattoo can then be read by
touch. Subdermal implants are nothing
new, but using them to create body art for the visually impaired is an
interesting idea. Jirkova thinks that
the implants could be used in the divet between thumb and pointer finger, so
when people shake hands they can “read” each other’s names and info. To learn more, email Klaara at: klaara.jirkova@gmail.com
Dear MCB Members,
I would like to take a moment to share a few
comments with you, as well as some ideas that I have with regard to our
newsletter.
First, I would like to thank President Gary
Austin for asking me to serve as Periscope editor this year. It is an honor to be asked, and I hope that I
will be able to live up to your expectations while serving in this role.
I also want to thank Rita Kersh for the fine job
that she did while serving as Periscope editor.
Rita, we appreciate all your hard work with this newsletter over the
years, and the dedicated and enthusiastic spirit with which you did it. You will be greatly missed. We realize that our loss will be the
Indiana’s gain as you continue your efforts in the Council there after you
move. We wish you all the best, and
thank you for a job well done here in your Mississippi home.
Last, but certainly not least, I wish to thank
those of you who have agreed to help with the duplication and distribution of
the Periscope. I will not name names
here because there are so many of you who are helping with this effort, and I
wouldn’t want to risk accidentally leaving someone out. You know who you are, and please know that
your efforts are greatly appreciated.
I want to encourage each of you to please send
articles for the Periscope that you feel would be of interest to our MCB
members and friends. In addition to the
usual articles that are submitted, I would also like for us to include articles
that provide news about what is going on in each of our MCB chapters, as well
as in the lives of our individual members.
Remember, this is our MCB newsletter and, therefore, should
reflect what is going on in MCB. This is
not to say that we would not welcome periodic articles from other blind-related
organizations…we certainly do welcome them…but our main focus needs to be that
of news about our consumer organization, the Mississippi Council of the
Blind. That being said, I look forward
to hearing from you and to receiving your wonderful articles.
Also, any ideas that you might have for ways
that we can improve our newsletter would be most welcome. We want to make the Periscope both
informative and enjoyable for you, so please don’t hesitate to offer suggestions
on how we might do a better job of that.
The success of this newsletter depends on all
of our participation, so, please, keep those articles and ideas coming!
Regarding deadlines for submitting
articles: As a rule, I would like for
articles to be submitted to me no later than the 21st of the month
prior to the first of the month when the Periscope is to go out. For instance, the next issue of the Periscope
will hopefully go out around the first week in June, so articles would need to
be submitted by May 21st.
This is to allow for time to have the newsletter compiled then sent out
for Braille, large print, and tape duplication and mailing. I would appreciate your help and cooperation
in keeping as close to the deadline as possible.
Well, I believe that I’ve said about enough for
now. I promise you that I will not make
a habit of putting a long editor’s article in each issue, but being that this
was my first issue since taking this job, I wanted to use editor’s privilege
and share a few of my thoughts with you.
Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to do so.
Sincerely,
Alison Smitherman