All posts by President

Happy Fall Y’all from PNWAER

Hello Eve,

On behalf of our PNWAER board, we hope this email finds you well and settling into this new season. We are looking forward to another exciting year with all of you. Be on the lookout for an email with a survey to discuss the 2022 conference and the return of our mixers!

We would like to take this time to introduce our board and the significance of AER & PNWAER as professional organizations.

Please welcome our 2020-2021 Board Members.

• Stacey Gibbins, President
• Sean McCormick, President-Elect
• Brittany Valicoff, Past-President
• Julie McEnderfer, Treasurer
• Kina Blackburn, Secretary
• Board Members’ at Large – Janet Carlson, Sara Zachariah, Scott McCallum

What is AER and PNWAER?
Pacific Northwest AER (PNWAER) is a chapter of The Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER).  This chapter provides a unique opportunity to connect with local professionals who provide services and resources that enable individuals who are blind or visually impaired to achieve their educational, employment and personal independence goals. Example, our spring conference held every year or our newest virtual mixers! 

Our chapter covers professionals living in the state of Washington.

PNWAER is active all year round. It is led by a group of board members that are voted into position by PNWAER members!

Why Join: When you join AER and our chapter, you join a community of excellence. This membership brings professionals together toensure success of one another and success of the people we serve. Added bonus, members have access to AER’s learning series and discounts on AER conference registrations.

How: To join PNWAER officially you need to be a member of AER. An AER membership provides an automatic membership to our chapter if you reside in Washington State. There are several membership types, click the link to find the best fit for you! https://aerbvi.org/membership/

Not ready to commit but want to follow along? Join us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/pnwaer/We hope you will consider joining this wonderful professional organization. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Sportingly,

Stacey Gibbins, PNWAER President

Thank you & see you soon!

On behalf of our PNWAER Board we would like to say thank you for another wonderful fiscal year. We have endured so much this last year but through it all your passion, curiosity and commitment have remained true. Our world is better for having you in it and we hope you take a moment to witness yourself and all that you have accomplished this past year.

We are looking forward to next year and hope you will join us once again for mixers, conferences, and more! We would like to leave you with this poem.

The Starfish Story

“One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it in the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.” “Son,” the man said, “Don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!” After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man he said. “I made a difference for that one.”

Thank you for making a difference each day. Have a wonderful summer and we will see you next year!

Sincerely,

PNWAER Board

Post-Conference Information: Recordings, Surveys, Credits & More!

Dear 2021 Conference Attendees, 

Thank you for making our 2021 Virtual Conference a success! We are pleased to announce a link for the recordings from last week’s PNWAER “Connecting the Dots” Conference is now available and you should have received this in an email from our President, Stacey Gibbins. These recordings will be available until May 31. The folders are organized by rooms and pre-conference and then individual conference sessions. All handouts are provided in the session folder with the recording.

Special note, the closed captions did not post in the recording. If you need closed captioning, we can provide closed captioning through Zoom with a different access link. Please, reach out to me directly for access, apologies.

Post-Conference Survey: Here is our post-conference survey; please take a moment to fill it out when you are able. It also has information on our 2022 proposed locations to vote. https://forms.gle/zDxprjTQccAhVvwJ6 

ACVERP Credits Information: 

To submit ACVERP credits, please email a signed copy of your form to this email with all of the opening and closing codes for the sessions attended. The keynote has an opening and closing code as well. Some of the sessions may have missed the code initially, but it is repeated many times in the end. The form is attached to this email. Only registered attendees will be able to receive credit. *The ACVREP form is in the Conference Handouts Folder.

WA Clock Hours Information: 

You should have received the code for attendance in the post-conference email- Email Pam Parker if you have questions. Only registered attendees will be able to receive clock hours.

Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/pnwaer 

Guide Dogs for the Blind Presentation Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GDBLearningEvents

Follow Up: PNW AER Business Meeting

Dear PNWAER Members,

Thank you for your continued membership with PNWAER. If you attended last week’s coffee business meeting, we appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule. As promised, we wanted to provide all of our PNWAER members with the Keynote & Awards Ceremony recording. We were fortunate to have Chris Downey attend as our guest speaker. If you would like access to this recording please email pnwaerbvi@gmail.com.

Congratulations to all of our membership milestones. A special shout-out to Diana Warren & Paul Baldwin, our Lifetime Achievement Award Winners. In addition, Debbie Brown, our Service to the Field Award Winner. The award ceremony starts around 45 minutes marker if you would like to tune in.

We will be sending out an election email on the first of next month; voting will close on April 30. Please reach out to me if you have any questions.

FIRST-LOOK! “Connecting the Dots” Virtual Conference, Keynote, Agenda & More!

Happy February! Our ‘Connecting the Dots’ Virtual Spring Conference Registration is open, and we encourage you to join us on March 18 & 19. Receive up to 18 ACVREP & Clock Hours for attending the conference! All sessions will be recorded and available post-conference for additional viewing.

We are excited to announce our Keynote Speaker, Mr. Chris Downey, AIA. Chris is the president of Architecture for the Blind. He has over 32 years of experience in architecture – continuing without sight since 2008. He now specializes in projects focusing on users who are blind and low vision, including eye institutes, rehabilitation centers, and schools for the blind, along with other relevant projects. We are excited Chris will be joining us at our 2021 conference!
Our pre-conference presenters will feature,Megan Mogan, Tactile Strategies for Early CommunicatorsAshley Jopling, Lost & Found, Adjustment after Vision Loss
Nora Griffin-Shirley & Anita Page, O&M for Older Adults with Vision Loss

We have provided a link and an attachment for our draft conference agenda. The conference agenda is subject to change, but we wanted you to have the first look!  View Full Agenda

We encourage you to become a member of AER – conference discounts will be available for AER members. We hope you will join us.

2021 Spring Conference- Registration is Open!

We are pleased to announce registration is now open for our virtual conference on March 18th and 19th. We encourage you to become a member of AER- conference discounts will be available to members. All conference sessions will be recorded and available for viewing post-conference. ACVREP and Clock Hours will be available for attendees.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE-

Spring Conference Survey

On behalf of our board, I hope this email finds you well. We know that everyone has been waiting to hear about how we will be providing our spring conference this year; the 2021 conference will be hosted virtually.  We are looking forward to planning an exciting and accessible conference for all those who wish to attend. We believe that we will reach a greater audience in our state through this format while keeping the integrity of our annual conference and the safety of attendees first.

We are in the planning phase of choosing the best format to host the conference. The most difficult part is planning which times and days to host. As a board, we created a survey for attendees to submit feedback on which conference format, dates, and times work best for your schedule. 

Whichever virtual format we choose, all sessions will be available to access digitally for a set amount of time after the session ends. Meaning, you will be able to attend sessions you may have missed due to a schedule conflict. We will be offering CECs for this conference as well as more opportunities to connect with professionals.
Please complete this survey by 1/5 to help us move forward in the decision-making process. Thank you and Happy Holidays.
Survey Link: https://forms.gle/31aN8S3bkJdDgzrG9

PNW AER Mixer Re-Cap and New Logo

If you were unable to attend our mixer last night, stay tuned for more exciting events and connections from our board in October! If you would like to provide input or feedback for future events and connections, please complete the survey at the bottom of this email.

We would like to take this time to introduce our board and the significance of AER & PNWAER as professional organizations.

Please welcome our 2020-2021 Board Members.

Stacey Gibbins, President

Sean McCormick, President-Elect

Brittany Valicoff, Past-President

Julie McEnderfer, Treasurer

DeEtte Snyder, Secretary

Board Members’ at Large – Pam Parker, Scott McCallum, Sara Zachariah

What is AER and PNWAER?

Pacific Northwest AER (PNWAER) is a chapter of The Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER).  This chapter provides a unique opportunity to connect with local professionals who provide services and resources that enable individuals who are blind or visually impaired to achieve their educational, employment and personal independence goals. Example, our spring conference held every year or our newest virtual mixers!

Our chapter covers professionals living in the state of Washington.

PNWAER is active all year round. It is led by a group of board members that are voted into position by PNWAER members!

Why Join: When you join AER and our chapter, you join a community of excellence. This membership brings professionals together to ensure success of one another and success of the people we serve. Added bonus, members have access to AER’s learning series and discounts on AER conference registrations.
How To join PNWAER officially you need to be a member of AER. An AER membership provides an automatic membership to our chapter if you reside in Washington State. There are several membership types, click the link to find the best fit for you! https://aerbvi.org/membership/

Not ready to commit but want to follow along? Join us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/pnwaer/

Last night we unveiled our new PNWAER logo. Image description, PNWAER’s logo, a circle inside the image is a whale that is dark blue and lighter, the whales tail is flipped up, geometric white waves are placed above the whale.

PNWAER Mixer Invite

On behalf of PNWAER’s Board of Directors we are happy to invite you to our first ever PNWAER Virtual Mixer! On September 24, joined by special guest Dr. Craig Meador, President, American Printing House from the Blind, from 5pm-6pm we will be hosting a mixer for professionals across the state to share, connect and spread joy! This event is free to attend and will be hosted by our board. Our hope is to engage, inspire and pave the way for future mixers creating a platform for diverse content in a relaxed setting. Put on your comfy clothes, pour your favorite beverage and join us and your colleagues for an hour of connection.

We’re using SignUp.com for registration. Once you are registered you will receive a link to the Zoom meeting.

Here’s how it works in 2 easy steps:

1) Click this link to see our SignUp on SignUp.com: https://signup.com/go/mQCkFML

2) Sign up! It’s Easy – you will NOT need to register an account or keep a password on SignUp.com.

Note: SignUp.com does not share your email address with anyone. If you prefer not to use your email address, please contact me and I can sign you up manually.

Support and Materials Needed- Southern Oregon ESD

The Southern Oregon ESD lost their main office last night due to the on-going fires in the area. The office housed a lot of the TVIs, COMS and braillists materials serving the area.

April Love shared this with us, “The devastation in our community is widespread. We have yet to do an inventory of all that is lost but I thought I would reach out to this group of vision professionals to ask you to keep us in mind if getting rid of any vision materials.”

Any materials can be sent to the address below:

Attn: April Love

Southern Oregon ESD

409 NW 3^rd Street

Grants Pass, OR 97526