September 27, 2007
Conference Call Summary
Vision Summit Committee
Participants: Steve Berman, Mike Merrick, Aundrayah Schermer, Susan Ford, Patricia Schonlau, Chip Hailey, Donna Borgmeyer, Mike Evans, Jacob Wilson. Ella Wolfe was unable to participate.
1) Mike Merrick gave the committee an update on the responses he received from the hotel bids for the Vision summit. He received three responses: one was from the Capitol Plaza in Jefferson City, one was from the Holiday Inn in Columbia, and the third was from the Truman Hotel (formerly the Ramada) in Jefferson City. The Capitol Plaza was able to give us the April 2/3 dates, as was the Holiday Inn in Columbia. April 3/4 was not available for either hotel. The Truman Hotel was able to give us April 1/2. The pricing of the rooms was such that the most inexpensive alternative was to go with the Holiday Inn in Columbia. The Holiday Inn was able to give us the best deal on meal prices and meeting-space fees. The committee voted to go with the Holiday Inn in Columbia for April 2/3. Chip Hailey made the motion and Donna Borgmeyer seconded it. The committee voted unanimously to accept the motion.
2) Dr. Porter will be available for the conference for his two presentations on Low Vision. He usually prefers to present on the second day of the conference and, as usual, we will accommodate him.
3) Dr. Osterhaus from the Texas School for the Blind has agreed to be a keynote speaker and will also do several breakout sessions on math instruction for visually impaired students. She will be the keynote speaker on day 2 of the Summit. The committee will keep in touch with Dr. Osterhaus during the next several months regarding her presentations.
4) Yvonne Ali from Missouri School for the Blind (MSB) will be both a presenter and exhibitor at the Summit. She always brings an interesting array of new materials from APH.
5) Patti Schonlau and Steve Berman will once again coordinate putting together Summit packets; and Barbara Beale at MSB will once again coordinate the hotel room accommodations as they come in.
6) The committee will continue to contact VI agencies to try to drum up financial support for the Summit. Patti will see about getting MCB to finance one of the meals at the Summit.
7) The committee will try to send out the Summit applications/fact sheet by Jan 1, 2008 and will also send out an early mark your calendar type of e-mail to alert agencies to the date of the summit and the fact that the location has been changed from Jefferson City to Columbia. The committee will also work on coming up with a catchy phrase to describe the Summit.