From: "Nicholas R. Schmittroth, III" 
Subject: Exhibitions, conventions, and change...
Fellow Federationists,
We all know about the debate, if you can call it that, that has been going
on here for some time.  It all started with the resolution concerning Seeing
Eye, which I had the chance to hear from President Mauer speak on in
California this past weekend, and it has spread to the entire way our
conventions are structured and how many hours the exhibition halls are open.
Well, I am truly fed up with the direction this is going.  The conventions
do change, and have changed over the past 20 years.  If they didn't change,
what would be the point of having them in the first place?  We would all do
and hear the exact same thing over and over.  All growth in the NFB and the
movement would die, and with it the very organization we all support.
Convention activities still start on Sunday.  Yes, more and more pre and
post convention items and meetings are planned, but this is simply because a
week is no loinger enough time for all the business that needs to be dealt
with.  We are becoming more concerned and active as a national group, and
this is a sign, or a price, depending upon how you look at it.
Further, to say that the exhibition hall should be open for more hours and
more time is a good idea with little practicality.  The Saturday before
convention is out because it would increase cost and hastle in setting up.
Its true that with more pre-convention items it appears like a good idea,
but we would be forgetting the fact that most of the poeple that service the
NFB tables and affiliate tables are volunteers at the convention.
Organizing those workers is hard and time consuming, especially if they are
all involved in other groups and meetings and cannot work all hours.  I
worked the NFB cane table in Aneheim, and it was a lot of hard work.   At
the workers meeting, the room was full of people.  Most of which had barely
arrived.  Are you suggesting that we ask every person to come in early for
exhibits?  Our conventions ARE NOT about exhibits!  Its a nice part of the
week, and I love visiting them all, but tehy should not take such a high
priority as to override other activities and meetings.  When the hours
overlap, as was suggested by extending evening hours, committee meetings and
other items on the agenda would be overlapped, and not only would the people
in the exhibit hall miss out, but so would the exhibitors.  No real changes
have been made to the hours of exhibition since the '70's, and none is
needed now.
That's my two bits...
Nick
--
Nicholas R. Schmittroth, III 
President of the Utah Association of Blind Students
http://www.cs.utah.edu/~schmittr
"The only way to discover the limits of the possible
 is to go beyond them into the impossible." 
 - Clarke
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