Hello Fellow NOMCs, I have given this a lot of?thought....? A couple of years ago, I created the Orientation and Mobility for Children Facebook page. It was created to help NOPBC?parents with a Structured Discovery focus and?so parents could interact with positive blind role models. However, soon?it became overly heavy of COMS rather than NOMC. I had to go in and make?changes to keep it parent focused with blind role models.?Since the coronavirus, there has?been?many, many requests by COMS to join.? Today, there are already several?FB pages for COMS, yet?only one for NOMCs. Last night, we discussed doing lessons with?students... while social distancing.....?which?really focuses on our particular teaching style. As we know,?COMS are able to instruct from a distance. Therefore, this topic was directed specially?to NOMCs. If I recall correctly, the beginning roots?of?ACVREP involved blind individuals but over time, the blind were?weeded out. That being said, I suggest COMS may?join, so long as that particular COMS?is?invited by an NOMC. This is what I do with the Orientation and Mobility for Children FB group.?I accept a COMS to the Parents? O&M group so long as a?parent requests ?that??COMS to be accepted.? I really don?t want our group to be over heavy with COMS and we (NOMC) get buried. Those are my thoughts. Merry-Noel Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, 8:12 AM, Edward Bell <ebell at pdrib.com> wrote: <!--#yiv4962931641 _filtered {} _filtered {} _filtered {} _filtered {}#yiv4962931641 #yiv4962931641 p.yiv4962931641MsoNormal, #yiv4962931641 li.yiv4962931641MsoNormal, #yiv4962931641 div.yiv4962931641MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;}#yiv4962931641 a:link, #yiv4962931641 span.yiv4962931641MsoHyperlink {color:#0563C1;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv4962931641 span.yiv4962931641EmailStyle21 {font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;color:windowtext;}#yiv4962931641 .yiv4962931641MsoChpDefault {font-size:10.0pt;} _filtered {}#yiv4962931641 div.yiv4962931641WordSection1 {}--> Good morning, ? Weighing all the feedback here is what we are going to do. For now, I will include everyone on the zoom call who says they want to be in the O&M discussion. At any time, we can remove someone if they are combative. Additionally, at any time if you NOMC want a specific meeting set up that is specific to a smaller group, I am glad to do that. All you need do is let me know. Good conversation both via list serve and on Zoom ? ? Edward C. Bell, Ph.D., CRC, NOMC, Director, Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness Louisiana Tech University 600 Mayfield Ave / 210 Woodard Hall PO Box 3158 Ruston LA 71272 Office: 318.257.4554????????????????????? Fax: 318.257.2259 ebell at latech.edu? www.pdrib.com ************* "I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of? Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal? talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." -- Stephen Jay Gould ? ? From: Deb & Jeff Altman <debandjeff at allophone.com> Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 6:05 PM To: 'Edward Bell' <ebell at pdrib.com>; 'NOMC Mailing list' <nomc at lists.nbpcb.org> Subject: RE: [Nomc] Question about zoom participants ? I have mixed emotions about this, and perhaps that comes from experiences that should be left in the past. Perhaps trying it out to see how it goes, but having a meeting that is just us involved, so that we are able to avoid some of the subjects that will likely cause controversy with the Conventional folks. By the way, everyone wants to do this again next week, we may have a tradition starting here. J ? Jeff ? ? From: NOMC [mailto:nomc-bounces at lists.nbpcb.org] On Behalf Of Edward Bell Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 4:51 PM To: NOMC Mailing list Subject: [Nomc] Question about zoom participants ? Hello, ? First, my apology for the dropped zoom call today. I now know what the problem is and will work for that not to happen again. ? My question is about participation in any future of these zoom meetings. At national convention we open our conference to anyone interested, but we keep this NOMC list primarily restricted to only certified NOMC. Last week, I mostly only allowed NOMC onto the zoom call list. This week I am getting increasing numbers of requests to participate by O&M people who are not NOMC. So far, I am adding them to the registration list; however, I do realize in these times you all are discussing somewhat sensitive information, some of which others may not agree with. My question to those who are NOMC: From next week forward for as long as we do these weekly zoom calls, are you all comfortable with conventional O&M joining this conversation or would you rather I restrict it to only NOMC at this time. I am glad to do it either way ? Edward C. Bell, Ph.D., CRC, NOMC, Director, Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness Louisiana Tech University 600 Mayfield Ave / 210 Woodard Hall PO Box 3158 Ruston LA 71272 Office: 318.257.4554????????????????????? Fax: 318.257.2259 ebell at latech.edu? www.pdrib.com ************* "I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of? Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal? talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." -- Stephen Jay Gould ? ? _______________________________________________ NOMC mailing list NOMC at lists.nbpcb.org http://lists.nbpcb.org/listinfo.cgi/nomc-nbpcb.org

Hello all, From the perspective of an orientation and training center director, I am trying to get my staff more interested in structure discovery and what it offers. I know one of my staff, who is very conventionally trained, joined the call and I was beyond thrilled about that. I think that those that teach structured discovery can offer a lot and help to those of us who are trying to transition to a more SDCT method at our training centers. I am grateful for the perspective that these conversations give And hope you will consider staff like mine when making this decision. It?s important to me to be able to educate them as much as possible from someone other than myself. I ask that you all strongly consider allowing conventionally trained instructors on the call. Thanks for letting me share my perspective. Deja Deja Powell, MA, NOMC

On Apr 22, 2020, at 6:32 AM, Edward Bell <ebell at pdrib.com> wrote:

? Good morning,

Weighing all the feedback here is what we are going to do. For now, I will include everyone on the zoom call who says they want to be in the O&M discussion. At any time, we can remove someone if they are combative. Additionally, at any time if you NOMC want a specific meeting set up that is specific to a smaller group, I am glad to do that. All you need do is let me know. Good conversation both via list serve and on Zoom

Edward C. Bell, Ph.D., CRC, NOMC, Director, Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness Louisiana Tech University 600 Mayfield Ave / 210 Woodard Hall PO Box 3158 Ruston LA 71272 Office: 318.257.4554 Fax: 318.257.2259 ebell at latech.edu www.pdrib.com ************* "I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." -- Stephen Jay Gould

From: Deb & Jeff Altman <debandjeff at allophone.com> Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 6:05 PM To: 'Edward Bell' <ebell at pdrib.com>; 'NOMC Mailing list' <nomc at lists.nbpcb.org> Subject: RE: [Nomc] Question about zoom participants

I have mixed emotions about this, and perhaps that comes from experiences that should be left in the past. Perhaps trying it out to see how it goes, but having a meeting that is just us involved, so that we are able to avoid some of the subjects that will likely cause controversy with the Conventional folks. By the way, everyone wants to do this again next week, we may have a tradition starting here. J

Jeff

From: NOMC [mailto:nomc-bounces at lists.nbpcb.org] On Behalf Of Edward Bell Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 4:51 PM To: NOMC Mailing list Subject: [Nomc] Question about zoom participants

Hello,

First, my apology for the dropped zoom call today. I now know what the problem is and will work for that not to happen again.

My question is about participation in any future of these zoom meetings. At national convention we open our conference to anyone interested, but we keep this NOMC list primarily restricted to only certified NOMC. Last week, I mostly only allowed NOMC onto the zoom call list. This week I am getting increasing numbers of requests to participate by O&M people who are not NOMC. So far, I am adding them to the registration list; however, I do realize in these times you all are discussing somewhat sensitive information, some of which others may not agree with. My question to those who are NOMC: From next week forward for as long as we do these weekly zoom calls, are you all comfortable with conventional O&M joining this conversation or would you rather I restrict it to only NOMC at this time. I am glad to do it either way

Edward C. Bell, Ph.D., CRC, NOMC, Director, Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness Louisiana Tech University 600 Mayfield Ave / 210 Woodard Hall PO Box 3158 Ruston LA 71272 Office: 318.257.4554 Fax: 318.257.2259 ebell at latech.edu www.pdrib.com ************* "I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops." -- Stephen Jay Gould

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