Vision Impaired
Resource Network (VIRN) Inc.
2012 Annual General Meeting
Saturday, June 9, 2012
East Kildonan Masonic Temple
205 Kimberly Ave – Winnipeg, MB
Annual Report
14
Vision Impaired Resource Network (VIRN) Inc.
AGM Saturday, June 9, 2012
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Meeting
· 1:00 PM Call Meeting to Order
· Chair’s opening remarks and housekeeping
· Round the room self introductions
· Approval of minutes from May 28, 2011
· 1:15 PM – 1:25 PM VIRN Overview
· Approval of all Reports
· 1:25 – 1:30 Website Presentation
· 1:30 - 1:40 PM Open Discussion
· 1:40 – 2:00 Elections
Meeting Adjourned
2:00 – 5:00 PM Cribbage Tournament
3:15 – 3:45 Break and food served
4:45 – 5:00 Winners Announced
2012 Table of Contents
Summary
Community Relations
Public Education
Website
Newsline
MAAW 2012
White Cane Week 2012
VI Curling Program
Tech-Ease Program
Winnipeg & District Program
L. P. Ings Scholarship Program
“See If You Can” Program
Conclusion
Financial Report
2011 AGM Minutes
Vision Impaired Resource Network (VIRN) Inc.
Submitted by: The VIRN Board of Directors
Summary
2011 was a milestone for the community of Manitobans who are vision impaired. The Canadian Council of the Blind – Manitoba Division Inc. (CCB MB) changed its name to Vision Impaired Resource Network (VIRN) Inc. This means that VIRN still holds the previous business number and continues to be a registered charity in Canada.
After many discussions with our community, a lot of thought and months of research to find the right name that would best suit our organization as it is today. When asked why the change? The answer was simple, the community of people who are vision impaired (VI) said, "We want to be part of an organization that reflect who they are and what they do."
The announcement was very well received. It is hard to believe it is only a year since we changed our name and we are already very well-known to the community as VIRN.
VIRN still offers all of the same programs and activities, but one of the significant differences is that all funds raised locally are managed here in Manitoba.
These programs and activities fall within VIRN’s main building blocks of peer support, training and public education. Often these areas overlap and range from fitness & recreation, social interaction, adaptive technology & training, and more.
VIRN shows its commitment to a fully inclusive society by providing positive experiences for people who are vision impaired.These experiences help to build self confidence toward the goal of full and inclusive lives. VIRN believes people who are vision impaired can work, play, and live as an equal in our community.
VIRN continues to run our operations via a virtual office. This system has allowed all VIRN Board members the ability to access information and update files on the spot. We are very pleased to say that running the administration and operations through the virtual office has proven to be very efficient and effective for our needs.
In keeping with the Privacy Act the VIRN has assigned a Privacy Officer. No personal information is given out without permission from the individuals concerned.
We continue to play a role on accessibility with the city of Winnipeg as well as legislation issues in Manitoba. Members of VIRN continue to take a leadership role and serve on many committees in the community collectively.
The VIRN Board is currently made up of six members who are vision impaired. Everyone devotes countless volunteer hours of their time to help improve the lives of people who live day to day with vision loss. We understand and can bring our own experiences to help make positive change.
Thank you to the members of the VIRN Board for their continuous hard work. It has been a long road and as we take on new events and challenges, we are always thinking of how to make things easier and more efficient for the future. VIRN takes great pride in keeping Manitobans informed and are a resource for people who are vision impaired.
Community Relations
VIRN continues to work with many organizations in the province.
We believe it is very important to build strong and trusting relationships and it has made it much easier to advertise any of our activities and get better participation. We in return help others on their needs where ever possible.
The VIRN community is proud to be part of a larger like-minded group of people and organizations who share the same goals as VIRN for a fully inclusive and productive life experience. We give this group of friends and partners deserving recognition through our “Public Announcements” area of the VIRN website, the VIRN news line and VIRN Community mailing list.
VIRN remains committed to exploring partnerships with any organization that is able to provide programs and services that will give a positive experience to our community.
Public Education
VIRN and a group of community members were able to meet with City of Winnipeg Planning & Property, Transit and the Universal Design Coordinator for the city to discuss how universal design can be implemented in new design for the city.
VIRN was also involved with the University of Manitoba Interior Design Master’s graduates. There final project was to design a Drop-In Centre for VIRN. The students came up with 8 interesting and different designs that incorporated design elements with the vision impaired community in mind. Some of the features were high contrast signage and interior colors as well as different textures for mobility and way finding within the office and lighting concerns.
Virn has also been in partnership with the Apple Store to set up iPhone classes to show that the iPhone is accessible for the VIRN community.
VIRN presented the third "Information Stations" Resources for People with Disabilities trade show on October 27, 2011. This exciting trade show shone the spotlight on 14 vendors, who provide a wide variety of products and services available to people with a disability. Attendees and venders alike enjoyed themselves and were very pleased with the ability to network in a comfortable and relaxed environment. VIRN looks forward to offering a similar trade show in 2012.
Website
The VIRN website www.virn.ca has proven to be an excellent tool for the organization. We continuously receive requests from the community asking for VIRN’s help to make their websites accessible. The website is always being fine tuned and updated. It is always evolving and will continue to be a leader in access for information.
News Line
The news line has been a wonderful tool for people to get information even if they aren't connected to the internet. We have noticed a steady increase in callers.
Manitoba Access Awareness (MAAW) 2012
Doris Koop once again is representing VIRN is part of the Steering Committee for the events, awards and publicity of Manitoba Access Awareness Week June 3 – 9. Being part of this has strengthened the relationship between the disability communities in Manitoba. Being involved in MAAW increases awareness on what is needed to improve access for people who are blind or vision impaired. This year VIRN is hosting a “Ride for Fun” event as part of MAAW.
White Cane Week 2012
As part of White Cane Week celebrations, VIRN once again presented the Inclusive Trivia Challenge. The questions focused on methods rather than vision to discern answers.
Four teams with a total of 28 participants came out to enjoy the evening and to match wits. It was a fun evening with many questions answered.
Thank you to the volunteers who kept the game running smoothly and in a timely fashion.
The venue used was the United Way building on Main Street. VIRN will be encouraging more organizations to enter teams. This will introduce VIRN to more people in our community.
VI Curling Program
Grassroots developmental clinics and sessions ran at the Thistle Curling Club Saturday afternoons from 12:30 to 2:30. VIRN had three sheets of ice, with one always held in reserve to allow new curlers to work on their individual skills under the supervision of a coach. Our head coach this year was Walter Koop. Doris Koop also provided assistance by coaching the new comers as well.
Throughout the season there were twenty individuals who came out and participated on Saturday afternoon. There was a mix of B1, B2, B3, and sighted curlers. We introduced four new people to curling this season, who have never tried curling before.
VIRN changed how we work with MBSA for the curling program. VIRN no longer collects MBSA membership information on their behalf. However, we still sold some Grey Cup pool tickets for MBSA.
VIRN does not have the resources to collect information for MBSA and coordinate their fundraising initiatives. People can continue to be members of MBSA and have their curling and VIRN dues paid for by MBSA if that is what they choose. VIRN membership is still open to everyone and the Saturday afternoon sessions are still developmental, they are not a league.
From these developmental sessions, when the coach feels they are ready, the new curlers then get put into full games. VIRN encourages our curlers to join other leagues when they understand the game and have the confidence. We are very proud that we have several VI curlers taking part in other leagues.
The VI Curling program received funding from Curl Manitoba through Sport Canada. This money will be used to cover coaching clinics, purchase new equipment, develop a new lighted broom, and cover some transportation costs for new curlers to attend clinics from outside of Winnipeg.
Two teams from Manitoba went to the Western Blind Curling Bonspiel in Edmonton this season. Each team had four curlers and one designated sweeper.
Team one: Doris Koop, Darren Hawkins, Ross Martin, Vic Pereira, and Walter Koop as the designated sweeper. They finished third with a record of five and two.
Team two: Bill Horvath, Norman Lyons, Gilbert Chief, Binh Vo, and Dale Sandmoen as the designated sweeper. They finished fifth.
VIRN will continue to work with our curlers and continue to look for new people for the next season.
Tech-Ease Program
The purpose of the Tech-ease group is to focus on adaptive technology and how it can be leveraged by people who are vision impaired to support their personal and professional lives.
The Tech-ease group continued its meetings and peer support activities during 2011 and 2012. At the meetings, a main topic was presented by a volunteer and ample time for general discussion and questions.
Over the past year, we covered diverse topics such as alternative MP3 players, various cell phone demonstrations and a detailed look at the Apple iDevices.
Ruth Hogue volunteered to help out with the coordination of the Tech-Ease meetings. She has been asked to prepare a list of locations for VIRN to hold more hands on training sessions.
The primary focus of Tech-Ease this year has been hands-on training opportunities offered to the VIRN community. Topics of the training included screen reader basics, eLM (Electronic Library of Manitoba) and iDevice basics. For each session the notes used during the training have been made available as downloads from the VIRN web site. It is planned to have more frequent training sessions on various technology and software topics.
VIRN has established an excellent working relationship with libraries in Manitoba to help them get more materials to people with vision impairments on their device and format of choice.
The Tech-Ease emailing list has had increased number of participants and volume of messages. The pool of knowledge available on the Tech-Ease emailing list is becoming deeper and covers more diverse topics. The Tech-Ease emailing list is a great source of information.
The mentoring activities of many Tech-Ease members offered hours of one on one support for people wrestling with adaptive technology challenges. Our volunteers offer their time generously, therefore everyone is reminded to make sure when they call it is at a reasonable hour, before nine PM is a good guideline. Also respect people's weekends. If possible we suggest if you require assistance call on Monday through Thursday or call on our 1-888-471-1919 number and leave a message. If you have the person home number of one of our volunteers, please leave a message. With call display, many family members of our volunteers do not answer the phone if they do not recognize the caller.
Tech-ease currently has a strong core group of members. The challenges over the next year will be to reach out to more people who are vision impaired and their families and friends to communicate the advantages that adaptive technology can provide in their lives. These challenges will be for both people who use text to speech technologies and those who are still able to use their vision.
L. P. Ings Scholarship 2011
The purpose of the L. P. Ings Scholarship is to assist a person who is vision impaired with costs associated with their post secondary education. These costs may include, but are not limited to: tuition, tutoring, text books, adaptive devices or software.