The Night Owls Newsletter

ALUMNI NEWS

Topics

· President’s Corner

· Blinded Veterans Advisory Board (BVAB)

· Continued Notes from Paul Whitten, Chief of ABRC

· Financial Report

· Annual Reunion Recap

· New Support Group – Fayetteville, NC

· New Members - 2008

· Officers, Board, and Supporting Members

· Proposed Itinerary for the Year

· Notes from the Editor

President’s Corner

John Sherrer……

Welcome Again this chilly and busy season. We usually have a month or so of weather where we do not use heat or air conditioning. This year we only had a few days of warm comfortable weather.

From what I understand, the whole southeast is very dry. So we hope the following year we will get the rain we need.

The last few months we have been hearing the different promises from different presidential candidates. I believe that we all know that we really cannot count on the elected president sticking with his/her promise. This is a tradition in American politics.

The reason I am bring this up is that I really do not know what changes will happen in the VA with the next administration. VA funding could be increased, stay the same or cut.

One of the most powerful things that the VA does is to take unproductive and defeated men and women and turn them into productive, independent, and overcoming people.

I hope the upcoming election will bring forth leadership that will have a commitment to improve the lives of those who are blind, visually impaired, or have some other disability. This is a time for all of us to pray for the upcoming election and to pray for direction about how to vote.

If you need to go back to the blind center, then I recommend that you go as soon as you can, since the Augusta Blind Center now has good funding and we do not know what the future holds for the Blind Center.

Any concerns or just want to talk to me, give me a call (336-659-8476) or send me an email (john@whitecane.org)

John Sherrer, President, ABRCAA

Blinded Veterans Advisory Board (BVAB)

Duties/Responsibilities – BVAB is a group that was formed to provide advice and recommendations to the Augusta Blind Rehabilitation Center. The group is comprised of blinded veterans, such as yourself, who reside in the primary Augusta service area (Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina). The BVAB will provide ABRC with a consumer viewpoint on what veterans expect the VA should be doing to keep and maintain quality management/health services for the blinded veteran at the ABRC, Augusta, GA. The BVAB member is responsible for attending meetings, disseminating updated news from these meetings to the blinded veterans in their prospective areas either by (VIST) support groups or newsletters. Your suggestions and recommendations are always welcome. Until a Chairperson is elected or volunteers, Mr. Paul Whitten will conduct these meetings:

Business Meeting Notes

Announcements:

· ABRC will be realigned into a new Rehabilitation Service effective November 1, 2007.

· Vision Consequences conference, San Antonio, TX in December

· The Augusta VAMC will have a CARF Survey of the Polytrauma Network Site, TBI and Medical Rehab programs November 4-5, 2007.

Other Business:

· ABRC/CARF results

· ABRC Waiting list and waiting times

· ABRC Staff meeting with the Director

· ABRC Future expansion plans – private rooms, eye lane, optometrist, space renovations (space summit)

· Acquisition of Glenn Benson

· Supplemental spending updates – ABRC has purchase new equipment/CO/BRS may be purchasing vision therapy equipment

· ABRC Budget Call – requested funding to support BROS travel to different locations

· Visual Impairment Continuum of Care update – CO/BRS to send letters to each VISN

· CARF & CO/BRS to have a CARF Summit in January 2008

Adjournment: Next year’s BVAB schedule of calls on Tuesday’s:

May 6, 2008, @3pm eastern

Aug. 5, 2008, @3pm eastern

Nov. 4, 2008, @3pm eastern

Continued notes from Paul Whitten, Chief of the Augusta Blind Rehabilitation Center…

Happy New Year from the ABRC,

This year the ABRC will be preparing itself to provide more access to care and privacy. The ABRC has been given approval to hire two additional BR Specialist and an Optometry Technician. In addition, the ABRC will acquire some space on unit 1C (former Sleep Lab) to move administrative functions to and make two additional private patient rooms on the ABRC. This will make all 15 beds private rooms.

I, Paul Whitten, will be participating on a CO/BRS, CARF Summit meeting later this month to develop new CARF standards for the new 55 low vision clinics.

In addition, I have been asked to assist VISN 7 with the roll out of the visual impairment continuum of care that involves the Atlanta and Columbia VAMC’s.

On the horizon CO/BRS will establish 20 new BROS and 11 new VIST positions in the next year.

Financial Report

– Tentatively today we have approximately $3,395.18

Noted: Max Hearn, Treasurer

Annual Reunion Recap

Charleston in November

(The Beginning Of an Adventure)

Date – 1-4 Nov 07

Hotel - Radisson Inn

5991 Rivers Avenue

Charleston, SC 29406

Last Name	First Name	Address	City	State
Allen	Jack C.	3517 Old Battleground Road	Greensboro	NC
Bailey	James	704 Arch Lane	Columbia	SC
Beaford	William Ray	728 Seven Oak Dr	Moncks Corner	SC
Beam	H.M.	1002 Sprucewood St.	Kannapolis	NC
Biggs	Lawrence	PO Box 295	Durham	NC
Black	Francis	72 Country Square Dr	Fletcher	NC
Breese	Charles E.	138 Eastover Dr. 5E	Concord	NC
Burch	Robert H.	411 Shadow Oak Dr	Conyers	GA
Burless	Michael	1029 Shawnee Street Apt B-08	Savannah	GA
Cooper	Felix T.	PO Box 552	Hemingway	SC
Davidson	Samuel	136 Jasmine Drive	Gaffney	SC
Diamond	Stanley	1105 Shadow Lake Cir	Mt Pleasant	SC
Fleming	Robert	2486 Easy Street	Effingham	SC
Freeman	Carl A.	1268A Natchez Trace SW	Marietta	GA
Gadsden	David L.	PO Box 42107	Charleston	SC
Galloway	Allen	724 Green St	Augusta	GA
Gaye	Marvin	230 West 30th Street	Norfolk	VA
Green	Melvin H.	5528 Norlina Road	Virginia Beach	VA
Grubb	Billy W.	440 Cattle Creek Road	Reeseville	SC
Hanton	Derry	504 Sand Bar Ferry Rd	Augusta	GA
Hardy	Pauline	100 Peachtree Rd, Apt 20	Asheville	NC
Hughes	Jerome	717 Naples Lane	Rock Hill	SC
Jordan	St Louis	2311 E 39th St	Savannah	GA
Martin	Joseph	5232 Old Wallace Road	Smyrna	SC
McBride	Solomon	831 Boulevard Road	Sumter	SC
Perkins	Mary	2008 Bertram Ct, Apt 2	West Augusta	GA
Peters	Harold D.	162 Lake Ridge Dr	Ninety Six	SC
Pike	Steven M.	4942 Platts Springs Road	West Columbia	SC
Radd	Lucian R.	274 Old Grade Road	Moncks Corner	SC
Reid	Mark	190 Gateway Drive, Apt 7101	Biloxi	MS
Simpkins	Franklin	156 Crest Road	Edgefield	SC
Simpkins	Franklin	156 Crest Drive	Edgefield	SC
Stephenson	Horace	240 Lemonwood Cir	Hopkins	SC
Tilley	Ralph	11414 Hwy 401 N	Fuguay Varina	NC
Tucker	Michael T.	4012 Colorado Dr	Hope Mills	NC
Turpin	Gary	736 Pondella Dr	Charlotte	NC
Wardell	Thomas	325 Arnold St	Rock Hill	SC
Weatherly	Wade	1105 Oak Avenue	Hamlet	NC
Whelchel	Henry Jr.	192 Cedar Point Cir	Cordele	GA
White	Otis L.	315 Parsons Rd	Summerville	SC
White	Otis	315 Parsons Road	Summerville	SC
Wilkins	William C. II	6753 Bess Creek Road	Marshall	NC
Winslow	Diane	186 Padgett Pond Road	Ridge Spring	SC
Wright	James Nelson	736 Montlieu Avenue	High Point	NC

	President, John Sherrer (NC)
	Vice President, Milton Ackerman (SC)
	Secretary, Cheryl Gajadhar (SC)
	Treasurer, Max Hearn (SC)
	Sergeant Of Arms, Glenn Shirey (SC)
	Member At Large (C), Henry McCoy (NC)
	ABRC Liaison, John Joe (No picture available)
	Family Support Chairperson, Dr. Fred Cook (No picture available)
	Membership Chairperson, Don Srail