Dear GDUI Members and Friends,
First things first, happy new year! As I prepare this announcement,
the new year’s arrival is just hours away. At our house, the holiday
season was particularly busy, and lots of fun! Our house was
filled-to-overflowing with family members, most of whom we don’t get
to spend time with nearly often enough. Willow was thrilled beyond
calculation every time another family member arrived – and so were the
rest of us. Preparing and enjoying all kinds of amazing food kept us
occupied, along with gifts and conversation and anticipating the
arrival of Santa Claus (who even made a brief in-person stop-over for
the first time ever in our living room early on Christmas Eve! Our
three-year-old granddaughter was amazed and excited, Willow was a
little more cautious!) Now that everyone has gone back to their own
homes and there are only three humans and one canine in residence
again, I want to catch you up, briefly, on what’s happening and what’s
coming in GDUI, and to thank each one of you for your friendship and
support during this year that’s rapidly disappearing.
It’s time for Membership Renewals! If you haven’t renewed your
membership in GDUI for 2017, we hope you will do so soon. Our web
master recently installed a new membership plug-in on our web site,
which, we believe, will make the job of our Treasurer and Membership
Committee Chair a lot less complicated. To complete your membership
application and pay your annual dues of just $15, visit this link:
http://guidedogusersinc.org/join/.
Just a Few Days until Top Dog! Willow and I are looking forward to
catching up with many of you and your dogs at Top Dog, which will be
here before we know it! I will be participating on a panel discussion
concerning possible new regulations that may affect those of us who
fly with our guide dogs – and the failed attempt to achieve consensus
with the airline industry during this past year’s RegNeg process. Top
Dog is such a wonderful conference. I feel very grateful to be able to
attend and renew acquaintance with conference organizers and
attendees. If you can come to Top Dog, please find us and say hello!
Several GDUI Committees are seeking new or additional members. Will
Burley would like to invite any of you who would like to help with the
Disaster Assistance and Preparedness Program (DAPP) Committee to get
in touch with him. Will’s e-mail address is
mailto:will.burley3@gmail.com.
And, Deanna Noriega is still hoping that any of you with a passion for
or experience in fund-raising will join the GDUI Fund-Raising
Committee. Fund-raising is one of those activities where it’s
impossible for too many cooks to spoil the broth! E-mail Deanna
atmailto:VP1@guidedogusersinc.org.
UberProblems with Uber and Lyft! GDUI was pleased to work with ACB and
the Council of U. S. Dog Guide Schools (CUSDGS(to conduct a survey
which verifies what most of us already knew – that catching a ride in
a taxicab with a guide dog at our side is often quite problematic! If
you didn’t get a chance to read the summary that Tony Stephens
prepared for last month’s ACB E-Forum http://acb.org/node/2961, we
encourage you to take a look. Although the data we collected may not
be particularly surprising to those of us and our guide dogs who
attempt to travel in taxicabs and Uber and Lyft cars, our hope is that
this reliably collected data will help convince regulators at all
governmental levels that discrimination is rampant, especially in
cities and suburbs, and we need stronger regs and better enforcement
of legislation that protects our civil rights!
GDUI was pleased to welcome Julia Marks, one of the attorneys who
represented blind and visually impaired guide dog users in the
class-action lawsuit which NFB and others brought against Uber for
discrimination against guide dog users, to our convention last summer.
If you missed her presentation, we featured it again in our November
GDUI Juno Report show on ACB Radio (still available as a podcast), and
the conference presentation is also still available on our web site.
We are mystified as to why services from Uber seem to have
deteriorated dramatically during the past several weeks — since the
settlement went into effect! Charlie Crawford and I are planning to
speak with Ms. Marks as soon as possible, hopefully during this coming
weeks, and we will report what we find out. Meanwhile, we are just as
dismayed as all of you are by the outright discrimination which seems
to be modus operandi for too many Uber and Lyft drivers, and for
drivers of regular commercial taxicab services as well. This issue
will remain a priority for our Advocacy Committee and for GDUI.
Next Board Meeting, January 21. 2017! We hope you will attend our next
scheduled board meeting on January 21. Our agenda is rapidly filling
with important issues and information. The meeting will begin at 1:00
p.m. The number to call is: 712.432.0075, the passcode is
919245-Pound.
Since it’s almost time for the celebrated Waterford crystal ball to
descend over Manhattan and summon the arrival of 2017, I am going to
sign off now, with one more wish for a happy and peaceful 2017 for all
of you and your pups, and our continuing gratitude for your friendship
and support.
Sincerely,
Penny Reeder, President
Guide Dog Users, Inc.
mailto:President@GuideDogUsersInc.org
Deanna Noriega, First Vice President
Guide Dog Users, Inc.
mailto:vp1@GuideDogUsersInc.org
http://www.guidedogusersinc.org/
Call us, toll-free, at 866.799.8436
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Follow us at Twitter: @GDUInc
Enjoy the GDUI Juno Report on ACB Radio Mainstream, at8:00 p.m., EST,
every Friday of every month, here: http://www.acbradio.org/mainstream.
Download or subscribe to the GDUI Juno Report pod cast here:
http://acbradio.org/gdr.xml
Or search for the GDUI Juno Report on ITunes.
Support GDUI when you use this link to shop at Amazon.com:
http://smile.amazon.com/ch/52-1871119.
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http://guidedogusersinc.org/join/.
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PattysWorld
Bridging the great chasm which separates the disAbled from the non-disAbled