Joan Ann, We know that you will do a great job! Congrats! Tony Sweeney ----- Original Message ----- From: Robert Forde To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Monday, June 14, 2010 7:30 PM Subject: [vicsireland] Re: VICS update Hi Joan ann, Congratulations on your new role and the very best of luck with it. Robbie ----- Original Message ----- From: Joan Ann Brosnan To: VICS Sent: Monday, June 14, 2010 1:05 PM Subject: [vicsireland] VICS update Hi all VICS held its AGM on Saturday at the training centre of NCBI. We had a very good turn out from VICS members and, we would like to thank you all for coming. It was an interesting meeting and, it was a great opportunity for the VICS committee to find out what the views of its members are. The VICS committee for the coming year are: Chairperson: Joan Ann Brosnan Deputy chair person: Ciaran Ferry Secretary: Esmond Walshe Public relations Officer: Nicky Kealy Treasurer: Jamie Regan Committee member: Kerie Doyle Committee member: Dónal Fitzpatrick We will have contact e-mail addresses for committee members on the VICS website in the next few days. The website is www.vicsireland.org The committee put forward 3 proposals of changes that we wish to make to the constitution and, they were voted in by members. The full text of the constitution is available on the VICS website for anyone interested in reading it. The First proposal was made by Nicky Kealy: Membership will be open to: 1. All people who have an interest, or who would like to have a genuine interest in VICS. 2. Honorary Membership, which may be bestowed by members at an Annual General Meeting, on people who have contributed to VICS in some significant way. 3. Special Interest Membership, which will be open to sighted people with an interest in the use of computer Technology for visually impaired people and who can also offer valuable advice to VICS. Special Interest Members may not vote at the AGM, or on any occasion when a vote is required and no fee is required from these members. It is the decision of the committee to approve a Special Interest Member and to allow them be involved in any working group which VICS may have set up in order to benefit from their expertise. The second proposal was made by Ciaran Ferry: the membership fee for any lifetime members joining after today (June 12th 2010 - or after this amendment comes into force) is increased from €100 to €200. The third proposal was made by Ciaran Ferry: the method of voting at all VICS meetings should no longer be restricted to the "show of hands" method. Instead, the committee will decide on the most workable system, be that electronic or otherwise. We had an interesting discussion about InfoVICS and, it was decided that, it will now come in the format of short informative podcasts. Joshue O'Connor from CFIT gave a talk on the development of a real-time travel information system by Dublin Bus. It was very interesting and would be a huge step forward for blind and visually impaired bus users. CFIT are assisting with this project and will be looking for feedback from VICS members in the form of a survey. I will post details of this when they become available. We have an interview from Tim Walsh about Point the way GPS navigation which, we will make available as a podcast for members to have a listen to. I will post details of how this can be accessed. Again, we would like to thank members for the high attendance at this year's AGM. It was great to meet so many of you. The committee are looking forward to working with its members in the coming year. We welcome suggestions and feedback. That's all for now Joan Ann Brosnan Chairperson.