[vicsireland] Vics 20th in The Royal Dub
- From: "Tony Sweeney" <tonysweeney1@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "vics" <vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 6 May 2006 17:54:17 +0100
Hi Tony
Thank you for your quite comprehensive chairman's report
indeed! My query! Can members bring along a non-member, say for example
their spouse or a friend to the 20th get-together in the Royyal dublin?
It would be good if we could. By the way, well done on that very central
and fairly accessible venue, if I remember
correctly. -----
All the best with forthcoming endeavours
Tony Sweeney. Original Message -----
From: "Tony Murray" <tony.g.murray@xxxxxx>
To: "VICS" <vics-irl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 2:10 PM
Subject: [vics-irl] Chairperson's Update
> Hi VICS Members,
>
> Here is an update on what is going on with VICS at the moment.
>
> Our lobbying group, headed up by Tim Culhane, are working hard on the
> accessible ATM project. One of our major successes this term was to work
> with National Irish Bank to get an accessible ATM in their branch at
Baggott
> Street. The accessible machine was installed as a pilot, but through our
> links with the bank we have managed to get an assurance that it will stay
in
> the branch for the foreseeable future.
>
> This is wonderful news in itself, but it doesn't stop there. National
Irish
> Bank, who are owned by another overseas bank, are now beginning to roll
out
> a new ATM infrastructure. Each existing NIB ATM is going to be replaced.
> The new machines being installed will contain the hardware necessary to
> become accessible. All that is required is to install the accessible
> software. In the roll out of the new machines, the software will not be
> available, but we will continue to lobby to have this software installed.
> To date, our contacts with NIB have always been positive, so we are
> confident the installation of this software will happen in time.
>
> The lobbying group drafted a paper outlining the benefits of accessible
> ATM's both to banks and banking customers (disabled or not). Through our
> links with some of the major banks here in Ireland, we have fed this paper
> directly to departments specifically concerned with ATM's. So it is now
in
> the hands of relevant bank managers who are in a position to make
decisions
> on this subject. It also has been given to the Irish Bank Officials
> Association, who are in effect the union concerned with Bank Employees.
>
> Each bank will be lobbied in the future to make their ATM's accessible,
> using National Irish Bank as a bench mark.
>
> I would like to thank Tim Culhane for his excellent work on this. The
> project is ongoing, but to date, it has been unbelievably successful.
>
> Our Research group, headed up by Brian Dalton has been working hard this
> term in the area of technology evaluation. This project was devised last
> year, but really only got off the ground in this term. The group was
tasked
> with evaluating software and where possible hardware for accessibility and
> usability. Through these evaluations, it was hoped the members of the
group
> would become proficient enough in the use of the technology to offer
> technical support through our email list to members who themselves have
> started to work with the systems.
>
> There are a number of recommendations which will soon be released to the
> members, with an excellent knowledge bank available to those of us who
wish
> to experiment based on the research group's findings. Thanks to Brian and
> his team for his work on this.
>
> Our website, which is being handled by Natasha Miskella is ever evolving.
> As you all know, the official launch of this website will be taking place
on
> May 12th (more about this later). At the moment we are implementing a
> Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. Brian Dalton, as part of his roll
in
> the Research group is liaising with Natasha on this. If you navigate to
our
> website you will see phase one of this evolving FAQ page, so do refer to
it
> for technical information (http://www.vicsireland.org/faqs/faqs.htmll).
>
> Our links with the BCAB are still being forged, and this is one of the
most
> exciting things VICS has ever entered in to. The current initiative is to
> share technical FAQ on both our websites. We have worked out a plan to
have
> a single FAQ page, which can be updated with information from members of
the
> BCAB and members of VICS alike. This page will be branded with both BCAB
> and VICS logos, and will have a common interface which will comfortably
link
> in with both our site's look and feel. We will of course inform you of
> progress on this, and announce the live date for the newly formed common
FAQ
> page. As mentioned, Natasha is our web designer and we are very lucky to
> have her. Thanks Natasha for all you've done, feedback from the VICS
> members on the website has been excellent.
>
> As you will soon find out, our Audio magazine Infovics is now on CD. This
> new departure for Infovics could only have happened through the good work
of
> Stuart Lawler and Liam Duke in the Drumcondra Project. VICS are very
> grateful to both Liam and Stuart, and our new look high spec magazine is
> going down very well among the membership. The quarterly magazine is also
> available of course on our website
> (http://www.vicsireland.org/infovics/infovics.htmll).
>
> VICS, with the help of Ronan MCGuirk have drafted a white paper entitled
"An
> Information Society for All - the nonvisual way". This paper has been
> submitted to the Irish Computer Society, and will be officially launched
on
> May 12th. This paper is available for all to read on our website
> (http://www.vicsireland.org/information/white_paper.html). We would like
to
> sincerely thank Ronan for his excellent work on this project.
>
> We have planned a day of training for our less advanced computer users.
It
> was hoped that the training day would take place before the AGM, but
> unfortunately the date for this had to be pushed out by a couple of
months.
> As you can appreciate the committee have been very busy in the past year,
> but still this slippage of dates was regrettable. Be assured though, that
> everyone who has contacted me regarding this day of training will be
> notified when the new date is set. This project simply must happen, and I
> am totally committed to seeing it through to fruition. When the new
> committee is elected, I will work with whoever will become responsible for
> this project.
>
> The two major things occupying the current VICS Committee at the moment
are
> our upcoming twentieth anniversary celebration and the VICS Annual General
> Meeting.
>
> As you probably know, VICS has been in existence twenty years (I was six
> when they got together!). On May 12th we will celebrate this. At this
> event, we will officially launch our new website and the white paper
> described above. As VICS members, you are all invited to mark this great
> event with us all.
>
> The twentieth anniversary celebration will take place in the Tara suite,
The
> Royal Dublin Hotel O'Connell Street, starting at 7:30 PM on Friday May
12th.
> When the line up of speakers has been nailed down we will circulate the
> program for the night. We hope to have the founding members of the
society
> along, and all people who have served as chair person of VICS down the
> years.
>
> As the date draws nearer, the committee are working extremely hard to set
> this event up, and I think those present will really enjoy what we have
> planned. The list of key speakers is extremely impressive, more on this
in
> the next couple of weeks.
>
> An excellent night is guaranteed, and we encourage you all to attend and
> enjoy this great occasion as VICS members. Not only will you witness
> presentations from our key speakers, but you can relax and have a drink
with
> your fellow members and the other people who will attend the event.
>
> The VICS AGM will take place the next day. The venue is the Irish
Computer
> Society headquarters Crescent Hall, Mount Street Crescent, Dublin 2. The
> meeting will commence at 2:00 PM sharp. Members can renew their
> subscriptions on the day; our treasurer Joan Kearns will be on hand to
help
> you.
>
> Any motions for the AGM should be sent to our secretary Gerry Ellis
> (gerry.ellis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx). Motions will be accepted up until two
> weeks before the AGM.
>
> I would like to thank Gerry Ellis, Brian Dalton, Tim Culhane, Ronan
MCGuirk
> and our colleagues in the Irish Computer Society for their help on setting
> these two events up.
>
> We are publicising the twentieth anniversary as much as possible.
Articles
> have been written for various technology publications, not to mention a
> press release advertising the celebration. Let's hope this time and
effort
> will be worthwhile; all of our work is being done for you the VICS
> membership, so your support will be welcome on the night.
>
> The committee are meeting next Tuesday to put the final touches to
> everything, and at that point we will be on the final straight. I will
post
> another update to you all in early May to let you know how things stand
> before the end of this Committee's term.
>
> We of course value your feedback, so feel free to post to the email list
on
> any of the above.
>
> Regards,
>
> Tony Murray
> Chairperson
>
>
>
>
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