Are you ready for our upcoming event in Park City, Utah on June 3 and 4, 2016? I cannot begin to tell you how much fun we will be having with our fabulous speakers, excellent foods, guided tours, and fun giveaway gifts! Please, bear in mind that it’s important to look for your registration form sent by email, postal, UCB Newsletter, and Utah Connection to get them filled out and received by Leslie Gertsch no later than May 9^th, 2016.

Those who have reserved a room at Hyatt Place Hotel on June 2, 2016 (Thursday), there will be a guided tour by Hyatt Place guide at 6:00 p.m.; then we will be served with complimentary dinner by Papa John’s Pizza Manager, Gordon, in Park City. We will also have a salad, dessert and drink provided by Roy Harmon’s grocery store. We may have a speaker to discuss our blind community and relationships. Hyatt Place Hotel will provide a Hot Skillet Breakfast at 7:00 a.m. in Kitchen Gallery Main building lobby area for overnighters only.

Hyatt Place Hotel does offer Hot Skillet Gallery, beverages alcohols/sodas, etc. for anyone from June 2 to June 5, 2016. You can go online at Hyatt Place Hotel to review their menu choices and regular price list.

Be sure to arrive before 8:30 a.m. on June 3, 2016, if you want to receive a wonderful gift from either Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, or Target and Utah Council of the Blind! We have a wonderful team of volunteers to help us at the registration table, finding our sitting tables, receiving our gifts, materials, snacks set up, our meals, etc. Let’s thank each of them for their hard work! (Vicki Flake, Aunilie Hathaway, Diana Murphy, Volunteer Projects Management of SLC, local LDS church, our volunteer drivers, fundraisers JD Seely, Leslie Gertsch, Cordie Weeds, Jenni Thompson, SSP Ronda Wolf, and Hyatt Place Hotel). Two snack breaks will be generously provided by Smith’s store.

One of our speakers will speak about Color Code Personality, so if you’re interested to take a test before June 3^rd, 2016, call the Utah Connection or e-mail ucb.board@gmail.com and request a copy, answer the questions, and mail back to her at 2023 E Village Oak Lane, Sandy, Utah 84092, and she will reveal your true color. This will help a lot during her presentation. If you need additional help, call me at 801-430-8833.

As far as our guided tours of two fantastic places: Olympic Park with Tanger Outlet shopping, and National Ability Center with an activity or two. Lunch will be provided at a designated area by Great Harvest Bread Co. Please, let us know by May 9^th, 2016 which activity you are interested to attend.

Independent sight-seeing will be provided on our agenda on June 2, 3 and 4^th, 2016 at Hyatt Place Hotel, Park City, Utah.

Some transportation will be provided. Please mark on your registration form if you need a ride to and from Park City. Those who are carpooling can qualify for mileage reimbursements. It’s important to let us know by May 9^th, 2016, in order to receive a ride.

Service Dog Handlers: There is a designated area from the main lobby building to relieve our dogs. Hyatt Place Hotel is providing pooper bags and trash cans for you to clean up after your dog. Please, bring a towel or sheet for your dog to sit in a rental vehicle so we won’t be charged for excessive dog fur damage (According to ADA we can be billed for excessive damage in rental cars/vans or in hotels).

If you are able to praise online about our donors, volunteers, drivers please do so. Without them this training conference event would not have happened! *Facebook, twitter, Smith’s online, Robert DeBry, Roy Harmon Store, Lowes, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Project Management, etc. I will provide their contact information for you in the resource manual I will provide at our June 3^rd Training Conference.

Thank you all for joining this year’s Utah Council of the Blind Training Conference 2016 to receive fun and learning experience!

Updated Calendar of Events for 2016

By TerriLynn Pomeroy

Tuesday, May 4, 6:00 p.m.: The Marriage of Figaro at the Utah Opera

Saturday, May 7, 2016, 10:00 a.m.: Listen, Eat, Buy! Chocolate!

Thursday-Saturday, June 2-4, 2016: Utah Council of the Blind Annual State Training Conference, Park City

Saturday, June 25, 2016, 12:00-3:00 p.m.: Games Day at the Division of Services for the Blind

Friday, July 15, 2016: Utah Voices Concert in Bountiful Park. Includes singers Maurice and Rosanne Bowman as well as Steve Yantzey.

Saturday, August 6, 2016: trip to Cove Fort and Utah’s Territorial State House

September, 2016: Utah State Fair

Saturday, September 17: Annual Business Meeting

Friday, October 14, 2016: Dinner Theater

Saturday, December 3, 2016: Annual Christmas Party

Love Chocolate? Then This is for You!

By TerriLynn Pomeroy

Come join us on Saturday, May 7, at 10:00 a.m. to learn about, indulge in, and purchase FINE CHOCOLATE! Our presenters will be William Oshei and Heather Pierce from Ritual Chocolate in Park City. Here is what they say about their business:

“Ritual Chocolate handcrafts small batch, bean-to-bar chocolate using the early traditions of chocolate making to bring together old European methods with a modern American style. Founded in 2010 by Robbie Stout and Anna Davies, our mission is to produce exceptional quality chocolate while celebrating the complexity of the cacao bean.

“At our small factory in Park City, Utah we are involved with the entire process because we want to ensure that our values for the highest achievable quality are present every step of the way. We make our chocolate with just two ingredients: carefully selected cacao and cane sugar. With no added ingredients the result is a chocolate bar that is an authentic expression of the flavor unique to different areas of the world.”

The presentation will run from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. We will be meeting at the Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, 250 N 1950 W, Ste B. No reservations are necessary, and there is no cost for the presentation and taste testing. But bring your wallet, your purse, your bank roll … because there will be lots for sale! And, just in case you haven’t thought about it, this great opportunity is happening the day before Mother’s Day.

Thoughts on Activities Past and Future

By TerriLynn Pomeroy

We have had some well-attended and very enjoyable activities this year. If you haven’t been coming out, I hope you will join us in the future.

In February, we played Bunco. We had about 30 people, and many people told me how much they enjoyed playing games. The decision was made by the group to have game get-togethers more than once a year. So we have planned another one for June, and we will be playing BuzzWords. Hope you will be there.

In March, we were gifted with a great program of Irish music by an amazing group of five musicians who call themselves the Dunmore Lasses. The instruments used included a guitar, an Irish bagpipe, a drum, a small harp and a fiddle. Professor Markus Stevensen of Weber State University conducted the program and also played the pipes. He shared interesting tidbits with us, such the difference between a jig and a reel, what makes a song an air, and the origin of the “low whistle”. He also had with him, and played occasionally, a “low whistle” and a beautiful brass penny whistle. The music was terrific. Afterwards, we had a free lunch provided by the Utah Telephone Pioneers, and the day wound up with an Easter egg hunt for anyone who wanted to participate. It was estimated that we had about 70 people in attendance.

I hope you are planning on going with us to Cove Fort and Utah’s Territorial State House on August 6. It should be a lot of fun. We currently have room for 30 people, so if you want to get in on that activity, you should make your reservations early. The price is not yet set, we have to decide about lunch, but stay tuned for further information in upcoming newsletters.

What’s Happenin’ in the UCB?

By TerriLynn Pomeroy

This article is to help you know who is doing what in the UCB. If you would like to get involved, please let us know. We can always use more help. And, also, I want you to know that things do go on about which I know nothing, so this may not be complete. But it will give you some insight as to who is working for you.

Aunilie Hathaway does a great deal for the Council. In addition to keeping up with the minutes from board meeting to board meeting, which is a lot of work in and of itself, she had the major job of turning the membership into the ACB. This is an important task, as it determines the number of votes we have at ACB’s national conference and convention. In addition, she has been working to get a web designer for the UCB’s web site, which isn’t as simple as it sounds. She has to find someone who can do the work, who is willing to do the work, who will make it accessible to users of screen reading and screen enlargement programs, and who will do a good job.

TerriLynn Pomeroy has been assisting in the effort to make rides more available to get people from Weber and Davis Counties to Salt Lake activities. She has also been assisting Aunilie in the search for a web designer. In addition, she has been beating the bushes for a ceramics teacher. And, of course, she plans and oversees the monthly activities.

Ramona Rice, chair of UCB’s 2016 Annual Training Conference, has brought in some good funding for interpreters for people whose hearing difficulties make such services necessary. She is also working to plan the tours as part of the 2016 conference in June.

Donni Mitchell has been selected as this year’s delegate to the ACB conference scheduled to be held in Minneapolis. Michael Neal will be the alternate delegate. We can look forward to the information they will be bringing back to Utah.

As you may know, the Utah State Office of Rehabilitation (USOR) has been legislatively moved from the Office of Education to the Department of Workforce Services (DWS). USOR has also decided to take the rehabilitation counselors for the blind and put them into the general rehabilitation program. Many people who are blind or visually impaired have serious doubts about these changes. When a meeting was held with USOR, a number of our members were in attendance to talk about their concerns. UCB members in attendance included Aunilie Hathaway, Leslie Gertsch, TerriLynn Pomeroy, Sandy Ruconich, Cordie Weed, Patricia Beaman, Dr. Angela Longboat, Vicki Jaquier, and Bill Gibson. Darren Brush, director of USOR, was full of reassurances, but time will tell.

Tom and Donni Mitchell did all of the labeling for last month’s State Training Conference announcement while manning the UCB office on Wednesday, March 30th.

And, a final side note, John Lipsey, vice-president of the UCB, will be interning with Apple in Cupertino, California from the middle of June to the middle of August.

From the Desk of Leslie Gertsch, Executive Director

Award Nominations

The UCB is still seeking nominations for awards for outstanding volunteers serving people who are blind and visually impaired. The volunteers can be blind, visually impaired or sighted. There are several awards to be presented from recognition for a few years to a lifetime of services for the Talmage awards. Please think about those who help you or someone you know and nominate them to be honored for their service. Call the Utah Connection, mail in your written nomination or e-mail your nomination to ucb.board@gmail.com.

Cab Coupon Users

For those purchasing cab coupons there is a slight increase in the postage for priority mail. The post office has increased the cost enough that the UCB is unable to cover all of the extra cost. We are, therefore, asking that you increase your shipping amount by $1.00. This means that $160 worth of coupons will cost $70 instead of $69. Thank you for complying with this request.

No Finish Line: My Life as I See It—A Book for People Interested in Low Vision and/or Running

Review by Sandra Ruconich

Authors: Marla Runyan and Sally Jenkins
Available from Bookshare.org

Many of us remember the 2002 Olympics when we were thrilled to see Marla Runyan, a low vision runner, participating in the 1500-meter race--not in the Paralympics, but in the regular Olympics! No Finish Line: My Life as I See It is Marla's story, co-authored with Sally Jenkins, and told with honesty and the kind of insights those with low vision will appreciate.

Marla tells, for instance, of her struggle to complete paperwork, a task she still detests. She has always found filling out forms maddeningly slow, awkward, and humiliating. We learn of her difficulties in school and of her mother's constant support and efforts to help. We also discover that while she was training as a runner, her university studies were preparing her to become a teacher—a career she could use to put food on the table while she pursued her dream of being a runner.

One of the most surprising things I learned about Marla is how long it took her to find out that when your body is exhausted, it's important to give it a chance to rest and rejuvenate. So often during her career she was running while physically and emotionally exhausted, which frequently slowed her track times and made relationships with coaches and other runners more difficult. Underlying this will to run no matter the consequences was her intense desire to prove that although visually impaired, she was just as good as everybody else—maybe even a little better! Come to think of it, maybe this desire isn't so surprising after all. I suspect we all feel compelled to prove ourselves when we're young; as we mature, our goals become much more about comparing our previous performance with our current one and much less about comparing ourselves with others.

I liked this book because I knew nothing about how runners are trained or the challenges they face as they learn their sport. I also liked it because this is one of the few books I've read that, although written by a visually impaired person, deals with low vision issues; most biographies of this kind, at least the ones I've read, seem to be about people who are totally blind.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in or working with people who have low vision. The book ends with what Marla's doing in 2004. Someday I hope she writes a book about the years following her Olympic debut. My understanding is that she's now a teacher at Perkins School for the Blind, and I'd like to know about her journey from track star to teacher.

Helpful Tips for Summer Travelers

1. Don’t discuss you vacation plans on social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. You never know who is reading your posts or tweets. Also refrain from posting travel photos online until after you’ve returned.

2. Ask your neighbor for a helping hand. A full mailbox is a dead giveaway that you’re gone. Instead of stopping your newspaper and mail delivery (which can be a hassle, especially if you’re only going to be gone for a few days), ask a neighbor to stop by daily to pick up your mail

3. Hire a house sitter. If you’re new to the block and you don’t know your neighbors well enough to ask them to watch your home, consider hiring a professional house sitter. And if you have pets, having a house sitter means you don’t have to put your dog or cat in a kennel, which can be traumatic for some animals.

4. Store valuables in a safe deposit box. Important personal items, such as your home mortgage, vehicle registrations, passports, and expensive jewelry, should be kept in a safe deposit box off-site.

5. Install strong door locks. The most common way burglars break into a home is to kick the entranceway at the door jamb until it gives. A high-security four-screw strike plate, using 3-inch screws, and a door lock with an ANSI Grade 1 rating can make breaking into your home much tougher.

6. Trim trees and shrubs near the house. Keep shrubbery cut neat so the interior of your home is visible and burglars can’t hide undetected.

7. Turn down your phone’s ringer. A loud, unanswered phone can be a tip-off that you’re not home. Forward your calls to your mobile phone, as well.

8. Continue lawn service. An unshoveled winter driveway or an uncut summer lawn can be a red flag. Keeping these items maintained can deter burglars from targeting your home.

9. Keep valuables away from windows. Your new flat-screen TV can be a tempting target, especially if it’s visible from the street. Move expensive appliances away from windows and out of sight.

10. Install light timers. Light timers are an inexpensive way to give the impression that your house is occupied. Available at most hardware stores, timers automatically turn lights on for a preset amount of time every day.

11. Set up motion sensors. Motion sensors installed in the front, back, and side of the house can detect movement and flood light on designated areas, potentially deterring break-ins.

12. Secure sliding doors. Many homes have a sliding glass door in the rear of the residence. Glass doors are usually less secure than wooden or metal doors. One way to make a sliding door more secure is to cut a wooden pole or thick dowel that matches the length of the sliding track when the door is closed. This simple trick can keep the door from opening even if the lock is compromised.

13. Put in a burglar alarm system. A home security system can be a cost-effective investment. If there is a break-in or fire and your system includes remote monitoring, a signal will be sent to your security system provider, who will contact your local police or fire department.

14. Unplug unnecessary appliances. A toaster, coffee machine, microwave, television, or computer is still using energy even when it’s not in use. Unplug all unessential electrical devices while you’re gone.

15. Turn off the main water valve. Water damage caused by a burst pipe might not be covered by your insurance. And frozen pipes in the winter can burst and cause flooding and property damage.

16. Alert the police before you leave. If you plan to be gone for a week or more, let your local police know. They may periodically drive by your home.

17. Join a neighborhood watch group. If your block has a neighborhood watch group, consider signing up. The more friendly eyes that are watching your home, the better.

See more at: https://learningcenter.statefarm.com/residence/safety-1/keep-your-home-safe-during-your-vacation/#sthash.pm98p610.dpuf

Repairing or Replacing the Optic Nerve: New Frontiers in Vision Technology Research

Bill Holton

In the September 2013 issue of AccessWorld , we described four groundbreaking advances in low vision enhancement, including the Implantable Miniature Telescope from VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies, and the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis from Second Sight. The first of these is a pea-size telescopic lens that increases the useable vision of individuals who have lost central vision due to end-stage age-related onset macular degeneration. The Argus II is aimed toward people with late-stage retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The Argus II uses a wireless signal to stimulate the optic nerve directly via an implanted array of electrodes, bypassing the rods and cones damaged by RP.

As remarkable as these solutions may be, they do have one stumbling block in common: they each assume the recipient possesses a functioning optic nerve that can adequately transmit visual signals to the brain for processing. But what if the optic nerve has been damaged by glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, or trauma? Might there be some way to mend these most complex and fragile of nerve fibers? Or even better, bypass them altogether?

In this article we will describe two recent research breakthroughs--one that shows the potential to help regenerate damaged optic nerves, and the second, a system called Gennaris, that may produce vision without the optic nerve, or even the eye itself.

Regenerating an Optic Nerve

The optic nerve is one of the most important nerves in the body, second only to the spinal cord (the spinal cord includes thousands of nerve strands while the optic nerve has but one). So fifteen years ago when Zhigang He, Professor of neurology at the Boston Children's Hospital F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center set up a lab to investigate ways to regenerate nerve fibers in people with spinal cord injuries, he decided the best place to start would be to attempt neural regeneration in damaged optic nerves as a proxy.

Others have tried optic nerve regeneration or repair. The first attempts spliced bits of the sciatic nerve to replace damaged optic nerve. Most axons didn't regrow. About eight years ago, Dr. He's group tried gene excision to delete or block tumor-suppressing genes. This prompted some optic nerve regeneration, but it also increased cancer risks. Their recent work with Dr. Joshua Sanes at Harvard found a gene therapy strategy to enhance growth factor activities, which could mimic the regeneration effects induced by tumor suppressor deletion. Nevertheless, the number of regenerated axons by these approaches was limited.

He and his co-senior-researcher, Boston Children's Hospital Assistant Professor of neurology Michela Fagiolini, took gene therapy a step further. They used a gene therapy virus called AAV to deliver three factors to boost growth factor responses into the retina, which is part of the optic nerve system.

"Over time we were able to regenerate increasingly longer nerve fibers in mice with damaged optic nerves," he reports. "Unfortunately, the new neural fibers did not transmit impulses, known as action potentials, all the way from the eye to the brain, so there was no new vision."

He and Fagiolini traced the problem to the fact that the new nerve fibers were growing without the fatty sheath called Myelin. Myelin insulates nerve fibers and keeps neural signals on track, much as the insulation surrounding a copper wire directs electrical current to the lamp instead of into the wall studs and outlets.

Turning to the medical literature, he and Fagiolini read about a potassium channel blocker called 4-aminopyridine (4-AP) which is known to improve message conduction in nerve fibers that lack sufficient Myelin. Indeed, 4-AP is marketed as AMPYRA to treat MS-related walking difficulties, which also involve a loss of myelin.

"When we administered 4-TP the signals were able to go the distance," says Fagiolini. A separate lab, where they did not know which of the blind mice had been treated, confirmed that the treated mice responded to moving bars of light while the control group did not.

"There is still considerable work to be done before this treatment is ready for human trials," He says. For example, the team used a gene therapy virus to deliver the growth factors that stimulated optic nerve regeneration, but He and Fagiolini believe they can produce an injectable "cocktail" of growth factor proteins that could be equally effective. "We're trying to better understand the mechanisms and how often the proteins would have to be injected," says He.

Also yet to be solved are the potential side effects of using 4-AP to increase optic nerve signal transmission. The medication can cause seizures if given chronically, so He and Fagiolini have begun testing non-FDA approved 4-AP derivatives which would be safer for long-term use. Despite the remaining hurdles, He and Fagiolini remain optimistic. "At least now we have a paradigm we can use to move forward," He says.

The Mind's Eye

Regenerating the optic nerve could help millions, but what if we could bypass the optic nerve altogether and see without one, or even without physical eyes? That's the goal of Arthur Lowery, Professor of electrical and computer systems engineering at Australia's Monash University. Lowery and his team are currently working on Gennaris, a system that will stimulate the brain's visual cortex directly, sending a grid of electrical impulses that the brain can interpret as recognizable patterns of light and dark.

Research into "brain" vision goes back to the 1960s. "At that time you needed a room full of equipment to get any results at all," observes Lowery. "Even as little as ten or fifteen years ago, producing a grid of three hundred points of light meant passing a bundle of 300 separate wires from the brain to a large, external video camera." Lowery and his team are building on this previous work, taking advantage of the considerable progress which has been made over the past decade in processing power, component miniaturization, wireless data transmission, and induction power transmission such as that now found on some cell phones which can be placed atop the charger instead of needing to be plugged in.

In normal vision, light passes through the eye's pupil and lens and stimulates rods and cones, which are the photo-receptive cells covering the retina. These photochemical signals are transformed into neural impulses, which in turn are transmitted along the optic nerve to the visual cortex. There, the brain turns these impulses into recognizable shapes and images, otherwise known as vision.

As it happens, the neurons in the visual cortex can also be stimulated by contact with tiny electrodes. "We know from previous research that we can produce flashes of light that appear in roughly the same spot whenever that same region of the visual cortex is stimulated," states Lowery. "If we can create a number of these flashes more or less simultaneously, we can create a rudimentary grid of light and dark the brain could interpret as an image." Imagine a square of sixteen light bulbs creating the letter O by switching on the twelve perimeter bulbs and leaving the four center lights turned off. Or a letter L created by braille dots 1, 2, and 3, with the rest of the cell left blank.

The Gennaris team hopes to create just such a grid using tiny ceramic tiles embedded directly onto a test subject's visual cortex. "Each tile is approximately 9 millimeters square--about a third of an inch--with forty-three working electrodes on each tile," Lowery explains. "These electrodes will penetrate 1.5 to 2 millimeters into the visual cortex, reaching what is known as Layer Four, the brain region most directly stimulated by the optic nerve."

A small video camera will transmit real-time imagery to a pocket-size processing unit. There, special algorithms will determine the most essential aspects of each image and break them down into a running series of grids of light and dark. The grids will be streamed wirelessly to a magnetic induction coil placed against the back of the patient's head nearest the visual cortex. The induction coil will be able to remotely spawn a tiny charge in each of the electrodes as appropriate, which will then stimulate the visual cortex much the same way as the optic nerve would normally do.

"We will actually have an advantage over implanted retinal prosthetics," says Lowery. "Most of our sharpest vision takes place in a tiny portion of the retina rich in rods and cones known as the fovea. The fovea is only about a square millimeter in size, so intraocular prosthetics must also make use of retinal tissue more associated with peripheral vision. The brain area that actually processes central vision is twenty-five times larger than the retinal tissue it services, however, which gives us potentially twenty-five times the resolution of a retinal implant."

Lowery and his team hope to initiate their first clinical trials by the end of 2016. "We plan to begin with four tiles, but eventually we hope to increase that number to eleven," he states. "We also hope to reach ten frames a second in transmission speed." According to Lowery, the resolution could also potentially be enhanced many times over by coating the electrodes with special hormones called brain-derived neurotropic factors. "Instead of poking the brain neurons with electrodes, these chemicals would actually encourage the neurons to reach out and make contact and new connections, as though the electrodes were other brain cells."

Also according to Lowery, realistic depictions of the world around us are not the be all and end all of Gennaris's potential. "We already have facial recognition that does a great job of identifying people. Imagine a special icon representing your husband or wife, others for each of your children that could include emotional content, smiles, tears, and the like. Direction and distance markers for doors, elevators, and windows would also be possible. We could even generate runway-light-like guidance systems to help navigate a warren of unfamiliar corridors, pointing out obstacles along the way."

General UCB Information

We are always looking for articles or interesting tidbits of information from our readers or other interested persons. The deadline for submitting items for publication is the 1^st of the month, e.g. the deadline for the March newsletter is February 1^st. You may e-mail the editor, Janis Stanger, directly at janissstanger@comcast.net, or write to her in Braille or large print at Janis Stanger, 1239 American Beauty Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah 84116-1720. You may also e-mail ucb.board@gmail.com, but allow a little more time for processing if you use this address.

All members are invited and encouraged to attend meetings of the Board of Directors. The meetings are at 3:45 p.m. at DSBVI, 250 N 1950 W, Ste B, Conference Room R, Salt Lake City, UT. Upcoming meetings are:

· Friday, May 20, 2016

· Friday, June 24, 2016

· Friday, July 29, 2016

If you have questions or concerns for any board member or to be placed on the agenda of a board meeting, e-mail ucb.board@gmail.com, and you will receive a timely reply.

A volunteer mans the UCB Office at DSBVI, 250 N 1950 W, Salt Lake City, UT, from 12:00 to 3:30 p.m. on Wednesdays. You can give her a call at 801-520-3766 or visit to purchase cab coupons, t-shirts, screwdriver/hammers, 20/20 pens, signature guides, or measuring cups and spoons.

The UCB maintains a listserv to keep our computer users up-to-date on interesting information as it comes along and to help facilitate an open dialogue between our members. To join the UCB Listserv, send a blank email message to ucb-talk-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. You will receive a request to verify your wish to subscribe. Just reply without changing or adding to the message.

Disclaimer: Articles and announcements included in this publication are presented for your information and interest. They reflect the opinions of the respective authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the UCB.

The UCB Flier is available in large print, Braille (please note the transition to UEB format), audio cassette tape, as a Microsoft Word and a plain text file on CD, and by e-mail. If you would prefer to receive your newsletter in a different format, please call the Utah Connection or send an e-mail to ucb.board@gmail.com and let us know.

State Training Conference 2016

When: Friday and Saturday, June 3rd and 4th, 2016

Where: Hyatt Place Park City, 4377 N Hwy 224, Park City, UT 84098

Times: Hotel tour, Thursday, 6:00 pm

Registration, Friday, 8:00-8:30 am (Special gift bags for those who register during this time, so don’t be late!)

General Sessions, Friday, 9:00 am-5:00 pm

Banquet, Friday, 6:00-8:00 pm

Meet the speakers Friday before lunch and before the banquet

Fun: Guided tours and independent sight-seeing, Saturday, 10:00 am-3:00 pm

Meals: Thursday evening, light dinner; Friday, lunch and banquet; Saturday, lunch. In order to guarantee availability of meals, registration must be received by May 9, 2016.

Breaks: Snacks and door prizes will be provided

Cost: Early-bird registration through 5/9/16 – $45.00

After 5/9/16 – $50.00 (meal availability not guaranteed)

Rooms: $87.00 plus tax for 2 queen sized beds

(Price available 6/2/16 to 6/5/16)

Deadline for making reservations is May 9, 2016

Call 1-435-776-1234 (Ask to speak to a live representative and specify group #G-UB16)

Transportation

For those willing to assist others by carpooling, mileage reimbursement at the rate of $.50 per mile is available if you bring at least three individuals (excluding the driver) who are not immediate family members.

Limited group transportation may be available Thursday afternoon, Friday morning and evening, and Saturday afternoon. UTA has Park City trips during limited hours on Friday only. If you need help with transportation, call the Utah Connection at 801-299-0670 or 1-800-273-4569 prior to May 9, 2016, and leave a message at the end of the announcement.

Guest Speakers

Mayor of Park City, Sundance Festival Director, Governor’s ADA Committee Director, Disability Law Center Representative (FHA, Access, Spec. Ed., Voting), Personality Color Code Instructor, UCB Community Projects Chairman, Social Security Administration Representative, Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired Director, Utah State Library Division for the Blind Director, Braille Authority of North America Representative, Story Teller, a special surprise guest for the award presentations, and many more.

Special Accommodations

(For any of these services, or if you have other questions, please call the Utah Connection at 801-299-0670 or 1-800-273-4569 and leave a message at the end of the announcement.)

· A limited number of partial stipends are available for those who are unable to pay the entire registration fee or hotel cost.

· If you wish to share a hotel room with others, but don’t have specific roommates in mind, we may be able to help.

· If you have special dietary needs, it is essential that you let us know prior to May 9, 2016.

· If you have any other needs for accommodations, please contact us as early as possible so that we have the best chance of being able to meet your needs.

Registration Form

Name ____________________________Phone #: ___________________

Please list each person in your party (including yourself) and check the appropriate boxes:

Name	Agenda Format		Meals:				Saturday Guided Tour(s)
	Lg Print	Braille	Thursday Dinner	Friday Lunch	Friday Banquet	Saturday Lunch	Saturday Guided Tour(s)

Total number attending: _____ @ $45.00 (by 5/9/16) $_____________

Total number attending: _____ @ $50.00 (after 5/9/16) $_____________

Membership dues paid with registration: _____ @ $10.00 $___________

Name(s): ____________________________________

____________________________________________

Additional donation: $_____________

Total Amount Enclosed: $_____________

Utah Council of the Blind FREE MATTER

1301 W 500 S FOR THE BLIND

Woods Cross UT 84087-2224 AND DISABLED