RFB&D-NJ Unit Volunteer Newsletter 5-08 (text)

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Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic
New Jersey Unit
69 Mapleton Road
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
Phone 609-750-1830
Fax 609-750-9653

Reader’s Note

May/June, 2008

Tony Gruenewald, Editor

Help!!!

There’s one month to go in the fiscal year. Our goal was set to finish 9,800 hours of recording. Through Memorial Day weekend we have finished 8,890 hours. Most of you can set up the appropriate equations to do the math, but we need to record, check and correct 910 hours before June 25 to make the goal. That means we need to have our second most productive month of the year. (We recorded 1,170 hours in April.)

If you have any spare time, we’d greatly appreciate it. We usually have a spare booth or two available during the 2 p.m.
and evening sessions, but feel free to call to see if there is room in your favorite sessions.

Where in the World is Steve Montefusco?

Steve drove to an SSR rally in the Smoky Mountains, came home and found a message waiting for him. It was the good folks at GM telling him he was transferred to Arlington, Texas effective almost immediately.

So Steve found an apartment in Arlington, came to RFB&D for the last time, packed up the SSR and followed Jason Kidd out of Jersey to the suburbs of Big D. His wife will follow in a few months once they get the Montefusco Estate sold. He promises to come back and visit when he’s not slapping nameplates on Escalades.

RSVP adds benefits to volunteering

The Retired Senior & Volunteer Program (RSVP) is a nationwide volunteer program that invites adults age 55 and over to use their life skills to answer the call of their community in need.

RSVP offers you
free supplemental on-th-job liability insurance
free supplemental accidental and auto liability insurance
mileage reimbursement for going to and from your volunteer site, up to $15 monthly
Invitation to an annual recognition event
A quarterly newsletter

For more information, see Michelle for literature about the program.

The New Jersey Unit Educational Outreach Center currently serves 1,956 individual members and 498 schools in the Garden State.

Volunteer happenings
Our medical staff has been traveling. Tony Brickman and Jim and Peg Hastings have been across the pond in England. John Gamble has been in China.Speaking of medical readers, Juanell Boyd’s photographs are for sale at Chez Alice in Princeton. The proceeds go to the New Jersey Unit! Thanks Juanell!

Naomi Rose was in England, spending some time with the Hastings. Sandy Shapiro has been to the Grand Canyon. Fred Horowitz was also in Arizona. Rick Sinding was giving Manny and Big Papi hitting tips at Red Sox spring training in Ft. Meyers. Jerry Monastersky has been in Siesta Key in Florida. Anne Young was in Albuquerque. And Homeland Security has taken the staff off the no-fly list: Ginny Mayer was in Israel. Judy Wilson-Smith was in Chicago and is cruising to Bermuda. Cathy Wheeler was in England and Sequoia National Forest. Lauren Markley was in Toronto.

Tom Hollman and his wife have sold the house, bought an RV and started a two year trek across the U.S. You can find out more on his website: www.coastiesontheroad.com. What’s the m.p.g. on an RV?

Bob Rivlin’s been away from the studio for awhile, but reports “a new home, a new hip and two new grandchildren”. Mickie Godfrey is going to be a grandma for the first time!

After nine years of volunteering, Susan Hartmann has gone over to the other side. She is now Director, National Accounts & Sales Management at national headquarters. We’ve taught her the top secret staff handshake and given her the keys to the imaginary executive swimming pool and sauna. So, what does that big fancy schmancy title mean? She’ll be spending a lot of quality time with Chris Ranaghan and our Educational Outreach Center folks.

Your editor will be a featured poet at the Delaware Valley Poets’ monthly event at the Princeton MarketFair Barnes & Noble on Monday, June 9 at 8 p.m. If you know an English teacher, you can borrow a copy of the March/April edition of English Journal and read a sample of his work.

Sandy Shapiro’s photography is featured in an exhibition called Our Historic Landscape: Past, Present and...Future at D&R Greenway’s Johnson Education Center, One Preservation Place, Princeton. The opening reception is 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 30. The exhibition will continue through September 5, 2008. For more info, visit www.drgreenway.org/art_show.html.

Do you have news to share? Tell Tony Gruenewald or email him at tgruenewald@rfbd.org.

Dear Aunt Bea...

Aunt Bea reminds everyone that the studio will be closed on Friday, July 4 and Saturday, July 5 for the Independence Day holiday and on Tuesday, July 8 for a staff retreat.

Dear Aunt Bea,
I’ve been volunteering a few months. I’ve done the directing and checking thing. I think I’m ready to try to do the reading thing. Short of wielding sharp instruments, grabbing a book and blockading myself in a booth, what do I do to become a reader?
N. Ara Rator

Dear N. Ara,
All you need to do is reach out to one of the staff members (but not with the sharp instruments) and ask to begin preparing
for a reading test. If you haven’t been taught to check yet, please ask to be taught. We’d like you to do that a few times before you begin to study.

Dear Aunt Bea,
Should I get my water before or after my voice check?
Hy Dration

Dear Hy,
Get your water before your voice check. When you get your voice check and then say, “I’ll be right back. I need to get some water,” you’ve defeated the purpose of the voice check. If you get back in the booth and sit an inch or two further or closer to the microphone, it can make all the difference in the world in the quality of the recording. So remember: Water first! Then voice check.

Thanks for eight wonderful days!

The hallway echoed with the sounds of street corner harmony mixed with the old Baghdad Book Bazaar. Our booths were graced by a Nobel Prize winner and several other local authors and notables. Outback of Hamilton delivered 79 Caesar salads, thanks to board member Keith Latimer, Delta’s of New Brunswick kept us in catfish, collared greens and fried chicken, McCaffrey’s and Wegman’s of Princeton donated delicious food and Clif Giddings needed Secret Service protection to get his seven layer dip safely to the table of the lounge. Let’s also give a big thanks to Obal Gardens Market for a $50 gift certificate and Nassau Inn for a complimentary stay and breakfast for a lucky hard working volunteer.

Thanks to our bookmarkers, readers and directors, we recorded 540 hours, which is more than double our normal output for a week. We filled booths 354 times and had 74 checking sessions. Bookmarkers did super duty and all in all we finished 34 books.

Renowned glass artist and RFB&D member Paul Stankard made a moving presentation to volunteers and staff about his experience growing up with dyslexia.

Our guest volunteers included Nobel Prize winner in Economics Dr. Eric Maskin, authors. Dr. Melvin Benarde, Dr. Norman Itzkowitz and Dr. Paul Steinhardt, who recorded from their recent books, and John Weingart the host of WPRB’s Music You Can’t Hear on the Radio. Freeman Dyson was hospitalized the day he was to read from his latest book. He made a full recovery.

The Gala
The long awaited 50th Anniversary Gala took place the evening after Record-A-Thon wrapped. Nearly 180 people celebrated our honorees at the Hyatt Regency Princeton. We were joined by RFB&D’s CEO and President John Kelly, Vito DeSantis, Executive Director of the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired and Phyllis Volker, an award winning middle school Language Arts teacher and RFB&D member.

Green dots? Little maps of NJ? What does it all mean?

Hey! What does the green dot on my basket mean? The green dot represents a book we know a member is waiting for or receiving installments. Some members wait for the book to be completed before they order it, so we here at the studio don’t know about the request. The other books are being recorded in anticipation they will be needed. And after nine years of this, I can tell you that if you let a book linger long enough, not matter how esoteric the subject, someone requests it.

There’s a little number in my green dot? What’s that all about? That’s the number of requests for the book. If it’s one request, there won’t be a number. If there’s more than one we’ll put it on the green dot.

OK, there’s a little map of New Jersey on the basket. Does that mean it will lead me to the Garden State Parkway? No, if you see this little map it means we know the book has been requested by a New Jersey member or school.

SAVE THE DATE!
The 2008 Volunteer Recognition Luncheon will be Thursday, September 25 @ Queenship of Mary Church in Plainsboro.

Thanks for your service!

Five people will be leaving the NewJersey Unit Board of Directors at the end of May. Jerry Freedman, Mari Molenaar and J.D. Walker served on the board for nine years. Tom Brown and Rich Flamini have served shorter terms.

We thank them for their work in support of our mission.

Harriet Eubank

Harriet Eubank, a 30 year New Jersey Unit volunteer passed away on April 27.

Charles St. John Memorial

There will be a memorial service for Charles St. John at 2 p.m. on June 7 at The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton, Route 206 at Cherry Hill Road, Princeton.

Reference Computers

How do I pronounce that? What does that symbol mean? We, of course, have a fine library of reference books, but now we’ve added reference computers in each studio. They have Internet access and bookmarked pages to popular research sites as well as speakers so you can even hear the pronunciation of some of those awkward words.

Spreading the word about RFB&D

Does your company, organization or community have a newsletter? Could RFB&D put a call for volunteers or a piece about our services for individuals with a visual impairment or dyslexia? If so, see Tony or Michelle. If they’re not around, talk to a staff member and they’ll pass the word.

Would your company, organization or community like to have someone come out to speak about our services? If so, speak with Director of Development Grace Alparone.

Find your summer reading at the unit

You’re going away for vacation. Your skin is going to become intimate with some SPF45. You need something to read while the waves are crashing and you’re trying to avoid looking at the dude with not enough Speedo covering his girth. RFB&D is the place to stock up.

We asked for your books during Record-A-Thon. We should have known this group would have lots of interesting stuff on its shelves. We soon had a larger inventory than an average Walden Books. After a couple of weeks we’d raised more than $500 and we still had books that hadn’t made it onto the tables!

So, if you’ve never read any Tom Clancy, Harlan Coben, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Tom Wolfe or Janet Evanovich and wanted to know why they’re best sellers and prize winners, here’s a painless way to do it. For $1 a piece you can own them. You’re here anyway and these days $1 is probably less than the gas it takes to get to the bookstore or library.

Check out the selection on the tables across from the restrooms for the best in summer or year ’round reading.

And while you’re checking out the books...

Take a look at the books documenting the New Jersey Unit’s history. Karen Frezza has done an incredible job by taking thousands of photos from the last 50 years and putting them together for you.

You can also take a look at some of the old recording equipment, playback equipment and media and be happy you don’t have to listen for beep tones anymore!

Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic
New Jersey Unit
69 Mapleton Road
Princeton, NJ 08540
609-750-1830

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