--by James Omvig
You should make your plans now to attend the 1983 Convention of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland. It will be held the weekend of October 14-16 at the new Marriott Hotel in Gaithersburg. The hotel is located near the junction of Interstate 270 and Montgomery Village Avenue approximately ten miles north of the D.C. Beltway.
The accommodations and rates are excellent. There will be plenty of space for all of our meetings and for a large banquet. The hotel has two restaurants, one inexpensive, one expensive; two lounges, one upbeat and one quiet; and a swimming pool with exercise room and saunas. There is a McDonald's Restaurant about a block from the hotel and Roy Rogers is close by.
The rates will be $35, plus tax, per room whether 1, 2, 3 or 4 persons occupy the room. In addition, if there are families with small children, arollaway could be added so that 5 could stay in a room at no additional charge.
Convention registration will begin at 6 p.m. on Friday evening, October 14 (there will be a $5.00 registration fee). A State Board meeting (open to all) will be held at 8 p.m. and Resolutions and Nominating Committees will meet following the Board meeting. A full agenda is planned for Saturday culminating with our annual banquet beginning at 7 p.m. There will be a hospitality hour before the banquet.
Our national representative will be Miss Peggy Pinder, a blind lawyer, President of the National Federation of the Blind of Iowa and National Board Member. Having Peggy at our convention will be a real treat.
For your convenience, hotel reservation cards are stapled in the print issue of theSpectator inside thefront cover and arefolded inside the mailer of the cassette edition. No return postage is required. Please complete your reservation card and send it to the hotel as soon as possible. Seventy-five rooms have been reserved but more can be made available if we can determine early enough that more will be needed.
As a second enclosure in this edition of the Spectator, I am attaching PAC cards. If you are not on the PAC Plan, please complete the card and return it with your blank voided check to the national office so that you can be among those helping to fund our national movement.
I shall look forward to seeing each of you in Gaithersburg. If you have blind friends who are not members of the Federation, invite them to come along to join in the hard work and festivities.