by Jennifer Dunnam

Unlike in every other year, no school yearbook was issued at the end of my junior year in high school. I no longer remember why the yearbook did not materialize, but the lapse was of particular disappointment to the graduating high school seniors that year. The doings of the senior class had always featured prominently in the pictures and writings of a yearbook. So, the following year, the committee in charge of preparing the yearbook decided to include a feature called "The Great Turnaround." Students receiving their glossy new yearbooks that spring could look through page after page with photos of the most important or funniest moments from the current year, but then, when they reached the middle, a note entitled THE GREAT TURNAROUND indicated that they should physically rotate the book and start at the beginning from the other end. There, in all their glory, were the great moments from the year gone by, featured in their own time and place in the yearbook. And so, (certainly better late than never), the seniors' special year was celebrated in print after all.

Regular readers of the Minnesota Bulletin will have noticed that, for various reasons, there were no issues of this publication during the year 2021. However, this organization has been as busy as ever since the most recent issue was published, and so there is a bit of catching up to do. Don't worry—you won't be required to turn the book around and start from the other end—but in this Bulletin issue, we have included a few items from a little longer ago. Most notably we offer a retrospective on our 100th anniversary celebration convention, not only for those who weren't able to be there or those who would like to remember the magic, but also as a record of the important decisions made by convention as has been provided in the Bulletin for most all other conventions.

Before we come to that, however, we present a brief summary of our most recent convention and its decisions, a few of the thought-provoking presentations we heard there, and some other pieces meant to further our efforts to raise expectations about blindness and to support each other while doing so. The things we learn from our past, and from what is happening right now with our fellow Federationists in all walks of life, help us to shape and to move resolutely into a future full of opportunity for blind people.

We also acknowledge here the passing of a major contributor to the pages of the Minnesota Bulletin. Joyce Scanlan, whose vital leadership and accomplishments have been well documented elsewhere, including a recent article in the February, 2021 Braille Monitor, wrote numerous insightful and instructive articles here over decades; they, too, are an important part of Joyce's legacy that will be available for the edification of Federationists long into the future.

Kayde, Brook and I offer our most heartfelt thanks to Kathy McGillivray, who ably served as our predecessor in editing of the Minnesota Bulletin, beginning with the Winter 2017 issue. Kathy has authored many valuable articles for Federation publications over the years, and, thanks to her work, this Bulletin has continued to capture and relate this organization's activities and to harness the writings of many of our members for spreading our positive message about blindness. We are honored to be able to continue this work, and her consultation will continue to be much appreciated.

Kathy passed to us several wonderful articles written during 2021, most of which are not time-sensitive and will therefore be meaningful to readers at any time. Some are included here, and, for space reasons, we are holding some of them for future editions of the Bulletin. We urge Minnesota Federationists to stay tuned for more excellent pieces to come, from voices all around our great state. We also urge everyone reading this to send us your own writing for the Bulletin, or what you might like to see included. Please contact us with your ideas!