[Cinci-NFB] National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, Cincinnati Chapter, Meeting Minutes for January, 2025 (Revised)

Thu Feb 20 20:48:41 UTC 2025

Good job!

Thanks.

David C. Perry,

Community Support Associate,

 Phone: (513) 470-1122;

Email: daveperry509 at gmail.com;

Enjoy your life for the rest of your days, and enjoy your days, for the rest of your life.

> On Feb 20, 2025, at 4:14 PM, Christopher Sabine via Cinci-NFB <cinci-nfb at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
> Cincinnati Chapter
> Meeting Minutes for January 25, 2025
>  
> The January 25, 2025, meeting of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, Cincinnati Chapter was convened by President Gloria Robinson at approximately 4:00 P.M. on Saturday, January 25, 2025, at Christine’s Casual Dining, 3360 Westbourne Dr., Cincinnati, Ohio 45248. This was a hybrid meeting. Attending in person were President Gloria Robinson, Vice President Dave Perry, Christopher Sabine, Secretary, Maureen Meacham, Human Resources Manager, Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CABVI), Khaled Shammout, Chief of Innovation and Strategic Planning, Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA), Lisa Hall, Ben Heard, Jacob Burton, Irene Burton, and Joan Sabine, Guest. Attending by telephone conference were Emily Pennington, Treasurer, and At-Large Board Members Frank Bragassa and Gary Warren. Ben Heard and Jacob and Irene Burton were inducted into the Cincinnati Chapter and are now members of the National Federation of the Blind after completing the Chapter onboarding process. Maureen Meacham and Khaled Shammout served as guest presenters at today’s meeting.
> Dave Perry moved to accept the November 2024 meeting minutes as presented. Frank Bragassa seconded. The motion passed.
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>  
> Emily Pennington presented this month’s Treasurer’s Report. Christopher Sabine moved to accept the Treasurer’s Report. Dave Perry seconded. The motion passed. President Gloria Robinson indicated that all members must pay their dues by January 31, so that member information can be entered into the National membership portal.
>  
> Maureen Meacham was introduced to Chapter members as Human Resources Manager at CABVI. President Robinson stated that she is working with CABVI to recruit employees, so members can reach out to President Robinson if interested in working for the agency. Gloria went on to thank Teri Shirk and Aaron Bley, the agency’s Executive Director and Director of Public Relations, for their support of the Chapter and Blind employee recruitment. Maureen Meacham indicated that she is the human resources contact for the agency and encouraged anyone interested in employment with the agency to reach out to her.
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> Khaled Shammout, Chief of Strategic Planning and Innovation at SORTA, was introduced to members present by Gloria Robinson.
>  
> President Gloria Robinson introduced the three new members, Ben Heard and Jacob and Irene Burton, providing information regarding membership dues and encouraging all members to maintain their membership. Annual dues are $5 and are paid to Emily Pennington, Treasurer. Information regarding how to pay dues was provided.
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>  
> Gary Warren gave a report from the Fundraising Committee. He indicated that he is planning a spring ball in April, but a specific date has not been finalized. Other an. for events, such as a karaoke night, are also being considered. The Chapter is also conducting ongoing fundraising campaigns involving Double Good Popcorn and candy sales. Dave Perry added that such fundraising activities are extremely beneficial to the Chapter and the organized blind movement in general moving forward. He also stressed that partnership with agencies like CABVI is important. Ben Heard and his wife, Julie, as well as Jake and Irene Heard gave $20 donations to the Chapter. Later in today’s meeting, President Gloria Robinson indicated that she plans to assign four Chapter members to sell candy at venues such as Kroger.
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> President Gloria Robinson announced a new Committee, the Cincinnati Technology Committee, to provide monthly conferences on IOS and Android. Gary Warren and Dave Perry will co-chair this committee.
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> President Gloria Robinson also announced a new legislative committee chaired by Frank Bragassa and Dave Perry. Christopher Sabine, Jason Revalee, Dave Perry, and Irene Burton also agreed to serve on this committee.
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> Christopher Sabine agreed to chair the Chapter’s Community Service Committee this year. This will involve conducting presentations on blindness and the Federation to schools and other organizations.
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> Dave Perry agreed to serve with President Gloria Robinson on the Chapter’s Community Outreach Committee, which will collaborate with schools and other community organizations to build the Federation’s presence in Greater Cincinnati and seek donations for the Chapter. Dave Perry will chair this committee.
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> Dave Perry will chair the Chapter’s Membership Committee.
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> President Gloria Robinson encouraged all members who are facing discrimination in access to accommodations, child custody, and other matters to reach out to Chapter leadership. The “all Around Cincinnati” Committee will visit venues such as stores and restaurants and report to the Chapter regarding their accessibility and accommodations.
>  
> Christopher Sabine and Dave Perry gave a report concerning the upcoming Washington Seminar, which is set to take place from February 2-6 in Washington D.C. Washington Seminar is an annual event that the National organization has conducted since 1979 to introduce the Federation’s legislative priorities to members of Congress. Christopher also expressed that the event is the means by which legislatures on Capitol Hill can understand the competencies of Blind people. He continued with a summary of this year’s three legislative priorities. The Nonvisual Medical Device Accessibility Act would create standards for nonvisual access to medical devices such as C-Pap machines and continuous glucose monitors that are classified as Class 2 and Class 3 medical devices by the Food and Drug Administration for at-home use. The Web site and Mobile Applications Accessibility Act would create and promulgate standards for nonvisual access to mobile applications and web sites and protect small businesses from the risk of litigation from inaccessible web sites developed by third parties. Finally, the Blind Americans Return to Work Act would eliminate the earnings cliff faced by Blind Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) recipients returning to work, leading to a disincentive for Blind Americans to work. Dave Perry continued that the “Great Gathering in” event is scheduled for Monday February 2 at 5:00 P.M. and will be streamed live on YouTube and Zoom. Visits with legislators in the House and Senate will take place the following Tuesday and Wednesday on Capitol Hill. This is the third year that the organization has focused on these three legislative priorities.
>  
> Khaled Shammout, Chief of Strategic Planning and Innovation at Sorta, gave a guest presentation regarding developments involving mass transit and paratransit services as part of the Chapter’s transportation Committee Report. Mr. Shammout indicated that one of SORTA’s lead projects is the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service. Currently in its early planning stages, BRT will provide faster bus service along the Reading Road and Hamilton Avenue Corridors. Stations will be spaced approximately 0.7 miles apart. Both routes would begin in Downtown Cincinnati and run concurrently to the University of Cincinnati, where they would split at Martin Luthur King Drive to serve their respective routes. Buses will run every ten minutes. Plans are to have the design of the Reading Road BRT Service finalized in a year with service commencing in early 2028. The Hamilton Avenue service will follow in about 6-8 months. Mr. Shammout continued that SORTA is continuing to improve its fixed-route bus service as part of its Reinventing Metro Plan, adding seven new routes in the past three-and-a-half years and converting six routes to 24-hour service. Three out of five planned phases of the Reinventing Metro plan have been completed. SORTA is also expanding its Metro Now Service, which provides on-demand rides which can be summoned through an app and was rolled out in May 2023 in the Northgate- Mt. Healthy and Sharonville – Springdale areas. Mr. Shammout indicated that service will expand to four additional areas by next year. Metro Now service is available for $2 per ride. However, service is only available within the areas it currently serves, and both starting and ending points must be in the same zone. SORTA is also reportedly undertaking thirteen separate projects to coordinate paratransit services among the region’s three mass transit systems, Butler County Regional Transit Authority (BCRTA), SORTA, and the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK). Most important of these projects is regional certification, allowing any rider deemed eligible for paratransit in one system to automatically receive services in the other two, and a one-seat ride program allowing passengers to receive services across system boundaries with one vehicle and reserve rides with a single reservation. Regional certification has reportedly rolled out last year and is currently in place for all paratransit riders, while the one-seat program will be implemented by Summer 2025. Following MR. Shammout’s presentation, Dave Perry announced a brief question and answer session. Jake Burton began this session by asking if customers should book rides between paratransit systems through their local call center. Mr. Shammout responded that, as part of the regional certification and one-seat projects, SORTA, BCRTA and Tank have established a single call center for booking rides throughout the region. A “soft launch” of the call center was conducted on January 20. Christopher Sabine and President Gloria Robinson expressed that members are still reporting that automatic announcement systems are being disabled on buses. Mr. Shammout responded that drivers cannot disable announcement systems, expressing that this could be a maintenance issue. Irene Burton and President Gloria Robinson both indicated that this is a particular problem with the 33 Route (serving Western Hills), and Christopher Sabine expressed that this is a system-wide issue. Mr. Shammout indicated that SORTA conducted an investigation following similar complaints two-and-a-half years ago and ensured that the drivers cannot disable the systems but expressed that maintenance issues still might exist with some buses that need to be fixed. Dave Perry asked if passengers on ACCESS, SORTA’s paratransit service, can request that drivers come to the passenger’s door upon request, even though ACCESS is technically a curb-to-curb and not a door-to-door service. Mr. Shammout deferred David’s question to a person more qualified to answer questions concerning ACCESS. President Gloria Robinson concluded the discussion by asking Mr. Shammout about Promised COVID relief checks for members riding Metro and ACCESS. Mr. Shammout promised to look into the matter.
>  
> A representative of the University of Cincinnati visited President Gloria Robinson during the meeting to discuss a new product. The discussion with Mr. Shammout was led by Dave Perry.
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> Jake Burton, Irene Burton, and Ben Heard were formally inducted into the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio through the national onboarding process.
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> The January 2025 meeting of the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio, Cincinnati Chapter was adjourned at approximately 5:29 P.M. on Saturday January 25, 2025.
>  
> Respectfully Submitted,
>  
>  
> Christopher Sabine
> Secretary
> National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
> Cincinnati Chapter
>  
>  
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