[IABS-Talk] at large minutes for november

[David Meyer]

Hear are the minutes for the at large meeting of November, 2021.

National Federation of the Blind of Illinois
Minutes of meeting held Sunday, November 1, 2021

Members present: President David Meyer, Patti Chang, Secretary Bill 
Reif, Marilyn Green, Kyle Chellino, Yvonne Adjarko, Danny Mandrell and 
Debbie Pittman. Jemal Powell joined during presentation of the 
Presidential Release.

Visitor Jooyoung Seo is blind and moved to the U.S. in 2013. He 
attended Pennsylvania State College and recently moved to Champaign to 
accept a position as Assistant Professor of Information Sciences at the 
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. He was an NFB member in 
Pennsylvania and is happy to reconnect in Illinois. Soyoung Choi also 
relocated from Pennsylvania. This is her first NFbI meeting. She is an 
Assistant Professor, and is studying health care for the blind and 
teaches undergraduates interested in people with disabilities.

The minutes for the October meeting had been previously emailed to 
il-talk, IABS-talk, and distributed via Newsline. Kyle moved, and 
Debbie Pittman seconded, approval. Motion passed.

Presidential Release 510 for November 1st was played. Washington 
Seminar is planned February 7-10, 2022. It is currently planned to be 
in person. On October 12, the Ability One Commission released a Notice 
of Proposed Rule Making regarding the payment of sub minimum wages by 
affiliated nonprofit agencies. The proposed rule would require that 
each agency certify that it will not pay sub minimum wages. The NFB 
will submit comments in support and urges its members to watch for them 
and to amplify them. he also noted efforts in Illinois and Delaware to 
eliminate sub minimum wage payments under state contracts.

The NFB is proposing changes to its Code of Conduct, a draft of which 
is posted at www.nfb.org/draftcode. Members are urged to comment by 
December 2nd. In October, the Survivor-led Task Force has transitioned 
to the Blind Survivors' Group. Katherine Webster of Massachusetts and 
Danielle Monitor of Texas cochair. an email list is 
survivors at nfbnet.org. send a blank email to 
survivors-subscribe at nfbnet.org to join.

Marilyn gave the State Report, beginning by thanking everyone who 
participated in the 2021 NFBI Hybrid Convention, noting it was good to 
be with people she had not seen in nearly two years. She mentioned 
several convention highlights including the IABS Pie Palooza fund 
raiser and National Rep Anil Louis's contributions, and urged people to 
respond to the email from Kira O'bradovich seeking feedback. She urged 
people to consider attending our Washington Seminar, the application 
for which will be posted when national plans come together and will be 
due the first week of December. Our State Board Meeting will also be in 
the first part of December when scheduled. The Midwest Student Seminar 
will be the March 28 weekend. Patti informed us that President 
Riccobono has been diagnosed with Covid-19 and invited people to reach 
out via email or social media.

There was no old business. Dave led the chapter in reciting the NFB Pledge.

New business included consideration of new program ideas, including 
presentation of speeches and literature discussing our philosophy 
regarding blindness. Some could be controversial, such as disagreement 
on our position of Accessabee and web access. Dave suggested discussion 
of the Newsline service and features of its app. Dave and Debbie will 
confer on ideas.

Dave invited people to consider fund raiser ideas for discussion next 
month. The chapter has thus far done almost no fund raising.

Bill and Dave discussed efforts in Illinois to assure that blind 
persons and those with print impairments can vote remotely in a manner 
as accessible as those who can vote by mail. A Board of Elections 
meeting in Chicago and on zoom is set for Wednesday, November 10at 
2:00. A similar hearing has already taken place in Springfield. Zoom 
Information was sent on our list serves.

Our next Chapter meeting is set to take place December fifth at 7:00 
via the customary Zoom link.

The meeting adjourned at about 8:08 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Bill Reif, Secretary