[IABS-Talk] at large minutes for April

[datemeyer at sbcglobal.net]

NFBI At Large Chapter April Minutes

 

April 12th, 2026

 

ZOOM Meeting

 

CALL TO ORDER

 

At Large Chapter President David Meyer called the meeting to order at 7:02

PM. Persons in attendance were: David Meyer, Leslie Hamric, Michelle Ault,
Linda Hendle, Bill Reif, Debbie

Pittman, Marilyn Green, Yvonne Agyarko, Jemal Powell, Dennis Devitt, Eileen
Truschke, Ken Schadd, Pat Olson,Yifan Shen

 

PRESIDENTIAL RELEASE

 

 We are on Presidential Release 559 for the month of April 2026 and is the
Chapter version.

 

President Mark Riccobono wants to let us know that our main hotel for
National Convention in Austin is the JW Marriott and it is sold out for most
nights of the convention. Our overflow hotels have plenty of rooms and all
of them are within two or three blocks of the JW Marriott. We will be
providing Federation members with lots of information about traveling from
the overflow hotels. Our host  Affiliate, which is the National Federation
of the Blind of Texas, will also have lots of information. We are being
encouraged to continue to make our reservations, even if we are going to be
in the overflow hotel.

 

On this release, President Mark Riccobono wants to let us know about some
content from the Braille Monitor. Our chapters should consider pulling
content from the Braille Monitor at our meetings. It is a tremendous source
of information and inspiration for content. The April 2026 Braille Monitor
has a number of articles that we should consider and he would like to
highlight one as an opportunity for our chapters to have discussion.

 

President Mark Riccobono highlighted the lead article from this issue of the
Braille Monitor, which has to do with the current attack on Section 504 of
the Rehabilitation Act and what we're doing to beat back that attack. When
we start talking about the Rehabilitation Act and various laws, he wants us
to know that we do not have to be a lawyer to understand why Section 504 of
the Rehabilitation Act is important to our daily lives and to the work that
we do in the National Federation of the Blind. 

 

Through the experience in our movement, as supported by highly cited legal
sources, Dr. Jacobus tenBroek was the founder and president of the National
Federation of the Blind. His legal work, especially his integrationist
theory of disability rights, is the underpinning for many aspects of
disability law. This is well cited by legal scholars, and his work is cited
as being fundamental to Sections 501, 503, and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
of 1973. The core of his writing and thinking there comes from his 1966
article entitled "The Right to Live in the World", where he discusses
shifting from a custodial model to an integration model of disability
rights. tenBroek argued that society must move away from the segregation and
dependency model that it had for centuries promoted to one of full
participation in the mainstream society. That idea really comes out of the
wisdom and experience of the organized blind movement. This has been the
foundation for the Rehabilitation Act and all of the disability rights work
that has come since that time.

 

The reason this is relevant to today is because of the current attack on
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. We have been writing about this
currant attack in the Braille Monitor and talking about this in Federation
meetings. This puts the idea of integration into society into real jeopardy.
President Mark Riccobono urges all of our chapters to be talking about this
and taking action on it. President Mark Riccobono is confident we will not
fail in this effort, but if we speculate  about what would happen if we did,
it would have a lingering impact on potentially the next decades of our
experience in this nation as people who are blind and for all people with
disabilities.

 

This is an important time for us to mobilize and act. He encourages the
chapters to spend time talking about that. The article he wants to talk to
us about on this release is an article called "Friendship in Action". This
is an article about Nyal McConaughey and telling the story of Nyal
McConaughey. President Mark Riccobono invites our chapters to consider
reading the article and to use this as a point of discussion.

 

This is an article written by our Federation staff who deal specifically
with the National Archives of the Blind People's Movement. Nyal was the
first blind person to work in the foreign service overseas. This article
tells this story about how one Blind person who was learning to live as a
Blind person and learning about how to self-advocate for themselves found
strength, power, resources, support in the National Federation of the Blind.

We know that we are stronger when we work together because we know other
blind people, because we know that we have a community of people who will
have our back. This article tells a story like that, but it also tells why
it is so important that we preserve the history of what we're doing at all
levels of our organization.

It illuminates why our local chapters and state affiliates should be
documenting the stories of blind people who are participating locally in the
chapter and about the work that the chapter's doing and making sure that
those records and those stories are getting to our archives by sending them
to:

 archives at nfb.org <mailto:archives at nfb.org> 

 

President Mark Riccobono encourages our chapters not only to read the
article, but to discuss some relevant questions. Some questions might be: 

 

How was the movement important in this story? 

 

What connections can we make to current day activities in the Organized
Blind Movement and the importance of all levels of our organization? 

 

What is the chapter doing to document the stories of people in the chapter
and preserve the history of actions and priorities taken by the chapter over
time?

 

How might this become a regular part of our organizational efforts at the
local level? 

 

You may have other questions that this story brings to mind. We want to
encourage that you continue to write and document stories of the members and
blind people that are making a difference in our local communities. And if
you need support on how to archive records and correspondence of our local
chapters and affiliates, please write to:

 archives at nfb.org <mailto:archives at nfb.org> .

 

This of course relates to our broader mission to change society's
understanding about blindness through the development of resources like the
Museum of the Blind People's Movement, which is one of our big future dreams
that we're working on right now.

 

STATE PRESIDENT'S REPORT

 

Our State President, Marilyn Green, gave us the State President's Report.
The next Affiliate Board meeting is April 22nd at 7:00 PM. It is the same
ZOOM link to ZOOM into the meeting. The Affiliate Board meeting is a great
way to learn about what is going on in the National Federation of the Blind
in regards to our policies, programs, and procedures,

 

We have a State Scholarship program in Illinois so if we are planning on
attending a post secondary education or if we know of anyone that is that is
legally blind in both eyes and live in Illinois or plan to go to school in
Illinois they are eligible to apply for our State Scholarship. Our deadline
is Wednesday, April 15th, at 11:59 PM. You can go to:

 

nfbofillinois.org/scholarships

 

 We do plan to award at least one State Scholarship at our State Convention
in October. 

 

 The dates for National Convention in Austin, Texas  is July 3rd thru July
8th and our convention hotel is the JW Marriott. Our convention hotel is
currently sold out but we have plenty of over flow options to choose from if
we have not already made our reservations. To get information about the
overflow hotels we can go to:

 

nfb.org/convention

 

The overflow hotel rate is the same as the convention hotel rate. It is
$139.00 for singles and doubles. We will have to pay a one night deposit
when we make that reservation. We do have a Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship for
first timers who have never been to a National Convention. We can go to the
Braille Monitor, which is our Flagship Publication, to access the link to
apply for the Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship for first timers. The
deadline is April 15th, 11:59 PM Eastern Time.

 

The State of Illinois also offers some modest financial assistance for
people to attend National Convention. The deadline for those applications is
May 1st. The form has been sent out thru Il Talk and IABS talk and it is the
Chappell/Dennis form. If you need assistance with the form or have any
questions about it you can reach out to Marilyn Green at 312-343-8396 or you
can email: 

president at nfbofillinois.org <mailto:president at nfbofillinois.org> . 

The deadline for pre-registration for our National Convention is May 31st.
Pre-registration is $25.00 and the banquet is $85.00. If you wait until
after the deadline of May 31st the prices go up by $5.00 each.

 

We will have two NFB BELL programs. BELL stands for Braille Enrichment
Literacy and Learning. We have a one week residential program in Springfield
Il, from July 13th thru July 17th. We have our Chicago program which is a
two week day program July 20th to July 31st. These programs are for Blind
students ages 4-12. They will have the opportunity to practice their Braille
Skills,practice their Independent Living Skills, go on some field trips
using their long white canes. If you know Blind Students ages 4-12, living
in other States that do not currently have a BELL Program please share with
them about our NFB BELL Programs in Illinois. We also do sometimes accept
Blind students from other States that may not have the BELL program
available to them so we can let them know about our NFB BELL in Illinois.

 

We also have our NFB Stem2U program in Illinois. Last year was our first
year and it was a great success. We are looking for students ages 8-13 but
we are flexible so if you know of any students who may be interested in
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math please let them know about our
one day program on Saturday, August 15th.

 

We will have our face-to-face Board meeting the next day on August 16th.
Both of these programs will be at our State Convention Hotel is the Hyatt
Regency near Lisle. You can make your room reservation now and the room rate
is $129.00 plus tax. Our Board Meeting will start at 9:00 AM and we will
adjourn for lunch around 11:30 for half an hour and we usually adjourn
between 2:00 and 3:00 PM. You can come to the Board meeting in person and
explore the hotel which is where we will be having our State Convention or
you can use the same ZOOM link to ZOOM into our Face to Face Board Meeting.

 

Our State Convention is October 23rd to October 25th at the Hyatt Regency
near Lisle. The room rate is $129.00 per night. As of right now the format
will be the same as last year. On Friday, we will have Resolutions at 4:00
PM, General sessions at 5:00 PM and exhibitors from 2:00 to 5:00 PM. We also
will be having some activities planned before 3:30 that day. We will adjourn
around 6:30 and then we will have our fundraiser NFB got talent and the
Battle of the Chapters. On Saturday morning we will start with breakfast
along with some programming. We will have some breakout sessions in the
morning along with our exhibitors. We will start our general sessions at
noon along with our lunch. We will go to about 2:30 and around 3:00 we will
go back into session along with our business meeting and reports. We will
then adjourn and come back into session for our banquet around 7:00 PM. Our
banquet adjourns around 9:30PM or 10:00 PM and this is followed by some
hospitality. On Sunday morning is our philosophy over breakfast and we will
adjourn sometime around noon. The  address for the hotel is:

1400 Corporetum Dr.,Lisle, IL.

 

FUNDRAISER

Our President, David Meyer turned the floor to Debbie Pittman to discuss the
Double Good Popcorn Fundraiser that we just had. Debbie emphasized that the
Fundraiser is for the whole At Large Chapter and that once her and Marilyn
put the link out there all we have to do is pass it on to others and ask
them to support it. We had total sales of $1012.00, which means that we get
50% of that which is $506.00. There were some other Chapters doing the
Double Good Popcorn Fundraiser at the same time and those Chapters were
posting on Facebook at the same time we were that could have impacted our
sales. David Meyer let us know that If we do donate, the Chapter would get
full credit for the donations for this Fundraiser. We do have some donations
coming in for this Fundraiser. So, if someone donates $25.00 towards the
Fundraiser, the Chapter would get the full $25.00. Debbie Pittman and
Marilyn Green were also thanked by our At Large President, David Meyer, for
being sellers for this Fundraiser. Debbie Pittman did let us know that
Double Good has a new link which implies that someone can make a purchase
after the fundraiser event is over. When the Popcorn is purchased after the
event is over, we do not get any proceeds from that purchase and it does not
tell you that. It was emphasized that when we are given the time the
fundraiser starts and ends we need to make sure that we place our orders
during that time frame.

 

APPROVAL OF MARCH MINUTES

 

David Meyer posted the minutes on IL-Talk, IABS, and also NFB NEWSLINE.
David Meyer entertained a motion to approve minutes and Debbie Pittman moved
and Linda Hendle seconded. All those in favor said "AYE" and the March
minutes were approved.

 

ELECTIONS

 

Currently, David Meyer is President, Leslie Hamric is Vice President,
Michelle Ault is Secretary/Treasurer. Board seat holders are Debbie Pittman
and Linda Hendle.

For the first part of the election, Leslie Hamric took the floor. We voted
on the office of President. Bill Reif nominated David Meyer for President
and David Meyer accepted. Leslie asked three times if there were any other
nominations. Marilyn Green moved that nominations be seized and David Meyer
be nominated by acclamation. This was seconded by several members. There was
no discussion. All those in favor said "AYE". There was no oppositions and
David Meyer was elected President.

David Meyer then took the floor. Nominations were being held for Vice
President which is currently held by Leslie Hamric. Bill Reif nominated
Leslie Hamric as Vice President. Leslie Hamric accepted. David Meyer asked
three times if there were any other nominations. Debbie Pittman moved to
close nominations and Leslie be elected and voted in as Vice President by
acclamation. Several members seconded. All those in favor said "AYE' and
Leslie Hamric was elected as Vice President.

 

Nominations were being held for Secretary/ Treasurer which is currently
being held by Michelle Ault. Marilyn Green  nominated Michelle Ault as
Secretary/Treasurer. Michelle Ault accepted. David Meyer asked if there were
any other nominations three times. Eileen Trushke moved to close nominations
and that Michelle Ault be elected and voted in as Secretary/Treasurer by
acclamation. Linda Hendle seconded. All in favor said "Aye" and Michelle
Ault was elected as Secretary/Treasurer

 

Nominations were being held for the first board seat is currently being held
by Debbie Pittman. Linda Hendle nominated Debbie Pittman for the first board
seat and Debbie Pittman accepted. David Meyer asked three times if there
were any other nominations. Eileen Trushke moved that nominations be closed
and that Debbie Pittman be elected by acclamation. This was seconded by Ken
Schadd. All in favor said "AYE" and Debbie Pittman was elected for the first
Board Seat.

 

Nominations were being held for the second board seat which is currently
being held by Linda Hendle. Debbie Pittman nominated Linda Hendle for the
second board seat and Linda Hendle accepted. David Meyer asked three times
if there were any other nominations. Eileen Trushke moved that nominations
be seized and that Linda Hendle be nominated by acclamation. This was
seconded by Bill Reif. All in favor said "Aye" and Linda Hendle was elected
for the second board seat.

 

OLD BUSINESS

 

Hearing none we moved on to new business.

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

We have a new member to be voted in who is Yifan Shen. Michelle Ault made a
motion to vote in Yifen Shen as a new member in the At Large Chapter of the
National Federation of the Blind. This was seconded by many. All those in
favor said "AYE" and no one opposed. Yifan Shen was voted in as a new
member. Our President, David Meyer welcomed iher into the At Large Chapter
and let her know that we have our meetings on the first Sunday of the month
at 7:00 PM and that we use the same ZOOM link each time unless otherwise
announced and that we all look forward to her participation.

 

Our next meeting will be on Sunday, May 3rd, at 7:00PM.

 

As part of our next program item it was suggested we think about how with
the talent, abilities, and interest that we have how we can best serve the
National Federation of the Blind, it's Illinois Affiliate, and the At Large
Chapter.

 

The Chicago chapter has a Comedy Fundraiser on April 23rd. Tickets are
$25.00 online, $30.00 at the door or we can stream the event for $30.00. If
we stream the event please let David Meyer know on or before April 20th. We
can ZELLE the payments into the State Affiliate. It would be ZELLED to:

chicago.treasurer at nfbofilinois.org
<mailto:chicago.treasurer at nfbofilinois.org> 

 

If we wish to make a check to stream the fundraiser make it to:

 NFBI Chicago Chapter and we can reach out to David Meyer for information on
where to send the check to.

 

The doors to the club open at 6:15, we can order food and beverages around
6:30. Showtime is around 7:15 and we will have four stand up comics. The
show will be about an hour. 

 

David Meyer entertained a motion to adjourn the meeting. The motion was so
moved and seconded. All those in favor said "AYE " and no one opposed. The
meeting was adjourned at 8:13.

 

The next at large meeting will take place on May 3, 7:00 P.M.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Michelle Ault

Secretary/Treasurer