[IABS-Talk] at large February minutes

[datemeyer at sbcglobal.net]

NFBI At Large Chapter February Minutes

 

February 1, 2026

 

ZOOM Meeting

 

CALL TO ORDER

 

At Large Chapter President David Meyer called the meeting to order at 7:00
PM. Persons in attendance were:

David Meyer, Leslie Hamric, Michelle Ault, Linda Hendle, Debbie Pittman,
Marilyn Green, Michal Nowicki, Yvonne Agyarko, Bob Widman, Greg Rosenberg,
Jean Johnson, Jemal Powell, Dennis Devitt, Eileen Truschke, Ken Schadd,
Rachel Ng, and guest speaker former State Governor Pat Quinn.

 

PROGRAM ITEM

 

Debbie Pittman introduced our guest speaker who served as State Governor
from 2009 until 2015. Our former Governor, Pat Quinn, explained that he
always believed in petition passing and told us a little history about a
petition drive. He shared that one unfortunate thing in Illinois today is
that the election law says that in order to sign a petition, the person
signing must sign what is called a wet ink signature. He explained that it
means that the person must take their hand and take a pen and put it on a
piece of paper and sign their name. He does not think that is fair because
they are many Blind people in our State of Illinois and many people with a
disability who are not able to do that the way the so called law today
requires.

 

Our Former Governor, Pat Quinn, is involved with the American Civil Liberty
Union and he happens to be a lawyer. He is co-council with the ACLU and they
are preparing a lawsuit on behalf of people who are Blind and also others
who have disabilities to challenge that law, declare it unconstitutional,
and give people an alternative on how to sign a petition. Namely, electronic
petitioning. This is something other states have done, especially during
Covid, about 6 years ago. 6 years ago even our own State of Illinois for
candidates allowed people to sign a petition electronically. They think this
should be the rule all the time.  That we should be able to use our computer
to sign our name and address on behalf of a referendum petition. He said
that we have a Government of the people and that means all the people and
the lawsuit says, in Illinois, that we have a right to vote. That is written
in our Illinois Constitution. He said we also have a right to have
initiative referendums, put on the ballot to amend our Constitution. In
1980, the Illinois Supreme Court said the right to initiate a petition, the
right to sign and circulate a referendum petition is a fundamental right. It
is subject to strict scrutiny and legislators are not allowed to restrict
that right. He is recruiting right now people who happen to be Blind or who
have a disability that would want to join them in this lawsuit to strike
down the wet ink signature, which they think is unconstitutional. And
instead, allow for a system of electronic circulation of petitions for
referendums. He thinks that it is ironic that in our current digital society
you can buy a house or all kinds of other records by signing ironically but
that we can't sign a petition for a referendum electronically. They want to
change that and that is what their lawsuit is all about. Former Governor Pat
Quinn is co-council on this lawsuit, he is a lawyer with three lawyers from
the American Civil Liberties Union. 

 

If we, as an individual, have any questions about this lawsuit or if we
would like to learn more we can email him at 

ltg.patquinn at gmail.com <mailto:ltg.patquinn at gmail.com> 

 

or send him a text or call at: 312-485-1852

 

Our At Large President, David Meyer thanked our former Governor Pat Quinn
for taking the time to explain this to us and the former Governor said it
was an honor. He also thanked Debbie Pittman for setting up the meeting and
said he would like to give us updates on how this is moving along. 

 

APPROVAL OF JANUARY MINUTES

 

Greg Rosenberg moved to approve the January minutes and Debbie Pittman
seconded. All in favor said "Aye" and minutes were approved.

 

PRESIDENTIAL RELEASE

 

 The chapter version of Presidential Release 557 was played

 

President Mark Riccobono acknowledged that many have fought through the
adversity of the storm to get to Washington, DC for Washington Seminar. He
had heard there was a record number of flights canceled in the United States
due to the storm. He thanked us all for our efforts to get there in person
and let us know there is plenty to do at home to support our legislative
efforts. He knows almost every single member that we had in Washington DC
took on some extra responsibilities, had extra juggling to do, and was ready
to help wherever needed. President Mark Riccobono thinks this week
definitely showed the true power of the Federation, but also the
flexibility. A lot of people say the F stands for flexible, and that
definitely was true this week. We were reminded that it is really important
that we follow up with the offices we did meet with and make sure we get the
commitment from them. Despite the adversity with the storm, we did have a
great Washington Seminar.

Our affiliate presidents and our Kenneth Jernigan in-service participants
were at our headquarters over the weekend, and we had a plan to meet with
them on the Sunday before the Washington Seminar, and we moved that to the
hotel in DC. We all went to DC a day early and had our meeting in DC with
our affiliate presidents doing planning for the work ahead, considering how
we build new opportunities in the organization and strengthening the
leadership network that we have.

We had great trainings on Monday and at our Great Gathering-In which was
very energetic in person. We also had great attendance on Zoom by all of you
who could not be there in person. On Monday night, the students had their
annual auction and we raised a record number of dollars for the student
division.

 

On Tuesday, President Mark Riccobono had an opportunity to sit in with our
affiliates on some of the Hill meetings, and he thought it was fantastic to
listen to our local members talk to their members of Congress and staff
members about the legislative priorities and articulate it in such an
authentic and meaningful way to bring that local flare to it. On that
evening we had a congressional reception with three Senators. One of the
Senators was moved to say that he was taking a very hard look at being the
Senate sponsor for our Blind Americans Return to Work Act, and that was also
discussed in a Hill meeting President Mark Riccobono was in. Mark Riccobono
thinks coming out of this Washington seminar, we have some really great
momentum for all our issues, but definitely for the Blind Americans Return
to Work Act.

 

The fact sheets are still available at our web site and we still need your
help to push members of Congress and remind them about the work that we have
to do. To find our legislative fact sheets and to keep up to date on how we
can help, we can go to:

nfb.org/washington-seminar

 

President Mark Riccobono traveled to India in January to be part of the
World Blind Union officers meeting in New Delhi. We were hosted by the
President of the World Blind Union, S.K .Rungta, and the National Federation
of the Blind of India. We do not have a formal relationship with the
National Federation of the Blind of India but we share the name National
Federation of the Blind. 

 

President Mark Riccobono would like to give us an opportunity to get to know
them better. The NFB of India came about in 1973,and 1973 is an important
Federation year. The year 1973 is highlighted in this week's episode of
Walking Alone and Marching Together,  Episode 13. 1973 was the first
Washington Seminar. Another thing highlighted in episode 13 of Walking Alone
and Marching together is the 1973 banquet speech, Is History Against Us?

Dr. Jernigan discusses how history has told the story of blind people and
how that differs from the reality of the story, especially when blind people
have written the story.

President Mark Riccobono calls this banquet speech out to you as a great
resource for a conversation about philosophy, about our work for discussion
at our chapter meetings, and definitely to bring a connection to how we
capture and tell our stories in 2026.

 

It is also a good opportunity for our chapters to generate some ideas,
discussion about our future Museum of the Blind People's Movement and
initiative that we now call the Blind Unbound Initiative. He would love for
us to use this speech to discuss what stories we want to have in a Museum of
the Blind People's Movement. What stories would  we want to be featured and
what educational learnings would we want to be the focus of a traveling
exhibit that might come to our local community? That could be curate d by
our local chapter, our ideas, thoughts, reflections, inspiration from the
work of the Federation, but also from Dr. Jernigan's 1973 banquet speech.
That would be really powerful and he would like to add to that to include
any questions that our chapter members might have about our Blind Unbound
Initiative. The Blind Unbound Initiative is our effort to increase the
storytelling and the archiving of material in the organized blind movement.

We can send our ideas and our questions to:

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

Maybe we'll make them the source of future presidential releases or other
conversations that we might have in the organization. He thinks this is a
great resource for us to consider. President Mark Riccobono thinks just the
conversation and reflection on the 1973 banquet speech, is very relevant
even today.

One of the things that came up this week is that we learned that a recent
update to the Amazon devices might have made it more difficult for some
members to access our NFB skill on their Amazon devices. This happened when
some people had trouble tuning in on those devices to the Great
Gathering-In. If we recently updated our Amazon device, we may now have to
update what we say to your device to initiate our Nation's Blind skill.

We may need to say "Open Nation's Blind Skill " and that should work for you
before you didn't necessarily have to say skill, but we have found that with
some of the updates, some people are having trouble initiating the skill
unless they use specifically the words "Nation's Blind Skill". So try that
and I hope it works for you. 

If we do have trouble still accessing this skill or are having trouble with
any of our publications or access methods, please reach out to our
communications group at:

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

 

We have recently created a new email communication that we call the Now. If
you have not been getting it you should make sure your membership is
actually current at the chapter level, and then if you're still not getting
it, make sure that your chapter has changed it in our database so you
continue to get member driven information like the Member Digest. We can
email and give feedback. You can let us know if this is helpful and what
else you would like to see in it? This is not meant to replace our
publications, but to be an enhancement to make sure that we're keeping our
members up to date. 

 

We will have a  Presidential Release Live coming up on March 5th.

And since that's coming up, just remind you that we'd love to hear your
ideas, topics you'd like to see and have us cover on the presidential
release, live questions, anything like that. And of course, that includes
these recorded releases. We'd love your feedback. You can send that to
communications. You can also write directly to President Mark Riccobono at:

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

 

We help shape these monthly releases, and also our live events, especially
as we get into registration season for convention and into our national
convention in Austin. We will discuss National Convention in March.

 

David Meyer told us how we can listen to the Great Gathering In. We can
access this Presidential Release online. We would go to nfb.org and go to
the link on Publications and Media and from there we would go to the link of
Presidential Releases and from there we would find Presidential Releases for
Chapters. We can also listen to the Podcast.

 

STATE PRESIDENT REPORT

 

Our State President, Marilyn Green, gave us the State report. We had a great
showing from Illinois for Washington Seminar. We had Dustin Cather and
Denise Avant who are our federal legislation co-chairs. We also had Michelle
Ault, Jean Johnson, and Olivia C. We were able to make a lot of the
appointments on the Hill or virtual and we will continue to do some of them
at home. Dustin and Denise may be reaching out to us to follow up with our
members of Congress. It is important that our members of Congress know that
there are Blind people who live in their district who want to move the
initiatives of The National Federation of the Blind. The legislative
priorities we did this year at our appointments were protecting the
education, employment, and independent living for the Blind. We also talked
about the Access Technology Affordability Act and the Blind Americans Return
to Work Act. To get familiar with these Acts you can go to our nfb.org to
our Washington Seminar page and learn more about them or we could reach out
to any members of our team to learn about how these pieces of legislation
will improve the lives of Blind people.

 

We have Midwest Student Seminar coming up, which is sponsored by our
National office. It will be the weekend of March 13th in our State of
Illinois. If you are a student or if you know of any students who are
pursuing a post-secondary education, they can go to:

 

 nabslink.org

for information or we can reach out to State President Marilyn Green at:

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

The deadline for the hotel as well as registering for the seminar are
quickly approaching so if you or someone you know is interested in a great
weekend of programming, that's led by the students, let them know about the
National Federation of The Blind NABS Midwest Region Student Seminar. The
room rate is $119.00. If the student is receiving assistance from rehab,
they can  talk to their rehab counselor about covering this.

 

Our National Convention is July 3rd to July 8th in Austin Texas. We can make
our room reservation now. We will be at the JW Marriott. The information for
the National convention is at:

nfb.org

The hotel and room rate is on there and the information is also available on
The Braille Monitor. Room rate for National Convention is $139.00 for
singles and doubles and $155.00 per night for triples and quads. 

 

The application for the Kenneth Jernigan Convention Scholarship is now open
for first time national convention attendees.

If you have never been to a national convention before and need some
financial assistance you can find the article about the Kenneth Jernigan
convention scholarship in the Braille Monitor. There is a link for a short
application that will ask you information about yourself as well as some
narrative questions. The application is due by April 15th. If you need help
in filling that out, you can reach out to Marilyn Green. If she cannot
assist you she will designate someone else to assist you.

 

We now have our State and National Scholarships programs which are now both
open. Our National Scholarship deadline is March 31st 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
Information is at: 

nfb.org/scholarships

You would upload your letter of recommendation, proof of blindness,
transcripts, as well as your written essay. You do need to schedule an
interview with the State President or the State President designee. We will
award thirty $10,000 scholarships at our National Convention. If you know of
anyone who is blind or low vision please let them know about this great
opportunity.

The National Federation of the Blind of Illinois has approved to award at
least one scholarship in the amount of $5000.00. The deadline to fill out
the State of Illinois Scholarship application is April 15th, 11:59PM Central
Time. You can provide all of the same information. The essay, letter of
recommendation, proof of blindness, transcripts and then you will be
interviewed by someone from the State Scholarship Committee.

We will also have our STEM2U and our National Federation of the Blind BELL
programs. Our National Federation of the Blind BELL program in Springfield
will run from July 13th through July 17th. It is a one week residential
program. BELL is for students between the ages of 4 and 12. We also have our
two week Chicago program that we run at the Chicago Lighthouse. That will be
from July 20th to July 31st. If you know any students who could benefit from
these programs, please let the families know.

We will also be having our STEM2U program this year and will let you know
when we have the dates confirmed.

The State Convention for Illinois will be held in Lisle October 23rd to
October 25th. The room rate for that will be $129.00 per night.

 

OLD BUSINESS

none

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

The date of our next meeting will be on March 1st. Elections will be
happening in April for the At Large Chapter. We have a President, Vice
President, Secretary/Treasurer, and two board seats. All will be open for
anyone wishing to run for them. Please notify David Meyer of intent to run
if interested. In order to vote you need to have your membership dues
up-to-date. You can pay online at:

nfbofillinois.org

Or you can ZELLE the State of Illinois Treasurer at:

treasurer at nfbofillinois.org

 

The membership dues are $2.00 a year.

 

Marilyn Green moved that the April meeting be moved from April 5th to April
12th. Debbie Pittman seconded. All in favor said "Aye". The April meeting
will be on April 12th, 2026.

 

ADJOURNMENT

 

Marilyn Green moved to adjourn. Linda Hendle  seconded and all in favor said
"Aye" The meeting was adjourned at 8:15PM.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Michelle Ault

Secretary/Treasurer