[IABS-Talk] [IL-Talk] at large February minutes

[Debbie Pittman]

Way  to go Michelle.


Debbie P


Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 23, 2026, at 9:56 AM, David Meyer via IL-Talk <il-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> 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
> 
> 
> 
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