[il-talk] chicago minutes august 2018

[David Meyer]

NFBI CHICAGO CHAPTER MEETING

AUGUST 2018

At approximately 1:00 P.M. President Steve Hastalis called the meeting 
to order.

Program: Jemal Powell introduced our speaker who was Julie Justice 
Chicago Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights.  Ms. Justice defined a hate 
crime and gave us several examples of crimes, asking us to define 
whether or not they were indeed hate crimes.

President Hastalis then lead us in the NFB Pledge and the one minute message.

What’s happening: Denise Avant won the Nelson award from the Government 
Public Sector Lawyers Division. There were 32 people present.

Presidential Reports

National Presidential Release: Mark Riccobono, President, National 
Federation of the Blind talked about the following items.            
The NFB EQ program and the Maryland Bell program are both occurring at 
the National Center. We took part in the most recent Association of 
Educators and Rehabilitation Professionals conference. The purpose was 
to let professionals know that we are prepared to collaborate with them 
in programming, but that we were not prepared to support accreditation 
programs that did not involve our meaningful input. We were well 
received. We were told to look forward to an article in the October 
Braille Monitor. The National Federation of the Blind has a number of 
positions open. Go to the careers page on the NFB website for more 
details. On August 7, we in conjunction with Rice Crispy Treats will be 
creating a series of braille and audio love notes. These notes are 
accessible versions of the writeable wrappers found on Rice crispy 
Treats. Go to www.ricecrispies.com/lovenotes to order your special 
messages. Angel Druise of Porter rico passed away on July 20.

State Presidential Report: Denise Avant, NFBI President reported on the 
following items. The 2019 National convention will take place July 7-12 
at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Los Vegas NV. Dustin Cather is now the 
treasurer of the National association of Blind Students. The 
face-to-face board meeting will occur on Saturday, August 25 at the 
Sheridan O’Hare Chicago Hotel, 6501 North Manheim Road. It will begin 
at 9:00 A.M. and will go until approximately 3:00 P.M. If you cannot 
attend, you may call in at 641-715-3273 and use the code 6324. If you 
are coming to the hotel, you will need to order a lunch, which will be 
either a veggie wrap or a turkey sandwich. Please give your order to 
Patti Chang. October Fest is scheduled to occur immediately after the 
Chicago Chapter meeting in September on September 8. It will be at the 
home of Patti and Francisco Chang. Cost for the event is $25 per 
person. One must reserve or cancel if already reserved on September 1. 
If you have not canceled by that date, you will owe the admission fee. 
The state convention will occur on October 26-28. There will be a 
number of folks from out-of-state, including Ramona Walhof, our student 
rep Kenia Florez, and Jeanie Massay, our National Representative. We 
will be commemorating our 50th anniversary convention this year. Rami 
Rabby will also be present for this convention. One may apply for 
assistance through the Chappell-Dennis fund. The application is on our 
website. It must be sent to Denise by September 1.Her email address is 
davant1958 at gmail.com.

Secretary’s Report: It was moved and seconded to approve the minutes of 
the June 2018 meeting. The motion carried.

Treasurers Report: President Hastalis read the second quarter report as 
prepared by Marco Giannotti. Beginning Balance April 1, $4,425.09. 
Income, $2,108. Expenses, $450. Ending balance, June 30, $6083.09. The 
report was approved as presented.

Fundraising activities: David Meyer mentioned the read-a-thon which 
will occur on the second Saturday of November. Anyone wishing to read 
must pay $10 unless they raise more than that from the general public. 
If more than $10 is raised, the admission fee will be waved. The 
Christmas auction will occur on Saturday, December 8 following the 
chapter meeting.
In membership matters, Robert Hansen encouraged all of us to invite new 
people to attend our meeting. He suggested that the fanout list might 
be revised.

Transportation matters: President Hastalis and Jemal Powell met with 
John Pare from our National office and Amtrak officials concerning 
train announcements. Ray Campbell and a member from the American 
Council of the Blind national office were also there. Amtrak wished to 
eliminate the auditory announcements provided by Metra. Many blind 
people in Chicago like those announcements so our position was to keep them.

The meeting adjourned at 3:25 P.M.

Respectfully Submitted,

David Meyer, Secretary