[il-talk] chicago minutes september 2018

[David Meyer]

NFBI CHICAGO CHAPTER MINUTES

MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 8, 2018

At 1:00 P.M. President Steve Hastalis called the meeting to order. We 
began by saying the NFB Pledge and the One Minute Message.

What’s Happening
Eileen Truschke reported that Ken Schad’s mother passed away. There 
were 20 members present.

Secretary’s Report
It was moved and seconded to approve the minutes for the August 2018 
meeting. The motion carried.

Presidential Reports
There was not a National Presidential Release.

Debbie Stein gave the state Presidential report.  The state convention 
will take place October 26-28 at the Sheridan Chicago Hotel, 6501 North 
Manheim Road. The rooms are all suites Room rates are $99 per night. 
You must make hotel reservations by October 5. You may register for the 
convention by going to www.nfbofillinois.org. The preregistration cost 
is $5 provided that one registers by October 12. The cost after that 
date will be $20. Breakfasts for parents and students will occur on 
Saturday and Sunday with the cost being $10 each. Cost of the luncheon 
is $20 and the cost of the banquet is $30. If you are in need of a 
special meal for health or religious reasons, please let Patti Chang 
know by October 21. She can be notified at pattischang at gmail.com or you 
may call 773-307-6440. Our National Representative is Jeannie Massay of 
Oklahoma and the student rep is Kenya Florez, a 2018 scholarship 
winner. Special guests for this convention will be Ramona Walhof and 
Rami Rabby. Steve Hastalis will chair the resolutions committee. If you 
have a resolution, please send it to Steve at steve.hastalis at gmail.com. 
Resolutions are due by October 12. Please consider attending Washington 
Seminar. Applications for the Washington Seminar are due by December 1. 
Please send all applications to Denise at davant1958 at gmail.com.

Program
David Meyer presented a program on restaurant etiquette. In summary, he 
stated the following. Treat waiters/waitresses as you would like to be 
treated. If you wish to eat and you can’t afford to do so, please make 
arrangements in advance for another chapter member to assist you. And 
finally, find out how much your bill is in advance before you order to 
avoid any surprises. Whether you approve of your bill or not, do not 
under any circumstances walk out without paying. Finally, the going 
rate for tipping is 20% of your bill. Please tip with that in mind. If 
you can’t, then tip what you are able to tip. Leslie Hamric suggested 
that if one is approached about payment of a bill, transit ticket, 
ETC., offer the person the option of giving that amount to one of your 
favorite charities.

Marco gave a current figure for the treasury. Current balance, $5,033.17.

President Hastalis announced that the next board meeting would take 
place as a conference call on Sunday, September 16. Call 641-715-3273 
and use access code “Chicago”, (2442246.) The next cTA Advisory 
Committee meeting will take place on October 9 at CTA headquarters Ken 
Borst talked about the program which will take place during the October 
meeting. The speaker will be Anne Sheets, who will talk about single 
pay as an insurance program.

Old-new Business
David Meyer talked about the upcoming read-a-thon which will take place 
at Exchequer Pub on November 10 from 1:00-4:00 P.M. The participation 
fee will be $10 per person. However, if one gets a contribution of more 
than $10, his/her admission fee will be waved. We then talked about 
deciding a song for Battle of the Chapters as part of the IABS Idle 
extravaganza. We will perform She Loves You by the Beatles. Michael 
Nowicki detailed problems he was having getting a secondary audio track 
from CBS. It was suggested that the problem might be in his menu 
settings. Jemal Powell announced that the next Chicago Pace Advisory 
Committee meeting would take place on September 24 in Willis Tower. 
Time of the meeting is 1:00-3:00 P.M. The Pace Suburban Advisory 
Committee will meet on the following day at Pace headquarters in 
Arlington Heights. Paul Sheperdson mentioned that we should all try to 
find and listen to a podcast featuring the Lieutenant Governor of 
Washington State who is blind. The name of the podcast is From Braille 
to Yale. The program where the podcast can be found is Stay Tuned with 
Preat. Howard Wilson along with several others from Chicago will 
represent the United States in Judo at the Paralympic games in 
Portugal. Leslie Hamric has noticed significant improvement in her 
Orientation and Mobility. Additionally, she will be published in the 
Elmhurst weekly paper, having written an article on her experience with 
the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra. President Hastalis gave the number for 
our convention site as 800-699-6300. Mary Grunwald is the door prize 
committee chairman. Please get prizes to her.

The meeting adjourned at 2:10 P.M.

Respectfully Submitted,

David Meyer, Secretary