[IL-Talk] chicago june minutes draft 2.

Tue Aug 6 12:18:33 UTC 2019

NFBI CHICAGO CHAPTER MINUTES

MEETING OF JUNE 8, 2019

The meeting began at 1:05 PM.

What's happening: There were no health concerns this month. Introductions
revealed 31 members present.

Program: Jemal Powell introduced Kira O'Bradovich who gave an overview on
the importance of filling out a census form for 2020. It is especially
important in Illinois this year as we may lose as many as two congressional
seats. Workers for the census bureau may assist you in filling out a census
form using a computer type device, or you may go on line to fill out a
census form. One form must be filled out for each person.  If you are
interested in securing employment, go to www.2020census.gov/jobs

Secretary's Report: It was moved and seconded to approve the minutes for the
May 2019 meeting. The motion carried unanimously.

There was no treasurer's report

Presidential Reports

National Presidential Release: NFB President Mark Riccobono reported on the
following items. President Riccobono Mrs. Jernigan and Dr. Maurer attended
the Caribbean Region of the World Blind Union. It was the largest gathering
of that region of the union. Several NFB programs will be coming up during
the summer including many Bell programs, NFBEQ program and a program for
parents in August at the Colorado center for the Blind. To reserve a room,
contact the Hampton Inn Highland Suites and Ranch at 303-794-1800. We now
have a new form on the website for chapters to enter information on new
members. Each chapter should designate someone to enter information on this
form. All new members will be entitled to a certificate and an NFB coin as
well as some literature. They will also receive e-mails from leaders over a
12 week period of time. Our convention planning chairman John Berggren was
then introduced. He gave several important logistical details about the
hotel that conventioneers need to know. The convention will also be streamed
for those who are not able to attend. Resolutions must be submitted in final
form two weeks prior to the convention. The writer of each resolution must
be at the resolutions committee meeting. Resolutions are to be sent to
Sharon Mineki. Her e0mail address is  <mailto:nfbmd at earthlink.net>
nfbmd at earthlink.net. NFB-conventions is a new list serve meant to spread
news about the National and State conventions. If you wish to reach the
moderator, send an e-mail to  <mailto:david.andrews at nfbnet.org>
david.andrews at nfbnet.org. Go to nfbnet.org to subscribe to this list. New
membership cards incorporating the NFB pledge and the one minute message are
available in lots of 50 for $20 plus postage and handling. They can be
obtained from the Independence Market. Gale Gruber-Benston has just joined
the Dream Makers Circle. Several chapters were recognized for their
contributions to the PAC plan. Tim Wolfe of Maryland passed away.
Federationists who were born include Schwana Trella and Mia Mazoni. 

STATE REPORT:  State President, Denise Avant mentioned the following items.
The Illinois convention social will take place on Sunday, July 7 in the
Presidents room from 9:00-11:00 P.M. There will be two Bell programs, one in
Springfield and one in Chicago. The Springfield program will run from June
10-14, and the Chicago program will occur July 29 through August 9. Finally,
the NFBI state convention will take place October 18-20 at the Windom Hotel
in Springfield. The registration form will be on the website soon. She
acknowledged the following chapter members for their active status.   Ed
Birmingham, Marilyn Green, Patti Chang, Francisco Chang, Eileen Truschke,
Gina Hall, and Kim Liddell. All selected stated how they heard about the NFB
and why they are members. Also, they all received a MEMBERSHIP coin as
members. At this point, Denise asked all members to stand and recite the NFB
pledge.

DISCUSSION ABOUT AUDIBLE TRAFFIC SIGNALS:

Members of the Illinois Council of the Blind (ICB), Maureen Henneghan, Debra
Watson, and Ann Brash came to discuss audible traffic signals in Chicago in
some of the busier intersections. Maureen stated that now that there are bus
lanes the pedestrians are losing part of the lights. In the past you could
depend on hearing the cross traffic, but now you cannot depend on it as much
because people can cross before the traffic can, so you are losing part of
that light.  Debra Watson says that one of the other difficulties is that if
you are trying to listen to the parallel traffic and an "L" train goes over
your head, you cannot hear a thing. She also says when you are waiting to
cross, there are cars turning and it is sometimes hard to know when to
cross.  She also states that we need audible traffic signals because many
intersections are dangerous and there is money set aside for this that has
not been used. Ann Brash states that we could use the 2 or 3 seconds to
cross a light because the more time we have the better it is. She also
states that the American Council of the Blind in New York City is involved
in negotiations with an attorney and they gave Ann the name of this attorney
to see if the ICB wanted to work with him. Apparently, Chicago has some
audible traffic signals, but there are not very many and they are not always
made correctly. She states it is the law that when an intersection is
reconstructed, there have to be audible traffic signals.  These members of
ICB would like to know how NFB feels about this subject.  Kim Liddell said
she agreed with ICB on audible traffic signals. Jemal Powell stated that
when it pertains to "L" tracks and parallel traffic, it is difficult to hear
parallel traffic and, even if there is an audible signal at an intersection
under "L" tracks, the train is so loud that it would virtually drown them
out as well. Jemal also stated that he does not have a problem with audible
traffic signals, but, at some intersections, even if there are audible
signals, you would have to be aware of turning cars. Patti Chang pointed out
that she would expect us not to take a position as an organization, at least
not at this meeting.  Our position would come as a national perspective.
Patti states that she doubts that anyone in this room is fully opposed to
audible signals, but we would not be able to make that decision today. This
issue has to come through our national board and our resolution process.
Patti states that she would like to meet with ICB and talk about exactly
what we need because of different intersections, different types of signals,
different timings. Steve Hastalis states that we had a meeting with city
officials from the Chicago Department of Transportation and the Mayor's
Office for People with Disabilities about a month ago.  We had a fairly
detailed discussion with city officials and transportation consultants.
There were members of ACBMC attending this meeting. Before that, we had
another meeting with city officials and we told the city that we are
concerned about "leading pedestrian indicator and that is when they tell the
people to go before the traffic goes and we said that parallel traffic is
the primary method by which blind people cross streets. So when you get
turning cars, leading pedestrian indicators or traffic light signal phases
that vary according to how many motor vehicle signals pass you, that is not
the kind of traffic signal that we learned to cross streets with years ago.
Steve states that perhaps we need to follow up with the city officials
again.  The city officials are talking about putting some signals in the
downtown area, the first batch and the second batch, funding permitted.
Maureen indicated that she was at a couple of those meetings with the
Department of Transportation and they said there is funding and they asked
about all of our opinions and what intersections we feel that we would
better meet the audible traffic signals, Maureen asked Steve when the next
meeting is. Steve stated that we may need to consult with city officials to
make that next meeting happen. We need to contact the Mayor's Office for
People with Disabilities and also the Chicago Department of Transportation
to see what the city has done in the last 6 months.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Fundraising Committee: President Meyer thanked all who helped with the
Chicago White Sox fundraiser. He said that he managed to pass out all of the
tickets. One thing that is extremely important this year is that those who
bought tickets get our money in in a timely manner. We have to reduce our
contributions to national funds this year due to the fact that we do not
have the treasury that we had in past years. So please get your money in as
soon as you are able.  

Bowling Fundraiser: We are bowling June 29th from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM at
Fireside Lanes, 2646 West Fullerton in Chicago. Please give your information
and money, if you can, to Marilyn Green. If you are not able to pay today,
please bring money when you come to the bowling alley and give it to Marilyn
at that time. Cost is $40 for bowlers and $20 for non-bowlers and we will
have food of some kind. There are 20 people so far who are actually
participating. Registration is at 6:00 and bowling begins at 7:00.  

Chicago Chapter Picnic:   Per Steve Hastalis: Our picnic will be at St.
Andrews Greek Orthodox Church at 5649 North Sheridan Road which is at the
southeast corner of Sheridan and Hollywood. Literally, it is at the north
end of Lake Shore Drive. Going northbound bus routes 147 Outer Drive Express
and 151 Sheridan stop in front of the church and, going southbound, the 151
and 147 buses stop at Hollywood and Sheridan and Bryn Maur and Sheridan.
The 84 Peterson bus route terminates a block south at Sheridan and Bryn Maur
stop on the Howard "L" Red Line. The church has 2 entrances facing Sheridan
Road. We will not use the North entrance near Hollywood. We will use the
south entrance. The date is Saturday, July 27th, 2019. from 12:00 PM to 4:00
PM. If you have any questions, please call Steve at 773-508-5307 (home) and
773-848-5307 (cell).

Membership Committee:  Robert Hansen reports that we are doing well. He
always makes sure to make fan-out calls about a week before the meeting. 

Dave would like to establish a committee that monitors what's happening in
City Hall and how the dealings that go on in City Hall may affect us
directly. If anybody is interested in serving on such a committee, please
let Dave know, Otherwise, Dave does have some folks that he will be
contacting who he has in mind to be a part of this committee.  

OLD BUSINESS:

Steve Hastalis reports that we contacted the office of Representative Jan
Schakowsky, and we have a meeting with her on Tuesday afternoon, July 2,
2019, at 2:15 PM courtesy of her Chicago office manager. Denise and Marilyn
will accompany Steve to this meeting. She understands our issues.  Dave
reports that Danny Davis' office has not been responsive to us in terms of
trying to set up a meeting with the congressman. Marilyn and Dave have tried
to contact them. Other people who are in Danny Davis' district, please call.
The person you would talk to is Josie Ware.  Steve mentioned that sometimes
Mr. Davis holds town hall sessions. If he has one that some of us can
attend, we can talk to him in the presence of a lot of constituents, we
would make ourselves and our issues public and it's always a good thing to
educate the public about blindness. Dave stated that these enquires have to
come from people within Davis' district. JEmal pointed out that sometimes
that Danny Davis makes appearances on radio talk shows and if anyone listens
to a talk show that takes callers that Mr. Davis is on someone may want to
call and ask Mr. Davis a question. Marilyn Green says that these are all
wonderful ideas. We have plenty of people in Danny Davis' district to work
on this. We need to nail hi down on our issues He is hard to nail down.
Marilyn sent a couple of emails to his scheduler She sent emails to the
person who we met with in Washington, DC. We need members who live in the
district to bang down doors. 

NEW BUSINESS:

Denise mentioned about 2 weeks ago that she was informed by the incoming
president of the American Bar Association that she will be the chair for the
upcoming ABA year of the commission on disability rights. Steve stated that
we had $180 in the collection and received funds for 12 White Sox tickets
and George and Linda Villa renewed their dues, so $478 is going into the
Chicago Chapter treasury. Steve wanted to thank everybody for thoughts and
prayers. He has finished 5 weeks of radiation therapy. Mostly the side
effects are minimal except that it wears you down. Steve states he will go
to Los Vegas.

The meeting adjourned at 3:15 PM.

Respectfully submitted:  Eileen Truschke, NFBI Chicago Chapter Secretary.

David Meyer, NFB of Illinois

Coordinator and Channel Administrator, NFB-NewsLine

Chicago Chapter President