[il-talk] chicago minutes february 2019

[David Meyer]

NFBI CHICAGO CHAPTER

MEETING OF FEBRUARY 9, 2019

President Steve Hastalis called the meeting to order at 1:01 P.M.

The meeting began with President Hastalis leading us in the NFB pledge 
and the one minute message.

Introductions: David Meyer mentioned that Pam Gillmore is continuing to 
recuperate from her illness. Patti Chang thanked everyone for their 
condolences on the loss of her father. Ken Borst will be interviewing 
Marilyn Green on February 26 for the Adaptive Chicago production, 
Voices of the Disabled. There were 20 members present.

Program: Jemal Powell introduced Marilyn Green, Federal Legislation 
coordinator who gave a program on the recently completed Washington 
Seminar. Marilyn said that we were able to meet with all 18 
representatives and 2 senators over a two day period. Our issues were 
received well by the Illinois congressional delegation. Our three 
issues were the Access Technology Act, the Greater Access to 
Independence through Nonvisual Access Technology (Gain act) and the 
Disability Employment Act. The Illinois delegation expressed strong 
interest in the Access Technology Affordability Act, as many of them 
had cosponsored this legislation in the previous congressional session. 
The Access Technology Affordability Act will permit anyone seeking to 
buy an item of technology a $2,000 refundable tax credit over three 
years. This would permit blind people to buy the items of technology 
they want, when they want them. The “Gain” act will set minimum 
accessibility standards for home appliances, medical devices and 
exercise equipment. Standards for appliances and exercise equipment 
will be developed by the Access board and standards for medical 
equipment will be developed by the Food and Drug Administration. The 
bill would call for standards to be established over a three-year 
period and implemented over an additional three years. The Disability 
Employment act will bring employment opportunities into the 21st 
century. Among other things, it will expand employment opportunities in 
the Randolph Shepherd Program, eliminate Section 14C of the Fair Labor 
Standards Act and increase meaningful employment opportunities for 
blind people. The Transformation to Competitive Employment Act (HR873) 
has been introduced in the House. It has also been introduced in the 
senate. This bill would eliminate section 14C of the Fair Labor 
Standards Act. It is very similar in scope to the “Time” act that was 
introduced in the previous congressional session. Please call or e-mail 
your senators and representatives and ask that they cosponsor this 
legislation. The Senate version of this bill is S260. Denise urged that 
it is important that ¬all of us e-mail or call our officials about this 
legislation. Marilyn stressed that both Congressman Quigley and Danny 
Davis have a lot of constituents in our chapter. Your action or lack of 
it could make the difference. Dave gave the capital switchboard number. 
It is 202-225-3121.

Presidential Reports

National Presidential Release: NFB President Mark Riccobono reported on 
the following items. The Washington Seminar was filled with exciting 
events, including the Great Gathering In, training on our issues, 
appointments on the hill and the Congressional Reception. During the 
great Gathering In meeting, Scott LaBarre called to let us know that 
earlier in the day, President Trump signed the instrument of 
ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty. The Congressional Reception 
featured several congressmen and staffers. It was announced that the 
Transformation to Competitive Employment Act will be introduced into 
Congress on the following day. This bill was introduced as S260 in the 
senate on January 29 and in the House as HR836 on January 30. We now 
have a new website. We are all encouraged to take a look at it and 
familiarize ourselves with it. We now have a new flyer which features 
all of the summer programs sponsored by the National Federation of the 
Blind. These include programs at the main headquarters, our training 
centers in Louisiana, Colorado and Minnesota, and other training 
programs of the Federation held throughout the country. We are invited 
to distribute this flyer far and wide. The flyer can be found at 
www.nfb.org/summer. We are looking for a limited number of folks to 
test our Hoppy Trust portal. The Hoppy Trust offers more than 13 
million books from various libraries throughout the world. These books 
are mostly found in University libraries. Testing of this portal will 
begin sometime in February. Those interested in testing should send an 
email to jerniganinstitute at nfb.org. President Riccobono announced new 
members of the Dream Makers Circle as well as local chapters who 
support the Federation through the Preauthorized Contribution Plan. 
Bryce Samuelson of Minnesota and Brad Hodges of West Virginia recently 
passed away. Please keep Bryce and Brad in your thoughts and prayers. 
Gabriel Silva Olivera was born on January 30. Cashia Nicole Sheehan was 
born on January 29. President Hastalis also announced that Roberta 
Glickman’s brother Arnold recently passed away. Patti announced the 
passing of Rachel Olivero. This was a very sudden passing which nobody 
expected to happen. She had checked herself into the hospital over a 
persisting cough. Patti mentioned that Rachel’s passing is a tremendous 
loss within our organization. She also asked that we keep Rachel’s 
partner, Karen Anderson, President Riccobono and the rest of her family 
in our prayers. You can make a donation in memory of Rachel. Please 
send to Outreach, National Federation of the Blind, 200 East Wells, and 
Baltimore, MD 21230. One may also donate online at nfb.org/donate.

State Presidential Report: Denise Avant, state President reported on 
the following items. The National convention will take place July 7-12 
at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Los Vegas. You may reserve a room by 
calling 877-632-9001. Room rates for the convention are $99 regardless 
of the number of people in the room. One may preregister for the 
convention beginning March 1. Preregistration extends through May 31. 
Go to www.nfb.org/convention to preregister. If you need financial 
assistance, there are two ways to get it. The first is through the 
Chappel Dennis fund. The application may be downloaded from the NFB of 
Illinois website. Denise must receive your application by May 1. Please 
send your completed application to davant1958 at gmail.com. You may also 
apply for a Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship. You will need to write a 
letter stating the NFB chapter you are in as well as contributions you 
have made to the Federation. Additionally, you should state what you 
wish to gain by attending the convention. Please send this letter to 
Denise by March 31 at the address mentioned above. Applications are now 
being taken for both state and national scholarships. The deadline for 
both programs is March 31. Please find the National application at 
www.nfb.org/scholarships. State scholarship applications can be found 
at www.nfbofillinois.org. Our Midwest student seminar will occur at the 
Holiday Inn O’Hare, March 15-17. This seminar is open to students 14 
years of age and up. Please let any student you know about this 
opportunity. The keynote speaker will be Maurice Paret. Room rates are 
$109 per night. Please register by February 15. Registration is $70 per 
person. This fee will include all meals on Saturday and Sunday 
breakfast. Our next state board meeting will occur at 7:00 P.M. on 
February 24. Please call 641-715-3273 and use the access code 6324. We 
have hired a part-time administrative assistant. Her name is Amber McKey.

Chapter Presidential Report: President Hastalis mentioned a number of 
successful activities undertaken by the Chicago Chapter during the 
previous year. We continued to have successful fundraisers including 
our Beggars Pizza event, Sox fundraiser, read-a-thon and Christmas 
auction. These fundraisers have provided money to assist chapter 
members going to Washington Seminar. Additionally, we were able to give 
$1,000 to the state as our contribution for 15 for funds. Our summer 
picnic was more successful than any we have had. We had 36 people 
attend including several from the Illinois Council of the Blind. We 
have had programs conducted by members of our chapter as well as 
members from the community at large. Such topics as how to travel 
effectively in airports, health insurance, getting around the city and 
the roll of the Mayor’s Office for people with Disabilities works with 
and for us were covered. President Hastalis went on to say that he 
would not stand for reelection in April. He will continue to stay 
involved in an administrative capacity in the chapter. Patti thanked 
President Hastalis for his years of service as Chicago Chapter President.

President Hastalis was diagnosed with a couple of hernias. He is 
scheduled for surgery on March 11. He asked for our prayers during this time.

Committee Reports: We had a fundraising committee meeting on February 
7. It will continue following the chapter meeting. Dave reported that 
we are looking into doing a possible fundraiser at a place called the 
Paniq room. Before we do it however, several of us will plan to go 
through the activity ourselves to see how accessible it is for us. The 
Paniq room is a place where a group goes into a room and clews are 
presented in order to help participants get out. We are considering a 
bowling fundraiser and we will be discussing whether or not to keep our 
existing fundraising activities. In membership matters, Robert Hansen 
stated that we were all encouraged to continue to spread the word about 
the Federation wherever we go. Those who are calling should make their 
calls about a week ahead of time. Patti asked that we get contact 
information for the three new people we have at this meeting. Denise 
mentioned that some people have not been receiving fan-out calls.

Old-new Business: The CTA ADA Advisory Committee will meet on April 8. 
Steve and Jemal attended the Metra ADA Advisory Committee meeting on 
February 5. Talk centered on renovation of Metra stations and the 
purchase of new cars for Metra trains.

Secretary’s Report: It was moved and seconded to approve minutes for 
the January meeting. The motion carried. Though there was not a formal 
treasurer’s report this month, Marco did report a balance of $4,477.

The meeting adjourned at 2:34 P.M.

Respectfully Submitted,

David Meyer, Secretary