[IL-Talk] chicago minutes august 2019

[David Meyer]

If you have any additions or corrections, please send them to me at
datemeyer at sbcglobal.net. The minutes will be below my signature.

 

David Meyer, NFB of Illinois

Coordinator and Channel Administrator, NFB-NewsLine

Chicago Chapter President

 

 

The meeting started at 1:02 PM

 

WHAT'S HAPPENING:

 

We welcomed Todd Lively from downstate Secretary Eileen Truschke wished
happy birthday to NFBI. Ken Shad's nephew, Doug Simmering, died a couple of
weeks ago A longtime member, who has not been at a meeting for a while,
Nicole Gleason, was present. President David Meyer reports that Debbie
stein's husband, Dick, suffered a fall Thursday night. He is going to have
surgery for that. Ken Staley is presently in Warren Bard Nursing Home. He
had suffered a fall at home and was hospitalized a couple of days. He seems
to be improving a little bit, but things are not quite as stable as they
should be, particularly with his glucose readings which are up and down. He
also has some dizziness when he stands and attempts to walk. If you wish to
contact him, his number is 773-435-5683. This is a time when we talk about
health concerns or good things that are happening within the last month or
so. There were 29 people present at the meeting.

 

PROGRAM:

 

The program was a presentation at the 2013 NFB national convention. The
individual that is speaking had been a part of the NBC program called NBC
Rocks and it talks about the experience of working for a subminimum wage. A
lot of this is still happening today. So here is Sheila Leagland. 

 

Sheila is honored to be a part of this panel and to speak on behalf of
people with disabilities. As a young blind child, she was taught by her
parents that she could achieve any dream she chose to achieve. It was not
until she grew up that she found out that people believed that that was
inaccurate. She grew up believing that she could be whatever she wanted ad
she found out there were people who believed that she had to be at home in a
rocking chair, not married, not raising a family, not having the right to
have a child, not having the right to work and that is dead-wrong and that
is immoral and that is unconscionable. 

 

One day while sitting in her living room, Sheila received a phone call from
the national office of the federation from Dr. Maurer and he wanted to
introduce her to some people, namely Anil Lewis (who she knew), Chris
Danielson and others. Within an hour, Sheila received a call from NBC and
was offered the opportunity to participate in a video. She said she would be
honored to do so. 

 

Sheila had worked for Goodwill for over 4 years. The starting wage is $2.75
an hour if you are in a training mode. You stay there for 30 days and then
they do what is called a "timing". If you do well in that timing you may go
up. If you do not do well in that timing you sort of stay there. She has had
several jobs there. The highest she made there was $7.21 an hour, but then
they removed that part of that job because it went to the warehouse. She had
a job "doing clothes" which you take clothes off of hangers and you put them
in a van and they go overseas or wherever. As she wound up "doing clothes",
she went down to $3.50 to $3.95 an hour and that is pretty much where she
stayed.

 

Sheila had knee surgery and she was not able to do back to work for a while,
so they were going to put her back at starting pay at $2.75 an hour, which
she thought was stupid. It's not like they were going to be retraining her.
She went to her doctor because she had to get a work release. Her doctor
said that she could not stand on her feet for 4 hours straight and she
needed to stay off her knees because it would just aggravate them.  When
they were told that, they said the only job we have for you is to stock
hangers, which she has done before, but it is dirty. It is dusty. It is
dusty like the stuff that turns your hands black. You can't touch your face,
hair or clothes because they will turn black. It was so dirty that it made
her hands hurt. It irritated them. Eventually, it got to the point where she
developed carpal tunnel and she could no longer read Braille. She thought
she was not going to do this anymore. She did not feel like not being able
to read Braille. She is not going to be illiterate for $4.00 or less an
hour.

 

Sheila went to Goodwill and she said that she could answer phones. There is
a lot she can do in this organization. They basically said the only job she
could get was to stock hangers. The idea of going back and stocking hangers
made her physically sick. It was so depressing it made her want to cry. She
knew that it was wrong and she knew that it was time for her to get out, so
that is precisely what she chose to do. She got a phone call and saying we
don't want you to be where you don't want to be, so come in for a meeting
and we will have a chat. Then she had a meeting with Goodwill and the people
there. Their options were they can find her a place in the community where
she can work or you can choose to quit. She said OK. So they said that they
have something set up in the plant so that maybe you can go back. Their idea
was to have her sit in a chair and reach up to the racks and try to hang the
clothes. The trouble is she is short (5 feet 3 1/2 inches). She could not
reach the racks. She could not reach the hangers. 

 

On the following Monday, Sheila called and said politely that she was not
going to be back. They said that they needed to do paperwork which is called
"exit papers". To this day they have not been done yet., not because she has
not done them, because they supposedly had not earned to do that. Sheila's
question is are they still getting state and federal funds because
technically she is not working there. Because if they are, they are out of
line and that needs to stop. 

 

Working at $2.75 or anything below the minimum wage which is required for
everyone but for disabled people, to Sheila's knowledge, is unconscionable.
It is immoral. It is wrong. It needs to stop and it needs to stop now. She
dreams that one of these days when we have children of our own and we have
little ones that we are raising as other disabled children that we will have
children who are not placed in sheltered shops because (vocational
rehabilitation) does not know what to do with us. She hopes and prays there
will come a time that it will automatically be assumed that we should have
meaningful work, not work that is based on pity, not work that is based on
ignorance, not work that is based on intellectual inferiority, but work that
is based on whether we can actually compete on an equal level with people
who happen to be able-bodied. It is wrong that we do not have the same
rights as able-bodied people in our own country. It is unjust. It is unfair.
It is no better than racism was and they used the same excuse that they used
during the Civil Rights Movement. Sheila knows that this is wrong. She knows
that our cause is just. She knows that our cause is right. 

 

Dave called on our legislative queen, Marilyn Green, to talk about the
importance of passing legislation and what we can do about it. Per Marilyn
Green: Everyone heard the presentation about what it means to work at a
sheltered workshop and it is quite enough to know someone or to hear stories
about this and, hopefully, we ourselves never have to work in those
circumstances, and the reason that, hopefully, we and our brothers and
sisters and other states and our future generations of blind and disabled
workers will never have to work in those  circumstances is because we plan
on passing a bill called the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act,
also known as S260 and also known as HR 873. Those of you who have been
members for a number of years know that we have been working on getting rid
of Section 14C for about a decade. Section 14C allows for not-for-profit who
have a special wage certificate to obtain subminimum wages. $3.50 an hour to
do dirty, gritty, grimy work that no one wants to do especially for less
than minimum wage. Maybe we would do it for a minimum wage, but to do it
less is inhumane and wrong and especially to subject someone to that type of
work because of disability is totally ignorant. That is why we have the
Transformation to Competitive Employment Act because we want to take out
Section 14C that allows for this inhumane treatment of our brothers and
sisters across the country. This is not only for blind workers. This is for
people with severe disabilities. A lot of times we go to congressional
meetings and are talking about this. We have to remember that we are not the
only victims of 14C. There are millions of us throughout this country who
can be victims. We need to raise expectations for all people with
disabilities, blind, cognitive disabilities, wheelchair users, whoever and
wherever we are. We have the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act
and we are working very hard to get this legislation passed. We have Senator
Tammy Duckworth, who has been a great friend of the NFB of Illinois.  She
was our first cosponsor in the state of Illinois. Most recently we have 2
new cosponsors. We have Jesus "Chewy" Garcia and we have Congresswoman Jan
Schakowsky and she is also a great friend of NFB of Illinois. Last year at
the state convention, we gave her an award for federal legislation.  

 

So what we want you to do nationally and on a state level is to contact
Senator Dick Durbin ad well as your congressional members. We need to make
those phone calls and to send emails and to let them know that we raise
expectations (we do not lower them) and continue to eliminate 14C.  Marilyn
gets a lot of calls and gets a lot of emails. When she sends messages saying
she wants the position of this member of congress on where they stand, a lot
of the feedback is the organizations have said that that might hurt the
disabled community. They will not have a place to work anymore. But, at the
same time, if you ask these people who are making hundreds of thousands of
dollar, these people who they claim will not have a job anymore, are these
people currently able to feed their families on $2.75 an hour? We have NFB
members throughout the country who work at sheltered workshops who have to
go to food pantries to feed their families. That is not a way to live. That
is not a way to raise expectations. So when Marilyn hears that, she always
tells the story of our members who are not able to feed their families on
subminimum wages.  We have to tell our story. We have to make them
compelling enough that these members of congress take a second look to begin
to understand and also to let them understand that a lot of the
organizations who have had or have 14C certificates are turning them in and
that they now realize that this is not a way to sustain a business. To treat
people this way is not a way for us to sustain ourselves. The Chicago
Lighthouse has a 14C certificate. They no longer use it. They pay at least
minimum wage. That is what we want everyone to do. 

 

 Bill Reif wanted to make a brief remark about Goodwill. In Springfield,
There was a recent story of Goodwill in Springfield. He had the pleasure a
few years ago of protesting Goodwill's actin of paying a subminimum wage.
Goodwill in Springfield, like many Goodwill's, decided that they could not
afford to pay the minimum wage. The CEO of Goodwill a few months ago who was
making close to $300,000 decided that in light of the states increase of its
minimum wage that they would phase out all programs to train and hire the
disabled. They would have like babysitting of some kind with no real job
training. This encapsulates the objection that we have to subminimum wage
because Goodwill, even those entities who have renounced 14C and subminimum
wages, still have pathetically low expectations of disabled people. We want
this legislation passed not just because the money.  So jobs that disabled
people are given to do are generally not jobs that any sighted or
nondisabled people would be asked to do. Jobs for those people would have
been automated. The fallout from this CEO's decision was immediate. It was
severe. It was unequivocal. State Senator Menard wants to investigate all
state contracts with Goodwill. The fact that a nonprofit would renounce its
core mission, The training and assistance of disabled people is something
that they got state and federal funds to do, that they would renounce that
rather than lifting their expectations for disabled people spoke volumes
about where this CEO was coming from. She had been there for about 12 years.
She was shown the door very unequivocally. So this is what it's about. The
objection is not totally about the money although that is a big part of it
(money is a big reason why we do the work we do), so is self-respect.  As
long as we don't get the self-respect we deserve, as long as treating people
with disabilities as second-class citizens are OK or excused, that kind of
pathetic thinking will continue. So all of that has to stop. It was
delightful to see this play out in Springfield as it is played out. Will
Goodwill be able to pay $15 an hour? Eventually, we will see. Every small
business throughout the state is going to be asking themselves the same
question. So why should it be any different with us?

 

Per Dave: We all need to know that we need to do. He asked how many people
are going to contact their congressional representatives before the next
meeting. Marilyn, Dave, and Bill can figure it out. If you have any
problems, call or email any of the 3 of them. Marilyn's email address is
marilynvgreen at gmail.com.Her phone number is 312-343-8396. Dave's telephone
number is 708-606-7091. His email address is datemeyer at sbcglobal.net. Bill's
telephone number is 217-801-2996. It is definitely the easiest way to reach
him. His email is billreif at ameritech.net. Several people committed to call
or email their congressional representatives. For those who don't have
email, we can also look up the number for your congressperson. Please call
us and we will be happy to do that. Dave is very available. Marilyn is
available during evening hours most of the time. You can call her or text
her. If she does not answer, leave a message/ If her mailbox is full and if
you have the capabilities to text her, send a text. She will respond.
Sometimes she cannot respond immediately, but she will respond. Steve says
that you can also call the switchboard in Washington DC and ask for your
member of Congress the number is 202-205-3121. Dave says that he can tell
you from experience, if we contact ourcongressional representatives, they
will generally listen and they will generally do what we would like for them
to do. It does not necessarily mean one or two contacts, however. It takes
work from all of us to get it done. Eileen asked if we call the local number
or do we call the national number. Marilyn stated that usually, it is better
if you call the national office number. A lot of offices are saying that
they are doing their federal legislation through the DC office. So you might
want to start with the DC Office because she has had that for a few offices
in Illinois and they are referring people to the DC Office. 

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

 

The minutes for June 8, 2019 meeting were approved.

 

PRESIDENTIAL RELEASE AUGUST 1, 2019 NUMBER #485

 

President Riccobono thanked Nevada and Idaho for their hospitality. This was
the second-largest convention ever in attendance.

 

Top 10 convention attendances of all time:

 

10. 1996 Anaheim, California attendance 2,708

 9. 1991 New Orleans   attendance 2,756

 8.  2009 Detroit      attendance 2.800

 7.  2015 Orlando, Florida 75th anniversary attendance 2,813

 6.  2006 Dallas attendance 2,880

 5.  2011 first convention in Orlando attendance 2,970

 4.  1999   Atlanta, Georgia attendance 3,008

 3.   2001 Philadelphia   attendance 3,109

 2.   2019 Los Vegas attendance 3,284

 1.   1997 New Orleans attendance 3,347

 

The 2020 convention will be in Houston, Texas from Tuesday, June 30 to
Sunday, July 5. 2020, at the Hilton Americas. Rates will be $105 across the
board. President Riccobono added that a number of presentations will be
posted in the Braille Monitor. And audio versions will be available on h4
NFB website and YouTube channel. He encouraged feedback about the convention
and ideas on improving future conventions.

 

Some of the presentations included how to build membership in the
federation. As well as discussions on improving our diversity within the
movement and the day-to-day involvement in the federation. President
Riccobono reiterated that our philosophy is what makes us unique.

 

Resolutions: President Riccobono reported that this year 21 resolutions were
passed and they can be found on the NFB website at nfb.org under conventions
and they should be discussed at our chapter meetings so members can get an
understanding of their importance. They are considered NFB policy.

 

Fall Conventions: President Riccobono reported that South Carolina will be
celebrating its 75th convention.

 

Federation Open House Calls: Calls set up for the purpose of getting the
public (potential member) to know the NFB better. The first call will be
Sunday, August 18th,2019 at 4:00 pm eastern time, and the second call will
be Wednesday, September 18th, at 8:00 pm eastern time. In an even month, the
call will occur on the third Sunday of the month. In an odd month, the call
will occur on the third Wednesday of the month. There will be information
sent out about the calls. Those wishing to participate in the call must RSVP
by sending an email to membership at nfb.org or calling the main number
410-659-9314 and calling extension 2509 so that the number of participants
can be monitored. We are encouraged by President Riccobono to pass the word
about the calls. They will occur through the end of the year. 

 

Legislative Update: On Wednesday, July 31, 2019, Representative Jan
Schakowsky of Illinois with Representative Mark Desaulnier or California and
Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, introduced the Greater Access and
Independence through Nonvisual Access Technology Bill (the GAIN Act), HR
3929, The GAIN Act was introduced in the House of Representatives. This
legislation authorizes the United States Access Board to develop a minimum
nonvisual access standard for home use, medical devices, exercise equipment,
and appliances. We need congress to move that bill forward. 

 

Meet the Blind Month: October is Meet the Blind Month and chapters should be
coming up with activities. Affiliates are to send emails to web at nfb.org. to
tell their activity to national. National needs to know what, when and where
and they will add to the "Meet the Blind Month: page.  Meet the Blind Month
is one of the strongest coordinated efforts informing the public about the
NFB. President Riccobono also reported that in October, there will be an
announcement that will put the National Federation of the Blind in stores
all around the world. It is important that we coordinate our work across the
nation.

 

Legal case Coordination: "Click-by" lawyers are participating and
coordinating lawsuits around accessibility and claiming to be working with
NFB, when, in fact, they are not. If anyone is approached by a law firm,
they are to contact the NFB, so they can make sure that it really is
something the NFB is really a part of. President Riccobono specified that
the NFB does not sign confidential agreements, because we want the public to
know what the standard is. This also applies to research. The NFB has a
research advisory council which establishes research that the NFB engages
in. If researchers approach our affiliate, we are able to refer them to the
NFB headquarters. Legal cases should contact Valerie Yingling. On the
research side, people are to contact Lou Ann Blake. We are to work through
our affiliate president. 

 

Message From President Riccobono: Coordinate the work across the federation
throughout the affiliate and up to the national office, so we don't step on
each other, so we can effectively move our national movement forward. 

 

Celebration of 100th anniversary of the American Action Fund: The American
Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults will be 100 years old this year.
The American Action Fund distributes 2020 calendars. A free Braille calendar
is available. Call 410-659-9315 or email calendars at actionfund.org.The
maximum number of Braille calendars per person is 3. At the convention, the
action fund used our convention as an opportunity to release a tactile twin
vision one-of-a-kind book called "Pedro and the Octopus". This is an
innovative tactile picture book that has both print and Braille and they
have interesting tactile pictures that are also visually appealing. This
book details an adventure that two young kids have at the beach and it
allows blind and sighted children to explore some tactile features. There is
also a teaching guide at the Action Fund website that goes with this twin
vision book. The book was given away free to families at the convention who
came to the Braille carnival.  You can now buy the book at the Independence
Market. Pedro and the Octopus books are available for $35. When you buy it
at the Independence Market, every book that is sold for #35 will also
trigger the Action fund giving a free copy away to a blind child in the
United States, so you are actually getting 2 for 1. You can read about in
the "Future Reflections" magazine and find more information about the book
at actionfund.org. 

 

Dream Maker's Circle: The Dream Maker's Circle is a group of individuals who
have committed to an end-of-life gift to the NFB. This could be in the form
of writing the federation to your will or any number of other gifts and
methods of giving a gift upon your death. It's a great way to leave a legacy
and help fill the NFB We want to welcome Harry and Janet Gaywith who joined
the Dream Maker's Circle most recently. They are from Boise, Idaho. We
welcome them as the newest members of our Dream Maker's Circle 

 

Federation Family Deaths: Sheena Strubel died on June 19. The San Joaquin
County Chapter of the NFB of California lost founding member and former
chapter president Ken Volante, who first joined the federation in 1969.
Duane Iverson died of a heart attack on Wednesday, July 17. Duane was a
former president of our North Dakota affiliate. From Illinois, we received
the sad news of the death of Joe Monti, who was a member and a leader in our
Chicago chapter. On July 20, Elvita Palmer died after a long battle with
cancer. Elvita was a member of our National Harbor Chapter. Ron Brown of
Indiana reported the death of Tammi Jones of Indiana. She was a longtime
treasurer of our Indiana affiliate. She was also a board member of our
Jacobus tenBroek Memorial Fund for many years. 

 

Dave mentioned that also for those who do not know and will probably be
announced in next month's Presidential Release, 8 days following Joe Monti's
death, Mary Monti also died. Mary was Joe's wife and had a very significant
role in putting together what was called a "significant others" breakfast
that was done for a number of years. It featured sighted spouses of blind
members. 

 

TREASURER'S REPORT SECOND QUARTER 2019, APRIL, MAY, JUNE: 

 

Beginning balance April 1, 2019, $4.536.18. Income: Dues 3 renewing and 4
new members at $5.00 apiece, subtotal $35. Beggars Pizza fundraiser to
National federation of the Blind of Illinois Chicago Chapter Gorello's LLC,
Eat and Earned, $163.18.  Monthly collection: April $46.82, May $56.00, June
$108.00. Subtotal: $210.82. Miscellaneous contributions: $50.00, $50.00,
$200.00, subtotal $300.00. White Sox 14 tickets: $30.00 each checks and
cash. subtotal $420.00. Bowling fundraiser Saturday, June 29, 2019, $630.00.
Total: $1,758.95. Expenses: Electronic withdrawal transactions,
preauthorized contributions national office, National Federation of the
Blind, $50.00 monthly, April, May, June, subtotal, 150.00  Exchequer
Restaurant  and Pub room rent $75.00 for the rest of 2019 as follows: May
11, June 8, August 10, September 14, October 12, November 9, December 14.
Subtotal: $525.00. National convention contributions: $150.00  apiece, JTB
(Jacobus tenBroek) Fund,  NFB White Cane Fund, Sun fund, NFB Jernigan Fund,
subtotal $600.00. White Sox tickets reimbursed David Meyer, $1,182.72.Total:
$2,457.72. Ending balance June 30, 2019, $3,837.41. 

 

Dave asked insofar as the national convention funds were concerned, would
they count during the second quarter or would they count after June 30?
Steve allocated it to the second quarter because we wrote the check during
the second quarter. The chapter ratified the board's recommendation on June
8. and then he wrote the checks shortly thereafter to bring it to the
national convention.  Marylou Grunwald asked if we were expecting any
additional money from the White sox fundraiser and Steve answered probably,
but we don't have exact figures at this point. 

 

The treasure's report was approved unanimously. 

 

Steve would like to give some interim figures that will bring us to the
ending balance of the treasurer's report to the current balance.  So we had
in July $480.00. That means 16 more White Sox tickets. We deposited funds
for 16 more White Sox tickets. We also had another general contribution and
another pre-authorized contribution, so those 2 transactions canceled
themselves out +$50.00/- $50.00. Then we had 3 dues payments. So, we have
$495.00 into the treasury and so $3,837.41 + $495.00 = $4.332.41, which is
exactly our balance. So this brings us exactly u0-to-date as of 8/10/19. 

 

STATE REPORT:

 

Marilyn Green gave the state report because our state president, Denise
Avant, was not available to be at the meeting due to another commitment.
Thank you to everybody who was able to come to the national convention in
Los Vegas. Our state convention is Friday, October 18 at 2:00 PM, 2019,
Saturday, October 18, and Sunday, October 20, 2019, at noon. We will be in
Springfield, Illinois at the Wyndham Springfield City Centre at 700 East
Adams. The room rates are $99 per night. You can call to the hotel directly.
Their number is 217-789-1530, extension 411 (that's for Shayna). If she is
not there, please leave a message and she will call you back and take your
reservation. Room reservations should be made by September 27th.
Preregistration is now available on our website at
http://www.nfbofillinois.org. You can preregister. Please pay attention:
This year our preregistration is a little different than in previous years.
If you preregister for the convention and for your meals, you will save
money.  Some people like to come to the convention and then make their meal
plans at that time. You are welcome to do that, as long as you know that you
are going to pay some extra money if you pay at the door when you register
for the convention. All of that is outlined on the website. If you
preregister for the state convention, it is $5.00. If you register at the
door, it will be $10.00. Our lunch is $15.00. So if you come and decide you
want lunch, it will be $20.00. The banquet is $30.00. If you decide when you
get there, it will be $35.00. Both breakfasts will be $10.00.

Once you get there if you decide you want breakfast, it will be another
$5.00 per breakfast. So please think about that as you are getting ready to
plan for coming to our state convention in Springfield, Illinois. Also, if
you are at an at-large member or in IABS (Illinois Association of Blind
Students), you can pay your membership dues when you preregister for the
convention. If you have any problems with the website or want to fill out a
paper form (we definitely prefer you to do it electronically), Dave Meyer
and Patti Chang can assist you with that. Dave's phone number is
708-606-7091. Patti's phone number is 773-307-6440. 

 

Resolutions: Resolutions are important to the business of the federation.
Patti Chang will be our resolutions chair at the state convention this year.
If there are any resolutions to be submitted, please pass them onto Patti at
her email address, which is

pattischang at gmail.com. 

Financial Assistance:  If you need financial assistance to the state
convention, there are Chappel-Dennis funds available. If you are interested,
you can go onto the NFB of Illinois website and fill out your form. Please
do not change the format of the form. It needs to be accessible for the
Chappel-Dennis committee. If you have problems or if you need assistance
with filling out that form and leaving it an accessible format, please
contact Dave Meyer at 708-606-7091 or Denise Avant at 773-991-8050. Those
applications need to be submitted to our state president, Denise Avant, by
September 1, if you would like financial assistance to go to our state
convention. 

 

Washington Seminar: If you would like to attend the Washington Seminar,
applications need to be to Denise by December 1. Denise's email address is
davant1958 at gmail.comThe "Great Gathering In" is on February 10, 2020.

 

Braille is Beautiful:  If anyone is interested in reading for "Braille is
Beautiful", they can reach out to Debbie Stein Her phone number is
773-203-1394 and her email is dkent5817 at att.net. 

 

National Representative at the Convention: Our national rep Dan S. Wenzel.
He was the former executive director for Blind Inc. Now he is with the
Wisconsin Center for the Visually Impaired. The student national rep will be
Elizabeth Rouse.

 

Dave would like to thank everybody for their generosity today. with the
collection. The collection today was $ 79.00. Other than June when we make
special collections for NFB funds and one other time when we decided to
devote the collection to a family who had been deceased,  this might be the
largest convention that Dave can remember at a regular rank-and-file
meeting. We need to continue to do that.

 

Fundraising Committee: Nicholas Robertson is our new fundraising committee
chairperson. Nick appreciates the opportunity. He would like to thank the
NFB of Illinois Chicago Chapter in believing in him in giving him an
opportunity to do something that he is good at. He needs all of our help.
Please come to him with ideas. Please come to him with interests. If the
fundraising committee is something you would like to be a part of, please
give Nick an email at nicholas.s.robertson at outlook.com or call at
641-660-2475. Nick would like to incorporate some face-to-face meetings in
this year's fundraising committee instead of just doing everything by
conference call. It will get us out-and-about and around the city and
various suburbs.  

 

Local Legislation: Kira O'Bradovich has agreed to chair a committee on local
legislation, to keep track of things that are going on in City Hall, to keep
track of goings-on with the Mayor's Office of People with Disabilities, to
possibly keep track of other things as well when they affect us. Kira says
that she is honored to be asked to do this. She will definitely value ideas
regarding local legislation. She is excited to get started and she is
excited to work with the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities. They
have a lot of great people over there. If anyone is interested in giving us
any ideas or any feedback, we would appreciate it. We are also going to have
a meeting following the regular meeting just to talk about where and how to
have future meetings.

 

Steve, Dave, and Kira had a meeting a few days ago with Karen Tamley,
Commissioner of the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities. And other
city officials with the Department of Transportation (commonly called CDOT,
Chicago Department of Transportation) and business affairs and consumer
protection (commonly called BACP) these new, what they call
":micro-mobility" devices, called "dockless" scooters. They call
them"dockless" because you don't put them in a dock. You just get off the
thing when you're done with it and you leave it someplace.  We hope you
don't leave it in the middle of the sidewalk, we hope you don't leave it in
a bus shelter, etc. so we expressed our concerns with city officials. This
was the first time Steve knows of when city officials met exclusively with
leaders of the NFB, that is Debbie Stein, Denise Avant, Dave Meyer, and
Steve. 

 

Per Dave: One thing that definitely will happen (this was actually on
Commissioner Tamley's insistence) that contact information will be placed in
Braille and large print on all of the scooters that will be traversing the
Chicago area. The reason for the contact information is the same reason that
you would have contact information in cabs. If you have a complaint about
the scooter being misplaced, if you have a complaint about possibly being
hit by a scooter, there will be contact information both to the city and the
individual company. 

 

Per Steve: There are 10 involving this pilot project. The city has given the
scooter companies enforcement responsibility, so that's why communication is
very significant. If we have to go through the normal 311, which is
non-emergency or through the Mayor's for People With Disabilities and that
is a complaint process separate and apart from the process that the city has
established. The other issue with the scooters that we are concerned about
is that they make no audible sound. They can travel upto 15 miles an hour.
You would not want to have a collision with one of those things even though
they are small. 

 

Per Dave: Steve had a brilliant idea for audible sounds and that would be
for them to beep very similar to the carts that you used to hear at airports
and that you still hear around Union Station. Whether they would implement
that, we are not really sure at this point. We may have to try to get a
national standard for scooters. This is a pilot project which means that it
is not etched in stone that Chicago will actually have the scooters They
will be here and that they will be part of our environment. We will have to
keep tabs with how we deal with them. Almost anything can happen at least at
this point, It is going to be groundbreaking. If you have any problems with
scooters being scattered around or scooters coming in contact with you or
pretty much anything else. Scooters constantly on the sidewalk and you are
aware of it, voice your complaints. But if you can't really identify the
scooter, you might just go ahead and voice it to 311. The scooter companies
are required to have GPS technology on these scooters, and if any of these
scooters go outside of the pilot area, they will slow down a couple of times
and then eventually end up disabled completely. 

 

Per Steve: We had a conference call with 2 gentlemen with one of the
companies called Lime, which has a scooter project going on in Baltimore and
that's how we found out about this particular company They said that for the
duration of the pilot project, the scooter would slow down and stop when it
reaches the outer branch of the zone that the city has designated for these
things. The city wanted to devise a pilot area, not in the midst of downtown
Chicago because of congestion. Chicago is a big city. Historically, it has
played a major role in all kinds of transportation modes in this country.
What happens in Chicago is likely to have a significant effect on what may
happen in other cities. We will see what happens and let's communicate with
other something of significance, either very good or very bad happens to any
of us  

 

Read-a-thon: We are having a read-a-thon. The question has come up at
previous meetings when is the Read-a-thon? It's where you can either come
down here and read a book and they can be read in Braille, print or it could
be an audio reading. If you are unable to read Braille or print, you are
still able to participate as a reader. You can either pay to be part of the
read-a-thon (the admission fee is $10) or, if you secure $10 from a source
other than yourself, your admission fee is waived, so, hopefully, that
provides some incentive to ask some people from outside of the organization.
It's really not that hard to do once you do it once or twice. If you don't
feel like you're wanting or able to participate as a reader, you can sponsor
somebody who is going to participate as a reader. Hopefully, there will be
some folks that will read and, if you do read, don't be shy about contacting
others for sponsorship. This has been a good fundraiser for us. We've taken
in anywhere from $670.00 to almost $3,000.00 in given years. The fundraiser
itself will occur on the day of what would be the October meeting which
would be  10/12. It will be in this room from 1)00 until 4:00 pm. Anybody
wishing to read, please begin lining up sponsors in and out of the
organization. Bill stated that Meet the Blind Month coming up and our strong
conviction in the fact that we can demonstrate that Braile is a good way of
reading, that people who can read Braille fluently can outdo people using
inadequate vision to read print poorly Dave asked Bob Hansen if he can snap
a picture of somebody actually reading Braille just prior to the meeting and
post it on our facebook page in September. Bob said that he would. Eileen
asked if anybody would be able to participate from home. Dave said that we
have actually done that in the past 

 

OLD BUSINESS:  

 

There was no old business.

 

NEW BUSINESS:

 

There was no new business.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 3:02  pm.