[IL-Talk] chicago minutes january 2020

[David Meyer]

NFBI CHICAGO CHAPTER MEETING

 

JANUARY 11, 2020

 

President David Meyer called the meeting to order at 1:01 pm.

Postponement of Games Night: Dave announced that he made an executive
decision to reschedule Games  Night. Games Night will be rescheduled
following the March meeting due to the weather. Dave also  stated that with
some luck, we might have actually had a little more participation in March
than we  would have in January. 

 

Upcoming Meeting Dates: Dave says we will be meeting on February 8 (the 2nd
Saturday of the month).  In March, there will be the St. Patrick's Day
Parade on March 14th. So we have rescheduled the  March meeting for
Saturday, March 7th, starting at 1:00 pm. There will not be an April meeting
in  observance of the Easter weekend and Passover week, which would be April
11th. The May meeting will  be on Saturday, May 9th. Dave said he would post
these dates to Ill Talk and IABS Talk. 

 

WHAT'S HAPPENING:

Dave announced that Ken Staley has had some significant health problems over
the past several  months. He is in a position where he had to give up his
apartment because of recurrent problems  with diabetes and other health
problems. His new phone number is 773-435-5686. That is his direct  line at
the Warren Barr Nursing Home, which is very close to where he used to live.
He will be  there for the foreseeable future. Dave asked us all to give him
a call. State President, Denise  Avant, said she visited Ken Staley about a
week ago and gave him his membership coin. When she went  to see Ken, he was
in good spirits and she encouraged us all to either give Ken a call or go by
and  see him. Ken Borst stated that he did an interview with Amira
Watkins-Brown, who is elderly and  disabled. She was discriminated against
when she applied for a job in customer service at MB North  Cook Paratransit
Services. He interviewed her about that experience on Adaptive Chicago
Productions  with CAN TV. Airdates for the show are January 25rh, February
1st and February 15th, Channel 19 at  11:30 am on all dates. Contact CAN TV
at 312-738-1400. The show is also on YouTube. There were 25  people present
at the meeting. 

The December 14, 2019 minutes were approved.

 

PROGRAM:

Today's program is on program ideas. Second Vice President, Jemal Powell,
asked if anybody had some  ideas, please bring them forward. Bruce Paul had
3 ideas. 1. Interpersonal relationships. 2. Family  members who have had
little experience with people with disabilities. 3. Traveling to places with
little or no public transportation. State President, Denise Avant, suggested
that we invite people  from other blindness agencies to come to us and talk
about what they do here in our city. We have  the Blind Service Association.
We have Second Sense. We have Chicago Lighthouse. Some of us have  been
involved with these agencies over the years, But then there are other
members who may not even  know that they exist and the depth of everything
that they do Theresa Patterson Jones suggested a  program on proper ways to
educate individuals on how to guide the blind and use proper terminology.
Dave thought of an item on one-touch self-defense. Mary Grunwald talked
about having a program  dedicated to being visible and all the different
things that we can do to get ourselves in our  communities and things that
we maybe haven't thought of that make a difference when we do that.  Jemal
said that that would also be combined with Bruce's idea about traveling
places with different  types of public transportation. Theresa suggested a
program to advocate more places to add Braille  to their signage. Secretary
Eileen Truschke recommended a program on health-related issues  regarding
blindness. Robert Hansen suggested a program on the ABLE account, give
detailed  information about it, explain what an ABLE account is, who might
benefit from it the most. Ken  Borst stated that we needed to do a program
on the White Cane Law, what it is and how it came  about. 

 

STATE PRESIDENTIAL REPORT:

Denise: The Braille Readers are Leaders contest is currently going on. So if
you have been  reading pages starting on December 1, and you intend to keep
reading Braille until January 18th,  you might want to consider entering the
Braille Readers are Leaders contest. It does not just  include children the
way it had in the past. It now includes adults. If you want to find out more
information about it, you go to actionflund.org/bral. It's a good contest
for beginning Braille  readers, just so that you get a sense of what a good
Braille reader you are, so you know how far  you have to go. If you win the
contest, you get a chance to win a prize of $25. Your reading log  has to be
in by February 1. We also have the NFB Scholarship program at the national
level as well  as at the state level. The applications have been available
for both programs since November 1 and they will be available until March
31. For the national program, to get that application, you have to go to
nfb.org/scholarships and there you will find the application and you have to
submit the application  by 11:59 pm eastern time. The one for Illinois,
you'll find it on our website at  nfbofillinois.org/scholarships. That
application has to be into Debbie Stein by11:59 pm central  daylight time.
You need the application. You need proof of blindness cause you must be
legally  blind in both eyes. You'll need a letter of reference and an essay.
You can use the same material  for both programs. So if you know students or
if you are a student, do consider applying for the  scholarship program. We
are getting ready to go to the Washington Seminar. It starts with the Great
Gathering in on Monday, February 10 and ends on February 13. We have several
people in this chapter  who are going, Denise Avant, Steve Hastalis, Juliet
Walker, Mary Grunwald, Marilyn Green. We have 2  parents who are going,
Nellie Gamino and Leza Jaeger and we have 2 of our students, Justin Cather
and Ellen Bartelt, so that will be our delegation from Illinois. We are
working on the Midwest  Student Spring Seminar. The dates are March 20
through March 22 at the Holiday Inn Ohare, If you  want to participate and
get Freedom Link students involved or if you are a speaker, please remember
those dates, The national convention will be from July 14 to July 19. We
have 2 ways that we can  help those of you needing financial assistance. We
have the Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship Fund,  which is primarily meant for
first-timers, but they occasionally awarded it to people who have been  to
conventions before. There is an online application that you can go online
and apply. You still  are going to need the help of your state president
with a reference letter. So you need to go to  nfb.org and locate the online
application, apply for it and then try to do it by March 31, because  Denise
needs to have her letter of reference by April 15 and you will need to have
your application  in by April 15, but, hopefully, you will do it by March
31, so you give Denise a chance to do  whatever it is that she needs to do
because she does not want anybody who wants to go to convention  not to be
able to go because the deadline has been missed. The other way is through
our  Chappel-Dennis Assistance Fund and the application is on our Illinois
website on and that  application is due by May 1. The face-to-face board
meeting is on Saturday, August 29th at the  Sheraton-Lisle-Naperville Hotel
because that's where our state convention is going to be. The dates  for the
state convention are October 30, October 31 and November 1. The
Chappel-Dennis form will be due by September 1. So those are many of the
items  that are going to be happening in the next nine to ten months within
our affiliate. 

 

Washington Seminar: We will be on the Hill for Hill appointments starting on
February 11. We'll be  on the Hill February 11, 12 and maybe the 13th. We
have 3 pieces of legislation that we are taking  to the Hill. All of them we
took last year. We have Access Technology Affordability Act. This is to
reduce the cost of our access technology screen readers and application
systems. It will give us a  $2,000 tax credit. The House bill is HR 2086 and
the Senate bill is S 815. We have a brand new  cosponsor on access
technology. We have Mr. Brad Schneider and this is so important because Mr.
Schneider is on House Ways and Means. This means that he is willing to help
us to move the bill  through the committee. In Illinois, we have 3
cosponsors and one of the people on House Ways and  Means has agreed. We
have Senator Tammy Duckworth who is co-sponsoring the Senate bill, S 815. We
also have HR 3929, Greater Access to Independence through Nonvisual Access
Technology (also  called GAIN), This will require manufacturers of home
appliances, home medical equipment and home  sports equipment to make these
appliances nonvisually accessible. Illinois own Jan Schakowsky is  one of
the originating cosponsors. We have Accessible Instructional Materials in
Higher Education  (AIM-HIGH) Act, HR 5312 and the Senate bill is S 3095.
This is to give guidelines to colleges and  universities to make curriculums
nonvisually accessible for students with disabilities,  particularly
students who are blind. 

Sales and Fundraising Illinois: The Sales and Fundraising Committee has
decided to sell  T-shirts. The affiliate has not sold T-shirts in about 10
years. We have a black T-shirt that we  are ordering. We have some that are
long sleeves, most of them that are short sleeves. The shirt  will be black
and on the front in lemon yellow letters, it will say # bold # confident /
It  resembles who we are and what we are about. We are about being bold and
about being confident. The  Hashtag sign is the pound sign or the tic tac
toe sign. It means that you are tagging yourself as a  person who is bold
and a person who is confident. On the back of the shirt also in lemon yellow
letters will be the NFBI logo with our tagline live the life you want. On
the right sleeve, we will  have in Braille in puff green print NFB on the
sleeve in Braille. For those of you who want the  long sleeves, the
lettering will be vertical from the shoulder to approximately the elbow. For
those of you who get the short sleeves, the lettering will be from
horizontal near the cuff of the  sleeve. Both will be on the right-hand
side. We have a small quantity that we have in a long  sleeve. If you are
interested, let Marilyn know. If you want to purchase a T-shirt, Marilyn
should  have them at the next chapter meeting on February 8. The
short-sleeve T-shirts will be $15 and the  long-sleeve T-shirts will be $20.
We will have sizes from small to 4X. We are also working on an  appeal
letter to raise funds for the affiliate. Since the Chicago Chapter is the
largest chapter,  we will be asking each of you to come up with at least 3
people who you can give names and  addresses to that we can send an appeal
letter to help raise funds for the affiliate. Cathy Randall  has asked us to
please give your optometrist or ophthalmologist as one of those people. 

BELL Program We are hard at work on our Braille Enrichment Literacy and
Learning program. It will  be at the Lighthouse. We do not have the dates
yet. Be thinking about volunteering if you are  interested in teaching young
children how to do things nonvisually, and you're interested in  a program
that emphasizes Braille.

Bill Reif joined the meeting. 

Membership Coin Recipients: We have been giving out membership coins to our
existing members from  2016 to 2018 who paid their dues. The recipients who
received coins at the meeting are Ken Schad  and Dustin Cather. 

 

PRESIDENTIAL RELEASE #490:

Today is Thursday, January 2, 2020, and this is Presidential Release #490.
President Riccobono  wished a Happy New Year to all of the Federation
family. We have World Braille Day coming up in 2  days. Our Washington
Seminar will be here before we know it. We will have our Great Gathering In
kickoff at 5 pm on Monday, February 10th. President Riccobono encourages you
to come to the  congressional reception on Tuesday evening, February 11. We
are offering a bus that leaves from the  Capital Holiday Inn at 8:00 am on
Monday, February 10. It will bring you to the National Federation of  the
Blind Jernigan Institute for a tour. It's a great year to come with our new
space opening. It  is first-come, first-serve. We have one bus. So if you
want to get on board, get there early.  President Riccobono would like you
to come to visit our national office and check out some of the  new stuff as
well as some of the stuff that we had had in place for a while. If you have
questions  about the Washington Seminar, your affiliate needs a little
assistance in planning or would like to  do a little additional extra
preparation for tackling the seminar issues, please call John Pare. He  can
be reached at 410-659-9314, extension 2218 or you can send him an email at
jpare at nfb.org. If  you need some support in planning for the Washington
Seminar, call John Pare. He'll help you out  with another member of the team
who can get you what you need. 

On this release, we do have the issues for our 2020 WashingtonSeminar, where
we will be bringing  the 2020 view on blindness to Congress. our 3 issues
for this year will be 1. The Access Technology  Affordability Act. 2. Our
GAIN Act (Greater Access and Information Through Nonvisual Access
Technology Act). 3. Access to Instructional Materials in Higher Education
Act; AIM-HIGH we like to  call it. Our AIM-High legislation got a boost in
December. We had a bill already in the House of  Representatives, but in the
United States Senate, Senator Warren, about the middle of the month
introduced S3095, so we now have a bill in each of the branches there. So we
have amongst these 3  issues 5 bill numbers to talk about and chase during
the Washington Seminar. Our fact sheets will  be available the week of
January 6, so look for those, get up on the issues and, even if you're not
coming to the Washington Seminar, you can still reinforce the messaging by
calling about our issues  and urging your representatives and senators to
support the priorities of the organized blind  movement. 

President Riccobono looks forward to being with us at the 2020 national
convention and it's not too  early to start planning. In fact, many people
jumped on the telephone and started making their room  reservations for our
headquarters hotel. We haven't been to Houston since 1971 and so a number of
people look forward to being in Houston for the convention. Our president in
Texas, Norma Crosby,  is looking forward to it. You should think about
making your reservations soon for the Hilton  Americas Houston Hotel, which
is located at 1600 Lamar Street in Houston, Texas. 77010 is the ZIP  code,
You can make your room reservations now. The Hilton Americas is a great
hotel. It's smack dab  in the middle of Downtown Houston across from the
Convention Center. A lot of people have asked  whether we're using the
Convention Center. We do not have any meetings planned in the Convention
Center; they will all be at the Hilton, at least at the moment we don't, The
Hilton Americas is  across the street from a beautiful 12-acre Discovery
Green Park, so nice open spaces there and you  will find a lot of interest
in Downtown Houston and many of their surrounding neighborhoods. 

In contrast to our 2019 convention, which was great but quite spread out,
the 2020 convention hotel  has ballrooms, breakout spaces, and sleeping
rooms all stacked neatly on one city square block. So  you'll find it much
more streamlined in terms of where you need to go in terms of navigation.
It's  probably the most streamlined setup we've had maybe in a decade
because even the Orlando hotels  were very spread out compared to the Hilton
Americas. In addition to the dining available at the  Hilton Americas,
there's a ton of awesome dining in Houston right outside the doors and you
will  eat well in Houston.

The Hilton Americas' room rate includes in-room internet, which is
complimentary, as well as a  fitness center and pool on the 23rd floor of
the hotel. There are many other amenities. You can  read about the hotel and
also our overflow hotel, which is the Marriott, which, if you prefer, that
is just 3 blocks away or across the park, or you can actually walk through
the convention center  indoors, so you can check out the Marriott. but, if
you want to be right in the center of the  action as close as possible, be
at the Hilton and you should make your room reservations as soon as
possible before rooms run out in the Hilton. The convention room rate for
2020 at the Hilton  Americas is $105 per night for singles, doubles, triples
and quads. In addition, the sales tax  rate is 8.25% and the hotel occupancy
tax rate is 17%. You can book your room at the Hilton by  calling
1-800-236-2905. You'll find all this information in the Braile Monitor for
December of last  year. When you call to book your room, the hotel will take
a deposit of the first night's room  charge and taxes and will require a
credit card or a personal check. You can consult the Braille  Monitor for
the details on what happens if you have to somehow withdraw your reservation
and after  which date the money is not refundable and all that, so consult
the Monitor.

A final note to chapters: We do want door prizes for our Houston convention.
The NFB of Texas would  be pleased to receive them in advance if you want to
send them. President Riccobono would be  interested to see maybe which
chapter can send the most interesting, innovative, coolest door prize  for
our 2020 convention. We are seeking door prizes for the general session, so
please send them  along to our NFB of Texas affiliate or bring them to the
convention. 

President Riccobono felt that our goals and priorities are very much in line
with our strategic  plan that we published in the Monitor at the beginning
of last year, Those goals organize around  some pillars, principally
membership, education, and employment, advocacy, and outreach. There are  2
important things that speak to the work at all levels of our organization
and why the dynamic  organization we have and the relationship between the
levels is so important. 

Threaded throughout each of these pillars and priorities is our work to
educate the public about  blindness. It continues to be one of the most
important things that we do on a daily basis and we  made some great laws.
We've created some great regulations. We've helped to change technology, but
public education and creating awareness about blind people, sharing our 2020
view on blindness, is  really the most important and powerful thing we do on
a daily basis, helping people understand what  we do about the capacity of
blind people. 

We need to start by making sure that we believe in our heads and our hearts
the understanding about  blindness that's found in the Federation
philosophy. So as we start 2020, our chapters are  encouraged to redouble
our efforts in talking about the philosophy of NFB, what it means, how we
implement it, how we continue to evolve it, and how we grow into it. As
blind people, it's hard for  us to explain in a real way to the general
public the capacity of blind people if we don't believe  in it ourselves if
we haven't made the effort to really explore it and make it actionable in
our  own lives. It seems appropriate also to encourage our chapters to
continue to find innovative ways  to engage the general public in having
that understanding about blindness and we need to find ways  to share those
innovative ideas across chapters. So each of our chapters is encouraged to
find  something we're doing and figure out a way to share it with our other
chapters across the country,  whether it's on the chapter president's
listserve or writing an article for the Braille Monitor, or  holding a
conference call or all of the above or something else. We need to continue
to find ways  to innovate and share innovations across chapters and across
affiliates so that we can all be  better from the work that we do together. 

The second thing that comes to mind and it also is embedded in each of these
4 pillar areas is our  effort is to gather enough resources together to
build our capacity and a big part of that is  raising money. We simply could
not do the things that we do and have the effect that we have  without
raising dollars and it starts with the dollars that we put in as individual
members to  support the organization. Our Dream Maker Circle is a future
commitment to making a contribution to  the national organization upon your
death and that can take many forms, but then there's the  current way to
contribute, which is what we call our Preauthorized Contribution Program
(PAC Plan).  That program allows you to make a monthly contribution.
President Riccobono has heard from many  people over the past year who have
been contributing to the program since its very beginning and  that means
that their $5 or $10 a month or whatever it has grown to be our monthly
contribution has  added up over time to allow us to have the flexibility
with those dollars to be in all the places  we need for blind people. When
your chapter goes out and raises money for NFB to support our  mission and
makes contributions to the state affiliate supporting the state-level
organization and  the state-level organization takes some of those dollars
and contributes to the national  organization. Those dollars, when they
reach the national level, are much more effectively used to  build the
movement because every dollar that comes to our national organization
impacts so many  more people than it does at the local level. So when you're
thinking about what you're going to do  for fundraising this year, remember
that those dollars when they come to the national organization  have a huge
impact probably larger than any of us realize.

What are some of the things we do with those dollars at the national level?
The first thing is  those dollars allow us to coordinate the work that we do
across the country, whether it's putting  together the logistics for our
Washington Seminar, helping us to plan meetings on the Hill, being  on the
Hill, not just during Washington Seminar, but every other week of the year
to make sure that  when blindness comes up, the name of the National
Federation of the Blind is in front of the policy  and decision-makers and
our priorities and perspective are on the table. 

We put together a lot of resources for advocacy that we used in our
affiliates and we provide a lot  of technical assistance. All of that takes
the resources of staff, documents that we put together,  research, and the
dollars that get put into the national treasury help make that happen. 

There's a lot of other information sharing that happens. Our website is
increasingly more complex  and dynamic. We're coming up to 80 years' worth
of material on our website and keeping it fresh,  organizing it in a way
that it can be found, integrating the latest web tools, supporting that with
our connections database, publishing the Braille Monitor, our podcast, the
toolkits that we put  online and distribute in hard copy. All of these
things take dollars and the best dollars come from  the local level when you
go out and raise them and acknowledge how important it is that we're part
of this movement together by making contributions through the affiliate to
the national  organization.

At the national level, we put together a lot of capacity building tools that
we scale across the  organization. So we make available in print and Braille
brochures that chapters can get to use in  public outreach efforts. We're
putting together a project this year to support every affiliate  website to
make sure that the local presence is fresh, up-to-date and on point with our
brand. Late  last year we put some infrastructure together to allow every
affiliate that wants to stream its  convention to do so on a common
platform. We support each of our affiliates in the financial  management of
the affiliate, making sure that the right state filings get made and that
the  financial records are in good order so that when the treasurer shows up
to the state convention to  give a report, you can have the confidence that
the report also reflects the support of the  national organization in terms
of making sure that the numbers are right and things are coded in a  way
that they can be accurately reported. There are dozens of other things that
happen in the  background. The recording for this release is made possible
from those dollars that have been set  to this office. We have a lot of
expertise that we put together, and so, when you have a question  about
blindness, we have a way of answering it or. at least, getting you to the
right resource.  That's made possible from the dollars that you help to send
to our national organization. And then  just the broad resource network we
have. You are all doing great work to assist blind people at the  local
level, but you come across things that you're not familiar with or you have
questions about  and you can call about our national office team. You can
also take advantage of free programs we offer, like the free white cane
Program, or free Slate and  Stylist Program, putting free tools in the hands
of blind people. They're free to blind people. We  had to pay for them. We
had to ship them, to package them, to do the work on the technology side
for the database. All of that takes efforts and we make that happen through
the dollars that are  contributed to our national organization. 

So when we think about our goals for 2020, we need to remember that it's
these two underlying  elements that help us to those goals and achieve those
goals along with the individual effort that  each and every one of you makes
at the local level, at the affiliate level, and at the national  level to
fuel our organization. We are volunteer-driven. The majority of our work is
done by  volunteers. Our best work is done by volunteers because even our
paid staff spend considerable time  volunteering as members of our
organization. 

The dollars that are contributed to the national level especially by members
are critical as well  for another reason. When we go out and we talk to
people who are not in the center of the  organizationThey're not members,
They're not supporting our work, They look at two factors. One,  how are you
spending your money? We do spend our money and we write about it all the
time. We save  money when we can and our investments like many others last
year, had a great year, so we do save  money, but we spend a lot of money on
programs and our financial reports if you look at them. We  don't spend
money on high-paid fundraising groups to go out and raise money for us. We
spend our  money on programs that change the landscape in America for blind
people to create opportunities. 

The second thing people look at is how many of your own members, your own
board members, your own  staff, are contributing to our organization. and
hands down we have great news to report there all  of the time, not just the
PAC Plan but many other avenues we have for contributing to the
organization. That's why a lot of folks who are not close to our
organization love to give to us  because they recognize that our own members
feel so strongly about it and recognize that the work  is so important that
they're contributing their dollars. Many of you who are contributing don't
have a lot of dollars to give and so we treat every dollar with respect and
that our donors  recognize that those dollars come from members who have a
real commitment encourages them to make  bigger contributions. All of that
allows us to pursue our public education efforts, not just  talking to
people which we can do for free but the more dynamic things that allow us to
expand our  reach so that when you come across somebody in the local
community, you're reinforcing a message  that we delivered somewhere else. 

As far as our goals for 2020, President Riccobono hopes that your chapter is
developing goals that  are consistent with supporting our national
organization, supporting the work in our state  affiliate. We're successful
because we align at all levels of our priorities. You are encouraged to
consider what you are going to do in the chapter this year, how you're going
to share some of your  innovative ideas and how we together are going to
achieve not just our legislative priorities but  also our program and public
education priorities. 

Welcome to our Dream Maker Circle Diane McGeorge of Colorado. We just opened
the Diane and Ray  McGeorge Living Room last month. So thanks to Diane for
continuing her commitment by being part of  our Dream Maker Circle. In the
last month, we also added John and Heather Fritz from Wisconsin and  Susie
Stanzel from Kansas. If you have any questions about the Dream Maker Circle,
please reach out  to Patti Chang at the national office, extension 2422. In
June, we finished acknowledging all of  the chapters and affiliates who are
contributing to the PAC Plan, but we had some new ones join.  President
Riccobono acknowledges the chapters and affiliates that joined since the
June release was  made. Thank you to each and every one of you and your
local chapters that are contributing to the  PAC Plan. Again it gives us
those dollars. They're not tied to any particular restrictions and  allows
us to do what we need to as an organization. Thank you to the NFB of
Arkansas At Large  Chapter, NFB of California Central Valley Chapter, the
Inland Empire Chapter, the NFB of  Connecticut Southwest Chapter, the NFB of
Indiana Indianapolis Chapter, the NFB of Kansas Johnson  County Chapter, NFB
of North Carolina Coastal Carolina Chapter, the NFB of South Carolina to the
Spartanburg Chapter, the NFB of Tennessee Memphis Chapter, the NFB of Texas
Dallas Chapter and  finally to the NFB of Wisconsin. Thank you for joining
up new on the PAC Program since June of last  year.

Federation Family Notes: We lost a number of Federationists during the month
of December to keep in  your thoughts and prayers as well as their families.
Ronza Offman from Maryland reports that Randy  Green, a member of the NFB of
Maryland Sligo Creek and the National Harbor Chapters, died after a  long
illness. Donna Sexton of California died in late December. Many of Donna's
children continue  to be active members of the NFB. You may know Brooke,
B.j., Anber or David. Keep them in your  thoughts and prayers. Kyle Kiper
from Arkansas reports the death of Joe Sexson, a law enforcement
professional and Emergency Medical Technician. Joe was somebody who
sacrificed through his work. He  made the commitment to go to the salvage
and recovery efforts after the terrorist bombing on 9/11  at Ground Zero and
it was after that that he went blind, and ended up with many of the health
conditions and now dying that resulted from being exposed to being in the
Ground zero environment.  Joe was just one of the many fallen heroes that
have had this experience, but he is a member of the  Federation family and
we lost him last month, so keep him and his family in your thoughts and
prayers Finally close to the end of the year Harry Gaywith of Idaho died.
Harry has been a  long-time member of the Federation. For 40-some years he
served as the treasurer of the Idaho  affiliate. He believed in the capacity
of blind people and took on many tasks around the  Federation. If you won a
door prize at the national convention, Harry might have very well  delivered
it to you. He was a door prize runner for many years as well. 

Pre3sident Riccobono says he is looking forward to a great 2020, and while
we're going to  experience some new things this year, get into some new
adventures, be at a new convention spot  with a new convention hotel, some
things stay the same and that's a good thing.

The January collection yielded $100. 

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Membership Committee: Robert Hansen reports it does look like we do have a
pretty good turnout,  about 26 people. We're all doing the fanout calls and
so it's good to keep going with that. Robert  always likes to try to get the
program information and reaching out to Jemal and ask him every  month what
the program is about and also we have Ill Talk and IABS Talk. Also, always
keep telling  people that you see about the organization and getting them to
come. It's nice to see new people  coming all the time and people who
haven't been here in a while, keep coming. It's always good to  be here.
Robert always likes to try to get the fanouts about a week or so before the
actual meeting  so people can plan for it. Maybe if someone doesn't live in
Chicago, but you're always welcome to  come up here. It's always good to
have a full room. Keep spreading the word and have people come.  Just tell
them it's easy to get here and all the trains come downtown and a number of
bus routes.  It's very accessible to get down here. Anybody is welcome. 

Fundraising Committee: Nick Robertson, fundraising chair, reports that he
wants Denise and Marilyn  to talk to Patti Chang to allow us to set up a
digital paying system for the chapter so so that we  can get chapter dues
via Paypal, whatever the case may be. We are looking at two kinds of sports
pools for the fundraisers. We're looking at a March Madness Squares pool,
There are 100 squares on  a board and so we're trying to gauge interest in
that, so if you are interested, you can text Nick  at 641-660-2475 or post
something on Ill Talk. Also, we are looking at the possibility of doing a
Masters golf pool, We're looking at a staggering payout. You would pay $10
to select your own  golfer or $5 to have a golfer selected for you. All the
money would go to the Chicago Chapter and  our payout would be in gift cards
which would entice our chapter members to get out in the city and  educate
Chicago about blindness. 

 

TREASURER'S REPORT FOURTH QUARTER 2019 (OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, DECEMBER):

Beginning balance Tuesday, 10/1/19: $4916.41, Income: Chicago Chapter
Readathon Meet the Blind  Month Saturday 10/12/19 subtotal $1140. Games
Night 6 people paid $25 each, subtotal $150, Monthly  collection November 9,
none in October Readathon and none in Christmas auction $70.59. Donation
checks $100. General business meeting and Christmas auction Saturday 12/14
subtotal $2820 (that is a  record of more than $1,000 than any other
Christmas auction). Total $4280.59. Expenses: Electronic  withdrawal NFB PAC
$50 (preauthorized contribution to the national office) October, November,
December. subtotal $150. NFB Fifteen For Funds contribution at state
convention $1000. Washington  Seminar expenses 2020, assisted 5 members at
$400 each, subtotal $2000. Total $3150. Ending balance  Tuesday 12/31/19,
$6047. We've received a lot more since then. Denise asked the approximation.
Steve said approximately $300 or $400 at this point maybe more. Steve wrote
a note at the end. Note  the check register ends 2019 with the same figure
$6047. The report was approved as read.

Denise reminded us, particularly Steve and Dave, when we get members paying
dues and when we get  people updating their contact information, please pass
that information on to Patti so that we can  update the database at the
national office and the membership list. Please do that with every new
member and with every existing member as you update, what they paid and what
their new contact  information would be. Dave reminded us when you pay your
dues, please be sure that Steve gets your  correct contact information
including address, phone number, and email. If you have more than one  phone
number, we want both of them or all of them. Dave further stated that as a
chapter we have a  lot to be proud of. We really turned things around in the
last year, If we wouldn't have done your  contributions in whatever way we
have done them, that would not have been possible and he thanked  us all. 

 

OLD BUSINESS:

No old business.

 

NEW BUSINESS:

Jemal announced that on Monday 1/27, the PACE City ADA Advisory Committee
will be meeting at Willis  Tower in the Cook County Room in the CMACK
Offices. It will start at 12:30 pm and end at 3:00 pm  and there will be
time for public comments for those individuals who have concerns or comments
about their ADA service, particularly those in the City of Chicago. it is an
open public meeting. On  Tuesday 1/28, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm at PACE
Headquarters in Arlington Heights, the PACE Suburban  Budget Committee will
have its meeting. All are welcome and there will be public comments at the
end of the meeting. Dave mentioned that we do have a member of the CTA ADA
Advisory Committee and  that's Nick Robertson. The next meeting of the
committee is on 1/13 from 1:30 to 4:30 pm. Nick will  give a report in
February., If we have anything dealing with CTA, Nick will be willing to be
our  focal point. Steve says that the CTA runs its ADA Advisory Committee
such that anybody who wishes  to make a public comment must notify the CTA
the Thursday before and you have to do it either in  writing or you have to
call the manager of ADA Compliance Programs. If you don't get the CTA's
attention that way, then you got to do it through Nick. Nick's cell phone
number is 6 4 1-6 6 0-2 4 7 5, 

Bill Reif reports that it turns out that the ICB Chicago Chapter had
initially filed suit against  the City of Chicago involving its wish to have
accessible signals installed at every intersection.  Bill is in
communication with people over there. Maureen Hennegan is actually one of
the named  plaintiffs. So far the ICB Chicago Chapter and their attorneys
have managed to get part of that  complaint dismissed, not that they did it
intentionally. Denise stated that we took up this issue  in June, July, and
August and we met with the City of Chicago on this matter and we are working
with the city. We have also been in touch with our national office on this
issue and agreed that we  would not be filing any lawsuits. So that we could
speak with one voice, our actions would come  from the national office
coming down to the rest of us. In fact, we received notice of the ICB
Chicago Chapter's action and forwarded it to our national office and our
position is the same. We  will continue to work with the City of Chicago to
implement the audible pedestrian signals. The  only thing that we would want
on these signals is that they be uniform, that they do do not disturb  other
people and they be placed where they're needed. So you don't need an audible
pedestrian  signal at a 4-way residential intersection where there's hardly
any traffic. We are not opposed to  pedestrian signals, not to the extent
that ICB wants to share information with us, but we will not  be taking any
court action. The city has 25 places where it knows that it's going to put
audible  pedestrian signals and then there is 25 more that are probable and
then, depending on what kind of  money the city has, going forward about 15
or 16 more signals and then after that we'll see what  happens because there
are some high traffic areas that maybe can use them. Steve pointed out that
we passed a fairly detailed resolution illustrating our concerns and our
relationship with the City  of Chicago at our 2019 state convention. Denise
stated that we are in the process of getting our  resolutions formatted so
that they can be put on the website. The 2018 and 2019 resolutions are
done, so you will have access to our 2018 and 2019 resolutions. 

Steve stated that the next Metra (which is the commuter rail agency) ADA
Advisory Committee takes  place on Tuesday 2/4 at 2:00 pm at Metra's
corporate headquarters at 547 West Jackson. It's on the  south side of
Jackson just west of Clinton. That's where also we have had our Beggars
Pizza  fundraisers in that same building. If you want to hear the latest and
greatest about Metra's  ongoing to make stations accessible and ADA
compliant and what Metra is doing to replace  60-year-old cars and
40-year-old locomotives, you are welcome to come to the meeting and give
your  public comment toward the end of the meeting. 

 

The meeting adjourned at 3:02 pm.

Respectfully submitted, Eileen F. Truschke, Secretary, Chicago Chapter 

Date:

Friday, January 31 at 9:55 PM

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David Meyer, NFB of Illinois

Coordinator and Channel Administrator, NFB-NewsLine

Chicago Chapter President