[IL-Talk] chicago minutes September 2020

[David Meyer]

NFBI CHICAGO CHAPTER MEETING

 

SEPTEMBER 12, 2020

 

The meeting was called to order at 1:00 pm.

What's Happening: Gregory Rosenberg reported that he continues to be in good
health and he also  states that his 83-year-old mother just diagnosed with
Stage 4 ovarian cancer. Nadia Sherman states  that for the first time in
about 4 months, her health is very stable. Eileen says that she had bad  eye
pain and had to see an eye doctor who told her that she had corneal
abrasions on both eyes and  she is taking eye drops for that. Kira McColl
says that she has a job interview at the Chicago  Lighthouse on 9/14. There
were 33 people on the call.

 

Approval of August 8 minutes was approved.

 

Treasurer's report: Steve Hastalis reported that the Chicago Chapter had
$6,035 and we have no  outstanding transactions. The September PAC
(pre-authorized contribution plan) cleared on 9/11.

 

State Presidential Report: The state convention is 10/30, 10/31, and 11/1.
Our convention theme is  Fearless in Uncertain Times. Our national
representative will be Pam Allen, who is our first vice  president of our
National Board of Directors As of yet, we do not have a NABS rep. We will be
doing  this convention virtually for safety reasons. We will be doing the
Zoom platform. We need to  practice raising our hands and muting and
unmuting yourself when it's time for you to speak. The  convention will
start at 2:00 pm on 10/30 with a Federation activity dealing with Federation
philosophy. We will move into our resolutions and then we will have a time
set aside for the  scholarship class After that there will be a trivia night
and other fun activities from the Student  Division. On Saturday, 10/31, we
will have our general morning session starting at 9:00 am and  ending at
about 11:30 am. The student division will have its virtual lunch with the
parent  division. At 2:00 pm, we will continue on with the afternoon general
session. The parents will be  in a breakout with Debbie Stein. From 6:00 pm
to 8:00 we will have our banquet. We are actually  looking for politicians
to come on during that time. It appears  that Mayor Lightfoot will help us
open the morning general session. The Chicago Chapter will give  an award to
Karen Tamley at the banquet and then the affiliate will give an award to Dr.
Janet  Szlyk from the Chicago Lighthouse. We will pick it up on Sunday
morning, 11/1, with student  elections from 8:00 to 9:00 am and then we will
come back at 9:30 am with the final general  session, which will include
Braille is Beautiful, resolutions, and also elections. Convention
registration is complimentary, though we certainly would welcome donations
to the affiliate. If you  wish to pay your chapter dues for the coming year,
or, if you haven't paid at all for this year,  you can go ahead and pay once
you register on the website. Go to www.nfbofillinois.org, scroll down  to
convention, click on that and you will find the registration form. The other
important piece  here is that we will be using the Swift voting platform
that our national organization used back in  July to cast our votes. That
means that you will have to go to nfbvote.org in order to register the
number you plan to vote from. If you don't register the number, then you
will be unable to vote in  the elections on that Sunday. If you try to vote
from another number, your vote will not be cast.  It is important that you
register the number you want to vote from by October 9. The sooner you do
all of this, the better off everybody will be. We will get the names in. We
can get the  registration taken care of. You can actually do both at the
same time. State President, Denise  Avant, asked Chicago Chapter President,
David Meyer if there was going to be an October meeting.  Dave stated that
there will be an October meeting, however, we will not have a November
meeting  because we will have a Read-a-thon at that time. The Chicago Board
of Elections has  way that blind voters can vote by mail with complete
independence. They have not released details about this, however. You would
have to request  your vote by mail ballot, but, at the same time, let them
know that you want to vote privately and  independently and they will make
sure that you can sign up for the proper ballot. Denise did not  have any
details. She wanted to let us know that it's coming since it's supposed to
start on 9/24  and the Chicago Chapter will not have a meeting before this
is supposed to be rolled out. If you  want to vote by mail, you will need to
call the Chicago Board of Elections because they need to  understand that
this information needs to be released to blind and low vision voters, so
that  people will know what they're supposed to do. Gregory asked Denise
what are the next steps in  voting at the state convention, Denise stated
that she would be given a telephone number that you  are supposed to call.
During the convention Denise will state that number several times, so you'll
know what you are supposed to do. On that form, you were supposed to put
your first name, your last  name, your phone numberwhich you intend to use
when voting and the convention you're wanting to vote at, which means
Illinois. Once  the telephone number is released, Denise will be able to
make sure that people have it and she will  repeat it several times. Folks
who do not have computers and need assistance with the registration  process
should reach out to any of us who do have computers and we can make sure you
get  registered to vote on the number that you plan on using. If you need
help registering for the state  convention, both Patti and Dave can help you
do that as well. The website for voting is www.nfbvote.org. 

 

National Presidential Release #497: President Riccobono said that our
national building is open and that About 1/3 of the staff is at the building
on a regular  basis. Feel free to call and your calls will be routed to
people in and out of the Jernigan  Institute. 

President Riccobono stated that NFB is not a partisan organization. We're
focused on blindness and  we're focused on making sure that we can advance
the rights of blind people in this nation.  Elections are a critical way for
us to do that, not just federal elections but all elections. This  election
is particularly important because of what is or is not happening in making
sure that that  the elections are fully accessible to blind people. About a
year ago last September, President  Riccobono sent a letter on behalf of the
Federation to all the states advising them to get ready  for the 2020
election and to put matters in place to make sure that blind people could
vote in all  of the forms of voting, not just in person, but absentee
mail-in ballots to get ready to build  those systems. When COVID hit, a lot
of states did nothing and many of them are still threatening  to do nothing.
We're actively working between suing, filing complaints, or pursuing
complaints with  the Department of Justice, voting issues in 17 of our
affiliates and we are providing technical  assistance and a lot more than
that. We are actively working to ensure that all blind people have  access
to the vote, not just this election, but for all elections. If the process
in your state is  not fully accessible for blind people, we need you to go
out and vote because our participation  will help advance the work that
we're trying to do to get accessibility in all forms of voting.  When you go
out to vote or stay in to vote, we need you to document what happened and we
need you  to tell the story good or bad. Share what happens with NFB through
our blind voter's survey which  will be available on or about 10/6, because
a lot of people are voting early. Once you vote, take  the time to fill out
our survey. We want you to share your story on social media. If voter
registration is not accessible in your state, you can still register using
the accessible national  mail voter registration form located on the
Election Assistance Commission website. Due to COVID,  many local voting
places will be closed. So be sure that you check your local election
information  contact to see If your typical poling place will be open or
not. Check that out if you're planning to vote in person. We do  encourage
you to consult our blind voter's guide for information on what your rights
are as a blind  voter, for tips on accessible voting machines, and what to
do if you encounter problems at the  polls during this election. You can
find the blind voter's guide and download it from our website. You may also
order  Braille or large print copies from our Independence Market. You can
go to  nfb.org/vote, and when you get there, you can follow the link for the
importance of voting, find  the blind voter's guide, and many other great
resources that you or your chapter can use to promote  voting among members
of the Federation. If you are unable to mark your ballot for the 2020
presidential election privately and independently, we encourage you to file
a complaint with the US  Department of Justice by completing the ADA
complaint form which can be found at  ADA.gov homepage . Please send the
National Office information about that complaint, so we can help track that.
You  can email Lou Ann Blake, who heads up our Help America Vote Act
activities at the National Office. 

Since the beginning of the year, we have been working with Lyft on getting
rideshare coupons for  getting people to the polls. We are partnering with
Lyft again for the 2020 presidential election  and getting rides to the
polls. You will receive information about the Lyft partnership and how you
can access the Lyft coupon codes for going to the polls very soon. Watch for
that in the coming  weeks. 

Blind students are going to encounter challenging accessibility questions
around the technologies  that they're expected to use, especially to do
virtual learning. NFB has an educational technology  survey that is
available at our legal website, nfb.org/legal. Please go there, fill it out,
share  your experiences with educational technology, good or bad, so that we
can help track what's  happening in schools at all levels, K-12, or higher
education. We use that data to focus on  advocacy and legal efforts on the
areas that need the most attention. 

We have Meet the Blind Month which will happen in October. Chapters should
continue to plan  activities and be creative about virtual activities. Our
theme is Lived Experiences in our local  communities around problem-solving,
self-confidence, and intersectionalities. You can learn more by  visiting
nfb.org/mtbm (Meet the Blind Month). 

Our national seniors' division is hosting the 2020 virtual seniors retreat
from October 18-24  virtually on Zoom. You can visit seniors.nfb.org to get
more information about this event. 

NFB masks will soon be available in the Independence Market. We've ordered a
limited number of  fabric face masks with our logo and you can call and
preorder them now. The face masks are a medium  blue color with our logo
centered in white. The face-covering is approximately 7 and 1/4 inches by 4
and 3/4 inches. The inside of the mask is a soft white fabric. They have
traditional loops for the  ears. They will be available early October, but
you can preorder them starting right now. The masks  will sell for $4 a
piece or 3 for $10. The cost does not include shipping. These are not
eligible for Free Matter for the Blind, so it's three masks for $10 plus
shipping. You can call the  Independence Market at 410-659-9314, extension
2216. Our team members will take your preorder  information and will call
you back when the masks are here and will take payment at that time. If  we
get enough preorders, we'll get a larger quantity. 

 

Old Business: Regarding national legislation, Marilyn says we still have 11
cosponsors on the  Access Technology Affordability Act, HR 2086, and 1
cosponsor, Tammy Duckworth, which is S815. We  have 2 cosponsors in the
House for HR 5312, which is Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher
Education, no senate cosponsors. We still only have Jan Schakowsky, who is
an originating cosponsor  for HR 3929, which is Gaining Greater Access in
Independence for Nonvisual Access Technology. We  have 3 people who have not
cosponsored HR 2086 in the House which were cosponsors last Congress,  Mike
Quigley, Danny Davis and Bobby Rush. 

 

The Chicago Legislative Committee: Kira Obradovich states that we we will
honor Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Karen Tamley who directed the  Mayor's Office
for People with Disabilities and is now the director of Access Living, with
plaques recognizing their service, in particular, for  making sure that we
are working toward being the most accessible city in the United States. They
will both participate in the state convention. 

 

Dave is looking for contributions for our read-a-thon. Those folks who have
participated before,  please participate again. A read-a-thonis where you
grab a book, read a book, and try to get money to  read the book. It will
occur on 11/14, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. We will be doing it virtually. If you
wish to participate in the Readathon, you may read print or Braille. You may
also engage in audio  reading. There will be an admission fee of $10 if you
choose to read. However, if you raise $10 or  more, from the outside
community, your admission fee will be waived. We raised about $1,200 last
year.

Door Prizes for the State Convention: This year we're asking that if people
want to donate door  prizes, they should do so with cash. since it is
virtual. It saves us the hassle of having to figure out how  we're going to
deliver the door prizes to people. You can either use Zelle or send a check
to Patti Chang, NFBI treasurer. Her address is 6919 West Berwyn Avenue,
Chicago, IL 60656. Ellen Bartelt is the  door prize chair. She will be
picking the names for the convention and explain how to claim your  prize.
Zelle is a banking app. Big banks do have a way to donate through Zelle. You
send Patti the  cash through Zelle and you make a note as to how you want
the prize distributed. Do you want it  distributed at the banquet? If you
send $100, are you going to want to give that given all at one  time, or are
you going to want it to be given in $20i increments? In that way, Ellen will
know how  to distribute your prize. Zelle does have an app that you can
download to your phone. But also many  banks will give you an option when
you pay your bills on their website to use them to donate money  that way.
The other option is that you can just write a check to the affiliate and
mail it to Patti  explaining what it is you want to do.

Michal says If anyone from outside of the resolution committee has ideas for
resolutions they would  like to submit, to do so as soon as possible. The
next resolutions committee will take place on  9/17. The meeting is open to
all. 

 

New Business: A question was raised if we can give gift certificates
redeemable at the  Independence Market or similar adaptive equipment
technology manufacturers. Patti stated no. if  somebody does not get their
certificate, she has to spend time chasing it down. It's easier to give
people money. If you give a certificate, it's tied to your email and
sometimes it doesn't transfer  it over. If you just send Patti the link, it
does not mean that the person that you intended for  that certificate will
be able to get that certificate. 

Dave and Denise stated to everyone that when you make noise in the
background, it is a true  distraction when you're trying to host or moderate
a meeting or trying to create an impression  about your state's convention
or your chapter's meeting, it doesn't serve any purpose whatsoever,  so
please refrain from all background noise. Raise your hand. 

 

The meeting adjourned at 2:22 pm.

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

 

 

David Meyer, NFB of Illinois

Coordinator and Channel Administrator, NFB-NewsLine

Chicago Chapter President