[IL-Talk] chicago august minutes draft 2.

[David Meyer]

NFBI CHICAGO CHAPTER MINUTES

 

AUGUST 8, 2020

 

The meeting took place using the Zoom format.

President David Meyer called the meeting to order at 1:00 pm.

 

Introductions: Of note: Debbie Stein said that her husband, Dick, was
recovering from his broken  ankles. Mary Grunwald reports that she is home
from the hospital after being in rehab. Bill Reif  states that his wife,
Roberta, was in a rehab facility off and on since May and she is back home.
Sara Luna says that she is the co-chair of the Illinois affiliate of the
diversity and inclusion  committee. Denise Avant reported that she was
reappointed for a second year as chair on disability  rights and also was
appointed to represent the disability group in the ADA House. There were 24
people present. 

 

Program Item: Denise Avant was interviewed by WGN radio on August 5 by
Rolley James, a radio host. She stated that the Illinois legislature passed
bill #S1863 and it allows for a vote by mail for  this upcoming general
election only. But, in the bill, it does state that if a blind person
requests a ballot in Braille or large print, that in order to mark the
ballot, he or she would have  to get third party assistance. This violates a
blind person's right to cast a private and  independent ballot. Denise
states that there are states that vote by mail in an acceptable manner,
Colorado, Maryland, Oregon. All of these states are able to accomplish this.
We've urged the state  board of elections to urge the election authorities
to find a way for any blind voter in Illinois  no matter where you live to
adopt an accessible means of voting because there should not be a  situation
where a blind person either has to decide whether he or she would go to the
polls and  risk COVID or have to get someone to mark their ballots for them
and invade their right to cast  private and independent ballots. Denise says
that since 2006, she has been able to vote  independently. Denise took calls
from folks 

 

State Report: Denise was glad that all of us were able to access the
national convention. She says  that close to 10,000 joined the convention.
We will be having a virtual state convention. Given our  situation with
COVID, we decided that we would not try to meet in person or even do a
face-to-face  board meeting. Our national rep will be Pam Allen. Pam is
chair of our national board and also the  first vice president. Our
convention theme is Fearless in Uncertain Times. We do ask people to
donate. The registration itself is free, but you will have to register for 2
reasons. For those who  want to pay their dues to the student division
and/or the at-large division. Also, we will have  door prizes this year.
Ellen Bartelt is going to be the door prize chair because she has access to
a computer. In order to be eligible for a door prize, you will have to
register for the convention. We will be asking people to donate cash. Either
you can send Patti Chang a check made out to the  Illinois affiliate or you
can do it by Zelle and you can specify how you want your door prize money
to be divided up. We plan on having one large cash prize during the banquet,
This convention will  take on all of the aspects that we would have at a
convention if we were meeting face-to-face. We'll have a banquet. We'll have
general sessions on Saturday and Sunday. Braille is Beautiful will  be back
for the Braille readers. The students are currently trying to see what they
want to do in  their spot. Resolutions will meet. On Friday, October 30 at
2:00 pm, we are thinking of doing  Federation philosophy. Denise says that
we are thinking of doing this because we are getting a lot  of new members
into NFBI. Diversity and inclusion will be part of the convention. Denise
does not  know who the NABS rep is yet. The bulletin will go out. The
convention agenda will go out later on  in September. There will be a
virtual board meeting on August 29th from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. Denise  stated
how the WGN interview came about. While Denise was attending the ABA
meeting, Chris  Danielson emailed her and said that someone from WGN radio
was looking to do such an interview on  Vote by Mail. Denise thought the
best way for that to be done was to bring on herself as a local  flavor and
Chris or Lou Ann Blake, who is an expert in the field to talk about what's
going on  nationally. But, in the end, the host asked Denise to come on and
talk about Vote by Mail and  Denise suggested some other things to her, but
Denise was fielding other questions from other  people as well. 

 

Secretary's minutes for June 13, 2020: Minutes were approved. 

 

Presidential Release #496: President Riccobono mentioned that we had nearly
10,000 participantts at  our convention. Next year's convention will be in
New Orleans from July 6 to 11. Our convention  brought in a lot of money to
the organization. President Riccobono thanked all who contributed to  our
organization. We're having a special NFB open house on Sunday, August 9, to
discuss with those  individuals joining the NFB and answering their
questions. You can email  membership at nfb.org  if you would like to get
information about how to get into the open house. For the rest of the  year,
we are going to have a presidential release on the first of the month at
7:00 central time,  there will be a presidential release live.

President Riccobono encourages us to discuss our national priorities at our
chapter meetings along  with our local and state issues. We had 29
resolutions considered at the convention, 28 of them  passed. 

There is a Federation lawsuit against Walmart for access to self-service
checkout kiosks. We need  to hear from more members who might participate in
this suit with us. We need to hear from people  outside of Maryland who shop
at Walmart who would like Walmart's self-service checkout kiosks to be
accessible. Please contact Valerie Yingling at our national office. Her
email address is  vyingling at nfb.org  or call 410-659-9314 and dial extension
2440. 

We are doing a survey regarding unemployment benefits. We're investigating
the barriers and  problems, especially denials, that blind people had with
unemployment benefits. If you have been  terminated or laid off from your
job within the past 2 years, we want to hear from you to complete  our
unemployment survey, as it will point out to actions that we should take in
this area going  forward. Our survey is at  http://www.nfb.org/legal. Find
our unemployment survey and please fill it out. 

Another committee that has recently been formed at the state level is the
election committee. That  committee is designed to help us mainly with the
vote by mail issue. We are working with the state  board of elections right
now to try to see if they are going to make the 108 election authorities
come up with a means by which we could cast independent ballots privately
for those of us who want  to do so. In the meantime, what we are asking
people to do is to call your local Board of Elections  and say "I live in
(wherever you live). I'm interested in voting by mail. I want to vote
privately  and independently. What means do you have for me to do that? I
don't want to rely on someone's  assistance." We want to start to put this
on the radar of the Board of  Elections. Perhaps what we can do is look up
the telephone number to your local state board. We can  find the one for
Cook County and in Chicago. Dave is in charge of coordinating this. There
has been  a question of accessibility or inaccessibility of state websites.
Dan Tevelde posted about the inaccessibility of the state unemployment
website. We are in touch with Equip for Equality. They are asking us if any
of the members that we know of have tried to access other state websites
and found them to be inaccessible. So, if any of you have tried to access a
state website within  the last 3 to 4 months, drop Denise an email, that is
davant1958 at gmail.com  or call at 773-991-8050. We just want to know what
other websites the state may have has proven to  be inaccessible to our
members. Bill Reif asked if any students at the Illinois School for the
Visually Impaired are considered residents of Morgan County and are they
encouraged to vote. Michal  Nowicki went to that school some time ago and
nothing was mentioned at that time about voting. Eileen stated that the
Chicago Board of Elections number is 312-269-7967. 

 

Treasurer's Report: Beginning balance on 4/1/20; 6,498. Income: lifetime
membership $100. Monthly  collections $0. Expenses: electronic PAC
contributions for April, May, and June $5month each,  subtotal $150. We have
Exchequer Pub and Restaurant room rent $0. National Federation of the Blind
National Convention Funds: JTB Fund $150, NFB Jernigan Fund $150, NFB White
Cane Fund $300, NFB Sun  Fund $0. Total for expenses $650. Ending balance
6/30/20 $5,848. The treasurer's report has been  approved. 

For those who have not heard Denise's program, Denise did send out a link
directly to the program  on Thursday. There's a link provided by WGN. It
will be the entire program including commercials  and including some of the
songs that Rolley played. 

Dave has another number. If anybody is from suburban Cook County and wishes
to call that Board of  Elections, it is 312-603-5656. Dave will post both
the Chicago Board of Elections number and the  suburban Cook County number
on ill-talk for those interested in calling. Jemal said he will be calling
the Will County clerk's office. Eileen was intending to call the Chicago
number and Denise will also call  the Chicago number. Howard said he will
call in Chicago as well. The person that you will want to  ask for in
Chicago is Jim Allen. 

 

Old business: No old business.

 

New business: Jemal commented on the situation against Walmart. Denise
stated that if anyone from  Illinois has any issues with Walmart, call or
email her. For HR 2086, the Access Technology  Affordability Act, there are
currently 11 cosponsors. Congressmen Danny Davis, Mike Quigley and Bobby
Rush have not signed on to this bill. If you live in one of the districts
where you have a person  who has not signed on as of yet, please call them,
write them or email them. Also, please contact  your congressperson on
supporting the GAIN Act. 

 

The meeting adjourned at 2:49 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Eileen F, Truschke, secretary, Chicago Chapter

 

 

David Meyer, NFB of Illinois

Coordinator and Channel Administrator, NFB-NewsLine

Chicago Chapter President