[IL-Talk] at large minutes August

[David Meyer]

NFBI AT LARGE CHAPTER MINUTES
AUGUST 3rd, 2025
ZOOM MEETING
CALL TO ORDER
Persons in Attendance: At Large Chapter President David Meyer, Vice 
President Leslie Hamric, Debbie  Pittman, Linda Hendle, Bill Reif, Pat 
Olson, Eileen Truschke, Ken Schad, Marilyn Green, Michelle  Ault, Jean 
Johnson, Dennis Dewitt, Dan Gistenson, and Jean Brown. The meeting 
started at 7:05PM.

Approval of Minutes

Debbie Pittman moved, Jean Johnson seconded. All in favor said Aye and 
minutes were approved.

PROGRAM ITEM
Debbie Pittman introduced our guest speaker, Jean Brown from our 
Indiana Affiliate. She is an  author, an activist, mom, and wife and 
she is talking to us today about Beep Baseball. There are  two Beep 
Baseball teams in Indiana and the one she is most familiar with is the 
Indy Thunder. The  coach is Darnell Booker and Ron is Director of the 
Board. When they have their tournament every  year in June, Jean is the 
base operator and also volunteers for the team. As a base operator you  
are calling the shots and determining where the batter is going to go. 
Will it be first base, or  will it be third base? You listen for the 
pitcher to come to the plate, and the base operator puts  the click or 
beep on the base the batter should run to. The batter tries to hit the 
ball as far it  will go and as soon as the batter hits the ball the 
batter tries to get to the base and listens for  the sound of beeps on 
the base. This year, Indy Thunder won every single game and the team 
won the  Beep Baseball World Series. The team also has five 
championship rings for winning five years in a  row years ago and now 
they will have a sixth ring. They will receive the sixth ring in the 
Fall.  Indy Thunder had a very large team this year...with at least 40 
people including the volunteers and  the players. If we would like to 
experience a game in action please let Debbie Pittman know and she  
will share it with Jean Brown. We could just pack a light lunch and 
kick back, relax and enjoy the  game. The World Series is for a whole 
week. If we are not able to attend a whole week maybe we can  go on the 
last two days. After the team won the 5th Beep Baseball World Series, 
the team was in a  documentary that was shown at theaters in different 
states. The name of the documentary is Thunder  Rolls and it gives 
insight on some of the players. Jean Brown was one of the players then. 
Ron  also played for 30 years and was inducted into the Beep Baseball 
Hall of Fame back in 2011. Darnell  Booker was voted in to the NBBA, 
which is the National Beep Baseball Association. The other team in  
Indy is called the Indy Edge and they are also a really good team.
Jean also explained how Beep Baseball is played. Beep Baseball is a 
team made up of blind and  visually impaired people and every one of 
them is wearing a sleep shade. If they are on the  roster, they are 
batters, and they are wearing a sleep shade.The bases are about waist 
high and  are soft like a tall round pillow and has a control mechanism 
inside it that makes it beep. It has  a cord that runs all the way to 
the control box that has a switch in it that Jean flips one way or  
another for sound. There are only two bases. When you hit the ball and 
the base is beeping you run  to that base and touch that base. If you 
dont touch the base and the people in the field hear the  ball they are 
trying to catch it before you touch that base. Once they catch that 
ball which is  making a sound they hold that ball up and say BALL. 
Hopefully the base is touched before the ball  is caught. The ball 
actually has a pin in it that is pulled out when the pitcher releases 
the ball.  Pulling out the pin releases the sound.
They are also some sighted people on the field that are called spotters 
to give an idea of where  the ball is going so there is not a 
collision. The pitcher and catcher are sighted. The pitchers  job is to 
get the ball on the bat. The ages of the players are from high school 
to their 60s. This  is a National Organization and if we would like to 
get involved we can go to the website which is  NBBA.org. Darnell may 
give interested people a call and will assist you every bit of the way, 
he  may tell you how you can organize a team. Jean Brown will give 
Debbie Pittman information on how we  can see the movie Thunder Rolls 
and find out the various ways we can get the movie. The movie is  also 
audio described.

PRESIDENTIAL RELEASE

President Mark Riccobono is our National President. This is 
Presidential Release 551 for the month  of August. It is the Chapter version.
There were 2600 of us at National Convention in person. We also offered 
some of the general  sessions and other content to the many hundreds of 
us that were able to tune in virtually. The  convention highlights will 
be put up on the website.
Our local chapters are a good place to discuss some of the content that 
came out of the convention,  whether it be philosophical presentations, 
policy discussions, reviewing our resolutions that were  passed or 
maybe going through Eve Hills legislative legal update. We can also 
consider discussing  Federation policy, reviewing the resolutions and 
talking about how we can activate those at the  local level.
If we want to connect with this content, we can go to the NFB 
convention page, nfb.org/convention.
We can go to the Nations Blind YouTube Channel to find content that is 
posted there, and we can  also tune in to the National Federation of 
the Blind Radio Network. We can ask our Amazon device to  open Nations Blind.
Our National Convention next year will be July 3rd thru July 8th in 
Austin, Texas.
We want to prepare for Blind Equality Achievement Month, which the 
National Federation of the Blind  celebrates every October. The 
Chapters can put together outreach events, celebrations, and  
interesting activities to help change the image of blindness in a 
positive way. You can submit your  events and celebrations to  
web at nfb.org , so that we can post them to our Blind Equality 
Achievement Month website, which is found at  nfb.org/blind-month . 
Please use the term Blind Equality Achievement Month or Blind Month or 
#blindmonth, when  referring to our work during October and posting 
about it in social media.
There are some things we can do related to our legislative advocacy. We 
have a whole list of bills  that we’ve talked about on these releases 
before and have done work on them. We have already gotten  co-sponsors 
for them, but we have some more new ones that are coming back and we 
have a good shot  at getting these passed in the Congress.
Something that we are really excited about is that the Transformation 
to Competitive Integrated  Employment Act was introduced in Congress on 
Thursday, July 24th. Senators Chris Van Hollen of  Maryland, Steve 
Daines of Montana, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Marsha Blackburn 
of  Tennessee introduced these. This is the Transformation to 
Competitive Integrated Employment Act.  Then on the following day, 
Friday, July 25th, representative Bobby Scott of Virginia and Pete  
Sessions of Texas, again bipartisan, introduced a companion bill in the 
House, HR 4771.This bill is  the same as its been in the past. It will 
forever eliminate federal law the potential of paying  people with 
disabilities less than the guaranteed federal minimum wage, and it puts 
together a plan  to transition to that and puts supports together to 
make that happen.
This is really important legislation. Some of our affiliates have 
already passed state-level  legislation to outlaw subminimum wage 
payments, so this is consistent with state law, and this  needs to 
happen on a federal basis.
It will help in so many areas including sending the message that people 
with disabilities deserve  the same pay as everyone else. We have 
worked on it before. We have got a really good chance of  passing it 
and just a kudos again to our members in Texas.
Pete Sessions has officially supported every single bill of the 
National Federation of the Blind  during this congressional term, so 
thank you Texas for building a very strong relationship there.  Mark 
Riccobono encourages our chapters and affiliates to do the same with 
our members of Congress.
Here is another issue that we can bring to members of Congress. On 
Tuesday, July 22nd, we sent a  letter to all members of Congress urging 
them to make permanent the Medicare telehealth benefits.  You recall 
that earlier this year, we advocated to get those made permanent and 
they weren’t made  permanent, but they were extended through September 
30th of this year. We now need to go back and  encourage them again to 
make those benefits permanent. They benefit us as blind people, but 
they  benefit all sorts of Americans and the healthcare industry 
appreciates it. It provides better  service to people living in rural 
areas and certainly to us as blind people.
This is a result of resolution 2507 that was passed at our national 
convention, so it is a priority  that the national convention has set. 
We do have a short timeline on this because those benefits  will expire 
at the end of September, so now is the key time to talk to members of 
Congress about  including that in the work they’re going to be doing in 
the month of September when they come back  from their recess. We have 
a lot of work to do and we are encouraged to take the opportunity to  
talk to members of Congress, and do some advocacy while they’re in 
their local communities. It is  suggested we should take a moment to 
work on some of our legislative initiatives, especially those  that are 
going to be critical in September.
Another thing we may want to check out is the trailer for the New 
Walking Alone and Marching  Together podcast. Its three minutes and 
twenty-four seconds, and it introduces a podcast that we  will be 
releasing starting later this fall to help folks get familiar with the 
history and work of  our movement from 1940 to 1990.
There is no lack of books about blindness and the blind. What has been 
lacking is the history of  what blind people have done for themselves, 
what they have accomplished together, what they have  thought and felt, 
and said, and aspired to be and do. This book seeks to correct that 
omission and  to provide that history to relate the story never told. 
Walking Alone and Marching Together is a  podcast series that brings to 
life the history of the National Federation of the Blind from 1940 to  
1990, based on the comprehensive book of the same name. This podcast is 
designed to make the rich  and complex story of our movement more 
accessible, engaging and immediate.
Where recordings exist, we will hear the original voices of those who 
shaped our history. When no  such recordings are available, our skilled 
narrator brings the material to life ensuring that  speeches, debates, 
and pivotal moments are delivered with the energy and significance they 
deserve.
Throughout this series, we will hear from leaders, advocates, and every 
day Federationists who  shaped the course of blind peoples rights and 
opportunities. The blind people of the time had to  make difficult 
decisions about priorities based on the resources available and the 
circumstances of  the society in which they lived. Everyday blind 
people come together to decide for themselves how  to raise 
expectations in society and create new opportunities.
Through these episodes, we hope to not only share history, but to 
remind all of us of its continued  relevance in shaping our future. The 
circumstances have changed for the better because of the  collective 
work of blind people. History is a wise teacher for what needs to be 
considered in the  present and the future. Episodes are coming out fall 
of 2025. Subscribe and follow now.
We can follow President Riccobono on Mastodon, just search for at  
president at nfb.social . Lets go build the National Federation of the Blind.

STATE PRESIDENTS REPORT

Marilyn Green is the State President for the National Federation of the 
Blind of Illinois. We can  go to nfb.org/convention to hear the banquet 
speech and the Presidential Release.
We just finished our BELL program and we had six children for our 
Chicago program. The children did  things with Braille, went on field 
trips, and learned some independent living skills. We will be  going 
into our Springfield BELL
 and we expect to be doing some great things with those children as well.
We have an in person board meeting at the Chicago Marriott Hotel in 
Naperville on August 24th. We  will start the meeting at 9:00 AM on 
August 24th and take a break for lunch around 11:30/12:00 and  then we 
will finish up the session around 2:00 or 3:00 PM. For those that are 
not going in person  they can use the zoom link we are on right now. It 
is a great opportunity to learn about what is  going on in the State as 
well as learn what our plans are for State Convention. We have STEM2U 
on  August 23rd. We have eight children for STEM2U.
State Convention is October 17th thru October 19th. We should make room 
reservations as soon as  possible because space is limited. If we need 
financial assistance our Chappell Dennis Form is  available online. We 
can go to our web site at  http://www.nfbofillinois.org  and go to the 
link for Chappell Dennis. This is due by September 1st at 11:59 PM. 
Please let  people know about the modest grants that we offer so people 
can go to State Convention. Our  National Rep is Donald Porterfield. He 
is the President of The National Federation of the Blind of  Arizona 
and is a prosecutor in the State of Arizona and he chairs our National 
Resolutions  Committee. Our State Convention will still have our Friday 
format as we usually have.
We will be having Braille is Beautiful. If anyone is interested in 
being one of the actors please  reach out to Debbie Stein at 
773-203-1394 or  dkent5817 at att.net . We will have our open mic on 
Friday night and it is re branded as National Federation of the  Blind 
of Illinois Got Talent. This will be a fundraiser to help raise funds 
for the NFBI. We will  have our exhibit hours on Friday from 2-5 and 
then we will change it up a bit. On Saturday morning  we will have 
exhibits as well as breakout sessions. We will also be having 
Philosophy Over  Breakfast on Sunday morning. Please email or text 
Marilyn with any ideas you may have for breakout  sessions,things you 
would like to see there, ideas for themes, or ideas for breakouts. The 
email  is:  president at nfbofillinois.org  or you can text her at 
312-343-8396. The registration form for convention is live and 
available at  nfbofillinois.org/convention to register. The deadline 
for pre-registration is October 3rd. You  can save some money by 
pre-registering. We have three State scholarship finalist. Tasabih 
Elfaki,  Mia Zutter, and Toby Ellis.
We have National Convention next year in Austin, Texas and the dates 
for that is July 3rd thru July  8th 2025.
We have Washington Seminar the last week in January. The great 
gathering is January 26th.

OLD BUSINESS

We need to decide if we are having our Popcorn Fundraiser in September. 
Last year we had a contest  and that brought in more than we have ever 
brought in. The contest was presented again for this  year. The dates 
presented are from September 3rd thru September 7th.

NEW BUSINESS

Dan Gistenson was welcomed into the National Federation of the Blind of 
IL. Debbie Pittman moved  and Linda Hendle seconded. All in favor in 
welcoming him in said AYE.
Next meeting date is on September 7th. We do have to pick a theme for 
Battle of the Chapters at  State Convention.
Bowling Fundraiser is at Fireside Bowl at 2648 W. Fullerton. The cost 
is $35.00 a person and you  get two games of bowling and pizza. It is 
on August 16th from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM.

Meeting adjourned

Debbie Pittman moved and Linda Hendle seconded. All in favor said AYE 
Meeting adjourned at 8;51PM.

Respectfully Submitted,

Michelle Ault
Secretary
Date:
Friday, August 22 at 8:18 AM
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