[IL-Talk] at large minutes May

[datemeyer at sbcglobal.net]

Sero Email: Read Message

Read Message

From:

michtlua at aol.com

To:

David Meyer

Cc:

michtlua

Subject:

SUBJECT: AT LARGE CHAPTER MINUTES MAY 2025

NFBI AT LARGE CHAPTER MINUTES

MAY 4th, 2025

ZOOM Meeting

CALL TO ORDER

At Large Chapter President David Meyer called the meeting to order at 7:03
PM. Persons in  attendance included: President David Meyer, guest Gwen
Vaughn, Debbie Pittman, Michelle Ault, Linda  Hendle, Marilyn Green, Ken
Chadd, Eileen Truschke, Dennis Dewitt, Richard Ainsley, Jamal Powell,  and
Rachel Ng.

PROGRAM

Our guest this evening was Gwen Vaughn. She is an organizer of SEIU, Service
Employees  International Union. They represent workers in Illinois, Indiana,
Missouri, and Kansas. They  represent a little over 90,000 workers who are
home care, child care, hospital and nursing home  workers. Across the whole
country they are over 2 million strong. She hopes that we can share with
each other our connections of building a world that wants the same things
that we all do. That is  to advocate and build sustainable programs that
would allow people with all disabilities to live a  quality life with
accessibility, dignity, respect, and quality home care.

A little history about personal assistance goes back to 1983 when home care
workers were trying to  organize. It took 20 years...all the way to 2003
before they got an executive order signed saying  they can organize for
collective bargaining. During that time the State's minimum wage was $3.25
an  hour. The State thought they were not doing much and paid these workers
only $1.00 an hour, which  was so undervalued. That is one of the main
reasons they fought really hard to get bargaining  power. These workers were
doing real work and just recently they negotiated another contract which  is
historical. They were successful in negotiating a $25.00 an hour for care
workers and a  retirement plan. Workers also said they need a registry
because oftentimes consumers only get maybe  20-25 hours a week and they
need more care than that. The workers said they should not have to work  two
jobs to make ends meet especially when there is a need for personal
assistance. The State has  agreed to implement a system that will connect
IP's (Independent Providers) with consumers. This  will be voluntary where a
personal assistant will sign their name on the registry as will the
consumer so they can be matched up. It is going to take all of us to make
sure that happens.  Everything is supposed to go into effect December 31st
of this year. They would like all of our  support to ensure the successful
implementation of the registry system.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES FOR THE APRIL 2025 AT LARGE CHAPTER MEETING

Debbie Pittman moved and Linda Hendle seconded. All in favor said "Aye" and
minutes were approved.

PRESIDENTIAL RELEASE

This is the chapter version of Presidential Release 549.

National Convention is coming up.The rooms are quickly being booked at the
Marriott.There is also  plenty of rooms available at the Sheraton. We can
also register to be part of the virtual  convention experience. Make plans
to be with us in New Orleans but if that is not possible, please  register
and be part of our virtual convention experience. All of that information is
at  nfb.org/convention , you want to make sure you get your registration
done by May 30 if you can, especially if you're  attending the convention.
Mark Riccobono wants to talk to our chapters about the influence that the
chapters can have on the policies of the National Federation of the Blind at
our national level.

Our work always starts at the local level. Many of the best ideas in the
Federation started from  conversations at the local level and often times
the national policies that we establish at the  convention started from the
community discussion that happened at a local chapter meeting and then
people reaching out throughout the affiliate and networking with people from
other states and  finding that there's a commonality here that we should
work on and make a policy priority.

Policy decisions of the Federation come about from blind people working with
each other, debating,  discussing what is important and then synthesizing
that into what we should do about it and how we  can change society. And the
only way we can determine whether something really has an impact on  more
than one blind person is by working with other blind people to see if there
is a systemic  issue to work on. One way we come up with solutions to those
problems and how we work on those  priorities is through our resolutions
process at the national convention. Often a resolution starts  from local
conversations. When we find that there's a need to work on a problem and
there's  commonality across states and different blind people, we find that
it's important to have our  national organization take this up.

Our resolutions' committee at the national level is chaired by Donald
Porterfield of Arizona, and  this year the deadline for submitting
resolutions to the committee to be considered at the  convention is June 8.
If we have questions about resolutions or want to submit a resolution, you
can send that to resolutions, plural,  resolutions at nfb.org , and you can get
to Donald that way. You can also reach him via telephone if you want to
discuss  resolution ideas. Chapters should be having these discussions and
thinking about policies. One way  to spark that discussion is to consider
some material that's been in the Braille monitor. President  Riccobono wants
to call our attention to an article in the April 2025 Braille Monitor by
Gary  Wunder as a good discussion point for what policies we want to see in
the National Federation of  the Blind. Gary's article was entitled, "How Do
We Make Real and Lasting Changes for the Blind, a  Discussion that Needs
Your Input". I'd emphasize that last part, your input. This article proposes
a way of thinking about how we create change and how we do that within the
National Federation of  the Blind, and how we sometimes have to debate and
push and pull each other and consider what's the  right method for getting
something done.

Collective action is always a focal point for us at our national convention,
and this year we've  adopted it as a theme. More than sometimes in our
history, there is a great need today for  emphasizing collective action
amongst blind people, especially as we're encountering already this  year a
number of policy decisions and efforts in not just the federal government,
but also state  and local governments attacks on programs for the blind and
threats to real fundamental laws that  we've relied on.

As a matter of fact, just today the United States Supreme Court is hearing
briefings in a case that  could have significant ramifications for students
with disabilities in local school districts. The  way that we get society to
pay attention to what's important to us as a community of blind people  is
by organizing together and building the vehicle that we have for collective
action. And that  starts by discussion at the local level. So use this as an
opportunity to talk about what's  important and to equip members coming to
the convention with those ideas.

Looking forward to being together with many of you at our convention in New
Orleans to build our  collective action even further. Mark Riccobono would
like to share with us that we're going to be  launching our spring
fundraising drive and this year it has a couple of different twists to it.

This is what we call our Lead and Drive for the Give 25 in '25 Campaign. We
want to drive change  for blind people across the nation and our Give 25
fuels our progress and powers the work that we  do as an organization. Let
me talk to you about the campaign this year and some new elements to it.
During the spring, launching later in May, you will have an opportunity to
give 25 dollars or to  encourage others to give 25 dollars or increments of
25 dollars to support the work of the National  Federation of the Blind, but
you will also have a chance if you give 25 dollars or different  increments
of 25 dollars, you will have a chance or multiple chances to win a trip to
the 2026  National Convention in Austin, Texas. Or if for some reason you
don't want to accept that, you can  also accept a cash prize.

So by giving to the Federation, you also may get something very tangible in
return, in addition to  the intangible benefits you get from being part of
the organized blind movement. This year, we are  also encouraging a little
friendly competition by tracking what we call our Federation challengers,
people who go out and get other people to give to the organization. Anybody
who asks others to give  can be a Federation Challenger.

Donors can name their Federation Challenger on the Give 25 donation page,
and the Challenger who  brings in the most donations will be given an
opportunity to announce the winner of the grand prize  drawing for this
program during the banquet at the convention. You might say, "Well,
interesting,  but I can't be at the convention." Well, you can still be
chosen as the one to announce the winner  through the magic of Zoom and our
great AV system.

As a bonus this year, we heard from many of you who could not be at the
convention who were  disappointed that although you gave money, you couldn't
get the Aftershocks headphones. So for the  first 100 individuals who give
100 dollars or more to this drive will receive a pair of Aftershocks
headphones and you'll be able to pick those up at the convention. But if for
some reason you can't  pick them up at the convention, we will ship them to
you. So that's if you're one of the first 100  people to give a hundred
dollars or more.

You can support the National Federation of the Blind by giving or by
encouraging others to give.  And in this springtime, these dollars are very
important and you should know that these dollars  will also be matched
thanks to a gift from an anonymous donor. The first 25,000 dollars that we
raise will be matched dollar for dollar with a gift from our anonymous
donors.

So every dollar will be 2 dollars in reality to the work of the organized
Blind movement. And you  can best promote this by sharing your story, your
involvement in the National Federation of the  Blind, why it makes a
difference to you in living the life you want. There are three ways to give.
You can call our main number, 410-659-9314 and dial extension 2430. You can
mail your check into  the Federation at 200 East Wells Street, Baltimore,
Maryland 21230, or you can donate online by  going to our page at
nfb.org/give25donate , all one word, give25donate. We are encouraged to get
involved with this and encourage others too.  It's an important time to
bring dollars into the organization so we can continue our drive to build  a
vehicle for collective action by the blind and to influence what's happening
in society.

STATE PRESIDENT'S REPORT

National Convention will be in New Orleans, Louisiana, July 8th thru the
13th. Our convention hotel  is the New Orleans Marriott and our overflow
hotel is directly across the street at the Sheraton.  You can go to
nfb.org/convention to get information about the telephone number to contact.
Our room  rate is $119.00 per night plus taxes. We should make our hotel
reservations as soon as we can. We  will also want to register for
convention and pre registration will save us some money. Pre  registration
cost is $25.00 and the banquet cost is $80.00. The deadline for pre
registration is  May 31st and that is also the deadline to reserve our hotel
room at the National Federation of the  Blind room rate. Visit
nfb.org/convention. We can also register at the convention but you will be
paying a extra cost at the door.

We are having our BELL program this year. BELL stands for Braille Enrichment
Literacy and Learning.  Our Chicago program will be at our partner
organization The Chicago Lighthouse July 21st thru  August 1st. It is a two
week day program. We will have a one week residential in Springfield, IL.
It will be our students and families as well as our staff and volunteers
housed at Abraham Lincoln  hotel in Springfield, IL. We also have a place
that we use for our independent living skills. If we  know of any children
between the ages of 4-12 who could benefit from continuing to practice their
Braille, their White Cane skills, their independent living skills and just
gaining so much from a  network of young blind and older blind people please
reach out to Debbie Stein at 773-263-1394 or  email her at
dkent5817 at att.net . If we are interested in being a adult blind mentor
please reach out to Debbie Stein and let her  know. She will let you know
what the procedure is to become a adult blind mentor. It is okay if you
can't volunteer for all of the days, Debbie will be happy to work with us on
the schedule we have.

We will also have our NFB STEM2U program this year. STEM is Science,
Technology, Engineering, and  Math. We want to let blind students know that
STEM is something we can do. This is the first time  in IL that we are
trying the STEM2U program. It will be August 23rd at our State Convention
Hotel  which is the Chicago Marriott Naperville hotel. You can reach out to
Debbie Stein if you would like  more information about the program or if you
know any blind students who would make a great  candidate. Also if you are
interested in being an adult Blind mentor contact Debbie Stein at
773-203-1394. Her email is  dkent5817 at att.net .

On August 24th we will have our in person State Board Meeting at the Chicago
Marriott Naperville  hotel. It will start at 9:00AM and we break for lunch
around 11:30-12:00 and then we adjourn  between 2:00 and 3:00 PM. It is an
excellent opportunity to find out what is going on in the  Affiliate as well
to hear about the planning of our State Convention. If you interested in
staying  overnight the information is on our State website at
http://www.nfbofillinois.org/convention.

Our State Convention is October 17th thru the 19th at the Chicago
Napervillle Marriott hotel. 1801  Naper Blvd in Naperville, IL. We can make
room reservations now and ask for our NFB room block. If  there are any
problems reserving a room, if they say there is none left we can reach put
to Patti  Chang at  pattischang at gmail.com  or call her at 773-307-6440. We
can also reach out to Patti if there any questions about charges  not
understood. If we have any ideas for state convention or things we would
like to see, ideas for  breakout rooms or presentations we can email Marilyn
at  president at nfbofillinois.org . You can even shoot her a text at
312-343-8396. We will have our standard Braille is Beautiful,  our
resolutions committee and a lot of other engaging and entertaining activity.
The room rate is  on the website. The deadline for Chappell assistance for
State convention is September 1st.  Chappell assistance is open to everyone
even if you are not a first timer.

OLD BUSINESS

Update on our Double Good Popcorn Fundraiser. The winner of our Popcorn
selling contest is Debbie  Pittman. She will receive an $50.00 Independence
Market gift card. Our popcorn fundraiser was a  success and our portion of
the popcorn fundraiser is $1201.50, which was direct deposited already.  We
also received $230.00 in past donations.

Marilyn Green moved to welcome Rachel Ng into the At Large Chapter and
Debbie Pittman seconded. All  in favor said "AYE"

NEW BUSINESS

Next Meeting will be on June 1st, 2025. At next months meeting we will
determine if we will have a  meeting in July due to National Convention.

ADJOURNMENT

Debbie Pittman moved to adjourn and Linda Hendle seconded. All in favor said
"AYE". The meeting was  adjourned at 8:03PM.

Respectfully Submitted,

Michelle Ault

Secretary

Date:

Tuesday, May 20 at 8:29 AM

Quote original message in reply 

Add the sender to the address book when I reply 

Reply

Reply to All

Forward

Delete

Add to Sync List

Previous

Next

Folder: 

Move to Folder

Create Folder

Folder:

Return to Folder Summary

Return to Main Menu