[IL-Talk] at large may minutes draft 2.

Fri May 23 05:14:15 UTC 2025

Wonderful minutes Michelle.

Warmly,

Debbie P

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Subject: [IL-Talk] at large may minutes draft 2.

               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, Jemal 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:

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