[IL-Talk] at large minutes september

[datemeyer at sbcglobal.net]

At Large Chapter Minutes

September 7th, 2025

ZOOM Meeting

CALL TO ORDER

Persons in Attendance: At Large Chapter President David Meyer, Vice
President Leslie Hamric, Dustin  Cather, Debbie Pittman, Linda Hendle, Bill
Reif, Eileen Truschke, Ken Schad, Marilyn Green, Jemal  Powell, Michelle
Ault, Jean Johnson, Dan Gistenson, Yvonne Agyarko, Amy Long, Monica Primm,
Mark  Primm. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM.

New Members Monica Primm, Mark Primm, and Amy Long were welcomed in. Jemal
moved and Linda  seconded. All in favor said Aye.

Approval of minutes for the August meeting 2025

Bill Reif moved and Leslie Hamric seconded. All in favor said Aye

PROGRAM ITEM

Debbie Pittman updated us on the Double Good Popcorn Fundraiser. We sold
about $614.00 and Debbie  Pittman will check the final sales to make sure
all sales are included. She mentioned that she  normally puts the link out a
week early but we were not able to do that this time. Debbie Pittman  won a
$50.00 Gift Certificate for Independence Market. She encouraged everyone to
send out the links  for the Double Good Popcorn fundraiser because we only
do it twice a year. She encouraged all of us  to participate because the
popcorn fundraiser is a group effort. We can also make out a general
donation. A donation can be made anytime, even after our fund raisers. If
the donation states  popcorn fundraiser then it is counted towards the
fundraiser.

PRESIDENTIAL RELEASE

This is the Chapter version of Presidential release number 552 on Thursday,
August 25th 2025. 

This is being recorded early because Pam Allen and President Mark Riccobono,
along with Roland  Allen, and the Federations chief of staff, Beth Braun,
will be attending the World Blindness  Summit and General Assembly of the
World Blind Union next week. 

After Labor Day, Congress will be coming back from their recess and into
session in Washington, DC  and so it is a prime time for all of us to talk
to our members of Congress, our congressional  offices, about our
legislative priorities and the issues in front of us. We will be receiving
updates from our advocacy and policy staff, and every chapter is urged to
make this a priority, We  have an opportunity here for us to create a wave
of support for our work as we come into the end of  the year, and there will
be some important milestones that we want to hit. 

An example would be the proposed end of the telehealth benefits that we have
done advocacy work on  before. That deadline is set to expire on September
30th, so its important advocacy work, We are  asked to please pay attention
to our emails and make it a regular part of our September schedule to  be
following up with members of Congress

October is Blind Equality Achievement Month, so this is a great time to
build support for the local  chapters and to educate people on the National
Federation of the Blind. 

If you are a Federation member who is seeking employment, The National
Federation of the Blind 2025  Virtual Career Fair will be taking place on
October 28th, 2025, from 1:00 to 4:00 PM Eastern Time,  via Zoom. If you are
seeking employment, this is a great opportunity. It is free to you, but its
also a great opportunity for our chapters to promote this in the local
community, to get blind  people to know about the National Federation of the
Blind, but also about job opportunities. We  know a lot of people are
looking for work, so we want to get the word out. This is free for all
blind job seekers, and all you need to do is register for the event. You can
register at:  nfb.org/employment. If you are or know of an employer who is
interested in taking advantage of the  talent that is out there and want to
hire some qualified blind people, go to: nfb.org/employment.

Our National Federation of the Blind Coast-to-Coast Movement Challenge is
coming up and this is a  great thing to consider as we think about Blind
Equality Achievement Month. We are all encouraged  to participate in this
challenge, and there are a couple different ways you can do that. 

One of them is through our Bay Bridge Run effort, which allows you to walk
across the Bay Bridge in  Maryland, or to put together a virtual walk in
solidarity of our Bay Bridge efforts. Chapters,  members, and affiliates can
all participate in this virtual part. We could. for example, put  something
together for White Cane Awareness Day. More information can be found at:
nfb.org/movers

In person, the Bay Bridge run/walk will be on November 9th, in Maryland. We
can participate  virtually anytime by completing our movement before
November 9th. In-person participation for the  Bay Bridge run will cost
$65.00. The fee will be waived if you raise $500.00 to support the  National
Federation of the Blind. For our virtual participants, we want you to go out
and raise  money to support the National Federation of the Blind and to
support your walk or run. You can do  either one.

The Federation is also participating in the California International
Marathon on December 7th. We  have individuals who are representing us in
this marathon as blind ambassadors and helping to  create awareness, and
also to raise money for the Federation. Our team in the California Marathon
is led by Ken Duke of Utah and Roger Oberholster of California, both blind
members of the  Federation. We also have nine other runners who have agreed
to raise money for the National  Federation of the Blind as part of their
participation in the California International Marathon, so  we have a team
raising money, creating awareness in this marathon and supporting our
coast-to-coast  challenge. This is a model that we are going to be hoping to
use in the future. 

President Mark Riccobono will be going to the World Blind Union. The
Federation has been engaged  with blind people around the world since the
beginning of our movement. There are lots of examples  in our national
archives of discussions with blind people from around the world, and
convention  presentations, in the first couple decades of the Federation. 

In the early 1960s, Dr. Jacobus tenBroek endeavored to create the
International Federation of the  Blind as a way to have a vehicle for
collaboration between blind-led movements around the world.  Our movement is
in the United States, and we have built a powerful base here.

It benefits us by interacting with blind people from around the world. We
get perspective and new  ideas, and of course, what we have built, not just
our grassroots movement, but our training  programs, our methodologies, our
training centers, really are admired all over the world. We, as  part of our
participation in the World Blind Union, we share that perspective, but also,
we gain  from learning about what is happening around the world.

The Federation has been a central part of supporting the world organization,
especially here in our  region, the North American Caribbean region. We
hosted the World General Assembly in 2016, in  Orlando. You can read about
that in the Braille Monitor, and many of our leaders were central to  that
effort being a success.

Earlier this month, Mark Riccobono accepted the election of President of the
North American  Caribbean region, so the Federation is again providing
leadership directly to our region and the  world organization. It is a four
year commitment.

Pam Allen and Mark Riccobono will be serving as delegates representing the
Federation in Brazil at  the World Blindness Summit and the General Assembly
of the World Blind Union. The General Assembly  meets every four years, and
similar to the Federation Convention, the General Assembly is the
legislature of the World Blind Union.

There are places in the world where Braille on consumer packaging is the
norm. We need that in the  United States. The flip side of that is, a lot of
the technological innovation comes from the  United States, and so these
countries look to us to hold a high standard, making sure that these  major
world technology companies, are truly including non-visual access in a
meaningful way into  their products.

Shane Ostermeyer of Idaho and Mark and Carrie Renwick of Florida as the
newest members of our Dream  Makers Circle and were welcomed in. Our Dream
Makers Circle is a way to make a commitment to  support the National
Federation of the Blind by putting us in your will, or some other
end-of-life  gifts. All members of our Dream Makers Circle and who have made
that commitment were thanked

Mark Riccobono is the President of the National Federation of the Blind. He
can be reached at:  4 1 0-6 5 9-9 3 1 4,  OfficeofthePresident at nfb.org
<mailto:OfficeofthePresident at nfb.org>  . Follow President Riccobono on
Mastodon. Just search for @President at nfb.social.

STATE PRESIDENTS REPORT

This report tells us what is happening in the State of Illinois.

New members, Monica Primm, Mark Primm, and Amy Long were welcomed in by our
President Marilyn  Green.

We had our NFBI BELL Program in Chicago and Springfield. BELL stands for
Braille Enrichment  Literacy and Learning. It is a program for children ages
4-12 for those children to keep up on their  Braille skills,independent
living skills, mobility, and making connections to other blind children  in
their community.

We also did our first National Federation of The Blind of Illinois STEM2U
which demonstrated that  we can do STEM and we did a few STEM projects and
experiments. The age range was 8 to 17. We look  forward to having NFB
STEM2U again next year.

We had a State Board meeting the day after our NFBI STEM2U. The NFBI State
Convention was discussed  as well as other programs we have in the National
Federation of The Blind of Illinois. We are  looking for actors for our
Braille is Beautiful which we will be having at our State Convention.  Blind
people will be reading from Braille scripts. Please reach out to Debbie
Stein if you are  interested in playing a part in reading our Braille is
Beautiful script. She can be reached at  7 7 3-2 0 3-1 3 9 4 or email her
her at  dkent5817 at att.net <mailto:dkent5817 at att.net>  .

Emails will be going out from our Door Prize co-chairs who are Michelle Ault
and Abbu Elfaki. If  you would like to donate door prizes you should reach
out to Michelle or Abbu. They are looking for  things that are small that
can fit into peoples suitcase. If you make a cash donation please ZELLE  to:
treasurer at nfbofillinois.org <mailto:treasurer at nfbofillinois.org>  . Put in
the memo that it is for State Convention door prizes or you can bring some
door prizes to  the Illinois State Convention. It would be great to let
Michelle or Abbu know what those prizes are  ahead of time. If you can,
please Braille a note to the item as well as put it in large print so  both
of them could know what the items are. Michelles email is:  michtlua at aol.com
<mailto:michtlua at aol.com>   and Abbus email is:  tasabih.elfaki at gmail.com
<mailto:tasabih.elfaki at gmail.com>  . 

Our National Rep, Donald Porterfield will be flying in. He is the President
of the National  Federation of the Blind of Arizona. He will be reporting on
what is happening on our National  level. He will also be assisting with
other presentations and we will hear from him at our Banquet  on Saturday
night. 

Our Convention will be at the Chicago Marriott Naperville Hotel in
Naperville, Illinois. The dates  are October 17th thru October 19th. We will
start at 4:00 PM with Resolutions and we will also be  having some fun
activities before hand. We will have a exhibit hall from 2 to 5 on Friday
and from  8:00 AM to 11:00 AM on Saturday morning. We will be having an
evening general session Friday at  5:00 PM which includes Braille is
Beautiful. On Friday night we have NFBI Got Talent. We will have  a chance
to sing, play instruments, dance and share some comedy. It will still be a
fundraiser for  the NFBI. Saturday morning we will have breakfast and Peggy
Chong, who is known as our Blind  History lady, will share some things about
the history of the NFB. 

There will be a few breakouts, one of them being 

 structured discovery. Structured Discovery is one of the methodologies that
the NFB incubated for  adjustment to blindness training. A lot of times this
topic is misunderstood so its important to  have a breakout session to talk
about it. 

We will have Andrew Webb there who is the Bureau Chief for the Illinois
Bureau of Customer  Community of Blind Services will be giving us updates on
what is going on within the Bureau as well  as information about IL Able. We
will be having a business meeting in the afternoon on Saturday and  we will
be having a banquet on Saturday night. Sunday morning we will be having NFB
Philosophy.  This will be a great opportunity to understand what the
National Federation of the Blind is and  what it is that we do and the
reasons why we do it.

Room rate is $142.00 per night for a king bed and $152.00 for a room with
two queen beds plus  taxes. The number to call to book a room is 6 3 0-5 0
5-4 9 0 0. Let them know you are with the NFBI to  get that room rate. If
they tell you that room rate is sold out email Patti Chang at:
pattischang at gmail.com <mailto:pattischang at gmail.com>   and we can talk to
the hotel about getting more rooms. Our room block closes on September 26th.
If  something happens and you booked a room and cant make it to State
Convention please contact  Marilyn Green at:  president at nfbofillinois.org
<mailto:president at nfbofillinois.org>  . There may be someone else that would
like to get a room at the room rate you got and we can help  you get the
room transferred over. We do not have an online option to book a room at our
room rate  at this time but this is something that Patti can look into for
the future.The price for breakfast,  dinner, and lunch is on the
registration form if people would like to join. Pre-registration  deadline
is October 3rd. If you would like to save money and time register before
October 3rd at  11:59 PM. You may still register after the deadline and at
the convention but there will be a price  increase. The agenda should be out
the last week of September or the first week of October. Our  theme this
year is Reflecting our Truth. We will have a limited number of large print
and Braille  copies of the agenda. The agenda will also be posted on
NEWSLINE. If you do not know what NEWSLINE  is you can contact David Meyer.

New Business

The At Large Chapter voted on a theme for songs to be sang by the different
chapters for NFBI Got  Talent. We have a battle of the Chapters every year.
The winning chapter gets to pick the topic for  next years battle of the
chapters. This year the At Large Chapter had the pleasure of picking a
topic for the songs. Several ideas were shared and Marilyn Green made a
motion that the Battle of  the Chapters theme be TV songs, any songs used to
introduce the show. Michelle Ault seconded. All  in favor said Aye.

Next, we picked a song that aligned with the theme voted on. The Jeffersons,
Moving on Up was the  winner.

The Chicago Chapter is having a Read-A-Thon instead of the Chicago Chapter
meeting in October. It  will be held on Saturday, October 11th. People come
together and read for three hours. It can be  Braille reading, print
reading, reading from Newsline, ect., We are looking for readers and donors.
The entry fee is $10.00 if you wish to be a participant. However, if you
raise more than $10.00  from the outside your fee would be waived. BARD was
also discussed. The Read-a-thon will be done  from 1:00-4:00 on October 11th
and we will be doing it over ZOOM using David Meyers ZOOM account. 

Bill Reif made a motion for $100.00 towards door prizes for the At Large
Chapter and Jemal Powell  seconded. The Motion was amended to say the door
prize co-chairs decide the increments to put it  in. Bill Reif moved and
Jemal Powell seconded. All in favor said Aye.

A suggestion was made in regards to door prizes. Bill Reif suggested
Independence Market gift cards  and that is a type of gift card that can be
phoned in and products ordered over the phone. 

David Meyer will check to see if the New Newsline can still be accessed thru
a touch tone phone.

We will have our next At Large Chapter meeting on October 5th.

Old Business

none

Bill Reif moved to adjourn and Linda Hendle seconded. All in favor said Aye
The meeting was  adjourned at 8:47 PM

Respectfully Submitted,

Michelle Ault

Secretary and Treasurer

Date:

Tuesday, September 23 at 9:43 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