<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">I am on Lifetime Member Of The News Real Magazine nationwide plus Nfb Of Maryland. Also on lifetime conformity resend the email from Wickham again to get my information phone if it’s not updated or to Tian my information for the Nfb please thanks so much minus is not one with me back I can live the life I want. Blindness is not what I want for me back.<br><br><div dir="ltr">Sent from my smart phone iPhone 10SX max cell phone</div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Sep 10, 2023, at 5:42 PM, Maryland President via MD-Sligo <md-sligo@nfbnet.org> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style>@font-face { font-family: "Cambria Math"; }
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal">All,<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">You may have noticed that the NFB National Office has been sending out communications about members with email addresses on file being given access to the NFB Membership Portal, and folks being asked to go in to verify their information. I’m writing to explain what to expect if you belong to a chapter or division in Maryland and to share what you need to do in addition to updating the NFB National Portal. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">If you have an email address on file with the National Center that is affiliated with your membership information, you received an email last week inviting you to check out the NFB Membership Portal. Several thousand of you, or so it seems, have reached out to tell me you didn’t get that email – I didn’t either, but you can reach out to <a href="mailto:Membership@nfb.org">Membership@nfb.org</a> to ask that the email be resent to you. Or, if you’re like me, you can use some deductive reasoning to try to figure out your user ID – it just might be your email address – and ask the system to send you a new password. You can go to the NFB website, click on Membership, and it’ll take you right to the log-in page. If you did get the email (for some of you it’s probably in your spam folder), the password in the email will expire September 12, 2023, so please log in before then. No worries if you don’t though, because you can just select the handy dandy reset password link and get in on demand.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Several other thousand of you, or so it feels like to me, reached out to ask why the portal shows your membership as lapsed. I promise, if you paid your 2023 dues, you did not lapse. The systems shows you as lapsed (if you did pay your dues) because the powers that be in Maryland – didn’t update you in the portal yet. We’re very sorry, and we promise we’re working on it. It’s a big job, and in Maryland membership tracking is centralized at the affiliate level because of our state-wide database. Your chapters are not to blame – so please be nice to them.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Several hundred of you, or so it seems, asked why you were showing as lapsed if you paid lifetime dues – I honestly have no idea – but that’s true for me too. We’ll look into it – we can’t update you on our end to lifetime – or at least I haven’t figured out how to do that yet – but we’ll fix it as soon as we can figure it out.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Now here’s the other thing you have to do besides update your contact information in the NFB portal, and this is really important.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">You have to contact Dezman Jackson, your chapter or division President, Your Chapter or division membership chair, and me – yes, all of us – to tell us when/if you change your contact information and share it with us. Why? Because for around a decade, the Maryland affiliate has been using our own membership database that is not affiliated with the NFB membership database, and that’s where we’ve been tracking your membership status and information. We have to manually get information from one system to another – and that means someone is typing out that information and entering it. We’ve, as an affiliate, prioritized updating our own membership database, and that’s why the NFB National database is not accurate for Marylanders. I promise though, the Maryland affiliate membership database is accurate though, so we know your status. But if you update your contact information in the NFB membership portal, the NFB of Maryland database will continue to contain outdated information. The systems don’t and can’t transmit information back and forth, so you have to update with both systems separately.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I suspect that the affiliate updating the NFB system will take a couple hundred hours because there are a couple thousand of you – for real, I’m not kidding. And so I ask that you please be patient with us. We are working on it, but it is happening alongside priorities like putting on a state convention, running three BELL Academies, and the million things your Board and affiliate leaders do every single day. We ask for patience and grace while we work on this project and keep the other balls we have up in the air.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I promise, we’re working on it and will continue to do so, but it’s a process. Your chapters will tell you if you are or are not in good standing, as each of them has a current membership list. Feel free to reach out to them if you aren’t sure about your status. Also, we encourage you to pay your 2023 chapter and division dues if you haven’t already – you can do so directly to your chapter or division, or you can use the NFB of Maryland dues portal at nfbmd.org/dues. October 1, 2023 we will open up the ability to pay 2024 dues as well.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">If you have questions, please let Dez or me know.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Thanks,<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Ronza<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Ronza Othman, </span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">President</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">National Federation of the Blind of Maryland<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">443-426-4110<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Pronouns: she, her, hers<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The National Federation of the Blind of Maryland knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p></div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>MD-Sligo mailing list</span><br><span>MD-Sligo@nfbnet.org</span><br><span>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/md-sligo_nfbnet.org</span><br><span>To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for MD-Sligo:</span><br><span>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/md-sligo_nfbnet.org/chikodinakaoguledo8%40gmail.com</span><br></div></blockquote></body></html>