[MD-AtLarge] At-Large Chapter Minutes

[nfbmd]

Hello All,

 

Thank you Danielle for doing an excellent job on the minutes.  Here they
are.  Read below:

 

Minutes for the At large chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of
Maryland

Date: Tuesday, February 17, 2015

 

The meeting was called to order at 8:00 P.M. via conference call by Sharon
Maneki.

There were around 20 people on the call. Everyone announced themselves and,
since our call was the day of Mardi Gras, each person said whether or not
they had ever attended or been to New Orleans.

Sharon announced a raffle in which a person pays $5 for a raffle ticket, and
a winner is chosen every day for a month. Prizes are $50 from Sunday through
Friday and $100 for those who win Saturday. Anyone interested in purchasing
a raffle ticket should contact Sharon. (410-715-9596)

Sharon also announced a basket bingo which will be Friday, March 13 in
Catonsville to benefit the NFB of MD. Tickets are $20 ahead of time and $25
at the door. Contact Sharon for more information.

There will be a musical program to benefit the youth programs of the NFB of
MD on March 22. It will be at the Pikesville International Seventh-Day
Adventist Church from 4:00-7:00 P.M.

We will soon have a listserv for the At Large chapter. This will make it
easy for us to communicate with one another, as those with email will be
able to send an email to all those who sign up for the list. Those who sign
up will also receive announcements concerning the NFB. Sharon will let us
know the name of the listserv in the near future.

The annual day in Annapolis was recently held, and a few people who were
able to attend discussed their experiences. It seemed that everyone had a
good time and felt like they were making a difference in promoting the
issues of the NFB.

Sharon said that people are encouraged to write letters to the legislators
on the committees that will be considering the issues important to us;
mainly increased Orientation and Mobility for school-aged children and
increased rights of disabled parents in child custody disputes. She said
that if someone is unable to write a letter themselves, one can be written
on their behalf and sent with their approval. An email with more information
will be sent to those who have email, and those who do not will be contacted
by phone.

Several people on the call shared stories of people they are familiar with
who have experienced issues related to gaining custody of children while
visually-impaired, illustrating the importance of this bill.

Sharon asked if everyone is now receiving the Braille Monitor in the format
they prefer. Everyone agreed that they are, and issues people were having
were addressed and clarified.

Marguerite Woods spoke about an article from the January Braille Monitor
which was written by James Brown, the president of the NFB of Tennessee who
was also recently named to the national board of the NFB. The article
discussed changing what it means to be blind, and Marguerite made
connections between the struggles of the blind for equality to those faced
by the African-American community. She discussed how there are similar
attitudes toward these groups of people and that they have historically been
underestimated. She encouraged us to realize that we are all unique, and
there is more to us than these characteristics or the labels put on us by
society. It is up to us to choose how we define ourselves.

Judy Rasmussen also mentioned another article in the January Braille Monitor
about college students in Florida who could not get the proper
accommodations and how it negatively affected them academically. She
connected this to the NFB's current initiative concerning education, The
Teach Act.

Sharon said that in honor of the NFB's 75th anniversary, there is a goal to
get 25 new members in the state of Maryland by the time of the state
convention, which will be November 13-15 in Ocean City. She thanked those
who invited new people to join the conference call and encouraged everyone
to invite others to join us for future calls.

Sharon Haskins-Brown updated us on her job situation and said that, while
she does not have a permanent position yet and knows it is difficult to get
one at her place of employment, she has been promised one and has felt very
welcomed.

Several people discussed educating the sighted community and how we
represent the entire blind community when we interact with sighted people,
so we should do our best to interact with them and educate them in a polite
respectful manner, even though we may be frustrated with them, our
circumstances, or something completely unrelated.

Everyone agreed that this conference call with the new number was clearer
than previous calls. The number is 530-881-1000 with access code 720125.

The meeting ended at 9:00 P.M.

 

Submitted by Danielle Shives

 

 

Sharon Maneki, President

National Federation of the Blind of Maryland

410-715-9596

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/md-atlarge_nfbnet.org/attachments/20150313/237ace03/attachment.html>