[Mn-at-large] Fwd: NFB President’s Notebook - week of 11/ 07/2016

[David Andrews]

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>President's Notebook
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>National Federation of the Blind
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>Mark A. Riccobono
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><mailto:officeofthepresident at nfb.org>officeofthepresident at nfb.org
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>(410) 659-9314
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>Dear Fellow Federationists,
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>Congratulations to a new corps of NFB state 
>affiliate presidents who have been elected 
>during the past couple of weeks. A special thank 
>you to our long-standing affiliate leaders who 
>have passed the torch of leadership forward in 
>order to keep our affiliates vibrant and 
>growing. I encourage our affiliate presidents to 
>continue to network with each other, and I urge 
>our veteran leaders to share their tremendous 
>background knowledge with our new presidents. 
>With that in mind, it seems fitting to remind 
>all affiliate presidents that we will have a 
>gathering for all affiliate presidents beginning 
>at 6:00 p.m. on January 28 at our national 
>office in Baltimore. Affiliate presidents should 
>plan to stay at the Jernigan Institute and plan 
>on meetings all day on January 29 and into the 
>evening. The group will travel together to 
>Washington on January 30. More details and a 
>survey soliciting topics for the seminar will be coming soon.
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>We have received a number of concerns about 
>Uber’s new mobile app and its accessibility. 
>We will be reaching out to our technical 
>contacts at Uber to ask what they are doing to 
>address these concerns. As you know, we have 
>been pressing Uber to build their technology 
>with accessibility and quality accessibility 
>testing but we have not yet made all of the 
>progress we would like. I wanted you to know we 
>are aware of the issue and are pursuing it.
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>Critical Actions This Week:
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>NFB Voting Hotline:
>We will be hosting an Election Day hotline for 
>blind and visually impaired voters, poll 
>workers, and voting rights advocates to call 
>when problems with accessible voting technology 
>or other barriers are preventing a blind voter 
>from casting a private and independent ballot. 
>The hotline will be available November 8, 2016, 
>from 7:00 a.m. Eastern to 10:00 p.m. Eastern 
>(7:00 p.m. Pacific). The number is (877) 632-1940.
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>News:
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>Presidential Release:
>The November Presidential Release is available 
>from the NFB website at 
><https://nfb.org/presidential-releases>https://nfb.org/presidential-releases.
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>NFB-Pearson STEM Survey
>Please take time to complete the NFB-Pearson 
>STEM survey, or encourage your child or student 
>to complete this detailed survey, by Friday, 
>December 2. Participation in the survey is 
>critical; the results will help us better 
>understand barriers blind students encounter in 
>the classroom and how to broaden access to STEM 
>subjects for future blind students. Participants 
>will be entered into a drawing to win one of twenty $25 Amazon gift cards.
><https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NFBAdultSTEM>STEM 
>survey for college students and adults
><https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NFBTeenSTEM>STEM 
>survey for middle and high school students
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>Reminders:
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>NFB Scholarship Program:
>We are accepting scholarship applications from 
>November 1, 2016, to March 31, 2017. This annual 
>program offers thirty scholarships worth from 
>$3,000 to $12,000 to eligible students, from 
>high school seniors beginning their freshman 
>year in the fall semester of 2017, up through 
>graduate students working on their PhD degrees. 
>Go to 
><http://www.nfb.org/scholarships>www.nfb.org/scholarships 
>for complete rules and requirements.
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>Parent Leadership Program (PLP):
>Our National Organization of Parents of Blind 
>Children (NOPBC) is seeking recommendations for 
>our next Parent Leadership Program (PLP) to be 
>held at the 2017 Washington Seminar. Please send 
>recommendations by Nov. 18 to 
><mailto:carol_castellano at verizon.net>carol_castellano at verizon.net. 
>Please note: PLP workshops will begin the 
>morning of Sunday, January 29, so PLP 
>participants need to arrive in DC on Saturday, 
>January 28, earlier than most seminar participants.
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>Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award Program:
>The award program will be accepting nominations 
>online from November 15, 2016, to April 15, 
>2017. Applicants must have demonstrated 
>exemplary leadership and extraordinary 
>accomplishments in improving the lives of blind 
>people in the United States. An application for 
>an award may be made either by the applicant 
>directly or by third parties who nominate an 
>applicant. Additional information can be found 
>at <https://nfb.org/bolotin-award-main>https://nfb.org/bolotin-award-main.
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>Dates to Keep in Mind:
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>·        <https://nfb.org/state-conventions>Fall Conventions
>·        November 8: Election Day; NFB voter 
>hotline available at (877) 632-1940
>·        January 30, 2017: Great Gathering-In
>·        January 30-February 2, 2017: 
><https://nfb.org/washington-seminar>Washington Seminar
>·        March 30-31, 2017: Jacobus tenBroek Law Symposium
>·        July 21-29, 2017: Youth Slam, Towson University
>·        September 12-17, 2017: BLAST, Nashville, Tennessee
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>The National Federation of the Blind 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.
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>Mark A. Riccobono, President
>National Federation of the Blind
>200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place
>Baltimore, Maryland 21230
>Phone: (410) 659-9314
>Fax: (410) 659-5129
>Email: <mailto:officeofthepresident at nfb.org>officeofthepresident at nfb.org
>Twitter: @Riccobono and @NFB_Voice
>Web: <http://www.nfb.org/>www.nfb.org
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