[MN-at-Large] Fwd: NFB President’s Notebook - week of 10/ 14/2019

[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,
>
>I have just returned from Alaska where our 
>affiliate had a strong convention full of great 
>hospitality and plans for the future. I noted 
>that Alaska was using the new streaming platform 
>we have established, and that sixty-eight unique 
>listeners tuned in. I hope you are planning to 
>use this new service from our national 
>organization. It is always rewarding to be in 
>the middle of our grassroots activities. And 
>speaking of our affiliates, in the past couple 
>of weeks we have had some changes in our affiliate presidents.
>
>Let me first give a shout out to Hawaii's 
>long-time president, Nani Fife, who turned over 
>the affiliate presidency at the most recent 
>convention, which took place at the end of 
>September. Many of you have had the opportunity 
>to get to know Nani over the years and likely 
>experienced the Hawaiian spirit she brought to 
>our movement when her affiliate helped host the 
>national convention a couple of years ago. Thank 
>you to Nani for her service and congratulations 
>to Virgil Stinnett, our newly elected president.
>
>Our North Dakota affiliate has also transitioned 
>to a new leader. Many of us will miss hearing 
>"Milton Ota from North Dakota," but the good 
>news is that Milton is still an active member of 
>our affiliate board there in the north. Thanks 
>to Milton for his service and for turning things 
>over to a new affiliate president, Jessie 
>Shirek, who is eager to grow our presence in North Dakota.
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>Recently, some presidents have asked me about 
>whether the affiliate code of conduct needs to 
>be updated. In case you missed it, the national 
>board adopted a revised policy in April of this 
>year, and it is written with the intent that it 
>applies across the organization. Therefore, 
>there is no need for every affiliate to have 
>their own version. Please link to our 
>organization's code of conduct on the affiliate 
>website by referring to this link: 
><https://www.nfb.org/about-us/history-and-governance/code-conduct>https://www.nfb.org/about-us/history-and-governance/code-conduct. 
>Continue to remind members about the code and 
>review it with your affiliate leaders periodically.
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>Have you gotten your UNO Braille cards yet? I 
>love hearing the stories about members walking 
>into Target and picking up Braille cards off the shelf.
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>Critical Actions This Week:
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>Open-House Gathering—Calls for Prospective Members:>
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>Share this event information with contacts who 
>are interested in the National Federation of the 
>Blind, but are not members yet: Sunday, October 
>20, 2019, at 4:00 p.m. EST, the National 
>Federation of the Blind is hosting another call 
>for blind people to learn about membership and 
>its benefits. This is a great opportunity to 
>hear from active members and leaders on the 
>myths and uncertainties of the Federation. Sign 
>up by emailing 
><mailto:membership at nfb.org>membership at nfb.org or 
>calling 410-659-9314, extension 2509.
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>News:
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>Presidential Release:
>The October Presidential Release is available at 
><https://www.nfb.org/resources/publications-and-media/presidential-releases>https://www.nfb.org/resources/publications-and-media/presidential-releases. 
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>Meet the Blind Month Twitter Chat: Web Accessibility:
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>There is great buzz about the activities 
>happening so far during Meet the Blind Month 
>across the nation. In addition to the many local 
>activities, the National Federation of the Blind 
>is hosting a weekly Twitter chat each Friday 
>from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. eastern in October. Here is the schedule:
>    * October 18, 2019 – Independence and 
> Traveling | 12:00 p.m. ET to 1:00 p.m. ET | #MeetTheBlind
>    * October 25, 2019 – Meet Our Members | 
> 12:00 p.m. ET to 1:00 p.m. ET | #MeetTheBlind<
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>A Twitter chat is a scheduled, organized topical 
>conversation on Twitter centralized around a 
>specific hashtag. Our hashtag is #MeetTheBlind. 
>Learn more about how to participate in the 
><nfb.htm>Meet the Blind Month Twitter chat. We 
>look forward to your participation.
>
>NFB BELL Academy Training Seminar:
>This year’s NFB BELL® Academy training 
>seminar for coordinators and teachers will take 
>place January 10-12, 2020. This year we are 
>inviting one coordinator and one teacher from 
>each veteran NFB BELL Academy state to come to 
>Baltimore for a weekend of hands-on learning and 
>preparation. If you have questions, please feel 
>free to reach out to Karen Anderson at 
><mailto:kanderson at nfb.org>kanderson at nfb.org or 410-659-9314, extension 2243.
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>October Braille Monitor Available:
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>This month’s Braille Monitor includes more 
>national convention highlights, why click-by 
>lawsuits damage our progress, coming to terms 
>with vision loss, and the partnership between 
>the National Federation of the Blind and Mattel 
>Games. 
><https://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm19/bm1909/bm1909tc.htm>Access 
>the October 
><https://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm19/bm1909/bm1909tc.htm>Braille 
>Monitor or 
><https://www.nfb.org/resources/publications-and-media/braille-monitor>subscribe 
>to the monthly publication.
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>Upcoming Braille Readers are Leaders Contest:
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>The American Action Fund for Blind Children and 
>Adults and National Federation of the Blind 
>announce the 2019-2020 nationwide Braille 
>Readers are Leaders contest for children and 
>adults. K-12 students and adults learning 
>Braille across the U.S. compete to read the most 
>Braille pages, going up against other 
>participants in similar contest categories for 
>seven weeks. Registration opens November 1, 2019 
>and the contest will be from December 1, 2019 to 
>January 18, 2020. It isn’t too early to start 
>getting ready for the contest. One way to 
>prepare is by getting books from 
><https://sharebraille.org/>ShareBraille.org now.
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>Name Change at NLS:
>Effective October 1, NLS has a new name: 
>National Library Service for the Blind and Print 
>Disabled. The goal of the name change is to 
>remove outdated language in the old name and 
>replace it with wording that more clearly 
>communicates the audience that they serve. They 
>will continue to use NLS as the abbreviation.
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>Reminders:
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>Changes to Affiliate and Division Boards:
>All changes to your boards should be sent to 
>Beth Braun at <mailto:bbraun at nfb.org>bbraun at nfb.org.
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>AIRA Access for Fall Convention:
>It has come to my attention that some affiliates 
>have offered the Aira corporation free 
>sponsorship or exhibit space in exchange for 
>site access at the affiliate convention. Please 
>note that you are not required to do this. Here 
>is exactly what is stated in the current 
>agreement between NFB and Aira: "Aira will 
>continue to provide Access at the NFB National 
>Convention and at State conventions. In return, 
>the NFB agrees to promote Aira at its functions 
>and through its communications tools."
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>You are not required to trade anything to get 
>site access at your convention; every affiliate 
>has the right to it already. If you wish to give 
>more to Aira than simply promoting the 
>availability of the service and encouraging 
>members to try it out, that is up to you. 
>However, if a representative of the company 
>tells you they would like something in exchange, 
>please note that they are operating on the 
>principle that it does not hurt to ask. Please 
>do not let them tell you this is a requirement 
>to get the service and please do not believe 
>that the national organization requires it. We 
>negotiated our partnership agreement to give 
>every affiliate site access with the promise 
>that we would encourage affiliates to promote 
>its availability. If the company tells you there 
>is a dollar value to the service, they are 
>telling the truth. However, we negotiated for 
>that value already. You are not expected and 
>should not be expected to give more in return. 
> From there, you should make the call about what 
>to give anyway to any for-profit company gaining 
>value from being part of our convention. I give 
>you this background to clarify the situation. By 
>the way, the existing partnership agreement with Aira ends in January 2020.
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>Did You Know?
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>Guitar Chords for “Live the Life You Want”:
>Chorus -
>Play three times through G E minor C G
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>Lift -
>D-E minor-C-G
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>Verse -
>Play two times through E minor-C-G
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>Lift -
>D-C
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>Bridge -
>G-C-G
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>Dates to Keep in Mind:
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>    * January 10-12, 2020: BELL® Academy Training Seminar
>    * February 10, 2020: Great Gathering-In; Washington Seminar begins
>    * March 26-27, 2020: Jacobus tenBroek Law Symposium, Baltimore, Maryland
>    * April 14-17, 2020: 
> <http://www.blindmerchants.org>NABM BLAST; Chicago, Illinois
>    * June 30-July 5, 2020: NFB National Convention, Houston, Texas
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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.
>
>
>Mark A. Riccobono, President
>200 East Wells Street, Baltimore, MD 21230
>(410) 659-9314 | 
><mailto:officeofthepresident at nfb.org>officeofthepresident at nfb.org
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>
><https://nfb.org/>
>National Federation of the Blind
>
>
> 
><http://www.facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind>
>Facebook
>     <https://twitter.com/NFB_Voice>
>Twitter
>     <https://www.youtube.com/NationsBlind>
>Youtube
>
>
>The National Federation of the Blind is a 
>community of members and friends who believe in 
>the hopes and dreams of the nation’s blind. 
>Every day we work together to help blind people live the lives they want.
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