[nabentre] Chamber of Commerce and NFB

Thu Nov 20 17:44:28 UTC 2014

Peter, I am hoping you are replying to all the groups I just posted to this
one seems that you are only posting to me.

It is for networking, fundraising for scholarships for local school
districts, coming together for local events, like this Saturday, I will be
representing the Chamber at the Boy Scouts pancake Breakfast.

I also got to speak to one of our speakers who work for the local hospital
in our area, since NY State passed the Blind Patient Bill of Rights in July
2014. I am able to get the names of the people in the positions that work
here, since this particular hospital has been doing accessible discharge and
other paperwork or audio services for the blind near me when other hospitals
are having issues around the state to get what they need to do.

We also participate in our St. Patrick's Day Parade, Memorial Day Parade, we
host our annual tree lighting and other events, which brings the community
all together. 

Again, the Chamber of Commerce is the center of your local communities all
towns have them, go to a local meeting, find out when it is, you don't have
to join, bring business cards, etc.

You may also find that your local and state senators, assembly and congress
people come to the meetings, especially those that are originally for the
district that you live in. 

So when you go to Washington, DC or your local state meeting with members of
state government they know who you are.

From: Peter Donahue [mailto:pdonahue2 at satx.rr.com] 
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2014 12:28 PM
To: cheryl echevarria
Cc: braille at satx.rr.com
Subject: Chamber of Commerce and NFB

Hello Cheryl,

    Being that we're in our own business we've thought of becoming involved
in the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. The fact that such positions are
voluntary just as in NFB doesn't bother us. What becomes problematic for us
is when companies who could pay blind workers to perform duties for them
regularly expect us to work for nothing. I'm not just talking about
sheltered workshops here.

    Another reason to join a local chamber of commerce is the possibility of
generating potential sales leads. We received several audio presentations
where the speakers told us of their involvement in the local chamber of
commerce and were able to create markets for their products and services via
the chamber.

    Due to our need to build our business and partly due to some illegal
actions on the part of the Texas Affiliate we are no longer NFB members.
Daniel Carr may have told you about some of what has happened here. As long
as the current president of the San Antonio Chapter continues to serve we
will not have anything to do with this chapter. Recognizing that we could
not work with her we left the chapter last year and did not renew our
membership for 2014 something the NFB of Texas ignored and hopefully will
need to answer for it. Just as a company would not dream of firing an
employee who terminated their employment on their own we find it stupid that
an organization like the NFB would expel someone who had already left the
federation on their own. Both of us have contacted Dr. Maurer and President
Riccobono concerning this situation but have yet to hear back concerning
what action will be taken against this affiliate. Perhaps that will come up
at the NFB Board of Director's Meeting next week. We're bracing for whatever
will come.

    The above aside we've felt over the past few years that there are things
the NFB could do better but refused to consider our ideas. We felt like we
were wasting our time and decided it would be better spent building our
business particularly with Mary wanting to retire in a few years. Living on
Social Security alone won't cut it these days. Hence we want to create
additional income streams so she can retire without endangering our current
quality of life.

    We're with the camp that believes that the NFB should stress business
ownership more than working for someone else. If they were why did our
Entrepreneurs Division fold? We have also heard from blind persons in both
the NFB and ACB who believe that it's time for a new organization of blind
consumers whose mission would be similar to the NFB but would bring the
blind community together and promote the acquisition of top quality
blindness training like that offered at NFB centers and go a step further to
promote life-time self support instead of simply working for someone else.
When you're the business owner you control a lot more cards than does an
employee.

    There are currently no organized efforts to bring such a group in to
existence but there is discussion taking place among the blind community
concerning the creation of a new organization of blind consumers.

    Sorry we've been so silent. Here's hoping you, Nelson, Max and everyone
else up there are doing well. We heard about the large amount of snow
upstate New York is receiving. How is the snowfall on the island been? We
promise not to be such strangers in the future. All the best.

Peter and Mary Donahue

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