[NFB-Kzoo] july meeting notes

[Amyrillis Payne]

Kalamazoo Chapter Meeting comes to order at 8:09 pm on July 22.2020



Roll-Robert P/president, Rashid D/Vice President, Monet P/secretary, Victor
M/treasurer, Rachel P/member, Jason M /member, Taylor A/visitor, Hailee
L/visitor, Elizabeth M/visitor, Ellis S/visitor, Lucy R/visitor and Osman
K-Visitor



Purpose-

1.talking about where to move forward as a chapter with the upcoming fall
semester

Summary of announcements from WMU/Summery- Some students have online
courses, some have face to face courses, and some will have hybrids which
is a mix between both styles.

Victor make a motion that we we continue on zoom meetings for future
meetings as long as Covid-19 is still in effect and group seconds this
motion.



Next topic- Availability for meetings

Jason motions for the Third Tuesday of every month at 8pm virtually. Rachel
P seconds and motion is approved



Next Topic-Social Media

Talia is no longer in charge of social media operations due to personal
reasons.



New social media suggestions by Robert are getting a committee to work on
helping promote the chapter as well as get more individuals involved.

Our goal is to get those who are not on social media more involved and
still find a way to get to those individuals the info who are not on social
media.

We also discussed getting the word out by fundraising with local businesses

Jason and Rachel agree to team up on marketing and are still looking for
other recruitments to assist with marketing outreach for the chapter.



Ellis would prefer to be contacted by home phone. He says to leave a
voicemail if he is unable to answer the phone.

Lucy would prefer email, phone or text.



Next topic- Treasury

Monet creates minutes including motion to adding Robert (President) and
Victor (treasurer) to PNC account sign with ink and take to bank.  $371
from state convention sales as well as the 7 dues ($5 each person) paid
earlier this year. Rashid, Monet, Robert, Tony, Brielle, Talia, and Victor

Constitution is already provided to also be submitted to the bank

Rachel P motions that Monet will get minutes to Robert P and Victor M to
sign.

Monet seconds this motion.



Next topic- National Convention recap

Rachel shares that she enjoyed the Blind Inc. session that shared a virtual
tour of their training center. She took away good networking and projects
from this event.

Taylor shares that she enjoyed the networking experience from convention.

Jason enjoyed the Black leaders of the federation panel because it was
eye-opening.

Victor our scholarship winner for Michigan, enjoyed the Friday General
Sessions, found the advocating skills of other individuals with test taking
issues/accessibility issues as empowering and he enjoyed the quality of the
speakers. He took away great networking with his mentors as well. He also
shared a blog post for his takeaways from the scholarship.

Robert really enjoyed the session about blind members of sororities and
fraternities.

He also enjoyed the rollcall of the states to see how they are doing and to
see everything the other states are up to.

He also enjoyed the presidential speech.

Robert also made National Board for NABS for the next year.



Next topic- upcoming projects

Robert want to focus on national cane safety day and national meet the
blind month in October. The federation holds public events to bring
community awareness to the blind community.

Jason, Robert, and Victor discuss planning a bar crawl fundraising event.

Jason bring attention to the Kalamazoo community doing fundraising downtown
and working with local bars on doing discounts/doing a drink special to
bring attention to the chapter. Possibly a Halloween event in October. (We
are aware that many bars are closed now but this plan is with the hope that
some will be open in October covid or not.)

Elizabeth suggests having a backup plan in case this virus gets worse or
continues.

Jason says a backup could be a virtual event held through zoom.

Rachel suggests virtual games or raffles virtually.

Victor suggests a restaurant that would donate deals on food in comparison
to bars and drinks.

Jason is chairing a committee on October fundraising.

Victor and Robert agree to join and help Jason on this committee for
October planning.



Last topic- Membership for new members

Ellis says he is not in school currently but he is very interested in
getting involved with the federation because they have been a huge help for
him in his personal life, he also looks forward to helping other blind
individuals in the community.



Lucy says she is a student at Western. She is a senior. She is hoping to
bring change to the community as well as gaining more tools to bring use
for self-advocacy for all individuals with disabilities especially those on
campus.



Closing thoughts

Where is state convention being held? It is virtual via zoom on November 6-8
th

Keep an eye out for more info about the convention.

Scholarship applications are out and available to be downloaded online now!

$1000-Wilcox award

$5000-Harris award

$250- Book award

One application will make you eligible for all. look for these on,

Nfbmi.org/scholarship



National convention- located in New Orleans Luiseno 2021 confirmation that
2023 will be back in Houston to make up for this year. 2022 location has
not been announced



Close meeting 9:05 pm