<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv=content-type></HEAD>
<BODY style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space" dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000">
<DIV>Hi, everyone. I am not in the Florida affiliate, although I was when
I lived in Martin County. I agree with a lot of the sentiments expressed
in this thread. I am President of the Maine affiliate, and I live in the
wilds of Aroostook County, the northernmost county of Maine. It’s
beautiful, but I sometimes call it the land God forgot, and one reason for that
is the lack of public transportation of any kind. Up here they have never
heard of ride shares like Uber or Lyft. But that by itself can be a huge
reason why people who are very active may not make it to face-to-face
meetings. Most of our members are in southern and central Maine. I
am fortunate to have friends who encourage me to stay with them when I come down
for events such as our state convention. But the point is that there are
those of us who live in areas where transportation is scarce to nonexistent, so
I think active, dues-paying members should not be penalized and told they have
no say in elections because of something like that that they cannot
control. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000">Mark Tardif
<BR>Nuclear arms will not hold you. </DIV>
<DIV
style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma">
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=nfbf-l@nfbnet.org
href="mailto:nfbf-l@nfbnet.org">NancyEpps--- via NFBF-L</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, June 01, 2023 9:31 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=brian.edward.norton@outlook.com
href="mailto:brian.edward.norton@outlook.com">Brian Norton</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Cc:</B> <A title=nancyepps@cfl.rr.com
href="mailto:nancyepps@cfl.rr.com">NancyEpps@cfl.rr.com</A> ; <A
title=curlygirl55@icloud.com
href="mailto:curlygirl55@icloud.com">curlygirl55@icloud.com</A> ; <A
title=coffeycup1967@gmail.com href="mailto:coffeycup1967@gmail.com">Judy
Adkins</A> ; <A title=peggyfleischer@bellsouth.net
href="mailto:peggyfleischer@bellsouth.net">peggyfleischer@bellsouth.net</A> ; <A
title=nfbf-daytona@nfbnet.org href="mailto:nfbf-daytona@nfbnet.org">NFB-GDB
listst</A> ; <A title=ironman59@gmail.com
href="mailto:ironman59@gmail.com">ironman59@gmail.com</A> ; <A
title=briannortonflalaw@gmail.com
href="mailto:briannortonflalaw@gmail.com">briannortonflalaw@gmail.com</A> ; <A
title=nfbf-l@nfbnet.org href="mailto:nfbf-l@nfbnet.org">NFB of Florida Internet
Mailing List</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [NFBF-L] My resignation</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV
style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 15px">Hi, Federationists,</SPAN>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 15px"><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 15px">Another organization I belong to has recently
banned digital board meetings, and I did not agree with that, either. We have a
board member who is in the hospital, several are traveling at this time of year,
etc., and I don’t feel they should be excluded from participating in important
decisions if they want to attend by Zoom, Teams, etc. I teach microbiology, a
rather difficult course, primarily online, and it works fine.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 15px"><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 15px">Brian, please speak with Russ and make a plan
to talk with national about this vexing overreach. It would be helpful to at
least understand their logic. Ryan’s comparison to local and national elections
is valid. We demand a secret ballot in those cases.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 15px"><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 15px">Respectfully,</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 15px"><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 15px">Nancy<BR></SPAN>
<DIV>
<DIV><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
<DIV>On Jun 1, 2023, at 9:22 AM, Brian Norton
<brian.edward.norton@outlook.com> wrote:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>Hello Ryan and interested NFB members,<BR>Our chapter membership is very
active, and we enjoy meeting in person.<BR>However, during our once a year
elections, I agree that our local chapter should decide how we should vote on
our officers and board. <BR>We should encourage election rules which promote
greater participation of that decision-making group.<BR>It should be up to our
chapter membership not the National or State boards to conduct our local
elections. There always exist exceptional or unique different individual
situations where remote participation is the democratic solution as determined
by a clear majority of our chapter. and our chapter should be the appropriate
body to consider and decide the best determination in those circumstances to
comply with ADA standards.<BR><BR>Our chapter membership is already limited in
selection of our state and national officers by the rule that voting is
limited to those few NFB members who personally attend the conventions. Those
state and national officers are often a small self-perpetuating group, and
many NFB members who are very active on the local level are unable to attend
the state and national conventions.<BR><BR>Our NFBF local GDB chapter
should encourage growth of active members with rules encouraging
inclusive participation, and avoid restrictive rules which deny full
participation, especially for members who can participate only remotely
because of health or other excusable individual circumstances.<BR><BR>Also,
our local NFBF Greater Daytona Beach chapter members are often close friends,
and we should avoid conflicts sometimes caused by choosing between friends,
and vote instead by secret ballot.<BR>I appreciate the concerns of Mary Ellen,
and am sorry that these restrictive chapter voting rules caused the
resignation of our valued board member.<BR>Brian Norton<BR>Florida Bar
#1033481<BR>Regional Civil and Criminal Conflict Counsel 5th District Florida
National Federation of the Blind of Florida NFBF Greater Daytona Beach
President NFBF Deaf Blind Division President Conklin Davis Center for the
Visually Impaired Board Member First Christian Church Daytona
Elder&trustee<BR>386.871.3359(cell)<BR>386.238.4959RCC
office)<BR>bnorton@rc5state.com<BR>brian.edward.norton@outlook.com<BR>briannorton.flalaw@gmail.com<BR>“Kindness
is an attitude the Blind can see and the Deaf can hear” Mark
Twain<BR><BR><BR>-----Original Message-----<BR>From: Ryan Mann
<rmann0581@gmail.com> <BR>Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2023 8:44 PM<BR>To:
Brian Norton <brian.edward.norton@outlook.com><BR>Cc:
Peggyfleischer@bellsouth.net; Nancy Epps <nancyepps@cfl.rr.com>;
ironman59@gmail.com; briannortonflalaw@gmail.com; Russell@radiorusty.com;
paul09ms@gmail.com; treasurer@nfbflorida.org; secretary@nfbflorida.org;
curlygirl55@icloud.com<BR>Subject: Re: My resignation<BR><BR>I respect
Maryellen for taking this stand. I think local chapters should have more
control over things such as elections. They tell local chapters that we cannot
do elections virrtually. The national organization does not know what
health problems chapter members may have. Maybe somebody doesn’t feel
comfortable being in large groups of people because of certain health
problems. Should somebody like this be denied the right to fully
participate in the organization? <BR>The organization made it a lot more
difficult to vote using secret ballots. In the past, the national
organization went to court so we could vote using secret ballots in US
elections. If local chapters want to easily have secret ballots, why
should the national organization discourage that? <BR><BR>Ryan
Mann<BR>Certified Assistive Technology Instructional Specialist
rmann0581@gmail.com<BR>386-383-5175<BR><BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">On May 29, 2023, at 1:52 PM, Brian Norton
<brian.edward.norton@outlook.com> wrote:<BR>Hello NFBF officers,
board members, and chapter members, With regret, <BR>I have included the
resignation letter of our board member Mary Ellen, which I announced at our
May chapter meetings.<BR>I also announced my appointment of Steve Williamson
to replace her position.<BR>I am very grateful for her service in our
chapter, Brian Norton NFBF <BR>Greater Daytona Beach
President<BR>386.871.3359<BR><BR>-----Original Message-----<BR>From: Mary
Ottman <curlygirl55@icloud.com><BR>Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2023 11:42
PM<BR>To: Brian Norton <brian.edward.norton@outlook.com><BR>Subject:
My resignation<BR><BR>Dear President Norton:<BR><BR>I am resigning my
position as a board member of the Daytona Beach chapter of the national
Federation of the blind effective immediately. I am doing this because I am
displeased with the heavy handed leader ship from our national
organization.<BR><BR>I wish you and all of our members
well.<BR><BR>Sincerely,<BR>Mary Ellen
Ottman<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV>
<P>
<HR>
_______________________________________________<BR>NFBF-L mailing
list<BR>NFBF-L@nfbnet.org<BR>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbf-l_nfbnet.org<BR>To
unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
NFBF-L:<BR>http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbf-l_nfbnet.org/markspark%40roadrunner.com<BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>