[NFBF-Tampa] Tampa Bay Chapter Meeting Minutes for January, 2017

Mon Feb 20 23:03:58 UTC 2017

Hello to all, and Happy Presidents Day!

Did you know that the first recording which exists of the voice of a U.S.
president was made on a wax cylinder in 1889, and it was President Benjamin
Harrison! Wow that was over 125 years ago! You can easily Google it and hear
it online.

Now I'll put on my secretary's hat, whatever that looks like (haha!)

Pasted below my signature are last month's minutes, including all the
suggestions which were made during our brainstorming session. They are
therefore more lengthy than usual. So I hope all will read them so we can
dispense with their reading  at the chapter meeting. Of course I'm more than
willing to read them if that is needed.

Please don't hesitate to send me an email if you see something which needs
to be corrected.

Warm regards

Sherrill O'Brien, Secretary

Tampa Bay Chapter         

National Federation of the Blind of Florida

Chapter Meeting Minutes

January 28, 2017

Beef O'Brady's

8810 N. Himes Avenue

Tampa, Florida

The meeting was called to order by President Miranda Kilby at about 12:40?
All introduced themselves. There were about 20 in attendance. Miranda
invited all to pay their annual dues of $10, either during this meeting or
at February's.

Treasurer's and Secretary's Reports

Dan stated that the current chapter balance is $3,435.45. A motion was made
by Merry, seconded by Noe, to approve the treasurer's report as read. The
motion passed.

A motion was made by Marion, seconded by Merry, to approve the minutes as
emailed. The motion passed.

President's Report

Washington Seminar

Miranda congratulated Merry, who is the only member from our chapter
attending. There were just eight NFBF members selected this year to
participate, along with our state president Denise Valkema. 

Telephone Communications and Planning

Miranda mentioned that NFBF offers many committees and subcommittees which
are open to all who are interested, including Senior Concerns and the Events
Committee which does all planning for the state convention. This committee
is broken into many subcommittees, so there are lots of areas of interest
from which chapter members can choose. Just let Gloria know, as she chairs
the Events Committee. The next Events Committee meeting will take place on
Wednesday, February 8 at 8:00pm.

Miranda invited everyone to participate in the interest topic conference
calls, which take place every two months. The next one, dealing with NFB
philosophy, will be held on the first Sunday in March.

Student Scholarships

Paul, who chairs the Student Scholarship committee, announced that again
this year there will be three scholarship winners at our state convention,
each receiving $1500. The chapter Board met the previous Tuesday, January
25, and voted that our chapter will once again sponsor a scholarship, paying
$750 of the $1500 scholarship. The affiliate pays the other half.Paul asked
us to promote the scholarship by sharing the scholarship application. It can
be found on both our affiliate's  website and FaceBook page. Miranda agreed
to Sherrill's request to send the application out to our members via our
chapter listserv.  

Miranda mentioned that we have 536 likes on our affiliate FaceBook page.

2016 report: "what we did last year"

Miranda gave a summary of the events and activities in which our chapter
participated in 2016. She thanked everyone for their enthusiasm and
involvement.

Screening of important documentary

Miranda asked Merry to give a report on the Bottom Dollars documentary event
which was held on January 21 at the John F. Germany Library in downtown
Tampa. Merry and Marion organized the event, with the help of library staff.
Merry and Marion provided refreshments. Though the attendance was small,
those who saw the documentary were very moved by it, and expressed a desire
to work to get legislation passed which would outlaw the paying of
subminimum wages to disabled workers. Miranda will suggest to President
Denise Valkema  that the documentary be shown at our state convention.

Possible Chapter Activities/Goals in 2017

Miranda started out the sharing of ideas  by calling the brainstorming
session "What we would like to do in 2017". She asked all to give
suggestions. The following are the ideas, in no particular order of
importance, of various members, which came out of this valuable discussion.

Gloria: Reach out to parents of blind children

Barbara: Make an effort to occasionally just have fun together to build
chapter camaraderie

Sherrill: meet as a chapter at one of the movie theater complexes and take
advantage of the audio description now available for most movies. Sherrill
volunteered to look into and coordinate such an activity.

Merry: Ask the chapter Board to Consider both convenience and growth of the
chapter by meeting in a more central location such as downtown Tampa or
meeting every other month in the Brandon area

Marion: *Make sure that the Bottom Dollars documentary is made available to
USF students in a timely manner, before the end of the current term. Marion
volunteered to coordinate this effort. The contact person at USF is Raquel
Pancho, associate director of Students with Disabilities Services.

Vandelon: take the lead as a chapter inn promoting legislation relating to
the subminimum wage issue

Miranda will ask the State Board if they would like the affiliate to get
more involved with this legislation.

Marion: Continue the tradition of holding a White Cane Safety Day event
during Meet the Blind month in October

Miranda: Look into getting a grant from Kohl's department stores. They can
send out volunteers to help with an event such as our annual pancake
breakfast. They also have grants available of a minimum of $500, which we
could also use for the breakfast  or other projects.

Miranda: Give a chapter  pledge of $250 to the affiliate as we did last year
at state convention. Merry suggested we give ten percent of our income for
that year as a pledge, 

Vandelon: Make growing chapter membership a priority, working to include
those from the east side of Hillsborough County

Marion: Sponsor a meal to which we would invite the public. They would give
a donation and at the same time learn about blindness and what the   NFB
chapter is all about. It could also be a means for chapter building.

Merry: Consider fundraising with the World's Finest Chocolate Bars. Merry
will look into this.

State Convention

Miranda announced that the state convention will be held in Orlando over the
Memorial Day weekend, May 26 to 29. The dates were changed back to that time
of year because it was easier to get better hotel rates than in January.
Rooms will cost $99 plus tax. Miranda urged everyone to attend, and said the
chapter would like to help them by paying some expenses.

Paul suggested that we could Get all the money back that we payed for the
NFB totes by  selling those we have left over to the affiliate. They can
then be used as goody bags at state convention registration.  We will need
to pool all the bags Miranda and other members took home but have not sold.
There should be enough  for handing out at convention.

Dian Bradley asked about transportation to the convention.  Miranda said
that the most inexpensive way to get to Orlando is by train. Paul said that
the affiliate is working with the hotel to see whether they can use their
shuttle service to pick people up from the train station, which is only one
mile outside their service boundary.

To celebrate members' birthdays during 2016, Miranda surprised us with
cupcakes for all.

The 50/50 drawing was won by Merry Schoch.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:45pm.

Respectfully submitted

Sherrill O'Brien, Secretary

Tampa Bay Chapter

National Federation of the Blind of Florida

National Federation of the Blind

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