[NFBF-Tampa] Tampa Bay Chapter Meeting Minutes March 2022

[Sherrill O'Brien]

Hello all,

 

The minutes are pasted below and also attached.

 

See you at Beefs with my new dog Amber.

 

Cheers

Sherrill

 

Tampa Bay Chapter

National Federation of the Blind of Florida

Chapter Meeting Minutes

March 26, 2022

Beef O ' Brady's

8810 North Himes Avenue

Tampa, Florida

 

The meeting was called to order by President Miranda Kilby at 12:15PM.

We said the NFB pledge altogether.

All introduced themselves. There were  16 persons in attendance, including
5 participating via the Zoom platform.

 

Secretary and Treasurer Reports

A motion was made by  Dan, seconded by Barbara, to approve the  February
2022 meeting minutes as emailed. The motion passed.

Dan gave the treasurer's report. Our current balance is $1,684.96.

A motion was made by Paul, seconded by Sherrill, to accept the treasurer's
report as read. The motion passed.

 

President's Report

Miranda encouraged everyone to make plans to attend the NFBF State
convention which will be held from October 6 to 8 at the River Walk Marriott
in Jacksonville.

Miranda said DBS has a contract with the company Vispero, formerly Freedom
Scientific, for obtaining Zoom Text or JAWS for free. In addition to DBS
clients, all who are registered with the Talking Book program are eligible.
Barbara said the company Orcam currently has a discount on their glasses.

 

 

 

Social Activities

Yvonne is the chair of this committee. Suggestions for chapter social events
include:

attending a comedy club night in Ybor City

going to Zoo Tampa

spending time together at Tampa's River Walk

participating in community events such as walk-a-thons for MS or the
American Heart Association

Paul said we might want to take a trip to the Tampa Convention Center
because at present it is not very accessible since there is no Braille
signage and the elevator does not work. Louise said Tampa's ADA coordinator
Raquel Pancho would be a good resource to help with this situation. 

 

Fund Raising

Gloria is the chair of the fundraising committee and would like as many
members as possible to get involved. She will be calling a committee meeting
soon and invited everyone to attend. Miranda added that fund raising is
especially important at this time so we can avoid paying the monthly bank
fee for failing to keep the increased higher minimum in our account.

We discussed at length various fundraising possibilities. They include;

Bowling at Pin Chasers, which would be a chapter social event, but could
also be a fundraising activity

Selling chocolate bars or similar candy through Yvonne's office

Holding a car wash, reaching out to the Delta Gamma service sorority as we
did in the past, or inviting the students in the Lighthouse summer
transition program to participate

Hosting a dinner or gala, for example inviting doctors, with an
ophthalmologist as the speaker,  then followed up by pertinent NFB
information to help educate them

Participating with a Lions Club in events such as garage sales

Membership

Barbara Gaw is the chair of the Membership Committee. Miranda said we need
to regain former members and recruit new ones. We discussed growing the
chapter.

 

Community Awareness

Miranda would like someone to take the lead on community awareness projects
such as having a table at festivals or educational events. She also
suggested reaching out to high school drivers' Ed classes to help make both
students and their teachers aware of the importance of what to do when they
see someone with a cane or guide dog. 

 

TD Tampa Bay

Sewar is composing a letter and would like our help. She said hopefully we
will get this service back in July.

 

Blind Education and Awareness Month (formerly known as Meet the Blind Month

We discussed this month long event, held in October. Gloria said we could
perhaps try to get a proclamation from Tampa's mayor as we did in the past.

 

Member News

We were thrilled to learn that Z'Leah has been accepted to USF.

Paul asked who is making plans to attend our national convention in July in
New Orleans. So far five members plan to attend.

Paul distributed his NFBF President business cards to hand out when
appropriate.

 

Our  50/50 fundraiser drawing was won by Noe Villeda, who received $38.

 

Our next meeting will be held on April 23.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:40PM.

 

Respectfully submitted

Sherrill O'Brien, Secretary

Tampa Bay Chapter

National Federation of the Blind of Florida

 

Phone 813-935-0474, cell 813-767-1890

email Sherrill.obrien at verizon.net <mailto:Sherrill.obrien at verizon.net> 

 

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise
expectations because low expectations create barriers between blind people
and our dreams. You can live the life you want! Blindness is not what holds
you bac

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfbf-tampa_nfbnet.org/attachments/20220422/6fafd7f2/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Tampa Bay Chapter Meeting Minutes March 2022.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 25321 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfbf-tampa_nfbnet.org/attachments/20220422/6fafd7f2/attachment.docx>