[nfbmi-talk] board meeting Minutes from 12/17/09

[trising]

NFB of Michigan

Minutes from Conference call 12/17/09



8-30 call to order

Approximately 15 people attended the meeting. There was a quorum.



Secretary Issue: The board decided I, Terri Wilcox will be secretary until 
the November elections.



 Treasurer Report: Paid hotel bill.



Braille Coins: All Braille coin money needs to be collected and given to 
Peter so Fred can be reimbursed, as he paid for Braille coins. Total coin 
sales are around 220 thousand sold. This gives NFB  4.4 million to be used 
for promoting Braille literacy.

A book describing what blind people do with Braille in their  jobs will be 
given to the Secretary of Education sometime in February



Committees:



Membership Committee will not conduct business until after the first of the 
year.

Fund Raising Committee: Mary Wurtzel found a company with fund raising 
potential in Wisconsin.

Legislative Committee:  Dave Robinson discussed a time for the legislative 
breakfast possibly on Wednesday during the third or fourth week of February.

Website Committee: It was decided that changing the website back from a blog 
to an actual website would be favorable. This would be done through 
www.druple.org



State Convention: Doubletree  Dearborn $85 per night per room bids expected 
from Kalamazoo.



 Newsline:  Michigan subsidizes the Newsline service.  Members have 
expressed concerns about the lack of content in some of the MI papers on 
Newsline.  Larry will follow up with the National office on increasing the 
content.



February Board Meeting: February 20, 2010. 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. Library of 
Michigan Lake Superior Room.  We will arrange with blind vendors for lunch. 
Marcus Simmons moved and Mike Powell seconded the motion



Washington Seminar: One room will be state sponsored for ladies and one room 
for men. Arrangements are being made for legislative appointments.

Youth for Washington Seminar: Mentors are still needed for youth. Youth will 
also have one room for ladies and one for gentlemen. Youth will attend 
legislative appointments.

Michigan applied for Bell grant and we will hear at the beginning of the 
year if we received it.



Commission for the Blind: Pat Cannon seems reluctant to work with Michigan 
NFB. He only wants our help in certain circumstances if we are willing to do 
things his way. There is a false assumption that the NFB runs the Michigan 
Commission for the Blind. He draws our attention to a possible merger of the 
Commission for the blind with the general Rehabilitation Agency in Michigan. 
Fred Wurtzel asked for old files off the web page about the necessity of 
separate agencies. Since it is desirable to keep agencies separate, National 
office is willing to assist with new data from John Paré.  The Jim Omvig 
1982 Speech from Convention Is a valuable resource for articulating the 
superiority of separate agencies. Previous work done in 2003 on the agency 
merger issue can be reused. There is an NFB and ACB agreement that states 
that both blindness organizations will work together to fight agency merger. 
Elizabeth Mohnke wonders if we should be proactive and make our point of 
view known to legislators?

Larry inquired about the audit relating to the Commission for the Blind and 
its performance. The final version is not available yet but will be on the 
Commission's website when it is finished.  job placement last year was 
225/165. It is unclear what was meant by these statistics.



Friday Commission for the Blind Meeting: Fred Wurtzel pointed out that 
Commission did not use blind vendors to provide food or have the meeting at 
a blind vendor's facility.

College Policy: The policy is still broken. Student complaints are not 
addressed in a timely manner. Geri Taeckens questioned if the whole policy 
is so broken to be unacceptable by the commission board. There is another 
college policy meeting January 6, 2-4 P.M. We need plenty of representation 
at the three college policy meetings already scheduled, especially the one 
on January 6, as Fred will be absent.

The Attorney General's ruling about vending stand facilities got good 
coverage at the meeting. Pat Canon's false assumptions about the vending 
stand program were briefly discussed.

Larry wants 4 opportunities for public comments in meetings.

The issue of air rifle shooting at the center came up at the end of the 
meeting. It is suspected it was left to the end of the meeting to avoid 
public comment. The air rifle shooting program at the Training center is no 
longer permitted. We will do what we can to bring back this confidence 
builder with or without the support of Commission staff.  The commission is 
trying to make it look like Christine Boone did something wrong, but she did 
not.

Scholarship applicants need a letter from the state president to the 
scholarship committee from the state president. The applicant needs to be 
interviewed and a recommendation made. All scholarship applications are Due 
March 31. Address this in the next few meetings. Remind Larry to look into 
scholarship presidential requirements. Mainly he needs to assign someone to 
handle scholarship requirements or decide whether to tackle them himself.



Georgia Kitchen brought up the need to decide who handles correspondence to 
and from people who donate to Newsline.  We also need to decide whose 
address should be in correspondence so people who donate know where to send 
checks. One major donation was from the Drier Foundation 2009 of 10,000. 
Georgia will follow up with Scott to make sure we received this donation and 
payment from the State of Michigan.



The next board meeting is in 3 weeks on Thursday, January 7 at 8-30.



Adjourn at 10:07 pm.