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

Wed Jan 20 09:56:09 UTC 2010

Actually, a bit more than that.
Here's what I believe are the final numbers.

Proof
135,235
Uncirculated
48,863
Uncirculated Easy-Open Capsule
23,078
Braille Education Set
10,698

Total
217874

J.J. Meddaugh - ATGuys.com
A premier Licensed Code Factory and KNFB Reader distributor
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "fred olver" <goodfolks at charter.net>
To: "NFB of Michigan List" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 4:13 PM
Subject: Re: [nfbmi-talk] board meeting Minutes from 12/17/09

Terry, your figures for coin sales are just a bit high, between 200 and 210
thousand, I believe. Also, to be deducted from the sale of coins is the cost
of producing the coins, an amount not known. I believe, though, the
break-even point was around $200,000.

Respectfully,
Fred Olver

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Reggie & Brooks" <regandlon at WideOpenWest.com>
To: "'NFB of Michigan List'" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 12:57 PM
Subject: Re: [nfbmi-talk] board meeting Minutes from 12/17/09

Terri, absolutely great job! Thank you so much for taking over for me! I
deeply appreciate it.  Hoping eventually to be back to normal so I can serve
again if I am asked, but too much to deal witgh at the moment but doing well
so far! Again, thanks so much for all your help!
Reggie

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of trising
Sent: Sunday, January 03, 2010 9:27 PM
To: NFB of Michigan List
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] board meeting Minutes from 12/17/09

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.

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