[nfbmi-talk] Minutes, December 16, 2010 8:30 P.M.

[trising]

Minutes, December 16, 2010 8:30 P.M.

Quorum yes Larry Posont, Terri Wilcox, Marcus Simmons, Donna Posont, Mary Wurtzel, Matt McCubbin, Michael Powell, Dave Robinson, 
Melinda Latham.

Secretary's Report. Terri Wilcox. Mary Wurtzel moved that the Secretary's Report be adopted. Donna seconded the motion. The 
Secretary's report was approved.

Treasurer's Report, Mary Wurtzel. $2500 is presently in our Treasury. We sent $500 to the National office. This was half of the 
bequest we received.

Introduction of participating Members.

A discussion ensued about the lawsuit.

We have paid down our bill.

Washington Seminar, The affiliate is paying for one room for men and one for women. The room for women may not be needed. A long 
discussion occurred about what should be done with the money that would have been used for the extra room.

 Dave Robinson suggests making a budget for us to approve for Washington Seminar.

Training of Staff. Larry Posont and Joe Sibley gave a proposal to the Commission Board concerning Staff Training. The training 
Committee should contain one National Federation of the Blind member, one American Council of the Blind member, one Commission Board 
member and one staff member. After talking with Larry Posont, Jo Ann Pilarski told Pat Cannon to make the committee smaller. Larry 
Posont wrote an email about System Seven's malfunction. The email was sent to all Commission staff. This malfunction frustrates 
staff and is a violation under Rsa. Jo Ann Pilarski called Larry Posont concerning this email. According to Heibeck, the staff is 
working even though the training center is not open. They are renting two large rooms at the hotel for rehabilitation training. Even 
the phone system at the center is not being answered or forwarded to the hotel.

Summer 2011 National Convention Transportation. Air fares are around $215.

The quarterly Board Meeting will be held at the Sparrow Professional Building, on February 12, from 11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.

Update Discussion of December 10 Commission Board Meeting. The equipment for the deaf blind at the meeting was not accessible. The 
commission board is dependent on Pat Cannon. On Thursday, Jo Ann Pilarski tried to facilitate discussion from the audience. 
Consumers do not feel that their views are regarded seriously. Rehabilitation training is primarily available for vocational 
training. The Commission Board used our objective of requiring the agency to comply with various aspects of the Monitoring Report by 
specific dates. Our training objective was not adopted.. Neither was the consumer involvement objective. Jo Ann Pilarski has asked 
for more meetings from Andy Levin. A motion was passed concerning compliance with the Monitoring Report about not requiring 
individuals to use Social Security for maintenance for college. People said they would defy it.

There was a long discussion about the RSA monitoring report.

Individuals on Social Security are not required to contribute money to their rehabilitation. Three commissioners did not have good 
dialog. Jo Ann Pilarski said that one group supported Margaret Wolf and Mike Gino, but the other group did not.

The Newsline contract is being perused by the National office. Once they look at it, Mary Wurtzel will sign it and the service will 
be turned on.

Nature's Finest Bounty Report. We could put Nature's Finest Bounty on Ebay.

Web Page There was an email concerning the web page.

Monitoring Report? There should be deadlines concerning complying with the Monitoring Report for Cannon but we suspect they will not 
be met.

A long discussion occurred about the violations of the Monitoring Report.

New Business: The next board meeting is Thursday, January 6. There should be visibility of blind people at the inauguration. Fred 
Wurtzel wrote a resolution of us to consider at the next meeting. An individual would like assistance interpreting a spread sheet 
concerning the Business Enterprise Program.

Old Business: An inquiry was made concerning whether Cannon answered the rest of our questions.

Adjourn at 9-48 P.M.

Thank you for helping change what it means to be blind in Michigan.


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