[nfbmi-talk] weren't these important nfb mi minutes history hasn't gone anywhere?

[joe harcz Comcast]

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.