[NFBMI-Talk] March 7, 2020 Board Meeting Minutes

[Diana Mohnke]

Here are the minutes from the March 7, 2020 board meeting.
Diana 


National Federation of the Blind of Michigan state board meeting
March 7, 2020
Dispatch Sports Pub & Grill, Lansing, MI

The meeting was called to order at 11:14 am by President Mike Powell. 

Quorum: all board members were present.  Mike Powell, JJ Meddaugh, Sabrina Simmons, Diana Mohnke, Mark Eagle, Fred Wurtzel, Robert Parsons, Jeff Crouch and Darryl Rice. 

Introduction of members and guests.

President Powell read the proposed agenda. Sabrina moved to accept the agenda as presented, Darryl seconded and it passed.  

Welcoming remarks and lunch details, Fred Wurtzel.  There will be a $7 discount coupon to be used for the purchase of your lunch. 

Secretary’s Report, Diana Mohnke.  Sabrina moved to approve the minutes as read, JJ seconded and it passed with additions. 


Treasurer’s report, Mark Eagle.  As of March 7, 2020 General Fund has $10,261.66; Newsline has $8,794.03; PayPal has $96.80 and Youth Grant has $3,158.56.  Fred moved to accept the report, Jeff seconded and it passed.  The Detroit chapter gave $232 check to the state affiliate. 

President’s report, Mike Powell. 
Mike has continued to receive inquiries from people with questions about blindness.  If people are near a local chapter Mike steer them to the chapter president.  The national office is now sending each state a CSV (advance datasheet) form that has all the states chapter information that was entered in the spreadsheets turned in last year.  Mike will go through the list to see if members are current or lapsed and contact each chapter president for updated information. 
Everyone who joins the organization from this point on has to be submitted with a new membership form.  There is a new membership toolkit for chapters that was on the chapter president’s listserv.  New members get a packet and then are formally voted upon into the organization.  Our pledge and one minute message should be said when voting new members in.  We need to update our constitution to reflect this.  JJ made motion that each local chapter check their current constitution and make any amendment’s regarding voting members in and have them voted on at the next state board meeting.  Sabrina seconded the motion and it passed. 

January 9 we had our first mini conference board meeting.  Committees were assigned at the meeting.  Fred transportation; Mark state legislation; JJ National legislation; Diana membership; Sabrina and Mark fundraising; Darryl and Pat Pyle seniors; Jeff communications; Robert scholarships; Fred youth outreach and JJ convention. 
Hayley and Nick resigned their positions as treasurer of the student division and treasurer of the Genesee chapter.  Jeff closed the account for the Genesee chapter.  Georgia Kitchen was elected their treasurer and Jeff will give the money for the Genesee chapter to mark. 

Mike had a meeting with Robert, mark and Shannon McVoy to discuss student Midwest seminar.  Robert stated there were originally 15 students registered for the seminar, 9 were approved.  Two students are underage so mandated that youth transition staff have to be there.  These staff will be attending a different part of the seminar rather than going to take notes of what the students do. 

Mike Spoke with Brian Mackey to see if he is still going to work on our website, want to get him started to get our website updated.  We are one of the 19 websites that he will be working on. 
On February 8 Mike went to Baltimore for president’s seminar that led into Washington Seminar that started February 10.  Sabrina stated that there was a great team that attended Washington Seminar.  Everyone was on point and participated, JJ did an excellent job on setting up appointments. 

In February Mike was contacted by a lady in a rehab facility after having an operation and the rehab facility will not release her unless she can get three meals a day and is supervised because she is blind.  The lady has no training in blindness.  Problem with protective services in Michigan is that if you are blind, no questions asked they assume you need a guardian.  The lady does have other issues besides blindness. 

Mike sent a letter to our parents Facebook group last week.  We need to be meeting with parents and interacting with them.

Upcoming events and activities
April 2 meeting with airport
April 22 Low Vision Expo in Rochester
April 23 and 24 MAER conference
May 13 Visions 20/20 in Ann Arbor

Priorities and committees 
Legislation, Mark.  Wants to set a date for date for a legislative day sometime this spring.  Parental bill of rights is ready to go out to legislators.  Voting education and voter equipment will be a bigger struggle.  Fred, Mike and Mark have all gone to town hall meetings with the Secretary of State.  We have also tried talking with the Bureau of Elections several times.  If they are not willing to make machines accessible, then the absentee process should be accessible.  If people have difficulty voting on Tuesday, they need to put their experiences in writing.  Fred wants Mike to contact Mark Riccobono about filing a lawsuit regarding voting, leadership of voting elections do not think there are any problems. 
Sabrina went to a poll training and they separated those who had disabilities from everyone else.  She was told to go to a website to register as a poll worker and it was not accessible.  Sabrina will be working at a polling location that is not her own.  Sabrina and Darryl will be filing absentee for Tuesday’s election. 
Sabrina moved that Mike talk with Mark Riccobono about filing a lawsuit regarding voting and has support from the board, Diana seconded and it passed. 

Mark will look into having a legislative day and will be setting up a committee meeting soon. 

Fundraising, Sabrina.   No one attended the conference call.  Ideas of holding a raffle at national convention, hold a raffle for state convention.  Sabrina found application for license to do raffle.  If anyone has any ideas for fundraising let Sabrina know. 

Parent’s activity.  Fred moved that Mike form a group to create a structured discovery event focused on parents and youth, Diana seconded and it passed. 

SASS, Fred.  This year’s theme is web of life.  Shannon McVoy wants to be involved in planning.  They will also meet with Roxane and Jill from camp T.  Supportive of having one touch at camp but have limited time. 

National convention.  We may have money to help with assistance regarding what we do for fundraising.  Encourage chapters to help members with financial assistance.  
JJ moved that we allocate $600 to create three $200 convention stiffens and if additional fundraising money is received that the amount of money received be allocated for additional people.  Darryl seconded the motion. Amendment: they do not get the money until they see Sabrina at the exhibit table, they are fully aware that they are fronting the cost to get to convention and they are to attend the most important parts of the convention. The motion passed. 
Plan to have an exhibit hall for national convention, Sabrina will run it again this year. 

Chapter and Division Reports
Detroit, Sabrina.  Michigan membership roundup inviting members to either ask an old member or a new member to attend and focusing on membership and what is the NFB before their meeting.  Planning a Visions fair in Detroit for 2021 along with the Detroit Renaissance Lions Club.  Date set for Black Tie White Cane for October 24, 2020.  They will be doing Day with Dots again, waiting for a date.  Sabrina and Darryl became lifetime members today. 

Kalamazoo, Robert.  They donated back to Edison neighborhood association.  Having discussion on IPhone 11 at their chapter meeting on Wednesday. 

Students, Robert.  Students should have reached out to their local chapter presidents.  They will be doing a Michigan student division tour, reaching out to BSBP offices and sharing what the students do. 

Scholarship committee, Robert.  Working on revitalizing program.  Have three awards in the amount of $1000, $500 and $250.  Name the awards after people. Geer Wilcox for the $1000, Joy and Alan Harris for the $500 and Larry Posont for the $250 award. 

Wayne, Marcus Simmons.  They have 27 paid members.  April meeting will have a mobility person coming to their meeting to speak. 

Capital Region, Fred.  Pat Pyle is now the chapter treasurer and Sharon Scott is CATA representative.  They are working on corporate sponsor opportunities not only for the chapter but also for the state.  Technology discussion at 6 pm with regular meetings starting at 7 pm. 


Membership, Diana.  Membership has not met yet.  If you want to be on the committee or have ideas let Diana know.  Sabrina move we do a membership month where we bring new members in and focus on membership for the month of May, Darryl seconded and it passed. 

State convention, JJ.  The hotel in Troy will not budge from charging $4000 a meeting room.  We have two standing offers.   One is at the Marriott Centerpoint in Pontiac, and an offer to go back to Southfield.  If have any feedback contact JJ. 

Time and place of next state board meeting, Robert.  On June 6, the Kalamazoo chapter will hold its first annual chili cook-off.  They invite others to submit a pot of chili for review.  Asking chapter presidents who are not going to compete to serve as judges.  Everyone who is submitting a pot of chili will not have to pay the lunch fee but those not submitting a pot of chili will pay the lunch fee. They will be donating fixings, corn bread and drinks.  Robert moved to hold the next state board meeting in Kalamazoo on June 6, Sabrina seconded and it passed. 

Announcement
Robert is in last semester of his course hours at Western.  Western gives out university awards and each department give out departmental awards on outstanding progress and status.  Robert has been awarded or announced as the William R. Weiner outstanding rehabilitation Counseling and Teaching Student. 

The meeting adjourned at 3:52 pm.