[NFBMT] NFB Newsline

[president at nfbofmt.org]

Hi All,

Our appeal to Montana state government leaders to fund NFB Newsline and to
reverse DPHHS Director Sheila Hogan's decision to discontinue funding
generated only one response.  The response, which affirmed the denial, came
from Chanda Hermanson-Dudley, Administrator of Vocational Rehabilitation and
Blind Services.  Chanda said the vocational rehabilitation priority is to
get the agency out of its long wait list for services, and NFB Newsline
funding had to be dropped to meet the agency priority.

Next step is to take our case to the media.  The NFB-MT will be sending out
sample letters to editors, and our members will be asked to voice our
support for NFB Newsline in local newspapers and other media.

Our final fallback effort will be to request permanent funding from the 2021
Montana Legislature.  We won't give up on our right to access information
alongside all our peers in our communities.




Jim Marks
President
National Federation of the Blind of Montana
president at nfbofmt.org
(406) 438-1421
www.nfbofmt.org

You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back.

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBMT [mailto:nfbmt-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Rik James via
NFBMT
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2020 8:28 PM
To: NFB of Montana Discussion List <nfbmt at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Rik James <rixmix2009 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NFBMT] NFB Newsline

Any word on how our efforts are going?

Rik