[Nfbsf] Minutes from the January 13th, 2015

[Jim Barbour]

Hello Everyone,

Here are the minutes from the January meeting.  Please know that there
was some recording glitches during the introductions, so some of your
aspirations and gola were not captured.

We'll see you next Tuesday, February 10th, for our next meeting!

Jim

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San Francisco Chapter

January, 13th 2015

Lots of new faces, welcome everyone!

Tim Elder has a 4 month baby and a 4 year old child.  Hopes to be doing something more interesting than changing diapers.  He wanted the ravens to be in the Superbowl

Sara Hadsell was having a party at her mom's house and went roller skating!  She wishes the 49'ers were in the Superbowl

Kate Williams went to a Cuban New Years Party! Wore a splashy suit, penciled mustache and carried a cigar.  Her taxi driver help put on her pencil mustache.  She also wishes the 49ers were in the Superbowl.

Christina Daniels was at the fairy building for new years.  Wanted to know if the 9ers were still in the running? 

Bryan Bashin set a record for new years!

David Chan For new years did absolutely nothing!  David would like to have seen the Bears in the Superbowl.

Ed Vaughan is going to do something that we'll hear more about next month!

Al Arnick was in the hospital with seizures.

Jonathan Lyens was sad to see the Panthers out of the Superbowl.

Doug Moore watched fireworks for new years.  Doug is used to being sad that the Giants haven't been in the Superbowl for a long time.

Colleen Babble was sick on New Years, but had a bomb fire in her backyard.

Cindy  cooked a gourmet meal on new years and fell asleep early!  Cindy is also sad to see the 49ers not in the Superbowl.

Nelson Chick took a long walk with his dogs on new years.

Richard Martin (??) is heading out on his own.  Congratulations!

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Announcements:

1) There is a new NFB presidential release out for January.  You can find them here

       https://nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/pr/pr435.mp3

2) Kate mentioned last meeting and can get a discount with Verizon.  Tim called them and indicated that he's out of my contract and a loyal customer and they lowered his bill.  Al says that AT&T gave him a free iPhone 6 plus also.

3) Uber's hearing has moved from February 5th to March 3rd.

   The hearing will held be at 1 P.M.

   The hearing is at the Federal Court House on Golden Gate Avenue in courtroom 15 A.

This hearing will talk about service animals and who is responsible for drivers who fail to pick up passengers with service animals.

The question came up whether it is sufficient to just have an Uber app ask if you have a service animal.  Tim says no, that blind people should not need to disclose that you have a service animal.

4) NFB Scholarship applications are now available.  Blind students should absolutely apply.  Please send them here to apply...

        http://www.nfb.org/scholarships

5) The Annual NFB Convention will be July 5th through the 10th in Orlando Florida.  There are grant funds for first time attendees.  The convention is an excellent opportunity for blind people to meet and learn from each other, experience new technologies, and make new friends!

6) Nelson brought up the Social Security rule change that will make it more difficult to shift funds from the main Social Security account to  the Social Security Disability Account.  Tim is looking into it.

7) Washington Seminar is the NFB's annual legislative effort.  We bring 1,000 people together in Washington D.C. to discuss issues that are important to blind people.

The issues we discussed along with their Legislative Fact Sheets and Frequently Asked Questions can be found here...

        https://nfb.org/washington-seminar

Briefly, our issues this year are the TIME and TEACH acts.

The TIME (Transition to Independent, Meaningful Employment) act, (HR 188) is the act to remove section 14C of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which is the section that allows employers to pay disabled workers less then the minimum wage.  

The TEACH (Technology, Education and Accessibility in College and Higher education) Act directs that accessibility guidelines be written for books, and other electronic learning materials, used in higher education.  This allows post secondary institutions and vendors of electronic study materials to have one set of guidelines to refer to when deciding how to follow existing law that says that college students shall be provided with accessible learning materials.

The Marrakesh Books Without Borders treaty will allow books produced under the Chafee amendment to be exported to other countries; and allow books produced under similar copyright laws in other countries to be imported to the US.

8) The blind blood drive is on January 22nd.

9) We would love to do a blind centipede at the Bay to Breakers race in May!  Go NFB SF

That's it for this time!

Remember, dues are due next month!