[NFBSF] August NFB 2022 Meeting Minutes

[taryn.ann.morris at gmail.com]

Hello NFB SF Chapter:

 

Hope everyone is doing great.  Below you will find the August 2022 meeting
minutes below.  If anyone has any questions or needs any corrections please
reach out to me.

 

 


August meeting Minutes

 

*       Introductions

*        Secretary Report

*       Treasurer Report

*             Presidential release Recap

*        Legislative Announcements 

*       Announcements

*       Diversity Equity and Inclusion Discussion

*       Discussion

*       Bell Ringers

 

Members

 

Ice Breaker- Five words that you think one of main problems blind people
face

 

*       Bobbi- she/they, Oakland, President, Black, queer, multiple
disabilities,  

*       Christina-Pleasant hill, second vice president, black woman,
agnostic, anxiety, low expectation of not getting the right training needed
to succeed

*       Amy San Francisco, working out non binary maybe   biggest issues
facing as blind people   

*       Sara-she/her, Oakland, treasurer, mis conceptions of lawyer's high
unemployment and underemployment 

*       Laura-she/her, Denver area, internalized ableism and consent
violations

*       Sheri-she/her, Alameda, board member, White, Blind, biggest
challenge is transportation    

*       Taryn-she/her, Millbrae, secretary, blind, mixture of White and
Chinese, employed, mis conception of people doubting blind people can be
confident, independent and do things on their own

*       Pamela- first meeting, she/her, legally Blind, employed, White,
woman, lack of label transportation

*       Steven-San Pablo, Blind sited people grabbing his cane while
navigating as it is his eyes

*       Cindy-she/her, Walnut Creek, independence, confidence, employment
and venturing   

*       Monica-Oakland, braille wherever there is print

*       Jaime-San Ramon, lot of health issues, ableism, lack of
transportation, consent of sited people touching rather than asking if
assistance   is needed

*       Rochelle and Archie, the pug, she/her, he/him, San Francisco, Blind,
medical community lack of compassion and imagination of how to treat person,
taken thirteen years to get medical care to work   

*       Jeff-he/him, Oakland, almost completely blind, feeling always stuff
possible to do with technology that he does not know how to do   

*       Lisa Maria (LM) - union city, Latin, momma of three in her forties,
diabetic, fibro myalgia, agree with others of myths and mis conceptions of
blindness

 

Secretary Report 

*       June meeting minutes were sent out to the list serve 

*       No July meeting minutes due to no meeting due to the national NFB
Convention

*       Motion was made by Laura, Jeff seconded the motion, and all approved
of secretary report

 

Treasurer Report  

*       We currently have$741.60 in our account

*       Ten dollars donated every month to the pre-Authorization
Contribution Plan known as the PAC plan

*       If anyone is still needing to pay dues, the information will be
relayed in the meeting agenda and minutes going forward

*       If using PayPal to make payments please use the online webpage in
order to avoid weird service fees

*       If anyone wants to pay dues and is using PayPal or venmo please use
this information to pay:  Sara Hadsell, 510-387-0766

*        <mailto:SaraAHadsell at gmail.com> SaraAHadsell at gmail.com, if anyone
needs to pay with a different mode, please email sara or call her

*       Motion was made by Sheri, Jaime seconded the motion, and all
approved of Treasurer report

 

Presidential Release Recap

 

*       Release 518 

*        Convention survey, Virtual or in person Nfb.org/convention 

 

*       National Convention 2023 will be in Houston from July 1-6

*        During national convention 18 resolutions were passed and can be
found at Nfb.org/resolutions 

*        We now have new national Board Members  

*       There was an Amendment to our constitution passed, and can be found
in the June Braille monitor, and the new version can also be found at
nfb.org 

*        Participated in meeting of the disability caucus 

 

*       There was a Senate hearing for accessibility of government websites,
Anil testified and comments are on nfb.org

 

*       October is Blind Equality Achievement Month 

*       Pitch to host October release, please send to
<mailto:membership at nfb.org> membership at nfb.org , please include Where, what
it would look like, how you would use it to build the NFB locally,
activities surrounding the release, Deadline is August 28th, Winner
announced on September 1, 

*        Nfb.org/blindmonth for ideas and event schedule, Send to
<mailto:web at nfb.org> web at nfb.org 

 

*       Now own domain, white cane day, can find information about white
cane proclamations 

 

*        American Action Fund offering 

Braille calendars 

6 by 6.5 calendars with Holidays and national convention 

Free up to 3 

 <mailto:calendars at actionfund.org> calendars at actionfund.org or online form 

*        Newsline now has parental control 

 

*       Basics of accessibility workshop will take place on Tuesday August
30th from 5 to 6:30, will cover How screen readers work, web access
guidelines and best ways to navigate web using access tech The next
presidential release will take place on Thursday September 1 at 5PM

 

Legislative Announcements

*       No legislative updates

*       Congress currently on recess and will resume soon

*       Monica summarized the senate hearing for accessibility of government
websites, Anil testified

-Anil pointed out where US government falling behind not implementing 508 to
law,

--Examples   NFB and other disability organizations sued the US government
which force it to be accessible

--Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration is
inaccessible

--social security kiosks before drew numbers to be called like everyone, but
now the check in kiosks interface is inaccessible, now one must have a
security guard help input private information  

--Touched on internal government procurement to disabled employees including
inaccessible software

 

Announcements

*       California state convention in person and some virtual experience,
will take place in San Diego from November 3-6, registration as well as
scholarship applications coming out any moment both in works stay tuned to
list serve coming up

*       As a chapter we voted for our donation gift basket for the
California state convention to hometown flair, Christina will be the lead
coordinator with the help of Bobbi, Cindy, and Sheri, Monica made a motion
to vote on the hometown flair theme gift basket, Christina seconded the
motion and all approved 

*       For October Blind Equality Achievement Month, we will have Dr.
Ting-Siu, the director of Teachers for the visually impaired as well and
orientation and mobility teachers at San Francisco State University, will
attend our meeting and get to know our chapter

*       Amy will be the lead person to create a pitch to have our national
president mark Riccobono and pam Allen host the October presidential
release, we have decided to use the location of Ed Roberts where NFB all
started as our location

*       LM would like to have white cane proclamation from city of Berkeley 

*       Lighthouse   still hoping have a representative from NFB on blind
advisory committee, the committee   will help shape services and programs,
application was sent recently to the list serve  

 

Diversity Equity and Inclusion Discussion 

*       Intersectionality of blindness and other disabilities, what is
working well and what can we improve on

*       Amy would like to see a quiet room for space at National convention
where it can be very loud and overwhelming, but close enough to still hear
the large sessions

*       Bobbi would like to have adoption of no fragrances 

*       Christina would like to see a room with dimmer lighting for people
who have very sensitivity to glare and bright lighting

*       Monica is happy to see the scholarship awards being equal awarding
equal monetary gift

*       Laura found it very hard to hear general sessions at convention, and
would like to have earphones available to cancel out background noise

*       Sheri would like to have consideration of people especially in large
room at convention, lots of noises going off all at once, would like rules
of conduct

*       If anyone has any other ideas please send them to Bobbi, collecting
a list to present to national

 

Discussion

*       Highlights of convention

*       Laura loved running into people she had only talked to virtually and
never met or who she had worked with, loved the feeling of hearing people
around her, felt like an extended family at convention

*       Monica joined virtually, found lots of places of events streamed
really appreciated that, also joined the LGBT division meeting, was really
enjoyable and did a great hybrid meeting with great participation for both
in person and virtual with very limited resources

*       Amy's   favorite part is every year the convention has a shoutout of
who is attending first convention, fifties, or how many conventions members
have attended

*       Sheri really enjoyed running into people from over 15 years, and
really enjoyed the location of the convention as well

*       Jeff attended convention virtually, was very upset that he could not
attend most events and was very limited to only general sessions

*       Steven attended the convention virtually, was also upset that he
could not attend much of the convention and was limited to only attending
the general sessions

 

Bell Ringers

*       Bobbi very happy that Laura and her had their resolutions passed at
national convention, very happy of the work of consent that Laura and her
work on, very proud of Laura and her work

*       LM had her fourteenth wedding anniversary yesterday

*       Jaime became an aunty again, her nephew was born on July 4th, and
his middle name was named after her, happy to see her niece so excited to
have a baby brother

*       Cindy happy to report she finally got an accessible pedestrian
signal put on large intersection in walnut creek on treet and oak street
which takes you to the Bart station, is a lot happier that she can navigate
along that very busy street and feel safe

*       Laura did her independent drop and will graduate from the Colorado
NFB training center on September 1st

*       Jeff has been off work for two months recovering from covid, has
worked for two weeks already, and is happy to be back

*       Serena ring bell for blind grind podcast with sister form another LM
Martinez also drop on blind abilities podcast dual podcast dropping soon

*       Rochelle is happy to report after thirteen years of intensive pain
she is finally dealing with her pain, finally off intensive pain meds, and
is doing so much better

*       Bobbi is excited for her birthday on Thursday, will be turning
thirty

*       Amy is happy to report that someone known for decades asked her to
give reference for Michigan TVI program for grad work and got accepted
tonight

 

Please stay after for afterhours social time

 

Our next meeting will be September13th. 

 

Amy made a motion to adjourn the meeting, Sheri second the motion, and all
approved.

 

Best Regards,

 

Taryn Morris