[NFBSF] September NFB Meeting Minutes 2022

[taryn.ann.morris at gmail.com]

Hello  NFB SF Chapter:

 

Hope everyone is doing great.  Below you will find the meeting minutes from
last week's meeting.   If anyone has any questions, needs clarifications, or
any corrections please reach out to me.  Thank you.

 

September NFB meeting Minutes 2022

 

*       Introductions

*       s Secretary Report

*       Treasurer Report

*             Presidential release Recap

*       Legislative Announcements 

*       Announcements

*       Diversity Equity and Inclusion Discussion

*       Discussion

*       Bell Ringers

 

Members

 

*       Bobbi- President, she/her/they, Berkeley, black woman, multiple
disabilities

*       Sheri-she/her, Alameda, Caucasian woman, blind momma proud of two
daughters, one is visiting

*       Sara- Oakland, treasurer, home owner finally moving home this
weekend 

*       Christina- She/her, Pleasant Hill, black, blind, agnostic, on
vacation and disabled all notifications on her phone and is loving every
second of it being able to relax

*       Taryn- she/her, Millbrae, secretary, mixture of Chinese and
Caucasian, employed

*       Jeff- he/him, Oakland, proud father of almost thirty-year-old,
excited to visit New York end of September looking forward and excited to
see his son

*       Monica-she/her, Oakland, white, queer, new citizen

*       Cindy-she/her, Walnut Creek, visually impaired,  

*       Serena- San Leandro, she/her, devote foodie

 

Secretary Report 

*       August meeting minutes were sent out to the list serve 

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

 

Treasurer Report  

*       Currently we have $731.61

*       Every month our chapter donates ten dollars to the PAC (Pre-
Authorized Contribution) Plan

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

*       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

*       if you prefer to mail a check is: 585 9th St, Oakland, CA 94607.

*       If paying by PayPal, you must do it on a computer, which is where
you can select that you are paying a friend, rather than purchasing an item.
The PayPal phone app is set up for commercial purchases.

*       If someone needs to use another method of payment, they should
contact Sara directly,

*       Motion was made by Rochelle, Jeff second the motion, and all
approved 

 

Presidential Release Recap

*       September is National Guide Dog month. You can find out more about
guide dogs from the National Association of Guide Dog Users at
<https://nagdu.org/> NAGDU.org or by joining the listserv. 

*       Back to School: If you are a parent with children in school or are
looking to support someone who has children in school, NFB has many
back-to-school resources on  <https://nfb.org/> nfb.org, such as a blind
parent's essential guide to effective communication from public and private
schools.

*	There's also a self-advocacy in higher education toolkit for blind
college students. 
If you're a parent or a blind student, you can participate in NFB's ongoing
survey to gather information about nonvisual access barriers to educational
technology.
<https://nfb.org/programs-services/legal-program/education-technology-survey
> You can fill out the educational tech survey at nfb.org.
*	COVID-19 Testing: Ordering of accessible COVID-19 tests was shut
down briefly, but it is back, while supplies last. Call 1-800-232-0233 or go
to  <https://special.usps.com/testkits/accessible> special.usps.com/test
kits/accessible.  NFB continues to encourage insurance companies to sponsor
accessible COVID testing. 
*	NFB is conducting an Access to COVID-19 Vaccine and Testing Survey.
Find it on the
<https://nfb.org/programs-services/legal-program/access-covid-19-vaccine-and
-testing-survey?q=programs-services%2Flegal-program%2Faccess-covid-19-vaccin
e-and-testing-survey> NFB COVID-19 info page. 
*	NFB has launched a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion webpage to
centralize DEI resources. You can visit the page at
<http://www.NFB.org/dei> www.NFB.org/dei. 

 

*	NFB is currently in the SCAN phase of our strategic planning work.
Our consultants at Mission Minded are gathering information about the state
of affairs across the nation for blind people and the conditions for blind
people by conducting a number of interviews with blind Federations.  Mission
Minded is also working with a steering committee of Federation members that
will advise the process and make recommendations to the board.
*	As part of this, NFB is conducting a survey, from September 19
through 25. You will find the link distributed throughout our listservs and
soon online You can also call 229-632-7878 or 833-632-7878, toll free.
*	Both houses of Congress are back in session this month, so NFB
encourages you to contact your representatives and ask them to support our
legislative priorities. 
*	NFB also encourages you to vote this November!
*	NFB's Center for Nonvisual Access Group is conducting trainings in
September. On September 14, a half-day seminar will be held on web
accessibility testing from 10am to 2pm Pacific.  The seminar will cover both
automated and manual testing and discuss several tools that will facilitate
making websites accessible. On September 27, an accessibility boutique will
be covering Office 365 online. You can find information about these seminars
at  <http://www.NFB.org/CENA> www.NFB.org/CENA. 
*	All the surveys can be found at:  <https://nfb.org/legal/surveys>
https://nfb.org/legal/surveys 
*	Federation Family News

*	Wiley "Buck" Smith passed away July 27. At 88, he was the oldest
continuous active member of the NFB of Pennsylvania and was a wealth of
information about the earliest days of NFB. 
*	Tracy MacDonald of Utah's Red Rocks chapter passed away on August
21.  
*	Beverly Fulton passed away on July 5.  She had served for several
years as a board member for the Kansas City chapter.
*	Dorothy "Dot" Barksdale of South Carolina passed away on August 16.
She was the first African American to join the South Caroline affiliate.
*	Allen Harris of Alabama passed away on August 10.

 

Legislative Announcements

*       Monica- her first time to vote as she swore in to be a citizen in
January and is not experienced to vote as this will be her first time and is
open to corrections

*       Official day to vote is November 8, 2022

*       Ballots start getting mailed out on October 10 and remote access can
be accessed online

*       Two counties website s for voting resources are as follows

*       For Members living in the San Francisco County, you can go to
sfelections.org/access

*       For Alameda County residents go to acvote.org 

*       Click on information for voters with disabilities

*       There will be directions and you must Print the ballot, sign the
ballot, and place it in an envelope and send it off

*       A great voter resource is voteredge.com where you will find all
voting information

 

Announcements

*       California state convention will take place from November 3-6
offering in person and virtual options, will take place in San Diego,
information to register, scholarships, and all other information can be
found at nfbcal.org and find the link to convention

*       Pre-registration for state convention is available

*       Fee for state convention is 60 dollars for in person, and 25 for
virtual, if you register after Halloween prices increase

*       In person registration price includes breakfast Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday

*       If you attend banquet at state convention it will be 60 dollars
including   steak OR chicken taco bar WITH ALL THE FIXINGS

*       YOU MUST ATTEND STATE convention IN PERSON TO VOTE

*       Please register with the phone and if you can receive messages on it
as there will be some voting testing for virtual voting options for years to
come

*        At our October meeting we will have Dr, Ting-Siu and her students
from the teachers of the visually impaired and orientation and mobility
students from San Francisco State University join us to get connected with
the blindness community, and see what our needs our to better teach those
who are blind or low vision 

*       On October 28, 2022 the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually
Impaired will have their grand opening at their new building in Alameda
called the Circum center that produces cleaning materials and packages for
medical facilities and the military, looking for members to help table from
10 AM - 3 PM, there will be other organizations and Lighthouse tables, lunch
snacks and drinks will be provided 

*       We will start to fundraise and want to gather any members
interested, Jinny and Rochelle interested, anyone else interested reach out
and any suggestions welcome

 

Diversity Equity and Inclusion Discussion 

*       This month is National guide dog month

*       Wanted to have a discussion on how to be better allies, or dealing
with stigmas of dogs like allergies or denials of rideshare companies

*       Bobbi experiences two incidents of rideshare deciding to deny her
service as well as on airplane with allergy of dog, 

*       Rideshare she had no choice and was not happy about rideshare
deciding without her consideration to cancel her ride

*       On airplane allergy was not announced and people had to move seats
and it did end up working out

*       Jinny also a guide dog user and experiences a lot of rude remarks or
barriers by family members with allergies to her dog

*       Jinny if attending family functions has to put her dog outside with
no choice and will not stay long

 

Discussion

*       Discussion of access to emergency materials across different
disabilities

*       Christina set up notifications on her phone so for example when
power went out, she knew when it came back on and could return home

*        Laura great resource is either calling 211 or going online to
211.org lots of variety of emergency resources

*       Jeff set up notifications on phone as well as phone calls for
example for power outages with estimate of returning 

*       Taryn attended a great emergency hands on workshop with Bobbi and
her coworker dawn from the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired,
learned how to create an emergency grab and go bag, make an emergency plan,
and great other resources

*       Bobbi still has access to all of the emergency hands on workshop
materials and if anyone would like them sent, please reach out to her

 

Bell Ringers

*       Laura happy to report she graduated from the Colorado NFB training
center and now has a bell to ring at bell ringers

*       Jeff is very excited to see his son soon in New York to celebrate
his sons thirtieth birthday

*       Serena happy to report she started culinary program at Laney
college, and is mastering knife skills in the kitchen like a badass

*       Rochelle was in hospital due to a bad fall but happy to report she
is home and did not break any bones

*       Jinny has been doing a lot of advocacies to get medical software
Epic to be accessible, been working hard three years and even though she
left for a different department, the company is finally making solutions to
make the software accessible

 

Please stay after for social hours

 

Our next meeting will be October 11, 2022

 

Jeff made a motion to adjourn the meeting, Rochelle second the motion, and
all approved.\

 

Warmest Regards,

 

Taryn Morris