[Nfbv-fairfax] Fairfax Chapter Meeting Minutes - January 16, 2014

[Wanda Taylor]

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January 16, 2014
Meeting of the Fairfax Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind

The following people attended the January 16, 2014 meeting of the Fairfax Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind:

Sue and Carolina Garrison, Rodney Neely, Ashley Bramlett, Jessica Diazz, Cathy Schroeder, Tajuan  Farmer, Beverly Coney, Wanda Taylor, and John Bailey.

Wanda called the meeting to order at 7:04 PM.  Wanda asked all of the members of the chapter to share some of their goals/resolutions for the New Year.

We tried to say the NFB Pledge.  Since no one seemed to know all of the words to the NFB Pledge, Cathy Schroeder offered to try to get us some braille copies of the NFB Pledge.

We listened to the NFB Presidential release for January of 2014.  

Wanda Taylor reminded us that the Richmond Seminar and the meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Federation of the Blind was scheduled to occur on Monday, January 20 and Tuesday, January 21, 2014.  Wanda and perhaps Tajuan seemed to be the only people at the meeting who planned to attend these events.

 Wanda asked the chapter if anyone was planning to attend the Washington seminar.  She also asked us if anyone lived in Congressman Gerald Connolly’s district to see if someone might be available to go to an appointment with someone from his office.  Cathy and Rodney responded that we both lived in Congressmen Connolly’s district.  When we asked when the appointment was, Wanda told us that she would email us with the appointment time.



Workforce Investment Act

We discussed the Workforce Investment Act.  Wanda asked us to please call or email our Congressmen and Senators about the changes that the NFB wants to see in the Workforce Investment Act.  These changes include minimum wages for all workers with disabilities and that we want Rehabilitation services to remain in the Department of Education.  We do not want the vocational rehabilitation services transferred to the Department of Labor.



Annual Goals for the Fairfax Chapter

We have two main goals:  fund-raising and membership recruitment.

Treasurer’s Report

The Fairfax chapter has $1252.72 in our bank account.

We want to send chapter members to state and national convention.

John suggested establishing a Dream Team—that would put together fund-raising ideas and goals for our chapter.

Wanda proposed that the members of the board of the directors of the Fairfax chapter of the National Federation of the Blind meet on Wednesday, January 22, 2014 during the evening.  Wanda said that she would send out an email with a time and a conference call number to all of the members of the board of directors so that they could meet.



Don Thompson has resigned as a member of the Fairfax chapter of the National Federation of the Blind.  This means that we must find someone to be the membership chair and the social chair.  

We discussed ways to meet blind people and some ways of getting them to attend an NFB meeting.  Tajuan told us how he had invited Sarah Presley from the Dragon Boating group to attend the Potomac chapter meeting.  Sarah seemed to appreciate the activities of the Potomac chapter.

We could also use the NFB White Cane donation list to recruit people, who live in the Fairfax area and who have requested white canes, to join the Fairfax chapter of the NFB.

Cathy said that she would work on getting the list of people who had received white canes from the NFB.



Ashley had a question about getting some NFB letter head.  Cathy explained that people usually made their own letter head now that it was so easy to do this using software on most computers.  Cathy told Ashley not to worry about getting NFB letter head.  She told Ashley that she should sign her name at the bottom of her emails

Ashley Bramlett,

Member of the Board of Directors of the Fairfax Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind

Ashley suggested that we develop a welcome kit to give to new members of the chapter.  This welcome kit should contain some NFB speeches and some other information about our organization.  Cathy and other members suggested that we download some digital content and put it on a flash drive to give to new NFB members.

Wanda issued a membership challenge.  She said that the chapter would give a giftt to the chapter member who brought in the most members each quarter.  She also stated that there would be a nicer gift for the member, who brought in the most new members, during the entire year.

Cathy told us that she might have a way of getting a list of potential membership prospects.

Tajuan mentioned some social groups-DC Night Out, in which blind people are encouraged to hang out with one another and discuss events that have occurred in their lives.  Tajuan also mentioned that there is a social event every quarter at the National Industries for the Blind.

Sue and Carolina volunteered to contact the Fairfax County schools.  Cathy told us that her son Matt’s girlfriend had chosen the NFB as the organization that they wanted to support with one of their fund-raising activities.

Beverly accepted the position as Social Chair for the Fairfax chapter.

Working with the Lions Club

Wanda wants to visit Lions clubs.  She wants to share her old glasses with the lions to demonstrate that we at the Fairfax chapter of the National Federation of the Blind are supporting some of the Lions activities.



John said that the lions will be willing to partner with the Fairfax chapter of the NFB if we focus our events on helping young people.  The NFB has the expertise to do this.  The lions do not have this expertise.

Ashley suggested that we could help the lions with their projects—like the hot dogs a few years ago.



NFB Web Site

We need to get the web site up and running to facilitate communication and so that people can find the Fairfax chapter of the NFB on the web.

We need to talk with Corb about the web page.  But he has not been very responsive recently.

We want the Fairfax chapter to have a web page that is linked off of the NFBV web page.  Cathy is going to be taking over running the web page for the state of Virginia.

Jessica has developed a Facebook page for the NFB.  Caroline has some friends who might be able to assist us with maximizing our presence on Facebook.  

Ashley suggested producing some YouTube videos on some of the Fairfax chapter activities.



Program Ideas

Daniel Ramos from the Fairfax County Library in February—Rodney will coordinate this program.

Cathy will discuss NFB Newsline in March—these program ideas can be flip flopped depending on Daniel Ramos’s availability in February.

Jessica wants to present a program on other responsibilities of owning a guide dog.

Wanda showed us a new and an old $100 bill.

The January 2014 meeting of the Fairfax chapter of the National Federation of the Blind adjourned at approximately 8:45 PM on Thursday, January 16, 2014.

     


Rodney Neely
John Bailey
Secretary
Fairfax Chapter 
National Federation of the Blind
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