[NFBV-Potomac-Announce] Potomac Chapter Minutes June 2020

[John Halverson]

Attached and below are the Minutes for our June 2020 Zoom meeting.

John Halverson, Ph.D., Corresponding Secretary

June 11, 2020

The meeting was called to order on Zoom at 7:05 p.m. and 19 members were present.
The icebreaker question was: What would you invent if you could?
The minutes from the previous meeting were adopted as written.
The treasurer's report was adopted. Our current balance was $430.53 in the general fund and $1750.00 in the youth fund.
We discussed convention registration. July 15 is the deadline for registration.
We discussed having a call about health and safety apps. Several members shared suggestions of apps to discuss such as ZocDoc, TeleDoc, apps for refilling prescriptions, various diabetes self-management apps, apps for counting daily steps taken, and a safety app called Siren GPS. There is also a need to find accessible information about COVID-19 and testing locations.
We discussed having a practice Zoom call prior to this discussion, so we can practice presenting and screen-sharing, etc. Nick Petrillo and Sean McMahon are leading up this effort.
We engaged in a lively philosophy discussion, regarding what to do if people give us special treatment or freebies because we are blind? On one hand, such gestures can be rooted in stereotypes or misconceptions about blindness. On the other hand, sometimes blindness can be inconvenient and sometimes we don't get the same full access to things as our sighted counterparts. The discussion also raised interesting questions about whether we should accept other discounts, like a military discount if we have not ourselves served in the military.
Christine updated on the accessible voting issues discussed last month. The Virginia board of elections is holding an internal meeting. After the meeting, Christine will update and develop plans for a Potomac Chapter campaign to ensure that accessible mail-in ballots are made available in our area. Deepa and Nijat, as affiliate legislative co-chairs, will be involved with this campaign. Joe Hobson stated that the local primary election has been postponed until July 7.
Members shared health updates. Charlie Brown is recovering from gastric surgery, and Naim is recovering from COVID-19. Both are recovering well.
Prior to adjourning, we recited the NFB pledge.

Respectfully submitted,
Arielle Silverman, Recording Secretary, NFB Potomac Chapter

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