[Nfbwv-talk] President Riccobono's Notebook for October 5, 2015

Fri Oct 9 18:10:47 UTC 2015

October 4, 2015

President's Notebook

National Federation of the Blind

Mark A. Riccobono

officeofthepresident at nfb.org <mailto:officeofthepresident at nfb.org> 

(410) 659-9314

Dear Fellow Federationists,

Today we have launched our new unified database which goes by the name
Connections. This database should streamline the process of updating
information at our national office. The next phase of the Connections
project will be to pilot bringing some affiliate databases into the system
so that information can be centrally managed in one place. The goal is to
establish an affiliate portal that will allow you to administer membership
information locally. This is an exciting development and will contribute
significantly to our ability to strengthen connections with blind people all
over the country. More information will be coming soon as we prepare to
integrate affiliate databases into our system. 

Happy Meet the Blind Month!

News:

Headquarters Schedule:
Our national headquarters will be closed from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on
Wednesday, October 7, for staff development. Please plan appropriately as
this is an unusual circumstance.               

St. Louis Minimum Wage:
On Friday, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen fast-tracked a bill to exempt
workers employed by sheltered workshops from the city's pending minimum wage
hike. We need to continue to be vigilant for local efforts that might help
or hurt our subminimum wage work. 

75 for 75 a Success!:

To celebrate our 75th anniversary, on July 13 we kicked-off a vehicle
donation drive called 75 for 75; our goal was to receive 75 cars in 75 days.
The drive was promoted through email and social media. We are happy to
announce that by the last day of the drive, September 25, we received 85
cars. Thank you for your support of this campaign; with teamwork we will
continue to increase our vehicle donations and educate the public about the
great programs their donations help to fund. 

One way to keep the momentum of donations is to recruit a vehicle donation
coordinator in your affiliate. This person will work with the national
office to promote the program in your state and help create new marketing
ideas. We currently know of nine affiliate vehicle donation coordinators:
Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio,
Virginia, and West Virginia. To learn more about vehicle donations and how
you can help grow this program, contact Alice Kallaugher at 410-659-9314
ext. 2282 or  <mailto:akallaugher at nfb.org> akallaugher at nfb.org.

Video:

Debra Canty is a member from South Carolina who finds joy in being an active
voice of encouragement in the movement. Her video is available at
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WggZwy5-mrE>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WggZwy5-mrE. 

Rhythm of the Movement:

The new Federation CD is now available for download at
https://nfb.org/rhythm. 

Reminders:

Washington Seminar:
Washington Seminar is scheduled to be held January 24-28, 2016, with the
Great Gathering In scheduled for Monday, January 25. Room reservations can
be made directly with the hotel at their reservation webpage or by calling
(877) 572-6951 and referencing booking code N9B.  The reservation deadline
is Monday, December 21, 2015. 

Presidential Release:
The Presidential Release has been posted to our website
<https://nfb.org/images/nfb/audio/pr/pr443.mp3> . 

Note from Sean Whalen:

My name is Sean Whalen and I currently serve as the president of the
National Association of Blind Students (NABS). You may remember that at
convention this year, President Riccobono issued a challenge and an offer to
the students: If NABS got twenty-five new PAC plan members, NFB at large
would match dollar-for-dollar the money NABS raised to send students to DC
for Washington Seminar in 2016. With gratitude for this generous assistance,
I am proud to say that NABS added fifty-six new PAC members, and already
nearly hit our Washington Seminar fundraising goal! Because of our national
leadership's commitment to supporting students, and the hard work of the
NABS fundraising team, we will have the opportunity to support students
attending Washington Seminar. NABS is very excited to be partnering with our
national office to provide support to students to attend Washington Seminar
in January 2016. As we work out the details of precisely what mechanism we
will use to provide this funding, we were interested in learning from others
who are already conducting similar programs in our various state affiliates.
We are trying to get the lay of the land in terms of what kind of financial
support is available to students or other members through affiliates and
chapters, and also to glean any information about what works well and what
maybe does not. We are hoping to get this rolled out in relatively short
order, and would be very grateful if you could take a moment to respond to
the following few questions. It should be really quick, and will be very
helpful to us as we move forward on this effort. We want to be sure that we
spend Federation dollars wisely and effectively, and the more we know about
similar programs, the better we will be able to do so. Thank you very much
in advance for taking the minute to provide your valuable insights.

Please send responses to Sean Whalen at nabs.president at gmail.com
<mailto:nabs.president at gmail.com> .

1.       Does your affiliate provide any financial support to members to
attend Washington Seminar?

2.       If so, what form does that support take? Do you pay for
transportation? Hotel? Food and expenses in DC? 

3.       What criteria do you generally use to select recipients of funds?
Need? Track record of participation in Federation efforts and activities? A
combination of these? Something else?

4.       Do chapters in your state provide financial support to students or
members to attend Washington Seminar? If so, could you please provide
details along the lines of those provided on your affiliate-wide program?

5.       Are there any thoughts, suggestions or warnings you would provide
to us as we move forward with this program?

Again, thank you very much for your time and assistance. Take care, Sean

Dates to keep in mind:

*        Fall conventions <https://nfb.org/state-conventions> 

*        November 4, 2015: Web Accessibility Training Day
<https://nfb.org/web-accessibility-day> 

*        November 5-7, 2015: NFB STEM2U Arizona

*        March 3-5, 2016: NFB STEM2U San Francisco

*        May 17-20, 2016: BLAST, Chicago

*        May 19-21, 2016: NFB STEM2U Minneapolis

*        June 19-25, 2016: NFB EQ (first iteration)

*        July 31-August 6, 2016 (second iteration) 

*        August, 2016: WBU-ICEVI General Assembly 

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.

Mark A. Riccobono, President

National Federation of the Blind

200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place

Baltimore, Maryland 21230

Phone: (410) 659-9314

Fax: (410) 659-5129

Email: officeofthepresident at nfb.org <mailto:officeofthepresident at nfb.org> 

Twitter: @Riccobono and @NFB_Voice

Web:  <http://www.nfb.org/> www.nfb.org

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