[Nfbwv-talk] President Riccobono's Notebook for August 1, 2016

Wed Aug 3 19:36:16 UTC 2016

August 1, 2016
President's Notebook

Dear Fellow Federationists,

As we turn the calendar to August, I wanted to look ahead for a moment at 2017. It has come to my attention that some of our affiliates held NFB BELL Academies that overlapped with our National Convention this year. I appreciate the difficulty in scheduling summer programs and the many factors that must be considered. I believe that our national convention is a central and most important factor in our organizational success across the country. Therefore, I request that our affiliates not plan programs to conflict with the national convention. The dates of the national convention are tentatively planned to be July 10-15, 2017. Although they are subject to change until November 1 of this year, I encourage you as affiliate leaders to uphold the standard that the national convention is important. If we diminish the value of participation in our national convention, we will find ourselves with a convention that lacks participation in the future. Furthermore, we should be finding opportunities to enhance our convention while it is happening. A few years ago, Melissa could not attend the national convention because our daughter had just been born a couple of weeks earlier. She planned a banquet party with other Federation members from Baltimore who could not be at the National Convention. The idea of a bunch of Federationists getting together to have banquet parties including internet streaming of the banquet program has always intrigued me. It is certainly no substitute for being at the convention, but it does extend the impact of our convention and build excitement for conventions in the future. To further emphasize the importance of our national and state level conventions, I encourage you to review an article from the April issue of the Braille Monitor, "The Lobby of the Anaheim Hilton: The Third Dimension of the National Convention<https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm16/bm1604/bm160403.htm>." The time after the National Convention is often a time for planning the next "Federation" year. I encourage us to do our planning with our conventions as a priority in the building for our organization.

Critical Actions This Week:

DOJ SANPRM Comments:
The comment period for response to the Department of Justice Supplemental Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking has been extended through October 7, 2016. Please do not wait until then to submit your comments. In fact, we would appreciate your comments by September 2. It should take you just a few minutes using our webform at https://nfb.org/titleiisanprm/comments.

TIME Act in Party Platforms:
Congress is in recess for the month of August.  Both major political parties have adopted language consistent with the principles of the TIME Act. The Republican platform contains the following statement, "Our TIME Act (Transition to Integrated and Meaningful Employment) will modernize the Fair Labor Standards Act to encourage competitive employment for persons with disabilities." The Democratic Party platform contains language to a similar effect, "Democrats believe that the current minimum wage is a starvation wage and must be increased to a living wage... We also support creating one fair wage for all workers by ending the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers and people with disabilities."

Armed with this language, we should be making appointments with our members of the House and Senate to remind them that their parties support the principles of the TIME Act and that their names should appear as cosponsors of this vital legislation.

News:
Uber Settlement:
Please see the Uber settlement notice attached. This will be posted and communicated through various media over the next month or two to ensure that as many members possible see it. Please forward to your affiliate and/or post on your website.

Meet the Blind Month Tips:
As we get closer to the month of October, we will be offering tips and tools to support you as you begin to plan for your Meet the Blind Month events. This week, we have uploaded a video that gives ten tips for holding a successful Meet the Blind Month event. You can find it on our YouTube channel by following this link. The Meet the Blind Month tips video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9CYY-eun28.

Voice of the Nation's Blind Blog:
Entries are posted to the Voice of the Nation's Blind blog every Tuesday. From access tech reviews to stories and advice from blind parents, there's something for everyone. You can go to www.nfb.org/vonb-blog<http://www.nfb.org/vonb-blog> to read and share the posts. This week, we will hear from Expedia.com<http://expedia.com> who donated scholarship funds to this year's class.

Dates to Keep in Mind:

*        May 23-August 26, 2016: NFB BELL Academy held at forty-six sites throughout the nation. More information at https://nfb.org/bell-academy.

*        July 31-August 6: NFB EQ (second iteration)

*        August 2-6: NFB EQ teacher cohort

*        August 18-25: WBU and ICEVI General Assembly, Rosen Centre, Orlando, Florida, www.wbu-icevi2016.org<http://www.wbu-icevi2016.org>

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

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.

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