[Nfbwv-talk] President Riccobono's Notebook for 3/5/18

Tue Mar 6 15:59:30 UTC 2018

March 5, 2018
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,

March is a busy month in the National Federation of the Blind. We had the Eighty-Sixth Leadership Seminar here at the national headquarters, and we have a number of events coming up later this month. The spring convention season has started and registration is now open for our national convention.

A member recently asked me how long our building would be closed for remodeling. I was surprised to get this question. Although the tenBroek Fund has taken on some remodeling projects, we do not expect any of the work to close our building or even disrupt our operations-except for kicking up some dust here and there. If you hear members wondering about our building being closed, please let them know that we plan to continue to be open for business, with little impact from the construction. On a side note, we did experience several hours without power last Friday due to the wind storm, but the Leadership Seminar was unfazed by the outage-although many of our staff members who work on computers did find some time to take care of Federation business that does not require electricity.

I am starting to turn my attention to the national convention, and I am eager to have your suggestions for general session items. Please send them along very soon as the convention will be here before we know it.

Do not forget to move your clocks forward an hour this weekend or, since your clock will adjust for you, do not forget that you will lose an hour of sleep this weekend.

News:

Presidential Release:

The March Presidential Release<https://nfb.org/presidential-releases> is available in English and Spanish. Transcripts will be posted as soon as they are available.

National Convention:

Preregistration is open<https://convention.nfb.org/> for the 2018 National Federation of the Blind National Convention<https://nfb.org/convention>.

Legislative Action:
Our legislative priorities continue to gain momentum in both the House and Senate. In the House, the Aim High Act has sixty-nine cosponsors, of which the two most recent are Derek Kilmer of Washington and Dwight Evans of Pennsylvania. In the Senate, the Access Technology Affordability Act has a total of ten cosponsors, of which the most recent are Gary Peters of Michigan, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, and James Inhofe of Oklahoma. Special thanks to Nebraska and Oklahoma for securing the support of these two influential senators.

Dates to Keep in Mind:

  *   March 31, 2018: Deadline for scholarship applications<https://nfb.org/scholarships>
  *   March 22-23, 2018: Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium<https://nfb.org/law-symposium>
  *   April 15, 2018: Deadline for 2018 Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award competition<https://nfb.org/bolotin-award-main>
  *   July 3-8, 2018: National Federation of the Blind National Convention<https://nfb.org/convention>, Orlando, Florida
  *   July 29-August 4, 2018: NFB EQ<http://www.blindscience.org/nfbeq>

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
200 East Wells Street, Baltimore, MD 21230
(410) 659-9314 | officeofthepresident at nfb.org<mailto:officeofthepresident at nfb.org>

The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and friends who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation's blind. Every day we work together to help blind people live the lives they want.

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