[Nfbwv-talk] Fwd: NFB President’s Notebook - week of 03/04/2019

Tue Mar 5 22:21:35 UTC 2019

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: President, National Federation of the Blind <
OfficeOfThePresident at nfb.org>
Date: Mon, Mar 4, 2019 at 5:17 PM
Subject: NFB President’s Notebook - week of 03/04/2019
To: President, National Federation of the Blind <
OfficeOfThePresident at nfb.org>

President’s Notebook National Federation of the Blind Mark A. Riccobono
officeofthepresident at nfb.org 410-659-9314

Dear Fellow Federationists,

March has rushed in, bringing us ever closer to our national convention. I
have been encouraged by all the great conversations about membership that
have been happening around the Federation. I note that about a dozen
affiliates have already received their membership coins, with a number of
others getting ready to ship. I am soliciting fun ways that we can use the
membership coin at the national convention to emphasize the importance of
membership. If you have ideas, please send them along. I will have my coin
with me, and I will look forward to engaging with members of the Federation
around this important expression of participation in our movement. If your
affiliate needs help in completing the spreadsheets, please let me know.
You will certainly not want to be left out of the fun at the national
convention. If your affiliate is doing a ceremony to give out membership
coins at a chapter meeting, please take photos and submit them for the *Braille
Monitor*.

Below are a number of important items to call your attention to as we head
into March. Please focus on getting students to complete those scholarship
applications and send along your nominations for the Bolotin awards.

News:

Convention Preregistration Opened March 1:
Online preregistration will be available from March 1 to May 31, 2019.
Additionally, registration will be available on site in Las Vegas. When
purchased online by May 31, the preregistration fee for convention is $25
($30 on site) and the cost of a banquet ticket is $70 ($75 on site). For
more information regarding preregistration and other details, please visit
https://nfb.org/get-involved/national-convention.

March Presidential Release:

The March Presidential Release is available at
https://nfb.org/resources/publications-and-media/presidential-releases.

Braille Book Fair 2019:

It’s time to sort through all those boxes of Braille books and donate those
gently used but no longer needed Braille books to the 2019 Braille Book
Fair sponsored by the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children
and the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults. Our primary
goal is to get more Braille books (in good condition) into the hands of
children, youth, and beginning adult readers, so we need print/Braille
storybooks (i.e., Twin Vision®), leisure reading (fiction or nonfiction)
books, cookbooks, and poetry. We do not accept magazines, textbooks, or
audio books at this time. Ship your donations to:

2019 Braille Book Fair

National Federation of the Blind

200 East Wells Street
<https://maps.google.com/?q=200+East+Wells+Street&entry=gmail&source=g> at
Jernigan Place

Baltimore, MD 21230

Please note that you are shipping the books Free Matter for the Blind; you
do not need to pay shipping cost for Braille items. Handwrite, stamp, or
affix a label to the upper right-hand corner of the box stating: FREE
MATTER FOR THE BLIND. Take your package(s) to your local post office. There
is no shipping fee for Free Matter for the Blind when mailed through the
USPS.

Just a reminder that you can offer a book at any time of year to the
Braille Book Fair by posting it to ShareBraille.org and designating it for
the Braille Book Fair.

Treasurer Training Reminder:
The second affiliate treasurer training conference call is Tuesday, March
5, at 8:00 p.m. eastern. All affiliate treasurers are asked to attend, and
affiliate presidents are welcome to join the call. In this call, Patti
Chang; Jennifer Dunnam; and special guest Cody Bair, treasurer for the NFB
of Colorado, will discuss being a blind treasurer and techniques they use
to complete the tasks. All treasurers are encouraged to bring questions and
share various techniques. For those who cannot attend this call, it will be
recorded and made available for review; all calls are being recorded to be
resources for future treasurers and presidents.

Our calls are made on the Zoom platform, and all participants are muted at
the beginning. We will unmute the call for questions after the
presentations. Though you do not have to log into Zoom on your computer
because we are not using the webinar functionality, we can use the basic
webinar features to keep track of those who have questions. You can access
this call by downloading Zoom and clicking the link for this call (
https://zoom.us/j/827417722). Or you can use your phone and dial
669-900-6833 and use meeting ID 827 417 722.

FDA Policy Statements:
The National Federation of the Blind submitted comments regarding the Food
and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Draft Guidance for Industry and Food and
Drug Administration Staff—Monitoring Blood Glucose Test Systems for
Over-the-Counter Use and the related draft guidance regarding blood glucose
monitoring systems used in health care settings. In both cases, we urge the
FDA to require nonvisual accessibility as a part of design consideration
and the recommended standard for development. Both of these comments and
other recent policy statements can be found on our Policy Statements page
<https://nfb.org/programs-services/advocacy/policy-statements>.

New York Lawsuit Settled:
Blind voters in New York will now have access to the websites of the State
Board of Elections (SBOE) and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). We
joined with the Center for the Independence of the Disabled, New York
(CIDNY), and two individual blind plaintiffs, Eva Eason and Meghan Parker.
As a result of the settlement, the SBOE and DMV have agreed to have fully
accessible websites by 2019, ensuring blind people have the ability to vote
privately and independently.

NFB-NEWSLINE®:
NFB-NEWSLINE is now offering monthly training sessions for subscribers to
become better acquainted with the many access methods and tools of
NFB-NEWSLINE. Past topics included using the Amazon Alexa skill and using
the NFB-NEWSLINE mobile app. This month’s training will cover downloading
material to the second-generation Victor Reader Stream, as well as how to
access NFB-NEWSLINE using a Google Home device. Training will take place on
March 19, 2019, at 8:00 p.m. eastern time via an online and phone
conference platform. Subscribers will be notified by email, alerts on the
mobile app, and under option one when you dial into NFB-NEWSLINE.

If anyone interested in these trainings does not have an email address on
file or needs to update their information, please call or email us so that
we can update your information and ensure you receive notices of training
sessions. Have an idea for a topic to be covered? Call us at 866-504-7300
or email us at swhite at nfb.org with that as well.

Twitter Chat:
There is a twitter chat tomorrow regarding eliminating the subminimum wage.
If you are available tomorrow and have Twitter, it would be beneficial if
you could join Kimie Eacobacci and Marcy Carpenter. The announcement is
below.

In collaboration with Rooted in Rights, “#EqualPay4OurWork Twitter Chat:
The Fight to Eliminate the Subminimum Wage” will be Tuesday, March 5 at 3
p.m. eastern. Follow the hashtag #EqualPay4OurWork to join the
conversation–anyone can join in if they have a Twitter account. The
questions can be found ahead of time at
https://rootedinrights.org/equalpay4ourwork-twitter-chat-the-fight-to-eliminate-the-subminimum-wage/.

Dates to Keep in Mind:

   - March 17, 2019: STEM EQ application
   <https://nfb.org/programs-services/national-center-blind-youth-science/nfb-eq-application>
   deadline
   - March 28-29, 2019: Jacobus tenBroek Law Symposium
   <https://nfb.org/law-symposium>

·         March 31, 2019: NFB scholarship application
<https://nfb.org/scholarships> deadline ·         April 15, 2019: Dr. Jacob
Bolotin Award <https://nfb.org/programs/dr-jacob-bolotin-awards>
application deadline

   - June 16-22, 2019: NFB EQ <http://www.blindscience.org/nfbeq>,
   Baltimore, Maryland
   - July 7-12, 2019: NFB National Convention
   <https://nfb.org/convention/2019>, Las Vegas, Nevada

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
<https://maps.google.com/?q=200+East+Wells+Street,+Baltimore,+MD+21230&entry=gmail&source=g>

(410) 659-9314 | officeofthepresident at nfb.org

[image: National Federation of the Blind] <https://nfb.org/>

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-- 
Sheri Koch, President
National Federation of the Blind of West Virginia
304-993-5103