[Ohio-talk] NFB President’s Notebook - week of 03/04/2019

Tue Mar 5 20:30:07 UTC 2019

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 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 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 <mailto: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:  <https://nfb.org/programs-services/national-center-blind-youth-science/nfb-eq-application> STEM EQ application deadline

*	March 28-29, 2019:  <https://nfb.org/law-symposium> Jacobus tenBroek Law Symposium

*         March 31, 2019:  <https://nfb.org/scholarships> NFB scholarship application deadline

*         April 15, 2019:  <https://nfb.org/programs/dr-jacob-bolotin-awards> Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award application deadline 

*	June 16-22, 2019:  <http://www.blindscience.org/nfbeq> NFB EQ, 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

(410) 659-9314 | officeofthepresident at nfb.org <mailto:officeofthepresident at nfb.org>  

 <https://nfb.org/> 

                          <http://www.facebook.com/nationalfederationoftheblind>      <https://twitter.com/NFB_Voice>      <https://www.youtube.com/NationsBlind> 