[Ohio-Talk] NFB President’s Notebook - week of 10/14/2019

Mon Oct 14 22:08:15 UTC 2019

President’s Notebook

National Federation of the Blind

Mark A. Riccobono

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

410-659-9314

Dear Fellow Federationists,

I have just returned from Alaska where our affiliate had a strong
convention full of great hospitality and plans for the future. I noted that
Alaska was using the new streaming platform we have established, and that
sixty-eight unique listeners tuned in. I hope you are planning to use this
new service from our national organization. It is always rewarding to be in
the middle of our grassroots activities. And speaking of our affiliates, in
the past couple of weeks we have had some changes in our affiliate
presidents. 

Let me first give a shout out to Hawaii's long-time president, Nani Fife,
who turned over the affiliate presidency at the most recent convention,
which took place at the end of September. Many of you have had the
opportunity to get to know Nani over the years and likely experienced the
Hawaiian spirit she brought to our movement when her affiliate helped host
the national convention a couple of years ago. Thank you to Nani for her
service and congratulations to Virgil Stinnett, our newly elected president.

Our North Dakota affiliate has also transitioned to a new leader. Many of
us will miss hearing "Milton Ota from North Dakota," but the good news is
that Milton is still an active member of our affiliate board there in the
north. Thanks to Milton for his service and for turning things over to a new
affiliate president, Jessie Shirek, who is eager to grow our presence in
North Dakota. 

Recently, some presidents have asked me about whether the affiliate code of
conduct needs to be updated. In case you missed it, the national board
adopted a revised policy in April of this year, and it is written with the
intent that it applies across the organization. Therefore, there is no need
for every affiliate to have their own version. Please link to our
organization's code of conduct on the affiliate website by referring to this
link: https://www.nfb.org/about-us/history-and-governance/code-conduct.
Continue to remind members about the code and review it with your affiliate
leaders periodically.

Have you gotten your UNO Braille cards yet? I love hearing the stories
about members walking into Target and picking up Braille cards off the
shelf.

Critical Actions This Week:

Open-House Gathering—Calls for Prospective Members:

Share this event information with contacts who are interested in the
National Federation of the Blind, but are not members yet: Sunday, October
20, 2019, at 4:00 p.m. EST, the National Federation of the Blind is hosting
another call for blind people to learn about membership and its benefits.
This is a great opportunity to hear from active members and leaders on the
myths and uncertainties of the Federation. Sign up by emailing
membership at nfb.org <mailto:membership at nfb.org>  or calling 410-659-9314,
extension 2509. 

News:

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

Meet the Blind Month Twitter Chat: Web Accessibility:

There is great buzz about the activities happening so far during Meet the
Blind Month across the nation. In addition to the many local activities, the
National Federation of the Blind is hosting a weekly Twitter chat each
Friday from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. eastern in October. Here is the schedule:

*	October 18, 2019 – Independence and Traveling | 12:00 p.m. ET to
1:00 p.m. ET | #MeetTheBlind
*	October 25, 2019 – Meet Our Members | 12:00 p.m. ET to 1:00 p.m. ET
| #MeetTheBlind

A Twitter chat is a scheduled, organized topical conversation on Twitter
centralized around a specific hashtag. Our hashtag is #MeetTheBlind. Learn
more about how to participate in the Meet the Blind Month Twitter chat. We
look forward to your participation.

NFB BELL Academy Training Seminar:
This year’s NFB BELL® Academy training seminar for coordinators and
teachers will take place January 10-12, 2020. This year we are inviting one
coordinator and one teacher from each veteran NFB BELL Academy state to come
to Baltimore for a weekend of hands-on learning and preparation. If you have
questions, please feel free to reach out to Karen Anderson at
kanderson at nfb.org <mailto:kanderson at nfb.org>  or 410-659-9314, extension
2243.

October Braille Monitor Available:

This month’s Braille Monitor includes more national convention highlights,
why click-by lawsuits damage our progress, coming to terms with vision loss,
and the partnership between the National Federation of the Blind and Mattel
Games. Access the October
<https://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm19/bm1909/bm1909tc.htm>
Braille Monitor or subscribe to the monthly publication
<https://www.nfb.org/resources/publications-and-media/braille-monitor> .

Upcoming Braille Readers are Leaders Contest:

The American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults and National
Federation of the Blind announce the 2019-2020 nationwide Braille Readers
are Leaders contest for children and adults. K-12 students and adults
learning Braille across the U.S. compete to read the most Braille pages,
going up against other participants in similar contest categories for seven
weeks. Registration opens November 1, 2019 and the contest will be from
December 1, 2019 to January 18, 2020. It isn’t too early to start getting
ready for the contest. One way to prepare is by getting books from
ShareBraille.org <https://sharebraille.org/>  now. 

Name Change at NLS:
Effective October 1, NLS has a new name: National Library Service for the
Blind and Print Disabled. The goal of the name change is to remove outdated
language in the old name and replace it with wording that more clearly
communicates the audience that they serve. They will continue to use NLS as
the abbreviation. 

Reminders:

Changes to Affiliate and Division Boards:
All changes to your boards should be sent to Beth Braun at bbraun at nfb.org
<mailto:bbraun at nfb.org> . 

AIRA Access for Fall Convention: 
It has come to my attention that some affiliates have offered the Aira
corporation free sponsorship or exhibit space in exchange for site access at
the affiliate convention. Please note that you are not required to do this.
Here is exactly what is stated in the current agreement between NFB and
Aira: "Aira will continue to provide Access at the NFB National Convention
and at State conventions. In return, the NFB agrees to promote Aira at its
functions and through its communications tools."

You are not required to trade anything to get site access at your
convention; every affiliate has the right to it already. If you wish to give
more to Aira than simply promoting the availability of the service and
encouraging members to try it out, that is up to you. However, if a
representative of the company tells you they would like something in
exchange, please note that they are operating on the principle that it does
not hurt to ask. Please do not let them tell you this is a requirement to
get the service and please do not believe that the national organization
requires it. We negotiated our partnership agreement to give every affiliate
site access with the promise that we would encourage affiliates to promote
its availability. If the company tells you there is a dollar value to the
service, they are telling the truth. However, we negotiated for that value
already. You are not expected and should not be expected to give more in
return. From there, you should make the call about what to give anyway to
any for-profit company gaining value from being part of our convention. I
give you this background to clarify the situation. By the way, the existing
partnership agreement with Aira ends in January 2020.

Did You Know?

Guitar Chords for “Live the Life You Want”:

Chorus - 
Play three times through G E minor C G

Lift - 
D-E minor-C-G

Verse - 
Play two times through E minor-C-G

Lift - 
D-C

Bridge - 
G-C-G

Dates to Keep in Mind:

*	January 10-12, 2020: BELL® Academy Training Seminar 

*	February 10, 2020: Great Gathering-In; Washington Seminar begins
*	March 26-27, 2020: Jacobus tenBroek Law Symposium, Baltimore,
Maryland
*	April 14-17, 2020: NABM BLAST <http://www.blindmerchants.org> ;
Chicago, Illinois
*	June 30-July 5, 2020: NFB National Convention, Houston, Texas

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> 

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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