[NFBV-Announce] The Vigilant: March 2020

[Joe Orozco]

The Vigilant: March 2020


 


Joe Orozco, Editor


 


>From the President's Desk


 

2020 has already made for some interesting memories! Some highs and lows to
be sure.

 

On Friday, our national board made the difficult decision to cancel all in
person events at a national, state and local level over the next 30 days. We
recognize that many have invested in developing impactful programs, and
postponing these events will be frustrating. However, protecting the safety
of our members and the general public must be the priority. Please be safe.

 

To the extent that we can, the work must go on. We are glad to provide an
update to highlight what we have accomplished together and the work ahead.


 


Progress in the Virginia General Assembly


 

On January 21, we fielded 14 teams meeting with legislators in the Virginia
Senate and House of Delegates.  With over 60 participants, we had the
largest group of blind Virginians ever to advocate for our important issues.
Our top priority was an expansion of funding for the Virginia Department for
the blind and Vision Impaired (DBVI) to address the waiting list for
services. The Governor's budget proposal provided funding to eliminate the
waiting list and was passed in the House of Delegates. However, The Virginia
Senate's budget provided a smaller increase in DBVI's funding and the Senate
version was the funding level included in the final bills passed by both
chambers on Thursday. As we receive the exact details, we will share the
budget result and the exact impact on the waiting list. This is a solid
improvement and we should be proud of our efforts to ensure increases to
DBVI funding.

 

Our second legislative priority HB 584/SB162 implemented a hiring preference
in state employment for people with disabilities. The Governor has an
initiative to increase hiring by the Commonwealth but there isn't enough
transparency to measure the success of this measure. The House and Senate
sponsors asked for transparency and data to be provided to determine if the
legislation is necessary. The bills were continued until the 2021 session
with a hope that better data would provide greater support for legislation.

 

Finally, there has been action to eliminate sub-minimum wages in Virginia.
HB333 eliminates the payment of sub-minimum wages and was passed by the
House of Delegates. The legislation was continued in the Senate to the 2021
session, but this is a significant step in the direction to eliminate the
discriminatory and immoral practice of paying people with disabilities below
the minimum wage.

 


Washington Seminar update


 

Washington Seminar was a tremendous success. We were honored that
Congressman Scott addressed our Great Gathering In session on February 10 to
energize the over 600 Federationists at this engaging rally. He talked about
our partnership on the transition to Competitive Employment Act and the
Access to Instructional Materials in Higher Education Act. Both bills are in
the House Education and Labor Committee where Congressman Scott serves as
the committee chair. Congressman Scott is a great ally. We had very strong
participation in the halls of Congress as we met with the offices of every
member of the Virginia Congressional delegation. We increased the number of
co-sponsors for our legislative priorities and introduced the legislation to
some of the members of Congress. In the coming months, we will have a
variety of calls to action to ask you to assist us in encouraging these
legislators to move from interested to on-board.

 


Membership Seminar


 

On Sunday, February 9, 30 members participated in an exciting seminar on
membership recruitment and retention led by Anil Lewis. The seminar was fun,
engaging, and informative. Through role play and interactive programming, we
worked to overcome challenges of building our movement, one member at a
time. Sandy Halverson did a great job in organizing this seminar and we
expect even more exciting programming related to membership and
effectiveness at our May 2020 board of Directors meeting.

 


Washington Seminar Career Fair


 

It was my pleasure to connect with members across the country at the
Washington seminar career fair. Over 150 job seekers participated in the
very successful career fair with approximately 20 employers ready to talk
with job seekers and pitch the merits of positions with their employer. It
is great that we can bring this great resource to our area, but it would be
even better if more of our members took advantage of the opportunity. Please
plan to attend next year.

 


Membership List Updates


 

In 2019, we implemented a massive update of our membership rolls across all
our chapters. Over the next month, we will be working to obtain updated
information from each of our chapters. You can assist by ensuring you have
paid your dues for 2020 and that you provide any contact updates to your
local chapters.

Details on the update process will be provided shortly.

 


Maximizing Participation in the 2020 National Convention


 

The 2020 National Federation of the Blind Convention will be a truly
remarkable and motivating experience where you could learn and grow. If you
have never attended a convention or have not attended in a while, we would
like to encourage you to make July 2020 the time you attend our national
family reunion. In every chapter, we hope your chapter can talk about the
convention and help members find ways that they can take advantage of the
experience and apply it to your life. We will hold a conference call to
address questions and explain programs like our programs for first-time
attendees such as the McDonald Fellowship and the Jernigan Scholarship. We
want everyone to be considering how they can attend and look to eliminate
obstacles.

 


Remembering Barbara Reed


 

In late 2019, our friend and Chesapeake Bay Chapter member Barbara Reed
passed away. Some may know Barbara as Mary Durbin's Mother but many of us
knew her as a friend. Barbara routinely attended National and state
conventions, engaged with chapter events and welcomed many of us into her
home with a warm smile and her sense of humor. She will be sorely missed.

 


Final Thoughts


 

I know there is much sense of uncertainty in light of current events. it Is
my hope that you will please reach out to your fellow members. It is in the
midst of our times of uncertainty that we need each other more than ever.
Times like these are what truly test our bond as a family. Please check in
on your fellow members, make sure that especially vulnerable members of our
chapters have the resources they need to navigate this period. If you are in
a position to help make store or pharmacy runs with, or in behalf of one of
your fellow members, please do so. If you have access to a computer and can
help identify community resources that could prove beneficial for others,
please volunteer your time and service. We absolutely need to look out for
each other. In doing so, my hope is that someone will look in on you as
well. We cannot make assuptions about who might be thought to be doing okay.

 

Please take good care of one another. If there is anything that needs to
come to my attention, do not hesitate to connect with me.

 

Yours in service,

 

Tracy Soforenko, President

National Federation of the Blind of Virginia

 


This Month's Words of Inspiration


 

"In every crisis, doubt or confusion, take the higher path - the path of
compassion, courage, understanding and love."--Amit Ray

 


National Federation of the Blind COVID-19 Policy Relating to Public Events


 

The National Federation of the Blind is closely following the rapidly
evolving situation with respect to the novel coronavirus and its associated
illness known as COVID-19. Since we issued our initial guidance on this
situation on March 11, public officials across the nation have escalated
their response to the virus and issued new and more aggressive directives.
Generally, while specific directives as to the size of permitted public
gatherings vary across states and local jurisdictions, public health
officials agree that it is advisable to engage in "social distancing" in
order to prevent or mitigate the spread of the virus, and people are being
directed to minimize proximity and/or physical contact with others outside
the home as much as possible. As a result, the National Federation of the
Blind Board of Directors met on March 13 and developed this policy directive
related to public meetings of the organization.

 

The National Federation of the Blind is the oldest and largest nationwide
organization of blind people, with affiliates in all fifty states, the
District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico; hundreds of local chapters; as well
as statewide and national special-interest divisions. Together these are
comprised of some fifty thousand members and countless volunteers and
supporters who conduct various public meetings and events. The health and
safety of our members and friends is our top priority, and we are also
mindful of our obligation to follow public health directives and to engage
responsibly with the general public. We also recognize the need for
consistent guidance across our organization as our affiliates, chapters, and
divisions consider or plan meetings and public events.

 

To that end, the President and Board of Directors of the National Federation
of the Blind hereby direct that all meetings, events, or public gatherings
that are currently planned by affiliates, chapters, and divisions to take
place within thirty days from today, March 13, 2020, are to be canceled or
postponed until sometime after April 12, 2020. This includes, but is not
limited to, statewide conventions or meetings, local chapter meetings, and
statewide or local division meetings. Of course, where practicable, meetings
to conduct the ongoing business of the Federation may be held via phone call
or videoconference. Furthermore, the outreach and advocacy priorities of the
organized blind movement can and should continue despite the disruption to
public meetings, including monitoring unique barriers that blind individuals
encounter due to the extreme circumstances. However, no official business of
the organization should be conducted via in-person gatherings during this
period. The national leadership will re-evaluate the situation on or shortly
after April 12, 2020, and issue additional guidance if needed.

 

We are issuing this directive to align with the best available public health
advice as well as with multiple state and local directives, and to carry out
our general obligation to protect the health and safety of everyone in our
Federation family. We wish everyone the best as together we meet the
challenges and make the sacrifices required by this public health emergency.

 


Frugally and Financially Preparing for the Unexpected 


By Trent Hamm


 

The following blog post appeared on The Simple Dollar
<https://www.thesimpledollar.com/financial-wellness/preparing-for-the-unexpe
cted-frugally-and-financially/> .

 

Over the last week, I've heard tons of questions and participated in lots of
conversations about COVID-19. The topic of COVID-19 itself is pretty far
outside the realm of what is covered on The Simple Dollar, as it digs deep
into health care and public policy issues and The Simple Dollar sticks to
personal finance and frugality issues. However, whenever there is a major
societal challenge, there are financial and frugal impacts for all of us.

 

So, let's discuss them.

 

In general, I tend to stick to the same basic principles in life through
thick and thin. Rather than altering what I'm doing radically because of a
crisis or a disaster, I try to live my life so that a crisis won't upend
things - or will alter things as little as possible. Thus, almost everything
I describe below are things that I normally do during normal times and
during moments of crisis. These principles and strategies are ones that I
repeated during the financial crisis of 2008, during the severe flooding
that rocked the area around where I live in 2010, and I'm using right now,
too. They've helped during a lot of personal crises, too. I expect that
these principles and strategies will be suited for almost every major crisis
that comes along in my life.

 

Who should I trust for accurate information? In any situation, I tend to
trust the people who have spent their lives working with and studying
situations like these. In the case of an illness or pandemic, I trust
doctors, medical scientists and virologists, not politicians or talking
heads. In a natural disaster, I tend to trust engineers, building
contractors and the like. Those people have been working with situations
like this or studying situations like this for the entirety of their
professional lives, and if anyone knows the situation, it's them.

 

As an aside, it is never a bad idea to wash your hands often, minimize
touching your face and stay at home when possible if you're feeling sick as
a way to avoid contracting and spreading many kinds of illnesses. Those are
things we should all be doing all the time.

 

Now, let's talk about finances and frugality.

 


When the unexpected happens, don't rock the boat with your finances.


 

If a major unexpected event in life happens, whether it's a widespread
illness, flood, stock market crash or a personal loss, it's almost always a
mistake to make a major financial move in the heat of the moment. You should
not sell your stocks because of what the stock market is doing today or what
it has done over the last week or the last month. That's a giant mistake
that usually just locks in your losses.

 

So, if you have money in stocks right now, my advice is to sit tight. Ride
the roller coaster. Pulling out money right now is nothing more than an
extremely risky gamble. What about buying investments right now when the
price is lower? That's risky, too, but I view it as a lower risk than
selling.

 

What if you need that money to live on? Many people are already in
retirement but still have significant amounts of their retirement savings in
the stock market. If that is your situation, then you need to speak to a
fee-based financial advisor who can look at your exact situation and give
you some guidance.

 

What if you're not in any immediate danger, but the stock market is leaving
a sick feeling in your stomach? Don't look at it. Don't sweat the day-to-day
action. You are in the stock market for decades, not days and weeks. The
only people that should worry too much about the daily action on the stock
market are day traders and people in the financial industry - and I'm not
talking to those folks. For everyone else, looking at the daily stock market
returns is basically useless.

 

My investment strategy is simple: if I am not going to need the money for 10
or more years, it's invested in something aggressive, like stocks or real
estate. Because I don't need the money for that long, the volatility of a
day, week or month isn't a big deal. I have lots of time to recover and have
the power of compound interest work for me.

 

If I'm going to likely need that money within 10 years, it's in something
relatively safe and not volatile. Things like highly rated bonds and money
markets are good choices for those time horizons.

 

What if you need to change things? The best approach is to change your
contributions. If you're getting close to the point where you'll need the
money in ten years, shift your contributions from aggressive investments to
safer things. That's the money you'll tap in ten years. If you need to, you
can start slowly rebalancing by gradually moving money out of riskier things
and into safer things, but try to do it with additional contributions at
first. In general, don't rebalance during periods of high volatility. If the
stock market has gone up or down more than a few percentage points in a day
within the last week or so, wait to rebalance.

 

If your retirement savings are in a Target Retirement fund, you're fine.
Those types of investments self-balance over time as you approach
retirement, so you don't really have to worry about these things.

 

What I'm describing here is exactly what Sarah and I are doing with our
retirement accounts right now. We're not touching a thing. In fact, we're
barely looking at the stock market right now. That's what you should be
doing, too. Looking at daily stock market swings adds stress when there
doesn't need to be any.

 


Smart frugal principles help right now, too.


 

We've all seen pictures and videos and read stories about people stocking up
on things like toilet paper. To some, it seems crazy. To others, it's
worrying and a nudge to also stock up.

 

Here's how we approach this.

 

We tend to buy our nonperishable foods and household supplies in bulk and/or
when there's a sale (ideally both), regardless of what's going on in the
world. That means at any given time, we have a month or so worth of food
items and household supplies for our ordinary life around our house.

 

Our bulk buys are only things we know we're going to use. For example, the
household supplies we buy in bulk are things like soap, toothpaste, floss,
<https://www.thesimpledollar.com/financial-wellness/optimizing-dishwashing-f
or-money-and-time/> dishwashing detergent,
<https://www.thesimpledollar.com/save-money/optimizing-laundry-for-money-and
-time/> laundry soap, toilet paper, and so on. If I see a good deal on those
things, I buy them because I know we'll eventually use them. If I see that
we're running even close to low on any of those things, I buy a bulk bundle
of them at the lowest price I can find (usually the biggest version of the
store brand at a warehouse club, but not always).

 

We do the same thing with a lot of food items - we buy nonperishable foods
that we know we will eat in bulk. We always have lots of dry beans, dry
rice, peanut butter, canned tomatoes (and, to a lesser extent, other
vegetables, though we usually buy them flash frozen), dry pasta, flour,
sugar and yeast (we bake a lot of our own bread products by hand or in a
bread machine). When we see a really good sale on one of those items, we buy
it. When we notice we're getting even close to low on something, we'll stock
up on it.

 

Aside from the cost savings of this strategy (buying in bulk, buying store
brands, targeting sales and doing it only with stuff we know we'll use), if
something were to disrupt our ability to buy groceries or household
supplies, we'd be fine for at least a while.

 

What do you do if your cupboards are relatively bare? I basically encourage
everyone who isn't pushed up against the wall financially to gradually move
to a bulk buying system like this one, where you buy nonperishable things in
bulk that you know you will use before their expiration date. If you have an
opportunity to do so now without crushing your finances, do it, but do it in
a realistic way. There's no reason to buy six months' worth of toilet paper.
Buy one large package of it (in store brand form), enough for a month or
two, at the best price you can get. Do the same for other nonperishable
items that you know you will use up anyway in the next few months.

 

Another valuable frugal principle to have is to make a lot of things for
yourself, particularly food. The more adept you are in the kitchen, the less
you have to rely on others to make food for you and the more money you save
along the way. This also makes you less reliant on restaurants (and the
health of restaurant workers and delivery people).

 

I don't claim to be an expert home chef, but I can make a lot of things with
complete ease. I did this mostly by making dishes (with variations) that I
liked and my family liked over and over, until all of the skills involved
became second nature. My family likes spaghetti with sauce, for example, and
I've made that so many times that I can practically do it blindfolded. Along
the way, I got very fast at it, figured out how to make it with lots of
variations, and also figured out how to make it delicious, none of which
were true early on. I also got very fast at cleanup.

 

That same thing is true for lots of family favorites, things like homemade
pizza, homemade bread, tons of different soups and stews, tons of variations
on eggs and omelets, and so on. Simply knowing how to do all of these things
well and do them quickly means that I'm naturally more interested in cooking
from home, since that's more convenient and also far less expensive. It has
the additional benefit of always being an option (as long as there's
electricity, of course, but then we're beginning to talk about situations
that there's no real way to prepare for).

 

Another principle we follow is having a lot of finished meals on hand,
stored away in the freezer for easy preparation. If I'm sick or otherwise
incapacitated, I'm not going to want to cook. I'm going to want something as
easy as possible to get calories in my stomach. We keep some prepackaged
meals in the cupboard, but we really lean into preparing meals in advance
and keeping them in the freezer.

 

If we make a big pot of soup, we make it even bigger and fill up some
quart-sized containers of soup for the freezer. If we make a casserole, we
make four of them and freeze the other three such that they can be pulled
from the freezer and popped in the oven.

 

This not only has the advantage of giving us really convenient food that we
made ourselves, but the cost of that meal is usually really cheap because it
was made from bulk ingredients. We could buy the 10-pound bag of potatoes at
the store, for example, when making a big batch of potato soup. We could buy
the jumbo box of lasagna if we're making four pans of it at once.

 

What if the unexpected is coming quickly? These strategies help if you have
some lead time, of course, but what if you have very little lead time?
Getting some prepackaged foods is fine, but just make sure that you're not
buying more than you'll ever use before they expire.

 


There are a multitude of other smart moves you can make, both to prepare for
the unexpected and to help your financial future at the same time.


 

Here are some additional specific things you should be doing in your
ordinary life that really show their value in unexpected times.

 

Have an emergency fund. This isn't something that most people can produce in
a jiffy, but moments of crisis should be a powerful reminder of how useful
it is to have an emergency fund. Simply put, an emergency fund is cash
stowed away somewhere (usually a savings account) that you can put to use
during any kind of emergency. I have a small emergency fund in cash in my
home and a larger one in a savings account in a nearby bank.

 

Obviously, building one very quickly isn't realistic for many Americans, but
it should be a good goal to have, simply because of the protection it offers
against the unknown and unexpected. Things like a job loss or a period of
illness are much easier to handle with an emergency fund.

 

My strategy for building one is to set up an automatic transfer from your
checking account to your emergency fund savings account, for a small amount
each week. Make it $10 or $20. If you do $10 a week, you have $520 set aside
after a year. If it's $20, that's more than $1,000. Then, never turn it off.
Let it keep building, essentially forever. That way, after a while, you
never have to worry about it being there.

 

What if you don't have an emergency fund and are facing a crisis that
requires cash? Unfortunately, in those situations, debt is usually the
answer. If you have to put some expenses on a credit card or a personal loan
to get through a very bad situation, that's an unfortunate situation.
However, you should aim to get that debt eliminated as soon as you can and,
even more important, keep that experience in mind as you aim to build an
emergency fund.

 

Constantly build new skills and relationships at work. Your goal at your
job, beyond doing the tasks assigned to you and collecting a paycheck,
should also be to build some strong positive relationships with people there
as well as building skills you can use to get a better job someday. That
should be part of your motivation every day at work - you do the tasks to
make money now, you build skills and relationships to make more money later.

 

This helps in unexpected times because the more skills you have and the more
relationships you have, the easier it will be to find work in an uncertain
economy if you find yourself without work.

 

Yes, sometimes it will be hard to build good relationships in some
workplaces. Don't expect perfection - just remember that the perfect is the
enemy of the good. Stick with being positive where you can and aim to lift
people up rather than cutting them down, even when they're not around. Help
people out, especially when the effort you have to put out is much smaller
than the benefit that the other person gets. (If you can do something in
five minutes that will take someone else hours, just do it.)

 

Most people should not be in immediate danger of losing their job due to
current uncertainty, but this is still a great strategy to have for any job
you hold.

 

Minimize your recurring expenses. Take a look at every single weekly,
monthly, quarterly, and annual bill you have and ask yourself whether it's
actually necessary. If it's not, is it providing you any real value for the
money you spent? If you're not getting enough value, cancel it. If it's a
necessary bill, is there anything you can do to make that bill smaller? Call
up the company that's issuing that bill and see what you can do to trim it
down or consolidate it.

 

The smaller you can make your recurring expenses, the easier it is to make
ends meet on your current pay and the easier it is to survive if you have to
take a lesser-paying position unexpectedly.

 

Eliminate expenses that aren't memorable. My rule of thumb when it comes to
expenses that aren't strictly needs is that if they're not memorable, then
they shouldn't recur. If I look at my bank statement and see a bunch of
stops at the coffee shop and they all blur together and aren't memorable,
then I know I need to cut back seriously on those stops. If I see a meal
eaten out and I can't even really remember it, then I know I should eat out
less often and save such events for special occasions. If I see an
entertainment expense or a hobby expense and I have to struggle to recall
anything about it, a real change is needed.

 

Again, the reason this prepares you for the unexpected is that it frees up
some of your spending to put yourself in a more financially stable position
so that you can survive getting sick, you can survive a job loss, you can
survive whatever life throws at you. You are much more likely to survive the
unexpected if you cut out the unmemorable expenses in your life and apply
that saved money to building an emergency fund or getting rid of debt.

 

There's nothing wrong with using money to do something you enjoy in a
genuinely memorable and impactful way, but when you're spending money on
stuff that just fades away pretty quickly, there are better things to be
doing with it.

 

You can start doing this immediately and it will have an impact very
quickly. Look over your expenses for the last month. Which ones from two or
three or four weeks ago do you barely remember or not remember at all? You
should really cut down on those particular expenses going forward because
they have no real positive impact on your life. They're just dollars
vanishing from your pocket, dollars that can do a ton of good when they're
used in other ways.


 


Unexpected events, big and small, are a part of life. While you can't
predict exactly what they are, you can expect that they will happen.


 

When times are good, you have an opportunity to get ready for the times when
things aren't quite so good. This way, when things take a tumble, you're not
caught in a panic with life changes that you can't easily handle.

 

My thoughts, hopes, and prayers are with everyone working to combat the
coronavirus outbreak. The best thing I can do to help is to be prepared
myself, take simple steps to keep myself and others safe, and share sensible
advice. That's all most of us can do in most unexpected situations.

 

Good luck!

 


Would You go to  a Blind Doctor? How the Blind Respond


By John Bailey


 

"Would you go to  a blind doctor"?, was the first of many challenging
questions  asked by Trisha Kurkarni At the February leadership seminar
cohosted by the National Association of Blind Students in Falls Church,
Virginia.  

 

Trisha, one of the leaders in the organization, asked several challenging
questions of her large audience of blind participants. Participants were
asked to move to the right side of the room (facing the front) if they
agreed and to the left side if they did not agree. By voice vote, a majority
of the people said they would visit a blind doctor. Surprisingly, when the
question was rephrased to "Would you go to a blind surgeon"?, many of those
who said they agreed moved to the opposite side of the room.

 

Trisha  followed up her original challenging question with two additional
questions and noted the responses. The questions were "Would you only date a
sighted person?" and  "Do you believe in taking the $500 tax deduction for
just being legally blind?" The responses and reasons from the participants
were varied.

 

When asked about only dating a  sighted person, those who disagreed
mentioned that it is helpful to be dating someone who can drive. An opposing
response to the same question was that sharing the experiences of being
blind made for a stronger foundation for a relationship. 

 

For the question of if others should take the tax deduction, one participant
who agreed said that he had recently purchased a piece of adaptive equipment
that cost over $3000 and that insurance would not cover it because it was
not considered a health related cost. Someone who disagreed said that if we
want to be treated equally, we should not have any 'special' privileges. 

 

Trisha told the audience that there were no right or wrong answers. The
philosophy of the National Federation of the Blind is that the challenges of
blindness can be reduced to a nuisance given the right skills and attitudes.
The exercise sparked much soul searching and conversation.

 

What is your position on these issues?

 


NFB Pledge


 

I pledge to participate     actively in the effort of the National
Federation of the Blind to achieve equality,     opportunity, and security
for the blind; to support the policies and programs     of the Federation;
and to abide by its constitution.

 

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