NFBF BOARD MINUTES

JANUARY 11, 2004

 

 

The teleconference meeting was called to order by President Dan Hicks at 8:38 p.m.  Present were:  President Dan Hicks, First Vice-President Kathy Davis, Second Vice-President J. D. Townsend, Treasurer Tom Hartig, Secretary Carol Feazell, Board Member Carolyn Lapp, Board Member Gloria Hicks, Board Member Dwight Sayer.  David was en route to his training in Daytona. 

 

No minutes from the previous meeting were available as the secretary had not yet received the tape thereof, Carol having been out of town during the previous meeting. 

 

Treasurer:  Tom sent asset statements in mid December regarding November.  It showed that there had been minimal changes for the month, total assets down near $1300.  Tom could not yet give much of a report as the statement only came in the previous Friday.  Now that it is the new year, Tom plans two reports.  Because we technically have to stick to the calendar year for certain reasons, Tom will be concluding a '04 sheet and then be doing the first six months of the new budget year to put against our budget projection.  Several had not been receiving the monthly balance sheets which tom E mails each month to the entire board.  Tom will attempt to rectify this.  Tom picked up a short-term 5.75% CD, put $30,000 of newsline money and $20,000 of asset operating into it.  That compares to the 0.8 in the money market.  Tom sends his reports to Peggy Elliott in Iowa.  It is mostly working very well. 

 

EVENTS:  Gloria reported that she had a spread sheet, listing about 16 people who want to go to the Washington seminar.  Will pay 1/2 the hotel nightly expense, $30 per diem food, $30 transportation.  Some of the members will have assistance from other than us; adjustments will be made for that in the state reimbursement.  Gloria said we were right around our $9000 budgeted expense.  Dan suggested that the $50 tickets for the grand opening might come out of our contributions to National rather than that $9000 budget.  We have a contract for Tallahassee, Holiday Inn Capital, $75 per night, does not include breakfast but meeting rooms.  Reservations need to be in by March 15.  April 20-22.  The TD day has been changed to 4/28.  Gloria suggested that we stay with our date since we are going to go for other issues besides transportation.  Kathy moved that the Tallahassee Event now be moved to 4/18 to 4/20, making it easier for working persons to take less time off from work.  Carolyn said that her county arrangements were now for 4/21 and 4/22, a free bus going with the county for all disabilities; some of our NFB folks have signed up for this.  The TD Commission is in a lot of difficulties and so TD day is "up for grabs."  Tom then seconded Kathy's motion and discussion followed.  Finally the vote was taken and the motion carried unanimously.  Gloria made the motion to stay for two nights, seconded by Tom.  In the interest of saving money and an extra day of work, the motion carried unanimously, with the understanding that this may not end up working out.  Gloria will go back to the hotel with the new proposal.  We want to have some people from as many Florida areas as we can.  Each should be a registered voter.

 

NEWSLINE:  Had a committee meeting 12/3 which Dan joined.  Have put together a marketing strategy in three areas to work on the rest of the year.  Funding Tom will be involved.  We are going to try to get back into the Division of Blind Services budget for 2004.  We are going to try to convince the legislature that we should have access to the relay funding just like the deaf does and actually get 1/4-cent per residential phone line.  Tom is flying to Port St. Lucie tomorrow and he and Brenda have time scheduled with Senator Pruitt who is the chair of the senate appropriations committee and will be senate president in two years.  He has been very supportive and is a personal friend of Brenda.  This should prove to be a very informative meeting.  The second thing coming out of that committee is marketing to new users.  Grant Downey has been added to the newsline committee.  He and John Pare will be co-chairs of a subcommittee to deal with a number of marketing outreach issues to increase newsline.  The third area has to do with marketing and outreach to our current users, getting a list prepared for the change in numbers to local numbers.  Tom in April in Tallahassee would like to have the Press Association help with our lobbying efforts for newsline.  Our current grant has been extended another quarter, so we will get another $10,000 to pay the March bill and then we will have to reapply but this will be no problem. 

 

FUNDRAISING:  Met Monday night.  Tom is going forward with getting the brochure draft ready.  He is pretty close to getting this copied free, this for our bequest program.  The state raffle efforts are to kick off on 3/1, $2004 winner to be drawn at the national convention on 7/4 in Atlanta.  Tickets will be $2 apiece for the raffle.  Chapters will be remitted one dollar each when they send in their ticket stubs and money.  $273 for 5000 tickets will be our basic cost.  We can have them in one week.  This could be opened up to other chapters outside Florida to make one dollar per ticket for any chapters participating. 

 

FOCUS:  The Focus is almost finished.  Carolyn was a little disappointed that only three chapters submitted reports.  There is time as David is leaving for training in Daytona and then to Washington.  Probably will be out the second week of February.

 

SCHOLARSHIP:  We now have revised scholarship information on the web.  Kathy is already getting inquiries.  Kitty King and Sherrill are on the committee.  Carol agreed to go on the scholarship committee. 

 

Carol needs guidelines as to what the Jacksonville chapter can be doing ahead of time in preparation for the convention, needs specific direction including time lines. 

 

CONVENTION MAIL-OUT:  The library sends out the large list for convention registration and banquet information.  Carol and Dan need to get together with Hotel personnel regarding banquet choices.  May even look into credit card options for paying for registration, look at the possibility of registering online in the future.  More time is needed for 2005 convention proposals.  Tom moved and Dwight seconded to extend the date of submission to 2/8, Dwight seconded; motion carried unanimously. 

 

LEGISLATION:  The TD board is in trouble.  The last thing that happened was that their executive director was fired; it was not a unanimous decision.  Lisa Baggott is now temporarily in charge.  Gloria will put possible Washington Seminar topics on the E mail. 

 

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE:  Carolyn stated that they tried to meet a couple of months ago that did not work but Carolyn has asked now for a meeting next Sunday at 8:30 p.m.  Dan will send Carolyn information to work out the conference call.

 

NEW BUSINESS:  Kathy is very concerned about the three new chapters, that they are not getting into the loop.  We perhaps need liaisons for chapters in trouble.  Many chapters do not submit anything, for example, to Focus.  Many chapters are seldom if ever heard from, both the new and some of our older chapters.  Gloria moved, Kathy seconded that the board act as liaison to various chapters to perhaps just simply see what is going on with them.  After much discussion, the motion carried unanimously.  Dan, Kathy and Carolyn would work on implementing this, whether simply a phone call and/or a visit.  More discussion followed.

 

Tom moved and Gloria seconded, and the meeting was adjourned at approximately 10:40 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Carol Feazell, Secretary, NFBF