February 15, 2004 NFBF Board Minutes

 

The meeting was called to order at approximately 8:30 p.m. by President Dan Hicks.  Seven of the nine board members were present and were:  President Dan Hicks, First Vice-President Kathy Davis, Treasurer Tom Hartig, Board members Gloria Hicks, Carolyn Lapp, David Evans and Dwight Sayers.  Carol would be late but would take the entire minutes from the tape supplied.  The whereabouts of J. D. was unknown. 

 

Minutes of previous meetings:  there were two sets.  Kathy moved, Gloria seconded and the motion carried to approve the December minutes.  The general consensus was that not enough people had had time to read the January minutes to have an accurate determination as to their acceptance.  They would be voted on the next time.

 

Treasury:  Because we had our meeting one week later this time, Tom figures that all have received his mail out.  This will show that our asset balance as of 01-31 was $212,601.64.  That is a decrease over the previous month of $8,807.94.  Also attached this month was the ledger for the month because it was such a high expenditure month, the reason being the Washington Seminar which fell pretty much into budget.  Kathy moved, Gloria seconded and the motion carried unanimously to approve the treasurer's report.  Tom brought up that the NFB credit card that had been used in the past by the former president and the former treasurer has a credit limit of $1000.  Tom felt that the credit limit should be raised to $5000.  Discussion followed.  Gloria moved, Kathy seconded that we raise the limit to $3000, always keeping in mind that this is paid off before accruing any interest to be paid.  The motion carried unanimously. 

 

Fundraising, Dwight:  We have our raffle tickets in and Tom has mailed them out.  Donna Kelley is supposed to update the PSA package, Public Service Announcements like she did last year.  Tom says the brochure is nearly finished.  Not everyone had seen a copy of the brochure.  The brochure is to go to lawyers in Florida, aimed at estate attorneys to consider NFBF as the recipient of such things as wills and bequests.  There was some discussion about the presentation of the blind, in this case not being represented with such as a cane or a dog, presenting the idea that blind people are just like the bulk of the American populus.  (Carol entered.)  Tom is printing 3500.  This is not a dated brochure.  The brochure is a mock of the Ohio brochure but merely was re-created for Florida.  It will not be printed until our approval.  There was some concern to the contrary.

 

Newsline:  News is two-fold.  At the last meeting, Tom said that a marketing subcommittee was being put together with Grant Downey and John Pare.  Tom and those two had a teleconference meeting but thereafter Grant resigned from that subcommittee.  Tom was not sure that Grant was doing anything with his Public Relations committee either; he seems to just be too bogged down.  Tom went on to say that there were bills in both the House and the Senate in the bill drafting committees on Newsline.  Representative Halager phoned that she was concerned that this was a new tax.  From the draft that she had gotten from Representative Pruitt's office, this was her interpretation.  Tom has not seen that draft.  Tom needs to contact Ellen from Pruitt's office to get this thing straightened out.  Much money is spent on the deaf; this is a much smaller amount but as necessary for the blind.  Dwight says that there is an opportunity to go before the Council of Governors at the Radisson Hotel in Orlando at the Lions State Convention in May.  Consider whether to consider Newsline as a state-funded project. 

 

Focus:  Carolyn said that the winter issue was out.  All agreed that it was very good.  The mailing list for Focus mail outs is maintained by Donna.  Tom maintains the actual membership list.  We should perhaps make some sort of reminder to people receiving The Focus that they could become members and should let us know if they want to continue receiving The Focus.  One board member suggested that we give more opportunity for people to receive this on the E mail; this format should increase in numbers in the future.  Even E mail there is a problem with people not updating E mail address changes.  Carolyn said that some labels had handwriting; to be professional, they need to be typed.  Probably zipcode change or some other post office corrections primarily.  It was less than $400 to sent The Focus out.  Carolyn will send Tom a receipt. 

 

Events:  Gloria mentioned the Washington Seminar but that had been mentioned earlier.  Gloria said that it was realized that many chapters had not gotten the notice from Kathy that it was recommended that each chapter send three members plus the president to the Tallahassee seminar.  We have a coordinator for rooms and reservations; Kitty King is that person.  We are going to have to develop what our legislative issues will be.  We hope that this will also be a training for leaders of NFB, April 18-20.  We will have a room to work in for our meetings.  Gloria sent Keith Grey our needs for buses for Tallahassee.  Also David said that she could talk to Midnight Sun Tours, talk to Joan or Marie.  David doesn't know exactly where that company is located.  Gloria talked with the Tallahassee chapter president, explaining to her that we need a base there in Tallahassee.  We will need some followup from the Tallahassee group afterwards.  The Tallahassee group seems to need some direction/guidance.  Discussion:  many, particularly new, NFB members don't have a really good handle on NFB philosophy.  It may come to visits to various chapters. 

 

Scholarship:  forms have been sent out to Michael Elliott and are starting to come in.  The chapter presidents need to be sure to get copies to various colleges, to Disabled Services. 

 

Membership:  met last month via teleconference and discussed a lot of things.  One was the state mail out.  Instead of sending two letters to the talking Book library which might not make them happy, it was felt that the two letters could be combined.  This is our convention mail out, Dan said; but we do want to let people know that there are chapters, there is an NFB that they can belong to.  We discussed the chapter handbook.  There was a committee that was organized at the May 2003 presidential committee.  There were about six people, using Brenda's book as a guide.  Carolyn sent letters to committee members saying that the membership committee was more than willing to help get that handbook written.  Marion was going to chair this meeting.  Discussion followed.  Also Carolyn stated that they were now collecting articles for the spring Focus, expected toward the end of March.

 

Legislation:  three issues were presented by us in Washington.  A couple were somewhat lack-luster.  Social Security was a continuing thing, to raise the limit of earning to $30,000 over five years.  The other two issues, one with the workshops, NFB wants the law to never come back to allow persons who are merely blind to work for subminimum wages.  The last issue was to change the process for blind students to give them more power to arrange their own readers.  The National Leadership Seminar was mentioned as a training mechanism for various levels of NFB persons.  Carolyn, Carol, Tom and J. D. have not been.  Dan could make that recommendation.  Carolyn might have childcare issues.  Regarding the Washington seminar, we reiterated that we must be careful to be assured that people understand the entire reason for which they come and that they be involved in full participation of activities.  Perhaps new people going should be assigned a mentor.  Definitely we should make the expectations more clear. 

 

Tom checked; Dan is the liaison to the Public Relations Committee and so will speak with Grant.

 

Convention site:  should get recommendation from Events Committee.  The Fort Lauderdale hotel may no longer be a viable offer.  That chapter has isolation problems, little involvement.  Tallahassee is probably not ready for a state convention.  Polk Chapter feels that there is too much distance to assist with Orlando.  Dwight said regarding the deadline on Orlando contract, that if they did not get an answer by the end of February that the contract would not work.  However, nothing in the contract was said about food; there must be something in there before a contract can actually be signed.  David stated that at this point he hasn't gotten anything out to any of the vendors for the 2004 convention.  David is in training in Daytona and also his contract document is messed up in his computer.  We should have gotten word out in the six-month timeframe, not the 90-day that we are up against.  Carol needs to find local vendors in Jacksonville that will come.  Carolyn proposed that whoever is the chapter president that they be co-chair of the exhibit hall.  Carol said that she would need much guidance to do that.  Carolyn would send what she had in the way of things for last year, including a list of vendors.

 

Carolyn wants people to understand that when they accept titles, they need to be a part of whatever that job entails, things like getting in articles to The Focus. 

 

Tom said that the building next over from him appeared to be on fire and so he was going to go to make sure he wasn't going to have to evacuate or some such.

 

Discussion continued about problems with persons with titles not fulfilling their obligations.  Some contacts will be made to some of the troubled spots.  There is an issue of whether we should consider buying computers for persons without them to use in their NFB official capacity.  They would need to learn to use the software which in turn is also very expensive.  Not everyone does have E mail.  The state may get into a loaning situation for an officer without a computer. 

 

Gloria moved, Kathy seconded and the meeting was adjourned at 10:29 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Carol Feazell, Secretary, NFBF