The Board of Directors teleconference meeting of the NFBF was called to order by President Kathy Davis at 8:05 p.m.

Roll Call
First Vice President, Dwight Sayer
Second Vice President, Dan Hicks
Treasurer, Tom Hartig
Secretary, Merry Schoch
Board Members:  Betty McNally, Gloria Mills Hicks, Joe Minichiello, and JD Townsend

President Davis called for the acceptance of May 4, 2005 and May 27, 2005 Board minutes.  Joe Minichiello moved to accept the minutes.  Dan Hicks seconded.  Minutes accepted.

Treasurer’s Report submitted by Tom Hartig

Dr. Hartig stated it was too early in the month for a formal report.

Washington Rally - May 26, 2005
Currently, not all expenses have been submitted.
$4,045.00  Expenses
$2,500.00  less received from National
$1,545.00  Total (not budgeted) Expenses

Currently, Tom has only received requests from five chapters asking for assistance in going to National Convention.  Kathy will send e-mail to all chapter presidents explaining the necessity for such requests to be sent to Tom via e-mail.

Tom reported the affiliate has received $325 from the State of Florida for Unclaimed Property.

End of Fiscal Year Report – July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2005
Tom will start working on this report following the National Convention.

State Convention Report
This is a preliminary overview since not all the expenses have been submitted.

State Assets with this year’s budget as approved by the Board
Budgeted                         Actual Expense                 Category
$1,000.00   $ 625.00   Auction
$1,800.00   $1,240.00   Exhibitors
$5,750.00   $6,316.00   Registration
$3,000.00   $3,000.00   Scholarships

Total Income:  $11,181.00 which is $369.00 below budget.

Other Expenses:
Banquet/Coffee/Bartender/Box Lunches  Totaling  $7,597.00
Rooms       $2,800.00
Day care      $     60.00
Door Prizes      $   250.00
Board Travel      $   600.00
Chapter Grants     $4,300.00

Budgeted Expenses:   $19,000.00
Actual Expenses:   $11,200.00

In lieu of waiting for other expenses we are approximately $7,500.00 under budget.

Betty McNally moved to accept the Treasurer’s report.  JD Townsend seconded.  Treasurer’s report accepted.

State Convention Reports and Overview

Scholarship Committee – submitted by President Kathy Davis
Kathy reported that she believes the scholarship winners will stay involved with the organization.  She also stated that she was generally pleased with the program but believes that each scholarship winner should be given approximately $100. to help with travel expenses and meals prior to leaving for convention.

President’s Committee – submitted by President Kathy Davis
Kathy believes the Presidents Committee and meeting immediately following the close of convention is a good way for chapter Presidents and Vice Presidents to share ideas and concerns.  In the future we may examine the possibility of developing a mentoring program among chapters.

Transportation Seminar – submitted by First Vice President, Dwight Sayer
Dwight stated there was approximately 50 in attendance at the seminar.  Ed Griffin and Representative Slossberg were guest speakers at the seminar.  There was considerable audience participation and Dwight was pleased with the outcome.

Leadership Seminar – submitted by Second Vice President, Dan Hicks
Dan stated the audience listened and were actively interested in the content of the seminar.  He felt it was well received based on positive comments from those in attendance.

General Effectiveness of Convention – submitted by Second Vice President, Dan Hicks
Dan reported the overall feedback that he received regarding convention was positive.

Convention Related Reactions from Members – submitted by Secretary, Merry Schoch
Merry reported she contacted members who were veterans in attending convention and also individuals who had never been to convention previously.  The reactions she received were positive and relayed some of the comments to the Board.

Registration – submitted by Treasurer, Tom Hartig
Tom stated in the future registration should start 30 minutes earlier which would be 8:00 a.m instead of 8:30 AM.    Also, a larger table is needed and for at least the first two hours of registration there should be two people distributing name tags.

Fund Raising Seminar – submitted by Treasurer, Tom Hartig
Tom reported the attendance was not high but he felt it went quite well.  Izzy Manterro did a presentation on Planned Giving.  Marion Gwizdala was the other presenter and did a first rate presentation on local fund raising.  Overall the seminar went very well.

NEWSLINE – submitted by Treasurer, Tom Hartig
Tom reported that guest speaker Tom Giuffrida was very impressed with the seminars and the NFB has made a new friend.

Employment Seminar – submitted by Board Member, JD Townsend
JD said there were approximately 40 participants.  Audience participation went quite well.  An employee from DBS participated in the seminar with JD.    Felt the seminar went well.

Resolutions Committee – Submitted by Board Member, JD Townsend
JD reported he has contacted the Resolutions Committee as to where the resolutions should be sent.  The Craig Kiser resolution went out via fax, e-mail and USPS to Craig Kiser, commissioner of Education and to the Governor.

The resolution regarding Education will go out to the Commissioner of Education of the State of Florida and the District offices which JD is in the midst of obtaining the needed e-mail addresses.

JD is not certain where to send the resolution regarding the State ID cards.  Several members of the Board suggested it be sent to all the legislators.

Dan suggested the resolution regarding the commission also be sent to the legislators.
  JD agreed and said he believes the resolution regarding Web Site Accessibility should go to the legislators also.

It was decided that the resolution regarding adoption should go to the Department of Children and Families as well as to the Governor.

Dan will post the resolutions on the web site once he receives them in final form from JD.

Legislative Seminar – submitted by Board Member, Gloria Mills Hicks
Gloria reported she facilitated the Legislative portion of the seminar and Marion Gwizdala facilitated the Advocacy portion.  The audience received information on CD or floppy disc and 53 were distributed.  Gloria stated it was a successful seminar.

Events Committee – submitted by Board Member, Gloria Mills Hicks
Gloria stated that the Day Care project was given to the committee at the last minute but felt that having child care enhanced the convention and showed that the affiliate was growing.    Gloria remarked on the reception and the auction concerning the size of the room.  Also, there needs to be someone who can give a good, detailed description of the items being auctioned.  JD suggested we use the Talking Book reader to describe auction items.

Dwight mentioned that it appeared when people left for the Resolutions meeting that the auction went downhill from there.  JD suggested the Agenda Committee take a closer look at the auction verses resolutions committee time conflict.

Ideas were exchanged on how to help the Resolutions meeting move more quickly.  JD stated he would take the concerns to the Resolutions Committee and have them resolved before the next convention.

FLAGDU  Division Report – submitted by Board Member, Betty McNally
Betty stated she had heard that individuals who attended thought this was the best meeting FLAGDU has had.    Betty felt the meeting was well organized and moved smoothly.  She stated there should be a table in the meeting room.   Currently there are 34 members of this Division.

Parental Concerns Committee – submitted by Board Member, Betty McNally
Betty reported that she, Debby Brackett, and Ronee Hudson sat and talked with one parent that attended.  In the future she would like to have funding to have refreshments such as pizza to encourage attendance.  She also stated she would like the meeting to be open to not only parents of blind children but blind parents of sighted children as well.

Board member, Joe Minichiello stated he thought overall the convention was very good and the hotel accommodations were great.  Joe also stated the guide dog relief area was located in an appropriate place in regards to dealing with possible hazardous automobile traffic.

Old Business

Bids for 2006 State Convention
Kathy stated the two chapters who are interested in hosting the 2006 state convention are the Orlando and the Pinellas chapters.     After discussion Dan moved that the chapters must have their bids into the State Board no later than August 15, and the Board will subsequently make a decision about the best bid by September 1, 05.  Dwight seconded.  Motion accepted.

National Convention
Kathy will participate in the Roll Call of States.  Dwight will be the alternate and Dan will be the second alternate.

Kathy will announce that Rick Brown and Lydia Markley are National scholarship winners.

After discussion it was decided that the affiliate will give donations of the following:
Pac Plan   $756.00 (Merry, is the PAC Plan still in place and did we vote for this amount of money?  Just am not certain about this as I was told that PAC was being replaced with the Imagination Fund.)
Tinbroek Fund $1500.00
White Cane Fund  $1500.00
Imagination Fund  $1500.00

JD Townsend moved to accept the above funding; Dwight Sayer seconded; motion carried.

NFBF Caucus
Kathy will contact Mrs. Jernigan to obtain a room.  She will try her best to reserve a room for Sunday, July 3rd  from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Board Meeting
The meeting of the NFBF Board of Directors will be held in Tom Hartig’s suite on Thursday, July 7,  immediately following the morning general session and pizza will be provided.  Tom will supply the room and Dwight will take care of ordering the food.

Banquet Exchange
Following considerable discussion, the Board  decided that the State affiliate will purchase banquet tickets for all members interested in attending and each member will in turn reimburse Treasurer Tom Hartig for the cost of each ticket.  Kathy will send e-mail to chapter presidents to find out how many members plan on attending the banquet and they will be asked to reply to Tom Hartig and Gloria Hicks.

NFBF Table
Marion Gwizdala is in charge of scheduling coverage of the state affiliate’s table in the exhibit hall where raffle tickets will be sold.

Tickets to Paradise Drawing
Tom stated there is a particular room in the hotel where all drawings will take place.  He will be the one responsible for having the winning ticket drawn and this will likely occur on Thursday, July 7 at noon.

New Business

NFBF State Committee Appointments
Kathy stated she has been very busy making decisions with regard to appointing members to chair and serve on various committees.  Some committees will b larger than others but her plan is for large committees to break into smaller working groups as a means of working in the most effective manner.

Leadership Seminar
Kathy defined the Leadership Seminar as being for Chapter Presidents, Chapter Board members and budding members within the organization.  She explained that in past seminars there have been break-out groups that are presented with various scenarios for discussion and recommended solutions.  Dwight will contact the Southern Baptist camp to determine what the costs would be for a leadership seminar and will report on this matter at the Board of Directors meeting in Louisville.    At that time, it will be decided if such an event is financially feasible this fall.   If not, it will be tabled until next year.

Legislation Report – submitted by Board Member, Gloria Mills Hicks
Gloria stated there was not much to report on the RSA issue since Congress was on vacation.  No other information to share at this time.

Transportation Report – submitted by First Vice President, Dwight Sayer
Dwight stated that we are just waiting for the Governor to sign the bill.  The final make up of the Commission under this bill would be seven members; two whom are users of the system and have a disability.  Dwight suggested that Terry King would be a good representative to have on this board.

Vision Teachers
JD would like to discuss at the next Board meeting how to get vision teachers involved with the NFBF.

Freedom for the Blind Books
Dwight would like a motion for the  Board to purchase more Freedom for the Blind books to have to distribute to legislators.  It was mentioned that Craig Kiser may be willing to provide these books once again.

Tom moved to adjourn the meeting.  Dwight seconded the motion.
Meeting adjourned at 10:25 p.m.

Respectfully submitted, Merry Schoch, NFBF Recording Secretary