National Federation of the Blind of Florida, Inc.

Board of Directors’ Meeting

December 11, 2005

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

There was no official roll call but board members present were as follows:

President, Kathy Davis

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

Kathy called for the acceptance of the minutes of September 18, 2005. Tom moved for acceptance, Dan seconded, there was no discussion, and the minutes were accepted by the board.

Treasurer’s Report – submitted by Tom Hartig

Tom reported he recently sent the report to the board for the month of November. Tom stated there was little change. The $12,000 for the Higgins grant and the $7,000 .for Newsline administrative fees will not appear until December. He remarked we are doing well in regards to cash flow. There is $25,000 in the money market account if needed. Betty moved for the acceptance of this report, Gloria seconded, there was no discussion, and the treasurer’s report was accepted.

President’s Report – submitted by Kathy Davis

Kathy reported she received a letter from Dave Anaspach stating he felt the Pinellas chapter was turning around and he was planning on running for President at their elections in December. Dave feels 2006 will be positive for them and is encourage by the amount of flashlights the chapter is selling.

Kathy stated we received an Imagine Grant from National for the Parental Concerns Committee in the amount of $4,900 which will support their seminar at state convention. She added that unfortunately we did not receive the grant which was written for the Tallahassee event.

Tom remarked we probably did not receive both grants submitted since Florida is not in the top ranking of support for the Imagination Fund. Gloria reported she just sent $500 to National for this fund.

Tom stated if Newsline Relay funding can be added to the agenda for the Tallahassee event then Newsline funds would be able to help support this event. Gloria said she had no problem with four agenda items this year instead of the usual three.

The Board took a few moments to share their plans for the Holidays.

Joe expressed his appreciation for all who has appeared on the radio show, “”Eyes On You”. Dan stated they do a great job with the show. He has listen to other shows on the station and said the NFB show is probably the most professionally done show on the station.

Washington Seminar – January 30 to February 2, 2006

Kathy stated she has nine individuals listed as going to Washington seminar. The following individuals are attending: Gloria Hicks, Dan Hicks, Tom Hartig, Dwight Sayer, Joe Minichiello, Carlos Montas, David Evans, Betty McNally and Denise Valkema.

There was discussion regarding the three open spots. This matter will be resolved very soon as Kathy and Gloria collaborate to make certain that Florida has the broadest possible range of representation to visit with members of congress.

Kathy stated the NFBF members will have to spread out in order to cover those parts of the state which have little or no representation.

Tom reported each participant will receive $700 to help with the expenses to attend. Dwight stated that Southwest Airlines has good rates flying into Baltimore and there is a shuttle from Baltimore to Washington D.C. for $37. Kathy instructed Tom to submit the monies to the participants ASAP so they can make their flight reservations. Gloria reported it will cost each individual approximately $950 to participate in this event. Joe remarked that the chapters should help support these types of events. Kathy stated she does not believe that the Tallahassee chapter will help support Carlos. Kathy said if the chapter does not help Carlos then the affiliate will have to help him with the extra expenses as well as Denise. The Greater Daytona Beach chapter will help Chad if he has additional expenses.

Kathy reported she will ask Carlos and Chadto arrive in Washington D.C. on Sunday to attend the student function.

At Kathy’s request Gloria will handle the communications with Diane McGeorge.

All attendees will contact Gloria no later than Thursday, December 15, to inform her of their flight reservations and then she will make the arrangements with Diane.

Kathy reported that Dwight had set up shuttles to run all day, Tuesday and Wednesday, every 15 minutes from the Holiday Inn to the Capitol in case of inclement weather. The National office was not supportive of this initiative.

Gloria stated letter writings to the representatives should begin in January.

Website Committee Report – submitted by Dan Hicks

Dan reported he is researching a host company to allow more space on the website. He stated there may be a minimal increase in expense but the board agreed it would be worth the additional cost.

Tom reported there is now a link on the site to donate to the affiliate.

Kathy stated the updated Student Scholarship application needs to be posted on the web site. She spoke with Rick Brown, NFBF Scholarship Chair, who will update the information before sendind the revised application to Dan for posting on the site.

Dan reported that he is working with a program “Contribute”, which National uses, but he needs to find a host that will support the program. He also needs individuals who are familiar with this program to help with posting on the site.

Dwight asked if we have ever looked at finding a company to help with costs by putting the company’s link on our site and receiving commission from the sale of their products.

Dan will hold a meeting with the committee to work on these ideas. Kathy added Dwight to this committee.

JD stated he would like to see streaming audio on the web site which could have such items as the Presidential release; Eyes on You radio show, etc. The board thought this was a great idea.

Dan stated what he really needs is people who can code pages. Kathy stated Dan should pull individuals in as needed; they do not specifically need to be appointed to his committee. Dan will put a note out to the list and see if anyone is interested in helping out. He stated the issue is to have the pages accessible and knowing how to work with the program. Dan will hold a meeting after the first of the year to work on some of these issues.

Scholarships – submitted by Kathy Davis

Kathy inquired as to how many paid scholarships we had. Tom reported the six that were voted on at the $750 range, as of to date four of those scholarships are paid for. Last year there was a commitment made to the St. Lucie chapter to leave a slot open until January 1, 2006 at $500. Tom stated there is one slot open and possibly there will be another slot open after January 1. The following chapters have paid for the scholarships: Orlando, Greater Daytona (2), and Polk.

Events and Legislative – submitted by Gloria Hicks

Gloria reported she has been working on hotel rooms for the Tallahassee event. She stated the hotels we have previously used have raised their prices to $180 per room. The Ramada Inn has offered for $99.95, but it does not include breakfast. The Quality Inn has offered $95 which includes a hot breakfast and includes the meeting rooms needed. Kathy suggested Gloria check into the Holiday Inn Suites where you can put more people in a room and they have a nice restaurant. Gloria will look into this very soon.

Dwight reported the transportation company, Atlas Motor Coach, has folded. Last year they provided transportation from Orlando to Tallahassee. Dwight is researching what is available.

Transportation – submitted by Dwight Sayer

Betty announced that the Commission meeting and TD Day will be held on April 17th and 18^th. She reported there are two bills which have been filed that are identical to last years’ bills. Dwight stated the Transportation Committee will meet in January.

Parental Concerns – submitted by Kathy Davis and Betty McNally

Kathy reported the committee is happy to have received the grant from the Imagination fund. Betty stated they are moving forward with their fundraising projects. Kathy reported the travel bags are wonderful.

President’s Committee Report – submitted by Kathy Davis

Kathy reported the main topic of the meeting was fund raising. The participants of the meeting like the idea submitted by Tom Ryan to have a coupon printed on the back of the raffle stub for a discount or free item from a company such as Burger King, Pizza Hut, etc. Participants also like the idea of having more than one prize which may mean the grand prize would not be as much as in the past raffles. Kathy stated she has forwarded the minutes from this meeting to all of the board members.

Tom reported that at present we do not have a sponsor for the back of the ticket. Marion was working on this and Tom will check with Marion to get an update on this project.

Membership Committee

JD asked how many members the NFBF had for this year. Tom reported there were approximately 280 paid members.

Chapter Building – submitted by Kathy Davis

Kathy stated she is not sure where to go as far as building new chapters. Dwight suggested since our statewide membership is so low that we should focus on a membership drive. Kathy believes the Chapter Building and the Membership Committees should meet together to work on having a statewide membership drive.

Tom stated that he had previously made a mistake in reporting the number of members of the NFBF and the current paid membership is 436 members for 2005.

Voting Concerns – submitted by JD Townsend

JD reported the Volusia County lawsuit is ongoing. He stated the elections were not postponed due to non-accessible voting machines, but the case is still very much alive. JD said the case was to be heard in January in Jacksonville, but has been delayed until June and will be held in Orlando. Currently Volusia, Leon and Polk counties do not have accessible voting machines.

Newsline – submitted by Tom Hartig

Tom reported they are working on bringing in two new papers. The Jacksonville Florida Times Union which will be ready to begin the initial phase of this endeavor in January, but Tom stated it may be until the end of the fiscal year due to a four month delay at National. The other paper is the Sun Sentinel in Ft. Lauderdale, but due to Hurricane Wilma it may be delayed or postponed.

Tom reported there will be a Newsline Committee meeting on Wednesday, December 14, 2005. Items mentioned above will be discussed in detail at the meeting. Tom stated he will recommend they start working on the Ft. Myers area. He said there is nothing in the Northwest area, but he has not had much requests.

Tom reported Newsline is in great financial state.

Old Business

Resolutions – JD Townsend

JD spoke on the past resolution regarding forming a Commission for the Blind in Florida.

He stated that he was in hopes that State Senator Evelyn Linn would introduce the resolution, but JD reported that she does not seem interested in supporting this issue. He stated she seems more interested in a combined group for dealing with all disabilities. JD encouraged the board members to begin contacting their local representatives.

Gloria stated she spoke with the office of Senitor Steven Weis and was informed that nothing would happen on this issue this year that it would be the next, but she was advised by Craig Kiser to move forward. Gloria supports JD’s idea to start moving on this now. Dwight and Tom have a contact they will start working on this week. JD stated we need to work on the Senate to get them to champion this issue for us.

Kathy stated that she is seeing programs being cut and merged which in turn give less people more work, and she is not seeing any program expansions. This leads her to feel a bit discouraged in regards to this issue for the up and coming year.

JD reported there are statistics which show having a separate agency for the blind is more effective. Kathy asked JD to compile this information (the argument and the statistics) and put this out to the list after the first of the year.

Tom stated he has model legislation and everyone should have this when meeting with their representatives. Dwight remarked we need to give the legislators the argument, the stats, the model legislation, and the book “Freedom for the Blind”.

New Business

Dwight reported that from his experience the Pack Mate was not a very reliable product.

Meeting Adjourned at 10:10 p.m.

Respectively submitted by Merry C. Schoch