President, Debbie Grubb called the meeting to order at 2:04 PM. There were a few announcements. Roll call revealed a quorum. The minutes of the Board meeting on 2008 were read by Sharon Youngs. There were two minor corrections to these minutes. Paul Edwards moved for adoption of the corrected minutes. The motion was seconded by Gwendolyn Meyers and carried. In the absence of our Treasurer, Sharon Youngs read the report that had been provided by Patti Land. Robert Miller moved for approval of the report. Loreen Darby-Henry seconded the motion and it carried.
Debbie then gave her president’s report. She talked about the group that is trying to postpone the compliance regarding access to the paper ballot for people with disabilities during elections resolution until 2016. She is vehement in saying this is unacceptable by all groups of disabled people. She talked about the Vision Summit to take place in Tallahassee in January 2010. Once again, FCB is expected to take a leading role in this. The format of this Vision Summit is unchanged from last year. She noted that Barbara Grill has been selected by event organizers to represent the senior blindness community. Paul Edwards is expected to attend and to talk to the legislators about the vote postponement issue. Debbie was generous in her praise of Carl McCoy and his Legislative Initiative project. She said it is more important than ever for us all to vote next year She then touched on the Independent transportation issue we have been working on and said we will be working with the TBARTA group in the Tampa Bay area. She is still trying to work with VSA of Florida. They are having difficulty in bringing about access to audio description in movie theaters, on TV and in live theater. This initiative isn’t moving as quickly as we had hoped. She thanked Patti Land for her work as FCB Treasurer for these years. Patti has announced that she will not seek reelection in May. Debbie reminded us that all offices are open for election at that time. Debbie concluded her report by thanking Jay Bader for doing a good job as FCB’s web-master for such a long time.
We moved to Committee reports. Because Jesus Garcia, Chairman of the Resolutions Committee had to leave early, we heard from that committee first.
Resolution Committee – Jesus Garcia Paul Edwards read the first resolution for our consideration.
Resolution 01-Autumn 2009 concerned the delay in voting compliance. Paul moved for adoption of this resolution. It was seconded by Bill Freeman and carried.
The second resolution – 02-Autumn 2009 concerned the up coming vote to promote the High-Speed Rail System. This resolution was also moved for adoption by Paul and seconded by Barbara Grill and carried.
Access Committee – Doug Hall Doug reported about a teleconference with RSA scheduled for next week. RSA is to review the practices of DBS. DBS is seeking feedback from consumers for its year-end report. Doug also talked about accessible pedestrian signals. He gave us some advice about how to interact with the census takers.
Archives Committee – Sharon Youngs Sharon reported that Sila Miller has completed almost half of putting the hard copies of past minutes onto disc for us. Last year the Archives committee promised to supply stickers for all records and/or equipment that belongs to FCB. These stickers direct anyone to call the FCB officer before disposal of that material and these stickers are Available. If anyone has such material that belongs to FCB, one of these stickers is to be affixed to it. A lot of photographs and audiocassettes are in need of cataloging. This is an on-going project. A policy needs to be created to address the obsolescence and retirement of equipment belonging to FCB. Sila Miller made a motion to have the Technology Committee help to create such a policy. The motion was seconded by Paul Edwards and carried.
Awards Committee – Linda Jacobson Linda’s report was brief. She said the committee was in need of nominations for the various awards. The deadline for making nominations is 3/31/10.
Constitution and By-Laws Committee – Jim Kracht Jim reported that the committee had reviewed some changes in the documents of both the Tallahassee chapter and the GDUF affiliate. He reminded everyone that each chapter is supposed to submit a copy of their constitution to the committee annually.
Convention Committee – Sila Miller Sila reminded us that the next convention is scheduled for May 20-23, 2010 at the Crown Plaza (formerly called Airport Holiday Inn) 14670 Duval Road, Jacksonville. She said Jeff Thom has agreed to be the keynote banquet speaker. The Thursday evening event is to be a dinner cruise on the river. The after banquet entertainment is said to be a “class act”. The committee has decided to forgo making available the cassettes of the program this year. We will have available audio CD’s for those who wish an audio format.
Education and Leadership Committee – Barbara Grill Barbara said that the scholarship applications have been updated. She made a motion to increase the Gayle M. Krause-Edwards award by $500. The motion was seconded by Sheila Young and carried. Barbara continued her report by suggesting that a brochure announcing our scholarships be developed and that a grant for funding of this be looked into. She made this into a motion that was seconded by Loreen Darby-Henry. Although there was much discussion this motion carried by a slim margin. The committee is working on a join project with the Employment committee to build a workshop to be presented at the 2011 convention.
Employment Committee – Suzy Hipple Suzy reported that the committee is working on an up-grade to the mentoring program. They are also developing a packet to use in conducting mock job interviews.
Project Insight – Debbie Drylie Debbie talked about the committee’s plans to make a presentation at the convention in May. Volunteers are still needed in certain areas. Debbie then made a motion to increase Sally Benjamin’s pay by $.50 per hour. The motion was seconded by Frela Grubb and carried.
Public Education – Carl McCoy Carl talked about the “Legislative Initiative”. He said it is never too late to contact your legislator. He would like a report from everyone who was able to contact his or her representative. He said that 71 legislators are members of the Vision Caucus and know about our issues.
Membership Committee – Sally Benjamin The first issue Sally addressed was the fact that only 7 chapters have complied and sent in their reports on time. By our own rules, only those 7 chapters are eligible to vote at convention. Some chapters sent their list of members to Sally and their check to the Treasurer. Everything is to go to the Membership Secretary. We have the same number of members as we had last year – 824.
Publicity and Publications Committee – Sally Benjamin Sally stressed that anything that is to go on our web site or in print under the name of FCB is to be cleared by this committee first. She urged everyone to request to receive his or her publications over the Internet. This would significantly reduce the cost of publishing the White Cane Bulletin.
Technology Committee – John Richards John told us about the changes that have been made with our web site. He said that most of our forms are already on the site but some are still being refined. Barbara Grill made a motion to change from the 18-point print currently used on our web site to 14-point print. Most web sites are using 14-point print. The motion was seconded by Loreen Darby-Henry and carried. There were some changes to the list also outlined. Jay Bader will be the sole moderator and anyone applying to be on the list may now join. Membership in FCB is no longer a requirement. John also talked briefly about the adaptive listening devices that were authorized for purchase last year. He said the new units look more like a walk-man and use the FM band.
This ended the committee reports and we moved on to Unfinished Business. There was no Unfinished Business to discuss and we moved on to New Business.
First Paul Edwards made a motion to support the up-coming Vision Summit in the amount of $500. This motion was seconded by Barbara Brown and carried.
Next Robert Miller talked about a program to benefit the gifts program of DBS. Craig Kiser is going to be climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and is seeking people to pledge so much per foot he climbs. Robert went on to move that FCB pledge 1 cent per foot. This would be a maximum of $190.00 if he gets s to the top.
Rosanna Lippen has talked this hotel into giving us a two free nights stay. Rosanna moves that this hotel stay and a donation of $100 be presented to Patti and David Land. This motion was seconded by Loreen Darby-Henry and carried.
Since this was the last business we needed to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 5:20 PM.