Minutes of Meetings

Present: Heather Field, Keith Anderson, Gene Eichelberger, John Haendel, Gayle Prillaman, Marc Vargas, Elizabeth Vargas, and Robbie Mogan.
Apologies from John Brown (treasurer), Dominique Lawless and Trish Vigil.

The meeting was called to order. Introductions were made. The Minutes from the March meeting were read and approved. There was one correction about our web site, which is www.nfbmidtn.org

The Presidential Release was played which highlighted the following:

• NFB National Conference is in Atlanta at the Marriott Marquis, June 29- July 5, 2004. Registration is still $35 for the week and hotel rooms are very reasonable.

• Call for Kernel Book stories. Only 27 have been submitted. Submissions are taken until the end of May. One will be selected and $1000 awarded for this year.

• Meet the Blind Month is in October. Chapters are encouraged to have Fund-Raisers and awareness activities. Matching monies are available through a grant with Wal-Mart. Contact Jerry Lasarus at NFB National headquarter for more information about Matching Grants.

• Washington Seminar Report: Meetings with Senators were disrupted this year by terrorist activities in Washington. All NFB members are encouraged to lobby their Senators in support of S750, which is a bill to increase the earnings limit for Blind Social Security benefits. Presently any money earned above $1350 is taxed. Check the NFB web site for other legislative priorities.

• The new Jernigan Institute in Baltimore is not quite completed but will be very soon.

Report on the State NFB Conference in Memphis in March:

Heather Field, Dominique Lawless, Liz Works, Keith Anderson and Gene Eichelberger attended.
Peggy Elliott (NFB) spoke about the need for Disability Support Services on college campuses to be more empowering for students. It seems that in many instances they actually enable students to be dependent rather than encourage independence.
Gene reported on the heated discussion about whether young people under 18 could be voting members of local NFB chapters. At the National level there is no age limit for voting and membership privileges. The proposal at our State Conference to limit voting members to those 18 was defeated.
Johnny Jones was elected as Vice-president for our State NFB.
Heather Field was elected to the State Board for NFB.
Our State NFB Conference will be in Nashville in 2007.

Old Business:

Picnic: A motion was passed to postpone the picnic at Gene’s Farm until May. The date will be determined and Gene will contact us. Plan to attend and bring a friend. The possibility of carpooling was discussed to help with transportation.

Partnering with the Public Library: Heather submitted a letter on March 31, 2004 to the Public Library Board members describing NFB’s support of Braille literacy issues and our desire to partner with library in addressing these issues. She included a packet of information on NFB with her letter.

Heather proposed a name for our NFB Newsletter: the NFB View

New Business:

Heather will be in Baltimore for two weeks with her work as a member of the National Federation Of The Blind Early Childhood Initiative Work Group, from Saturday April 24th till Friday May 7th.

On Wed., June 9th, Williamson County Vision Teachers are sponsoring a Summer Days Activity at the Williamson County Public Library from 10:00-11:30 for preschool- elementary age children. Heather is providing music and movement activities. Older students are encouraged to attend and to assist with the younger students. The Teens will have lunch in downtown Franklin after the program and then participate in a song writing workshop with Heather. NFB Members are encouraged to assist with this activity. It will be a great way to mentor students and to meet their parents.

National NFB Conference June 31-July4:

This year the conference is in Atlanta, GA. Our Chapter has reserved 2 rooms for the week and plans to offer stipends for first time attendees to help with the cost. Four people can stay in a room. Members are encouraged to attend even if they can only be there for part of the week.

Making the Most of Low Vision:

This was an article featured on March 10, 2004 in a San Antonio, TX newspaper.
Heather read the article, which described the hardships of a man who had recently lost his vision and found help at a Low Vision Clinic in San Antonio. Members discussed the way life without vision was described and the general lack of public awareness of resources available to people who need to learn blindness skills in order to resume their lives.

Meeting adjourned. Next meeting: Saturday, May 8, 2004