Present: Heather Field (president), Joe Shaw (vice president), Keith Anderson (secretary), Ryan Smith (Treasurer), Tony Garcia (Anna Quintera, Tony’s mother), Ruth Hollingsworth, Domonique Lawless, Liz Works and Gayle Prillaman.

Call to order.

• Minutes from February 2005 meeting read by Keith Anderson and approved. Heather has renewed the .com domain for the chapter website and donated this to our chapter. May 21 st is the Silent Auction Date. Bill HR27 was defeated but may be attached to another bill. We must be vigilant. Dr. Schroeder spoke to the State Blind Vendors meeting a few weeks ago.

II. Treasurer's Report

$361.13 Balance. Ryan reimbursed heather for the .org Domain Renewal. Keith gave Ryan $23 in dues paid when Ryan was absent from the previous meeting as well as IRS tax forms. Heather also gave Ryan the list of members current with their dues. Ryan collected money raised from chocolate bar sales which came to $172 ($100, $45, $5, $22) given to Ryan by Joe from candy sales. Our total sales from candy should be $300. Gale Prillaman took a box of 25 Almond Bars.

III. President's Report

1. Heather shared the details of a mediation case in which she has been asked to participate as an expert witness in her role as a blind person who is also a teacher and a member of the NFB. Heather will attend student’s IEP later this year. Student has been going to the Louisiana Center for O and M as part of the center’s summer program for children and teen-agers.
2. Copy of State Constitution was forwarded to us. Copies will be made in members’ preferred formats and given to all chapter members.
3. Heather has continued regular contact with Kevin Reeves (a young blind man in the music business).
4. State Convention Report: About 60 attended. Domonique won the TN State Federationist of the Year Award (Congratulations!) She has started the State Student Division and is our alternate State Delegate to the National NFB Convention. Minimum 18 year age requirement has been approved for voting member age. Passed as an amendment to the State NFB Constitution (members under 18 cannot vote). Heather gave some background to the support for this amendment and it was noted that on request that this voting age limit is not part of the National constitution. It was also noted that Under 18 yr/old members can vote in their student NFB division. Our Student Division does include high school students.
5. New Committees:
   1) A State Fundraising Committee formed. Kim Williams (North River Chapter) is the chairperson.
   2) A state Publicity committee was formed. Linda Crisp (Bolivar) is the chairperson; Heather is on this committee. A TN Merchants Division was also formed and several of our chapter members are involved including Sharon Paris, Jody and Roxie Chamberlain and Joe Shaw.
   3) A social Committee was formed, Reggie Lindsay ( Knoxville) is chairperson and Heather is also on this committee. The Goal is to organize state wide social events including a fall picnic.
6. Next year: the state meeting will be in Middle TN in March! We need to start looking for a good hotel. Ryan will get the information from Heather regarding numbers to plan for.
7. At the state board meeting our Chapter Constitution was rejected because it needed too many changes. Lev Williams (TN NFB treasurer) has agreed to write a form state constitution and we will fill in the blanks.
8. Elections: A corum was present. President: Heather Field was re-elected by acclamation.
   Secretary: it was approved to table the motion for secretary to our next meeting.
9. National Convention. Louisville, KY. Galt House Hotel number for room rates: 502-589-5200. $59 singles, doubles, $64 triples, quads. $60 deposit required. Our chapter has one room booked for the entire week. It is a suite – two rooms and a kitchen. Will sleep 5 people. Starts July 2 through 8 th (Friday). Registration is $15 And Banquet $25. July third (Saturday) is Seminar Day. July 4 th (Monday) is Board Meeting and Division Day (Computer Science Division) and Exhibit Hall is open all day. July 7 th is Banquet night.

IV. Business arising out of minutes

Fundraising Committee Report: Active efforts: selling chocolate; going well. Anticipated efforts: Silent Auction. Tony is checking out local silent auctions in next few weeks. A “team effort” will be needed. 1) a committee to oversee donations, 2) logistics committee to coordinate space, food, numbers of people, 3) liaisons with the location for the silent auction. Goal is to have it before National Convention. June 3, 10, 17 or 24 (Friday). Tommy Royston gave suggestions: The Green House, the Sunset Grille. Tony will contact these two restaurants. Publicity: press releases, radio announcements, Lightning 100, NPR, etc. We ask people to donate items to be auctioned, eg. Gift certificates for a restaurant, gift baskets (Crabtree and Evelyn), yoga class, etc. Let vendors know we will acknowledge them as sponsors. Fundraising committee tele-conference was scheduled for 8:30, Saturday April 16 th to discuss silent auction.

V. New Business

1. A motion was put and passed that Dues from this day forward will be $10, which will include $2 for the State Affiliate.
2. Joe Shaw’s report from the State Vendor’s meeting: Kim Williams and Joe gave three presentations about Newsline (Newspaper on the telephone read by computers) Once you sign up you get a local number call To sign up call: 410-659-9314 Ext 3. If you are a NLS member you can be registered. Best Way, call Joe at 650-5155. This costs $25,000 for service. Joe reminded us that usage in Tn is low and that If we don’t use it we may lose it. Joe will find out how many current users we have.
3. It is critically important to use the NLS for Braille materials: only 50 are currently subscribing from the library!
4. Monthly rental at the Library. Keith paid for last month’s meeting. It was moved and approved to reimburse Keith for this meeting place. We need to find a place to meet that does not charge. Joe Shaw will contact the Library for the Blind director about getting help with this issue.

VI. Other Business

Heather shared an article about a young blind man who just graduated from medical school as a fully qualified doctor. He joins a handful of blind doctors in our country. Active discussion followed!

Next meeting Saturday: May 14, 2005. 10:30AM Nashville Public Library, conference room 2.

Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted by Keith Anderson recording secretary.