Present: Heather Field, Keith Anderson, Ryan Smith, Joe Shaw, Tony Garcia, Joyce Hollingsworth, Ruth Hollingsworth, Johnny Jones.
- Call to order.
- Apologies from Mr. John Haendel.
- Mr. Ryan Smith was officially welcomed as the new treasurer.
- Minutes of the July meeting were read by Keith Anderson. Ruth Hollingsworth moved that the minutes be accepted with the necessary corrections. Seconded by Tony Garcia. Minutes approved.
Treasurer's Report:
Ryan Smith noted that the $433.10 in the account should reflect $152 less according to the minutes read. He will give a more detailed report next month.
President's Report:
Apology from president Heather Field regarding not being able to devote as much time to NFB business as she would have liked this month due to her very busy personal schedule.
She then discussed what she had done.
- Spoke with prospective members and others interested in the work of the NFB.
- Continued liaising with Terry Smith, Director Of Services For The Blind in TN, regarding our chapter drafting a proposal for improving services for the Blind in
TN. Members were asked to refer names and phone numbers of people unhappy with services or who cannot get services so that we can contact them and
include their situations in our proposal. When the proposal is ready we will present it to relevant State government officials and to politicians. Ruth
Hollingsworth and Joe Shaw are interested in assisting with work on the proposal.
- Compiled a current list of members and sent it to the State president as per our chapter constitution.
- Met with Mrs. Gayle Prillaman and made up 100 publicity packets. Packets will be given to professionals such as social workers, Opthalmologists etc. who can pass them on to people losing their vision who need to know about the NFB and what we do.
- Met with Mrs. Gayle Prillaman, head teacher of vision impaired students in Williamson County, and showed her the videos produced by the NFB. Hopefully, Mrs. Prillaman can use these videos in her work with parents, teachers and students.
Business Arising out of the Minutes:
- Tax ID obtained by Keith Anderson
- Introduced publicity packet. Showed to all present. Standard 9 X 12 envelope. Keith Anderson read a brochure in the packet entitled “It's not the Vision You Have – It's the Techniques You Use.” Other brochures in the packet include: a Newsline Brochure, “What is the NFB?”, “Aging and Vision Loss”, and a Kernel Book. The Kernel Books are published by the NFB and are small books, available in print, Braille and audio, which explain to the public through true stories, by blind authors, that blindness is not a tragedy but merely a physical characteristic to be dealt with like any other inconvenience, and that blind people are just normal people. Miss Field noted that she came to know of the NFB by reading a Kernel Book.
- Miss Field read the constitution of the Middle TN Chapter of the NFB of TN and noted some changes from that sent back from the State board for reconsideration. Ryan Smith moved and Ruth Hollingsworth seconded the motion to accept the constitution. Motion passed.
It was agreed that the constitution should be provided in preferred format to all new members and will be distributed to existing members after acceptance by the State board.
- The books were officially handed over to Ryan Smith, new treasurer.
- Student division still in progress. Dominique Lawless is working on this project.
- Discussed a committee to head up the Christmas stocking fund-raiser. 1 st prize is the stocking. Ryan Smith volunteered to be on the committee. Tony Garcia volunteered to drive. Trish Vigil will drive (as per past meeting). A committee meeting is scheduled for Saturday, August 21 st, if details on State rules for conducting fund-raisers appear favorable.
- Joe Shaw will be the Imagination Fund coordinator for Middle TN Chapter of the NFB and will pass on names to the Imagination Fund for contact.
- Meet the Blind month ideas for October:
a) Heather Field to contact Nashville Public Library regarding our chapter being a library partner. She will visit the outreach contact person and give her a packet and ask her about having a display with people giving out brochures etc.
b) Heather may contact local radio station or tv station - “Talk of the Town” regarding Meet the Blind month.
c) Joe Shaw will call Public TV and other stations to get them to play short public announcement video on the NFB.
d) Miss Field will call Joe Shaw with information about the videos and whether we have good quality audio available. Important to tell stations about Meet the Blind month.
e) Suggestion was made to hold displays about blindness and the NFB in area malls. Ruth Hollingsworth is interested as were Mr. Smith and Mr. Shaw. Suggested that Ruth and Joyce Hollingsworth go to Rivergate Mall, and Ryan and Joe will go to Hickory Hollow Mall. Ryan Smith suggested that we give a Kernel Book to people but it was decided that, at this stage, cost would prohibit this. Mrs Smith and Shaw will investigate the possibility of a Saturday morning display. Mr. Garcia volunteered to provide transport.
- White Cane Safety Day. Mr. Anderson will gather some information about White Cane Safety Day online.
New Business:
- Vice President nominations: Mr. Ryan Smith nominated Joe Shaw to be vice president of our chapter. Seconded by Ruth Hollingsworth. Mr. Shaw was elected unanimously!
- We listened to the presidential release. Several highlights:
a) the NFB is listed as the “Blind Federation of America” in the combined federal campaign list.
b) Here are the combined federal campaign numbers: #2202 (use this number for donations to the NFB. #1537 (Action Fund).
c) Next year, in 2005, the national NFB convention will be held in Louisville, KY. 2006 in Dallas, 2007 in Atlanta, 2008 in Dallas again.
d) People urged to support the agreement between NFB and NISH to ensure that the Randolph-Shephard act is protected. The Washington switchboard number is 202-225-3121. Or call 410-659-9314 ext 2207 or 2240 to get in touch with Mr. McCarthy at the National Center for the NFB.
- Miss Field noted that many organizations are lacking members. People are becoming less involved in communities. We need to find ways to help people be involved.
- Joe Shaw is interested in getting in contact with blind people who don't work or don't vote. Miss Field said that she will see what she can do about getting a list of Names and numbers of people she has to Joe Shaw.
- She also noted that there is a state register of blind people which the government may be prepared to use for distributing information on issues such as accessible voting. However, this register is NOT available to the public which includes our chapter. She also noted that the NFB is spearheading the push for talking ATM's and talking voting machines.
- Mr. Smith asked why membership is small and if this was related to the meeting time. This was discussed and the fact that several other times/days etc. had been tried and this did not appear to influence attendance. It was agreed that membership should be discussed at our next meeting.
Meeting Adjourned. Next meeting scheduled for Saturday, September 11th, 2004 at 2PM at the Downtown Public Library, conference room 2.
Respectfully submitted by Keith Anderson.
