Present: Heather Field (president), Joe Shaw (vice president), Ryan Smith (treasurer), Keith Anderson (secretary), Tony Garcia, Ruth Hollingsworth, Domonique Lawless, Sharon Paris and Roxie Chamberlain. Apologies from Gayle Prillaman.

I. Call to order.

• Minutes from December 2004 meeting were not read due to technical difficulties.

II. Treasurer's Report

• Funds. $306.13 in bank account.
• Membership Dues. The treasurer reminded us that membership dues must be paid in January.

Ruth Hollingsworth moved and Tony Garcia seconded that the treasurer's report be accepted. Passed.

III. President's Report – No official report. Monday, 24 th of January: Heather Field plans to meet with Vocational Rehab.

IV. Business arising out of minutes: none

V. New Business

• Heather Field reported that Amanda Cantrell wished her purchases for the December 2004 Chapter Christmas party to be considered a donation.

• Social activities. Joe Shaw presented some outing ideas. Ice skating, bowling or rock climbing. The group voted to go ice-skating. Available at $4-6 each (not sure if that includes skate rental). Suggest doing it the last Saturday in January or 1 st Saturday in February (29th or 5th).

Refreshments and fellowship is available in the rink-side coffee-shop for those not intending to skate. Saturday may be too busy. Joe Shaw will get group rate for Saturday evening January 29th.

• Using our website’s listserv. Heather Field encouraged everyone to sign up on the chapter’s listserv to receive e-mails important to the chapter.

The website is: www.nfbmidtn.org

• Meeting room hire. Funding of meeting room: $25 each meeting. This will be paid this month from bank account. Next month we will take up a collection. We meet here at the Nashville Public Library because of Public accessibility etc. Tony Garcia volunteered to enquire about getting our chapter meetings listed in the Nashville Library’s events calendar.
  
• Renewal of domain: Heather Field reported that the payment was due for the renewal of the Chapter’s web domains. Ryan Smith moved that we pay for and renew only the URL with the “.org” extension, seconded by Joe Shaw. Passed.
  
• National Convention update. National Convention bulletin for 2005 was read by Heather Field. To be held in Louisville, KY. $59 a night for singles, doubles and twins. $65 for triples and quads. No charge for children 15 and under as long as no extra bed requested. Galt House Reservations: 502-589-5200. There are two towers in the hotel, Galt House West or Galt House East. West has pool, etc. East has suites. Deposit of $60 charged to a credit card is required. If reservation is cancelled before June 1, $30 will be refunded. Otherwise not. Cable, TV, data port and iron provided. See later editions of The Monitor for other attractions in Louisville.
• 2005 convention: Unparalleled progress and rededication of goals of NFB. Saturday, July 2 - setup. Adjournment Friday July 8 at 5PM. Conventions starts Sunday July 3. July 5 - Tuesday, general session begins and continues until Friday July 8. July 7 - banquet.
  
• State Convention: Heather Field presented state convention details. Convention is to be held in Downtown Knoxville from March 11 th to March 13 th. Cost, with pre-booked discount, is $65 per room, singles, twins and quads available.
  Address: Holiday Inn Select.
  Discussion of last year’s State convention ensued and it was reiterated that we, the NFB of MID TN can make a huge difference in this state as we reach out and grow. It was agreed to discuss and organize rooms/transport for state convention at the February meeting.
  Costs were estimated as follows: $37.50 per person covers two nights lodging, plus registration fee of $5, banquet ticket $25, plus other food you may buy and gas money. $100 should cover it all.
  
• March meeting. Keith Anderson moved that the March meeting be moved from 2 nd week to 1 st Saturday in March due to State convention falling on the second weekend. Seconded by Ruth Hollingsworth, passed.
  
• Fundraising Committee Chairman’s report: Tony Garcia reported that a Silent auction had been chosen as the chapter’s major fundraising event. The chapter did not currently have sufficient funds to purchase the required number of boxes of chocolate – minimum of ten boxes. He also mentioned some other fundraising ideas including a bowl-a-thon and applying for grants.
  Discussion of possible fundraisers ensued. Some tentative suggestions were made regarding the venue and program for the silent auction and the committee agreed to follow them up and report next meeting.
  Members were encouraged to solicit any donations for the silent auction by using any connections to celebrities etc. which they might have. May 21 st was proposed as the date for the event.
  Ryan Smith moved and Domonique Lawless seconded that the Fundraising report be accepted. Passed.
  
• Elections: Heather Field reminded members that elections for president and secretary would be held at the February meeting.
  
• Officers meeting scheduled for January 24th, Monday 8pm.
  
• Membership. Joe Shaw has called many people repeatedly and continues to work on informing people about the work of the NFB and encouraging them to come to a meeting or one of our social activities. Discussion of member recruitment ensued and several goals were put forward as targets for funds raised. These included:
• Rent for monthly meetings to ensure as central and accessible meeting place as possible ($25),
• To assist with transport to monthly meetings for interested blind people living in Murfreesboro.
• To assist first time attendees to get to Conventions – National and State.
  
• Student Report. Nikki Lawless. Meeting scheduled. Will contact students at various TN universities. Heather Field recommends concentrating in Middle TN area to have support of the main NFB group and so they can come to the regular main meeting with the NFB of MID TN. Also, recruit at an earlier age as well.

• Heather Field read an article which reported on the discrimination of Health DPT officials in ca against a blind couple with a newborn baby, which they attempted to take from them. Discussion ensued and the role of individual members of the NFB in assisting this couple was discussed and the importance of collective action was reinforced through this story.

Next meeting Saturday: February 12, 2005. 10:30AM Nashville Public Library, conference room 2.

Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted by Keith Anderson recording secretary.