Report On the Semiannual Convention

Report On the Semiannual Convention

By Judy Sanders, Secretary

A lively crowd was present for our semiannual convention at our headquarters in Minneapolis on April 18, 2009. People arrived early for registration, rolls and coffee.

President Jennifer Dunnam called the convention to order promptly at 9:30 a.m. The president of the Metro Chapter, Pat Barrett, gave welcoming remarks. He acknowledged Dave Starnes and his crew for setting up the room. He urged people to partake of the refreshments and feel free to ask questions throughout the day.

Jennifer told us that we could look forward to many door prizes throughout the convention. Another fun activity that occurred throughout the program was a lively game of Jeopardy to test everyone's knowledge of NFB history. It came complete with the Jeopardy music. The first question was:

In the category of braille: the first state to pass a braille literacy bill. Answered by Jan Bailey: What was Minnesota? It occurred in 1987.

Our first speaker was Dr. Robert Duncan, director of education for the State Academy for the Blind in Faribault. Dr. Duncan announced that a new director would begin her tenure at the school on July 1. She is Alice Woog from Golden Valley. She currently administers the Perpich Arts Middle School that is a residential school for students from all over the state. Dr. Duncan will be finishing the second year of what was supposed to be a one-year interim term.

Dr. Duncan familiarized us with the structure of the Academy; a Board of Governors appointed by the governor governs it. Nadine Jacobson currently serves on that board. A superintendent administers both the school for the blind and the deaf. Students can attend the school if their IEP (Individual Education Plan) allows it. Dr. Duncan said that they are considering support of legislation that would allow parents to choose this form of education for their child. Many of the students are dealing with additional challenges to their blindness such as autism, deafness and there are an increasing number of students whose primary language is not English. Dr. Duncan stressed that they must help their students be as independent as possible; he constantly reminds a caring, nurturing staff of this. He is working to reconnect the Academy with the blind community. He feels we have lost touch during the last several years. They are updating their web page to include information for parents such as a link to Blindness: Learning in New Dimensions (BLIND), Incorporated and its summer program for kids.

Their Board of Governors passed a resolution that reaffirms the law in that all students will learn braille unless their IEP specifically says that they will not. There must be a good reason for its exclusion. They are developing a position paper on contracted braille and they are experimenting with when is the best time to teach the Nemeth Code—does it need its own class or can it be integrated into math class?

They have made a heavy investment in assistive technology; they recently hired Ken Trebelhorn to work with this program. This summer they will offer assistive technology training for teachers.

They are working with State Services for the Blind (SSB) with their summer students who are between the ages of 18 and 21. Students will leave with a portfolio that tells other providers of services what they have learned.

The school is doing a great deal toward improving its infrastructure including building a new dorm, remodeling existing dorms, buying accessible bicycles for children with physical disabilities, and building a new recreation area that includes an obstacle course.

Jennifer concluded this item by affirming that we want a continued partnership with the Academy, and would be happy to have a link to their website on ours.

This is the year for the unveiling of the Louis Braille Commemorative Coin in celebration of the 200th birthday of Louis Braille. Congress, because of the advocacy of the NFB, authorized the minting of the first coin to have real braille on it. NFB receives $10 from each coin sale for funding a national "Braille Readers Are Leaders" literacy campaign. A short promotional video for the coin and our literacy initiative was shown.

Carrie Gilmer followed with a presentation introducing us to two Saturday School participants. Rakeeb Nugussie told us about learning more of Louis Braille's life and taking trips on the bus to get ice cream. Austyn Johnson said that he appreciated increasing his independence. He is a frequent participant in our children's "Braille Leaders are Leaders" program.

We also sponsor a Teen Night, coordinated by Jeff Thompson with help from many others. Jeff said that not only do the teens have the chance to participate in fun activities but they can also talk about their concerns and solutions. The kids say that sometimes at school, they feel left out but when they come to Teen Night, they feel on top of the world! Five teens will be attending NFB's Youth Slam this summer.

JEOPARDY ANSWER: From the category of braille: BANA. Question asked by Charlotte Czarnecki: What is the Braille Authority of North America?

JEOPARDY ANSWER: In the category of braille: 26-02. Question asked by Steve Decker: What is the number of the first resolution passed by the NFB in Minnesota calling on all teachers in the state to teach Grade 2 braille? The 26 means that it was passed in 1926.

Dick Davis is in charge of our efforts to promote braille in Minnesota and purchases of coins from the U.S. Mint. The Mint sold 60,000 coins during the first week of availability. Dick reviewed activities that have been occurring throughout the state to acquaint the public with the coin and our efforts to increase braille literacy.

Have you ever wondered about all the jobs that need doing in the NFB? Jennifer distributed a list of 100 possibilities, and asked us to look at the list and sign up for those things we would be willing to do. This is one way to become more involved and for us to take advantage of people's talents.

JEOPARDY ANSWER: In the category of date: 1951. Question asked by Andy Virden: When did Andy Virden join the NFB?

JEOPARDY ANSWER: In the category of alphabet soup: HAVA. Asked by Nadine Jacobson: What is the Help America Vote Act?

Chuk Hamilton, director of State Services for the Blind, spoke regarding staff training about adjustment to blindness. Specifically, how will SSB improve its training in this area? Before talking about this issue Chuk took time to compliment the work of Dr. Duncan at the Academy for the Blind. He also told us that the governor's proposed budget had a cut in funding to SSB of approximately $139,000, which is about 2% of its state budget. The budget bill was not final at the time but as it stands there will be cuts in senior services, elimination of the child services positions and no more funding of the advocate position grant to the United Blind of Minnesota.

Chuk reviewed the history of staff training on blindness telling us that there was no real systematic training of staff until the 1990's under Dick Davis's leadership. SSB did not provide training for approximately three years, but revived it in 2005 under Chuk's leadership. Under Dick's leadership, a person had a total of eight weeks of training. Chuk inaugurated two phases of training. Phase I was for all staff and required a lot of reading, viewing of videos and group discussions. Phase II was for staff who would have direct contact with blind customers and involved two two-week sessions: one at BLIND, Inc. and one at the Lighthouse for the Blind in Duluth. These two facilities were under contract because they responded to a Request for Proposal (RFP) to provide the teaching. These facilities were under a five-year contract that is now ending.

It is time to look at the effectiveness of the training and for SSB to issue another RFP. So that management could better evaluate this training and find ways to improve it, they surveyed 57 staff members who have undergone training at some point in their careers at SSB. Forty-two people returned their surveys. The public was also invited to submit comments. Nine comments were received: three from facilities, one from a consumer organization (the NFB) and five from individuals. These responses are now being evaluated and Chuk hopes to have a new policy soon.

The NFB has a bill in the Legislature to mandate training for counselors to be certified to work in Minnesota but it is on hold while we see if SSB can solve this problem on its own. If that does not happen by next year's session, we will revive the bill.

Chuk announced that the manufacturing of the new digital Radio Talking Book player would begin in late April.

Chuk gave us the news that this would be his last address to us as director of SSB. While he hopes to keep working, he is retiring from this position soon. He gave no date.

Jennifer thanked Chuk for his many years of cooperative effort with us. She pointed out that the reason for our staff-training bill was to keep training policies from being promulgated at the whim of any particular director.

Jan Bailey asked if stimulus dollars coming to SSB through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act could be used for training. Chuk said that it could and that SSB was working on a list of possible uses.

Joyce Scanlan made the point that a person's advancement at SSB should be tied to their success in their staff training.

Monica Buboltz acknowledged how a good counselor with a positive philosophy can affect a customer. She gave special credit to her counselor, Jan Bailey.

JEOPARDY ANSWER: In the category of miscellany: Three Minnesotans that were held for over an hour at Six Flags Amusement Park in Atlanta because they would not give up their canes. Question asked by Sheila Koenig: Who were Mike Sahyun, Zach Ellingson and Brandon Ball?

Judy Sanders gave people information about how to register for the March for Independence and raise money for the Jernigan Institute Imagination Fund. "March For Independence: Walk for Opportunity" is the theme for the Detroit march. People can march in person or raise money without actually marching. Judy reminded everyone that NFB of Minnesota receives some of the money raised, and it goes into our general fund or funds things like the Senior Possibilities Fair. Meralee Devery gave an example of how easy it is to raise money. Her dentist's office gave her $150 just because she asked.

Technology is becoming more available and necessary to many of us. David and Phil Weber, with Second Vision are dealers for much of this new portable but powerful equipment. David listed several pieces that were available to examine over lunch. They included the BrailleNote, DeafBlind Communicator, the Breeze (a GPS device) and the KNFB Reader Mobile.

We saw a video of a public service announcement from Terry Bradshaw, one of the chairs of our Braille Readers are Leaders campaign.

Several activities occurred over lunch. They included:

  • See the latest in technology;
  • Braille questions could be answered by Melody Wartenbee, president of the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille in Minnesota;
  • Fill out the NFB jobs preference list;
  • Sign a petition protesting the national Author's Guild opposition to Amazon Books making e-books accessible to blind and print-disabled individuals;
  • Take a tour of our building;
  • Examine the Louis Braille coin;
  • Register to raise money for the Imagination Fund; and
  • Purchase a raffle ticket to support the Jernigan Fund and win an all-expense trip to the 2010 national convention.

In addition to all those choices, people took time to socialize over our third annual "academic lunch" prepared by our Minnesota Association of Blind Students (MABS) under the leadership of Jean Rauschenbach.

JEOPARDY ANSWER: In the category of NFB Publications: The name of the first Kernel Book. Tom TeBockhurst asked: What Color Is the Sun?

JEOPARDY ANSWER: In the category of NFB Publications: The name of the parents’ newsletter of the NFB. Kathy McGillivray asked: What is Future Reflections?

JEOPARDY ANSWER: In the category of miscellany: Minnesotans closed down a ride at this park because they were prevented from riding the Corkscrew. Ron Poire asked: What is Valleyfair?

Our afternoon session began with hearing more about technology. Jon Swenson Tellekson is with Speech Gurus, the successor to Freedom of Speech. This company focuses on speech recognition devices and the Kurzweil 1000. He told us that the latest scanner could help us fill out forms. It cannot do complicated forms. It also has an appointment calendar; it is more accurate than ever and can scan more things. Dragon Naturally Speaking has become of such a high quality that doctors are using it. It can be combined with JAWS.

Charlene Guggisberg will once again spearhead our planning of the annual move-a-thon. We will return to Minneapolis to travel around the lakes on Saturday, September 12. Many jobs need doing to make it a success. Think about people and/or corporations to approach for pledges; think about walking; think about helping with cleanup. It is not too early.

Tom Scanlan gave a treasurer's report that indicated we had a good fiscal year ending March 31, with income of $64,253 and expenses of $50,390. We ended the year with assets of $174,324. A motion was made to accept the treasurer's report and another motion was made to approve a budget of $52,100 for this year. Both motions were passed unanimously.

JEOPARDY ANSWER: In the category of banquet addresses: The title of the 1997 banquet speech. Johnny Ott asked: What is "The Day after Civil Rights?"

Federationists went around the room to introduce themselves and identify their place of employment or their job status. We found a wide variety of jobs and people who were between jobs or retired.

Emily Zitek is a new vendor in the Business Enterprises Program. In less than a year, she took a vending facility that was ready to go out of business and turned it around to be a thriving success. Emily talked about the intricacies of running your own business; she works hard to be successful and she knows that people have high expectations for her. Emily is now training others. Her enthusiasm, we hope, will be contagious.

Shawn Mayo, executive director of BLIND, Inc., told us that we would soon be having a mortgage burning party. She then introduced us to four students who talked about their journey through adjustment to blindness.

We first heard from Matthias Niska. Although he has been legally blind all his life, he faked it all the way through his undergraduate work. Nearing college graduation in 2004, he discovered that he was losing vision in his better eye. He stuck to what he thought were safe careers (such as trying to write a novel) but eventually came to grips with his situation. He realized that if he wanted to have a family he was going to have to be more independent. His initial visit to BLIND gave him pause. He did not like the idea of using a white cane and sleepshades. He eventually decided to try this and acknowledged that the training has changed his life. It is not just the skills but also the attitudes toward his blindness that have changed. He will enroll at the University of Minnesota Law School in the fall.

David Dunphy knew that he wanted to learn the usual skills of blindness; home management, cane travel, industrial arts, etc. But he had no idea what he didn't know. For Halloween, it was decided to carve out a pumpkin; David never did this as a blind kid so found this a great experience. He appreciates the feeling of equality and high expectations that everyone has for him.

Harry Hogue has learned that the sky is the limit. Dog sledding was new to everyone this year and it helped teach Harry to raise the bar for what he can accomplish. We can do what we want if we decide that we can. We make our own opportunities.

The last speaker was Joan Lombard. She is not only dealing with blindness but also has severe neuropathy. She became so cold and her leg was numb during last winter. Her travel instructor pulled her out of travel class but she begged to be let back in. She participated in the dog sledding and actually drove the sled. She said that her counselor tried to talk her out of coming to BLIND but she insisted. And now she'll never look back!

Shawn introduced Zach Ellingson who talked about how much he loves his job. He joked that you have to be somewhat sadistic to be a travel instructor; you have to love sending a student from Guam out on a cold winter's day. Zach introduced us to Rob Hobson, who has joined the staff as the second cane travel instructor.

Rob is from Illinois, went to the Louisiana Center for the Blind and was urged to get a degree from Louisiana Tech to teach cane travel. In spite of the cold, he is glad to be here.

Every year we pledge money to the Jacobus tenBroek fund that supports the maintenance of the National Center for the Blind. Al Spooner led us in making our pledges and the NFB of Minnesota will match our donations. We will be donating a total of $2,450 if all pledges are fulfilled.

The NFB of Minnesota will be sending Jennifer Dunnam as its delegate and Steve Jacobson as our alternate to the national convention. This is only important for roll call votes on the convention floor.

Many people were involved in monitoring and influencing this year's legislative session in St. Paul. One of the issues from our Day at the Capitol was the loss of personnel at the Braille and Talking Book Library in Faribault. The Federation has sought help through letters from legislators to the Department of Education wanting an explanation of why new personnel cannot be hired with federal dollars. We have attracted enough attention that we understand officials came to visit the library to learn more about what they actually do.

The Federation lent its support to a bill that would guarantee accessibility of equipment and websites purchased or used by the State of Minnesota. We were not the initiators of this bill; however, NFB first brought passage of a bill that began requiring accessibility to all products purchased by the State. This new bill is an improvement on current standards and deals with captioning on audible websites for people who are deaf. Funding for this bill will come from the Telecommunications Access Minnesota (TAM) fund that currently funds communication devices for the deaf, NFB-NEWSLINE® and captioning of television in rural Minnesota. At the time of our convention, there were still negotiations in process on funding.

Joyce Scanlan helped us to get ready for the annual Possibilities Fair for Seniors. This is our second fair with two other partners: State Services for the Blind and BLIND, Incorporated. The Fair is scheduled for May 4 in Bloomington. The committee is Joyce Scanlan as chair, Shawn Mayo, Judy Sanders, and Harry Krueger. In addition, the people from SSB are Dick Strong, Lyle Lundquist and Ed Letcher. We are expecting 125 people. They will be able to peruse exhibits and hear from a keynote speaker, Bob Gardner, a graduate of BLIND and a senior. At lunch, Bill Laack, a longtime Federationist and a professional musician, will entertain the audience.

We were reminded to make plans for the national convention including preregistration online or through the mail and buying airline tickets. Hotel reservations information is in the Braille Monitor.

We agreed to start an NFBMN listserv. This will be strictly for news announcements. Dick Davis announced that Social Security is hiring many people; for more information, contact Dick.

Tim Aune reminded us about our monthly show on the Radio Talking Book, "Speaking for Ourselves."

Andy Virden announced that the Central Minnesota chapter's annual picnic would be at the home of Koyla and Bob Frasier.

JEOPARDY ANSWER: In the category of publications: The year the first Minnesota Bulletin was published. Joyce Scanlan asked: When was 1934?

With a big thank you to everyone who helped put this convention together, we adjourned and Jennifer promised to go right to work planning our annual convention in the fall.