Minutes for August 2011

Posted on by
Reply

The regular meeding of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas Austin Chapter was called to order by President Richie Flores on August 27th at 10:27 am. There were three guests present.

Health and Wellfare

Three chapter members had birthdays in August.

The treasurer reported a balance of $3,034.32.

Presidential Release 397

  • Dr. Mauer commented on the raising of the debt ceiling, and he also said that social security checks would go out as usual.
  • The federation continues to oppose section 511 of the Workforce Investment Act, and furthermore seaks to repeal section 14C of the Fair Labor Standards Act. More than twenty informational protests were held across the nation on July 26th to eliminate subminimum wage payments for disabled workers.
  • Wonda Sloan urged more affiliates to start Diabetes Action Network devisions in their states. To date there are only six affiliates with their own DAN divisions.
  • Direct questions about Meet the Blind Month to Melissa Kobelinski. Ms. Kobelinski challenged all chapters and affiliates to develop innovative Meet the Blind Month activities.

Chapter Check-up

Richie encouraged participation in a question and answer session about federation philosophy with a door prize drawing for non-board members who asked or answered questions. Many good questions about Metro Access, folding canes, being visually impaired or blind, and guide dogs were asked and answered. Toni won the door prize which was a free banquet ticket for state convention.

Old Business

  • We did not attend the hot sauce festival because Criss Cole decided not to send consumers due to the heat.
  • Shaniqua discussed getting a group together to have a personal defense class.
  • The Barnes and Noble gift wrapping is coming up in November. This year we will be working at both a north and south location. For the north Austin store talk to Jane, and for the south Austin store talk to Heather.
  • Online registration for state convention, November 11-13, is now open. Pre-registration is $15.00 and banquet tickets are $25.00.
  • The Yellow Cab website is accessible again.

New Business

  • The NFB of Texas will hopefully start an Assistive Technology Devision this year. If you’re interested talk to Thomas or Jeanine.
  • Communities in Schools contacted us to find out if we can provide after school tutoring for a blind student. Contact Richie for more details.
  • Richie recommended that the chapter attend Scare for a Cure, an interactive haunted house which raises money for charity, this october.
  • Heather is working out logistics for the holiday party.

Four people were accepted as new members. There were 2 brags and no complaints. The meeting adjourned at 12:00 pm.

Listen to the meeting here.

Minutes for July 2011

Posted on by
Reply

The regular meeting of the National Federation of the blind of Texas Austin Chapter was called to order by President Richie Flores on July 23, 2011 at 10:26 am. Richie thanked the chapter members who attended convention, and he also thanked the whole chapter for all its hard work. There were 5 guests in attendance at this meeting.

Health and Wellfare

Lanora’s brother recently passed away. One of the national scholarship winners passed away about a week after convention.

The treasurer was volunteering as a mentor at Youth SLAM, and was unable to give her report, but richie reported a balance of $2,851.94.

Presidential Release 396

  • Dianne from LCB will help interested federationists complete the Adult Rehabilitation and Employment survey over the phone. She can be reached at 318-257-4554.
  • NFB Youth SLAM was an exciting and educational experience for 133 students. Youth SLAM is a week long science camp for highschool students that focuses on Science Technology Engineering and math.
  • The federation has been actively opposed to section 511 of the Workforce Investment Act which continues to allow for the payment of subminimum wages to disabled employees. On July 26 federationists in several states conducted 20 informational protests at the offices of the members of the senate HELP committee to demand equal pay for equal work!
  • James Gashel demonstrated how to download the Blio software for mobile devices from mobile.blioreader.com.

Chapter Check-up

The chapter presented the Jim Omvig award to Travis Weede in recognition of all his hard work at chapter activities. In particular Travis was instrumental in doing behind the scenes work which made the BELL camp possible.

Homer Webb, a local inventer, talked to the chapter about his idea to invent an electronic vision system with an open software architecture that could be extended to recognize many kinds of different objects and environments. Mr. Webb found the chapter through our website, and he decided to talk to blind people before he put a device for the blind on the market.

Old Business

  • Last month we discussed having a chapter activity at the Zilker Hillside Theater, and Shaniqua discussed where we stand on that option.
  • White Cane Day shirts are on sale for $6.00. You can purchase your shirt from Pam Chesser, through the lighthouse, or from Chriss Cole. For more details go to WhiteCaneDay.org. Also, Jane is looking for volunteers to marshall for the march.
  • The work on the wheelchair ramp for the Austin history Library is complete. This makes our meeting space accessible again.
  • We sold all our fund raiser candy for national convention and made about $100.

New Business

  • Austin will be hosting state convention this year on November 11, 12, and 13 at the Holiday Inn Midtown. Pre-registration is open at nfbtx.org. The chapter needs to work on getting together door prizes for convention.
  • The NFB of Texas scholarship application deadline has been extended to August 15.

The chapter welcomed one new member. There were 11 brags and no complaints. The meeting adjourned at 11:45 am.

Listen to the meeting.

NFB Austin Chapter Activity in August!

Posted on by
2

What: You are all invited, to join the National Federation of the Blind of Austin and the Cris Cole Rehabilitation center consumers and recreation staff, for an afternoon at this year’s anual Austin Hot Sauce Festival!

Where: Waterloo  Park, 403 E 15th St, Austin, TX 78701

When: August 28th from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

There will be food vendors, live music, and raffles.

Let’s join at this event and have some summer fun. We will have the opportunity to meet and mentor consumers attending the Cris Cole center. This event also raises money for the Capital Area Food Bank.

Let’s go Austin NFB and heat up Waterloo park!

The Hot Sauce Festival begins at 11am and lasts until 5:30 pm if you’d like to participate beyond the two hours. You can read the excerpt pasted below or view the full article from the Austin Chronicle by activating the link. http://www.austinchronicle.com/Market/HotSauce/

 

THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE CELEBRATES 21 YEARS BURNING UP WATERLOO PARK WITH OUR ANNUAL HOT SAUCE FESTIVAL ON SUNDAY, AUG. 28, 2011.

If you wanna beat the heat this summer, then you gotta eat the heat – join The Austin Chronicle and the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas for one of the largest hot sauce festivals in the world.

 

In the 21 years since its inception, what started as a friendly contest between Austin and San Antonio has become one of the largest annual contests in the world, The Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival. Free to the public (with a donation of three healthy, nonperishable food items or a cash donation to the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas), the event draws upward of 15,000 spectators and more than 350 entries every year.

 

Last year’s Hot Sauce Festival raised almost $17,000 and more than 23,500 pounds of food for Central Texans in need. We challenge attendees to help us raise even more food and funds this year to meet the growing need for food assistance in our community! This one-of-a-kind event has become one of Central Texas’ biggest and best-known parties. This year’s Hot Sauce Festival promises to be even bigger and hotter than ever before.

 

Survey on Assistive Technology

Posted on by
Reply

The below was sent to me by Ron Lucey, who serves as a member of the Austin Mayor’s committee for people with disabilities.

Assistive Technology Users:

I’m inviting you to take a few minutes to complete a Survey on Assistive Technology linked at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LZGRXH2
The survey is being sponsored by the Texas Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities and Professor Lex Frieden at the University of Texas Houston. Your survey response will remain anonymous but your results will help guide state policy makers to identify resources and opportunities to develop assistive technologies to meet the independent living and vocational needs of Texans with disabilities. I encourage you to forward and share this survey with other assistive technology users in your contacts to ensure the survey results accurately reflect the views of Texans with disabilities.

Subminimum Wage Resolution

Posted on by
Reply

An important topic at the 2011 National Federation of the Blind convention was the practice of subminimum wage employment. The convention passed the following resolution in order to abolish subminimum wages forever.

RESOLUTION 2011-17
Regarding the Workforce Investment Act Reauthorization

WHEREAS, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions has distributed language for the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act including a proposed Section 511 of Title V (the Rehabilitation Act), which would provide for employment of people with significant disabilities at wages below the federally mandated minimum wage; and

WHEREAS, the proposed language of Section 511 would be a tacit endorsement of the subminimum wage provision found in Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and its antiquated contention that people with disabilities cannot be competitively employed; and

WHEREAS, this language links the Rehabilitation Act, which was established to assist people with disabilities in obtaining competitive integrated employment, with Section 14(c) of the FLSA, which is based on the false premise that people with disabilities can not be competitively employed and therefore can be paid subminimum wages; and

WHEREAS, the language in Section 511 that defines what steps a vocational rehabilitation counselor must take before steering a client into subminimum-wage employment is intended to prevent youth with disabilities from being tracked into subminimum-wage jobs, but is likely instead to track clients into subminimum-wage employment; and

WHEREAS, language in Section 511 asserts that employers holding a certificate that allows them to pay subminimum wages can also serve as training facilities for people with disabilities, a claim that ignores the fact that job training services provided by an employer holding a special wage certificate are likely to reinforce the low expectation that workers with disabilities cannot be competitively employed, since the incentive is for the employer to continue exploiting their labor rather than prepare workers for other employment; and

WHEREAS, the Section 511 documentation and review process, which is meant to provide safeguards against inappropriate use of subminimum-wage employment, does not take into consideration the fact that state Vocational Rehabilitation programs do not have the resources to ensure effective compliance with the various documentation and review requirements, including the six-month review period in the proposed language, creating an opportunity to expand the exploitation caused by Section 14(c) of the FLSA; and

WHEREAS, the good intentions motivating the development of Section 511 are likely to result in enormous negative consequences, especially the validation of subminimum-wage employment as a viable outcome for people with disabilities; and

WHEREAS, the language does not provide an effective procedure for workers to challenge improper placement in such employment: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention assembled this seventh day of July, 2011, in the city of Orlando, Florida, that this organization call on members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions to remove Section 511 of the proposed Rehabilitation Act; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon all members of Congress, not to address the unjust law of Section 14(c) with ineffective measures, but to take direct action to abolish the reprehensible practice of subminimum-wage employment forever.

Minutes for June 2011

Posted on by
Reply

The regular meeting of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas Austin Chapter was called to order by Secretary Thomas Stivers on June 25 at 10:32 am. There were 5 guests in attendance.

Health and Wellfare

Mark Anderson who worked for Travis Association for the Blind was killed in a car accident on June 19.

The treasurer reported a balance of $3,995.18.

In the month of june Dr. Mauer prepares his convention address and there is no presidential release. Instead of the presidential release we listened to an excerpt from the 2007 banquet address.

As of the meeting there were 17 chapter members going to convention including at least one for the first time.

Old Business

  • Jeanine gave a report on the BELL camp. Congratulations to the chapter which was able to fund its first BELL camp this year.
  • All of the chapter members who requested convention assistance from the Texas affiliate received it.
  • we didn’t receive any new information from the affiliate about state convention, but the scheduled date is November 11 in Austin. The hotel has not yet been announced. Keep watching nfbtx.org for the latest information.
  • for those interested in keeping up whith activities at the state level there is an NFB of Texas mailing list which you can subscribe to at members-subscribe@nfbtx.org.

New Business

  • The chapter decided to sell Texas sized candy bars at convention for a fund raiser.
  • The White Cane Day t-shirts are available for order for $6.00. White Cane Day is October 20 and the White Cane Walk is happening on October 22. The whitecaneday.org website has the most current information
  • The chapter voted to provide chapter assistance for convention by reimbursing members who attend for their convention registration.
  • Jeanine proposed a chapter activity at a park or similar to get together socially.

There were 4 brags and no complaints. The chapter accepted 3 new members. The meeting adjourned at 11:45 am.

Listen to the meeting.

Community Career Expo

Posted on by
Reply

13th Annual Career Expo

Get a leg-up on your job search by attending the 13th Annual Community Career Expo, brought to you by Goodwill Industries of Central Texas, the Austin Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities (AMCPD), Workforce Solutions–Capital Area and The Austin American-Statesman.

There will be many employers to visit and opportunities for onsite interviews, including opportunities to improve your job seeking skills through training classes such as continuing education topics, resume building and application critiquing, how to build your own brand and more. In addition, we strive to make this the most accessible Career Expo in the Greater Austin area by providing Spanish Translators, Sign Interpreters and Sighted Guides.

This FREE community event is open to the public, and will be held:

Thursday, June 23

Goodwill Community Center
1015 Norwood Park Blvd. Austin, Texas 78753
9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Minutes for May 2011

Posted on by
2

The regular meeting of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas Austin Chapter was called to order on May 14, 2011 by First Vice President Chesser at 10:30 am. There were five guests in attendance.

Health and Welfare

teresa, who has worked the switchboard at TSB for 21 years, is retiring. Ed Cuntz resigned from his position as director of CCRC.

The treasurer reported a balance of $4,685.48.

Presidential Release 395

  • Rooms are running out at the overflow hotel for national convention.
  • Online pre-rhgistration closed June 1.
  • There will be blind driving simulators at convention.
  • The drawing for the Blind Driver Experience will take place on the Through Our Eyes podcast.
  • Scott LaBarre encouraged all federationists to get on the PAC Plan.
  • The federation has reached an agreement with Ticket Master to make the Ticket Master website accessible.

Chapter Check-up

Several chapter members put on the Captain Whozit Saves the Day skit which will be one of the activities at BELL Camp. What our actors may have lacked in skill they certainly made up in enthusiasm.

Old Business

  • We survived Dinner in the Dark!
  • The campfire program went well and the kids and teachers were interested in our message.
  • We were taking volunteers to work at BELL up through June 15. BELL is taking place right now.
  • The new NFB of Texas website is up and running as of June 1!

>New Business

  • The BELL program volunteers had there coordination meeting on June 15.
  • National convention assistance from the NFB of Texas was available. Applications were due by June 1.
  • Contact Richie, Pam, Angela, or myself if you need assistance with any NFB paperwork.

Four people became new members at this meeting. There were nine brags and one complaint. The meeting adjourned at 11:58 am.

Listen to the meeting.

`Minutes for April 2011

Posted on by
Reply

The regular meeting of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas Austin Chapter was called to order by President Flores at 10:34 am. There were three guests in attendance.

Health and Welfare

Pam and Ashlyn are doing well.

The treasurer reported a balance of $3,927.80.

Presidential Release 394

  1. The NFB has launched the Journal of Blindness Innovation and Research: the JBIR is a free peer reviewed online journal of research related to blindness.
  2. The braille book fare is seeking donations of braille books for convention.
  3. Tours will be offered by Echevarria Travel and Peachtree Travel on July 9 after convension.
  4. The convention hotel is full, but there is still space in the overflow hotel a ten minute ride away.
  5. There will be a drawing by the Race for Independence to see which 30 lucky federationists will be able to ride in the Blind Driver Challenge car.
  6. The NFB has filed suit against McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas for its use of inaccessible kiosks.

Chapter Check-up

We watched Braille: Unlocking the Code, a video which explains the importance of Braille literacy, particularly for low vision children who are usually not given the opportunity to learn it. Braille is necessary to make blind people competitive in society. After the presentation we discussed the vast array of multimedia content available at nfb.org which we can use to get our message across.

Old Business

  • On April 9 the Texas Association of Blind Students and Texas Parents of Blind Children had a great conference in Dallas.
  • The NFB of Texas website is still under revision and the new site should be ready by June 1.
  • Preparations are ongoing for the Dinner in the Dark. As of the meeting there were tickets available, but they sold out by the following Monday.
  • Jeanine attended an assistive technology meeting conducted by the Center for texans with Disabilities. Their goal is to bring more money for the development of new assistive technology products to Texas.
  • Richie and Monica went to a salsa dancing event at UT which gave us an opportunity to partner with the university.

New Business

  • So far we have one applicant for the BELL program. That is a good sign as Austin parents are notorious for submitting applications near the deadline. We discussed several agencies we will contact to round up kids.
  • State convension is going to take place in Austin sometime in late October or early November. The exact date and hotel are still being worked out.
  • We were invited to give an after school presentation to several fourth grade classes during the first week of May.
  • Monica has started the Longhorn Association of Blind Students at UT.
  • The White Cane Day committee is looking for art to be both displayed at the White Cane Day event and put on the t-shirt. The deadline for submission is May 5.

Three people became new members at this meeting. There were 3 brags and 2 complaints. The meeting adjourned at 12:01 pm.

A recording of the meeting is available here.