Oklahoma Council of the Blind

Board Minutes

August 28, 2004

President Randy Howard called the OCB August board meeting to order at 10:10 through a conference call conducted over the conference bridge system. A quorum was established with the following board members in attendance, Tommy Robertson, Vicky Golighly, Joe Fallin, Julie Brantley, Paul Miller, Jeanne Meyer and Elaine Boykin. Other OCB members in attendance were; Jeri Cooper, Pat Kelly, Cammie Vloedman, Les Barr, Treasa Kruta, Jean Jones and Ray Jones.

Minutes have been distributed on the Oklahoma Listserv and were approved as distributed with two corrections on names of members present and the meeting ending time. These changes have been provided to Jeanne Meyer to be corrected on the website.

Treasurers report was distributed on the Oklahoma Listserv and

was approved by the board. Paul stated that the General account is a bit high in preparation of upcoming convention expenses. He stated that at this time the convention registration is around 40 individuals.

President’s Report: Randy stated that Cammie Vloedman was our ACB scholarship winner and represented Oklahoma well. He stated that there were approximately 12 to 15 individuals from Oklahoma attending the ACB convention in Birmingham this year. He stated that this was a busy convention, lots of activity much centered around the current politics within ACB. They had approximately 20 resolutions passed, and around the same number in constitutional amendments that passed as well. Politics did play a roll in the convention, the membership spoke clearly on their position concerning that. There was a resolution asking the ACB president Chris Gray to step down. This was not passed with around 77% of the membership against this. There was also a resolution to sensor Chris Gray and this was defeated by around 88%. Randy stated the leadership list has also improved with less negative comments.

Randy explained the quick action that was made concerning a new fundraising activity for OCB. We were provided a short period to respond to ACB with our interest in participating in this fundraiser. During the convention the ACB store sold key chain thermometers and they were a very popular item and sold out quickly. ACB found that if they order 2,500 of these they could obtain them for $5.00. They decided to ask the affiliates if they would like to participate by ordering some to sell in their own areas. If we order 250 we can have our OCB logo placed on them with no extra charge. The board has approved to do this activity and Paul will be sending ACB the check.

There has been a change on the OCB listserv recently and members need to become aware of this. If a note comes to you and you want to reply remember that when you hit "reply" it will default to the sender. If you want your message to go to the complete list you must type in "oklahoma-l@acb.org.

The ACB radio will be coming out this fall and will allow individuals to access ACB radio without going on the computer. They are working to get a satellite radio company to make this possible. There are anticipating that you will be able to tune in a number of different types of stations as well as the ACB radio station.

Joe asked about the possibility of selling some of the low tech devices at our convention. He has seen such devices as the Talking RX for $9.95, Sonic Guide for $75.00 and talking calculators for $6.00. It was suggested to e-mail Beal Pickett as he will be showing some low tech equipment during our convention.

Convention Committee: Jeri Cooper stated that about 40 have registered. Eighteen rooms have been reserved at the hotel. There will be 9 exhibits plus the OCB tables. She will be doing sensitivity training to the hotel on Sept 3 and Cy will provide training for the Girl Scouts. There will be two raised maps at the registration table and the front desk. Jeri will also put the directions on tape and in print. Registration will begin at 5:00 PM on Friday. Pat Kelly has been asked to do a brief auction after the banquet. Cammie will be the speaker during the luncheon. Paul asked Jeri to check with the vendors as he has not received confirmation or checks from them.

Membership Committee: Jeri Cooper stated that HCB has received some new members as the result of their workshop. She also stated that TCB has a couple of new members as well.

DRS committee: Joe stated that he has talked with John Orr concerning the money that was put together to give to the educational services of the library. It is felt by the foundations board that it would be a nice jester from the OSLS to make a donation as well, then the total amount would be donated.

Jean mentioned the current Independent Living development occurring in the Department of Rehabilitation. There was an ongoing dispute between DRS and the IL centers as to what to do with the federal IL money. OCB signed off on a letter to retain the money. The SILC decided that they wanted a plan that this part B money only go to "consumer controlled board" centers. This will make it where we could not use this money for such places such as the Oklahoma League for the Blind. The federal program decided not to support the DRS proposal. The director and commission have decided to get out of the business of any IL services. Visual Services will retain some ability to work with IL individuals. Those in need of VR services will not be able to receive this. This is an issue that needs to be watched as it may have ramifications in future years. The next fear is that they will then want to take over the Part C funds.

Ray stated that they IL folks tried to get a bill introduced last year to change the DRS commission to have a person from the IL centers to be a part of that commission and also they partnered with the tribe council to do the same. The commission would be expanded from 3 to 5. He feels this will come up again this year. OCB will need to monitor the IL and the number of commissioner's situations.

Legislation Committee: Jean stated that we covered most of what is going on. Federally we are watching the re authorization of workforce, IDEA and rehab. This is a bit stalled out because of the appointing of committees.

Free Matter for the Blind: Vicky stated that she has nothing else to add at this time. She will do a bit more work by contacting other state affiliates concerning how they are working with their post offices. Randy added that he has run into a situation where Free matter for the blind is becoming extremely slow. Vicky stated that the library has had items returned without reaching their destination. They are going to be contacting the post office to determine what is causing this problem.

Awards Committee: Randy stated that we can't get the completed guidelines for the Gordon P Stevens award. Leroy Saunders award information has been finalized by Marilyn Sanders and her committee and will be sent out.

Affiliate Committee: Randy stated that we have a committee that is checking out how other ACB affiliates are handling their dues. Many individuals from different affiliates have stated that we need to keep it as simple as possible. Randy stated that we are looking at the potential of asking individuals to pay dues and tracking our membership dues. Ray stated that he is concerned about changing dues and how it will affect our membership. He asked that we try a sustaining membership. Joe stated that we need to look at what it would cost for a sustaining member dues to cover the cost of the ACB yearly membership dues. Randy asked Teresa to chair a committee consisting of Vicky, Ray, Elaine and Paul to look at what we need to establish a sustaining membership and do a test run to see what kind of dues could be handled by the membership. Joe wants us to prepare by-law changes to include a sustaining membership and next for the board to assess what amount dues would be and this would be brought before the membership at the next convention.

Old Business: Randy stated that he has done some investigating about other affiliates and how they are doing with their car donation fundraisers. He stated that many of the affiliates are surprised that we are not doing as well. They stated that they have not seen the IRS investigating situation impacting their profits. Randy has tried to contact our car donations individual and has not been able to get a hold of them. Pat Kelly gave us some thoughts on this issue. He has done some fundraising auctions. He stated that everyone has their hands out for this program. He provided us with the inside workings of the car donation operations. He gave us information on how a local car auction such as Hartland Auto Auction would handle this. He stated that the advertising would be the negative point as it is the most expensive item you have to deal with. Randy asked the board if we would like to pursue doing this locally. It was moved, seconded and approved by the board that OCB pursue the possibility of doing a local auto donation with the Heartland Auto Auto Auction. Pat Kelly will assist in this effort.

Heritage for the Blind appears to be legitimate. It is controlled by two groups, Jewish Heritage and Heritage. They state that they provide services across the country. They do provide large print books and Vicky stated they have a camp for blind children. The organization is not providing any local services in Oklahoma. There are still some concerns that they are not legitimate as obtaining information about there services is extremely difficult. Should we raise this issue with ACB to find out what they think. Randy stated he would make some inquiries to ACB.

New Business: There was discussion concerning the chapters selling the key chain thermometers and how the money would be divided. It was moved, seconded and approved by the board, that each local OCB chapter that sells these key chains would be able to retain $1.00 for every key chain sold. The rest of the money will go back to OCB.

Oklahoma League for the Blind Report: Randy stated that they have sold the cup operation to a private company which is based in Allan Oklahoma. This company will operate this by using blind employees. It is up and running and they have 3 blind employees working. OLB are soon going to manage the switchboard at the VA hospital starting in October. They are also looking at managing the mail room at the IRS building in OKC. They continue to look at new products and those individuals that were on the cups have been moved to the fire hose department. They are going to be adding more types of hoses. They are also going to be doing other products that are hose related such as the "Y" connects that hook the hoses together. Their sales are at 8 million dollars at the 10 month mark.

HCB challenged everyone to do a Coping with vision workshop. They will be electing new board members next week during our Sept. 4 meeting.

Muskogee: They had a meeting this past week, they are small but are continuing to hang on.

TCB: They had a picnic during the month of August and they had 24 individuals attending and they obtained two new members. Their next meeting is September 7.

The meeting adjourned at 12:45 PM

Respectively submitted by Elaine Boykin, Secretary

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