A special NDAB board meeting was called to order by President Zelda at 6:31 p.m. Present were Zelda, Shereen, Mary, Rebecca, Mickey, Mark, Allan, Gretchen and Trampes. Guests that were present were Doug Puetz, Mike Hoepner, Cole Roberts, Ruth Phalen, John McCann, Missy Miller, Tracy Wicken, Ali Engraf and Michelle Zentz.
Guest Topics
John McCann, a retired attorney, former ACB board member and current president of ACB of Arizona was our guest. At Zelda’s request, he had reviewed our governing documents and ND nonprofit law as it pertains to an option of a virtual NDAB convention. If we want to hold a presentation virtually, we can. However, because we do not have provision in our governing documents for virtual voting, we cannot conduct any business including elections.
Tracy Wicken gave the scholarship report. Ethin Probst has won the $2,000 scholarship. He is a junior at Minot State University. There are no recipients for the Emma Skogen scholarship. Mary made a motion to approve. Allan 2nd. MSC.
Convention
We have several options for convention. First is to still have it June 5-7, 2020 in Grand Forks. Second is hold an abbreviated convention with the retreat in September at Dazey. Finally, is to postpone it until September or October. Allan made a motion to cancel the convention for 2020 and wait until 2021 in Fargo. Rebecca 2nd. MSC.
President’s Report
Thank you to the Grand Forks committee for the work they have done on planning the 2020 Convention. A lot of communications have been sent out to members. There are still scamming e-mails and texts being sent to those on the leadership list. She reminded everyone not to respond to any of these. These should soon stop as Robert has taken the leadership list off the website and has replaced it with a connection to our individual emails.
Zelda reminded everyone about the statewide support group called Coffee Chat on We Care Wednesdays. The weekly conference calls are at 10 AM on Wednesday. They are being led by Amy Osvold, Vision Rehabilitation Specialist with North Dakota Vision Services/School for the Blind. We now have a Leadership List through Google. Testing it out with the leadership with the possibility of setting up a similar list for the members as well. Allan and Zelda attended an informational Zoom meeting about NFB Newsline. It is free to the user but would cost $23,500 a year to have that services in ND.
Secretary’s Report
Email decisions made were:
March Minutes, approved April 3
NDDAC COVID-19 Letter, approved April 3
Candidates Call, not approved, April 5
Accessible Absentee Voting Letter by ACB, approved April 9
Sympathy Card sent to:
Betty Fedorchak in the death of her sister
Chad Gilbertson in the death of his brother-in-law
James Johnson in the death of his brother-in-law
Volunteer hours will be figured out from the start of the year and will be available at the next meeting.
Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer’s report was given to the board. Allan made a motion to approve Shereen 2nd. MSC.
Development Director
Walk for Vision will be on October 15, White Cane Safety Day. There will be either a walk or a virtual walk.
Committee Reports:
Awards
Advocate of NDAB – They have had some nominees. The committee has decided to keep the selection a surprise. The committee will update the Awards manual to reflect this change in policy.
Friend of NDAB-None for 2020
Communications
The following changes have been made to the NDAB website:
New Theme: The old bespoke theme made by a university student a few years ago has been replaced with a modern, maintained third party theme.
Logo: The logo, fonts, and colors have been updated to match the current printed material. This is to provide consistency across all communications media
News Section on Front Page: A section has been created on the front page that aggregates and presents summaries of news items from the News page. If a news item is categorized as “Front Page”, then it will appear in this section. Promoters and Business meeting minutes will not show on the front page but are still found in the appropriate pages.
New Menu Structure: Since the purpose of the website is to communicate to nonmembers about who we are and what we do, the menu structure has been changed to reflect that. The new structure is more mission-focused. Member and non-profit related content are pushed deeper into the site. Content that spotlights NDAB is closer to the front.
Front Page Restructured: The layout of the content on the front page has been updated to make it more visually appealing.
New Contact Us Form: The contact details of officers, board members, and committee heads are no longer displayed on the website. Instead, a contact us form has been created. When you fill out the form, you chose who should receive the message by picking from a list.
Legislative
See two articles in the May Promoter. Advocacy for Accessible Absentee ballot in North Dakota is taking place. Allan has contacted Protection and Advocacy and is awaiting a response. We will also contact NDDAC for their support. We will contact the ND Secretary of State and the ND counties to let them know of the need for accessible absentee balloting.
Membership
There is one membership application, Cole Roberts of Bismarck. Shereen made a motion to approve, Mickey 2nd. MSC.
Sports and Recreation
Planning for a fall retreat for Sept. 18-20.
Unfinished Business
Camp Guidelines
Doug Stip withdrew his suggestion for a rewording change in the camp guidelines.
Express Vote Machine
Training has been cancelled
Statewide Raffle
After some discussion, Allan made a motion to cancel the 2020 statewide raffle and give the ticket buyers the option of getting their money returned or purchasing a ticket for the 2021 raffle. Mary 2nd, MSC.
New Business
NDAB Manuals
Revised:
Secretary manual
Vice President manual and Membership Com Guidelines
Member handbook, print and e-mail
Member handbook, online
Trampes made a motion to approve the changes, Mary 2nd. MSC.
The newly created President manual and Executive Board manual have been presented for approval. Mickey made a motion to approve and Allan 2nd. MSC.
2020 ACB Delegate
Zelda pointed out to the board that since the 2020 ACB Convention will be held virtually, our NDAB delegate, Gretchen, would not be physically attending, that she should be allowed to attend next year as the delegate. Shereen made a motion that Gretchen attend the 2021 ACB convention in Phoenix as the NDAB delegate, Mary 2nd. MSC.
Announcements
Just Talking
May- Zoom Information
June- ACB Convention-how to attend
July- Camp memories
August-Planning for our future
Next meeting: June 14th at 6:30
Allan made a motion to adjourn, Mark 2nd. Meeting adjourned at 8:47 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Gretchen Campbell, Secretary