NDAB Board Meeting Minutes: January 10th, 2021
The meeting was called to order by Zelda at 6:40 p.m. Present were Trampes, Rebecca, Zelda, Gretchen, Allan, Shereen, Ali and Mark. Absent was Mickey. Guests were Paula Anundson, Mary Lou Stip, Cole Roberts, and Helen Baumgartner.
The president’s report was given by Zelda. She has been busy with Legislative Session, Giving Hearts Day, and convention planning. The weekly calls are going well. They include Tech Talk Tuesday, Coffee Chat on We Care Wednesday, Independence Thursday with two monthly Book Club Discussions, the monthly Fargo Insight Support Group and Just Talking. Zelda has consolidated the announcements into a weekly Sneak Peek document. She is also sending emails to members at the end of the week with the links to the recordings of the weekly calls entitled Play it Again. There are several places that are being used for storage.
The secretary’s report was given by Gretchen. There was one decision made by email which was the approval of minutes of the Special Board Meeting held on December 13th. Sympathy cards were sent to:
- Ashley Cohen on the death of Richard Fadness. The original card was returned due to incorrect address.
- Vince Ulstad and Deb Johnsen on the death of Vince’s father
- Sheryl and Dan Gerhardt on the death of Sheryl’s mom
- The family of Wally Hankla on his death
- Rosie Landsen on the death of her husband, Lyman
A thinking of you card was sent to Mickey Teubner on behalf of the members.
Gretchen will be keeping track of the organizations volunteer hours. Anyone that has been asked to keep track of their volunteer hours, please send your total number of hours for the month to Gretchen at gretchen@ndab.org at the end of every month.
There are still three Code of Conduct forms that need to be filled out and returned to Gretchen.
Rebecca had previously submitted the November and December Treasurer’s reports. Allan made a motion to accept the November treasurer’s report. Trampes seconded the motion. Motion carried. Allan made a motion to accept the December treasurer’s report. Trampes seconded, motion carried. On January 4th Rebecca moved the maturing CD from Bremer Bank to a money market account. Financials for this will be included in the January report.
Development director’s report was given by Allan. Giving Hearts Day is February 11th. The theme is NDAB makes a difference. We currently have $12,500 in matched funds. The goal for this year is $25,000 or more. We will be using Facebook to promote Giving Hearts Day. We also will be using a video that was developed by Trampes and Emily with one of the focal points being scholarships. A letter has been finalized to be sent out. Thank you to Whitney Engbrecht and Missy Miller for their help with the letter. Out of state letters will be mailed January 18th, in state letters will be sent out January 25th. Calls will be made to previous Giving Hearts Day donors. Calls will also be made to thank donors on GHD. Thank you to Michele and Zelda for their work on the donor database.
Committee Reports
Awards
Shereen, Paula and Mark gave the report for the awards committee. Lexee will call tomorrow to help Shereen get an article in the Promoter seeking Advocate of the Year nominees.
The committee has decided not to award a Friend of NDAB award this year. They will wait until we have an in-person convention.
Plans for the Ed Christensen Award are where they need to be.
Plans for the Robert LePage award are on track.
Communication
Whitney stepped down as chairperson for the Facebook committee. Ali has agreed to be chairperson. The team is going to try to post something every day. There was a post for Braille Day which reached over 800 people that day, over 1,000 for the week. The Facebook team is excited. Everything is posted as a group decision. Members of the Facebook committee and their focus points are Lilli Mann-younger individuals, Andy Davis-sports and recreation, Ali-membership, Trampes-legislative and Gretchen-education/awareness. Tim Kachel has also joined the communications committee.
Legislative and Advocacy
NDAB Resolution 2021-01: State 2021-2023 Biennial Appropriation for North Dakota Vision Services/School for the Blind (NDVS/SB)
Rebecca made a motion to approve as read, Shereen seconded. Motion carried.
NDAB Resolution 2021-02: Appropriation for the Talking Book Program at the North Dakota State Library
Suggestion was made to list the Senators and Representative’s full names with their first name or all with just last names. Shereen made a motion to approve. Allan second. Motion carried.
NDAB Resolution 2021-03: State 2021-2023 Appropriation for the Older Individuals Who Are Blind (OIB) Program
Allan made a motion to approve, Trampes second. Motion carried.
NDAB Resolution 2021-04: Equal Access to a Vote by Mail Absentee Ballot
Trampes made a motion to approve, Rebecca seconded. Motion carried.
NDAB Resolution 2021-05: Appropriation for Public Transit Systems
Ali made a motion to approve. Shereen seconded. Motion carried.
Membership
Membership renewals were sent out at the end of December. We have close to 20 percent of the membership that has already renewed their membership. If you have questions about membership renewals, please contact Ali. Thank you to Zelda and Michele, who helped guide me through the process. Also, thank you to Rebecca for assisting in gathering applications from the PO Box and working on the AMMS system.
There is no upcoming membership committee meeting. Our focus is currently connecting with members and membership renewals.
Membership Satisfaction and Interest Surveys was delayed as it was my first time sending membership applications for renewal. Most surveys will go out via E-mail. If you do not have an E-mail, the survey will be mailed to you. Results will be processed in May. Surveys are optional but feedback is appreciated.
New membership applications include:
Sharee Lafrombois – vision impaired from Belcourt, ND.
Michelle Engraf – vision impaired from Hettinger, ND.
Shereen made a motion to approve the new members. Trampes seconded the motion. The new members were approved. Comments were made about postage and Free Matter mailings.
Sports and Recreation
The committee is in discussion with an organization in Maryland that does accessible fitness. We were originally going to participate in their program. However, once more research was done it was not as accessible as it should be. May possibly help them make it more accessible for people with sight loss. Committee may decide to participate after suggestions are made.
Unfinished Business
We were asked to participate in the ACB Holiday Auction. We donated $100 in wine from Rookery Rock Winery. The winning bid for our donation was $240 to someone in Missouri. The owner, Mark Vining, donated shipping costs. He did run into problems with delivery due to liquor laws, but the wine was successfully delivered.
New Business
Convention planning committee met January 3rd. There was representation from across the state. Discussed ideas of what the convention would be like. Every opinion that was given was listened to, but no decision was made. Zelda would like the board to make the decision of what the convention will look like as to what to include in the program, whether there will be breaks, etc.
Zelda has a few other topics to bring up. First was the ACB Convention delegate. Gretchen Campbell was the delegate for the ACB Convention in 2020. There was no in-person convention, so it was decided to have her represent NDAB in 2021 but there again, is no in-person convention. Zelda entertained a motion that Gretchen be the NDAB delegate in 2022 ACB Convention in Omaha, Nebraska. Trampes made a motion, Allan seconded. Motion carried.
The second was the Olga Neal estate. We have been blessed by her sharing her money with us. A committee was formed, and they came up with ideas of how we might spend the money. The board was not comfortable making the decision of how the money would be spent and decided at the November meeting that it be brought up before the convention body. It was recommended that an article be put in The Promoter seeking ideas from the members. The ideas that have already been shared by the committee will be in The Promoter in the November minutes. Allan made a motion to extend the invitation to the members for their ideas in The Promoter. Gretchen seconded. Discussion was held about a possible deadline. Deadline was set for April 2nd. Motion carried.
The board discussed possible formats for the convention. Option #1 was Just Essentials, Option #2 was Essentials Plus, and Option #3 was #1 and #2 with extended breaks, social or other possible ideas. Allan made motion to have the committee plan for Option #2 which will include elections, legislative resolutions, budget, reports, Olga Neal Estate decision, awards including scholarship, memorial service, and a speaker. Trampes seconded. Rebecca made a motion to amend the motion that a speaker was optional if we found we did not have time on the program for it. Shereen second. Motion to amend carried. Vote on the motion itself passed. Discussion was held about having gift cards for door prizes.
Announcements
Just Talking
January 19- Connecting with ND State Legislators
February 16- Dial NDAB
March 16- Zoom Training
April 20- Just Talking 3rd Anniversary.
Next meeting is February 28th at 6:30 p.m.
Allan made a motion to adjourn, Trampes second.
Meeting was adjourned at 9:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Gretchen Campbell, Secretary