Due to a major technical issue with the cassette recorder, which ultimately resulted in its no longer functioning, this is a partial account of February’s Meeting Minutes. The first cassette is unable to be salvaged but primarily it contained the recording of Representative Leslie Waters’s presentation. During that time, Chapter members asked her questions and made comments. The cassette also contained the Secretary and Treasurer’s report. The secondary tape, which remains intact, begins with Jim Ellsworth continuing the Constitution Committee’s report. The partial Minutes are as follows:
Jim told the Chapter that Scott and Virginia Carlisle were involved in the putting together of the Martin County Chapter’s Constitution. Prior to working on the Pinellas Chapter Constitution, Jim had contacted former state president Dan Hicks and current state president Kathy Davis and the one comment that Kathy made to Jim was to not make the Constitution so restricted that one can’t do the things that need to be done. The Committee has tried to keep it simple and concise. There are rules in place to hopefully govern the Chapter under circumstances where questions may arise. Jim asked that the Chapter read the first draft and be ready with comments at the following Chapter meeting. The Constitution will be read during the next few meetings and then the final draft will be sent to State for their approval. Scott commented that that the Committee has thus far done a good job of keeping it simple and concise and he believes it can be read in ten Minutes. Janice wasn’t certain that she had received a copy but she will check her envelope again which would have contained January’s Minutes and a copy of the Constitution. Linda Saunders asked what happened to the last part of article ten as it appears to have stopped in the middle of a sentence. Kim tried to look it up on her PAC Mate but it was difficult at that time to determine what went wrong in Article ten. Jim will look it over at home and make the necessary correction if need be.
John Carson gave the Website Committee report. He and Jill committed to donating a Chapter domain name. A Web Committee meeting had taken place via telephone and in attendance were John Carson (chairperson), Jill Carson, President David Anspach and Kim Smith. If anyone wants to volunteer ideas for the webpage, please let John know and thus can be added to the Committee. The website debuted on the internet on Thursday evening, March 16. The web address is: http://www.nfb-pinellas.org John has been working on a search tool for the site. He had been working with a person who was heading up the computer science department out at St. Pete College but they wanted to have full control and just have the Chapter provide content. John was not willing to do this at this time as he wants to get our information out there, he wants to ensure that the website is accessible and he did not want to have to sit down with these folks and try to teach them. It is great that they want to do community service but in lieu of the time, John felt it was important to get an electronic brochure publicly posted as soon as possible. When he registered the domain name it cost him $49.95 for three years. They offered him a great deal for one year of domain hosting, which he just couldn’t pass it up. He and Jill are also donating one year of domain hosting service to the Chapter. This cost is $110; they basically got it for less than ten dollars a month. The total package cost $169.95. Considering the domain hosting cost is $110 and the cost of the domain name is $49.95, which adds up to $159.95. John paid the extra ten dollars cost to keep his information private. This is so they do not sell his name, his e-mail address and his street mail address. The Chapter has the domain registration for three years and first year’s hosting service. With the first year’s hosting service the Chapter gets three gigabytes of space (this is a lot of room for posting all kinds of Chapter information) and 25 e-mail addresses (John has already setup 13 e-mail addresses). Each of the officers and board members have e-mail accounts such as president@nfb-pinellas.org, vice-president@nfb-pinellas.org, etc. There is also webmaster@nfb-pinellas.org, which is John Carson. In addition to these e-mail addresses, the officers and board members also have their personal e-mail addresses. Examples are david.anspach@nfb-pinellas.org, kim.smith@nfb-pinellas.org, etc. Jill Carson also has one and, thus remains twelve unassigned e-mail addresses. If anyone in the Chapter would like a Chapter e-mail address send John an e-mail at webmaster@nfb-pinellas.org and he will be happy to get them setup and get them an address. John gave a description of the webpage. He put a bold statement right on the home page that says “The Pinellas Chapter of the NFB of Florida welcomes you to come, see, and join!” Right after that, he has posted the meeting date, time and location. There is a link to meet the Chapter’s officers and board members. He also used the paragraph from the letter drive to kind of explain our mission and also posted is the statement that is in every Braille Monitor issue that states “THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION SPEAKING FOR THE BLIND--IT IS THE BLIND SPEAKING FOR THEMSELVES!” He also has a section setup for announcing upcoming events, links of interest and he’s been working with Network Solutions (the website provider) to get the search tool working. It has taken a week to get this working. If anyone looks at what is currently there and has any suggestions, please let the Webpage Committee know. There are three or four topics of new business that needs to be discussed before the donation and the bequest pages go up. John asked whose address is going to be placed on the page to receive donations, bequests, etc. John made a motion that the Chapter invest in some type of mailbox that can be placed on the website. At this time some objections were raised regarding obtaining a post office box. Some felt that folks would not feel comfortable mailing to a PO Box and John said that with Mailboxes Etcetera, you can use a suite number as he has done this in the past. If there are objections to getting a mailbox then who’s address is going up on the page and how will the Chapter receive the money. A member suggested that it be the Treasurer and Paul commented that he would need to talk this over with Bonnie. Outside of an e-mail address, Jim doesn’t feel that anybody’s information ought to be posted on the webpage. Paul felt that their ought to be a physical address; however, John wanted to know if Paul’s address is posted, someone leaves a bequest but Paul and Bonnie have moved from that address and ten years later that person has passed away, then what? Mike felt that this could be changed. John commented that if someone leaves a bequest in their will and they die ten years later, Paul no longer lives at the address posted on the website, the postal mail will only be forwarded for so long; the Chapter would never receive the money. Scott mention that most of the time an organization address is not put in their; just the name and location of the organization is put in the will. John said that every other Chapter that is on the web has an address or post office box posted. President Anspach pointed out that any information that is posted to the website is subject to change at any time and is a risk regardless; for example, if Mailboxes Etcetera were to go out of business… If a person bequest it to the National Federation of the Blind of Pinellas County, Bonnie feels that somebody is going to be able to locate someplace regardless of whether there is an address or not and with the e-mail link posted there on the website, they can e-mail their inquiry in that manner. Mike commented that in a worse case scenario, you can go to the State and there is a thing under “unclaimed” funds and anything that would be due to the Chapter could be found there if all the addresses had changed. John asked how is the Chapter going to know to do this; is someone going to be appointed to check once a quarter or so? Mike replied that what the Chapter will probably have to do is figure out what address is going to be used and if that address changes, then the Chapter can worry about going to the unclaimed funds. John feels that this is a lot of unnecessary work and that it would just be simpler to rent a mailbox and have it checked once or twice a month. Kim asked who is going to be responsible for this task. In Janice’s experiences in different organizations, when they have purchased PO boxes, problems were encountered. Jim began to make a motion until David reminded everyone that John’s motion was still on the floor and has only been discussed but not yet seconded. Some discussion took place about this and then Mike Lamb seconded John’s motion that the Chapter purchase a post office box or suite number in order to post on the Chapter’s webpage for any mailings that need to come to the Chapter. Grant Downey commented that if you are going to put something out that you are going to expose to the internet such as your own personal address, keep in mind that everyone in the world has access to this information. Grant is in favor of a suite number for the purpose of anonymity. When asked if John new approximately how much it would cost the Chapter, he stated that when he was running his own business about ten years ago, he had a medium-size mailbox with Mailboxes Etcetera that cost him $150 a year. However, this was the cost for a medium, which was the cost ten years ago and the Chapter could get a small box instead. John said that instead of a box number, they gave him a street address and he used a suite number. Jim’s concern is not whether it is a PO Box or a street address rather, if it’s a business, this is one thing. However, when you are talking about a charitable organization, if it’s a PO Box and there is no valid street address, people balk at it. John replied that if you look at the donation pages of many places, eighty percent of the addresses posted are post office boxes. At this time, President Anspach asked that the discussion be closed due to the nature of the time and he called for a vote on the motion that John made and was seconded by Mike. A voice vote was taken and many voices voted for it and many voices were opposed; thus, Chuck Huber was volunteered to take a hand count. Seven hands were raised for the vote of purchasing a mailbox; six hands were raised against the vote. Brief discussion took place as to how to handle the outcome and it was determined that there were 13 members voting and the Constitution requires 2/3 out of the 13. Since this was not possible, it was suggested by a member that this matter be tabled. Many felt that further investigation is required and does not want to see this motion die. Jim stated even though his previous comments may have seemed that he wasn’t for the motion, he did vote for it because there isn’t a better idea thus far. President Anspach suggested that the cost be investigated and determine what the options are before letting the motion die; he is willing to help with the investigation. This needs to be acted upon quickly and the matter will be revisited next month. It was suggested that places such as Leader Dogs and Southeastern be investigated to see what they use and David commented that Leader Dogs uses a post office box and many commented that Southeastern and Guide Dogs for the Blind do the same. At this time, John began discussing a second issue. Earlier on in the Fundraising Committee report, since November with fifty-fifty the Chapter has taken in 49 dollars so far. That fifty-fifty fund, if John has it estimated correctly, not only was it discussed in the prior meeting to use this to buy drinks/lunch for the speakers, the fifty-fifty fund is pretty much going to bring in exactly enough each year to cover the cost of the website. John feels that they will want to continue to keep the Chapter as a customer and they are more than likely going to give us probably the same price to add for another year of domain hosting. And, if they do not, the Chapter can shop for a competitive rate. With everything that John has up to this point explained, he made a motion that the Chapter also uses the fifty-fifty funds that are collected from the Chapter to use to maintain our domain website. Linda Saunders seconded it. David quickly reviewed the cost of the web domain and he feels that with the Chapter treasury currently doing so well and will continue to grow over time, he sees the cost of the website as fairly an insignificant cost in order to achieve the kind of exposure that we want and building a web presence. The motion that the Chapter uses the proceeds from the fifty-fifty raffle, the Chapter’s portion to fund the Chapter’s web hosting fees as well as every three years the fee for renewing the domain name was voted on; motion carried. The third topic from the web committee up for discussion was in regards to having the Chapter meeting Minutes posted on the website. All the other Chapters have taken the incentive to placing their Minutes on the internet, according to John. John made a motion that starting with the January 2006 meeting Minutes, that we move forward on posting the Minutes on the website. Virginia Carlisle seconded the motion. A question was asked as to why and David replied that the State has begun to ask the Chapters to submit their monthly meeting Minutes, which they have the right to. David feels that it is so others can see what different Chapters do on a monthly basis and it is also a part of being a 501 C3 organization. Vote was taken; motion carried.
Mike Lamb announced that the 75th anniversary of the NLS (National Library Service) is on Friday, March 3. They are not having any speakers but their open from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM and they will have ice-cream and cake and it is taking place at the Clearwater branch on Cleveland. Mike feels that since the Chapter has a webpage, someone should call the library and see if we can get a link from their webpage to our webpage in order to also attract the library patrons. Also, we need to do whatever we can to promote our activities through that library source. Mike and David had talked about doing a speakers bureau and Mike reported that many of the service clubs such as the Lions club, the Rotary club, etc are looking for speakers. He is willing to do speakings at these functions two or three times a month and David commented that he believes a number of members are willing to do this as well. Mike is willing to serve as the person who will try and contact these clubs to set up these appointments. Though this Speakers Bureau is not actually an official committee, anyone who would like to help Mike may do so by calling him at 535-1621.
Next, President Anspach announced that it takes a great deal of work for Kim to not only write up the monthly meeting Minutes but also to get them mailed out in everyone’s preferred format. Currently, we are the only Chapter that issues the Minutes in that manner. Kim and David have been discussing the idea of going back to having the Minutes read aloud at the meetings in order to alleviate much stress on Kim, also to eliminate having to have new address labels made up each time someone moves, getting them reprinted due to running out and having new ones made whenever a new member joins the Chapter as this task is a bit difficult to get accomplished. A motion to have Kim read the Minutes at each meeting as opposed to having them sent out by mail to all the Chapter members was made and seconded by Mike Lamb and Janice Snow, respectively. The Minutes will be posted on the webpage following the Chapter meeting and once Kim has them finished. This matter was voted on; majority voted for it and one opposed.
The next items of business pertained to the State raffle tickets. Though, David has not received any information on them yet, all the Chapters around the State will be expected to sell them and of course the Chapter has already decided that the winner of the fifty-fifty drawing will receive the winnings in State raffle tickets rather than money. Also, the legislative concerns event will be taking place in Tallahassee on March 21 through March 23 and David needs to know who from the Chapter is interested in attending as Gloria Hicks needs the names as soon as possible. Janice and Mike are interested in going. For those who attend, the room is paid for and individuals are responsible for their meals except for one night. Those who are interested need to contact David by the Monday following the meeting. A motion to adjourn the meeting was made and seconded by Jim Ellsworth and David Anspach, respectively. Motion carried.
Written and Submitted by:
Kim Smith
Pinellas Chapter Secretary
NFBF