Welcome to Convention Transcript

This is being provided in a rough-draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings

MELISSA: Hello, everyone, and welcome to our first virtual experience show!  I am Melissa Riccobono and I'm here with Danielle McCann and we are so happy to have you all with us!  You can use the Q&A feature to ask questions, or to chat with us.  We would love to hear from you.

What else do I need to say, Danielle, aside from hello to you?

DANIELLE: You know, I think that you covered it all. Before we get started, I want to shout out our captioner and our interpreters and our lovely Zoom host, Elyse, thank you for your behind-the-scenes work.

MELISSA: Yes, absolutely and we're up to 60 participants, wow!  Keep coming in, guys.  This is amazing!

DANIELLE: That's awesome, welcome.

MELISSA: I hope all of you had an easy time getting in.  We were a couple of minutes late getting started, but we are here now, and we are with you until approximately 1:00, is that what we're shooting for, Danielle?

DANIELLE: That's right. And we’re fashionably late what it is.

MELISSA: Absolutely.  Yes.  And here's Chris Danielsen.  I think he's going to talk with us a little bit. Danielle, how was your trip into the convention and what have you been doing so far?

DANIELLE: Our trip was a little bit iffy, because our flight on Monday, we came in on Monday so we could relax and ease into it, and our flight was supposed to leave at 10:45 a.m., and then, it got moved to noon, and then it got canceled.

MELISSA: Oh, dear!

DANIELLE: So we didn't leave Baltimore until 5:00 p.m.

MELISSA: And so all your relaxing time got eaten up.

DANIELLE: It really did, and we got to the airport, we were jazzed, we were trying to breathe in the humidity, and we got an Uber denial.  That was a little sad.

MELISSA: Oh, jeez!  Oh, for those that don't know, Danielle is a dog user and I'm guessing that's why you got your Uber denial, unfortunately.

DANIELLE: Yeah.

MELISSA: I'm sorry to hear that.

DANIELLE: It was sad. But you know, the second driver had absolutely no problem at all, and he had air conditioning on, which was great.  How was your flight in?

MELISSA: Our flight was fine, except that we got stuck on the tarmac in Orlando. So we got out okay.  We were a little bit late taking off, but nothing horrible. But we got stuck on the tarmac, because there was a plane at our gate that was refueling, and then, they had to change personnel or something, and it took forever for that plane to push back, and it was just this whole thing, and it took a long time.  I haven't been stuck on the tarmac for that long for a while.

But we did get in, eventually.  We came on Sunday.  We got in and everything was fine. So yeah. But we kind of had our little woes, too.  Nothing as bad as yours.

DANIELLE: Glad you finally got off that tarmac.

MELISSA: Too.

DANIELLE: It looks like we're getting shout-outs from the Zoom.  We do have Q&A open.
So if you want to type in a message.  Halley from Texas says hello.

MELISSA: And who else do we have?  Anybody else?

DANIELLE: So far, he is our first.  Let me get back over there and see if we have anything else.

CHRIS: Hello, everybody.  Can you hear me?

MELISSA: Hello, Chris Danielsen.  How are you?  How was your trip in?

CHRIS: My trip was great. And I'm a little late this morning, only because I had technology issues.
But I'm here now and I just want to make sure everybody could hear me okay, because of my technology issues.

MELISSA: You sound a little muffled, but we can definitely hear you and understand you.

CHRIS: Okay all right well, I'll try to put on a headset in a little bit, but I was having so much fun logging in to Zoom.  I'll get the headset situation straightened out.

MELISSA: I understand. So what have you guys done at the convention so far? Because I have something that I just came from. So I would love to talk about that. Where have you been so far in this very new convention?

DANIELLE: So I just want to jump in, and Katie Jackson from Atlanta says hey.  And really, we've just been kind of getting the lay of the land.  Getting ready for the sessions here. We've got one more shout-out. We've got Umberto says hello from Seattle.  Nice.  Yeah.

CHRIS: That's cool. So as far as convention, I got up this morning.  I was ready to go.  I had a nice breakfast, in Cafe Gaugin, one of the restaurants here at the Rosen Center and so far, I think the Rosen Center staff has been everything that we expected.

MELISSA: Completely agree.

CHRIS: But then I went to pick up my preregistration packet and I have to say it was a little crowded!
So that's fine. So if you're in that line, be patient.  If you're not in that line -- I got out of that line to come to this webinar.

But I will go back, but everything is running smoothly, as far as I could tell, everybody just needs to be a little bit patient.

MELISSA: Got it.  I'm so excited.  I was just with the national organization of parents of blind children. President Riccobono talked to some of the young people in the room.  Cassie McKinney did a fantastic job running her first meeting and we had Regina Mitchell talking about how to get your blind kids in the kitchen, and cooking because Regina is a chef.  We had Nick Oliver, one of our youths who's now 17, but who has been coming to convention since he was a very small child.  He spoke about his cooking journey.

And Barbara Loss talked about the American action fund and partnership, and we gave the TWIG awards which are the awards given to people who help parents and families, and our two recipients were Barbara Loss and Casey Robinson.  That's where I was coming from. And so if you know Casey or Barbara, make sure you say congratulations to them, the awards were very well deserved.

And there are workshops for the NOPBC all this morning and all this afternoon and I'll be running a workshop with my sister later this afternoon so there's lots going on with the parents and youth track, it's hopping.

That's where my daughter Elizabeth is right now and I, for whatever reason, receive registrations for the kids that are registering for youth track, and they were just coming in fast and furious this morning.  That's for kids 11 through 18. So that's what's going on with the parents.  That's where I was.

DANIELLE: That is so great.  I had the opportunity to meet Casey about a month ago.  She was in Baltimore for the IEP training boot camp, and it was just wonderful watching her work. Just listening to her and the questions that she asked and just the kindness that she showed to the children.  It was really cool to watch.

MELISSA: Yeah, she is an amazing lady.  And Barbara, as well.  Just a wonderful lady, has been in the Federation for a long time, is the president of the American action fund for parents of blind children and adults and does whatever she can to get Braille and tactile graphics into the hands of kids and adults, but mostly kids.

CHRIS: I was at that --

MELISSA: She wants them to have Braille.

CHRIS: I was at that IEP seminar, as well and Casey is amazing.  Really everybody that participated in that was amazing. Hello?

MELISSA: I can hear you.  You cut out.  Or maybe that was just me.

CHRIS: It could be hotel Wi-Fi.

MELISSA: You're good now.

CHRIS: But anyway, what an amazing seminar and I really look forward to seeing those continue and seeing new cohorts of people get trained, because I really think it was an intense -- and I was roleplaying.  I was playing one of the school administrators, so I got to watch the advocates that we were training in action, and you could tell that they were really absorbing everything that Casey and everybody else was telling them. And it was a really fun experience.

DANIELLE: That's great.  That's great.  A few more shout-outs.  Yariel saying hi.  Vicky says hello from Louisiana.  Hope is in Birmingham, Alabama.  Hi, Hope.  Mara Lawberg says she misses us and is going to stream when she can.  She apologizes for the guide dog experience that we had, but she's cuddling with her own puppy dog at home.

Preston from Pennsylvania, excited for what's to come.  Sarah from Vermont saying hello.  Victor in Michigan, very sad you couldn't attend this year.  We're going to miss you, Victor.  Hopefully, next year.
And the last one is Kendra from Oregon.  It's her first time for the convention.

MELISSA: Thank you for being with us, Kendra.  Excellent.  We are so excited to have you. So I'm here, right now, I'm in the bedroom connected to the Presidential Suite.  I have not gone over to the suite itself.  I will try to go over in a little bit.  Speaking of technology, I'm going to need make sure that I can get my speaker hooked up because right now, I'm wearing my headset, but that means you won't really be able to hear anybody, unless they come way into my bubble.

And I love people, and I want to bring that to you, but I don't want them that close to my bubble and, of course, headsets, they filter noise out from the background so I'm worried that if I keep my headset on and nobody is going to hear anybody else.

So Chris and Danielle, if you can talk for a little while and maybe talk about what's to come and all the great things we have upcoming and that we're going to bring you today, that would be great and that will allow me to get on my speaker phone and get that set up so that I can actually go in and see what's going on in the Presidential Suite.

DANIELLE: That sounds great.  Chris, before we jump in, we've got a couple more shout-outs.
And so Casey from New Jersey, hi, Casey.  We've got Misty from Indiana.

CHRIS: Hi, misty from Indiana.

DANIELLE: And Paul is saying hi, Melissa.  And Dawn from Ohio says she is wearing a headset, too.

CHRIS: Headset is probably the best way to do this stuff, but I haven't had a chance to put mine on yet.  Go ahead, Danielle.

DANIELLE: Maricela from Texas, thank you for being here.  Kevin Roberts is en route.  He's on his way here.

CHRIS: I wonder if he's using airplane Wi-Fi or airport Wi-Fi to listen to us.

DANIELLE: I wonder -- can you imagine just the thought of being heard a billion feet in the air.

CHRIS: I know, crazy.

DANIELLE: Jedi from New Mexico.

MELISSA: Can you guys hear me?  Oh, my gosh, fantastic.  I did it.  This is amazing.

CHRIS: I know.  The technology guides, the chicken you sacrificed this morning must have done the trick.

MELISSA: Something.  Absolutely. So whenever you guys are ready for me to go into the Presidential Suite, I'm ready, but you guys can do shout-outs, because as soon as I go in there, it's going to be fairly loud., because there's people in there, which is great.  Why don't we finish shout-outs and do whatever you want to do, and I'll go in.

CHRIS: What I want to know is if the smell of burnt popcorn has dissipated in the Presidential Suite.

MELISSA: The smell of burnt popcorn has dissipated and we think and hope that we have the machine fixed so it will not smell like burnt popcorn continuously.

CHRIS: Deal. And I don't want to discourage people from going to the Presidential Suite, because you should go, burnt popcorn or not, but yesterday, I just happened to be up there in that highway and boy, it was kind of special.  There's a lot of people in there.

MELISSA: It was intense.  It was intense.  Presidential Suite, I don't know that anybody -- is this link only sent to people who registered for virtual?

DANIELLE: Yes.  This is a virtual exclusive.

MELISSA: Unfortunately, you guys are at home so you can't visit, but that's why we're going to bring it to you in a little bit, without the smell of burnt popcorn.

So you guys can have M&M's and sherries and mixed nuts and coffee, coke, ginger ale and you'll be just like us in the Presidential Suite.

DANIELLE: That's quite a spread you guys have up there.  We've got one more shout-out and we'll be ready.  Cheryl from Arizona, hey, Cheryl! And we're good, Melissa.

CHRIS: Arizona!

DANIELLE: I can't wait to find someone from Arizona to buy the travel blankets.

CHRIS: Those things are going to go like hotcakes.  I've got to tell you all, the air conditioning in the hotel works.  It is very, very effective.

DANIELLE: It's definitely -- I'm already wearing a sweater.

MELISSA: So I cut out somehow.  Welcome, Cheryl from Arizona, and Cheryl and Bill from Wisconsin, if you're listening, give us a little shout-out, because we miss you here! But maybe they're not listening yet.

DANIELLE: Hello from Vancouver.  There you are, Melissa.

MELISSA: I'm here.  I don't know why this keeps going on and off.

CHRIS: Vancouver, Washington, or Vancouver, BC?

DANIELLE: Washington.

CHRIS: Okay.  Either one would be fantastic, but I was thinking we might have a little international representation there.

DANIELLE: The day is young.  The day is young.

CHRIS: Exactly.

DANIELLE: Mara says she misses the convention, but not the coffee lines!  The coffee lines have already been crazy.

MELISSA: I bet they have, especially because the Starbucks, one of the places that sells it is not open in the afternoon.

DANIELLE: Yes.

MELISSA: People are getting their coffee in the morning, because they can't get it after a certain time, which is horrible!  Quite honestly.

DANIELLE: Exactly, exactly.

MELISSA: All right, well, I'm going to head over.  I just wanted to make sure I had my room key, which I do so now I can actually head over to the Presidential Suite and see --

DANIELLE: While you mosey, I'm going to answer the question really quickly.
Elyse says people who are arriving Thursday who did not pre-register, are we able to register in Orlando? Absolutely yes, you will.

CHRIS: Indeed, you can!

MELISSA: It will be a little bit more expensive, but you can definitely do it.

CHRIS: Just a little bit, just $5 more each for the registration and the banquet ticket.

MELISSA: Fantastic, I am entering the Presidential Suite now.  I don't know if you can hear, but there are people here.  Here's Buna.  Buna is at the phones.  We are on the virtual experience show, Buna.  Do you want to say hello to the people on the virtual experience?

BUNA: Hello, our people!

CHRIS: Oh, my gosh.

BUNA: What are we experiencing virtually?

MELISSA: The Presidential Suite.  It's Chris Danielsen and me and Danielle and we are here for anybody at home who is registered for the virtual convention and so we are just going around.  I see Mariela and Gabi.

CHRIS: You cut for a second here.

MELISSA: Mariela here from Canada.  What convention is this for you, Mary Ellen?

MARY ELLEN: I think 46.  On the plane coming in, I met a blind baseball team from Italy.

CHRIS: That is so great.

It's a different kind of baseball.
CHRIS: It's beat baseball?

They said it's not beat baseball, they have a different set of rules.  It's a big thing in Europe these days. So I'm curious to learn more.

CHRIS: Were they coming to the convention?  Or were they going somewhere else?

Last night on the same plane.

MELISSA: To the convention.  Well, how fun.

BUNA: We want everybody to meet my mom, all the way from Nepal.  Hello!  She doesn't speak English, but she's saying hello.

Thank you!

BUNA: This is our second convention.  She was here in 2015 when we had the world record.

CHRIS: The world record.  Those who don't know, the Rosen Center in Orlando is where the National Federation of the Blind set a record for the world's largest umbrella mosaic.

MELISSA: We have Marcy Carpenter here, I think.  Hello!  How are you?

MARCY: Doing well.

MELISSA: There was someone from Vancouver listening.  Virtual people.  Chris is here.  I can't remember who the Washington people were.

All four of our teachers of tomorrow are here.

MELISSA: Hello, teachers of tomorrow!

CHRIS: Who was from Vancouver, Danielle?

DANIELLE: I believe the person's name is Kris from Vancouver.

MELISSA: Hi, Corey.  He's from Vancouver, too, Washington. Excellent.  What convention is this for you, Corey?

COREY: Five, six.  I lost count.  They're all so good.

MELISSA: Okay.  Excellent.
Okay.  Hello, Dave Hyde!  Dave from Wisconsin.

DAVE: And my friends Chris and Danielle.

CHRIS: Hey, Dave, how are you?

DAVE: Danielle is a recovering Wisconsinite, and this is sort of the old timers' group.  I think this is my 47th convention.

MELISSA: And what about you Marcy?

MARCY: I attended my first one in 1981.  I did miss a few.

MELISSA: Got it.

I attended my first in 1972 and I counted two ones that were virtual.

But I've missed six since 1972.

MELISSA: All right.

My first one was 76 in Los Angeles.  And to give perspective, hotel rooms that year in Los Angeles were a whopping $14 a night.

MELISSA: That's perspective all right!

In Chicago in 1972, singles were $8, and doubles and twins were $12.  I could get $10 out of the security deposit, I put my money in the security deposit place, and $10 a day and eat on that much.

MELISSA: Well, thank you guys.  I'm going to step over here and see who else we have in the suite.
All right. Who do we have back here?

DANIELLE: Melissa?  We've got a shout-out from Ellen.

CHRIS: Ellen!

MELISSA: I'm glad you're listening.

All right.  I hope you're enjoying it. So who do we have here?  Becky Young.  Nice to meet you and where are you from?

I'm from Iowa and I'm one of the members of the about to graduate KLSP program.

DANIELLE: Congratulations.

MELISSA: And how many conventions is this for you?

This is my second live and my three in total because I had to do virtual last year.

MELISSA: Absolutely.  Well, welcome.  And what are you looking most forward to at convention?

I'm ambassadoring which is fun, I'm helping with Rookie Roundup tonight, which I'm really excited about because it was a blast the first time I went.  And everything in general.

MELISSA: Nice.  Excellent.  Thank you so much.  And there's others at the table?  Cindy, hello.  How are you?

CINDY: I just got to say my first convention was 1965.  I can't help it.

MELISSA: That's wonderful!

CINDY: I haven't been to all of them.  The other day, Bob's not here, he might be listening.  We were trying to figure out how many, the best guess we had was 48, but we aren't sure.

MELISSA: Welcome and what are you looking forward to at convention?

CINDY: Being here and the people and the information and I already got some good information on web accessibility that I can take back to my church, because I'm an associate there so I've got to try to get some information to help them with the website. It will be fun if I can do that.

MELISSA: Okay, fantastic.  Any other shout-outs, Danielle?  Any other questions you want me to skin here?

DANIELLE: So we actually have a question from Kendra, asking what happened to the preshows before all of the mainstreamed events, because they're not listed in the agenda?
The preshows will be available.

So if you're listening to the main Zoom for all the events, resolutions, board meetings, general sessions and banquet, the Zoom link is in the agenda on the app or the website so you're able to listen to the banter about 30 minutes before each session.

MELISSA: Fantastic!  Fantastic.  That's one of my favorite parts about convention for sure.

DANIELLE: We also got a question from Jackie from Texas, asking if convention is ever held outside of the U.S. and it is not.  We hold it in the U.S.

MELISSA: We are the National Federation of the Blind, so we only have conventions now.  Anybody from any other country can come here to us, but we do not hold conventions outside of Texas.  Sorry, outside of the U.S.!  We do hold outside of Texas.  One more person, Danielle.

My name is Rahil and this is my third convention.  My first one was in New Orleans, back in 22.
So yeah, I like being here in Orlando, and everything is going great.  Finding my way slowly.
MELISSA: That's how it works.  Excellent.  Thank you so much for saying hi, to everybody that's listening virtually.

Yes, yes. And I'm going to go and get me a water bottle.

MELISSA: That sounds like a great idea.

DANIELLE: Stay hydrated.

MELISSA: Hello, we have President Riccobono here.  We have Chris and Danielle and everybody else.  Do you want to say something else to the people?  And welcome them?

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Hello, people.  I'm standing here, just got back from the youth track, and they gave me this hat to wear, so I'm going to give it to Melissa to wear, I think.

MELISSA: Oh, my gosh.  It is a parrot, and it actually has plumage, and feathers.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Formal word, plumage.

MELISSA: This is hilarious.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: I think it's a good precession show hat.

MELISSA: I'll have to take a picture and we have to post it somewhere.
But yes, I will wear this hat.  This is good.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Unless Danielle wants me to take a picture with it on and post it.

DANIELLE: I think you should.

MELISSA: I think you should over here.

DANIELLE: And we can have an AI description.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: That's right.  Absolutely.

DANIELLE: And we can have Mark AI build that into his memory.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: That's right.

MELISSA: So can you talk a little bit about Mark AI for the virtual people and how they can start the conversation with Mark AI?

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: So Mark AI is an artificial intelligence system where we're putting in memories from the National Federation of the Blind, as well as content that has been developed by the Federation or that I've written and it's not a replacement for talking directly to me, but it's a way to engage with the federation.

And we're trying to use this as a tool that we build up authentic experience from blind people.  Of course, a lot of the artificial intelligence systems don't have and don't reflect the lived experience of blind people.
So we're trying to build this to reflect the experience of blind people.  It's through the company Personal AI, which is owned and operated by Suman Kanuganti, the former founder and CEO of IRA so he has deep experience in the blind community.

He has been coming to our national convention since 2015. So it's a fun and interesting way to engage with the movement.  You may get some interesting answers. But you also may gate some meaningful answers.  I know someone was in the suite yesterday texting with Mark AI about their experience with various leaders of the Federation.  It's a good way to reflect on your experience in the movement or to ask questions like what's the NFB pledge or where is next year's convention going to be?  Which you won't get an answer to.
And if you go for the virtual folks, the easiest way is to go to Riccobono.personal.AI, and that web page will give you an opportunity to chat online through the web page or if you go to the message, text message feature on your mobile phone, it will automatically open up the messages app and preload the text message and you can text with it and you can save that contact, then.

So it's mostly fun, but there's a degree of seriousness and we're building real content that can be used to improve this service in the future.

MELISSA: Great.  Fantastic.  Well, it's getting a little noisy in here.  I don't know if you guys hear that, but there's a lot of background noise, so Danielle, is there anything else you want to talk to President Riccobono about?

DANIELLE: So the noise actually doesn't sound bad at all on our end.  It sounds really good, but President Riccobono, we have several requests for pictures of you with the hat. Sandy asks if the hat will make its way to the sun table.

MELISSA: I think it certainly should, hopefully.  We did that one year where we would wear hats for a donation so that was pretty fun.

DANIELLE: And the last question is from Kendra, and it says Mr. President, have they published the link for us to do artificial intelligence of ourselves?

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: So that's a good question.  Look, I'm not a salesperson for Personal AI.  There are many AI systems out there that you can use.  Personal AI is a company that you can set up an account. There are free accounts.  They're fairly limited in the number of memories you get to create, but you can get a paid account and that allows you to build a more robust presence.

You can download the Personal AI app from the app store.  I would say go to personal.AI, so not dot com, personal.AI, and you'll find the link to download the app.

I would encourage you to set up a free account and if you set up a free account, then you can engage with Mark AI directly through the app, and have a more personalized experience, because if you do the general chat online, it doesn't know who you are, and we can't really stack memories together.
For example, if you established a free account, and let me know when do we meet?

And then, it will start to remember that. So again, the free account, I recommend it.  It's kind of a fun thing to do.  There are also other influencers from the blind community there, by the way.  I know Apple B. App was there, Christine Hann who was shown at our convention, known as the blind chef from Master Chef.
So it is an interesting thing you can do.

Like all of these services, Chat GPT or any of them, there's a paid version where you can get greater access, but you can sign up for free, and start playing with it.

I continue to give Personal AI feedback on their accessibility.  It would be great if we had more blind people using it so you can give feedback, but that's what I would suggest, and again, we have to be in the center of these new AI tools.  We have to direct what happens with them and that's really our interest is that and, of course, it's a hot topic.  I see we have a resolution that the committee will be considering tomorrow about AI.

DANIELLE: Excellent.  President Riccobono, do you have time for two more questions?

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Sure, why not?

DANIELLE: So the first question is:  Will Mark AI tell us jokes?

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: So that's a good question.  I don't know if it will. And I don't know if it knows what a customary ending is, but that is one of my intentions is to start incorporating memories of customary endings from the Presidential Release.

So what you can do is ask it if it will tell you a joke and if it doesn't, you could offer it a joke so it can tell people in the future.

DANIELLE: Nice. All right.  Last question for you, sir. So Jackie would like to know, how did you become president?  And what inspired you?

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: You said how did I become president?

DANIELLE: , yes, sir, and what inspired you.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: So the short answer is the convention elected me.  That's the only way you can become president. And in order for the convention to know that they want to elect you, you have to build some degree of trust and authority, influence with the convention that they know that you're someone they can rely on, someone that they can trust, that you believe in blind people, and that you're open to being shaped by the members of the movement.

So that's the short answer is you have to be a member, and you have to stand for election at the convention. What inspired me is what continues to inspire me, which are the individuals that make up the movement, they are the source of inspiration.  Some of them have been my mentors.  Many of them are my friends.  And as I have gained experience in the organization, I continue to be inspired by the everyday stories of blind people and the extraordinary stories of blind people.

So just as an example, we have a lot of legal cases, and, you know, it takes a lot of effort to stand up and say you want to be a plaintiff in a case. A lot of people think oh, it must be glorious to be able to sue somebody.

But you know when you're putting your personal story out there, you're exposing it to criticism from the defendants, maybe from a judge who wants to ask you hard questions, simply about the discrimination that you faced.  It can be very personally draining and emotional.

And the people who stand up and are plaintiffs in NFB cases, sure, they're interested in their own experience, but they really do it for other people.  I find that very inspiring. A lot of people may think it's glorious, but it really is stressful, and I have always found in the Presidential Report of the work that we do, it's inspiring the things that individual blind people do to make a movement like ours happen and that continues to be the inspiration for what I do.

Maybe the only reason I would walk around wearing a parrot hat so, you know, also, I think what's inspiring is it's fun.  There aren't too many places in today's society where people of different backgrounds, races, political ideologies all get together in one place to work for one solid, common purpose.

And sometimes, do so even though we have very different outlooks and views, but we know that working together is the best way to advance things for us as blind people. There you go.

DANIELLE: Thank you so much!

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Thank you.

MELISSA: Well, thank you very much for being with us, President Riccobono.  I know you have other places that you need to be.  You need to take a picture with the parrot hat, thank you. All right.  What other shout-outs do we have, Danielle or Chris?

DANIELLE: So we've got Susan Moore asking how many members are there now in the Federation?
And I can kind of give an answer to this one if that's okay.

So it's kind of hard to give you an exact count.  There's thousands of members across the country who are part of the organization, and it's growing all the time, so part of the work that I do at our national office is helping with the onboarding of new members. So make sure they have their packets and any communications that they need to receive and so I can tell you that we are always growing.  Not a week goes by where we don't onboard somebody new, so we have thousands of members and we're growing every day. Thank you for that question. And let's see.  Paul said hi, to the president.  We will pass that on to him for sure.

MELISSA: Absolutely.

DANIELLE: Dawn is asking will the session resolutions be part of the virtual experience.  Chris, do you want to take that one?

CHRIS: Yeah, absolutely.  First of all, can you all hear me?  I have my headset on now.

MELISSA: You sound better.

CHRIS: This is a new headset. So the resolutions will actually be part of the virtual experience, both the committee meeting, which is tomorrow afternoon and remind me, do we have a preshow before the meeting?

DANIELLE: We do.

CHRIS: I figured we did.  I figured we did.  I should know that, and I do know that.  I have the authoritative list that Danielle gave me over here, but I don't have it right in front of me.  I do have it here in my room.
So I will be prepared for all of these, but anyway, we'll have the resolutions committee meeting.  That will be where you can hear the resolutions for the first time and see which ones the committee passes.
Now, the ones that the committee passes are the ones that will go to the convention floor, and that will happen, I believe, on Sunday, the 7th of July, in the afternoon, is when we'll have the session where we consider the resolutions.

And so that will be when the convention gets to vote on the resolutions that the committee has, the ones that the committee did not pass will, of course, not be considered by the convention now. If you also want, by the way, to read the resolutions, because sometimes, hearing them is not enough.  They can be very complex.  They make a lot of points.

MELISSA: Go ahead, Chris.

CHRIS: So if you want to read the resolutions, you can go to NFB.org/resolutions. And the resolutions are all right there and I believe they're also linked from NFB.org/convention. So all the resolutions that are currently before the committee, that the committee will talk about tomorrow at its meeting at 1:00 and our preshow will be just before that.

But those are online right now, so you can read them.  You can think about them.  Of course, like I said, the committee will decide whether to pass those tomorrow afternoon. The ones that are passed by the committee will stay on the web.  The ones that are not passed by the committee will disappear.

And then, you can look at them again before the convention, and if you are virtually participating, you can still get in touch with your delegate, if you have thoughts about the resolutions that you would like to share.
And if you're here at the convention, you should go to your caucus, because that is the place where you can talk with your delegates and your other colleagues about what you think about the resolution.

So this is not just a process for the committee, although the committee has the first part of it tomorrow afternoon.  It is also a process for the convention, and the convention gets the final say on the resolutions that the committee decides for us to consider.

So I love the resolutions meeting.  It's one of my favorite parts of the convention, and, as a matter of fact, yours truly will be a proponent of a resolution tomorrow afternoon, so you can listen for that.
And then, you can give me feedback and tell me whether or not I did a good job. And it's really important, because it's how we make decisions in the organization.  The resolutions are our policy statements, and they really do guide our action.  

As somebody who happens to work on our staff as well, I can tell you that we are always thinking about how the actions we take fit into the resolutions and taking new actions because of resolutions that have been put forward. So it's really important.  I'm really excited about it.  It's one of my favorite things at convention.  I really geek out about it. But we all should.  We all really should.

MELISSA: So I would just say, Chris, if the committee votes down a resolution, it may not be completely dead because the proponent then would have the chance to try to get -- it's a certain number of affiliates -- to support it, and then, it could be brought back before the convention. So sometimes, that happens. So I don't know how we --

CHRIS: We will do our best to make sure. And we will do our best to make sure that all the resolutions that are going to be on the floor are on the web.  You are absolutely right.  I forget the exact rule, but there are a certain number of delegates, if a proponent of a resolution can get support from a certain number of delegates, the resolution can go back on the floor, even if the committee does not pass it.
The other thing -- and the other thing to note is -- and this is really important -- when a resolution fails, it can fail for any number of reasons.

It could be the committee, or the convention didn't think it was a good idea, but it could be that we wanted to refine it some more. Because at this point the resolutions are in final form, and then like sometimes in the past, we don't edit them. So if people feel like a resolution doesn't say everything it needs to, or says too much or whatever, it may not pass.

Now, the important thing to remember about that is that doesn't mean the issue is dead, and what it especially doesn't mean is that the policy of the Federation is now the opposite of what the resolution says. That's not what happens. When we vote down a resolution, we're not necessarily voting against what it wanted per se; we're just voting down that iteration, and so those issues can come back, as well.

MELISSA: Correct.  Very good.

DANIELLE: Thank you for that.  Melissa, are we good to give some more shout-outs?

MELISSA: I think so, absolutely.

DANIELLE: Okay. So Janet Montoya is saying hello from White Rock, New Mexico.

CHRIS: I thought she was from New Mexico.  Janet, I have to tell you as a public relations person, she's a media star.  She's always getting stuff in the newspapers out in New Mexico.

DANIELLE: Thank you, Janet.  That's helpful.  Lindsey Sloan also from New Mexico. And then, Deanna asks how do you become a member?  The quickest way to explain that would be if you paid dues to your chapter for 2024, and if you're a returning member, you would pay dues and you would be a member.
The chapter would vote you in.  That's the way you would know whether or not you're a member.

MELISSA: And if you haven't joined your chapter, then you can go to NFB.org and there's a thing that says Join Us and there's pages for all of our affiliates and you can contact your state affiliate and figure out how to become a member, which is a great way.

It's best to join an actual chapter or a division, because that's the way that you're going to be plugged in and be able to network with other people in your affiliate most easily.

Some affiliates have at-large chapters which are Chapters that meet virtually, so anybody can join them from all around a state, but if you live in a larger city or sometimes, even a smaller area, there might be an NFB chapter close to you, and so you can join that chapter or if you're a parent of a blind child or a blind parent or a blind senior or a guide dog user. Sometimes, there are special divisions in your state for those special interest areas, as well.

DANIELLE: Exactly.  Exactly. That was a great question.  Thank you so much.  Holly is in Central Time and is confirming that convention time is Eastern Time.  Yes, convention time is Eastern Time.

MELISSA: This year.  Because we're on the East Coast.  Last year, it was not because we were not on the East Coast.  I'm not going to say what time zone it was because I don't want to confuse everybody.  This year, convention time is East Coast Time.  Sorry for those in Hawaii, Alaska, I know sometimes, it's very early.

DANIELLE: And speaking of convention time and time zones, we've got actually a few international listeners.  We've got folks listening in from Mexico, from Türkiye, so welcome, thank you so much.

MELISSA: Welcome.  Amazing.  Amazing.  And thank you again to our interpreter who is translating all of this into Spanish for those that could use that and thank you to our captioner.
We couldn't run this as well without both of your help.

DANIELLE: Thank you so, so much. We've got Tina coming from Arizona.  Hey, Tina, welcome, welcome.
And Lara is asking is membership open to someone outside the United States? And so you are able to join at large, as an international member, but you wouldn't -- so you wouldn't have the same connectivity as you would if you joined a state affiliate, like if you lived in the United States.

MELISSA: My daughter Elizabeth just poked her head in the room.  She's been at youth track.  I don't think she's going to want to say anything, but that's the big boom if you heard a boom, that was her coming in the door.  Welcome, Elizabeth.  She's 12.

DANIELLE: Hello, Elizabeth.  I hope you're having a great convention.

CHRIS: I can't believe Elizabeth is 12!

MELISSA: Me, either.

DANIELLE: Pat McPherson says hello, and Shane from Idaho says hi.

MELISSA: Shane was at convention last year.  Glad you're virtual this year, but sorry you're not in person. Some people come later so that's cool that you registered for virtual and then you're able to join us in person later.  Very nice.  Very, very nice.
DANIELLE: And I apologize in advance, I want to say the name is Hena, I apologize for mispronouncing that. But hello from Minnesota.

MELISSA: Minnesota.  A good state.

DANIELLE: Good state. So lots of folks just saying thank you for the virtual experience and we're grateful to you all for being here and for your feedback just on shaping these experiences.  Definitely feel free to keep sharing that information, because it's helpful for us to know what you're interested in listening to, what maybe is something that you're like it's just okay for me so thank you all so much for all the feedback.
MELISSA: Maybe we should talk a minute, Danielle and Chris, about what comes up next.
We have two more, not that we're rushing to get done with this one, but we have two more virtual experience shows aside from our actual preshows before the convention.

So maybe we should talk just a little bit about what people might expect, unless we want to keep them secret.  I don't know what we want to do.

DANIELLE: I say we give them a little preview.

CHRIS: I like previews.

DANIELLE: Previews are cool.

MELISSA: They're pretty fun.

DANIELLE: Melissa, do you want to go over?  This one was something that you thought up and I just love tomorrow's experience.  I'll let you do that.

MELISSA: So tomorrow, we were going to do something where we just went around the Exhibit Hall, and it probably would have worked better than I feared because you guys weren't bothered by all the noise in the Presidential Suite and so maybe you wouldn't have been bothered by the Exhibit Hall noise.
But we were worried about this.  We were also a little worried about connectivity over there.
And so I came up with the idea, because I'm an audio person at heart, and so Danielle, are we saying our special guest, Danielle?

DANIELLE: Let's keep that one under wraps.

MELISSA: We have been walking around the convention with our various recorders, digital recorders of some type and we have been gathering sound effects, we've been gathering -- (Audio freezing)

DANIELLE: Melissa?

CHRIS: You're breaking up, Melissa.  Please stand by.  We are experiencing technical difficulties.
We will rejoin our regular programming in a moment.  In the meantime, go ahead, Danielle.

DANIELLE: You should do voice work, Chris.

CHRIS: Funnily enough, I have done just a little bit for the Federation and as have you and you're also very good at it.

DANIELLE: Thank you.  Shane is here.  He's in person, but also listening.

CHRIS: Hey, Shane.  That's cool.

DANIELLE: He says he was in the Presidential Suite but snuck back down to his room.  Thanks for being here.

CHRIS: Thanks for visiting the Presidential Suite.  We always like for people to do that.

DANIELLE: Melissa, are you back with us?  Not yet.  We'll give her another second.

CHRIS: I like the sound of this.  I like the sound of what she was saying, about collecting audio from around the convention.  I think that's going to be a fun session tomorrow.  Hopefully, she'll be back in a second to tell us more about it.

MELISSA: Can you hear me now?  I took myself off my speaker, it was working for a while and then, it decided to go. I guess my fears were right about the Exhibit Hall and not using that. So we are just going to gather things from all over the convention, including the Exhibit Hall, because we know that people are anxious to know what's in the Exhibit Hall and what's going on there.

But other places, too.  Registration, I did some stuff at the parent meeting this morning.  Some stuff in the Presidential Suite.  Bennett talked to me about door prizes. We're going to go back and forth, and I'll play you bites and bits from what we've experienced so far from convention.  We've never done anything like this before so we're hoping that you like it and if you have thoughts about it, please keep that feedback coming.

DANIELLE: And I think what excites me about this project other than just being able to do some of this audio work is we get a lot of questions from folks who are apprehensive and say if I come to conventions, what's it going to be like?  Am I going to have to make it on my own?  Are people going to be friendly?

What the audio will show is it's such a joyous time.  There's the lots of laughter.  There's the talking signs. My hope is that this will really let people know, to get a sense of what it's like to be in person and maybe get some folks excited to join us next year in person.

MELISSA: Yeah, absolutely. And then, for those that are seasoned convention goers, I don't know maybe it will have you miss it more, but hopefully, it will also have you feel a little bit more like you're at home if that makes sense.  We're just excited to bring this to you and try something new.

That will be from 11:00 to 12:30 when we will go right into the resolutions preshow.  We'll talk more about resolutions tomorrow, talk a little bit about the committee and all that good stuff.  And bring you the resolutions starting at 1:00 and all this is Eastern Time, convention time.

CHRIS: And then, on Friday!

DANIELLE: I was going to say one more thing on resolutions, someone did ask if you were a virtual attendee, if you can still vote, and no. So the voting is happening just in person.

CHRIS: However, what you can do is you can reach out to your convention delegate.  Whatever state you're from, reach out to your delegate, and let them know if you have thoughts on the regulations.  It's really important for people to know.

We take a lot of voice votes during the convention, because that's easier than taking roll call votes, but really the voting on business matters is for the convention delegates and each state appoints a delegate. Usually, it's the affiliate president if they're here.  Sometimes -- there's always an alternate delegate in case there's some reason that the delegate can't be there, but sometimes, for whatever reason, the affiliate president is not the delegate.

And if you want to know who your delegate is and you don't know, then it's really important to listen to the roll call of states that will happen on the first morning of the general sessions, which is Saturday morning and at that time, all the states who are present have to announce who their delegates are.
And so they will do that.

And so if you don't know the answer to that question already, you can find out.  You can get in touch with the delegate. Now the delegate is technically the person who is entitled to make the decision about how the affiliate will vote on the resolution, if it comes down to a roll call vote, which is when President Riccobono would just ask, assuming he's reelected, would just ask the delegates for their positions, if the chair can't determine it from a voice vote.

But the delegate can take into account input from their members. So if the members feel a certain way about a resolution, then they should share those feelings, those concerns, those questions, whatever they have with their delegate.

And so that way, the delegate can make a more informed decision about the resolution. So even though you cannot vote directly on the resolution, you do have input if you are not at the convention, if you can get in touch with your delegate.

MELISSA: And two really important things.  The delegate's job is not just to represent the people who are at the convention.  The delegate's job is to represent everybody from the state affiliate, which means those people who are here at the convention and those people who are also at home.

And then, secondly, you alluded to elections, yes, President Riccobono is up for reelection and there's many others that are up for election this year, even if President Riccobono were not reelected, he would still be president until the end of this convention.

So saying that he would be the one is correct, and if he's not reelected, then he would give the gavel over after the convention, but if he is reelected, he will hold on to the gavel for a couple of years.

CHRIS: I appreciate you clarifying that, Melissa.  I thought that as soon as I said it and I was like I think the constitution says the president is still the president until the end of the convention.

MELISSA: And I know President Riccobono is quite willing to serve, and I don't want to start any rumors.

CHRIS: Me neither.

MELISSA: Anything can happen, and it is an election and people can be nominated from the floor, so you never know what's going to happen.

CHRIS: Right.  What I wanted to do actually was emphasize -- not at all to suggest anything about President Riccobono, but just to point out the importance of the elections, because the elections are important.
And they are democratic, and things can happen, but I do know that President Riccobono is willing to serve. If I were a betting man, I would say that there's a really good chance that he'll be reelected.

But I did want to emphasize, because that's another role that the delegates have.  If an election were to be contested, and the outcome could not be determined by a voice vote, we take the voice votes for efficiency mainly.

It's just the easiest way to do it. But in the event that the chair cannot determine -- and I say the chair, because President Riccobono will not chair his own reelection bid, just to maintain the impartiality.  I expect the first vice president Pam Allen will do that.

And then, President Riccobono will chair the rest. But in the event of a roll call vote, it's the delegates that have to elect the president. But usually, roll call vote is not required on most things, but it is important for people to know how the convention functions through delegates and that's what's in the constitution.

Again, the voice votes are a nice easy way to handle things, but the delegates really have the responsibility, as Melissa said, representing everybody in the affiliate and doing the things that they believe their affiliate wants, that is their function.

DANIELLE: And as a reminder to folks, we did get a question.  How do we get in touch with delegates?  You can get in touch with your delegate, the contact information is on our website, NFB.org.

And if you look in the state affiliate contact list, you can reach out to the affiliate president and most of them are going to be the delegates, but in some cases, the affiliate has elected to send a different delegate that the president of the affiliate. But the president can get you in touch with the delegate if it's not themselves.

MELISSA: More shout-outs, more questions?

DANIELLE: So Umberto is saying what time does the convention audio tour start.  I like the way you put that.

So what time does that start tomorrow?

MELISSA: 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Convention time.

DANIELLE: And John Vickers, listening from Mexico, he's saying is this the only session that we have today?  He's very interested in listening to the audio stuff. So yes, today's question that we're in right now is the only virtual event for today, but then tomorrow will be the audio tour.

MELISSA: And then, preshow for resolutions, and then resolutions. So you've got a nice full afternoon of content tomorrow.  Be here probably from 11:00 to at least 3:00 I would guess.  Probably, at least.

CHRIS: Probably, yes, yes.  You never know how long -- I understand there are like 22 resolutions, so get the popcorn ready or whatever your preferred snack is.  Get your beverages ready if you're listening virtually.

And then, the days of convention session themselves are going to be long days and Friday we shouldn't forget, we were going to review things, Friday, of course, we have the board of directors meeting, and then we have another special session for our virtual attendees.

DANIELLE: So we will have a preshow before the board meeting, nice and early.  So.

MELISSA: 8:30 Eastern.

DANIELLE: We'll be caffeinated for that one.
But Friday, we're talking about employment.  I'm excited about this because we have had so much success with the job fair and the different employers coming to the convention in person, but we thought we would do some employment highlights for those of you listening from home.

So we're going to be talking with Lia Stone, one of the cochairs of our Employment Committee and Lia is going to answer some questions, going to kind of talk about tips that she has for employers and prospective employees.  That's going to be from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Friday. We only have an hour on Friday because of the plead meeting.  12:00 to 1:00 on Friday, we're talking employment.

MELISSA: Nice, fantastic.  That's super exciting.  I unfortunately will not be on that show.  I have to be with the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children that afternoon, and so we leave in very good hands, and I'll be on almost every other show.

Just a quick preview, the banquet preshow, that's one I won't be on, but we're going to be having some special guests hopefully join us for that show, as well, and if you have a banquet event or you're going to be -- you're listening to the banquet from home, I believe we're going to have the chat open, and we'll be taking some shout-outs and things, so that will be a fun show, as well. But that's way at the end.  That's Monday.

DANIELLE: Exactly, exactly. Speaking of letting us know about your banquet events, let's talk about social media for just a minute.

MELISSA: Definitely, yes.

DANIELLE: Our hash tag for here is hashtag #NFB24.  Every year, it's like NFB 18, NFB 19.  This year, it's hashtag #NFB24 and you can use that hashtag on Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, TikTok, and so that way, you can interact with folks, and folks at the convention.  There's already a lot of really nice posts that are going out, a lot of people checking in at the different airports. And on social media will probably be where that parrot hat picture will be posted.

CHRIS: With an image description, of course, and we do ask if you're posting pictures from your convention experience, please do include an image description.  It's not even that hard to do anymore, especially if you have access to Be My AI or any of those tools.  You can often get a really good image description generated. But please at least say in an image description, who's in the picture and where you are, and that kind of thing, just to make it accessible for everyone.  After all, we are the National Federation of the Blind.

DANIELLE: Definitely keep up with us on social media and as President Riccobono mentioned, Mark AI, definitely interact with Mark AI. I believe that information is on the website, Chris?  Do you know?

CHRIS: I think it is on the convention website.  I'll doublecheck really quick, but I believe it is.

MELISSA: And I can just say it again.  Riccobono, R-I-C-C-O-B-O-N-O, dot personal, dot AI.
So it's a pretty easy web address to remember.  I can also give you, if you want the text number, I don't know that I have it here.  I will make sure that I have that for future shows because there is actually just a phone number, too, that you can text.

And there's a little how-to bulleted list so I will bring that.  Maybe I'll have a guest reader read that list so that can be part of our audio convention tour tomorrow. But just for today, introducing yourself, saying hello this is so and so.  Texting that, not saying it.

But then asking a question. So this is really about kind of questions and answers. So it could be when did you attend your first convention?  Or what was your favorite banquet speech Whatever it is.

And then, Mark AI will give you an answer and often he will ask you a question in return and that's where the give and take starts.

But it's a computer.

So don't give it like three questions at one time.  Try to ask one thing at a time and when it asks you something, try to answer it if you can.  There are other things.  I will try to have that answered for us.
I will get a Braille reader to read it.  Maybe a few Braille readers.

CHRIS: And do answer those questions, because if you have the time and inclination, that's what helps Mark AI build memories so that it knows the things that Mark knows.

So President Riccobono can also stack memories, but I believe I'm correct in saying that memories can also be built from what is shared from those chats and that way he starts, the AI version of Mark Riccobono starts to remember people and get to know people and all of that, as well.

DANIELLE: And I just have to jump in here and say that I was playing around with texting with Mark AI, and I first asked do you know who I am?

And it was too vague, my question was too vague, and it said I apologize, I do not have this memory.
And it said can you provide me with data?

So I texted the real President Riccobono and I was like this is what it's saying.  Tell it who you are and ask it if it knows you. You have to kind of fiddle with the way that you ask the questions, but I saved the message it sent back because it told me some stuff about myself.  Your guide dog frequently comes into my office to say hello.

MELISSA: That's so cool.  That's amazing.  He didn't have anything about Waverly Jordan.  You better fix that.  I also have a cat named Waverly and you have come to my house and seen that cat.  Danielle's cat is the runner of the universe in their house.

DANIELLE: Hopefully, we have a house to come back to next week. Kendra is ready for banquet.  Kendra says she'll be attending virtually and has a veggie mac and cheese bowl ready.

And then, Laura is asking if there's any virtual session during convention for someone who became blind as an adult and doesn't have resources and support in the country that they live in. I'm assuming that they live outside the U.S.  I would say there may not be anything specific in the virtual sessions, but our website is packed with information.

MELISSA: I think that's exactly correct.

CHRIS: This gives me an opportunity to talk about our publications and our other ways of distributing information, because we do have our flagship magazine, the Braille Monitor, and The Braille Monitor is a great resource for members and also for people who want to know more about blindness and blind people and we have published Articles about the situation in other countries.

Maybe not specific to every country in the world, but we do try to get people resources and a lot of the advice and things, especially around technology and some other things that are in the Monitor are things that are applicable to every blind person.

We also have our nation's blind podcast, which anybody can access, if you have access to the major podcasting platforms, and we have our Voice of the Nation Blind Blog, our Imagining Our Future, I recommend all of those.

If you go to NFB.org, and you click on publications and media, then you can find out about all of our publications.  And by the way, the legal cases, too, that President Riccobono was mentioning earlier, those are sometimes covered in the Monitor.

And they're also often announced in our press releases. So there's another link on our website to the press room that has all our press releases. And then, that page also has a link to NFB in the news, which is articles that have been published about the National Federation of the Blind and our work.

So I wanted to put all those resources out there, just -- our website is awesome.  It's fantastic. But it can be a little bit overwhelming if you don't know your way around it. So I always try to give people some ways to find some really useful information. There is a search function, too, that's pretty useful, but I wanted to make sure that we covered all of those resources.

DANIELLE: Thank you, Chris.  And just a follow up to that, Misty says if memory serves there is a World Blind Union, and we are a member of the World Blind Union. The Union is a more globally faced organization that has members from all different countries in the world, and so I believe their website is blindunion.org.

CHRIS: I believe that's correct.  And, as a matter of fact, the last time that some of us, not all of us, were at the Rosen Center was when the National Federation of the Blind, we are members, and we hosted the 2016 general assembly of the World Blind Union here in Orlando at the beautiful Rosen center. And it was just fun to meet blind people from all over the world.  That is a resource and that is something that we are a part of.

And that's how we do a lot of our international work in terms of trying to connect, there are associations of blind people in other countries and a lot of them are trying to achieve the same goals that we are in this country so we try to be a resource for each other in that respect through our work in the World Blind Union.

DANIELLE: Melissa, would you be able to spell out the name of the AI app?  Someone's asking if we could just spell that out.

MELISSA: Personal AI?  (Spells) So if you're looking for it in the app store, I think you just search for P-E-R-S-O-N-A-L and then the letters A-I. If you're going to the web and you want to know more about it, it's just personal.AI.

CHRIS: And if I'm correct, if you want to correct directly with Mark AI, you can just at Riccobono to that, Riccobono.personal.AI.

MELISSA: R-I-C-C-O-B-O-N-O dot personal dot AI. Correct.

DANIELLE: Another question. Sharon is asking, do we know where the next convention will be?

MELISSA: We do not.  I even don't know and people this morning would not believe me. We were talking about a place, a chocolate place close to the Rosen Center where you can actually get a tour and learn about chocolate and then help make chocolate at the end of the tour, and then taste it.
And I said something like, some of the families went to Gator Land yesterday and I said when we're back here, forget Gator Land, let's go to this chocolate place for a tour, because I bet blind kids would love to learn how to make chocolate.  

And somebody was like you just gave it away, you just made a mistake. Seriously no, I meant the next time, because I'm assuming this was such a nice property that we will be back in Florida, at some point.  I honestly do not know where we're going to be next year. I promise you.  President Riccobono doesn't even tell me, and I don't even ask him anymore.

CHRIS: But if you want to know, I will say that traditionally, traditionally, I have no idea what's going to happen, I'm completely clueless on this, but traditionally, that announcement is made at the board of directors meeting, which is on Friday.  That's before our employment session, our preshow starts at 8:30, convention time, which is Eastern Time at 9:00. The board meeting runs until approximately 11:30 and at some point, in that meeting, it may be that President Riccobono will announcement where our next convention will be.

MELISSA: And I would guess it will not be right away in the beginning, but President Riccobono is like the master of the reveal.  He loves the big reveal and to hold it out as long as he can in general.
Now that I'm saying it, he's going to say it first to prove me wrong.

In general, he's the master of the reveal and very much enjoys that.  Usually, it's towards the end.  We won't know.  That's why we listen to the board meeting and attend the board meeting when we're here in person.

DANIELLE: That's right. All right.  Donna asks if there are recordings of the presenter and sponsor presentations and asking if there are hybrid sessions.  That information, especially the exhibitor and sponsor previews will be on our website as soon as responsible.  I can't give a time frame, but it will be on the convention page.  Chris; is that right?

CHRIS: I believe that's the plan. So you know, as far as hybrid, we do not have a hybrid convention.  We don't have hybrid sessions.  This is the virtual experience.  I think some affiliates may be planning hybrid sessions, hybrid caucuses, but, you know, this is not a hybrid convention or a virtual convention in the way we had it back during the pandemic. So it's not as directs.  It's just the virtual experience.

MELISSA: Correct, but there are some divisions and some affiliates like said that do provide at least some -- I should say try to provide, because you can't guarantee ever, unless you pay truly hundreds of dollars for a connection, which most divisions and affiliates will not do and cannot do, you really can't ever guarantee that the connectivity is going to be perfect. And so I know, for example, the National Association of Guide Dog Users, they often try to provide ways for people to Zoom in and at least listen to what's going on. Again, you can't vote; you can't run for election:

But you can listen in.  A lot of those announcements are on the convention e-mail list, so if you go on NFBnet.org, and you click on Join or Drop NFB mailing list, there is a list that's just -- I think it's called NFB convention or just convention, and it's all the different announcements about the convention.  If you click on that and you join it, you'll get those announcements, but you can also look in the list archives and there's already been some announcements from various -- I know NAGDU, they stand out. But I believe that there are some others that are completely escaping me at the moment, you can look at the list archives and those announcements are truly just about conventions.

We're not going to get overwhelmed about other things.  It's just about conventions. Performing arts.  That's the other one that often streams and particularly, the talent show, the showcase of talent, that is often streamed.

DANIELLE: Another question from Luiz who starts out by saying.  Hi, first time listener, and first-time caller and makes a joke.  He would like to connect with other low-vision folks who work.  Do you have recommendations on how I can connect with fellow NFB members?  I would love to share workflow tips and ideas. Do you have any tips for Luis?

CHRIS: We do know we have our employment committee that we have.  Your best resource is going to be the ability that you're in.

So you want to be sure to join a chapter and a division and network with people in that way, but we also have our national committee, employment committee and again, all those contacts are listed on the -- in addition to the state affiliates page, there's also a committees page and a divisions page and all of that, and a lot of our divisions are specifically dedicated to specific professions.

I don't know that if there's anything specifically dedicated to low vision, but I know that a lot of tips get shared through the employment committee. There's lots of listservs and I'm trying to think about whether any of them -- NFBnet.org is a great resource for all of our listservs. And there are a lot of discussion topics on those listservs, including about technology and both blindness and low vision technology. I would start there, but I would think I would start with your affiliate and connecting with the employment committee.

DANIELLE: Awesome.  Thank you, Chris.  It looks like we have one more question from Laura about the AI. How does President Riccobono benefit from us interacting with his AI?  Can he read the conversations that we have with it and how does it benefit us as members of the Federation?

MELISSA: So I would say yes.  Go ahead, Danielle.

DANIELLE: I think first and foremost, because it's cutting-edge and we want to be on that cutting edge.  We don't want to wait until AI is older and established.  We want to be on that cutting edge with the technology.
But go ahead, Melissa.

MELISSA: So to answer the first part.  He can read through conversations, and he does, and he has actually a team of people that read and help clarify things, help train the AI.  Not only do we want to be part of the cutting edge, but I think this could be a very interesting tool for the Museum of the Blind People Movement, that the National Federation of the Blind is hoping to build, and if we can get Mark AI up and running and we learn from that, could we get a Dr. Jernigan AI?  A Dr.  TenBroek AI?  Would it be interesting to have a conversation with some of our leaders who are long deceased and be able to use that?

Or people who visit the museum, it would be appropriate for them to have conversations with just normal everyday blind people about how they get different tasks done?  I don't know, but the possibilities are endless, possibly a little bit creepy, but also endless. I do have to say it kind of creeps me out, particularly when Mark AI actually talks in President Riccobono's voice, that kind of creeps me out.  It's a little bit out there for me. But it's very cool technology and so I would say that that's part of it.

If we don't play with it and we don't know what it can do or what it can't do or if people liked to interact or don't like to interact, it's a possible tool that might be helpful that we're just kind of leaving on the table.
This is how it will help us.  It will help us with accessibility, too, because blind people have the right to have their own personal AI and have it be accessible. And then, lastly, I would say President Riccobono is a people guy.

And he can't interact with every single person who's a member of the National Federation of the Blind and so this is sort of his way of opening it up just a little bit more and being able to interact with people and learning other people's stories and hearing from them about their lived experiences and that's really powerful.

So it's not really -- it's Mark AI but hopefully, it will really build into something more because we at the National Federation of the Blind want to be the experts on the lived experience of blind people, and so we need good AI also out there so that when people ask AI different questions about blindness, it doesn't come back with it's horrible, it's hopeless.

CHRIS: I was going to add to that.  It is about being a resource, and the more you're talking with Mark AI or with other AI's that we may build or whatever, we talked about those publications and all of those things are really important.  When blind people first come to the federation or a lot of people come to the federation, they have questions that they want answered, and while it's fine to say read the literature, it's also really important for people to get answers, and most of us are volunteers.

We're trying to network with as many people as we can, but we think and again, it's an open question. We're still working on it, but we think that AI can be a way for the public and for other blind people to connect with blind people, find out about our lived experiences, get our questions answered, get those -- and in a question-and-answer, in a chat format.

Let's say we could build an AI for Dr. TenBroek, one of my personal heroes, our founder?  He is long gone, and like Melissa said, it seems a little bit creepy maybe to have an AI of a person who is no longer with us.
But the library has, and ultimately, our museum, will have all of his papers, and I think a lot of them are available digitally online.

But the thing is you have to know how to search them.  What if we had a way to ask Dr. TenBroek what was the situation like for blind people in 1940? What are some of the details around the founding of the federation? There's just so many ways that I can imagine it being a resource. And, of course, we want to keep the institutional knowledge going.

And we want to make it as accessible to as many people as possible and counter all the bad information that might be out there or negative information that may be out there through other AI and other platforms about blindness and blind people.

DANIELLE: I think both of you really explained that really well.  Thank you for going into that.
It looks like we are caught up on shout-outs for a moment.  We've got 15 minutes left. Kendra did ask about the independent market on the website, and, you know, when it's going to be available and what's going on with it. So.

MELISSA: We all wish we knew!  (Laughs)

DANIELLE: Stay tuned.  That's all we can say.

MELISSA: It will happen.  We promise, and the reason that it is having trouble is because we want to make sure that it is absolutely fully accessible for both ends, not just for you that order, but also for our blind staff who has to fill those orders and print shipping labels and all of those things, and so it is taking longer, because I'm guessing that the software has not been accessible right out of the box, so we have had to either build different things of our own and/or talk to companies about making their own things accessible so it is coming and we promise it's coming and we know we say this all the time, but we are truly working on it and there might be announcements about that in the convention possibly the board meeting, even the presidential report.

I think Anil Lewis is over the market, so in his report possibly we might get something about that.
Stay tuned for that.  We share your frustration.

DANIELLE: And you think about Amazon, just an example of one of the big companies.  If we set that standard and have that expertise of we have end to end from order placement to order picking and packing and shipping down to an accessible format, we can also teach other companies how it's done.

CHRIS: That will lead to more unemployment for blind people potentially in those point of sales jobs.  I did want to say, I just found, this goes to a question earlier.  I was looking at NFB.org/convention, which is the best place to start for convention information. If you go to the virtual experience page, it looks like the contributor preview is already posted the recording and the transcript.

MELISSA: Not the sponsors yet?

CHRIS: I think the sponsors are up here, too.

MELISSA: Look at that!

CHRIS: The transcript, unfortunately, is not here.  That's still being worked on, but I think the recording is.
So the recordings, there's a link to them and there's a pass code for each one.  I expect what we're doing is just letting people access the Zoom recordings, and so what you'll have to do is get that pass code, and when you go to the link, you put in that pass code and you can listen to the recording.

And then, exhibitor preview, the transcript is up and for the sponsor preview, the transcript is coming soon.
I wanted to make sure everyone knew that, because it was a question that was asked earlier.
And we do think we're pretty close on the independence market, but we thought that before so that's why we're being a little bit cautious.

DANIELLE: What does the independence market sell?

CHRIS: A better question would be what it doesn’t sell, at least with respect to blindness.  In all seriousness, the main purpose of the independence market is to be kind of a first-line low tech resource for blind people to get some basic stuff that you need.  You can get canes, of course, you can get a free white cane from the federation, if you just want a straight fiberglass cane, you can get that for free.  You can order one as often as every six months. You can buy canes. You can buy -- somebody was talking about low vision stuff earlier.

You can buy some basic low vision aids.  Some Braille reading and writing supplies, and teaching supplies.
Bump dots for your kitchen appliances that have the irritating touch buttons that you can see.  Talking clocks, and watches, and Braille watches and all those kinds of kitchen aids.  Just all kinds of stuff that is mostly inexpensive but very useful.  Some things are a little bit more expensive like the talking thermostat, but it is very useful, and you can get that from us.

And some fun things like Braille games or tactile games or puzzles.  We're going to be selling, if we're not already, the new sensory cube from the Rubik's cube people, spin master, that's exciting. Some games and toys and stuff like that. And also some cool NFB apparel.  Shirts and jackets and different things that you can use to show your NFB pride.

MELISSA: Really nice coffee mugs!  Both a glass one and a really nice travel one that I like that's metal and keeps your stuff either hot or cold. We also have tools to write Braille and tools to teach Braille. And there was one other thing that I was thinking about, Chris, and now, I don't remember what it was. But yeah, Chris covered it, just lots of really great stuff. Digital recorders of different types.

Talking calculators, I think you've said.  I'm sorry, that's what I was thinking of.  Balls.  We have really nice balls with bells in them, basketballs with bells and different things and we also have this soccer ball that rattles, and it is -- it's my favorite.  If you are a blind parent or you have a blind child or you just like to kick a ball around or roll a ball around, I would really highly recommend the soccer ball.  It's really good and I don't know what they put in it, but it rattles really well.  If it's moving, it's making noise, and it's a pleasant noise, and it's very cool.

DANIELLE: Just a reminder on the independence market, the independence market is closed for convention, even though convention ends on the eighth, it is closed through the 12th ask that's because we bring our stock to convention and so we have to put our stock back and unpack it. So it will be reopening on Monday, July 15th, just for folks to know.

MELISSA: For those of you who are using the app because I just got a question from somebody who was actually having trouble logging in, and, of course, he won't hear this, but this is the answer that I gave him, if you're interesting any trouble with our NFB 24 app, the e-mail address for questions or for trouble shooting is [email protected].

So if you're having trouble with the app, a lot of this information is also on our convention web page, so I would just say go to NFB.org/convention.  There's a virtual experience page.  There should be all the links and everything else that you would possibly want to know and so hopefully, this individual having trouble would be able to join us for future shows. So there you go.

DANIELLE: Awesome.

CHRIS: Can I just say real quick, one thing that trips people up a lot with logging in to the app.
The way the app works, it works through our convention registration.

So when it's asking you for your e-mail address to log in, and then, it will send you an access code, when it's asking for your e-mail address, make sure you use the e-mail address that you used to register with.  That's how it's going to know and that's how it's going to send you your access code, because it's actually -- as I understand it, and I am not a tech person, as I understand it, it's pinging our registration, and that's how it's finding the e-mail addresses and that's how it's saying this person is registered for either the convention experience, or the virtual experience, and so I can send them an access code, and then they can access the app.

DANIELLE: Well, we have a couple of minutes left. So just I want to pass it to you to give some final remarks and that way we can close out our session.

MELISSA: Go ahead, Chris.  What are your final remarks for the people?  For the good of the order?

CHRIS: I was just going to say, I really like to always remind folks of our -- we've just done a brand refresh and one of the things I really like about the brand refresh is we've reiterated our brand values, and these were also part of the strategic plan.  I just want to remind people that those values, and those are the values we're trying to reflect in our movement and in our convention, is believe in blind people, dream big, foster inclusion, champion collective action, and oh, my gosh, I'm blanking on the fifth one.  I just saw it.
That's so embarrassing.

DANIELLE: That's okay.

MELISSA: It's live broadcasting, folks.  You do know that it's live.  It's not edited.

CHRIS: Hang on a second.

MELISSA: Is it coming?

CHRIS: I'm cheating, but it's coming.

MELISSA: This is something you can talk to Mark AI about, too.

CHRIS: Lead courageously!

MELISSA: Absolutely and Chris, let me just say it was very courageous of you to attempt to recite all of those brand values without a safety net, so congratulations on that.

CHRIS: And leading courageously includes learning from your mistakes. So you know, there you go.

DANIELLE: I just looked at the brand page.

CHRIS: NFB.org/brand.  There you go.  I just think that they're really powerful statements and I love that they're all two words now that are theoretically easier to remember.

MELISSA: What wisdom do I have?  I guess I would just say, and this goes back to feeling welcome.  I really hope that this preshow has helped all of you peel welcome to our convention.  We really do value you as members, as new members, as people who are just checking us out for the first time.

And we definitely value all of you and we realize that you can't always come to the convention itself, even if you want to, and I had an experience a couple of years ago.  I had to miss the New Orleans convention in 2022 and it was kind of a last-minute decision and I really needed to make a decision for my own helmet, and it was the right decision.  No question about it., but I was so glad I was able to have some interaction with people and I'm glad people who are at home this year for whatever reason, feel the love coming from all of us, because we really do care about you, and we really enjoy bringing this content to you. And for those of you who are just joining us, welcome, and as President Riccobono often says, welcome home.

We really hope that you will find a home here in the National Federation of the Blind and that you will get involved with your state affiliate and we need you.  We need all blind people, and that includes you and we need allies. So if you're a sighted ally, welcome. And we need you, too.

DANIELLE: Thanks so much everyone for being here with us.  Thank you again to our captioner, to our interpreter, to our Zoom host, Elyse, to those of you who joined us from across the world, and to you and Chris as well, Melissa.

We will be back online for the second virtual experience tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. convention time.
Thank you so much, everyone.

MELISSA: Thank you.

CHRIS: Thank you.