Presidential Release 538, May 2024 Full 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.
 
PAM ALLEN:  Good evening, everyone!  Hello and welcome to our May Presidential Release live.  Thank you so much for being with us tonight.  It's always great to come together. We want to say a special hello to everyone who is joining us for the first time this evening. It is now my pleasure to introduce President Riccobono for his remarks tonight. Hello, President Riccobono.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Good evening, Pam.  How are you?

PAM ALLEN:  I'm great.  How's it going in Baltimore?

MARK RICCOBONO:  It's going great.  Seems like I just saw you here.

PAM ALLEN:  I know.

MARK RICCOBONO:  We had the meeting of our scholarship committee and also our center directors were here for a meeting, and looking forward to unveiling our 2024 scholarship class very soon.

PAM ALLEN:  That's exciting.

MARK RICCOBONO:  No spoilers.  It's not coming up on this release, but it is coming up soon.  We'll get a chance to meet them all at the convention.  Difficult work by the committee.
How's the weather in Louisiana?

PAM ALLEN:  It's beautiful.  It's in the 80s here.  Feels like summer.  How about there?

MARK RICCOBONO:  It's very warm.  Very warm.

PAM ALLEN:  But beautiful.  We are definitely enjoying the sunshine.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Absolutely.  Yeah. Getting ready for the big Kentucky Derby this weekend.

PAM ALLEN:  I know!  It seems like April flew by and here we are in May.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Yeah, don't remind me.

[Laughter]

All right.  We got a lot of great stuff to talk about so we should probably get underway.

PAM ALLEN:  All right.  Let's do it.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Okay. Greetings, fellow Federationists.  Today is Wednesday, May 1st, 2024, and this is Presidential Release 538.  We are 2 months away from the national convention 2024 in Orlando, Florida.  Hard to believe it's that close, but it is coming up fast.  We're going to be talking about that on this release, about you a lot of our efforts are focused in that direction as we come into the month of May. We also will be celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day later this month.  We still have a number of spring convention underway, and many other activities across the Federation to talk to you about on this release.

The first thing to talk to but is voting!  We are in the midst of primary voting season.  Some of you have already voted in the primaries, but many of us still have to.  And of course we do have a presidential election coming up this November in case you've been under a rock. If you are a registered voter, you do have the legal right to cast your ballot privately and independently.  And we want to support that for blind people by making sure that we report the barriers that blind people face in the voting process all across this country.

If you have encountered an instance where you were not able to vote accessibly, to cast a private and independent ballot in a primary election, whether you were voting in person or by one of the remote means, mail-in ballot, electronic ballot, whatever it is, we encourage you to do two things:  First of all, we want all of you to report your incident to the United States Department of Justice.  To do that, you can send an email to [email protected].  If you need to call them, you can do so by calling 800-253-3931.

And we also want you to notify the Federation about your incident so we can help track that and coordinate that across the country. Easiest way is if you're sending an email, please just copy Jeff Kaloc, who is one of our governmental affairs specialists.  You can email Jeff by sending an email to [email protected]. You can also reach Jeff here at the national office.  We want to advance the great work we've been doing especially in the last five years in accessibility in voting in the country.
So get out there and vote in your primary election.

(No audio).

Can you hear me now?  What's the last thing you heard me say?

PAM ALLEN:  The last thing I heard you say was reading the contact information.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Did you hear Jeff's information?

PAM ALLEN:  Yes.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Okay.  Great.  You know, it's been a while since we've had a technical hiccup, so this is cool.  Get them all out of the way before the convention. So I mentioned the national convention, and we need to focus on that with this release.  We do have a number of things to talk to you about related to the convention.  Of course I think everybody knows by now that everything convention can be found at NFB.org/convention.

About the hotel.  Several nights have already been sold out at the headquarters hotel, the Rosen Centre. Those nights sold out already are July 2, 5, and 6. That's good news because it indicates very strong participation in the convention.  The Rosen Centre has another room block that's contracted to another group, and so they've done absolutely everything they can to get us as many rooms as possible.  It's not likely but maybe some more will free up at the Rosen Centre. But you should consider now if you want to book on some of those nights to go to one of the overflow hotels.  We have two of them.  They're also great properties.  One is the Rosen Plaza, which you can reach at 800-627-8258.  The other is the Rosen Shingle Creek, which is a little farther away, but great hotel.  We've met there a number of times.  The number there is 866-996-6338.

The 129 dollar and 139 dollar room rates remain in place at both overflow hotels.  And we will be arranging shuttles from those properties to get to the Rosen Centre. It's a great problem to have that our room block is filling up fast.  So if you're planning to come to convention, I definitely encourage you to get on getting a room as soon as possible. Now, if you book nights at, say, one of those other Rosen properties and move over to the Rosen Centre because you can get a room later in the convention, you should know that moving your reservation from one property to another does not trigger a cancelation fee.  Some people have been told that's true.  So don't believe it.  If you are getting our convention rate, you should be able to with no problem transfer your reservation between hotels if you decide that maybe you want to be at the overflow hotel to free up a room at the main hotel. You can also do that.

So I do encourage you to make your plans as soon as possible. If you want to find the convention information on the convention page, you can choose the "planning for the trip" link.  That will give you all of the information about all of our hotels and making plans to be with us in Orlando. On the last release, I mentioned needing convention ambassadors.  Again, our convention runs because of the efforts of literally hundreds of volunteers.  Our members making sure the convention runs smoothly.  And our convention ambassadors are a big, big part of that effort. If you are willing to give some of your time at the convention to help be a convention ambassador, you know who those people are, they help make sure the lines keep moving, they help make sure people find rooms effectively and know where various things are, and you can ask them questions.  We need you to sign up at the website.  Again, the convention website, NFB.org/convention

There's a simple form there to express your interest in being an ambassador.  And we will be appointing ambassadors later in the next few weeks.  And this form asks you for some information so that our cochairs of the ambassadors committee can make sure to assign you to the right places and know how to communicate with you. If you have questions about what does it mean to be a convention ambassador or any related item, send an email to [email protected]. That's because one of our cochairs is Corbb O'Connor of Minnesota.  Another is Dan Burke of our Colorado chapter.

The next announcement comes from Donald Porterfield, Chairman of our 2024 resolutions committee.  The resolutions committee is currently accepting proposed resolutions for this year's convention.  Resolutions are considered by the convention, and if adopted, become official policy statements of the Federation.  So consequently, they are very important.

Proposed resolutions should be emailed to the committee at this email address:  [email protected].  The deadline to submit a resolution one month from now is Tuesday, June 4, at midnight Eastern Time.  Resolutions of course should be submitted in final form whenever possible, and I'll note that the Chairman I know is happy to work with anybody interested in submitting a resolution, talking about a resolution, [email protected] the best way to get at Donald Porterfield.

One of the important parts of our convention that I think makes a big difference to blind people is our career fair activities.  On Wednesday, July 3, from 1:00-4:00 p.m. Eastern Time, the career fair is scheduled.  And this is an event for blind people seeking jobs to connect with employers who want to hire talented individuals to perform all variety of jobs in their corporations. Registration is now open and is required by our employment committee to either be job seeker or an employer who might want to participate in our career fair activities.
Now, the deadline for this registration is Friday, May 31, just like convention registration.  But this is a separate registration form.  So you want to go to the convention page and find that because your general registration for convention will not cover it, although there are ways to express interest there.

So visit our convention page, find the links either for registering for the job fair or to register as an employer.  And you can prepare for your job seeking activities by being part of a seminar being held by the employment committee called "Elevating your Career Fair Experience," an online seminar designed to provide tips and techniques for creating the most positive experience while attending the fair. Members will be automatically notified about this event when you register for the convention career fair.

Our employment committee does a great job year round of connecting people, but this activity at the convention is one of the most powerful. We do have cochairs for the employment committee.  For information on the career fair or the webinar, you can reach out to our cochair Lia Stone from New Jersey. She's our liaison for the employers. And her email address is [email protected]. You can also reach out to co-chair Jennifer Wenzel.  She is working closely with the job seekers side of things.  So if you're a job seeker and you have questions, you can email [email protected]. Thank you again to our employment committee for doing a great job.

Now, this is a really exciting announcement related to convention.  In the past years of course, we have to raise money to do the work that we do, and we've had a number of fun and interesting contests related to fundraising around the convention.  Here is a new one allowing us to dream a little bigger for 2024.

SPEAKER:  Make a difference with the National Federation of the Blind's Dream Big Give 25 Drive.  Each year thousands contribute to support blind people, but we still need your help.  When you give 25 dollar or month between May 16 and July 6, you're entered into the Dream Big Give 25 Drive drawing.  Each 25 dollar contribution is a chance to win.  Why dream big?  Because blindness doesn't hold you back.  You can win prizes like round trip transportation for two to the 2025 national convention, hotel accommodations, registration, banquet tickets, or 2,000 dollars cash.  Thanks to our partners, you could also win a Monarch.  New this year, friends and family can donate in your name and support your entries. You can choose which fund to donate to when you donate.  Visit www.NFB.org/give25donate.  Call 410-659-9314 extension 2430 or send a check to National Federation of the Blind and mention give 25 and the fund in the memo. The winner will be announced July 8, 2024. Thank you for your generosity.

MARK RICCOBONO:  In case you missed it, for our campaign this year, if you give, you can Dream Big Give 25 and you could win a Monarch, the most dynamic tactile Braille and graphics device on the market.  That is a 20,000 dollar premium for making a contribution to help the National Federation of the Blind do the work that we do as an organization.  I want to thank our friends at the American Printing House for the Blind and HumanWare for very generously participating in this.  You could be one of the first people anywhere in the United States to own this dynamic device, and at the same time help the National Federation of the Blind. So please, promote our Dream Big Give 25 Drive, and get yourself entered into a chance to win a Monarch or a chance at our 2025 convention somewhere in the United States next year. I want to correct Lia Stone's email address from earlier.  It's [email protected].

As if one announcement wasn't exciting enough, I have another one.  You may not recognize that this is the 50th anniversary of the most popular puzzle toy in the world.  That's the Rubik's Cube.  The number of potential moves to solve a Rubik's Cube are really impressive.  They say that it's 43 quintillion, not a word you say every day, possible moves to solve this puzzle.  And today I am really pleased to announce that the National Federation of the Blind has partnered with Spin Master, a leading global kids' entertainment company and the owner of the Rubik's Cube brand to include nonvisual elements to the classic cube to engage the blind community in this puzzle.

Now, we know that there have long been blind people who have solved the Rubik's Cube as it has existed. We know that there's been knock off versions of the Rubik's Cube that have had tactile features.  In fact, we've sometimes solve one of those knock offs in our Independence Market. But it's really great that for the first time the Rubik's brand is embracing this idea.

You know, some might say, well, why care about Rubik's, it's just another flat surface.  And so a lot of blind people have never tried to solve this puzzle and never engaged with it.  And because of our work together, Rubik's has now created the Rubik's sensory cube which reimagines the classic Rubik's Cube by including nonvisual tactile elements.  In fact, I have it right here.  I'm going to hold it up for the camera.  This is actually in the packaging, and as part of our members working with Spin Master, this packaging also includes Braille on the front and on the back is a little tactile square where there's a QR code so you could get more information. But most importantly, and I have the actual cube here, is the cube that has squares and circles and filled in circles and dots.  A real tactile experience. And it's not a knock off.  It's a real Rubik's Cube, which is really cool.

This will soon be available in our Independence Market and through other sources, and it's really significant that Spin Master has worked with us for this 50th anniversary to solve this most popular puzzle toy.  It's a great example of inclusion. We're excited you will be able to get this in our Independence Market soon.  We have sold the knock offs before.  This will be sold at the retail price which is significantly cheaper than the knock off version, and it's the real deal. So as part of this, we would like to hear from blind people out there who are already fans of the Rubik's Cube, even if you're what they call a speed cuber. We would like to hear from you.  Please reach out to our communications group by sending an email to [email protected].  We would love to connect with you and include you in some of our fun work to promote this partnership.

It's not just that this is a cool toy.  It's the power of working with our partners to reimagine ways to more fully include blind people in all aspects of the world, whether it's art or entertainment, toys or work, it's all important and we really appreciate the opportunity to partner with folks like Spin Master to get this done. Okay. That was a lot of exciting announcements.  But this one is also pretty exciting.  I'm just full of them this evening. And this relates to our Museum of the Blind People's Movement effort. I want you to know that recently the Museum of the Blind People's Movement was awarded two important government awards. The first is from the federal government in the form of congressionally directed spending.  And that was in the amount of 301,000 dollars.

The second was from the state of Maryland in the form of a legislative bond initiative in the amount of 250,000 dollars. These are two great steps closer to establishing the Museum of the Blind People's Movement.  Also represents some great advocacy on behalf of our members and staff.  And so I wanted to share that news with you here on the Presidential Release live.

Now, we're coming to the end of the college semester in many places. Our National Association of Blind Students will be hosting the Rocky Mountain seminar on Friday, May 17, starting at 5:00 p.m. and going through Sunday May 19, ending at 12:00 p.m. Mountain Time.  This seminar will be an immersive experience to work with other blind students, an opportunity to learn skills, build relationships, and also connect with blind students in order to elevate your career in whatever direction you want to go as a blind student.

Registration was recently extended until May 10. So I wanted to get it in on this live release so that members around the country can help promote this event. Please be sure to secure your spot by May 10th and make sure that you also get a room at the Denver Marriott South, which is the host hotel for this seminar.  You can learn more information by going to NABS.org.  It's actually NABSlink.org.  I know we're putting into the chat the correct URL for the form itself which is way complicated. But NABSlink.org if you want more information about this seminar, and you can direct questions to our student division if you have them.

I do want to remind Federationists that as we approach the convention, you should be thinking about our Pre-Authorized Contribution program and how you can get on the PAC plan if you're not already, or what you might be able to do to increase your PAC plan for the second half of this year.  So as convention approaches, whether you're participating virtually in the convention or in person, please consider what you can do under our PAC program. Our Dream Maker Circle is a way for people to make an end of life contribution to our Federation.  You don't have to be a member to be a part of the Dream Maker Circle.  I would like to welcome the newest members of our Dream Maker Circle, making the commitment, the first of those is Bernard Werwie and Pamela Lindenbeck Werwie from Virginia.  Thank you very much for making that commitment. And also would like to thank Dan Burke and Julie Deden of Littleton, Colorado, for being the newest members of our Dream Maker Circle.  For more information, please contact Patti Chang here at our national office at our main number or [email protected].

I do have a number of Federation family notes to share with you on this release.  I regret to share that from Mississippi, our Jackson chapter reports the passing of Sheila Brown on March 29.  She was a faithful member of Jackson and will be missed by many. From New York we received news that in early April William Messing passed away as a result of a heart attack.  He was a long time member of the NFB of New York, and he was active in the New York City chapter.

From Arizona, we received news that on Friday, April 5, 2024, NFB of Arizona Phoenix chapter member Emanuel Caddy (Manny) passed away.  The note here says that Manny was a proud veteran and an active member of the Federation for many years.  He was a staunch advocate for blind people and a true champion for the establishment of better, comprehensive transportation, something we all can appreciate.  So I would encourage you to keep these individuals in your thoughts and prayers.

Now, April 5 was a heavy day for the Federation because our Maryland affiliate reports the passing of Waltraut Staggs on April 5.  She and her daughter Laura are active members of the NFB of Maryland's Carroll County chapter.  And also on the same day we experienced the unexpected passing of Imani Graham, again also on April 5, from complications of pneumonia.  Imani was a founding member of the NFB of Maryland's TLC chapter and was also a great disability leader here in the state of Maryland running programs that had a great impact on blind people and others with disabilities.  So I would encourage you to keep all these individuals, their families, their friends, in your thoughts and prayers.

Fortunately we do have some happy Federation news.  Also from April 5! Jamie Richey, President of the NFB of Nebraska, reports that the newest member of the NFB of Nebraska was born on April 5.  And we would like to welcome Vien Ignatius Marsh, who was born to David and Rachna Marsh.  He weighed in at 4 pounds 9 ounces and was 16 inches long.  He was so excited to join his parents and make his way into the world that he arrived 6 weeks early, but all indications are that baby and mom are doing well. So I would like to welcome the newest member of the National Federation of the Blind. Pam, I think I'm going to stop there and pass it back to you.

PAM ALLEN:  Okay.  Excellent.  Thank you, President Riccobono.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Don't ask me to read any more email addresses.

PAM ALLEN:  Thank you.  We had a lot of exciting announcements tonight.  That's great.

MARK RICCOBONO:  I know.

PAM ALLEN:  I'm very excited about the Rubik's Cube.  That's going to be very awesome.

MARK RICCOBONO:  You have ever solved it?

PAM ALLEN:  I have.  It's been a while.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Really!

PAM ALLEN:  Yeah.  We had to.  We labeled it, my teacher labeled it with Braille labels.  After a lot of solving, the labels would stick.  So this is going to be a game changer.  Very exciting.

MARK RICCOBONO:  I think I only ever solved it by peeling off the print stickers.

PAM ALLEN:  Well, I'm about to share our poll results, and one of those is related to that. So our first question for our poll tonight was related to voting and if you plan to vote in a primary election this spring or summer.  And so over half of the people who responded have either already voted on an accessible voting machine or plan to vote on an accessible voting machine, so that's awesome.  And a lot of people also happy about voting accessibly via mail.  So our efforts are paying off.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Very nice.

PAM ALLEN:  So that's awesome. And to the question about Rubik's Cubes --

MARK RICCOBONO:  I know a lot of people were like, why are we asking that question!

PAM ALLEN:  Yeah, exactly. The overwhelming percentages were either people who wanted to try but couldn't because it wasn't accessible.  So this is a good time.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Nice.

PAM ALLEN:  A lot of purchasers. We did have some who said they solved it by taking it apart.

[Laughter]

But that was a lot of fun.  I think that brought back a lot of memories.  And some people were curious as to what it was, so wait till they find out.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Hopefully we'll have them at the convention.  Can't quite promise that.

PAM ALLEN:  That's one of the questions.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Oh, is it!  Okay.  Well, we hope, we hope.

PAM ALLEN:  The excitement is building. So a couple questions.  First of all, speaking of convention, we had a question about volunteering to work at the Independence Market.  Is that possible?  And how does that happen?

MARK RICCOBONO:  That is a great question, and yes, it is possible.  We are always looking for individuals to help work in the Independence Market.  It takes the effort of so many people to work in the Independence Market. If you send an email to [email protected], we'll make sure that that gets to the right person.  I don't think we have a generic email address to express interest otherwise in working in the market, but I would also say contact your affiliate President.  We've asked affiliate Presidents to recommend people for working in the market.
But if you want to help out at the convention, the answer is always going to be yes.

PAM ALLEN:  Yeah, that's a great place to be an ambassador, a great place to work and get involved and meet attendees from all over.  So that's great.

MARK RICCOBONO:  We might need people to show you how to, you know, spin a Rubik's Cube.

PAM ALLEN:  I was going to say, that's right, we'll need some experts. So we also had a question.  I know you addressed this already about shuttles from the overflow hotel, so that's been taken care of, but we have a question related to airport transportation and shuttles, if there's any information or is the NFB providing a shuttle or is that something individuals have to work out themselves from the airport.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Yeah, so we don't have any specific NFB shuttles.  So I would encourage you to work closely with folks in your affiliate, spread the word.  You can often find people that are on similar flights that you can coordinate with. Once in a while we do have special coupons and that sort of thing for various services.  You would find those on the convention page.  I don't think we have any at this point, but if something emerges, we will definitely share that information.  And again, always NFB.org/convention will give you the latest info about any special deals we work out, but I would just encourage you to link up with some other folks and find your way to the hotel.

PAM ALLEN:  This is probably a tough question, but asking you to share your favorite convention, national convention or state that you've been to.  That's kind of a tough one.

MARK RICCOBONO:  That is a tough one.  You know, I would say, well, convention is my favorite convention.  I mean, honestly, conventions are so different, and they're all special I think for different reasons.  You know, 2015, very special convention because of the world record, our 75th anniversary.  But 2014 was pretty special.  1996.  Heck, the '97 convention in New Orleans which was my first time in New Orleans.  I mean, I could think about any of our national conventions that I've been to are special for one reason or another.  And I think it's kind of a cop out answer, but they're all special for different reasons.  I think, you know, each one of them raises a different set of emotions and memories, and of course one of the things that really makes me say every convention is the constant sense of hope, warmth, and family that comes in the convention.  Both the mixture of people that I already know and I get to reconnect with, but then meeting new people and hearing their stories.  And then turning around 5 years later and noticing they're running affiliates or helping to do things around convention and their level of confidence is different.  It's just this great interactive experience. I would really hate to pick one, but I think I'm going to say my favorite convention is the next one.

PAM ALLEN:  I love that.  That is hard.  And I think people understand that's a hard question, because like you said, everyone is unique and has important pieces to it.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Yeah.  My favorite convention fit break, though, is still Homer Simpson and Pam Allen.

PAM ALLEN:  That was a lot of fun.

[Laughter]
Now we're switching gears a little bit from convention, you can see the excitement is building for convention.  Which is awesome.
This question is related to NFB-NEWSLINE.  We have someone who is interested in knowing how they secure their local paper to be included on NFB-NEWSLINE.

MARK RICCOBONO:  That is a great question.  What I would encourage you to do is reach out to our NEWSLINE group.  Scott White heads the NEWSLINE program here at our national office.  And Scott would be best positioned to talk with you about the paper, about the circumstances in your state, and strategize with you.  Because it's really, it depends on the state you're in and what kind of funding might be needed.  But then also the nature of the paper and some of the relationships. So I would reach out to our NEWSLINE group by writing to Scott White, [email protected], and Scott can coach you through that. Another thing would be to talk with your affiliate President who should have background on the local NEWSLINE program and might have some suggestions about what should happen locally.

PAM ALLEN:  Excellent.  Well, we are really grateful to everyone who sent in questions this evening, and also everyone who participated in our poll.  We appreciate that.  It's always great to share this time together and share questions and just prepare as we're especially preparing for the convention.

So thank you, everybody.  If we did not have a chance tonight to get to your question, please know that our outstanding communications team will be following up with you.  So thanks again so much for submitting.

Thank you for being with us tonight.  Join us for the next Presidential Release on Thursday, May 30th, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern via Zoom.  The Nation's Blind channel, or by asking your Amazon device to open nation's blind.  You can contact President Riccobono at (410)659-9314 or via email at [email protected]. Thank you so much for being with us tonight, and I will pass it back to you, President Riccobono.

MARK RICCOBONO:  Thank you very much, Pam.  And great to hear your voice again this evening.

PAM ALLEN:  Great to be together.

MARK RICCOBONO:  As I come to the end of this presidential release, I do want to take a moment to again thank members from across the country who extended sympathies to the Riccobono family.  Of course we recorded the last release the day that my dad passed away, and it's been so very heartwarming to have the outreach that's happened and have had the opportunity to have some real powerful conversations with members across the country in what's been a long month for the Riccobono family.  So I want to, again, express our interest.

And as we go into the month of May, I know that we have Mother's Day coming up.  So I want to say happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there and acknowledge that that's also a hard day for those among us who have lost their mom for whatever reason, and so acknowledge that as some are celebrating Mother's Day, it's a hard day for folks.  So be sure to reach out to them.
Many other great activities happening this month.  I always enjoy sharing the horse racing season with my mom, starting with the Kentucky Derby, which is happening on Saturday, which happens to be May 4th.  So let me say may the horse be with you.

And that brings me to some of the customary endings for this release.  And the first is:  What do you call a story about a run-away horse?

Well, that's a tale of whoa.

(Horse neighing).

Now, what do vampires like best about horse racing?  Well, when it's neck and neck of course.

Why are trees the worst frenemies?

Because they're pretty good at throwing shade.

Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind.