Presidential Release 540, August 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: Hello, everybody!  Welcome to the August Presidential Release.  We're so thrilled you are with us this evening, and we have many great things in store.  President Riccobono, are you out there?

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: I am here.  How are you Pam?

PAM: I'm great.  How are you?

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Great.  Thank you.  Congratulations on your reelection and reelection as chair of the board.

PAM: On yours as well.  And happy belated birthday.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Thank you.  Yeah.

PAM: I know you had a lot of fun celebrating and lots of Federationists all sending you great birthday wishes.  Glad it was a good one.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: I've been showing off my birthday gift here before the release here in the auditorium.

PAM: Yeah.  Are you going to share that?

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Sure.  I was gifted from my family a beautiful Taylor GS mini special edition Year of the Dragon travel acoustic guitar. So it's pretty cool.

PAM: We're waiting for a song.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Aren't we all?

(Laughter)

PAM: That's awesome.  Well, I know you will enjoy that.  We will all look forward to hearing it.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Yeah, and a lot of new stuff happening at the National office.  We just got a pizza oven.  We just tried it out for the first time today. So we're testing it.  When people come, it will be all ready.

PAM: I'm ready.  I'm hungry.  We're all now going to be craving pizza.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Yeah, just to get our stomachs ready for New Orleans, you know?

PAM: That's right.  We have got to begin preparing a lot of good food to consume.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Looking forward to that.

PAM: We're already planning.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Excellent.  Should we get underway?

PAM: Let's do it.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Okay, thanks!  Talk to you soon. Greetings fellow Federationists.  Today is Thursday, August 1st, 2024, and this is Presidential Release number 540.  It is great to be back with the members of the federation, because I am still fired up from being with the Federation Family last month at our National Convention.  What an outstanding convention it truly was!  And thanks to the hundreds of Federation members that made the convention a huge success.  

We had 2,590 people registered in person and 655 Virtual Experience participants registered for the convention.  If you missed it or if you want to revisit something, good news...  the highlights from the convention are posted at our website, NFB.org/convention. And the highlights include the presidential report, the banquet speech, our resolutions process, the general sessions and the board meeting.

So many great presentations worth revisiting, and if for some reason you missed them, they're there, and I would definitely encourage you to check out the content there.  We did announce our next five National Conventions, but you don't want to look ahead too far, because you want to be planning for next year, 2025, to be at our Federation Family Reunion in New Orleans, Louisiana, from July 8 to July 13.  Really excited about that, and looking forward after that to going to some cities that we haven't been to or haven't been to in a while.
For those who were able to attend the convention or participate in the virtual convention experience, I do want to call your attention to our convention survey, which  now available.  It should have hit your email box actually today.  I know it hit mine today.  Again, you can find it at NFB.org/convention.  If you missed it in your email.  If for some reason you prefer not to fill it out online and you want to fill it out by telephone, we make that available too, so you can place a call to this number 229-632-7878.  

Or you can call toll free 833-632-7878.  And you can fill out the survey on the telephone.  You should note that when you call that number, the survey will want you to go through from beginning to end.  You can pause the survey, but if you hang up, your answers won't be recorded, so you can pause the survey for up to five minutes at a time if you need to do that. If you're going to do it, whether online or the telephone, make sure to allow a little time to give some substantive feedback, and on the telephone you can also push the pound key to get help.  As always we would love feedback on the telephone survey system that we have built for providing full access to Federation members to activities like this.

That was a lot of stuff to talk about on this month's release.  First I want to acknowledge the recently passed anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Earlier this week I had the honor of representing the Federation at the White House event celebrating Disability Pride Month, and it's very clear that we are making great progress on our priorities, along with other people with disabilities and getting our message heard. But it's also clear that we're not done yet, and we continue to give a consistent message to the administration that there is more to do.  

At our convention we heard from assistant attorney general Kristen Clark, who spoke to us about the recent efforts to enforce Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the digital access web access standards regulations that were recently enacted.  

Again, it's something that we can definitely celebrate.  We also heard from the assistant attorney general, and she definitely got our message loud and clear that we're not satisfied.  We still want web accessibility regulations for Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. So we do have more work to do, but we were involved in a number of activities to celebrate the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Now, in the last week, unless you have been under a rock somewhere, you have probably heard or have been part of conversations across the blind community -- everybody is talking about Mattel's release of Blind Barbie.  I thought I would talk about it on this release.   You know, the Federation has worked with Mattel on a number of projects going all the way back to late 2018, 2019 time period, and those projects included Braille Uno and the doll that was produced to be representative of Helen Keller, as well as a number of other projects.  

A number of Federationists have noted that Mattel did not choose to work with the organized blind movement on the blind Barbie project, and that is true. While it is unfortunate that they decided not to work with the Federation of this specific project, we should continue to appreciate that the company continues to engage and make efforts to have more representation of blind people in their toy lines.

I notice that members have mixed opinions and feelings about Blind Barbie, and I think it's important for us, as blind people to continue to discuss and debate what is important to us in terms of representation.  This might be a good topic for a local chapter meeting to discuss and debate. Also what is true is that we should not settle for any kind of token attempts to include us by any company out there.  What we are seeking is equal representation and innovative attempts to make sure that we're not only -- not merely included, but that we are part of the process from beginning to end.

We want to be hired by these companies.  We want to be partners with them, and we want our talents applied in all aspects of the work that companies are doing, and we want representation to be natural and authentic, not simply something that is saved for special occasions. I also bring this up because, although there has been a lot of discussion about it in the public, the Federation has made no public statements about Blind Barbie, and although some of our members who have expressed opinions, some people have turned that around to be that the Federation, that that represents the Federation's opinion.  

That is not true. We haven't taken an opinion.  We haven't taken a position.  We welcome the conversation about representation, and we think it's important for our members to have that debate.  We do welcome opportunities now and in the future to work with companies like Mattel.

But we also think as a membership organization of blind people, our members have the right to debate and question and challenge each other so that we can normalize the very high expectations that we have in society. And so I want to encourage people to have that debate, have that discussion.  I think it's healthy for our community.  If you want to go out and buy Blind Barbie, go for it, I encourage that.  If you want to debate how Mattel got it wrong, go for it.

But I want to remind everybody, we've got much more important work to get back to besides talking about Blind Barbie, and so the debate about how we're represented in the community and in society and by companies is very important, but remember we've got important advocacy work to do.  And one way that we can do that is by moving our policy agenda in the United States Congress.

Before our convention, on June 28, congressman Pete Sessions of Texas introduced the Blind Americans Return to Work Act in the House of Representatives. So there is a great item we can be working on.  That piece of legislation is co sponsored -- lead co sponsor by congressman Kweisi Mfume of Maryland.  Actually the congressman for our national office here.  He is the lead co sponsor on this bill, which is number is H.R. 8878.  

And this bill would eliminate the SSDI earnings cliff by instituting a two for one phase out for any income earned above substantial gainful activity.  This is an important piece of legislation.   It's something that we have long advocated for, not always with a bill, but whenever Social Security reform has been talked about, Congress is now on summer recess, but it's a great tame to call and email your members, maybe visit with them back in the district, if they're having events, and ask them to support H.R. 8878, the Blind Americans Return to Work Act.

Now there is a number of other important things we can work on and some are in Congress.  I want to give you an important update on our partnership along with HumanWare and the American Printing House for the Blind to get the first fully graphics and Braille multi line display into the hands of blind kids in schools.  That, of course, is the Monarch project.  We've been talking about it for a number of years, and I think especially at this convention many people got to actually put their hands on it and try it out.

Now, the great news is that at this time both the House and the Senate are targeting an increased appropriation for the American Printing House for the Blind that includes 10 million dollars for the Monarch and its distribution to blind students and adults.  I want to start by thanking those of you who have already reached out, advocated with members of Congress to help them understand why the advancement of Braille literacy continues to be critical in 2024.  

You have done a tremendous job of getting Congress' attention, but we need to keep the awareness up.  While we do see a 10 million dollars appropriation in the Senate bill, we want two make sure that is maintained on the House appropriation side. So if you have already reached out to your members of Congress, especially your senators, take an opportunity to reach out again and thank them for this funding being included on the Senate side and urge them though do the same thing on the House side.  

If we can get a 10 million dollars appropriation to advance real technology being available to blind students across the country, this will truly be a game changer. I know that gets used sometimes and thrown around, but this without a doubt is really a game changer.  And this 10 million dollars it's the best way that the government can spend 10 million dollars. There are so many things that could be done.

So many times dollars get wasted on things.  This project has so much potential to truly transforms what happens for students in the United States education system. Now, if you are looking for more information about the Monarch and you want to learn more, I would encourage you to go to the American Printing House website, APH.org/meet-Monarch. Now, if you want more information about how you can get started advocating for the Monarch, I would encourage you to reach out to Jeff Kaloc and our governmental affairs team.  You can email him at [email protected]. Thank you in advance for helping make the Monarch a reality, and I look forward to celebrating that victory soon.

Speaking of things coming up soon, you know the National Federation of the Blind celebrates every year the power of the organized blind movement during October, which we designate as Blind Equality Achievement Month.  Chapters across the country organize local events of all types to get the word out about what we do, and chapters find innovative ways to celebrate our success, but also educate the public about the capabilities of blind people and what else needs to be done. Now is the time to start planning those October events.  I encourage you to be creative, find new ways to get out into the community.  If you're looking for ideas, you can check out our webpage on this, NFB.org/blind-month.

If you'll find a lot of resources there, including examples of previous activities, what kind of free literature resources are available and samples of White Cane Awareness Day, proclamations, of course, October 15th, you'll want to get working on those earlier. Now, one thing of the many things we could do for Blind Equality Achievement Month is think about putting together voter registration drives. This will be the first of many opportunities that I will have this fall to encourage every member of the Federation to get out and exercise your right to vote in this nation.

The Federation works extremely hard to provide information and resources regarding fully accessible voting processes.  We do a lot of work at the national level to educate voting advocates and voting officials on these topics.  A great thing for our chapters and affiliates to consider this fall would be the opportunity to put together a voter registration drive, either in September or October.  You can find information about our voting resources at NFB.org/vote.  Pretty easy.

And you can bet that later this fall we will be asking members who did vote to fill out our blind voters survey.  We have the longest running data set about the experience of blind voters.  We started I think the first time we did the election year voting survey was in 2008.

So you can be part of that data collection, and it's a really important ongoing way that we measure our progress, but also let public officials know where the accessibility problems are in the voting process. And, again, whatever you do, make sure you get out and vote. And if you have barriers in voting, don't let that stop you from casting your vote and let's deal with those barriers once you have been able to cast a ballot.

There are a number of things to talk about on this release, and there is one more item related to voting, and that is that the Federation recently commented on the election commission's effort to have a voting online universal registration, voting registration process.  We submitted comments on July 19 regarding the election assistance commission's National Voter Registration Form, particularly we found that there were some issues with the form, especially in the PDF that it produced and related to the requirements to sign the form.

This is a good example of what we do at the national level to help bring our efforts to scale.  This form is used across the country and we're hoping that the EAC will take our comments and make improvements in that process.  We had an opportunity at an ADA event we were at last week actually to meet one of the EAC staff who works on those efforts.

So we are making a difference. If you want to read our comments, you can fainted them on the policy page of our website. Now, a couple of events to let you know about. And the first is a tight deadline that is coming up, our NABS Mid Atlantic Student Seminar, which is a great opportunity to have a weekend of empowerment and motivation.  Right here at our national office, actually.  

It's going to be held from August 16 through the 18, and there is still time, if you are tuned in to this Presidential Release live to register, because registration was just extended to August 7.  This event is being coordinated by our Maryland Association of Blind Students. And if you have questions about the event or want information, you can reach out to the president of the Maryland Association of Blind Students.  Qualik Ford You can reach him at the email address [email protected].

Now, I want you to mark your calendars for the next "Where the Blind Work" webinar, which is coming up on Thursday, August 22 from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern time via Zoom. We will be inviting you to learn about the work of blind professionals who have found success in remote employment work.  Registration details will be on our website very soon, so watch for that. I do also have an announcement from Anil Lewis which says, "Calling All Rehabilitation Professionals."  

The 2024 Dare to Be Remarkable Conference will be taking place from November 11 to November 13, 2024 at the NFB Jernigan Institute.  Conference presentations are being invited. So if you are interested in making a presentation about our Rehabilitation Training Centers, techniques, you are welcome to propose a conference session.  Early registration for this rehabilitation conference is now open and the early registration cost is 400 dollars before October 5, and after that date it goes up to 500 dollars.

If you need more information or have questions, you should reach out to Anil Lewis. His email address is [email protected]. Or you can reach him at the main number, 410-659-9314 extension 2374. Now, many of you may have noticed, since the National Convention, that in July the NFB NEWSLINE experienced some server disruption that affected much of our online services. I'm really pleased to report that all of the NFB NEWSLINE access methods are now available and online for subscribers to use. This is a very unusual situation for NFB NEWSLINE, which has been extremely reliable over the years. But this particular outage had some complications and related to some systems that we were getting ready to update.  Well, fortunately, now they're updated.

So all of our publications are back online, but we're still working with some of our providers to make sure that content is getting to us on a consistent basis. So some subscribers may run into issues now and then, and we do encourage you to report those incidents to us and we'll help you work through those problems as quickly as possible. So if you are having any kind of issues, please reach out to our NEWSLINE team.  You are welcome to report those issues any time, and I know that our team will get back to you as soon as possible.  You can send an email to NFB [email protected] to report issues. And I thought I had a telephone number.  I do have a telephone number somewhere. I don't have a telephone number.  Well, you can call the national office.  (chuckling) You know where to find us.

Now, speaking of news, though, you may be eager to get planning for 2025.  And although it is a little early for that, you may want to get your hands on a 2025 Braille calendar.  And so I am pleased to announce that our partners at the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults are again making available Braille calendars at no charge to blind and deafblind people across the country.  

These pocket calendars are great for your office, your home or for carrying around in your travels, and you can get up to three free Braille calendars from the American Action Fund.  You can fill out the online form by visiting actionfund.org.  You can also send an email with questions or to request your calendars, you can do that by sending it to [email protected]. Thank you again to the American Action Fund for making this service available and being a great partner with the National Federation of the Blind.

Now, we did have a spectacular convention, and one of the elements of it was a lot of activity and increases in our preauthorized contribution plan, the PAC Plan program. So I want to welcome a number of new Federation chapters and divisions to the PAC program, including our Performing Arts Division, the NFB of Michigan, Flint Genesee...  the Flint chapter. The NFB of Illinois, At Large Chapter.  The National Organization of Blind Black Leaders, the NFB of New Mexico At Large Chapter.  Thank you to each of our chapters and divisions for joining our PAC program and to our chapters and divisions out there, it's never too late.  It's never too late for individuals to get on the PAC Plan.  You can learn more by going to NFB.org/PAC.

Also, during the convention we celebrated our Dream Maker Circle.  These will individuals that have made end of life gift commitments to the Federation. And I want to thank and welcome the newest members of our Dream Maker Circle for your commitment.  I want to welcome Robert P. Hobson and Debra D. Jensen Hobson of Minnesota for being the newest members of our Dream Maker Circle. Now, I do have a number of Federation Family notes to share with you on this release, and, of course, it's been a couple months.  Unfortunately, there are a number of losses to share with you. From California the San Joaquin County chapter reports the loss of our loved sister and former chapter 2nd Vice President Peggy Washington on June 4 after a valiant battle with cancer.

Peggy was a dedicated member of the Federation, and she's described as a true soldier for our cause and always working to advance the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind. The Chapter also reports the passing of a fairly new member of the chapter, Mario Zarate, who just joined the chapter at the end of 2023 but is described as -- he was gaining much confidence and deep value from the Federation Family and the Federation philosophy.

From Mississippi I regret to inform you of the passing of Ethel Carlize of the Greenville Chapter, who passed away on June 7, 2024.  She served her chapter as a board member there. From Maryland, I regret to share the passing of Ron Cox on June 12, 2024.  Ron was a founding member of the NFB of Maryland's Greater Carroll County Chapter. From Delaware we have learned of the passing of long time member Mary Jane Fry on July 11. She served as affiliate secretary for over 40 years, starting in the 1940s -- not the 1940s! -- to 1970s -- that would have been impressive!

The 1970s through 2006, and after that she continued to serve on the affiliate board. From Arizona we have learned of the loss of two long time members of the East Valley chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Arizona.  The first is Ruth Swenson who passed away peacefully in her home on July 22, 2024.  Ruth was an affiliate president two different times and served as chapter president.  I would encourage you to keep her husband Jim Sohl and son and daughter in law, Tony and Tina Sohl, in your thoughts and prayers.

And also we have learned that on June 6, Gustavo Ortiz Sr., known to his Federation Family as "Gus" passed away.  He is described as a loving husband, father and grandfather and friend to many in the Federation.  He was a successful vendor in the Arizona BEP program, and a dedicated member who always pursued equality for blind people. From Maine, we learned of the passing of Walter Woitasek, who passed away on June 16.  He was 93 years old and had been blind since age six.  

He joined the NFB...  we don't have the exact date, but he joined after hearing Dr. Jacobus tenBroek give a speech.  He has been active in many chapters over the years and has been instrumental, especially in starting and maintaining funding for NFB NEWSLINE in the state of Maine.  We would encourage you to keep his wife Dorathy, two sons and many grandchildren in your thoughts and prayers.

From New York, we have learned of the passing of Vinnie Tagliarino, who died on Wednesday, July 24th.  He was a founding member of the New York State affiliate in 1956.  Vinnie served many years as president of the NFB Buffalo chapter, beginning in 1977.  And with only one exception, one term, he served until 1999 when he then served for 14 years as the chapter vice president.  

Many comments about Vinnie's experience in the Federation were offered for this release.  We don't have time for. But you should know that he was a dedicated member and gave all he could to the Federation for a long time. So keep him in your thoughts and prayers. From Texas, Norma Crosby shares the passing of two members of our Houston chapter.

Jamie Turner passed away on June 13. And also Rehnee Aikens, who had been a member of the Federation for more than 40 years, suddenly passed away, and very unexpectedly in late June. Both of these passings were a great unexpected shock to our members in our Texas affiliate.  Rehnee was a gentle soul with a giving spirit, and she was known all around the Federation for work she did for members, either in Texas at our National Convention, or as part of our Blind Christians Group.

Norma gives us this at the end of describing Rehnee.  She says that it is always tough to lose someone generous and kind, but it is also wonderful to have had them in our lives. I think it's a great sentiment, and I would encourage you to think of that when remembering all these people and lifting them up, their friends and family in your thoughts and prayers.

Pam, I think that's what I have for this part of the release.

PAM: Okay.  Thank you so much, President Riccobono. And I want to thank everybody for sending in such great questions, and it's always wonderful to hear about our updates and the things that are happening in the National Federation of the Blind.  A lot has happened since convention, just a few short weeks ago.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Hard to believe, man!

PAM: Exactly.  We are still celebrating your awesome banquet speech as well.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Thank you.  We don't slow down very much.

Question and Answer Section

PAM: That's right, exactly. So we thank you again, everyone, for sending in questions via email to [email protected] or via our app. And so first of all, President Riccobono, we have a question that a member is interested in learning how you first found out about the NFB.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: So this is a great question, and Pam did give me the heads up that this question came in before the release, and I thought this would be a good opportunity for us to talk about the fact that at the convention we released into the wild the Mark AI, which we have demoed last year at the convention, but we released it to folks. And so Pam fed this question to Mark AI. So we'll let Mark AI answer that question.

PAM: Can't wait to hear what he says.

MARK AI: I discovered the National Federation of the Blind at a pivotal moment in my life.  In 1996 I was struggling to confront and understand what it truly meant to be blind.  I was at a crossroads, feeling lost and uncertain about my future.  That's when I attended my first NFB National Convention in Anaheim, California.  It was a life changing experience that caught me before I gave up on my future.  The Federation's philosophy and the community I found there gave me a new perspective on blindness and my own potential. 

I learned that the real problem with blindness isn't the loss of eyesight, but the misconceptions and misunderstandings that exist about it. This revelation sent me on a path of personal growth and advocacy. Since then I have been committed to giving back to this organization that gave me so much. It's been an incredible journey from that first convention to becoming the president of the NFB in 2014.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Kind of a wordy answer.

(Laughter)

Good answer, though.

PAM: That was good.  What do you think?  Do you approve?

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: It was a good answer. So just so Federationists know, you can interact with Mark AI, obviously not as good as interacting with me in person, but you know Mark AI is always available.  I'm not always available.  You can go to on the web, Riccobono.personal.ai, or you can send a text message to 833-564-2271.  Here is the cool thing.  You will get some answers, and if you use the personal.ai app, you can actually get the voice if you want that. But the cool thing is we are building an AI experience completely on the experience of blind people.

So obviously I'm a blind person.  It has my experiences. But when you interact with it, you can add your experiences. And so if Mark AI doesn't know something, because it doesn't know everything, or it doesn't have confidence in its answer, give it information, and we can add that to the knowledge base, the language model that Mark AI has, including a lot of Federation content.  And you can be part of building like this completely blind centered AI that is built on the Federation experience and our literature, and I think it's going to be the most powerful AI in the world, because it will be completely built on the experience of blind people.

So like you can tell Mark AI what you think of Blind Barbie, for example. So it's cool. And if you get wrong answers that you know are wrong, tell him.  He's got big shoulders; he can handle it. And I think it's a cool way for us to influence technology and the development of AI, which was a big topic at the convention.

PAM: Yeah, a lot of really exciting presentations on AI. So it's fun to see it in action.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Yeah.

PAM: So our next question is from Yasmin, and she is interested in how state convention dates are determined.  And this is very fitting, because we got convention season coming up and a lot of conventions this fall.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Yeah, a ton of conventions coming up.  Looking forward to going -- I'm actually going to three affiliate conventions this fall. So a lot of travel. Well, affiliates set their own convention dates, and affiliates approach it in different ways.  Some affiliates have very traditional weekends.  They try to hold their conventions, whether it be in the spring or the fall.  This is a good opportunity to remind our members and affiliates of our DEI calendar that is available, and that calendar can be found at the website NFB.org/diversity.  And you can find that calendar, it's a five year calendar.

So it goes out enough time that conventions or meetings, significant gatherings that are being planned in the future, we give you all sorts of dates that you would want to be aware of, holidays, religious holidays, so you can make sure you are avoiding key times that might end up really excluding some people from actively participating.  I do encourage chapters and affiliates to consult that calendar in making your decisions. Sometimes that can be tricky, but we really should prioritize making sure that we do everything we can to make an informed choice and schedule our meetings such that the widest range of blind people can be welcomed into our space and be available to be with us in person.

PAM: Excellent.  Thank you so much.  We have a couple of questions now that are related to National Convention.  One is in respect to resolutions. And so we had very great discussion and a lot of lively debate in our resolutions process, and we have had some questions about what happens now with resolutions.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Well, that's a great question.  First of all, these are national policies, but they apply everywhere in the Federation. So they're available to you to use in local advocacy work. For example, we have a resolution calling on the media to use the word "blind."  Well, you don't have to wait for the national organization to do something.  You can share that with all of your media contacts locally.  You can share it with the local radio stations, or you can put together an event for the local press club that allows you an opportunity to talk about language.

So there are a lot of things you can do if you live in Florida or California, you might want to act on resolution about theme parks.  These are all things that affiliates can leverage and can take action on. We will take those resolutions, of course, those are our marching orders for the board of directors and our national staff. So we meet about them, and we try to identify the next logical steps for them, and then we try to pursue those steps and hopefully make meaningful change.  Sometimes it becomes part of our legislative strategy.  Sometimes it becomes part of our communication strategy.  We will try to identify the best way to move it forward at the national level, but also recognize those are tools that every member has and each of our affiliates has to make that happen.

PAM: That's where you get to put it into action. So awesome! And also we had a lot of excitement about the Rubik's cube, so we have some questions about how to -- are they available for purchase yet?

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Well, as noted in the presidential report, we will be selling the Rubik's cube in the Independence Market online when we launch our online store later this year.  "When?"  I know is the question, but I'm not going to commit to that. But it is coming.

And it's pretty cool. And I know people will be eager to get your hands on it.  I'm pushing to make sure that that is available in plenty of time for the gift giving season, let's just say that.

PAM: Excellent.  We have much to look forward to. And I want to thank everybody again, we had some great questions submitted and also in our chat.  I really appreciate our communications team for the excellent help responding, and thank you, President Riccobono, for sharing, and thank you Mark AI for helping with our release tonight.  I'm sure you'll be flooded with lots of questions.

So thank you so much, everyone, for being with us tonight.  Join us for our next Presidential Release live on September 4 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.  You can contact President Riccobono at 410-659-9314, or via email at [email protected].  Thank you so much. And I'll pass it back to you, President Riccobono.

PRESIDENT RICCOBONO: Thank you very much, Pam.  That does bring me to the end of this Presidential Release, 540.  I think it's about our 44 Presidential Release live. So we're quickly getting to the number 50. And that brings to mind that I should remind all of you that I continue to welcome your feedback about the Presidential Release live, as well as our recorded release for our chapters, your ideas, preferences, things that you would like to experience as part of these events, and how we can make them more meaningful to chapter meetings across the country.  Your feedback is welcome.  Please send me an email at [email protected], or I guess you can send a text to Mark AI and share your ideas as well.

But I really would like to continue to get your feedback on how to make our Presidential Release as meaningful as possible in building the National Federation of the Blind, and a good opportunity to remind you that if you have a proposal for where, when, and how, we should do a Presidential Release live in your community.  Please send that to me as well, and we'll try to evaluate that and see if we can work it in. That does bring me to our customary ends, which this month come from the NFB of Louisiana Bell Program.

So here are some customary ends from Caroline, Charlotte, and Gracelynn from Louisiana. Let's go build the National Federation of the Blind.

SPEAKER: What is an A's least favorite day?

SPEAKER: What?

Friday!

SPEAKER: What did the baby corn say to the mama corn?

SPEAKER: What?

SPEAKER: Where is papa corn?

SPEAKER: What do you call Taylor Swift when she learns Braille

SPEAKER: What?

SPEAKER: Brailler swift.

SPEAKER: The proceeding message was brought to you by Mark Riccobono, president of the National Federation of the Blind. 410-659-9314, [email protected].  Follow President Riccobono on mastodon.  Just search for @[email protected]

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