CONSUMER ADVOCACY AND ADVISORY
COMMITTEE FOR THE BLIND
Call
to Order and Invocation
Chairman, Tim Jones, called the meeting of the Consumer and
Advocacy Advisory Committee for the Blind to order at
Members not present: Linda
Lewis, Brian Lewis, Jim Shuart, Steve Walker, and
Jennifer Talbot.
Others Present: Debbie
Jackson, Francine Martin, Mary Flanagan, Pat Robbins, Angela McCants, Alan Casey, Les Seitz, Jim Boehm, and Carla Parker
Approval
of Minutes
Motion was made, seconded, and carried to approve the minutes
of
Report
of Entities
NLS
Director Kurt Cylke visited NCLBPH October 27. He met with all staff to talk about the NLS
plans for the new digital format. Mr.
Cylke also met with State Librarian Sandy Cooper to discuss
the impact of the new digital format on LBPHs.
Ms. Edna White, NCLBPH
patron, was presented a plaque by Mr. Cylke as the
first charter member of the new NLS 10-Squared club honoring centenarians
using NLS services across the country. Three
TV stations—channels 17, 22, and 14 taped and aired the event.
Ms. White and Mr. Cylke conducted a phone interview with a statewide radio station
network, and press releases were sent by DCR Public Relation’s officer Brenda Follmer to media across the state. We have had a down-east radio station contact
us as a result. Gary Ray will do a
radio interview in early December. The
station is geared toward older listeners.
Mr. Cylke also presented awards at the NCLBPH volunteer recognition
that evening and was honored by the Friends. A Seagrove pottery vase was presented to Mr.
Cylke for his more than 30 years of service to the network.
NLS is sending to media across the country monthly press releases on the progress towards digital book. The 2-page monthly informational sheet is called NLS FLASH. It is available on the NLS website, www.loc.gov/nls .
The annual volunteer
recognition ceremony was held in October.
119 volunteers contributed a combined 7,937 hours to LBPH in State
Fiscal Year 2003/2004.
The NCLBPH Circulation
Unit is down to 2 truck drivers in the 3.5 staff remaining in the 6.5 staff
unit that receives, inspects, shelves all incoming (1000-3000 items per day)
& pulls & checks out 2000 plus items per day. Brenda Lassiter will return to work part-time
Terry Jackson, Reader
Advisor, retired. We will be interviewing
for that position very soon.
These staffing situations
do slightly affect our ability to provide timely service. All staff have been
helping meet the needs in those units so adverse effects on service are minimized.
Please bear with us as all staff are working extra
duties to keep service as timely as possible.
We are deleting large
print titles from the NCLBPH catalog. Many
titles were still listed after all copies had been withdrawn or damaged over
the years. We are up to LT 6500 in
this process now.
All items prioritized
as Required, Essential, and Important in the LBPH budget request have been
approved for ordering.
New shelving has arrived. It has been installed in annex and will be installed
in the moveable shelving units soon. This
shelving should give us room for 9 years worth of growth.
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction—Tom Winton
54th Conference on Exceptional Children – The 54th Conference on Exceptional Children was
held on November 1-3 in Greensboro at the Koury
Convention Center. Among the 79 instructional
sessions, Maria Delgado of APH gave a web-based presentation on new APH technology
products and Julie Kagy and Peggy Holly of Wake
County Public Schools presented on using laptop computers with visually impaired
students. Estelle Condra presented to exceptional children directors and principals
from throughout the state and received a standing ovation. In all, more than 2,800 educators attended.
The 55th Conference is scheduled for November 7-9, 2005.
North Carolina Conference on Visual Impairments and Blindness – Planning is continuing
on the 3rd annual North Carolina Conference on Visual Impairments
and Blindness. This professional conference,
which brings together agency and education professionals from across the state
is scheduled for March 10-12, 2005. The Exceptional Children Division looks forward
to continue its involvement and sponsorship of this worthy conference.
It will likely contract with NCAER to sponsor a keynote address by
Dr. Abraham Nemeth, inventor of the Nemeth Braille Code.
Federal Quota Funds – As of December 10, 54 separate orders had been placed with APH in the Fiscal
Year 2004-05 to procure instructional materials with Quota Funds.
NCCU-VITP Advisory Board – The Consultant for Visually Impaired continues to serve
as co-chair with Dr. Deborah Hatton on the NCCU-VITP Advisory Board. The Board meets bi-monthly and is representative
of stakeholder schools, agencies, committees, and consumer groups.
The Board is currently working on strategies for student recruitment
and publicizing the VITP. Currently the Board is also addressing issues
of appropriate use of funds and positions for the VITP. The next meeting of the Board is Tuesday, December
14. It is hoped the program will see
increased administrative support with the firing of the Provost at NCCU.
It was believed this Provost caused many of the difficulties with resolving
tenure issues, completing contracts and filling faculty vacancies.
Registration of Legally Blind – The Annual Registration of Legally Blind students will begin
in early January. The Consultant for
Visually Impaired administers this annual registration. An official count of the registered students
with legal blindness will be available at the next C&A Advisory Committee
meeting in March 2005.
APH Educational Products Advisory Committee – The Consultant for Visually Impaired will serve as a member
of the APH Educational Products Advisory Committee for the next three years.
This Committee assists APH in continuous improvement to ensure that
the educational products APH develops are of high quality and relevance to
the needs of students with visual impairments and blindness.
The Director of GMS,
Judy Plymale, has taken a job with Wake County School
and they will be in the process of filling this vacancy. Cyndie Bennett will
be filling in the interim.
The General Assembly
returns in January. Expansion Budget
request has been submitted to include money for case service funds for people
in our ILR Program. It also includes
several new positions that will be used by both ILR as well as our Vocational
Rehabilitation (Employment Program). Positions
we have asked for are: 1) Assistive
Technology position; 2) support staff/clerical position; 3) deaf/blind position;
and 4) field-based computer training position. This request has been approved by the Department
and is now at the State Budget level.
DSB’s Charlotte District Office will still be moving; although,
it hasn’t been as quick as we had hoped. Space
requirements have been developed and bids will go out in January.
DSB’s Wilmington District Office may also
be moving.
Charlotte/Mecklenburg
School System--DSB has developed with the Charlotte/Mecklenburg School System
a Cooperative Agreement that will allow us to place 2 people in Charlotte/Mecklenburg
area to provide services specifically to transition age kids who are blind
and visually-impaired. Federal Rehabilitation
money is used and the Charlotte/Mecklenburg school system provides the non-federal
match. Two people have been hired for
these 2 positions.
The Durham County agreement
is still not in place. Agreement has
been signed but not returned. Until DSB receives the signed agreement, hiring
cannot take place.
DSB Funding—As in year’s
past, programs are running short. Program
Chiefs will report on how much money is needed to keep bills paid and services
continuing. Money from “Other Vending”
and “Social Security Reimbursement” will be moved into the programs as needed.
DSB Recruitment--DSB
will be focusing on improving our recruitment efforts. We have many staff members nearing the retirement
age. We need to hire people that we
can train and move into supervisory roles.
The difficulty is in the Rehabilitation Program. The Rehabilitation Services Administration has
a requirement that staff have a master’s degrees in Rehabilitation. The colleges and universities are not generating
as many people as the Rehabilitation agencies need and private employers can
pay more than government. DSB and
DVR will start an internship program. DSB will begin their paid internship program
in January (1 will begin in January for Asheville and possibly another in
February for Wilmington). We hope this
will be an ongoing effort so each semester we will be able to offer paid internships.
DSB had the opportunity
to participate in both consumer conferences—the Federation and the Council--and
the VIP Fishing Tournament. All were
very well attended.
There are 10,000 North
Carolinians in the Lions Club in NC and there are 400 clubs in NC. The State Council of the North Carolina Lions
established the Capsule Program for 2004-2005.
This program is requesting each Lions Club to contribute $50. These funds will be used for three purposes: 1) help furnish rooms for the new building at
Camp Dogwood; 2) sponsor one guide dog from Southeastern Guide Dogs; 3) establish
an diabetes educational program.
The VIP Fishing Tournament
was very successful with over 500 participants.
The Lions were able
to give the Radio Reading Program their full request for funding in November.
A new club in Charlotte
has been chartered with all of the members of that club being blind.
Also, a new club has been chartered in Fayetteville with all of its
members being Korean.
Representative Verla Insko—The Joint Legislative
Select Committee on Electronic Voting will be meeting on December 20 in Room
643 of the Legislative Office Building from 10 a.m. til
1 p.m. Anyone from the blindness community
is welcome to attend. The issue is
how North Carolina can have a voting system that the public is confident in
and meets the needs of various communities.
No
Report
The NC Council of the
Blind Convention was successful and well attended. The highlight of the convention was two educational
seminars—1) Diabetes and Blindness and 2) Telemarketing fraud.
The Council is now getting
ready for the legislative seminar in mid-February.
National Federation of the Blind—Hazel Staley
The National Federation
of the Blind had a very good State Convention in September. The agenda was timely and informative. Allen Harris, Director of Services for the Blind
in Iowa, was the national representative.
At our September meeting,
a report was made regarding science camps for junior and senior high school
students who are interested in science. These
meetings were held at the Research and Training Institute in Baltimore with
activity in the surround area. These
training sessions will become a permanent part of the summer agenda and will
not be called camps. These sessions
offer students a hands-on experience in lab work which is denied to them in
public school settings. NASA and other
organizations and colleges will lend personnel to assist with the training.
IDEA (Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act) was recently renewed by Congress. A section that the National Federation for the
Blind has been working on for a long time was included in the bill this time.
Beginning with the 2005-2006 school year, blind students will receive
books and materials at the same time their classmates receive theirs and in
the medium needed. The American Printing House for the Blind will
be the repository for these books and materials and will be responsible for
the distribution.
Chairman Tim Jones personally
thanked Ms. Staley, David Alexander, and Ron Eller for the advocacy they do
for blind people in North Carolina.
North Carolina Association
for the Education and Rehabilitation (AER)—Bill Apple
AER is an organization
for professionals in the area who work in the field of blindness.
AER is independent and not state agency connected.
Membership is approximately 100 people.
A website for NCAER is in the process of being developed.
Funds have been approved and a webmaster has been identified to develop
and maintain the site.
The NCAER is planning
for the upcoming “North Carolina Conference on Visual Impairments and Blindness”.
The 3rd annual North Carolina Conference on Visual Impairments
and Blindness will be March 10-12, 2005, and held on the campus of the Governor
Morehead School. Topics will center on assistive technology,
daily Living skills, literacy and recreation.
Dr. Abraham Nemeth, inventor of the Nemeth Braille Code, will hopefully
be the keynote speaker.
The average operator
income is above $36,000. In early 2005,
several blind vendors will attend the Sagebrush Convention and the Blast Convention
which are two national conferences where blind vendors across the country
meet together to share ideas.
The Statewide BE Conference
is the last week in February at the Hotel Europa
in Raleigh.
Discussion was held
that all consumer groups and representatives on the Consumer Advocacy and
Advisory Committee need to attend these meetings regularly.
Adjournment of
Meeting
With no further business,
a motion was made, seconded, and carried that the meeting be adjourned.
The meeting adjourned at 2 p.m. The
next meeting is scheduled for March, 11, 2005 at 1 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted
Tim Jones, Chairman
Consumer and Advocacy
and Advisory Committee for the Blind