MCB OFFICE NEWS

ACB CONVENTION: It looks like we are going to have a large number of MCB members going to the ACB Convention. We know of at least 75 people who will be going. There are 66 people who have applied for grants. Unless we have further cancellations, the amount of the grant will be $407.19. Those checks will be mailed in early June.

Please remember that if you are unable to attend the convention and have received a grant, you must return the funds by July 15, 2007. Failure to return the funds will result in the person not being eligible for a grant in the future until the money is repaid.

If you are planning to go to the ACB Convention and want to pre-register, don’t forget to get your pre-registrations in by June 20 in order to get the pre-registration prices.

Also, if you did not receive your pre-registration packet in the U. S. mail, those materials are available online by going to www.acb.org and going to the Registration link. It can all be downloaded. Of course, you still must send your pre-registration fee of $25.

ACB is having an auction at the Convention. They are asking both state and/or local affiliates to donate some item. The value of the item needs to be at least $25. Individuals may also donate items. It can be something for which our state is known. The auction item can be taken to the Convention with you, but they need to know what it is by June 15. I suspect many of you have some good ideas as to what MCB or your affiliate can donate. Let us here in the office know your ideas. MCB would like to donate something. Of course, the purpose is to raise money for ACB.

OFFICE: Tom, Sharon and I will be going to the ACB Convention. I will be out of the office starting with June 29 and will be out the entire first week of July. I plan to be back in the office on July 9. Sandi will be here while I am gone.

SCHOLARSHIPS: The Scholarship Committee received a total of nine applications. Six were approved. The others either did not supply the supporting documents or complete the applications. Those checks have been mailed with a letter of congratulations to the recipients.p> BUILDING USE: One of our affiliates will begin holding their monthly meetings in the MCB building in June. The St. Louis Council of the Blind has outgrown the space they have been using at the Cheshire Inn. Their meetings are held the last Sunday afternoon of the month at three o’clock.

Of course, RITE has been meeting at the MCB building for some time now. They meet on the first Friday night of each month.

Tom planted impatiens over the Memorial Day weekend in front of our building. There is a space in front of a large window in the front of the building that makes a perfect flower bed. To give you some idea of the size of the space, he planted 24 plants. They are all different colors, and Sandi says they are beautiful.

It was found that there was a leak in the roof of our building. The Building Committee decided to call the company who had put the new roof on soon after the building was bought. The discovery of this leak cost MCB $11,200. Just kidding. The leak did not cost that much; however, it appeared that when the roof was replaced, the roofer had not billed us and, consequently, MCB had never paid for the roof. Of course, we have now paid the roofing company.

BRAILLE CHALLENGE: The Youth Services of MCB assisted a ten-year old girl who is blind and her family from Joplin to attend the Braille Challenge in California.

BLIND PENSION LAWSUIT: Our attorneys received a letter from the Judge asking that the attorneys for both sides come up with several dates when they could go back to Jefferson City for the closing arguments. She identified three issues that she wanted them to address. I received a phone call from our attorney on May 30 letting me know of the date set for the closing arguments. It will be July 11 at 9:30 a.m. in the Cole County Courthouse.

CHRONICLE: Thanks to Janelle Edwards for stepping in and doing the June issue of the Chronicle. The various formats are in the hands of the respective producers.

Our email list for the Chronicle is growing. We now have nearly 60 people receiving the Chronicle by email. Of course, sending it by email saves the MCB money; however, we do want our readers to have it in their preferred reading format.

Bill Benson has turned the corner and is steadily improving. Jo-An tells us that when he was in the rehab center they had him playing the piano for them.

KATHEY: Kathey hopes to be able to go to the ACB Convention. She will be in a wheelchair and they will be taking a nurse with them. How’s that for determination?!

Their son is also getting married on June 23 in Independence. Of course, she hopes to attend the wedding.

TRANSPORTATION: Metro (the public transportation for the metropolitan St. Louis area) held three public forums for the purpose of updating riders on what improvements have been made with the fixed bus routes of Metro, the Metrolink and Call-a-Ride. (Call-a-Ride is the paratransit service of Metro.) These improvements are being made in an effort to become more ADA compliant. I attended one of the meetings. Unfortunately, I was the only blind person at that meeting. The people in wheelchairs were very well represented.

MISSOURI LEGISLATION: A number of the issues that MCB advocated for were passed. They are now at the Governor’s for signing. The Legislature appropriated funds for one more Blind Skills Specialist in addition to the five we have. That makes a total of six Specialists, so we still need three more in order for all nine regional districts in the state to be covered. These appropriations have been a long time coming since the legislation was passed in 1999.

Another issue was the vision screening for children in Missouri entering kindergarten or first grade. This was also one of our issues last year, but it didn’t pass. I know we are pleased that the Legislature finally realized the importance of an eye exam for young children.

Another item of legislation that a number of people are interested in is the captioning of all electronic materials used in grades K. through 12. That, too, has gone to the Governor for signing. This will be of most value to students who are deaf/hard of hearing.

Many of you may already know that the Legislature approved an appropriation in the Department of Social Services budget for an increase of $34 a month in the Blind Pension monthly payments, bringing the monthly grant to $575. Assuming the Governor will sign it, it will be effective in July.

A bill which did not pass was the one having to do with publishers providing text books electronically in a timely manner for students. I don’t know the reason why this did not pass. At least some of us know how long we had to wait for text books to be put in a format we could access when we were in college. Now, of course, with mainstreaming this applies to students in grade school and high school.

NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF GOVERNOR’S COUNCIL ON DISABILITIES: Some of you may recall that Chip posted on the Missouri-l list that there is a new executive director of the Governor’s Council on Disabilities. She is Linda Baker. I am somewhat acquainted with Linda as we attended the Leadership Forums together. Linda is hearing-impaired. The previous executive director, Rob Honan was also hearing-impaired.

HEALTH-WISE: I am giving you the following information as I believe it could be helpful to some of our members. In March of this year I was diagnosed as being diabetic. Our doctor’s office has a diabetes educator who gave me one of the Free Style meters. It does not talk, so I could not do my own blood sugar checks. I was dependent on Tom to do them for me. I wanted to be more independent, so I called a place here in St. Louis called Medical West. They have all kinds of medical supplies. They have the Prodigy glucometer which does talk. I find it very easy to use and I can do it independently.

I had read about the Prodigy meter in one of the publications I receive, but didn’t know if it would work any better for me than the one I was given.

Oh yes, Medicare will also pay for the meter, the lancets and the strips. Maxi Aids also has them.

Something else I learned is that lancets and strips for one meter are not interchangeable with another meter.

ADAPTIVE TECHNOLOGY MATCHING GRANTS: In speaking with Franklin Johnson, chairman of Adaptive Technology Matching Grants, I learned that he has exhausted the funds for matching grants. No more funds will be available until September (the beginning of our new fiscal year).

When I began this writing, I didn’t think I would have much to write about. Until next time....