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March 2006
The month of February was an extremely busy one for us in the office. There were legislative materials to prepare; room reservations for Legislative Days to organize; summer camp packets to prepare and mail; checks to process and write; and the membership list to update and send to ACB. All of that mingled with a myriad of phone calls kept us very busy. Mary completed the update of the membership list by March 1 and sent it by e-mail to ACB. Our deadline was March 15.
Speaking of our many phone calls, numerous ones of you have called inquiring about reimbursement checks. Mary processes the checks as the expense forms come in. A part of that process is having the expense forms approved for payment. After they are approved, the checks written and copies of the check and supporting material copied, they must be signed by the treasurer. Mary does an excellent job with this very important task. We just ask for your patience.
Along those same lines, it is important that I call your attention to the fact that more care needs to be taken when completing expense forms. When there is a train ticket or cab fare, the ticket stub and/or receipt need to be included with the expense form. It is time-consuming for Mary to “wade” through multiple scraps of paper which have no relevance to the expense form. You can help Mary use her time more efficiently if you send the information requested.
You will be interested to know that MCB has 710 members. Of that there are 56 members-at-large. There are eleven members who have lifetime memberships.
In the February Office News I mentioned that bids were being gotten for the parking lot signs. Well, the signs are now installed.
You will recall that updated membership lists and grant requests for 2006 had to be received in the MCB office by February 1. We have one regular affiliate and two special interest groups which have not sent their grant requests for 2006. They are: United Workers for the Blind, and the Braille Revival League and Randolph-Sheppard Vendors. Letters have been sent to the presidents of these affiliates. We also need a statement telling how the 2005 grant was used.
Checks will not be sent until such time as the grant reports and requests are received.
I attended the Leadership Forum meeting which was attended by Pat Hall and a Metro vice-president, Ray Friem. Over the years people with disabilities have had a number of problems with Metro and more specifically with Call-a-Ride. A point made by Mr. Friem was interesting to me and at the same time disturbing. He said they are looking at ways they can improve Metro and Call-a-Ride services for the present; however, he is looking for ways to eliminate services on the weekends and drastically reduce night time services in 2007 due to lack of funding.
I have been asked to speak to members of the Service Club on March 15 regarding the MCB and the blind pension. John Weidlich will talk about Mind’s Eye and Steve Schnelle will provide some entertainment with his singing.
The MCB Spring Board meeting will be held at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Jefferson City April 7-8. Some of our members will be going from the Board meeting to Columbia, Missouri for the Power-Up Conference. The Board, at its November Board meeting, voted to be a sponsor of the Conference and to have a table.
The MCB office will be closed on April 14 in observance of Good Friday.
Applications for the ACB Convention grants will be mailed to affiliate presidents and members-at-large near the end of March. The deadline this year will be May 15, 2006. The dates for the ACB Convention are July 8-15 and the location is The Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida.
On a sad note I learned that Alice Miller, mother of Dennis Miller, died on March 1 from cancer. Alice and Dennis were members of MCB for a number of years. We do extend our condolences to Dennis and other family members.
Also, Marie Thompson lost a brother right about the same time. He lived in Texas. Our sympathy also goes to this family during their time of grief.
MCB had an unfortunate thing to happen last week. It seems as though someone had placed some false information in the voicemail of The Suburban Journal. The message was that the Missouri Council of the Blind provided, free of charge, a viewer that would enable people with macular degeneration to read. Without bothering to verify the information, this information was printed in the Journal and, as you might imagine, our office received constant phone calls for about three hours. I did phone the managing editor of the Journal and asked that they print a retraction. They did but in a very obscure place.
There appears to be a certain nucleus of the blind here in St. Louis who enjoys playing bingo. Harmony Lions held another bingo here in our building on March 4 and 28 people were in attendance.
Mind’s Eye continues to hold their Board meetings in our building.
Do you have in mind that special person whom you would like to nominate for one of the MCB awards? Those nominations need to be sent to the MCB office or to Kathey Wheeler prior to the Board meeting. With the exception of the President’s Award all award recipients are selected by the Executive Committee of the Board in a closed session.
I have had several folks this month who were in need of counseling. There is an individual who is blind and is facing homelessness. I have worked with them to explore their options and making contacts with other agencies that could possibly be of assistance to them.
Then an elderly woman called who is legally blind and who has called before. She feels that some one is coming into her apartment and stealing things. I did tell her to talk to the apartment manager and the police. Since there was not much I could do to help in this situation, I just listened and she was appreciative of that.
Finally, a 55-year old man had surgery. He is diabetic and during the surgery he lost his sight. His friend called asking how she could best help him. I referred her to the Older Adult Blind program with RSB.
One cannot begin to guess what types of phone calls will be received in our office. I received a call from a man who identified himself as being with the Dale Carnegie Institute. He was looking for some one to Braille a manual which they will be using in some classes. Since it was going to be an ongoing task, I told him I was afraid I didn’t have the time to do this on an ongoing basis, so I referred him to Midwest Braille Volunteers.
In closing I’ll share an amusing little anecdote which happened here in the office. The phone rang and the caller asked if we still picked up for the thrift store to which she was told we did. In order to give her the correct pick up number, Tom asked her where she was to which she replied, “I’m here at home”. Then realizing what she had done she said, “I’m in Springfield”.
Be sure to let me know if we in the office can be of assistance to you or your affiliate.
Beverly Armstrong
Executive Director
Missouri Council of the Blind
(314) 832-7172
ExecDir@MoBlind.org
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