[Missouri-l] President's Report, September, 2009

[Denny Huff, (MCB - A Great Place To Be)]

Greetings to all!

 

            Thank you, thank you, thank you!  The feedback and response to
some of the things we are doing as an organization has been tremendous!
With a very few exceptions your responses has been very positive and
encouraging.  I truly believe that we are on the right track in making the
Missouri Council of the Blind the great organization it should be.  I want
to thank my officers, chairpersons, the office staff and many many other
members for making this possible.  We have all put in a lot of hours and
hard work to implement the ideas and suggestions we have received.  So
again, thanks to all of you.

 

            Boy, where has this year gone?  Here it is September already and
it seems as though I just began serving as your president.  Although we have
accomplished a lot since last November, we still have a long ways to go.
There are several things I would like to see done before our convention in
October but the primary item is to have someone in the office that can do
the job we need them to do.  Hopefully by the time of our pre-convention
board meeting in October the personnel committee will either have an
Executive Director or a Resource Developer to present to the board for
approval.  Without this person in the office to undertake the challenge of
organizing our fund raising events among the other responsibilities that
goes along with that job, we are pretty much at a standstill in what we can
do.  I wish I had the time to undertake some of the projects and job tasks
we want to do, but with a regular job and all of the responsibilities I have
as president, I simply don't have the time to take on any more.  I can't
stress on you enough how imperative it is to get somebody in the office to
begin working on what we need done.

 

            One of the projects we have taken on is establishing a strategic
plan.  The board has hired Kathleen Lee to assist us with this project.  By
the time you receive this edition of the Chronicle we hope to have that plan
completed and then will have it approved at our board meeting in October.

 

            For those of you that don't realize what a strategic plan is, it
is simply a well planned strategy of what MCB needs to do over the next few
years and how to implement that plan.

 

            If you are not aware of it, I have set up a president's phone
cast.  This is a phone line dedicated to keep you informed on what is going
on within MCB.  I try and update this phone cast every couple of weeks and
it normally runs around 10 minutes.  I apologize that it isn't a toll free
number, but I hope that you will take the time to call and listen anyway.
The phone number is: 1-816-298-8969.

 

            I also want to remind you about the MCB Connect we have on the
third Sunday of each month at 2:00 PM.  We always try to have an informative
guest to talk to us about various issues facing the blind community.  Member
participation is welcome and we always take time to allow you to ask
questions and make comments about what is going on in MCB.  

Although the normal time for the MCB is the third Sunday of each month, we
are straying from that date in the month of September.  The MCB Connect will
be on Monday evening, September 28th at 7:00 PM.  This month will be
dedicated to going over the proposed bylaw amendments with John Weidlich and
also presenting the candidates running for election at this year's
convention.

That number to call is: 616-712-8000 and the pass code is: 250486#.  If you
don't have unlimited long distance and would like to participate, just let
me know and I will make sure you are connected to the conference call.  My
email address is: dhuff at moblind.org and my toll free number is:
1-888-362-1383.

 

            Since I began serving you as your president, I have visited 13
affiliates.  I hope to visit a few more before the convention in October but
I'm not sure how many I will be able to get to before that time.

 

            The ones I have made it to since my last report in April
includes the River City Workers for their annual picnic, the Ozark
Association of the Blind for dinner and a business meeting, the United
Workers of the Blind for a business meeting, the Blind of Central of
Missouri for their annual picnic and the Springfield Service Club for their
annual white cane walk.  I really enjoy going to our affiliates and meeting
the members.  With almost 800 members this is the only way I have to meet a
lot of you.  I promise that before my first term is up in 2010 I will do my
best to visit each affiliate we have.

 

            Besides visiting the affiliates we already have, I went to
Palmyra Missouri and visited a new support group for their first meeting.
This support group was established to help meet the needs of the visually
impaired in that area.  I wish them success in their efforts and have let
them know that we are here to assist them in meeting their needs.

 

            I have also been working with Bunny Maginnis in starting a new
affiliate in the Franklin county area.  We have had one meeting and although
we won't have everything required to officially begin a new affiliate before
our convention this year, I am sure we will be presenting this new affiliate
to the membership for approval by our convention in 2010.  Franklin county
is about 50 miles southwest of St. Louis and some of the towns included are
Washington, Union, Sullivan, Pacific, Hermann, New Haven and St. Clair just
to name a few.

 

            We are also looking into the possibility of starting a new
affiliate in the Jefferson City area.  It would be really good to have an
affiliate in our capitol city and the prospect looks good.

 

            Besides visiting some of our affiliates I also have been
attending the RSB Advisory Council meetings.  At this time we do not have an
official MCB representative on that board but I have asked Bev Armstrong to
serve in that capacity and upon approval by the Missouri governor, she will
be attending those meetings as our representative.  We do have two other
members of MCB serving on the board in other capacities now which includes
our immediate past president Phyllis Lovett and Beverly Kaskadden who is the
vice chair of the RSB Advisory Council board.

 

            Speaking of RSB, we were asked to participate in the federal
monitoring of that state organization.  Our first vice president, James
Hollins and I attended a conference in Jefferson City last May that also
included representatives of NFB.  We were asked several questions about the
services of RSB and were asked to give our comments on those services they
provided to us as stakeholders.

 

            MCB once again participated in Power-Up this year.  Leroy and
Luretta Welch, Susan Sanderson and I were available at the MCB booth to hand
out promotional items and information about MCB.  We also registered
approximately 150 visitors for a drawing of a nice prize.  Those
registrations cards are now on file and we will be adding to that list in
order to build up a data base of people we can promote MCB to in the future.

 

            Although I wasn't able to attend the full week of camp we had in
June and July at Cobblestone Lodge, I did manage to spend a day during each
one of those weeks.  I really enjoyed meeting and talking to a lot of the
camp attendees there.  If you have never attended this camp you are missing
a blessing.  I realize that some within the organization think that this
program is a waste of money, but I beg to differ with those that feel that
way.  Unless you have attended the camp you can't begin to realize the
benefits it has for those that do attend.  As a blind consumer organization,
MCB's purpose is to serve the blind community of Missouri.  Of all of the
programs we have, summer camp serves more members than any of the rest.
With the two full weeks we have and the extended weekend in September, this
program serves almost 200 people.  I have received numerous letters from
camp attendees telling me how much of a blessing this program has been to
them.  For many of the camp attendees, this is the only program that they
are served by MCB.  If you have never attended the summer camp, I challenge
you to do so at least one time and then come back and tell me it isn't a
worth wile program.

 

            I was honored to be invited as a special guest at the
installation of Blanch Burrell as president of the New Harmony Lions Club.
Congratulations to Blanch in her appointment and thank you for inviting me
to be a part of it.

 

            In June I was invited to speak to a group of visually impaired
teenagers at Webster University.  I spoke to them about the programs MCB
offered and encouraged them to participate in those programs.  My thanks to
Kevin Hollinger, director of STEP, (Summer Transition and Employment
Program) for inviting me.

 

            We had almost 80 members of MCB to attend the national ACB
convention in Orlando Florida this year.  Although the attendance seemed to
be down, all in all it was a good convention.  We were pleased to have one
of our past presidents, Kathey Wheeler receive a Lifetime Membership in ACB.
She made all of proud with her acceptance speech.  Another highlight was the
tour of the Disney Epcot Center.  Several of our members attended this tour
to test the audio-description device.  Robyn Wallen said, "I travel
extensively and I spend a lot of time looking for things like restaurants
and restrooms. This device helped me find things quickly."  John Weidlich
stated that he was glad that Disney was interested in what they had to say
about the audio-description device.  All in all it was a good convention.

 

      I have met several times with our budget and finance committee which
includes Danny Wheeler, chair, Celita White and Paul Smock.  We have gone
over the budget line by line to try and cut unnecessary expense and although
we have managed to trim our budget somewhat, we are still going to be
operating in a deficit next year.  This is not good for any organization,
company or even an individual to do, but until we get somebody in the office
that can assist us on raising our finances, we have no other choice with the
exception of cutting programs and administrative help.  We can't have
programs without having the administrative help to run them and we can't
have the Missouri Council of the Blind without having programs.  I guess you
could call it a catch 22.  I and the MCB board are certainly open for
suggestions as to a solution to our financial situation.  I receive a lot of
comments but along with those comments I need solutions.

 

            As most of you know by now, Franklin Johnson has resigned as our
second vice president due to health reasons.  I certainly appreciate
Franklin and the service he provided while serving in this position.  The
board accepted his resignation with regret and approved my appointment of
Mike Keller as Franklin's replacement.  I know that Mike will serve us well
as our second vice.

 

            I also appointed Mike Keller as the chairperson of the thrift
store committee.  Mike and I have been exploring the possibility of opening
our own thrift store over the past few months.  I hope to have a proposal
ready to present to the board and the membership during our upcoming
convention.  If some of you are wondering about the contract we have with
Henderson Management that states we can't have our own thrift store or
contract with another management company to open a thrift store, we did
negotiate an agreement with them that will now allow us to do just that.  My
thanks to Franklin Johnson, Trudy Steel, Beverly Kaskadden and James Hollins
for their work on negotiating this with HMC's attorney.  Also thanks to our
attorney, Mark Fells for his efforts in this process.

 

            As you know, our annual convention will be coming up in a few
weeks.  Please see my article, About the Convention further in this edition
of the Chronicle.  I hope to see as many of you there as possible.  I am
really looking forward to an informative and fun time this year.

 

            As always, I am available for your questions and comments.
Please don't hesitate to call or write me when you have a question.  My
email address is: dhuff at moblind.org, my phone number is: 1-888-362-1383 and
my postal mailing address is:

P.O. Box 515

St. Clair, MO  63077

 

God Bless and I hope to see you in October.

 

Denny Huff - President

Missouri Council of the Blind

5453 Chippewa

St. Louis, MO  63109

 

Phone: (636) 262-1383

Toll Free: (888) 362-1383

Phonecast: (816) 298-8969

FAX: (636) 629-1710

 

DHuff at MoBlind.Org

www.moblind.org

 

MCB - A GREAT PLACE TO BE!

 

The purpose of Missouri Council of the Blind shall be to promote the general
well-being of our members and legally blind people in Missouri, and to
support or participate in other programs promoting the best interests of
legally blind people everywhere.

 

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