American Council of the Blind 62nd Annual Conference and Convention
7/6/2023 9:30 AM

CONFIDENTIAL ROUGHLY EDITED REALTIME FILE
Compliments of HRICART.com

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This file was created in real time by a Human Realtime Captioner for the purpose of communication access. It is not a certified legal transcript and may not be entirely verbatim. It is intended for use by the consumer only as notes of the proceedings. A consumer should check with the presenter for any clarification of the presentation.

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AMERICAN COUNCIL OF THE BLIND
62ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND CONVENTION – GENERAL SESSION
JULY 6, 2023, 9:30 AM
CONFIDENTIAL ROUGHLY EDITED REALTIME FILE
Compliments of HRICART.com
***************************************
This file was created in real time by a Certified Realtime Captioner for the purpose of communication access.  It is not a certified legal transcript and may not be entirely verbatim.  It is intended for use by the consumer only as notes of the proceedings.  A consumer should check with the presenter for any clarification of the presentation.
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	>> No.  Can't get any more banquet tables.  If you didn't sign up for banquet tables, you're going to eat on the floor, and my dog will be right there beside you, and she did get the cup of food she needed -- yay!  -- so she will be eating that.  She appreciates that so very much, and we finally found a match.  She did get her food.  Otherwise, she was going to get chicken.  She was lobbying for steak.  She said, I think I'm worth a steak, don't you think?  Chicken is expensive enough in here.  Okay.  All right.  Are we coming back?  The screen is -- 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  We do need to start very soon.  
	>> I haven't had a chance to talk.  Can I talk?  I just wanted to tell people, it's not too late to make your walk donation.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  I think there's an objection.  
	>> DONNA BROWN:   
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  That's helpful.  So until then, you can tune in registration for help with the walk signup.  That's really helpful.  We'll get started in a moment.  Flexibility is what we're all about.  Yes, looking around out loud.  I like that.  Yeah.  Okay.  Yeah, we apologize for the delay.  We're so power-dependent these days, and it really does, just a little teeny blip of the power and the whole thing does go down.  So we have a lot of technology back here.  I just want to acknowledge our tech crew, led by Rick Morin.  [Applause] 
	>> And Ryan Kordell, we've got Doug, we've got -- 
	>> Dennis Becker.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  I don't want to try to name everybody.  It's too hard.  But we've got a whole crew, and they have really been working hard to keep everything rolling, just as hard as we possibly can this week.  
	>> We are up and running.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  All right.  Everywhere.  Yay!  Let's get underway.  It is time to have our flag salute.  This morning, it is being brought to us by our JPMorgan Chase leadership fellows, so Benjamin Wright from Henderson, Kentucky, Malaina Vanderwal from Caledonia, Michigan, Terry Terlau from Louisville, Kentucky, Liz Bottner from Washington DC, and Cheryl Cumings from Seattle, Washington.  
	>> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  All righty, thank you so much, guys, that's great.  
This morning, we will have our final reading for our ACB corporate and individual sponsors.  Are we ready with that?  Are we ready with the videos?  We're going to go to the affiliate roll call.  Wait, we have -- we will come back to that stuff.  We don't quite know what's going on.  And we apologize for any confusion about that, and if we do have any affiliates who aren't lined up in your spot yet, we will be patient with you, but we are going to move on.  If you are a delegate and you are not in this room, and you know if you're not in this room, because you don't have goosebumps on your arm saying what the temperature is.  I don't think it's as bad in here this year.  We still -- if you've got little Braille on your arms, you're in here with us and you need to stay.  If you are at home where it's whatever temperature and you're laying on the bed, you need to get to Zoom and let's go ahead, Denise, if we can begin our roll call for the resolutions and constitution bylaws amendments.  Okay.  This will be the last day we have to do this.  I know, I feel that way too.  [Applause] 
	>> Do you have the other Zoom on?  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Rick, is the other Zoom on?  
	>> RICK:  Yes, ma'am.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Okay.  What we're going to do, when I call your affiliates, you will give me your responses, the resolutions first, so you will give them for 06, 12, then 13, then 01 constitution -- you know, the bylaw, and 02, the bylaw.  
	>> Madam Chair, point of clarification.  I don't want to be flippant about this, but I have thought seriously that -- I have four votes to cast and the word, f-o-r sounds like a number, and I might vote something like .543.5 against and that would be a proper vote.  On the other hand, I could say point 5 yes, so what I would like to do is say yes or no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  And I repeat them.  
	>> We have video back, by the way.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  I would repeat them so we're both clear.  Okay.  Are we ready?  Alabama, three votes.  
	>> Alabama, and all of ours are going to be three votes yes except for 12 and that is two votes yes, one vote no.  I don't know if you want me to go down through and say the numbers, but -- I don't know what the preference is.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Give me the numbers.  
	>> 06, it's three yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Hold on just a second.  So three yes for -- 
	>> 06.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Three yes for 06 and three yes for -- 
	>> For 12, two yes and one no.  And 13, three yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Okay.  
	>> Bylaw 1, three yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Okay.  
	>> And bylaw 2, three yes.  
	>> Everything is three yes except for 12, which is two yes and one no.  Thank you.  Arizona, two votes.  
	>> Good morning.  For 06, two yes.  12, 1.5 yes, .5 no.  Do you want me to do it again?  06, two yes.  12, 1.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  12, 1.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> 13, one yes, one no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  13, one yes, one no.  
	>> One, two yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  2023-01 is two yes?  
	>> Yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Okay. 
	>> 2, 1.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  And 2, 1.5 yes .5 no.  
	>> Correct.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Arkansas, two votes. 
	>> Good morning.  On Resolution 06, Arkansas has two yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Two yes.  Okay. 
	>> For 12, also two yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Two yes.  Okay. 
	>> For 13, it is two yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Two yes, mm-hmm.  
	>> For bylaw 1, it is also two yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Two yes.  
	>> And for bylaw 2, two yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Two yes.  Thank you.  
California, 20 votes.  California!  One more time.  California.  All right.  Connecticut.  One vote.  
	>> Connecticut, 06, one vote yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  One vote yes for six.  
	>> 12, one vote no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  12, one vote no.  
	>> 13, one vote yes.  Constitutional amendment, the first one, one yes, and the second one, one yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 1, yes.  Amendment 2, yes.  Delaware, one vote.  
	>> Delaware would like to -- one vote across the board, yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  One vote across the board, yes.  That's easy.  
District of Columbia, 5 votes.  District of Columbia?  One more time, District of Columbia.  
Florida, 19 votes.  
	>> Good morning.  Florida, 06, 14 yes, 5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  06, 14 yes, 5 no.  
	>> Correct.  12 is 13 yes, 6 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  12, 13 yes, 6 no.  
	>> 13 is 17 yes, 2 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  13, 17 yes, 2 no.  
	>> And the amendment 1, 18 yes, one no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  18 yes, one no.  
	>> Yes, ma'am.  On 02, 18 yes, one no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  18 yes, one no.  
	>> Yes, ma'am.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Georgia, five votes.  
	>> 06, 1.5 yes, 3.5 no.  And 12 is 5 yes.  13 -- 
	>> Yes.  
	>> 13, 3.5 yes.  1.5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  13, 3.5 yes, 1.5 no.  
	>> And the bylaw, 01, 5 yes and on bylaw 2, 4 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 1 is 5 yes.  And bylaw 2, was what again?  
	>> Four.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  4 yes, one no.  
	>> Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Hawaii, 3 votes.  
	>> Hawaii casts its three votes across the board, all yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Across the board, three votes, all yes.  
Illinois, 3 votes.  
	>> Good morning, Denise, awesome job.  Resolution 2023-06, we vote 2 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  06, 2 yes, 1 no.  
	>> 12 is also 2 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  12, 2 yes, 1 no.  
	>> 13 is 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  13, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> And bylaw amendment 01 is 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 01, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> And amendment 2, 3 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 2, 3 yes.  
	>> Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Indiana, 4 votes.  
	>> For 06, we have 4 yeses.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  For 06, 4 yes.  
	>> Yes.  For number 12, we have 3.5 yes and .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  12, 3.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> 13, 4 yeses.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  13, 4 yes.  
	>> For bylaws 1 and 2, all of those are 4 yeses.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 01, 4 yes.  Bylaw 02, 4 yes.  
Kansas, 3 votes.  
	>> What about Iowa?  What about Iowa?  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  I'm sorry, Iowa.  Oh!  I just wanted to make sure you guys were paying attention!  Yeah, they are.  
	>> Do I get to vote now?  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Iowa, 3 votes.  
	>> For 06, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  06, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> 12, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  12, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> Please speak closer to the microphone.  Thank you.  
	>> 13, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  13, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> And for both bylaws, 3 for, 0 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  01, 3 yes, 0 no.  02, 3 yes, 0 no.  
	>> Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Kansas, three votes.  
	>> We have no -- 
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Kansas?  One more time.  Kansas?  
Kentucky, 13 votes.  
	>> Kentucky has, for resolution 06, 12 and 13, we have 5 yes and 8 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 5 yes, 8 no.  
	>> Correct.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution, 5 yes, 6 no.  
	>> 8 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  8 no.  Resolution 13, 5 yes, 8 no.  
	>> And for both amendments, we have 13 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 01, 13 yes.  Amendment 02, 13 yes.
Bluegrass, 4 votes.  
	>> Bluegrass, 06, 0 yes, 4 no.  Bluegrass, 12, 0 yes, 4 no.  Resolution 13, .5 yes, 3.5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, .5 yes, 3.5 no.  
	>> Amendment 1, 4 yes, 0 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 1, 4 yes, 0 no.  
	>> Amendment 2, 4 yes, 0 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 2, 4 yes, 0 no.  
Louisiana, two votes.  
	>> Good morning, Madam Secretary and everybody else.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Good morning, Theresa.  
	>> For 06, 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  06, 2 yes.  
	>> 12, 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  12, 2 yes.  
	>> For 13, 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  13, 2 yes.  
	>> For 01, 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 01, 2 yes.  
	>> Yes.  Yes.  And bylaw 02, 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 02, 2 yes.  
	>> Yes, ma'am.  Have a great day.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Maine, two votes.  
	>> Good morning, Maine votes for resolution 06, 2 yes.  For resolution -- 
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Hold on.  For resolution 06, 2 yes.  
	>> 2 yes.  For 12, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  12, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> For 13, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  13, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> For amendment 1, 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 01, 2 yes.  
	>> And for bylaw 02, 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 02, 2 yes.  
	>> Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Maryland, 3 votes.  
	>> [Indiscernible].  
	>> Maryland, for 06, 3 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  For 06, 3 yes.  
	>> 12, 2 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  12, 2 yes, 1 no.  
	>> 13, 2 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  13, 2 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Amendment 01, 3 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 01, 3 yes.  
	>> Amendment 02, 3 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 02, 3 yes.  
Bay State, 8 votes.  
	>> Bay State, 06, 7 yes, 1 no. 
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  06, 7 yes, 1 no.  
	>> 12, 7 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 7 yes, 1 no.  
	>> 13, 7 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 7 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Amendment 1, 8 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 01, 8 yes.  
	>> Amendment 02, 8 yes.  Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Michigan, 5 votes.  
	>> Michigan is going to cast their votes the following.  Resolution 06, 1 yes, 4 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  06, 1 yes, 4 no.  
	>> Resolution 12, 1 yes, 4 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 1 yes, 4 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, 1 yes, 4 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 1 yes, 4 no.  
	>> Bylaw amendment 1, 5 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw amendment 1, 5 yes.  
	>> And bylaw amendment 2, 5 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 2, 5 yes.  
	Minnesota, three votes.  
	>> Minnesota, 06, 3 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  06, 3 yes.  
	>> 12, 3 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  12, 3 yes.  
	>> 13, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  13, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> Amendment 1, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 1, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> Amendment 02, 3 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 02, 3 yes.  
	>> Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Mississippi, three votes.  
	>> Mississippi casts as follows.  For 06, 3 no.  For resolution 12, 3 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  12 is 3 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, 3 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 3 no.  
	>> Bylaw amendment 1, 3 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 1, 3 yes.  
	>> Bylaw amendment 2, 3 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 2, 3 yes.  Thank you.  
Missouri, 18 votes.  
	>> Missouri casts its votes as follows.  06, 15 yes, 3 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 15 yes, 3 no.  
	>> 12, 18 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 18 yes.  
	>> Resolution 13, 18 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 18 yes.  
	>> 01, is 18 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 01, 18 yes.  
	>> And 02 is 15 yes, 3 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 02, 15 yes, 3 no.  
Nebraska, one vote.  
	>> 06, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 1 no.  
	>> 12, 1 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 1 yes.  
	>> 13, one yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, one yes.  
	>> 01, one yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 1, one yes.  
	>> Amendment 2, one yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 2, 1 yes.  Thank you.  
	Nevada, two votes.
	>> Nevada votes one vote yes, one vote no across the board.  
>> DENISE COLLEY:  New Jersey, three votes.
	>> New Jersey casts all three votes yes across the board.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Three votes yes across the board.  
New York, eight votes.  
	>> Good morning, Madam Secretary and ACB!  The New York Council of the Blind, 2023-06, 6 yes, 2 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  6 yes, 2 no.  
	>> 2023-12, 6 yes, 2 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 6 yes, 2 no.  
	>> Resolution 2023-13, 4 yes, 4 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 4 yes, 4 no.  
	>> And bylaw 1, 8 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 1, 8 yes.  
	>> And bylaw 2, 8 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 2, 8 yes.  
	>> Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  North Carolina, three votes.  
	>> Good morning.  North Carolina, 1.5 yes, 1.5 no across the board.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  1.5 yes, 1.5 no across the board.  
	>> Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you.  North Dakota, 7 votes.  
	>> North Dakota, number 06 is 6 yes and 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 6 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Number 12, it's 4 no and 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Six votes.  You have seven.  
	>> 5 no and two yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Two yes, 5 no for resolution 12.  
	>> And the rest are seven yes all the way down.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, seven yes.  Bylaw amendment 1, seven yes.  Bylaw amendment 2, seven yes.  
Ohio, seven votes.  
	>> Good morning, everyone.  Resolution 06, one -- six yes, one no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  06, 6 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Resolution 12, 5 yes, 2 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 5 yes, 2 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, 5 yes, 2 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 5 yes, 2 no.  
	>> Bylaw amendment 1, 7 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 1, 7 yes.  
	>> Bylaw number 2, 7 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Number 2, 7 yes.  Thank you.  
Oklahoma, 17 votes.  
	>> 17 yes across the board.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Oklahoma casts 17 yes across the board.  
	>> Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you.  Oregon, 4 votes.  
	>> Good morning, Oregon casts 4 votes yes across the board.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Oregon cast 4 votes yes across the board.  Pennsylvania, 8 votes.  
	>> Pennsylvania, for resolution 6, 7 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 7 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Resolution 12, 7.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 7.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, 6.5 yes, 1.5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 6.5 yes, 1.5 no.  
	>> Bylaw 1, 8 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 01, 8 yes.  
	>> Bylaw 02, 8 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 02, 8 yes.  
	>> Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  South Dakota, 3 votes.  
	>> South Dakota casts for resolution 06, 1.5 yes, 1.5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 1.5 yes, 1.5 no.  
	>> For 12, 1 yes, 2 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 1 yes, 2 no.  
	>> For 13, 2 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, two yes, 1 no.  
	>> Bylaw 1, 3 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 01, 3 yes.  
	>> And bylaw 02, 3 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 02, 3 yes.  Thank you.  Tennessee.  
	>> Resolution 06, 6 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 6 no.  
	>> The remainder, across the board, are 6 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 6 yes.  Resolution 13, 6 yes.  Bylaw 01, 6 yes.  Bylaw 02, 6 yes.  
	>> Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you.  Texas, 11 votes.  
	>> Madam Secretary, the results of the Texas affiliate vote has been hermetically sealed until just a few moments ago and after opening the envelope, we have found the notes, we are ready to reveal those results this morning.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you very much.  
	>> So for resolution 06, that would be 10 in the affirmative and one in the negative.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 10 yes, 1 no.  
	>> For resolution 12, that would be 11 in the affirmative and 0 in the negative.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 11 yes.  
	>> Resolution 13, 10 in the affirmative, 1 in the negative.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 10 yes, 1 no.  
	>> And the following amendments, we have to do those just to keep everybody straight, bylaw 01, that would be 11 in the affirmative.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 01, 11 yes.  
	>> And this is the last report I have, bylaw 02, that would be amendment -- 11 in the affirmative and zero in the negative.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  11 yes.  
	>> I'll yield the remainder of my time to the next.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you, Chris.  We have lots of fun in Texas.  
Utah, 11 votes.  Utah, 11 votes.  
	Vermont, three votes.  
	>> Vermont, three votes in the affirmative across the board.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Vermont, three votes yes across the board.  
Virginia, two votes.  
	>> Virginia casts on resolution 6, 1 for and one against.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  06, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> For resolution 12, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, .5 yes, 1.5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  13, .5 yes, 1.5 no.  
	>> Bylaw amendment 1, 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 01, 2 yes.  
	>> Bylaw 02, 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 02, 2 yes.  Thank you.  
Washington, 16 votes.  
	>> Washington, 06 is 12 yes, 4 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 12 yes, 4 no.  
	>> 12 is 15 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 15 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Resolution 13 is 13 yes, 3 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13 is -- 13, yes?  13 yes, 3 no.  
	>> Bylaw 01 is 14 yes, 2 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 01, 14 yes, 2 no.  
	>> Bylaw 02 is 15 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 02 is 15 yes, 2 no.  One no.  One no.  
	>> Yes, 15 yes, one no.  I'm jealous of the people who got one way all across the board.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Washington does everything the hard way.  
	>> That's right.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  West Virginia, one vote.  
	>> Okay.  So resolution 06, .5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, .5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> Resolution 12, .5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, .5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, 1 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 1 yes.  
	>> Bylaw 01, 1 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 01, 1 yes.  
	>> And bylaw 02, 1 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 02, 1 yes.  
Wisconsin, 1 vote.  
	>> Wisconsin, resolution 06, 1 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 1 yes.  
	>> Resolution 12, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 1 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, 1 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 1 yes.  
	>> Bylaw amendment 1, 1 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 01, 1 yes.  
	>> Amendment 02, 1 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 02, 1 yes.  
Alliance on Aging and Vision Loss, six votes.  
	>> Good morning, Madam Secretary.  ACB's most mature affiliate votes as follows.  Resolution 06, 4 yes, 2 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 4 yes, 2 no.  
	>> Resolution 12, 5 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 5 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, 4 yes, 2 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 4 yes, 2 no.  
	>> Amendment 01, 6 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 01, 6 yes.  
	>> And amendment 02, 6 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 02, 6 yes.  Thank you.  
	>> Thank you very much.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Teachers, two votes.  
	>> Resolution 06, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Let's try that again.  Can you try that again, please?  
	>> Sure.  Resolution 6, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Resolution 12, 1.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 1.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Amendment 01, 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 01, 2 yes.  
	>> And amendment 02, 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 02, 2 yes.  Thank you.  
Attorneys, two votes.  
	>> Madam Secretary, I cannot compete with my friend Chris.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Nobody can compete with him.  
	>> I'm just going to announce that AAVAI casts two votes across the board.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Two yes across the board?  
	>> Yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Two yes across the board.  
Diabetics, 5 votes.  
	>> Good morning, ACB.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  We're getting feedback.  
	>> Yes.  So much.  I'm going to go through another mic.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  That's okay.  We can get you.  You're fine.  
	>> Thank you for the compliment.  So I'm going for the constitution here.  I am so proud to be the delegate of ACB Diabetics, so hello, everybody!  Home of the sugar warriors, over $8,000!  Woo-hoo!  And I believe we're still number one.  I am so honored to say we have a command center.  It's not just me.  Veronica and -- so it's 2.5 for all the resolutions and 5 for both resolutions.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Wait a minute.  
	>> 2.5 yes, 2.5 no for 6, 12, and 13.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Okay.  So 06 -- 2.5 yes, 2.5 no.  
12, 2.5 yes, 2.5 no.  
	>> Yes, ma'am.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  13, 2.5 yes, 2.5 no.  
	>> And both resolutions, 5, yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 1, 5 yes.  
	>> Yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 2, 5 yes. 
	>> Yes.  And thank you for controlling the command center.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  ACB Families, 4 votes.  
	>> ACB Families casts votes as follows.  For resolution 06, 1 yes, 3 no.  Resolution 12, 3 yes -- no, 1 yes, 3 no.  For resolution 13, 1 yes, 3 no.  
>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 1 yes, 3 no.  For resolution 13, 1 yes, 3 no.  Resolution 13, 1 yes, 3 no.  
	>> Bylaw amendment 1, 3 -- no, sorry, 4 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 1, 4 yes.  
	>> And for amendment 2, 4 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 2, 4 yes.  
	>> Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you.  Government employees, one vote.  
	>> Good morning, government employees cast their vote as follows.  2023-06, 0.5 yes, 0.5 no.  
>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 0.5 yes, 0.5 no.  
>> 12, 0.5 yes, 0.5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, .5 yes, .5 yes.  
	>> Resolution 13, 0.5 yes, 0.5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, .5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> Bylaw amendment 01, 1 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 1, 1 yes.  
	>> Bylaw amendment 02, 1 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 02, 1 yes.  
	>> Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  ACB Lions, 4 votes.  
	>> ACB Lions, resolution 06, 3 yes, 1 no. 
>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 3 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Resolution 12, 3 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 3 yes, 1 no.  
>> Resolution 13, 3 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 3 yes, 1 no.  
	>> And both of the bylaw amendments, 4 yes for both of them.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 01, 4 yes.  Amendment 02, 4 yes.  Thank you.  
ACB Next Generation.  Three votes.  
	>> ACB on the first amendment -- resolution, 06 is going to be 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 3.5 yes -- 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> Correct.  Okay.  Resolution 12 is going to be 2 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 2 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Resolution 13 is going to be 3 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 3 yes.  
	>> And then we're going to go to the amendments.  01 is going to be 2.5 -- 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 01, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> Correct.  Amendment 2, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 02, 2.5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> Thank you very much.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you.  Radio Amateurs, one vote.  
	>> Radio Amateurs casts one vote yes across the board.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Radio Amateurs casts one vote yes across the board.  Thank you.  
	ACB students, one vote.  ACB students, one vote.  
Finally, ACB students, one vote.  Seven votes.  
	>> Casts the resolution 6, 5 yes, 2 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 5 yes, 2 no.  
>> Resolution 12, 5 yes, 2 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 5 yes, 2 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, 6 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 6 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Amendment 01, 7 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 1, 7 yes.  
	>> Amendment 2, 7 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 2, 7 yes.  
	>> Thank you, Madam Secretary.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you.  Blind Pride, 4 votes.  
	>> Good morning, Madam Secretary.  While it might be hard for us to get our votes straight, we're ready to go gayly forward.  06, survey says 4 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 4 yes. 
	>> Resolution 12, survey says 3 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 3 yes, 1 no. 
	>> For 13, 4 yes, and for both bylaws, 4 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 4 yes.  Bylaw 01, 4 yes.  Bylaw 02, 4 yes.  
	>> Thank you so much.  That concludes Blind Pride "Family Feud." 
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  You guys are a whole lot of yes. 
	[Indiscernible] 11 votes.  
	>> Good morning, everyone. 
	After getting input from 76 of our members for this, we have for resolution 06, 8 yes, 3 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 8 yes, 3 no.  
	>> Mm-hmm.  Resolution 12, 8 yes, 3 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 8 yes, 3 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, 9 yes, 2 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 9 yes, 2 no.  
	>> The constitutional amendment 01 is 11 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 01, 11 yes.  
	>> And amendment 02 is 11 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 02, 11 yes.  Thank you.  
	>> Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  CCLVI, 10 votes.  
	>> CCLVI, resolution 06, 3 yes, 7 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 3 yes, 7 no.  
	>> Resolution 12, 3.5 yes, 6.5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 3.5 yes, 6.5 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, 3 yes, 7 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 3 yes, 7 no.  
	>> Across the board, but play pretty good, so the next two races are 10 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 01, 10 yes.  Bylaw 02, 10 yes.  Thank you.  Friends in Arts, two votes.
>> Good morning, Madam Secretary.  Friends in Arts votes this way.  Resolution 06, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Resolution 12, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 1 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 2 yes.  
	>> Bylaw 01, 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 01, 2 yes.  
	>> And bylaw 02, 2 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 02, 2 yes.  
	>> Thank you.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you.  Guide dog users, 15 votes.  
	>> Good morning, everyone.  Guide dog users on resolution 06, 11 yes and 4 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06 -- hold on.  
	>> I'm sorry.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  That's all right.  Resolution 06, you said what?  
	>> 11 yes, 4 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Okay.  Resolution -- okay.  So -- I'm sorry.  11 yes, 4 no.  All right.  
	>> Correct, right, right.  Resolution 12 -- I'm sorry.  12.5 yes, 2.5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 12.5 yes, 2.5 no.  
	>> On resolution 13, 14 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  You only have 15 votes.  
	>> I'm sorry.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Can you repeat that one again?  
	>> Resolution 13 is 14 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  14 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Bylaws, 01, bylaw amendment 01 is 15 yes.  0 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw amendment 1, 15 yes.  
	>> And bylaw amendment 2 is 14.5 and .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw amendment 2, 14.5 yes, .5 no.  IB, one vote.  
	>> The affiliate, when it gets down to business, made an executive decision, so here is our decision as follows.  Resolution 06, we are going to cast .5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, .5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> And resolution 12 is going to be 1 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 1 yes.  
	>> And resolution 13 is going to be .5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, .5 yes, .5 no.  
	>> Now we move on to the bylaws.  Amendment 1 is one yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 1, 1 yes.  
	>> And amendment 2 will also be 1 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 2, 1 yes.  
	>> Thank you very much, Madam Secretary.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  LUA, 7 votes.  
	>> Resolution 06, 5 yes, 2 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 5 yes, 2 no.  
	>> Number 12, 4.5 yes, 2.5 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 4.5 yes, 2.5 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, 5 yes, 2 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 5 yes, 2 no.  
	>> Bylaw amendment 1, 7 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 1, 7 yes.  
	>> Amendment 2, 7 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 2, 7 yes.  Thank you.  
RSVA, 17 votes.  
	>> Number 6, 10 yes, 7 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 6, 10 yes, 7 no.  
	>> Number 12, we're voting 17 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 17 yes.  
	>> 13, we're voting 17 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 17 yes.  
	>> And bylaws, 1, 17 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 01, 17 yes.  
	>> And number 2, 17 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 02, 17 yes.  
	>> Split and let us go first sometimes.  [Applause] 
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  California, 20 votes.  
	>> Good morning, Madam Secretary, I apologize for my tardiness.  Still running on Pacific Time, I guess.  California votes on resolution 06, 19 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 19 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Resolution 12, 19 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Repeat that again.  
	>> Resolution 12, 19 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 19 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Resolution 13, 19 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 19 yes, 1 no.  
	>> Amendment 1, 20 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 01, 20 yes.  
	>> Amendment 2, 20 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Amendment 02, 20 yes.  
	>> Yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Thank you.  DC Council, 5 votes.  DC Council?  5 votes?  You need to get to a mic.  Or if a mic is not on, please -- one more time, DC Council.  
Kansas, 3 votes.  
	>> MICHAEL BYINGTON:  First -- this is Michael Byington, president of the Kansas affiliate, and first, a point of personal privilege.  Don't want you to think that our ritual Kansans were asleep at the switch, but Zoom did not work, would not allow Kathy Dawsonn to unmute, nor did she receive a request to unmute, so I am casting the votes for Kansas as the replacement delegate and that will be for resolution 6, 3 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 06, 3 no.  
	>> MICHAEL BYINGTON:  For resolution 12, 3 yes, 2 no.  I'm sorry.  Make that 2 yes, 1 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 12, 2 yes, 1 no.  
	>> MICHAEL BYINGTON:  I need more coffee.  They're asleep at the switch.  All right.  For resolution 13, 3 no.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Resolution 13, 3 no.  
	>> MICHAEL BYINGTON:  Bylaw number 1, 3 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 01, 3 yes.  
	>> MICHAEL BYINGTON:  Bylaw 02, 3 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Bylaw 02, 3 yes.  Thank you.  
Utah, 11 votes.  
	>> Utah is sorry that we had problems, but we are here, and we will make this easy.  Across the board, Utah votes 11 yes.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  Utah votes 11 yes across the board.  
	>> Correct.  
	>> DENISE COLLEY:  ACB Students, 1 vote.  They're still out partying, probably.  ACB Students.  Yeah, 3:00 in the morning -- one more time.  ACB Students.  One vote.  Madam Chair, that completes the call of the roll.  [Applause] 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Give yourselves a serious hand.  You all did such a good job.  Thank you so much.  Now, our vote counters have requested some time because they actually have to order some six toe casts so they can get all these counted because it's a lot of voting so they have asked for a little time on the vote.  So don't leave.  
The American Council of the Blind would like to thank our 2023 convention sponsors.  Their continued support is sincerely appreciated.  Diamond sponsors -- JPMorgan Chase and Company, Microsoft, Vispero, Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Comcast. 
	Emerald sponsors -- Amazon, MGM Resorts, Cruise, Verizon, Janssen. 
	Ruby sponsors -- AT&T, Google, Waymo, Uber, Netflix, National Cable and Telecom Association (NCTA), HumanWare, Charter Communications, Adobe. 
	Onyx sponsors -- Seleste, American Printing House (APH), AIRA, Democracy Live Incorporated, Walmart, United Airlines. 
	Coral sponsors -- ACB Families, ACB Lions, National Industries For the Blind. 
	Pearl sponsors -- Library Users of America. 
	Walk sponsors -- Macular Degeneration Foundation. 
	The American Council of the Blind sincerely thanks our 2023 Conference and Convention sponsors for their generous support.  Alice massa, Roberta McCall, platinum, $250, Chris Bell, Edwin Rumsey, Marilyn Sanders, Maria Stone, Tim Stone, Shawn Barrett, Viola Bentson, Barbara brown, Donna Brown, Ray Campbell, Brian Charlson, Kim Charlson, Steven dresser, Mike Duke, Grady Ebert, Mary Lee hill Kennedy, Linda Hunt, Paul Kelly, Jim Kennedy, Liggetts, Barbara Lombardi, John McCann, Ursula Macaulay, Rosslyn, Crystal Plat, Peggy Garrett, Christopher Gray, Billy, Jeffrey Harris, Rochelle Hart, Cindy Hollis, Elvin Kaiser, Martin Kuehne, Rick Lewis, Kay Love, Rose Miller, William Morris, Cecile Nipper, Debra Plumlee, Douglas Powell, Kenneth Reed, Carl Richardson, Steven Robertson, Katherine Schmidt Whitaker, Sandra sermons, David Smith, John Smith, Naomi small, Janice Squires, Sheila, Leslie Thom, Cindy Vega, Frank, silver, $25, Mary Abramson, Robert Acosta, David Anderson, Kathy Arnold, Ann Byington, Michael Byington, Anisio Correia, Susan, Tyson Ernest, Vicky Flake, Kathleen Gerhart, Terri-Lynn, Robert Hill, Linda Holiday, Betty Huffman, Jean Jacobs, Katherine Johnson, Pamela Johnson, Thomas Kaufman, Donald Coors, Geraldine Coors, Kevin LaRose, Pamela Lock, Daniel McIntyre, Jamaica Miller, Nancy, Terry Nettles, Deanna Noriega, Micky, Reverend Raymond Razor, Lynn Roberts, Shirley Roberts, Gregory Rosenberg, Kathy, James Rutherford, Marge Schneider, Christine Shumacher, Kenneth Semien, Sr., Ellen Sorenson, Bill Sorenson, Kevin Stone, Terrie Terlau, David Trott, Rhonda Trott, Greg, Mary Ward, Andre Webb, Sue Wilkening, Judy, Benjamin, Linda, Elijah.  Added since June 21, 2023, platinum, $250, Marge Beeman, Jennifer Tyson, Anthony, and Theresa Petri.  
	>> All right!  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Thank you, ACB, for your generosity!  I'm glad I didn't have to read all that.  Thank you for reading that.  
	>> It's all in one breath.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Yes, I did notice that.  I was impressed.  Faster and faster.  I appreciate that.  Thank you so much.  We are running just a little bit behind, but we do have a few more things to need to do before we have our first speaker, so I want to move along and we're going to do some Angels now and we're going to do some additional Angels, I believe, after the break, so we do need to complete our angels this morning and we're so appreciative of those and those contributions.  Our first angel is going to be Joan Hill from Klamath Falls, Oregon.  Is it easier for you if I do the others first, Rick?  
	>> RICK:  Deb, the one that we have queued up is Gardenia.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Let's go Gardenia.  Gardenia is a guide dog.  
	>> Against a sparkling background, ACB presents ACB angel, Joan Hill, February 5, 1939 to October 30, 2021, a white woman is seated with her guide dog.  Robin Burnham.  
	>> ROBIN BURNHAM:  Joan Hill was a lifelong teacher and an inspiration to many people.  Some people inspire us by the obstacles they overcome, but her life was the story of living with and through life's obstacles.  She had to deal with Deafness, blindness, being widowed young, cancer three times and a stroke.  Not an easy life, but she made a choice to be joyful and loving.  Joan was a founding member of the Klamath Chapter of ACB and spent many years as president and treasurer. 
	She spent countless hours on projects for ACB of Oregon as a board member, membership committee chair, and advocate for blind people.  Her amazing capacity for memorization and accurate details was apparent in her work on bylaws and membership lists.  She tested and helped debug the voting system for Oregon. 
	Joan grew up in New York City from a specialized math and science high school in the 1950s where women in math was rare.  After college, she married and moved to Oregon.  She was always active in her community -- teaching piano lessons, teaching swimming skills to young mothers and training 4-H leaders.  Her way of living with and through adversity started with learning new skills.  She didn't just accept the prognosis of what her disabilities or illnesses would limit her to.  She participated in research projects to advance the treatment of her eye disease, retinitis pigmentosa, after being diagnosed in her early 30s. 
	After being widowed and raising her children, while her vision was failing, she completed a master's in mathematics and computer education at Oregon State University.  When she lost all her vision, she attended the Oregon Commission for the Blind Career and Orientation Center.  She learned Braille, how to access computers with speech, skills for daily living and to trust herself walking with a white cane.  Later, she learned to trust walking with a guide dog.  Stepping out in faith was a part of everyday life.  Courage to face her fears and trust the angels among us.  Joan traveled extensively with her guide dogs.  She took grandchildren and friends to ACB conventions where they learned, had great experiences, and gained compassion.  Joan was passionate about teaching people to be connected and functional at computer technology.  She started a computer lab and taught students of all ages in a private school in Klamath Falls, Oregon.  At the age when many would retire, she transitioned her career to teaching people of various abilities computer and business skills, one on one. 
	Joan knew technology could help people gain employment and live full, independent lives.  She made complex tasks simpler and adapted her teaching to each person's need, and she encouraged several of her students to join ACB and learn from others.  Joan loved her family, friends, swimming, growing roses, football, knitting, and dogs.  She cherished the friendships gained from participating in ACB.  An incredibly brave and strong woman, her character shown three in everything she did, including years of teaching others how to be more successful during adaptive computer usage.  Every day was a blessing to enjoy and look forward to with hope.  
	>> The logo, ACB, in print and Braille, American Council of the Blind, together for a bright future.  [Applause] 
	>> All right.  Thank you so much for that.  All right.  Now, we're struggling here just a little today.  It's really hard when you have power things and other things happening.  So we're just working it through.  I do want to do Gardenia.  Gardenia is a guide dog and she is from Gaithersburg, Maryland.  Cindy LaBon's dog.  
	>> Across a sparkling background, ACB, and corresponding Braille cell, guide angel Gardenia LaBon, a light-colored dog, Cindy LaBon.  
	>> CINDY LaBON:  Hello, my name is Cindy LaBon, January 27, 2011, December 3, 2022.  Gardenia was my first guide dog.  She guided me through life and made safety my first priority.  No matter where we went, Gardenia told me to learn life as a diva.  She was a diva dog.  I was always pretty independent, even though I had experienced low vision all of my life.  I had some adjusting to do when I lost my remaining vision in 2011, when I managed everything pretty well, I thought.  Then I got Gardenia in 2012 and my life changed completely.  We found ourselves flying first or business class, flight attendants explained that the diva needed enough room to stretch out.  We were checking into hotel suites and staff explained, Gardenia needed a sufficient place to play.  Gardenia was a flower dog in my friend's wedding, she had a bow on each side of her harness with the beautiful flowers.  Jogging was a breeze, she could identify 47 different items in the grocery store.  Of course, would he -- we had to choose the lines that would lead her to her favorite cashiers.  We went to Alaska, the Grand Canyon and her favorite Shenandoah national park.  She was waiting patiently on the ground for an enthusiastic reunion. 
	So much fun for both of us.  Sand was her favorite activity on each beach trip, going to work each day was another adventure.  Every year we visited our congressional representatives.  During the ACB Leadership Conference.  She remembered where every representative's office was and every year we made a beeline to representative Chris Van Hollen's office.  Gardenia never forgot, that first year we went to legislative seminar.  Many office staff.  
Gardenia kept me safe when riding the metro subway and so many streets throughout the DC area.  I have no idea why, but Gardenia loved our paratransit system.  Once when we were walking down the sidewalk in DC, I was wondering how long we would have to wait for our already-overdue metro access ride, Gardenia spotted a van down the street and insisted that we board it.  A friendly back and forth with the driver, killing time, and metro access dispatch to drive me and driver Suzie agreed to give us a right back home to Gaithersburg.  
Shared life with Gardenia, 10 years, one month and 15 days expanded my life in so many days.  She taught me to expect first-class treatment, and we made forever friends all over the country and even in the Caribbean.  She taught me I can be safe wherever I want to be with a harness in my hand, and I truly believe she waited to know that my new guide, Goodness, was already set to be on the other end of that harness before she consented to leave me to find her own new adventures on what you would call the other side.  Good-bye, my favorite dog.  Sweet Gardenia.  You are still my guardian angel.  
	>> The logo, ACB, in print and Braille, corresponding, ACB, together for a great future.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Thank you, Cindy, for sharing Gardenia with us.  That's great.  All right.  The next angel for this period is Delbert Aman from Aberdeen, South Dakota.  
	>> Against a sparkling background, the letters, ACB, and below each, its corresponding Braille cell.  ACB presents ACB angel, June 4, 1930, a white man wears a shirt, a suit coat, Koni Sims.  
	>> KONI SIMS:  I am Koni Sims, a member of the CAB.  We are proud to present Delbert K.  Aman, past member of our association as an Angel.  Delbert K.  Aman, June 4, 1930, to January 9th, 1988.  Delbert Aman was born June 4, 1930, in Java, South Dakota, to parents Albert and Alice Aman. 
	He had four sisters and one brother.  Delbert (Del) passed away January 9, 1988, at the age of 57.  He attended Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota.  He graduated from University of South Dakota Law in Vermilion, South Dakota. 
	Del was a charter member of ACB. 
	He was instrumental during ACB’s formative years.  In 1961, he served as ACB’s first chair for the Constitution and Bylaws Committee responsible for creating ACB’s current Constitution and Bylaws. 
	Although they have been updated over time, these documents represent the bedrock of ACB's principles.  Del was elected to ACB’s Board in 1962, 1976, 1981, and 1982. 
	In 1978, Del was appointed to the 18-member National Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification, the first blind person to receive such an appointment.  In 1978 he became ACB’s 1st Vice President.  In paying tribute to him as a colleague, friend, and a true leader, Durward McDaniel described him as “the principal architect of the ACB Constitution and By-Laws, which remains today in major detail as he originally wrote it.” What McDaniel singled out as most memorable about Del was “his capacity to stand for principle and conviction, even when disagreeing with his friends, without diminishing their respect for him or his respect for them.” Chris Gray stated, “I first met Del at the 1976 ACB convention. 
	I was deeply impressed with Del's genuineness and low-key approach to problem-solving.  I joined the ACB Board in 1978 and at our first meeting Del and I had a chance to get acquainted. 
	We became friends and served as ACB liaisons to the student organization giving them guidance and mentorship.  Del was far more patient than I with their concerns and perceived problems.  It was truly impressive to see him turn problems into opportunities that could strengthen individuals and grow the student organization.” Jean Mann said, “In 1987 I asked President Grant Mack if I could serve on the resolutions committee.  He didn’t need anybody there but had an opening on the constitution and bylaws committee, suggesting I serve there.  Del was chairman of the committee.  Since we had no computers, Del gave me the task of brailling the proposed changes to the constitution and had me read them on the convention floor.  I found it very exciting as I’d never done anything like that before.  Del died the following winter.  I was appointed to chair the constitution and bylaws committee and ran for the board during convention, serving for eight years.  But it was Del who gave me my initial exposure to the membership.” “For many of us in South Dakota, he is the reason we got involved in ACB,” stated Koni Sims.  “I consider him a mentor.  As others have stated, he was genuine and respected others. 
	He believed in me and encouraged me to go for my dreams.” 
	>> The logo, ACB, in print and Braille, American Council of the Blind, together for a bright future.  [Applause] 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Very nice tribute, and that does remind us that we can do angels from our heritage as well as our current members, so thank you so much for that, South Dakota, and Koni. 
	All right.  I'm going to move us to our next presentation.  We're going to do the results of the voting just before the break.  So stay tuned for that.  But right now, I'd like to introduce Craig from APH.  He came from my state, and Craig is going to give us a quick update on things at APH.  [Applause] 
	>> CRAIG:  My gosh, I've never seen a group have more fun with resolutions.  [Laughter].  Kudos to all of you for making them, and we know in committees and in -- anytime you have resolutions, it's kind of like doing push-ups and sit-ups.  No one likes to do them, but it's very important.  It's important for the health of the group.  So -- you guys seemed to have a good time with that and kudos for that.  Deb is back here snickering.  A lot of creative minds out there.  Every election, I guess, should run that way, should be a lot of fun. 
	It's been a few years since I had the privilege to speak to you, 2019, then we had that world event called COVID, and I talked to you virtually briefly during your 2020 convention.  The last thing we were talking about, APH was undergoing a lot of change, and change, change, change, change, change was our mantra.  With good reason.  We needed to.  We needed to do a lot of change and it's not saying that things were not solid and things were not good.  It was just looking at where we needed to be as a company moving forward in the future because the needs of students and schools were radically changing and we knew that either you can be a change agent or you can be the change recipient, and I would rather lead change and have a hand in what the future holds for our field.  So that's what we were doing. 
	So, you know, some of those, the biggest changes, right during that -- prior to COVID, we had received a lot of the AFB treasures.  We had received the Helen Keller archives, we had received the correct center, and that family of websites there as well as AFB Press, and a lot of those programs had just come over.  We used that COVID time to kind of reengineer those websites, improve their usability, expand.  We started looking for new voices and new talent to help manage those websites, and we've seen incredible growth.  So that's been very exciting.  We've seen the usage on those sites go up as well, and it's really been excellent. 
	Also, during the time of COVID, we launched the hive, and I don't know if I've had a chance to talk to you about the hive or what the hive is.  Prior to COVID, we decided at APH, one of our roles and responsibilities to the field was to become this collector of knowledge and information.  Not from a position of a hoarder.  We didn't want to be that.  But we knew that there was excellent, throughout the field, every agency, every program, every school, likewise universities, had these amazing caches of knowledge.  Some of that was virtual.  Some of that was in the form of whitepapers.  Some of that was in the form of demonstration videos.  But there was knowledge out there, and we felt if we could help create a platform that would gather that information together -- so in essence, and we chose the idea of the work, we chose the word hive, because our field -- if you think of our field as being a beehive and all of you play a role in this, everyone who is in this field, everyone who has a lived experience with blindness as well as everyone like myself who has spent their career in this field, has something to offer.  Whether that's opinion, whether that's information, whether that's shared life experience.  
So if we're all these bees, the ideas of how a beehive work, so they tell me -- I'm not real familiar with apiaries, but what they say is bees go out and gather pollen, gather knowledge, bring it back to the hive.  And over time, that knowledge becomes gold.  That becomes the honey.  So we use that term, the hive.  If we could look at the field, if we could gather that information or at least create signposts -- when someone came to this website and said, I want to know about living with blindness, and they would type in "living with blindness," there would be something from ACB, something from the Washington State School for the Blind, a whole host of places that people could link to and we would do a good job of everybody telling their story.  So that was the intent of the hive and then COVID hit and that got sidetracked.  
So using that platform, we marshalled resources of teachers from across the country and were able to provide online education, three and four classes a day, to students, for the entire -- my gosh, remaining 2020 school year and most of the 2021 school year.  And then we started to back off as students returned to school, but we still are offering about -- I'm trying to think, our numbers, looking at our numbers from last year as we collated those, we were averaging about 900 visitors to online trainings every month, and that represented individuals, families, parents, teachers, students themselves from over 40 different countries coming in and the numbers, over 900 -- I mean, it was really incredible, the number of people were still accessing those resources. 
	So that next part of creating that signpost or the true original purpose of the hive is still underway, going on right now. 
	Next going on, I'm just going to move through this, because I know you've got lots more things to do today, but you know, talking about Connect Center and the hive, what became apparent during COVID, products needed to become more than just APH products, so we reorganized a little bit and looking at this idea of -- we used to be about 85% products, 15% services.  We're now about 65-35, and we are going to be looking over the next five years of getting that closer to 55, 45, or 50/50, which means our resources and our energies are as much to support people in the field or people living with blindness as we are doing with products themselves.  
But I do want to talk about products.  And I hope most of you had a chance to get your hands on the Monarch.  [Applause] 
Yeah.  For those who didn't get to see the Monarch, you will soon enough.  The Monarch, briefly, is, I believe, the first successful -- there's been a lot of attempts, one of these attempts with Oregon research with the graffiti, we had a mixed bag of results and that's because we didn't have the right technology at the time, but that's a part of every new invention.  There's a lot of learning.  There's a lot of success.  There's a lot of setbacks.  But I'm happy to report that we actually -- I think we cracked the code.  Well, let me talk about the Monarch.  If you didn't see it, it's about the size of a gaming laptop, weighs four pounds, 32 cells per line, the first in Braille and graphics on the same page, which is incredibly exciting.  
I've been in this field 40 years.  I started when there were no computer programs and translated Braille and you had to do all that work on the Perkins every night to make sure your students were ready to go the next day.  And I think many of you remember the struggle of going through high school and math books and multiple volumes out plus a graphics page and the teacher saying we're on problem 16 and the amount of time and effort it took you to get to problem 16.  
So our first test case with the Monarch is this idea of having this device on your desk and the teacher says page 321, problem 22, you will type that in, and it will take you there.  Real time in the classroom.  There will be a hyperlink, you tap that, it pulls up the graphic.  It will allow to you input on that graphic.  So if it's marked the plots on the graph, you can mark the plots on the Monarch, hit save and send it to your teacher.  This is where we're going technology, partners with HumanWare, incorporated.  We have a ways to go.  I'll be honest with you.  But the early results are great.  We have over 100 of these units embedded beta testing right now, we have 300 coming, will begin training teachers in January on these units.  What we have found in technology, if we don't train teachers and trainers, they will not embrace the technology.  We put the technology out there without training who are supposed to teach the training, a lot of times it ends up on the shelf.  And we don't want to create an expensive door stop.  We want students to use it, so we will begin that process. 
	Then the goal by 2024, we are shooting for 2,000 units for students in the upper grades for this 2024 school year beginning August-September of 2024.  So it's -- things are coming fast.  But it's pretty amazing. 
	The other thing with the Monarch, in order for this to be successful, one of the things we had to do was reinvent the BRF standard.  The BRT was never designed for a multiline Braille display.  We needed a smart standard.  We needed a standard that would allow you to format and hold that format when you switched through varying Braille codes.  We needed a standard that would allow to you put in a "go to" command that would allow you to remember that, remember pagination.  This was no small feat.  This was -- we needed legal, but we had over 40,000 Braille agencies from around the globe come to an agreement on a BRF standard.  Yeah.  [Applause]    
And once we received the green, we handed it off to the Daisy Consortium, but that is exciting news.  Whether the Monarch is just going to be the first of many devices, this is where the future is going.  That's our hope.  Our hope is within five years, consumers can go out, say, I don't want the APH HumanWare Monarch.  I want the Vispero brand or the insert name here.  There will be many different tablets to choose from, many different multiline Braille devices and you need a standard to support all those devices.  That's the beauty of the standard. 
	The other thing, we'll be releasing a software development kit for this device.  Similar to when the iPad released, there were not a lot of apps that you could put down on an iPad, but what Apple did was allow people to create apps that met the needs of individuals or whether it was a passion project for identifying plants or knitting or whatever that was, people were able to do that.  So we're going to do the same thing with the Monarch, if you have a passion project, whether it's geography or whether it is -- whatever that might be.  Gardening, you can create an app that could be downloaded to the Monarch in much the same way you could download an app from the play store or Apple Store, put that on the Monarch as well.  We talked about software development. 
	Last, but not least, if you haven't heard, we are in the process of doing a big remodel at APH.  Remodels are great when they're done.  They're no fun when you're going through the middle of it, but it's an old building, and it's being gutted and redone on the front end. 
	More importantly, we are redoing the museum at the American Printing House for the blind.  And it's no longer the museum American printing house for the blind, but it's going to be the dot experience, dot being Braille.  Dot experience, our goal is to make this the most accessible museum experience in the world.  And the way we did that was we started with the blindness community.  We started with people who have the lived experience.  And we have also enlisted consultants who are blind, who are helping us develop that museum so that it makes sense for someone who is blind, DeafBlind, mobility impaired, somebody who might have sensory challenges, we want to make sure this experience meets the needs of all.  So that's one aspect. 
	The other thing we wanted to do at this museum, experience, not just make it not about our amazing treasures that we have at APH, the Lee Brailles book, Helen Keller, Buddy's Harness.  All of those are wonderful.  But when you go through a museum, you saw some cool stuff.  Great.  How did that change your life?  
Our biggest challenge in the field of education and I see it in the field of life, and this is my sight-biased perspective, so forgive me if I'm wrong, is not -- one is expectation.  Expectation for my students, you know, when I -- I had all my students would be given the B for blind in their grades and I would sometimes push against that.  They did D work.  Why did you give them a B?  Challenging expectations for students and making that stick.  
So when we come to this experience -- anyone who is sighted to go through those experience, I want to do a couple of things or we want to do a couple of things.  We want to demystify blindness.  When you come through the experience, the first part of the museum will be an introduction to blindness, not in the way of we're throwing a sleep shade over you or putting you in a dark room but we want to show you people who live life every day with blindness and low vision.  And, you know, there will be some of those people who are doing extraordinary things, but we're going to hear about people who live life normally like we do, who get up every day, get the kids off to school, putting your shoes on one at a time, taking transit to work.  You know, so you'll see someone who is an office person.  You know, we didn't want to just put up -- this is not a knock against those individuals who have done amazing things like Erik Weihenmayer, but not all of us want to climb Everest or are in any shape to climb Everest.  We want to tell the everyday stories of people who say, blindness is no big deal.  It's no big deal.  
I'm sorry, some of you probably get told how amazing and wonderful you are -- and you are when you do amazing, wonderful things.  But I'm sure you probably get tired of this, oh, my gosh, you got yourself to work on time.  That's amazing.  You found your way to the grocery store.  That's so inspiring.  It's like, get out of my way.  Get me to the peanut butter.  Get out of my way. 
	So we wanted to demystify blindness, remove those stereotypes, take the sainthood off of blindness and just say, hey, it's people.  It's people.  Yes, there are challenges, but it's people.  [Applause]    
So we'll start with that.  We'll start with -- and this will all be through video narratives and stories being told and you'll be introduced, everything from photographers to woodwork to office workers to teachers to students who are just living life and then we'll introduce you to the tools that make that possible, that will introduce you to, you know, some of those bigger names, probably, from the field, like the Helen Kellers will also get into the APH history and products.  At the end, we'll bring everybody back out on the back end, we'll challenge people and say, okay, there's a lot of roles you can play.  We need you to get rid of your ableist attitude.  No more ableism.  If we can change that, we believe we can help this field the greatest.  
But we want to help everyone become an ally.  So we're trying to figure out what is the best way to do that.  There may be political opportunities.  We want you to move the needle.  Write your Congress person.  Here's the address for that.  Here's how we can connect you with the training center or rehab center.  But this whole idea, we want to make sure when people walk out those doors after this experience that they are changed people.  They have a change of heart.  They won't -- they won't look on somebody with pity.  They won't be scared of blindnesses anymore.  They'll have a healthy attitude.  They'll have higher expectations.  And they'll be engaged.  We want the sighted field to become allies with us as we work towards creating an equitable be society.  So that's what we're shooting for at the museum. 
	And that's a tall pass.  We are having weekly meetings.  What if we did this, and it's big groups, and we're debating that and some ideas are going forward and some are being couched or shot down and we reframe those things.  So we're excited about this.  If everything goes according to plan, this museum should be opening probably the summer of 2025 or early fall.  But we'll get more information out about that.  That's APH in a nutshell right now.  A lot of activity.  A lot of growth.  A lot of things underway and I appreciate the opportunity just to get up here and bring you all up to speed on all of that.  With that, I wish you all a great rest of your conference.  I know you're getting towards the tail end here.  But, you know, it's -- I appreciate, once again, appreciate the opportunity to be with you in these final days and thank you for your flexibility and allowing me to come in towards the end here and wish you all the best.  [Applause] 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  There we go.  Thank you so much, Craig, that's fabulous.  We're going to be taking a break.  I tell you what we're going to do because I know how much you like to ask people questions.  So if you will -- we'll do the door prizes after the break, we'll be taking a 10-minute break.  If you have a question for Craig, we will take one question from the room and one in Zoom.  If you need to grab a break, this would be the time to do it.  He's coming back.  He better come back, encore performance.  You don't get off without no questions. 
	All right.  I will take one question in Zoom and then I will take one question in the Zoom.  To be acknowledged in the Zoom, you'll need to go to a microphone.  
	>> CHANELLE ALLEN:  We just got one.  We have Rachel.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Go ahead, Rachel.  
	>> RACHEL:  Hello?  Good morning, Deb.  Good morning, Chanelle.  Good morning, Craig.  My name is Rachel.  I'm calling in from Massachusetts.  What was the device that you mentioned, you said it was the size of a small restaurant.  Thank you.  
	>> CRAIG:  Yes, Rachel, that device is called the Monarch.  The Monarch is our multiline graphic tablet.  And it's not available for sale yet.  We have 100 of those that have been developed and are in testing phases, and then we will be starting training with staff and teachers this January, January 2024 coming up with about 300 of those devices.  We are -- we are taking applicants for that process and then we will begin distributing those to students in September, 2024.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Excellent.  Thank you.  And one question from the room.  
	>> Wesley Brown, Portland, Oregon.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Go ahead, Wesley.  
	>> Appreciate you're doing this at the museum and the people with safe streets and going to do that.  But in a sense, like the dark room, the scared straight thing, not just total blindness, but somehow simulate the higher levels of sight impairment, so not the -- have some that would impair their vision, but similar to 200, or sight, for instance.  
	>> CRAIG:  Yes, the question, that warrants some clarification.  So we will be doing some of that.  We will have opportunities for people to put on the different glasses or the goggles that emulate that.  We're going to try to do that in a way that educates and reinforces a positive message rather than -- because that's going to be one of the things.  People think blindness, they immediately think you can't see anything.  
	>> Exactly.  
	>> CRAIG:  No, blindness is a spectrum.  We will be educating people on the spectrum of blindness.  It goes from, you know, legally blind to, you know, remaining vision to field loss to whatever.  But we're going to expand their understanding of blindness because the reality is, as we get older, all of us are going to be impacted by this at one level or another.  It's -- so, you know -- we have a lot of education to do.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  All right.  Thank you so much, Craig.  Thank you for the questions.  I'm looking forward to -- Craig said there are going to be all these other Monarch devices.  I'm planning to buy the dictator.  We are on break until 10:30, then we will be back with door prizes and election results.  
	>> For the Media 1 staff, we're going to go on mute while we're on break so that we don't pick up extraneous stuff.  Stay tuned, everybody, stand by, and we'll be back in about 10 minutes.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  He's being much more generous.  I see it's after 10:30, so you're already on negative time with me.  10:45, door prizes and election results.  [Break] 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  I'm holding on to the election results until after the break, and where are the door prize people?  Go for it.  Can you get to a mic?  I need some door prizes.  
	>> Good morning, ACB!  Yes!  I've got people saying, call my name.  Who wants to win some money?  All right.  I think I can help a few people out with that.  All right.  The first prize from Austin Council of the Blind, $20, and this one goes to Evan Watts, an in-person participant.  Okay.  $25 from Florida Council of the Blind, this one goes to a virtual participant, Robert Turner!  Robert Turner from California.  All right.  
	>> I have three more, Madam President.  How many would you like?  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Just one more now and we'll do two at the end. 
	>> $20, again, Austin Council of the Blind.  This one goes to a participant that was in person but is now virtual, Sharon Howerton.  
	>> Madam President, this is Allan Peterson, I've picked up four more raffle tickets.  For those who had the strategy to wait until the last minute to buy a raffle ticket because you think that's the lucky ticket, I have those tickets.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Allan has the track record.  He's got four more.  Thank you, Allan, still up there in North Dakota section.  I'd like to call on Nancy Becker, our election supervisor, for the election results.  That should take about an hour to report.  Let's go!  
	>> NANCY BECKER:  The first one was 2023-06.  The grand total, for was 543.5.  Against, 203.5.  Total count was 747. 
	The affiliate vote, the percentages was 72.1%.  That was for the resolution.  29.7 against the resolution.  The individual vote was 73.3 for the resolution, 26.7 against the resolution.  Grand total percentages, 72.8% for the resolution, 27.2 against the resolution. 
	Resolution 2023-12.  The grand total was -- 573 that were for the resolution, 177 against the resolution.  For a total of 750.  One thing I wanted to point out you will notice different grand totals from resolution.  Individual votes, there are individual abstains and we don't count the abstain votes.  So there will be a difference. 
	So the number -- the affiliate vote was 266 for the resolution, 80 against the resolution.  That total was 346.  So that was 76.9% of the affiliates were for, 23.1% against it. 
	Standing vote, 307 that were for the resolution, 97 against the resolution for a total of 404. 
	Individual vote, 76% were for the resolution, 24% was against. 
	Grand total, 76.4% were for the resolution and 23.6 was against. 
	Next one, resolution 2023-13.  The grand total was 584.5 for the resolution, 162.5 against the resolution.  Here's the breakdown.  Affiliate vote, 274.5 for the resolution, and 71.5 against the resolution. 
	In the individual vote, 310 for the resolution, 91 against.  The affiliate -- the percentage breakdown for the affiliate vote, 79.3 for the resolution, 20.7 was against the resolution.  In the individual vote, 77.3 was for the resolution, 22.7 was against.  Grand total, 727. 
	The grand total percentages, 78.2 for the resolution, 21.8% against. 
	The next one is 2023-01, and that's the amendment.  There were 736 for the amendment, 14 against the amendment for a total of 750.  The breakdown is 339 votes for the amendment and 7 against.  That was a total of 346.  Individual votes, 397 were for the amendment, and 7 were against for a total of 404. 
	On the percentage side, 98% of the affiliates were for the amendment, 2% were against.  In the individual vote, 98.3 were for the amendment, 1.7 was against.  Grand total percentage was 98.1% for the amendment, 1.9% against. 
	Last, 2023-01 -- 02, sorry.  Bright lights in my eyes.  I'm on stage here.  David says he knows the feeling.  So the grand total for 2023-02 was 723 for the amendment, 22 against the amendment.  The total vote, 745.  The affiliate vote was 336 for the amendment, 10 against the amendment.  346 total. 
	In the individual vote, 387 were for the amendment, 12 were against the amendment.  And that total vote was 399. 
	Percentage breakdown for affiliate vote, 97.1% was for the amendment, 2.9% was against.  In the individual vote, 97 was for the amendment, 3% was against.  And the grand total, 97% was for the amendment and 3% were against.  Madam President.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  All pass.  
	>> Thank you very much.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Thank you for that.  That was a lot of voting.  I'm now going to turn the program over for the presiding officer for the day.  I'm so confused about what his job is these days.  Let's see.  He has been our treasurer for the past six years and he is now your newly elected First Vice President, Mr. David Trott from Talladega, Alabama.  
	>> DAVID TROTT:  Good morning, ACB, after hearing the vote count I felt like I was on C-SPAN.  If I'm a little slow on you, Nancy is right, it's bright up here.  You know, it is what it is. 
	We're back now with our other ACB angels that we held from this morning.  Let me get to my spot on the tape.  We have first, Travis Lee Johnson from Arkansas.  
	>> Against a sparkling background, the letters, ACB, and below each, the corresponding Braille cell.  ACB presents ACB angels, Travis Lee Johnson, November 10, 1945.  
>> Good morning, my name is Holly Johnson.  I am the daughter of the late Travis L.  Johnson from Arkansas.  My father was a founding member of the -- first treasurer.  If you knew my dad, he was funny, sarcastic.  He was just a wonderful human being.  He had a wonderful sense of humor, also, so knowledgeable.  And my dad was the best, the best dad that I could have ever asked for.  
As a child, I remember watching him leave for work and I was wondering, was he going to bring me back something.  Because he worked at the rehabilitation council, division of services for the blind in Little Rock, and sometimes he would have to go work the program if one of his employees didn't show up.  And what happened, he would always bring home -- and would always bring me a blueberry donut.  As a four or 5-year-old, that sticks in your mind.  As an adult, I still love blueberry donuts.  He would spend Saturdays with me, taking me to McDonald's and running errands and it would be an afternoon of he and I.  
My brother fondly remembers getting on the Amtrak train about 8:00 one night and going to Chicago, getting off the next morning, going to Shedd Aquarium and a baseball game, the lakes, and my brother remembers that it was easy.  He didn't know if there are any hiccups.  My dad had it all planned out and if there were hiccups, nobody knew about it.  That's how life was with my dad, easy.  He always had everything taken care of.  Before you thought of it, he had it taken care of.  We would travel as a family, and you would never know if something was going wrong or didn't work out the way it was supposed to.  We didn't know.  He didn't tell us.  He just made other arrangements and made other plans and we just went from there.  
He was a grandfather.  He was called Paw-Paw, Paw-Paw to six babies, and those babies miss him, 17, 16, and 13 now.  They miss him just like we do, Paw-Paw, waiting at the back door waiting for him and sitting on the couch listening to their days and being encouraging and supportive and just loving them, and I think that's the biggest thing is that we miss his encouragement and we miss his listening to us.  
He just had a pretty sarcastic sense of humor, and it was December, December of 2021, a few months before he passed, my sister-in-law had been in the pantry, she said, there's no oatmeal, Travis, there's no oatmeal.  He said, yes, there is.  He came shuffling into the pantry and there was silence and wrestling and all the sudden, I heard his deadpan voice say, I told you there was oatmeal.  And my sister-in-law said Travis, and you could hear him laugh.  As he came around the corner, I saw him smiling and that had been very rare because he had -- his health had been declining and he didn't want to smile as much, but it was just this moment of, he was right, and when he was right, he was going to let you know he was right.  And there was going to be no other way about it. 
	You could go to him with any problem.  You could discuss anything with him.  And he would always tell you, it's going to work out.  It's going to be okay.  And it was.  It never was not.  When he would say that, you knew.  You knew that it was going to be okay.  And it was.  And as a family, that's what we miss.  We miss that encouragement.  We miss his presence.  We just miss him.  And we thank you so much for honoring him in this way.  The ones who knew him, you were so blessed.  If you didn't, you missed out on such a wonderful human being.  Thank you.  
	>> The logo, ACB in print and Braille, American Council of the Blind, together for a bright future.  
	>> Now we have Raymond Washburn from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  
	>> Against a sparkling background, ACB, and below each, its corresponding Braille cell.  ACB presents ACB angel.  Raymond Washburn, January 5, 1947, an Native American man.  Kim Venable.  
	>> KIM VENABLE:  An honor to the Native American community.  Prior to his heroic risk of five people on the Oklahoma City -- Raymond was a hero in a way that he loved his wife, although he was born blind, he never allowed his disability to keep him from living a full life, whether it was learning tribal dances, in a traveling jazz band, School for the Blind to competing in beat ball or running his own busy.  The UT tribe of Tuskegee, this is fitting.  It has been said several times since his passing in January of '22 that the powwow eliminated the darkness, therefore, despite being blind, Raymond could see his way out of the Murrah building, just as he had made his way through the darkness and his entire life.  Ray passed away on January 16, 2022, at his home at the age of 75. 
	Raymond Lee Washburn passed away January 16, 2022 at his home at the age of 75.  Raymond was born January 5, 1947 in Bristow, OK to Dimmie and Marie Yarborough Washburn.  Raymond was a longtime resident of Oklahoma City and a very large part of the blind community, having lost his sight as a child.  He graduated from the Oklahoma School for the Blind in Muskogee where he also became an Oklahoma State Wrestling Champion.  He was past president of Randolph-Sheppard Vendors of America, the Oklahoma Council of the Blind, the Oklahoma League of the Blind Credit Union, and an avid beep ball player.  Raymond was also a ham radio operator, K85NLO.  
Raymond was a decades-long Oklahoma City resident most known for his heroism for leading people to safety and survival of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995.  For 32 years, Raymond owned and operated the snack bar on the 4th floor of the Murrah Building through the State of Oklahoma’s Blind Vending Stand program.  On that day, Raymond managed to free himself and rescue four customers and one employee from the rubble by leading them out of the building using his sense of direction.  This, upon hearing their cries amidst the concrete dust and debris piercing their eyes:  “I can’t see!” 
Raymond was a proud member of the Yuchi Tribe of Native Americans in Oklahoma.  He was preceded in death by his parents and 2 sisters, Frances and Florence.  He is survived by his wife, Mary Lou; children Diane Harper and Jay Hallmark; 3 grandchildren, Dominick “Icky” Harper, Leane “Bunchie” Harper and Diamond “Diamond Boy” Harper; his last living aunt, Ethelene Conley; and his beloved dog Poncho, as well as many other relatives and friends.  
	>> The logo, ACB, in print and Braille, American Council of the Blind, together for a bright future.  [Applause] 
	>> DAVID TROTT:  Thank all of you who brought these angels forth this year and gave us the opportunity to recognize the losses we have from ACB.  Most of us here know all these people, and it's just a great opportunity to recognize their meaning to ACB and their meaning to us as the ACB family.  [Applause] 
No, I'm not fixing to give the trick.  Actually, we're going to have our ACB Growth report from Dan Spoone, our interim Executive Director from Orlando, Florida, and Nancy Marks-Becker, our CEO from -- the place I would never live.  Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota.  
	>> DAN SPOONE:  Good morning, everyone.  While Nancy is grabbing the other mic as we were listening to Raymond's testimony, my grandfather, Raymond, was an avid ham radio operator and today, WW4, KKR, signing off.  I grew up with that.  Ham radio operators, love their call signals.  Are we ready, Nancy?  
	>> NANCY BECKER:  We are.  We are settled.  
	>> DAN SPOONE:  We are settled, Nancy.  I'd like to take these next few minutes and talk to you about the health of ACB, our staff, and what we've accomplished a little bit here over the last 12 months, and then what we have looking forward into the future.  So this is kind of the unique opportunity.  I have to admit for myself, you know, I was planning coming to this convention for my last time as the ACB president and Deb Cook Lewis has done an amazing job in that role and you all were so wise in electing her president for the next two years.  So thank you, Deb, it's been wonderful as first the First Vice President and also, as my boss, as the chairman, I am president of the ACB board of directors. 
	Moving into the role as interim Executive Director has been -- it's been exciting.  I've learned a lot, and the first thing I've learned is how amazing your ACB staff truly is.  We meet every Monday morning with a staff meeting, where we try to do a little icebreaker and catch up on each other's activities for the week.  And we're divided into basically five departments.  So we have advocacy, which includes advocacy and the Audio Description Project.  We have membership services, which is both our membership as well as supporting our scholarship program and the ERPS [phonetic] program, so that's our team, and then the communication team which, of course, supports all of our communication next, including ACB Media, our Braille editor in Sharon, and that's our third team. 
	Our fourth team is our resource development team, and that's kind of a new really initialized team that is focused on fundraising and we'll talk about that more through the report.  And last, but not least, we have our management and administrative team, our office in Minnesota.  Nancy Marks-Becker wears so many hats for this organization.  She's not only our wonderful chief financial officer and we have received a totally clean audit for our work as an organization.  So she does her assigned job amazing well, but she also helps coordinate our thrift stores and helps people get their applications in for scholarship and she's very involved in the convention and on and on and on. 
	One of the things that's very important to me is we adhere to the four I principles.  Your Executive Director and your Chief Financial Officer should always be communicating and looking at things from our different disciplines.  And we don't move forward with a decision as your staff until both the CFO and the Executive Director believe it's the right thing to do. 
	So I'd like now like to introduce Nancy.  One of her other hats, she is our HR specialist until we can hire another HR person, and we've had several changes in our staff over the last year or two and I thought it would be good for Nancy to review the new people who have come onboard in our last 18 months to two years.  So Nancy.  
	>> NANCY BECKER:  That's great.  One thing I want to say about David Trott, Chris and -- they always make me look good, make sure the work is done and I am just the head, they are the ones that do all the work.  So the last couple of years ACB added new positions, contracted staff positions and filled open positions.  ACB needed to be more dedicated to the timely communication we were providing for our members and those in other communities.  So the last couple of years, a full-time manager of communication and ACB Media and IT manager positions were hired.  Along with the editor position that we already had, there are now three staff members and a contractor who are providing information to our members internally and others externally. 
	The next thing is we saw that development was very important to raising funds for ACB.  So the audio description and grant writer position was separated into two separate positions.  In development, in the development area, there is a resource development -- development contractor to provide us guidance, an associate director of development, and a development officer.  There is also now an Audio Description Project coordinator, where audio description can be focused on now full-time.  To be able to increase the contribution from the thrift store to ACB, it was determined that a general thrift store manager was needed.  And man, that has really helped out a lot for me. 
	When the pandemic began, ACB needed to pivot to find a new way to reach out not only to our members, but those within our community.  Community events were created to engage those within our community.  It was soon determined that a membership assistance was necessary to support this workload.  Otherwise, Cindy would have been run into the ground. 
	This year, the person who had the membership assistant person was promoted to development officer, and the membership assistant position was replaced with an ACB member.  Then about a year and a half ago, the Alexandria office needed support and providing support within the office. 
	Next, there are several staffing positions that are currently open.  The [indiscernible] accounting position is being converted to a full-time staff member, and I know this was something that was -- [indiscernible] earlier, but there were a lot of things going on so this is going to be my focus for the next two months so Lane can get on living with his life because he gave us six more months than he had committed to, and even though he's been there the last six months, even though he wanted to do other things, he will never say no.  He will say, whatever you need to do, I will do it to help you.  
	>> DAN SPOONE:  Thank you, Lane!  
	>> NANCY BECKER:  The human resource specialist position is open.  It will be a part-time position.  That needs to be filled in the next two months also.  Last, but not least, the next year the board will be in the position of filling the Executive Director position.  
	>> DAN SPOONE:  Thank you, Nancy.  And to put a few names with that, in our resource development team, the contractor, our consultant that's helping guide us is Bill Reeder, you may have heard his name, and Jo Lynn Bailey-Page, I know you've heard her name, and our new development officer is Kolby Garrison who moved over from membership services.  [Applause]  And that created an opening as an assistant for membership event planning.  The platform, and that is now Natalie Couch.  [Cheering and Applause] 
And then for our Audio Description Project, when Jo Lynn took the full-time job in resource development, that became Kamala Kenlon, and then the ACB store manager is Chris Sawyer.  Other duties, he's now our new mini mall manager, so you may have seen him in the exhibit hall this weekend.  And then our relatively new administrative assistant in the Alexandria office is Kaitlyn Herrera, and you may have met her at registration or on some of our tours.  And that's kind of the new face of ACB. 
	Next, we want to talk a little bit about where does our revenue and money come from to run our organization.  So you all know this, but for every member of ACB, if you're not a life member, your affiliate or -- contributes $5 for each member.  So that's -- that's where ACB's membership dues come from.  If you're an at-large member, and we have a few hundred of those, that fee is $10.  You have to pay an affiliate membership, whether you join one affiliate or multiple affiliates.  All of that rolls up into the American Council of the Blind.  That totals a little less than $50,000.  Now, $50,000 is money.  It's important.  We have a $2.5 million budget.  Which means our membership dues account for 2% of our revenue.  So one of the things that makes me lose the few hairs I have left on my head right now is where to find that other 98% of the revenue to run our organization.  We're very unique.  There's very few membership organizations that the members only create -- only contribute through their membership dues 2% of the money to run the organization. 
	Now, our members are very generous and through programs like monthly monetary support, auctions, walks, raffle ticket sales, individual contributions to the convention, there's another 18% that our members provide to this organization.  So when we put that together, almost 20% of our revenue comes from our members.  But that still leaves 80% that we've got to get from somewhere else.  So I just want everybody to be aware of that because as we continue to grow and develop, where do we get the finances to run the organization?  It's very important.  We are a nonprofit business, so we need -- we need -- I was going to make a joke if I heard a voice out there, but I'm not going to do it.  Hold your tongue, Dan Spoone.  But just keep that in mind, that that is one of the things your staff is working on.  And that's why we've increased the size of our development team is we've got to go find that money outside of our organization. 
	So with that said, I'm going to ask Nancy if she can review for us where our revenue comes in as a percentage of our budget and where our expenses go out as a percentage of our budget.  But before that, I want her to take a few moments and talk to you about a wonderful program that has really helped the American Council of the Blind over the last three years, and that, believe it or not, in a weird kind of way, financially, the pandemic was fairly good to ACB, because we kept everything going, as an amazing organization, we kept our conventions going.  We kept our membership involved.  We continued to thrive.  But in addition to that, we received money in both the PPP loans and the -- and the employee retention credit program through the federal government.  Now, that money is ending this year and there won't be more of it.  Nancy, how did we do?  
	>> NANCY BECKER:  Okay.  So Dan, the pandemic really changed our life, both personally and how our business was conducted.  Personally, it was very changing for us.  Everybody had to stay home, couldn't touch anybody, couldn't see anybody.  But business-wise, you know, we found it harder to conduct business as we had before.  Something that really helped us is ACB applied for, the PPP loans, the Paycheck Protection Program.  And we applied for loans for both ACB and ACBES at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 and then again in 2021.  Both these loans were forgiven by the federal government, and when the loans were forgiven, we needed to recognize this income -- or recognize this revenue.  So that really helped us out.  We got the cash, we already had recognized the income. 
	Now, on the other side, there was an opportunity to apply for the employee retention credit, and that's called ERC, and I'm sure you've heard something on TV about that, and that was for the past years, 2020 and 2021, and this is where we would -- wanted to receive a refund for a portion of our payroll taxes that we paid.  So produced credits for both organizations and the income was recognized when we submitted the application.  So this is the opposite.  We had to recognize the revenue before we got the cash.  We have received the cash for this -- EFC for ACB and ACBES for 2020, we have received the money for ACB for 2021 and I'm hoping it's waiting for me in the mailbox when I get back.  The important thing to know between these two programs, ACB and ACBES were fortunate to receive over $900,000 related to the pandemic, and that is a huge amount of money.  [Applause] 
	>> DAN SPOONE:  Thank you, Nancy.  So as you can see, that's about $300,000 that has come in as revenue to ACB over each of the last three years of '21, '22, and '23.  So again, working towards a balanced budget for 2024, Deb, all of us will be working as a board and a staff to figure out where do we get that $300,000 that's not going to be coming in from the federal this coming year.  So again, something to keep us -- an opportunity, as we move forward. 
	So -- all right.  I'm going to do some simple math with you guys because I'm a math person and I get myself in trouble sometimes.  So if we have a budget of $2.5 million, what's 10% of that?  $250,000.  Very good.  So what's 20%?  $500,000.  So as we start down these revenue goals, that will give you something to understand.  So I'm going to have Nancy kind of go through both our revenue and our expenses.  And to give you an example, the first revenue that we received money from are corporate relationships, like our sponsors for the convention, our sponsors for the ADA awards gala, the DC leadership conference, folks that give us grants for programs like JPMorgan Chase.  So those are our corporate relationships, which is 23% of our revenue, so a little over $500,000, right, so Nancy, take it away from our percentages of revenue.  
	>> NANCY BECKER:  Okay.  Corporate relationships is 20.5%.  Member event and programs, 18.5%.  
	>> DAN SPOONE:  That's the walks, the conventions, the MMS.  Thank you, members.  
	>> NANCY BECKER:  ACBES contribution is 2.1%, it was.  Resource development was 8%.  Other convention contributions is 5.6%.  So just a reminder, when you're listening on the expense side, all the expenses sit for -- sit on the expense side, but we have divided the sponsorships for the convention into two different areas. 
	The next area is scholarships.  2.6%.  Earned income, 3.6%.  Other income, 23%.  And that 23%, PPP money that was forgiven and the ERC money we received.  So that will not be recurring in future years.  
	>> DAN SPOONE:  Okay.  That's our revenue.  As you can see, most of it comes from corporations, our members, and the thrift stores.  Those are the three big annualized fundraisers. 
	Expenses, where do we spend our money?  We have nine key programs and services that the American Council of the Blind, per the approval of the board of directors, that the staff is responsible for delivering each and every year.  So Nancy, what are those nine programs and where do we spend our money?  
	>> NANCY BECKER:  Okay.  The programs should sound familiar.  Scholarship, 5.8%.  Convention, 18.8%.  Audio Description Project, 8.9%.  Information and peer support, 3.4%.  Advocacy and Government Affairs, 12.3%.  Membership services, 11.5%.  Public awareness, 8.4%.  The next one, management in general, 15.3%.  And fundraising is 5.6%.  So while all staff members are working on these programs, we do have some time that is management in general that doesn't relate to a specific program.  So it does fall in the management in general category for support staff.  
	>> DAN SPOONE:  For a well-run not-for-profit, you want to keep that management and fundraising amount around 20%, which we've done a really good job of throughout our time with the American Council of the Blind. 
	So that's kind of where we are for both our revenue and expense side.  What does that mean for the future?  I believe that we are in excellent shape with our staff at the current levels.  We obviously have to replace Lane with a new entry level accounting position and we have to follow through and hire our HR specialist.  That had been a problematic position.  It's hard to hire an HR specialist when you're a part-time person and you're the only one in the organization that does HR.  What we're finding is new entry-level folks want to be in a position where they can grow their career and be mentored and move up through the HR ladder.  If you have someone who is working full throttle in HR, they tend to be in the wanting to work part-time.  So we've tried to kind of work for that person that has the right fit for our organization and is at the point in their work-life journey where they're not looking for a full-time job and they need to be in the office.  So Nancy has continued to work through that, but those are kind of our challenges from a staffing standpoint. 
	Obviously, another challenge that we're going to have to work through as a board is to replace your interim Executive Director with a full-time Executive Director, and we need to do that in a very strategic and proper way.  We don't want to drop the ball.  We don't want to leave someone in a position where we surprise them and they can't perform.  I want to commend Deb as we were transitioning into the interim Executive Director role, the most important thing we felt is to make sure that we didn't let any balls dropped, that we kept getting the work done, and that's my commitment to you as the interim Executive Director.  We will work to make sure as we bring on the new Executive Director that we keep our eye on the ball and my goal is -- and I think this is Deb's goal and the board as well -- we would really like to have the new Executive Director position in place by next year's convention.  So that's what we're working towards.  So we'll keep that in mind.  
As I leave, our overarching concerns, to me, is to stay a healthy organization.  Opportunities for the future.  As we are going to have to find additional revenue.  And your challenge as a part of that is to be a conduit, not necessarily for yourselves, to give more money, but introduce us to your friends, your acquaintances, folks who know you, that maybe have access to more capital than you have access to. 
	What we learned over and over again inside of this organization is how many people know people who know people who know people who happen to be the vice president of the John Deere Company.  Or happen to be the vice president or the president of Walt Disney World.  I mean, it's amazing when we collectively address problems and situations how we can solve them.  So that's one issue.  But to me, the other big challenge for us as your interim Executive Director and your former ACB president, we have to figure out how to improve the health of our affiliates.  The affiliates are the lifeblood of ACB.  We are a membership-driven organization.  And ACB staff has to be here to play a helping role, but I'm actually challenging each of you all, how do we grow our membership?  How do we look inside each affiliate and figure out, what do we need to do to continue to bring members into this organization?  I know all of us have been through roll calls here several times today.  
When I first joined this organization, there were probably ten affiliates who had 25 members and they were maxed out.  We don't have any now.  We have a lot of affiliates that have one vote, two votes, three votes.  We have an opportunity here.  Your ACB staff is here to help.  But we, all together, have to work at bringing more people into our ACB family that we love so well.  Thank you all so much!  Go ACB!  [Applause]  
All right.  Talk about that, we're going to hear from some of the members of our resource and development team that worked with for many years now.  Actually chaired at one time.  And to tell you a little bit about the walk and the options and people are always asking me to let the numbers out and I like to save that for these people because these are the people that actually work in, month in and month out, to make sure these events go off.  At this time we have promotion committee, Leslie Spoone from Florida, we have Donna Brown from Virginia or West Virginia.  Okay.  And then we have the chair, Dan Dillon, from Hermitage, Tennessee.  [Applause] 
	>> DAN:  Well, good morning, everyone.  For the very few of you who don't know who I am, I do co-chair the resource development committee which oversees many of the fundraisers for ACB, and I'm going to be very brief.  I'm going to first of all say we're having a very successful Braille form raffle.  If there are any tickets left, there are very few.  So if you want to take a chance of winning $5,000, you need to buy one of these tickets and you can go in together with other people on these tickets.  They're $50 tickets.  So keep that in mind. 
	Now, also, I would like to recognize somebody who I understand has worked very hard in coordinating these presentations by the ACB Angels.  I'd like to recognize Kolby Garrison.  Yes, Kolby Garrison.  I call her a little songbird because she did such a beautiful job with "America the Beautiful" on the Fourth of July.  What a great job.  And she's a sweet lady and very, very energetic.  And I like that.  Very positive. 
	She projects very well too.  Thank you, Kolby.  So first of all, I'm going to introduce to you the Walk queen, Leslie Spoone.  
	>> LESLIE:  Well, thanks.  We can -- that's okay.  It's no biggie.  Know good morning, ACB!  So I can't say enough about you guys.  Oh, my gosh.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  This auction means so much to me, Brenda Dillon started it 17 years ago with Cindy Hollis and Jeff Thom.  Three of my wonderful good friends that have mentored me, guided me, shown me who to call, what to do, how to ask and how to pester everybody now.  So I can't say enough about these three people.  I love you all very much.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. 
	I can't say enough to all of you guys.  Thank you for donating.  Thank you for participating.  It takes all of you.  It's a team effort.  This auction means a lot to all of us.  It's fun.  It's energizing.  I love to see everybody bidding against everybody.  I laugh every night when we're doing it, the night of the auction when we're doing it.  It's great.  Thank you again. 
	I also have to say a special thank you to my husband, Dan Spoone.  He helps me so much with the appetizer auction.  So thank you, Dan.  It's a lot of love.  It's a lot of fun.  We kind of scream at each other what's going on, but it's fun.  We take risks and people call and they say, is that really Dan answering the phone?  And then we go on walks and he's talking bids while we're walking, go in and put the bids in.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  I can't say enough to Michael Garrett.  It was his idea for the appetizer auction after Carla Ruschival, so we have the main event with the auctioneers and the describers. 
	I have to thank my committee quickly.  Stay with me.  This is a lot.  And there are -- here we go.  Angela, Angela, Beth Coraly, Brian Charlson, Cicely Laney Nipper, Jeff Thom, Michael Garrett, Mary Hull, and Zelda Gebhart, and Nancy Marks-Becker that we can't do anything without.  How much have we recognized?  Over $40,000.  [Cheering and Applause] 
So thank you, thank you, thank you, and here you go.  Are you guys ready?  Are you ready for the challenge?  Stay tuned for the ACB Media holiday auction!  And I'm going to turn it over to my friend Donna Brown for the walk.  Thank you, guys!  [Applause] 
	>> DONNA:  I am the short one today, of this group.  Good day.  I don't know, morning, afternoon, whatever time it is, ACB, wherever you might be.  We don't happen to have the Walk song ready to play, do we?  
	>> Unfortunately, we don't.  
	>> DONNA:  Well, anyway, y'all are missing out on hearing a good song.  Sorry about that.  But anyway, our walk, it is still happening.  As of -- well, about 10:15 or so this morning, now, I want you to understand, when you look on the website, you're going to see a different number than I'm giving you, but don't panic.  It's all good.  So on -- as of now, we were over $46,000.  [Applause] 
But, but, but, it is not too late to give.  It is not too late to even register if you want to.  That's okay too.  That counts.  Our goal is $62,000.  I know we can get there.  So who is going to help us get to $50,000 by maybe like July 15th?  I think that's a good goal.  Let's be at $50,000, at least, by July 15th.  That's a week away, but we can do it.  I want to thank so many of you.  We have these interesting little challenges this year.  We actually had put it out there for the ACB membership to vote on a theme, and I am proud to say that it was a West Virginian whose theme was chosen.  Stepping out with ACB, and that was Jackie Procter from West Virginia.  So we also had challenges.  
If you remember, ACB is 62 years old.  Not quite as old as me.  But the 62nd person to register for the walk was Patty Slaby, so she received a gift card.  And then the first team -- and right now, the only team, I think that will change -- to reach $6,200 and way past it, the ACB Sugar Warriors.  And so quickly, I -- we are over $46,000.  There are, right now, five teams who are over 20,000 -- no, 2,000.  I'll get it yet.  And one, a couple of teams that are not too far away.  So let's see if we can get maybe 10 teams over $2,000.  Wouldn't that be awesome?  
So I want to thank my committee, because they're the best.  Leslie Spoone, my co-chair, Dan Dillon is also, Glenda Allison from Tennessee, Melvin Smith from Missouri, and Melvin was very responsible for getting those wonderful Walk bags.  Peggy Frederick from Ohio, Donna Browning from Alexandria, Virginia, because I'm from West Virginia, David.  And Amanda Stone from Kentucky.  And with the bags, there are two people who received Walk bags on Saturday, and they were left up here on the stage.  I would think you probably want them.  I have them.  So find the West Virginia delegation and I will give you your bags.  And also, there are a few extra if you've registered for the walk and you did not get a bag, see either myself or Leslie Spoone.  Thank you, ACB, for all your hard work for the ACB Brenda Dillon Memorial Walk.  [Applause] [Music] 
We're stepping out with ACB, put on your walking shoes, time to talk for the Brenda Dillon memorial walk, getting ready in time, we are moving and walking steady, American Council of the Blind.  Everyone, now that we're done, come on and join in the fun.  It's stepping out with ACB, put on your walking shoes, time to talk, stepping out with ACB for the Brenda Dillon Memorial Walk.  [Applause] 
	>> DAVID TROTT:  What a great report there, what makes it come together is you, your friends and local communities for the walk and we always get together at my house and have auction parties and listen to the auction, and give $500 for Brian's cookies.  It's just a great event and thank all of you for the contribution you make to ACB. 
	Okay.  At this time, I want to recognize a couple of people in the room who have meant a lot to me and helped me in my career with ACB, because their treasurers, just like I am, fixing to be a has-been.  We have Brian Charlson, who has been a treasurer of ACB.  [Applause] 
We have Mike Eddino [phonetic], who has been the treasurer of ACB.  And I'm going to tell you this next one, I'm going to tell you a little bit about her first.  You know, we had the ACB store, and Rhonda run it for several years and she enjoyed it.  Rhonda did two tours.  And Carla Ruschival who was treasurer at that time who says, we need a mini mall.  And the ACB branding, you know, money is important, but also, the branding of ACB that gives you the opportunity to wear an ACB shirt, maybe to have that 30-second elevator info speech about ACB.  So the value of the mini mall is so important.  And Carla worked hard, extremely hard, and done a wonderful job of bringing it up to be a great branding opportunity for ACB and she did a great job as treasurer and she's been one of my many mentors in ACB, so thank you, Carla.  [Applause] 
Now, I'm going to back to reading again, and bear in mind, no Braille, so just stick with me.  This will be my last treasurer's report.  Unless something weird happens.  2023 treasurer's report, fiscal year 2022.  The 2022 financial statement for -- once again, we received a clean audit.  Somebody stole my thunder on that one.  Surplus, ACB operations, which include business, thrift stores, contributions, and convention was $112,800.  This was $345,000 above the approved budget.  That tells you, we didn't expect much. 
	Now, we expected, you know, to go in the hole last year.  That's why it's above. 
	Revenue was $2,227,920.  And I will provide a brief breakdown of the revenue categories.  Individual donations, $134,000.  So that includes individuals, conventions sponsorships and donations made for a specific purpose.  Affiliate donations is $18,200, and provides support for ACB Media, the scholarships program, and the Braille for the magazine.  To name a few. 
	Fundraising donations generated, $218,300.  This includes MMS donations, convention and holiday auctions, the walk, and the Braille form raffle. 
	Membership revenue, state, special interest affiliates, and individual memberships, $46,600.  Program revenue earned from the audio description institute and legislative seminar, $39,800.  ACB received grants totaling $156,000.  This is -- if you don't catch this from year to year, remember, this is a banner year for grants.  $156,000. 
	Dues funds helped cover some of the costs associated with ACB projects such as the production of the Braille forum magazine, community events, and supporting ACB infrastructure. 
	Corporate donations were $673,400.  These donation were made in the form of sponsorships for the convention, the gala, the walk, the DC leadership, and for audio description at the National Park Services. 
	Convention revenue, excluding convention and individual sponsorships, was $126,900. 
	Investment revenue.  Generated through dividends and portfolios -- sorry, I can't read this.  I'm sorry.  Audio reallocation was $258,200.  Miscellaneous revenue was $556,520.  This included the 2021 PPP loan for $162,000 that was forgiven and recognized in 2022.  And the $214,000 from the Employee Retention Credit.  The expenses were $2,530,589.  Below is a list including direct cost and benefit expenses.  Scholarships and awards were $139,200.  Convention, $491,400.  Audio Description Project, $219,200.  Advocacy and Government Affairs, $322,200.  Information and peer support, the blind and visually impaired community was $92,900. 
	Membership services was $326,100.  Public awareness through ACB communications channels such as ACB Media, social media posts, and by providing members with relevant information was $481,600.  Management and fundraising was $457,999.  And on December 31 of 2022, the value of ACB investment account was $4.3 million.  This was a decrease of $900,000 in 2022. 
	Now, that is a figure, that [indiscernible].  And it is somewhat worrisome, but it's not the end of the world.  We don't go grab that money out.  And some of it's already coming back through this year.  So when you go home, think about it as, you've blown it.  And someday you hope to get it back.  But I have thoroughly enjoyed being your treasurer, and I appreciate the opportunity to serve you in any role, but I'll tell you, with his skills and his investment background, Michael Garrett will serve you well.  [Applause] 
And I said that to say that I kind of glanced by ACBES, because at the board meeting, I stole his thunder.  He's video.  So you don't get to ask him any questions.  He's happy about that.  Next up, Rick, if you could, this is the interview or the report from the ACBES program that's our enterprises and services, business side of ACB.  
	>> MICHAEL:  Greetings, ACB.  I'm Michael Garrett, and I have the distinct honor and pleasure of serving as the chairman for the American Council of the Blind Enterprises and services.  Or ACBES, as we call it.  And my colleague who served with me on the board include Jeff Thom, David [indiscernible], Kim Charlson, George Holiday, and our newest member, Terry Pacheco, a wholly owned subsidiary of ACB and consists of two thrift stores, which operate in Amarillo and Lubbock, Texas.  In 2022, the net contribution from stores to ACB totaled $495,200.  Store revenue increased almost 9% for the year.  This was accomplished by focusing on maximizing shopping experience of each store by welcoming customers as they come in or while they're shopping by having enough merchandise to entice them to continue shopping, by displaying outfits together so that shoppers can see what actually works for them, by providing a calendar of upcoming [indiscernible] and by using social media postings which display unique items that can be found in the store.  
In 2022, ACBES received forgiveness for the 2021 PPP loan or the Paycheck Protection Program.  So we recognized $75,000 in revenue.  We also recognized $127,000 for employee retention credit we applied for for payroll taxes. 
	Many thanks go to our great staff, which oversees the thrift store operations.  Led by Nancy Becker, our CFO, and Chris Sawyer, our general manager, who oversees the day-to-day operations.  His valuable experience in the discount retail business is an integral part of the success we are experiencing today.  We are also fortunate to have two strong managers in each store and a staff of dedicated employees to get the purchase out to the floor and make sure our customers are welcome when they come in. 
	So you can see we are making progress toward our goal.  Our goal is, and continues to be, to contribute 20% or more to the overall ACB budget.  We're on our way, and we're working hard because we believe we see a bright future at ACBES.  [Applause] 
	>> DAVID TROTT:  And that revenue has continued to grow for us.  It wasn't too long ago that we didn't even -- wasn't able to present any money to the budget line.  I know that used to frustrate Mitch Pomerantz to no end because I was there and we talked plenty about it.  We're rolling it back, and it was largely due to Michael's stewardship, being the chairperson of the ACBES committee and Nancy Becker until we bring Chris onboard. 
	You know, when you hear about ACBES, know now that it is two thrift stores in Texas and know that they're bringing us in well in excess of $300,000 a year to ACB.  [Applause]  You know, if you've heard me campaign or you've talked to me on the phone, you know I'm always talking about membership and the value of membership and how we need to go back to our affiliates and get them to go to work.  And we've got one of my dear friends that has been a friend of mine for many years that I can't think of anybody else that would be any better in this position than she is, so at this time, we're going to have our membership and affiliate relationships report from Ms. Cindy Hollis.  
[Cheering and Applause] manager of membership engagement.  She is now -- she is in Flat Rock, Minnesota.  
	>> CINDY HOLLIS:  Flat Rock, Michigan.  
	>> DAVID TROTT:  I'm from Alabama.  You guys remember that.  
	>> CINDY HOLLIS:  They all know where I live.  Hello, everybody.  You know, when I spoke to you four years ago, to anybody that would listen, I approached about embrace, engage, empower.  Does anybody remember that?  [Cheering and Applause] 
Well, at that time I knew that the way to grow this organization was for all affiliates to find opportunities to meet new people, embrace them, make them feel welcome, engage them by getting them connected and feeling a part of the organization, and empowering them to grow in their journey in those affiliates.  Within nine months of being a staff member, I had spoken with several of our affiliates and came up with plans of ways that this could be accomplished and then nine months in, COVID hit.  And everything changed.  And what happened from there really is -- it is a miracle.  We had no idea what COVID would do for ACB, and maybe some of you still don't know.  But I want to share with you just a little bit, because embrace, engage, empower, has become community -- oh, my gosh, I had another word.  Wait, wait.  Community, connection, and commitment.  
So community started with two calls that first week in March.  We now hold on average of 100 plus each week.  And -- [Applause].  It is because of those that participate, those that volunteer, those that bring content and I want to say to you that each affiliate could be and should be taking advantage of this platform.  It is here for each and every one of you.  We have seen many of our special interest affiliates take advantage if you will and hold regularly scheduled events and many of them have grown in their membership.  And yet I know that our state affiliates are still struggling.  So my commitment to you is, if you are a state affiliate -- ask also special interest affiliate, of course, and you want to really grow your membership, let's talk about ways that you can use the community platform, whether it's on community or starting something in your own area.  We have learned that isolation from the pandemic was not just from the pandemic.  COVID did not create isolation in our blind community.  It existed before, and it still exists today. 
	We have people living in rural areas where there is not an ACB chapter near them.  And we need to make sure that we are meeting everyone, and we've learned this in the hybrid model with our conventions and with the ability for all members to have access, to be able to participate in our voting process. 
	All of this has taken place since COVID.  Absolutely. 
	One of the questions I'm often asked is, what benefit has community had on ACB?  And how can I prove this?  It's pretty difficult.  However, last night we were in a mixer, community mixer.  I would say there was probably 50 people in the room.  Just a small little segment of our population.  But I asked a question.  I asked, how many of you in this room came to ACB because of community?  And if it wasn't half of that room that clapped, I would say it was more.  And so I'm going to ask you here, how many of you in this room came to ACB because of community?  Okay.  And we've probably got about the same number of people that you guys were in there last night.  Thank you. 
	We need to remember that community is not just for ACB.  It is a service to our blind brothers and sisters.  We have people coming to community from all over the world.  We have been volunteering and participating in all aspects of community.  And many of them are now vice presidents of affiliates, on the board of affiliates.  Within three months of community, we have probably one of our youngest life members become a life member through community. 
	And I know affiliates, you know who you are, have stepped up and taken leadership roles.  Leadership follows over the last few years.  We're introduced to ACB through the community, and I'd be remiss in passing up the opportunity, our own Tabitha Kenlon, a staff member, came through community.  So we have this amazing opportunity to reach many, many people out there that we don't know yet or give them a place to participate in.  We transformed, embraced, engaged, empower to community -- the word -- connection, oh, my gosh, why am I doing this?  Community, connection, and commitment.  And now, I believe that's transforming into participation, passion, and pride.  [Applause] 
I want to also mention that I'm so proud of Kolby and her work with membership and in the community for nearly two years.  Got her notice and well deserved and I know she's going to do well in development and so proud of her.  That left a gaping hole, and I want to acknowledge all of our volunteers that have stepped up over the last three years.  Belinda Collins who we contracted with during the interim, absolutely.  And all of our volunteers that are -- have really been helping behind the scenes with this hybrid and virtual convention.  Please help me thank them as well.  [Applause] 
And I want to do a better job of introducing the person that we did hire as administrative assistant, Natalie Couch.  [Applause]  And I'm going to drill her quick, do a quick, fast interview with her.  Before I do -- she's sitting right next to me.  Before I do, I want to say, it was my plan that, you know, to ease her in because that's what you do, you know, you ease people in.  You don't overwhelm them.  There's a lot about putting the schedule together.  People have no idea.  Dan knows now because I wrote a seven-page outline of everything that get into it, and there's a lot to memorize, a lot to learn, a lot of nuances.  So it was my intent to ease her in slowly and four weeks in, I had a fall and broke both of me feet, and I was in the hospital for three days and no one would have known because Natalie picked up and did what she needed to do and kept things going.  She is just rocking and rolling with this, you guys.  Before I introduce her, I want you to give her a warm welcome.  [Applause] 
She said she was nervous.  I said, don't be nervous.  These are our people.  Natalie, how long have you been a member of ACB?  
	>> NATALIE COUCH:  I've been a member of ACB since 2009.  
	>> CINDY HOLLIS:  What made you decide to get trained as a community host?  
	>> NATALIE COUCH:  I wanted to get trained as a community host because I wanted to do some hosting for my state affiliate.  That was my main reason.  And I also knew this was a way that I could give back to ACB.  
	>> CINDY HOLLIS:  What is your favorite chocolate?  
	>> NATALIE COUCH: Milk chocolate, Fannie Mae, which I believe originated here or around Chicago somewhere.  
	>> CINDY HOLLIS:  If you could describe your job in three words or less, give them to us.  
	>> NATALIE COUCH:  Let's see.  Rewarding, honor, and gratitude.  
	>> CINDY HOLLIS:  And I will just say that what we do as a labor of love, there's so much more that I could report.  I will say that I've been working with affiliates behind the scenes on things like revolution, leadership training, a whole host of areas that I'm available to work with our affiliates and so if you as an affiliate want to strengthen your membership, it starts with the board, and I believe that.  Also, one other exciting piece of news is that we have an affiliate that is working to get started in South Carolina.  Please like their Facebook page, palmetto Association of the Blind and I believe they'll be with us.  I'll turn it back over to David, but thanks for giving me this truly -- this is my dream job and it's such an honor to serve all of you.  Thank you.  [Applause] 
	>> DAVID TROTT:  At this time, I'll turn it over to the president.  I think she's got an announcement.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  We are running a little off schedule.  If Janet is in here and if you can give us a few more minutes, we'd appreciate it.  If we can't, we can't.  But I do have an important announcement to the board.  We need you at 6:15 p.m., if you're a board member, to be there for pictures at the registration desk or what will be the former registration desk then.  But if you would be there, please, at 6:15 so we can -- 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  We have an important announcement for ACB and we haven't been able to share this up to this point because it has been in negotiation and we wanted to make that announcement today.  And this is a very important work that Kim Charlson and Lanie Feingold and others have been engaged in.  This is the first reading of the big press release and it is a little long.  So I apologize for that. 
National Credit Reporting Companies and the American Council of the Blind reaffirm commitment to provide accessible online credit reports.  [Applause] 
All right.  Now, let me read all this, Alexandria, Virginia, the three major consumer credit companies today reaffirms their commitment to provide access to important credit information for people who are blind or have low vision.  The initiative crafted with the American Council of the Blind and several blind consumers will help protect the credit information of individuals who cannot read a standard print credit report.  Under the plan announced today, Equifax, NYSEEFX, Experian, EXPNL, and TransUnion will make online credit reports and related information accessible through their jointly related website, annualcreditreport.com.  This is the official site to help consumers obtain complete credit reports and we -- quote, we are thrilled with the renewed commitment of Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion to provide credit information in large print, Braille, audio and accessible file formats, end quote, said Dan Spoone, interim Executive Director of the American Council of the Blind.  
Quote, this initiative allows people with visual impairments to independently monitor and review their credit reports as all members of the public should.  These are critical tools for avoiding identity theft and protecting the privacy of our financial information, end quote, Spoone said.  Quote, by creating annualcreditreport.com, Equifax and the other two gave easy access to credit information and this latest initiative is yet another example as how, as an industry, we are expanding this access to consumers with visual impairments, end quote, said Dan, president, Equifax Consumer Solutions.  Experian has a long history of providing quality credit products and services to consumers and we were excited by the opportunity to improve access for consumers with visual impairments to these important tools, said Carrie Williams, group president, credit services and decision analytics, Experian Americas.  
Quote, TransUnion is very pleased to be a part of this important effort that will help empower visually impaired consumers to monitor their own credit health, said Mark Monroe, president of consumer services as TransUnion.  Renewed commitment.  Today's initiative includes a renewed commitment to provide credit reports in Braille, large print, and audio formats and to design online credit reports and related web pages in accordance with the web content accessibility guidelines, WCAG 2.5 through WAI of the World Wide Web consortium, to make sure that websites are accessible to people with visual disabilities.  The credit agency reporting work with ACB over 15 years when free credit reports were first rolled out in the United States on annualcreditreport.com and 1-877-322-8228.  ACB president Deb Cook Lewis commented that, quote, we appreciate the three credit reporting agencies and their collaboration over many years and the structured negotiation process that brought us to today's announcement.  
About American Council of the Blind, American Council of the Blind is a national consumer-based advocacy organization working on behalf of blind and low-vision Americans throughout the country with members organized in 70 states and special interest affiliates.  ACB is dedicated to improving the quality of life, equal opportunity, and independence of all people who have visual impairments.  Its members and affiliated organizations have a long history of commitment to the advances and processes of processes, policies, and programs that enhance independents for people who are blind or visually impaired.  Acb.org.  Equifax.com empowers businesses and consumers with information they can trust.  A global leader in information solutions, employment, and income verification and human resources, business process, outsourcing services, we are one of the largest sources of consumer and analytic data and proprietary data to enrich both the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers. 
	Customers have trusted Equifax for over 100 years to deliver innovative solutions with the highest integrity and reliability.  Businesses, large and small, rely on us for consumer and business credit intelligence portfolio management, fraud detection, decisioning technology, marketing tools, HR payroll services, and much more.  We empower individuals consumers to manage their personal credit information, protect their identity, and maximize their financial well-being. 
	Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Equifax incorporated employs approximately 7,000 people in 14 countries through the Latin America and Europe.  A member of Standard & Poors, S&P 500 indexes, on the New York Stock Exchange under EFF.  About Experian, Experian is a global leader in providing information, analytics and marketing services to organizations and consumers to help manage the risk and reward of commercial and financial decisions.  Combining its unique information tools and deep understanding of individuals, markets, and economies, Experian partners with organizations around world to establish and strengthen customer relationships and provide their businesses with competitive advantage.  For consumers, Experian delivers commercial information that enables them to make financial and purchasing decisions with greater control and confidence. 
	Clients include organizations from financial services, retail, and -- telecommunications, media, insurance, automotive, leisure, eCommerce, manufacturing, property and government sectors. 
	Experian group limited is listed on the London stock exchange, EXPN, and is a -- I'm sorry, goodness, constituent of the FTSE100 index.  It has corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and operational headquarters in Costa Mesa, California, and Nottingham, U.K.  Experian employs 13,000 people in 36 countries, wide supporting clients in more than 65 countries.  Annual sales are in excess of $3.8 billion.  For more information, visit the group's website on www.Experiangroup.com. 
	About TransUnion.  A global leader in credit and information management, TransUnion creates advantages for millions of people around the world by gathering, analyzing, and delivering information.  For businesses, TransUnion helps improve efficiency, manage risk, reduce cost and increase revenue by delivering comprehensive data and advanced analytics and decisioning.  For consumers, TransUnion provides the tools, resources, and education to help manage their credit health and achieve their financial goals.  Through these and other efforts, TransUnion is working to build stronger economies worldwide.  Founded in 1968 and headquartered in Chicago -- wow -- that's TransUnion employs more than 4,000 employees in more than 30 countries on 6 continents.  I wonder which one they don't.  Www.TransUnion.com.  That is our press release and congratulations, everyone who worked on this exciting, exciting announcement!  [Applause]  
	>> Are we back on?  That's much better.  Now, we're better for the advocacy update.  This is what we're all about, people.  All of us blind and visually impaired individuals.  For now, our field of advocacy from Alexandria, Virginia, and Swath Nandhakumar, from Virginia.  
	>> Do we still have full time or -- 
	>> Go as quickly as you can.  
	>> CLARK RACHFAL:  I'm a noble guest, I'll fill all the time there is to fill.  Hello, everyone, and welcome to a live edition of the ACB advocacy update.  I'm Clark Rachfal, your director of Advocacy and Government Affairs and I'm joined by -- 
	>> SWATH NANDHAKUMAR:  I am Swath Nandhakumar.  
	>> CLARK RACHFAL:  And we are very excited to be here with all of you and very excited for that joint press statement about ACB's advocacy to help our members be more independent he and have control over their personal finances and credit.  How important is that?  Another big round of applause.  So there's a lot that's been going on at ACB, and we're going to group this update as digital inclusion and accessibility, health and wellness, transportation, and then -- but other is just as important, but it's the hodgepodge of the advocacy update. 
	First, digital inclusion.  Two of our legislative imperatives are related to digital inclusion, that being the Website and Software Application Accessibility Act as well as the Communications, Video, and Technology Accessibility Act, both of which we are working very hard on for reintroduction.  So I'm going to turn it over so Swath to -- I'll call it the web access bill and the joint work we're doing with some of our partners.  
	>> SWATH NANDHAKUMAR:  So on this -- last year, [indiscernible].  We're working hard this year to reintroduce, working with partners and services for the blind, and network to essentially get those introduced and sent to Congress.  We are working with [indiscernible] and any administration on this -- guidelines and [indiscernible]. 
	So I want to say on May 18th, ACB along with other groups, AFB, went to the White House to -- on visual inclusion, regulations and [indiscernible].  So -- and also, next -- next day, on May 18th, along with the justice -- and talked more about the decision and voting and also -- close environment.  
	>> CLARK RACHFAL:  We find it a lot of fun.  We love being your representatives in DC, because ACB has a seat at the table, whether that's with the White House Domestic Policy Council, the National Security Council, the Department of State, the Department of Justice, and others with the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights.  Every opportunity we get, we are pounding the table and raising these issues.  Yes, it's a legislative imperative, but we have a multipronged approach here, ensuring that applications are included and when other federal agencies are looking to update their Section 504 under the Rehab Act, so we are raising our voice on behalf of all of you every opportunity that we get to make the virtual environment just as, if not more, accessible than the physical environment. 
	In addition, the CVTA, Communications Video and Technology Accessibility Act, this is legislation that we are working with Senator Markey from Massachusetts, Representative Eshoo from California to amend and expand on the great work that's been done with the Communications Video Accessibility Act from 2010, the CVAA.  Fortunately, the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, is not waiting for the CVTA to be passed.  They are using their existing authority to expand the number of broadcast designated market areas that must pass through audio description.  So in 2010, when the CVAA was passed, this was with 60, that is currently being expanded up to the top 100 markets by the end of 2024 and there is a -- there was a comment period and that will go to a rulemaking and we are hopeful that the FCC will require all 210 designated market areas to pass through audio description. 
	Additionally, the broadcasters and had, for the past eight years, an exemption for requiring the dynamic images associated with emergency alerts to be accessible.  They say the technology doesn't exist.  There's no way that they can do it.  And this year, ACB and AFB, which has in the past supported the waiver as technology evolves, the last waiver was five years long.  If you haven't been able to figure it out in five years, what's the point of doing another waiver here, folks?  You're not trying hard enough.  So ACB and AFB filed comments opposing a waiver extension, worked with the FCC and worked with broadcasters.  Yes, they did receive a waiver, but it's only for 18 months and they have quarterly reporting requirements and engagement requirements with the disability community and with the FCC.  So we're excited that this issue is getting more attention, not only by broadcasters, but by the Federal Communications Commission. 
	And last, but not least, on June 15th, under the CVAA, there's a section on advanced communication services and this is why we have accessible messaging, texting, email, instant messaging, things like that.  We also have accessible two-way audio communications.  The FCC has the mandate for accessible video conferencing services, but the rules were never created.  The FCC on June 15th passed a report and order and an additional Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to finally create the rules for accessible video conferencing services.  So we're not taking this out of the CVTA because we don't know what that will look like in the real world and maybe they won't go far enough.  So this is another area where progress is being made, but it remains part of our legislative imperative so that we can keep pushing the technology industry as well as the FCC even further. 
	All right.  On to health and wellness.  Well, we have a couple of legislative imperatives that relate to health and wellness as well.  
	>> Yes, the medical device that was -- last Congress, has been introduced by Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, introduced -- 48 sponsors, 44 Democrats and 4 Republicans.  We were working on a -- companion in the Senate, working on partners and Congress on this. 
	This bill was to Congress by -- again [indiscernible].  And next year.  
	>> CLARK RACHFAL:  Yes.  So the web access bill of the CVTA, we are confident to get those reintroduced this year but with the congressional calendar and all the competing priorities, it looks like right now that the exercise and fitness for all act will be reintroduced next year.  Still in the 118th Congress, but next year.  That doesn't mean that our work for accessible fitness and exercise equipment is waiting for next year, right?  I believe his name is Timothy Hairston from Maryland asked me yesterday, why isn't Peloton here?  They've been doing all to make their equipment accessible.  Why aren't they here?  I've been asking that same question.  Even when companies are making their products accessible, we need to work with them to ensure that their culture is inclusive of people with disabilities.  And that they see the value of partnering with ACB in coming here to speak directly to all of you. 
	Additionally, we are through partnership with our legal advocacy partners.  I know many of you were in the sessions with disability rights advocates and Andre Gallegos, the chair of NCD, and Michael Nunez and others, we are doing work to ensure that wealth wearable devices are made more accessible for people with disabilities.  [Applause]    
Yes, I know we have lots of Apple Watch wearers.  Maybe we have some Google watches or Galaxy watches and Fitbit users, but that's only part of the ecosystem, right?  So if there are consumer products that are used for health tracking and offer communication services, we are ensuring that they know their obligations when it comes to accessibility. 
	Also, I was talking about accessible video conferencing.  Well, in the healthcare space, what kind of service using video conferencing?  Telehealth and remote appointments.  Right?  So if they're using video conferencing, those services need to be made accessible, and we're making some inroads here as well.  A lot of these companies, the off the consumer shelf companies or the providers, they don't know that they're subject to the FCC's rules, and ACB is helping them understand what that obligation is.  [Applause]    
Additionally, our work with the National Institutes on Health continues.  COVID is mostly over, right?  But COVID is not the only reason that people use at-home text, so we're excited to have the Alum at-home texts that are more accessible, not totally accessible, not totally usable by everyone, but available in Omaha last year and again in your goody bags at reception this year.  That work is going to continue.  Because our health economy is moving more towards remote diagnostics, at-home testing, and we need to continue the work with National Institutes of Health to ensure that accessibility is a mandate for these products and that they are providing effective instructions for their test and the readout of information from the test. 
	Also, at our DC leadership conference this year, we touched on an item that ACB and one of our partners, an attorney, Sue Boyd, as well as the get up and get moving committee worked on and that was a gear provider letter.  Swath, would you like to share more about that?  
	>> SWATH NANDHAKUMAR:  Sure, we are not only providing -- but from [indiscernible], with -- they are required to make their communications and their other -- on the ADA.  So also provide ways they can do that and they can -- yeah, they can make it -- and also to ask if they need assistance with that.  
	>> CLARK RACHFAL:  Yes.  If you go back to our lovely resolutions discussions, and we're talking about disability awareness and training for healthcare professionals, this letter is a great tool for individuals.  It's a great tool for affiliates in their states to be able to share with healthcare providers. 
	In terms of legal advocacy, our litigation with Qwest and LabCorp continue.  We did have the trial for Qwest last fall.  We're just waiting on a verdict.  And we're still going through the legal process with LabCorp.  The trial has not occurred to date.  So see you all in Jacksonville, we have more on that. 
	I'd like to move to transportation.  Many of you were in the Uber session yesterday.  And I want to thank everyone for sharing their experiences, sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly with the folks from Uber who were here to listen.  It was -- I was very proud of our ACB members to clearly and effectively communicate but also being respectful, as frustrated and as angry as I know all of you -- and we are.  But ACB has been doing some work in this regard as well, right, Swath?  
	>> SWATH NANDHAKUMAR:  Yes, our session, we have also -- Uber, and Uber on [indiscernible] and that -- we also, last year, did a survey, asking guide dog users to help to essentially report their denials to us and we got over 80 responses and all those responses have been sent to the office and they [indiscernible] and encourage all of you to keep reporting to them.  I know it's hard and frustrating in response, but -- would appreciate that and they do find it useful. 
	We at the board meeting on Friday, talked about our work on the federal administration reauthorization, so the FAA, typically, [indiscernible].  So we are working with our partners in that space, and Congress to make sure that [indiscernible] for included in the packages, right now, are provisions to make airline -- websites and -- [indiscernible], provisions on to -- training and [indiscernible].  
	>> CLARK RACHFAL:  All right.  So I don't catch the ire of the presiding officer or the president, as you can tell, we could keep going about the various work that we're doing.  Two more, one is accessible currency.  How many participated at the currency rally back in March?  How many folks were chanting with us, "show me the money!"?  Well, because of that rally, and because of the outreach of Swath, we were able to get a meeting through the White House Domestic Policy Council with the U.S. Treasury that included so many people, the director of the bureau of engraving and printing, the general counsel, the deputy chief of staff to secretary of the treasury, Janet Yellen, in follow-up meetings with our coalition partners, from women's groups and Native American groups, Dan Spoone.  
Dan, I believe at that time you were interim Executive Director.  It's so hard to keep track.  Interim Executive Director Dan Spoone was able to meet with the U.S. treasurer, Minerva, as well, who is paying close attention to this issue.  And in early June we had a follow-up meeting.  
Again, with the -- with the director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing as well as their general counsel, director of engraving and others and we got to feel the raised, tactile feature.  We got to see the high contrast in larger number 10 numeral.  We got to experience the production system that is being used and we had a great conversation about the processes that they're going through of feasibility testing of the note itself, ensuring that it can be produced, repeatedly, and in high volumes.  And then they'll move on to testing of the production equipment, to dial in, basically, 0.1 margin of error type work to make sure the equipment can tolerate the production of the new bill.  
From there, they'll share it with the banking equipment manufacturers so that they can -- they can ensure that their systems, any system, any machine that counts, receives, or dispenses the bills need -- they need time to ensure that they can do that accurately, consistently, and reliably.  But with all that said, they are on track for the new $10 bill with the low-vision and tactile features to be delivered to the Federal Reserve board by the end of 2026.  And then it is up to the Federal Reserve Board to enter the new bill into circulation.  But this is just the first.  
This family of new currency is first being rolled out with the 10, but the same systems and processes will be used with the 50, the Harriet Tubman 20 in 2030, and the $5 in 2032.  [Applause] 
That's right, show me -- and last, voting.  Voting, voting, voting.  So with the split Congress, it looks highly unlikely that any federal voting legislation will move forward in this Congress.  But the work at the state level continues.  So there are 14 states now that allow for accessible ballot delivery, completion, and return by people who are blind and people who are print disabled and they can do that electronically.  Vermont was the latest to pass that legislation.  Talking with Kenneth Semien about Texas, the Texas legislation passed legislation for the accessible delivery and market of the ballot, but still, paper return, but their governor vetoed that bill, so more work to be done, not only in Texas, but California, Washington, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and so many other states. 
	And then one quick story, after the National Industries For the Blind breakfast this morning, Dennis from ACB of Texas, and I met Dennis at the DC leadership conference in 2020, and got to go with him to his film meetings on Capitol Hill.  And I just want to thank everyone who makes the effort, all the affiliates who prioritize the in-person participation at the leadership conference, because not only is it good for our elected officials and staff to meet people who are blind in person, to hear your personal stories in the room, but I'm going to tease Dennis a little bit, but the first meeting we went to of the day, I don't even think he remembered his name when we walked into his Congress member's office.  But by the end of the day, he was on a roll.  
So I'm always excited when we see that growth from our members who are able to have that experience for the first time.  I hope they catch that bug and take it home and continue their advocacy, not only on behalf of ACB but on behalf of their affiliates, I'll turn it back to Swath to see how folks can contact us with your advocacy priority because we can't do this without you, folks, in closing us out.  
	>> SWATH NANDHAKUMAR:  If you want to contact Clark and me with your stories or your questions or anything else you want to talk to us about, contact advocacy@acb.org and Clark and me [indiscernible].  [Applause]. 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  So Janet has a lot more power than your president does.  I just want you to know this, and she has gotten us a small extension to stay in here a few more minutes because I promised you we were going to hear 
	>> The folks from Be My Eyes, we were going to do that yesterday when we weren't running behind and that didn't work out.  Do we have them in Zoom today?  
	>> Mike Buckley, he was here and left.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  Fine.  We can't do that then.  I am so sorry.  That was definitely the plan, and we got them to stay.  So what we are going to do, then, we're going to move right quickly to Janet's convention report.  [Applause] 
	>> JANET:  Good afternoon, everybody.  
	>> Good afternoon.  
	>> I do have a report, but first thing I'm going to do, since I'm going to take chair privilege, I am going to announce a couple of things that we're still living at the information desk and would like to go home to where they belong, someone purchased a Stevie Wonder T-shirt yesterday and left it in the bag.  Go get that at the desk, the sunglasses in the black frame and the prescription sunglasses, gold framed in a case, they have to belong to somebody.  We have a green pill box with someone's pills and a little flag case with a key chain and a thumb drive in it that's got to belong to someone.  So please, stop by the information desk and claim your items.  Thank you very much. 
	All right.  First thing I want to do, I am going to do a convention report, and I'm going to change it up a little bit because first of all, I want to thank -- what do you guys think, has this hotel staff been wonderful?  Yay!  Absolutely wonderful.  And we started working with them in 2017, 16, I don't even remember when, we had a contract to have a convention here in 2020.  We all know what happened in 2020.  And so then we worked with the hotel to renegotiate and come back in 2023 and I'm privileged to have two people from the hotel staff with me and they're going to say a couple of words before I continue.  So Eric.  
	>> ERIC:  Good afternoon, everybody, I'm Eric, I'm the director of sales, and I had the joy of working with Janet since 2016.  And we said we weren't going to talk about 2020 and all that went on there, but Janet just had to bring it up.  But on behalf of our 350 ambassadors and our general manager, it was such a joy working with all of you.  Thank you, all of you, for your great attitudes and joyfulness.  All of our ambassadors commented about how happy they were working this past week during the holiday and everything.  So thank you so much for being here.  Thank you, Janet, for bringing the group here, and we hope to see you again in the future.  Thank you again.  [Cheering and Applause] 
	>> Here is my director of convention services.  [Indiscernible].  
	>> I echo what Eric said, truly, thank you all, thank you for being patient.  Thank you for teaching us and helping us learn how to make this conference work in our facility.  It has been a long time coming, since before COVID.  So I have truly learned a lot.  Our team has learned a lot.  And we just appreciate you all so much for being here, have a great attitude.  That goes a long way on both sides of the fence to make everything successful.  I hope to see you again.  I hope to get to work with Janet and her team again and meet all of you, and there's lots of dogs left for me to pet.  [Laughter].  Please, don't everybody run out today.  Thank you.  
	>> JANET:  Thank you.  Thank you.  [Applause]  Heidi has been having a hard time ignoring the dogs.  And all the staff went through -- most of the staff went through training here the first two days and were all very receptive and they've all done such a wonderful job.  Thank you.  [Applause]    
Now, I would like to thank the Illinois Host Committee, who, again, started this in 2019 and we were able to keep most of the people on our Host Committee this year, the committee ably chaired by Ray Campbell and the other members, the other members of the convention committee were Karyn Campbell, Marla Chorney, Andrea Conner, and I am so apologetic she had the color guard here and we did not have the flag.  She worked very hard to get them.  Sharon Howerton, Jim, Rachel Schroeder, and Debbie Watson, you guys have been amazing.  Thank you so much.  
I want to thank ACB staff.  Of course, I worked with many of you mostly -- others of you, but I have to say Kelly has made my job easier by being the director of communications and sending out all the convention emails, which I used to send out during the convention, so she took that on as her new role.  Kaitlyn in Alexandria, Rick and team, thank you, for outstanding AV experience.  And I have to do a special thank you to the [indiscernible], they're the ones that I worked with, and -- [Applause] 
Chris, Nancy, Christine, and Nancy, you know how much you do for the convention.  No one realizing how much you do.  You are amazing.  I can't even talk about it.  Yes, for those of you who can't tell, I'm up here with tears as I always am during my convention report. 
	I would like to thank my Convention Committee this year, Vicky was not able to be here to chair the information desk, but it was ably worked by Karen Spry and Cecily was down there some. 
	She did a great job, everybody. 
	Sally Benjamin and her volunteers.  She worked tirelessly along with the whole committee, and Ray here.  I have to take a moment and say, William, we missed having you in the volunteer office with us.  We love you, Buddy.  Margarine. 
	I always warn the hotels about Margarine.  Margarine comes in, and she finds everything that needs to be fixed and she stays on until it gets fixed.  Now she's on the airport, trying to work with TSA and get your departures as smoothly as possible.  Margarine, you have, as always, the Energizer bunny has gone everywhere and done everything.  Michael Smitherman, Mr. Exhibits.  As always, it was a great exhibit hall.  I know when convention is about four months away because I talk to Michael three times a day.  And he did a masterful job this year.  Tickets were a little slow in coming, but we had a great exhibit hall. 
	Who has been on a tour?  What do you think?  We had some great tours, didn't we?  Yes, and we have three more great ones coming.  But Rhonda, as always, did a masterful job with her tours.  We were here in the fall doing some sight visits and she is so dedicated and people say, Rhonda is always counting.  Rhonda wants to keep everybody in a row. 
	Cecily, you did an outstanding job, doing all of your Zoom things, Cecily was a Jackie of all trades this week, at the information desk, the exhibit hall.  She is everywhere, sorry.  Tim and Maria and the guys out in the area, absolutely wonderful.  I have so many other committees who helped with this convention, the convention steering committee, the convention planning committee, you name it, there's a committee for it, and I can't thank you enough, to Mr. Dan Spoone, and Ms. Deb Cook Lewis.  Thank you for all of your support and for having the faith in me to give me this outstanding honor.  And hope to be back next year and as far as next year, we are in Jacksonville, Florida, July 5th through July 12th and Florida, give me at least a week after the convention, and then we'll start talking, okay?  I know you're all excited, but give me a week, okay?  And then in 2025 we will be in Dallas, July 4th through July 11th.  So we have two great conventions planned.  The fall board meeting will be in Jacksonville the weekend of September 29th this year, and after this is over, we'll start planning our conventions for 2026.  So I would just like to thank everyone for all their hard, hard work and I hope you agree that this has been an absolutely wonderful convention.  [Cheering and Applause] 
	>> RAY CAMPBELL:  This is Ray, and I just want to say a real quick word.  When we started this -- when we started up again in 2022, '23, my goal was to keep everybody on the Host Committee because I wanted them to see this through.  But one, we couldn't, and -- his dad did a great job, but Jimmy, we miss you.  I wish you could have seen this through too, but I know you're smiling down on us.  Thank you.  
	>> JANET:  Wonderful convention, everyone.  Thank you for letting me being convention coordinator.  I love doing this.  [Cheering and Applause] 
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  I have just one quick announcement, and then I'll turn it back to David.  There are eight Braille form raffle tickets left.  Eight.  Guys, the registration desk is closed, so you can pick these up tonight as we begin the banquet, they'll be available and people will have them and if you want one, make sure someone knows that you do, because there are only eight.  Come on, guys, we can finish this off.  
	>> JANET:  Deb, last year, one of the last people to buy ended up winning the raffle.  Bring your credit card.  
	>> DEB COOK LEWIS:  We're almost done with it.  David.  
	>> DAVID TROTT:  We have your door prizes.  Okay.  The name you need to draw is Trott.  
	>> RAY CAMPBELL:  Well, David, Rachel's voice did not change.  She had to run off to an Apple session, so I'm going to finish this up.  And I want to thank my door prize team this year, as they've done a great job.  The winners all agree with that.  Anyway, we have two more left.  Let's do those real quick, $25 from Library Users of America, thank you very much, a virtual attendee, Donna Williams, one of our explorers.  She might have been a guide.  Thank you.  I knew she was from the program.  And the last one, Austin had some money to give away this year, another $20 from the Austin Council of the Blind and that goes to Maria Stone, in person.  That's all the door prizes we've got for today.  We'll have a few more at the banquet tonight, so stay tuned.  You might win.  Thanks, everybody.  
	>> DAVID TROTT:  Don't forget that we need the board members and staff at 6:30.  I'm sorry, 6:15, and the banquet starts at 7:00 and if there's any braille raffle forms left, I end my treasurer so I expect you to buy them tonight.  We've had a good convention, haven't we?  [Cheering and Applause] 
All right.  Time to move, time to move to Jacksonville, just about it, and we're going to have a great convention again.  We're back, and the one thing that I had to admonish you to do, advise you to do, beg you to do, whatever I need to do -- 
	>> RAY CAMPBELL:  I move we adjourn the 2023 convention.  
	>> DAVID TROTT:  We will in just a second.  I want to talk just a second before you get out of here, folks.  How we decide in ACB is the survey.  Please take the survey because it doesn't do you any good to gripe to me.  I won't remember it tomorrow, but I'll see it in the survey.  Thank you, guys.  Have a great rest of the convention.  
[ Human realtime captioning by HRI CART. ]