FLORIDA REHABILITATION COUNCIL FOR THE BLIND

QUARTERLY MEETING

April 20, 2007

Wyndham Jacksonville Riverwalk

1515 Prudential Drive

Jacksonville, FL 32207

MINUTES

FRIDAY, April 20th

Jesus Garcia, Chair called the meeting to order at 8:35 AM.

Council members present:

Jesus Garcia, Paul Kurtz, Ted Hull, Doug Hall, Terry King, Gloria Mills, Denise Marshall, Marilyn Palmer, Dawn Saunders, Dwight Sayer, Michael Taylor, Sue Townsend and Craig Kiser

Council members absent:

Ann Robinson, Lee Nasehi, Rick Brown, Kathy Davis

DBS staff present:

Phyllis Dill, Michael Elliott, Joe Pearson, Wayne Jennings, Randy Morgan District Administrator, Jessica Watroba

Audience present: JoAnn King, Patty Sayer, Becky Simpson

DISTRICT ADMINISTRATOR REPORT

Randy Morgan reported the following:

• Experienced a lot of turn over last year.
• Presently fully staffed.
• District serves: Duval, Baker, St. Johns, Orange, Volusia
• Primary office in Jacksonville
• Satellite Office in St. Augustine at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind.
• 16 staff include:
• 1 District Administrator
• 5 VR Counselors
• 2 ILAP Counselors
• 1 Children’s Counselor
• 1 Customer Service Specialist
• 1 Business Enterprise Specialist
• 1 Supervisor
• 4 Clerical staff
• Referrals received in 2001 were 459 and in 2006 500.
• Children’s Program referrals remain stable at 69 blind babies, 84 six and over.
• Expect to meet goals in the Early Intervention Program.
• Independent Livings Services for children 6 and over are provided by ILAP.
• VR Program has 66 active clients.
• District goals are the third highest of any district.
• Have exceeded the goals of 5 other districts.
• Have closed 55 of a goal of 81.
• Estimate closing 91.
• 36 clients in Transition with 18 participating in the summer transition program.
• ILAP has closed 154 clients.
• Met goals in ILAP 3 months ago.
• The local Eye Research Foundation began a full time not-for-profit low vision center.
• The center provides:
• Loans magnifying devices out for individuals to try and provides follow-up.
• Sell equipment on a sliding scale.
• Home visits.
• Each March the Foundation sponsors a Low Vision Seminar.
• Free space is provided to vendors during the seminar.

District III’s Approach to Job Placement

• Includes the DBS marketing video in presentation to the Human Relations Departments.
• Always be prepared to answer questions.
• The goal is to get to the management in charge of hiring.
• Find out what area the company is looking to hire in and the qualifications required.
• What is the turnover?
• Can the job be accommodated?
• Make sure the client is job ready.

Approval of January Minutes

Mike moved to accept the January minutes. Marilyn seconded the motion. Motion passed. January minutes approved.

DIRECTOR’S REPORT

• Current status of the $5,000 across the board increase for the VRCs is that it is in the House version but not in the Senate. It now has to go to conference to be approved.
• Governor Chiles created the State Sterling Award in 1992.
• DBS is waiting to find out if the agency won the Sterling Award.
• The Library has won its district Sterling Showcase Award and is waiting to find out if they are number one in the state. The state is divided into six districts for showcase purposes.
• DBS will be filing an application for the Malcolm Baldridge Award in May.
• The Baldridge Award was originally restricted to private industry until this year.
• Both awards are well recognized in the private sector and will help open doors when employers are approached.
• DBS is doing new and innovative programs with the Transition Program.
• Would like to see the Colorado Program expanded to twice a year and hopefully expand it into the VR Program for other than Transition kids.
• DBS recently hired a full time Public Relations person headquartered in Daytona Beach. An assistant will be hired in the future. They will travel around the state and attend NFB and FCB state and national conventions. They will also visit each DBS District Office and work with staff to make sure there is a consistent message with public awareness and review all brochures and posters.
• The Advocacy Groups Pamphlet is ready to go out. Michael will ask Kurt to get them out next week.
• DBS was instrumental in designing a poster to market the Able Trust’s “Bikers Care” tag. The poster has a Harley Davidson bike and the logo “Bikers Care”. It was mass produced and distributed to Harley Davidson dealerships throughout the state and has quadrupled the sales of the tag.
• DBS has been speaking with legislatures this session about correcting the omission with funding for the DSO Foundation they created for DBS.
• Craig has suggested the VR Foundation find a major corporation to be a primary underwriter and he’s agreed to stay involved to the extent he can.

Craig informed the Council that due to health reasons he will be retiring the early part of June and will be remarrying and moving to Venice. He doesn’t know who his successor will be. Stephanie Wilson will act as Interim Director until his successor is determined.

DBS Training on Client Choices will be addressed at the July meeting.

CLIENT SATISFACTION SURVEY UPDATE

Dr. Stutzman brought the Council up-to-date on the survey with the following:

• There have been 501 closed cases between October 2006 and March 2007.
• They reached 166 clients.
• The new data system AWARE has allowed them having a second contact number.
• With so few people to survey it’s tricky to analyze.
• More people are saying they heard about DBS through family and friends.
• Fewer people are DBS clients for eye surgery and more for the whole curriculum and training.
• One district was mentioned as having staffing problems.
• More positive comments on DBS and transportation.
• Many clients are going in and out of the system.

Since the AWARE system makes email addresses possible Dr. Stutzman will check on the possibility of conducting an email survey the next cycle.

BREAK

STATE PLAN

Joe updated the Council with this year’s State Plan and expectations.

• Last year’s State Plan met RSA’s approval without any exceptions.
• The Pre Print is a 27 page document outlining the responsibilities of agencies receiving funding.
• Changes have been made in the numbering of the attachments but not the substance of the contents.
• The Pre Print is signed by the Commissioner and sent to RSA.
• It has a 5 year duration unless there are significant changes by the agency.
• The attachments are the critical documents submitted each year.
• The Council’s only responsibility is for Attachment 4.2(c) Summary of Input Provided by the State Rehabilitation Council.
• DBS responds to the Council’s comments.
• This year the State Plan is due July 1st.
• Last year DBS submitted 7 Attachments to the State Plan and they were all approved.
• This year 3 additional Attachments will be submitted for a total of 10 Attachments.
• Suzanne Tillman with RSA will be working with DBS to make sure DBS meets the guidelines with what is submitted.
• Would like to have documents by the end of the month.
• Hopes to have material ready for reviewing by the second week in May and completed by the 3rd week of May.

Council agreed to have a teleconference May 11th at 1:00 PM to discuss and approve comments to the State Plan.

AWARE

• The demonstration for AWARE will be presented during the July meeting in Tallahassee.
• Council members were asked to email or call Wayne Jennings to set up a time for him to walk through the process and accessing AWARE.
• Wayne’s contact info:
• email wayne.jennings@dbs.fldoe.org
• phone 850-245-0349
• Adam Gaffney can answer any technical questions about JAWS or Window Eyes 850-245-0318

LUNCH

AGENDA ITEMS FOR JULY

• Client Choice – Michael Elliott and Ann Robinson
• AWARE Demonstration – Wayne Jennings
• Client Satisfaction Survey – Mary Stutzman
• SWOAT Update – Bob Seemer
• Private Provider Report – Barbara Ross with FIRE
• FSU Summer Program – Linda Jones
• Legislative Update – Kurt Ponchak

COUNCIL BRAINSTORMING

Jesus informed the Council that he would like to have the quarterly meeting be held on one day instead of two. He pointed out that most of the time a few Council members need to either leave late on Saturday, if they attend the meeting, or leave early and miss the meeting. A one day meeting would give members the option of leaving late Friday or early Saturday. It would also cut back on expenses. He suggested that the Representative Reports be emailed to Phyllis two weeks before the quarterly meeting for distribution to the Council.

Dawn moved that the representative reports be emailed to Phyllis two weeks before the quarterly meeting.
Motion was seconded and after discussion passed.

The Council agreed for Mike to write a letter on behalf of the Council to Lydia Markley commending her on the extraordinary job she was doing with the DBS newsletter.

Craig informed the Council that the Governor needed names for the various seats on the Council. He would like for Phyllis to send the Council a list of vacant categories, expired terms and upcoming expiring terms. He emphasized the importance of getting a Business Enterprise representative in one of the Business and Industry categories.

Dwight moved that the Rehabilitation Council recognizes the importance of involvement with consumer organizations as a resource for DBS. To the maximum extent feasible the Council urges that DBS staff and clients participate in consumer organizations’ chapter meeting and activities, State and National conventions.

Motion received a second and passed.

Phyllis will put the recommendation on letter and address it to Craig.

Council would like to have Easter Seal on the October agenda in Key West.

Michael informed the Council that DBS was developing information to evaluate CRPs based on if they are providing services according to their contract. A draft will be sent to the CRPs and District Administrators to review. Afterwards the document will be finalized and DBS will begin reviewing the CRPs.

Council discussed inviting the local legislators to the meetings. Inviting the local CRP was done in the past and the Council would like for them to be included in the future. Michael Elliott will invite Barbara Ross, Executive Director of FIRE in Tallahassee to the July meeting.

COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES UPDATES

NFB – Dwight Sayer

• Dr. Thomas Harding, NFB State Treasurer passed away in February.
• This year’s State convention will be dedicated to Dr. Harding.
• NFB had its Tallahassee Seminar March 21 – 23.
• Four issues presented to legislators
• 1. White Cane Law
• 2. Braille Bill
• 3. Accessible voting machines
• 508 compliance
• Kathy Davis spoke at the Vision Caucus
• State Convention will be May 25th – 28th in Tampa.
• Craig Kiser will give a speech at the convention.
• Representative Baxley will attend the State Convention.
• There’s a possibility that Governor Crist will also attend.
• NFB is accepting applications for $1,000 scholarship. Six are available and the winners will also receive paid expenses to the State Convention.
• Presentations will be made at the banquet on Sunday, May 27th.
• The NFB 67th National Convention will be June 30th – July 6th in Atlanta, Georgia.
• The NFB Independence March will take place through downtown Atlanta preceding the NFB annual convention on July 3rd.
• The NFB Youth Slam – July 30th

BVA – Mike Taylor

• BVA has added a new meeting in the Pensacola area.
• BVA State Convention will be in Daytona Beach May 4th.
• Delegates will be elected for the National convention.
• BVA National Convention will be in Albuquerque, New Mexico in August.

FFCVI – Sue Townsend

• Sue will be speaking to the Transition Program tomorrow, April 21st, in Jacksonville at ILAP.
• Newsletter is out.
• FFCVI is having a free admission day, including lunch, at Sea World on June 9th.
• The National Convention will be July 13th – 15th in Omaha, Nebraska.
• FFCVI is involved with Braille Literacy in November.
• Sue attended the Vision Summit in Tallahassee and has a CD copy of the Summit.

FILC – Doug Hall

• Major legislative issues pushed are:
• An individual’s monies go with them wherever they choose to go.
• Pedestrian awareness and safety
• Grassroots Forum will be held in Tampa on the USF campus June 19th – 22nd.
• Three forums will be held for input on the FILC’s 3 year plan May 15th, 16th, and 17th in Jacksonville, Orlando and Miami.
• The four goals being addressed this year are:
• Promote community integration via consumer controlled community based services that are integrated and accountable.
• Develop collaborative relationship to increase accessibility, affordable and integrated housing.
• Promote community integration via youth transition.
• To increase population of ethnic and racial minorities served by entities of independent living.

LIONS – Marilyn Palmer

• List of all Lions entities and contact numbers and web sites will be emailed to council.
• 83rd Annual Lions of Florida – Multi District Convention will be May 3rd – 6th in Orlando, Fl.
• Lions International Convention will be July 3rd – 7th in Chicago, IL.
• 2007 USA/Canada Lions Leadership Forum will be September 5th – 8th in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
• Conklin Center received it’s first ever wheelchair accessible van financed by Lions and LCIF.
• Lions Foundation for the Blind has been rated as one of the most efficient charities in the world of charities.
• Audited Fund Raising Expenses
• Lions Foundation 8%
• Salvation Army 13%
• Most are 25% or higher.
• Looking forward to joint pamphlet and getting the information out.
• A local DBS representative spoke at the Lions Zone Meeting held in January.

IDEA – Dawn Saunders

• Will let the Council know as soon as the State Board rule revision is completed.
• 2006 scores for FCAT are on line.
• Will send the Council her score summary.
• Getting In Touch with Literacy International conference will be held in St. Petersburg at the Trade Winds the weekend following Thanksgiving.
• FAER Steering Committee is selling Blue glow-in-the-dark rubber bracelets that has “I don’t judge people by how they look” written in Braille. If interested in buying one contact Dawn.

FCB – Jesus Garcia

• State convention in Tallahassee May 17th, 18th and 19th at the Ramada Inn.
• National convention will be in Minneapolis the first week of July.
• The Voter’s Coalition Alliance held a press conference in Tallahassee April 9th regarding the voting changes that may affect the Touch Screen Voting machines.

Jesus informed the Council of two articles he had Phyllis email to them for review. The White Paper article will be discussed at the July meeting. The other article concerned Centers on Self Employment meetings being held around the state.

Michael informed the Council that DBS was involved and aware of what was being done at the Centers on Self Employment meetings being held around the state.

Meeting adjourned at 3:00 PM