OREGON COMMISSION FOR THE BLIND
535 SE 12th Ave. (Portland office)
Business Enterprise Program
BECC Special meeting
Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014 (3:30 PM)
Call in: (712) 432-1500
Participant code: 312353#
AGENDA
Please review below this agenda, information for you to familiarize with #4, BEI membership.
- Called to order- Chairman Young.
- Roll call- Lewanda Miranda
- Disposition of minutes- Jan. 21, 2014 (as recorded)
- Selection of Vice chair
- BE handbook (action item)
- BEI membership (action item)
- Other business
- Adjournment
VERBATIM:
[started at 08-02]
Miranda: Want to get started, Chairman Young?
Young: Sounds good to me! I’m going to call this meeting to order. And Lewanda, could you go over the [inaudible]…?
Miranda: Roll call?
Young: Mm-hmm.
Miranda: Okay, call to order at 3: 34pm. And let’s start with the managers. Art… Nope! Elected Committee first. Harold Young?
Young: Here.
Miranda: Art Stevenson?
Stevenson, Art: Here.
Miranda: Tessa Brown?
Brown: I’m here.
Miranda: Char Mckinzie?
Mckinzie: Here.
Miranda: Cathy Dominique? She may be joining us later. Lewanda Miranda, here. And managers is Jerry Bird?
Bird: Here.
Miranda: Derrick Stevenson? Derrick are you still with us? Okay. Gordon Smith?
Smith: Here.
Miranda: Ken Gerlitz? Lin Jaynes? Steve Gordon? Randy Hauth? Steve Jackson? Sal Barraza? Ann Wright? Okay. Any visitors? Hearing none, there you go, Harold.
Young: Okay, and next on the agenda, Lewanda?
Miranda: Is adoption of minutes as recorded for the January 21, 2014 meeting.
Young: Okay, I would like to make a motion that we adopt the January 21st minutes as recorded. Got a second?
Brown: I second.
Young: Thank you, Tessa. All those in favor, say Aye.
Voices: Aye.
Young: Okay. All right, Lewanda, what’s the next agenda item?
Miranda: Selection of Vice Chair.
Young: Okay, I’ve been given this some thought over the last few weeks, and I would like to recommend that Art Stevenson be elected as my Vice Chair.
Miranda: Art Stevenson, do you accept?
Stevenson, Art: I do accept that responsibility.
Miranda: And we’ll need to vote from the Board, so it’s probably a “will call” on the vote.
Young: Okay. Do you want to go ahead and do that, Lewanda?
Miranda: Tessa Brown, yes or no?
Brown: Yes.
Miranda: Cath—Char, yes or no?
Colley-Dominique: I’m, I’m, this is Cathy and I am on.
Miranda: Oh, awesome. Cathy, we’re, we’re accepting Art Stevenson as Vice Chair with a yes or no vote.
Colley-Dominique: Yes.
Miranda: Okay. Char Mckinzie, yes or no?
Mckinzie: Yes.
Miranda: And I, Lewanda, I’m a yes. So it’s done.
Young: All right.
Miranda: Art Stevenson, welcome.
Young: Thank you, Lewanda.
Brown: Dun dun dunnn!
[laughter]
Young: And the next item on the agenda is…
Miranda: BE Handbook, action item.
Young: Action item. So, we need to have a motion made to accept the Handbook.
Stevenson, Art: Mr. Chairman?
Young: Yes, Art.
Stevenson, Art: I move that the Elected Committee adopt the BE Handbook as written by the Confluence Committee.
Miranda: I second it.
Colley-Dominique: I second.
Young: Okay. Lewanda seconded it. All right, so Art made a…
Miranda: Open for discussion?
Young: Open for discussion?
Brown: Sounds good to me.
Miranda: Hearing none…
Young: Any, anybody that was on the call last night, I mean, we didn’t hear any negative comments made about it. It was all good, so…
Miranda: It was.
Young: So I would like to call a motion, and Art Stevenson made a motion that we accept the Handbook as written by the Confluence Center and by the other members that participated. All in favor?
Voices: Aye.
Young: Awesome. Okay.
Miranda: Next is the BEI…
Young: Next is the BEI membership?
Miranda: Yes.
Young: Okay, this is also an action item. Maybe we could get a little bit of input though, before, from Eric on this. [inaudible]
Miranda: Yeah, and I did send out, I did send out the information on it, too, attached to the bottom of the agenda. So, I hope everyone saw that. I wrote it at the beginning, just below where it said Agenda. So, but yeah, it would be nice to get Eric’s perspective.
Young: Mm-hmm. Are you there, Eric?
Morris: I am. Do you want me to talk now?
Young: Yeah, sure, go ahead. And you know, give some of the benefits of that, and…
Morris: Sure. The BEI membership, I, I don’t remember what it, what the abbreviations stand for, but it’s Terry Smith’s operation that’s a, a subsidiary of the NFB. And basically, reading from the, the press release that they put out when they do this, when they, when they send this out, the information about the program, is it allows, a big portion of it is mentorship and access for me here at the Agency to reach out to Terry and the connections he has on issues when we have big issues that we want to work through. But they also provide educational programs for the elected committees, where they actually send people out. Training and orientation for newly elected committee members, let’s see, I’m just reading through it real quick. The opportunity to contract for blind merchants. Operating meeting, the opportunity to contract with NFB...NABM to perform other desired services. So, basically, you know, over the last year we haven’t tapped into that training piece at all. But the, the help that I’ve received from Terry for our program has been just on Edith Green and now the, the Bonneville, Bonneville Power Cafeteria solicitation that’s soon going to be coming out. The help on those issues and VA White City alone, that I think has, has more than supported the, I think it’s $1500 is the invoice for that, which is about half the going rate, because our program is smaller than 20 people. So we got a price break on it. But I think it’s been a valuable service. At least for me personally, it’s been very valuable.
Young: Well, that too, I mean, some of our In-Services, when we have, invite people to come out and give presentations, I mean, to me I think sometimes those cost twice that. Just the one little presentation, so…
Morris: And I mentioned, I mentioned to Terry the other day that the Elected Committee was interested in getting some training from the NFBEI program. And he was more than happy. He’s like, hey, do you have a date yet? And I said we hadn’t set any dates yet. And so he said just to let them know, and they’d get something figured out.
Young: Okay, that sounds really good. Well, thank you, Eric.
Stevenson, Art: Mr. Chairman?
Young: Yes, Art.
Stevenson, Art: I’d like, I’d also like to say, you know, they also provide some other benefits. They do have a legal staff of people like Susan Kearns and others that we can consult with. They also provide help in writing and/or strengthening mini-Randolph-Sheppard Acts, which, which is, you know, something that we may be doing in the future. And, and so, it is a very, very valuable service. And you can’t get all that they give for $1500. There’s just no way. So, I would like to make a motion that we okay the Oregon Commission for the Blind to pay the $1500…
Voice: [inaudible yelling]
Young: Excuse me? Wow. Go ahead, Art.
Stevenson, Art: Yeah. I make a motion that we authorize OCB to pay the $1500 membership fee.
Miranda: I, I second that.
Young: Lewanda seconds it. Open for discussion? Hearing no discussion, so Art made a motion that we authorize the Commission to pay for the BEI, $1500, and so do I hear, all those in favor say Aye?
Voices: Aye.
Young: Any opposed? All right, thank you.
Miranda: Next is “Other Business”.
Young: Okay.
Stevenson, Art: Mr. Chairman?
Young: Yes, Art.
Stevenson, Art: I would like to make a motion that the BEC—the Elected Committee put together a letter to go to the Commission for the Blind and the OCB Commissioners thanking them for investing in putting together the Handbook and allowing through active participation. And so I think it would be good for the Elected Committee to send a thank you letter for the money well invested in putting together a Handbook that we all can be proud of.
Young: Okay. Do I hear a second?
Brown: I second.
Young: Tessa seconds it. Art made a motion that we send a thank you letter to the Commission for the Blind and the Commissioners on the Board for Commission for the Blind, that we thank them for all the time, effort, and money they spent on the new Handbook that we have now. All in favor?
Voices: Aye.
Young: Any opposed? All righty, thank you. So, Vice Chair?
Stevenson, Art: Yes, sir?
Young: Could you and Lewanda and, with some, my positive influence, too, I guess, we can all come up with the letter to send to them within the next few days?
Miranda: Yes.
Young: All right, how about you, Art?
Stevenson, Art: Most definitely.
Young: All right, thank you. All right, Lewanda, what’s next on there?
Stevenson, Art: Mr. Chairman?
Young: Any other business. Oh, yep, Art.
Stevenson, Art: I would also like to make a recommendation. We did put together a Handbook through true Active Participation. The Elected Committee was involved, the blind licensed managers were involved, and so I’d like to make a motion that we send a letter to the individuals who still have a filed grievance on past Handbooks, that the past Handbook… Eric, do you, do you remember what case number that complaint is?
Morris: Let me look here real quick, Art. The rules and regulations one?
Stevenson, Art: Yes.
Morris: 12-04.
Stevenson, Art: Okay, I, I would like to make a motion that the Elected Committee send a letter to the individuals who still have an active complaint on the writing of the rules and regulations requesting that they drop that complaint because we did have active participation on putting together this Handbook. And I think we need to be, that we need to move on, and so I think the Elected Committee should urge those individuals who still have their name on that complaint to, to drop it. I do believe that there was a agreement with the Confluence, that, that would happen. But I think we need to send that letter out urging them to do so, now that we have an adopted Handbook.
Miranda: I second that motion.
Young: Lewanda seconds it. So Art made a motion that we send a letter to the individuals who are still on the active complaint per the Handbook. That the Handbook was written in active participation with everyone, and everybody agreed that as long as it was, that they would remove their names. So we make a motion that we send letters that they do that.
Miranda: Lewanda seconds.
Young: Lewanda seconds. All in favor?
Voices: Aye.
Young: Any opposed? Hearing none opposed. Okay, I think this one would be a good idea, all the Board, all the Elected Committee worked on the letters to send to those individuals. Is everybody on board with that?
Voices: Yes.
Young: All right, thank you. All right, any other business?
Stevenson, Art: Mr. Chairman, I got one more.
Young: Okay, is, Art, is this about…
Stevenson, Art: And, and that’s my limit, right? Three?
Young: Well, probably would be a good thing to stop at three. Third time’s the charm.
Stevenson, Art: Okay, does anybody else have something before I… Because I, you know, I do want to to make sure that…
Young: Everybody’s being heard?
Stevenson, Art: Yeah, everybody’s being heard that wants to be heard.
Miranda: Well, I, I have a, something that I wanted to talk about.
Young: Okay.
Miranda: On our assigned managers to locations, now from the passing of Joe Bassett…
Young: Joe.
Miranda: …then that only leaves two people in the Portland 2 area. Are we going to leave it like that, or do you guys think maybe we should take someone out of the outlying and put them there, so then we have 3-3, 3-3, and 4 to make it more even? Or what’s your, what’s your…thought?
Stevenson, Derrick: This is Derrick.
Young: Yeah, Derrick, go ahead.
Stevenson, Derrick: Yeah, I’d like to go, go ahead. I don’t mind being in that area, if [inaudible] will help.
Brown: That’s me, right, guys?
Young: No, that’s, that’s Cathy.
Brown: Okay, because I would only have two people, too.
Young: Yeah. Well, there’s three counting you.
Stevenson, Art: Three total. The one only has two people in it, Randy and Cathy. So this would make it three total. I, I, I would like to make a motion that we move one person from the outlying areas to the Portland area which is represented by Cathy Dominique. So that we have a more even split with all the areas of representation.
Miranda: Chairman?
Stevenson, Art: And, and… So…
Young: [inaudible] Lewanda?
Miranda: Do we have any other volunteers besides Derrick from the outlying areas?
Young: Yeah, it’s probably, yeah. Does anybody else from the outlying areas interested in being a member of the Portland 2 area that is under Cathy Dominique?
Colley-Dominique: Hello? What?
Brown: She’s a real slave driver, you guys.
Colley-Dominique: I’m sorry, I, I had a customer and I was… Was there a question for me?
Young: No.
Stevenson, Art: No, we’re, we’re, we’re moving somebody else into your area so there’s an even split, because the outlying areas have five people in it, Cathy, and yours only has two.
Colley-Dominique: Oh, yeah. [inaudible] Right. I heard part of that, so…