Meeting Minutes
Blind Information Technology Specialist
Annual Meeting Minutes for 2018
June 13, 2018 8:00 PM EDT
BITS Zoom Meeting Room
Attendance:
Karyn Campbell
Ray Campbell
Thomas Cumings
Janelle Edwards
Wendalyn Hovendick
Earlene Hughes
Douglas Hunsinger
Thomas Jones
Lynne Koral
Maria Kristic
Paula Mack
John McCann
Marcia Moses
Rhonda Nelson
Kelsey Nicolay
Jim Stanga
Abraham Sweiss
David Tanner
Richard Villa
Renee Zelickson
There was a quorum of the membership present at the meeting.
The next item of business was approval of the proposed agenda. Karyn Campbell
Moved that the proposed agenda be approved, and David Tanner seconded the motion.
The membership approved the proposed agenda.
The next item of business was approval of the minutes from the Annual meeting for 2017. Karyn Campbell moved that the minutes be approved and Renee Zelickson
Seconded the motion.
The membership approved the minutes for the 2017 annual meeting.
The next item of business was the treasurer’s report for the membership year ending June 30, 2018.
Treasurer’s report for the period ending 6/30/2018
6/1/2018
checking beginning balance $2,958.42
6/30/2018 checking ending balance $2,546.15
PayPal balance $0.00
6/1 savings $3,599.21
6/30 savings $3,599.21
Wellsfargo cd $15,000.00
total in all accounts $21,145.36
submitted for audit
Richard Villa Treasurer
Richard Villa treasurer
David Tanner moved that the treasurer’s report be accepted, and Renee Zelickson
Seconded the motion.
The membership accepted the treasurer’s annual report.
President’s Report:
President Tom Jones started his report by commenting on some of the accomplishments made during the 2017 – 2018 membership year. Among those accomplishments were:
- Starting to use the Zoom Cloud Conferencing System. This service has made clear, and reliable meetings possible with a number of different methods available for connecting to the service for all of our meetings.
- As a result of the use of the Zoom system the success of the presentations and workshops that have been done during the past year has been outstanding and is likely to continue to get better in the coming year with even more outstanding presentations.
- The outstanding presentations presented by the Presentations and Workshops Committee has done much to increase interest in being a BITS member. The President announced that the membership met an outstanding 106 members by April 30, 2018 largely caused by the interest in the great presentations being given throughout the current membership year.
The President announced that Richard Villa would be our delegate to the ACB National Convention this year. Martin Kuhn will be the alternate delegate, and David Tanner will represent BITS at the Nominating Committee meeting.
President Tom Jones then announced that the Kelli Cannon Scholarship winner was Mr. Carlos Medrano. He indicated that he has informed him that BITS will provide him a ticket to the BITS Mixer, the BITS Banquet, and a free one-year membership to BITS as the winner of the scholarship.
The President indicated that he has not heard back from Carlos as to whether he will be able to attend the convention thus far.
President Jones indicated that a couple of goals that he would like for BITS to try to achieve during the coming year are as follows:
- Continue to expand the presentations and workshops that have been done during this year and expand them even more than they were this year.
- The other goal that he had was to come up with a list of members of BITS and some of their special skills or knowledge in particular skills that may be valuable to other members of BITS.
Committee Reports:
Convention Program Committee Report:
Presented by Convention Committee Chair Earlene Hughes.
Members of the committee were Tom Jones, Amanda Lee, Martin Kuhn, David Tanner, Richard Villa, and Renee Zelickson.
The program for this year has been shortened by one day due to the shortening of the convention by one day. The program is as follows:
Saturday June 30th:
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Peter Korn from Amazon will discuss and demonstrate all things accessible Amazon products including Amazon Locker, Fire Tablets, Fire TV and more.
1:15 PM – 2:15 PM
APH Manager for Indoor Explorer and Nearby Explorer will present these products and inform us of the continuing development of these products.
2:15 PM – 3:00 PM
Humanware will present the Victor Reader Trek. There will be demonstration of the features, and what is planned for some of the new updates to this product will be in the coming months.
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
AIRA will do a presentation on AIRA and answer questions about this product which is gaining a lot of recognition in the blindness community.
Sunday July 1st:
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
BITS Lunch
Microsoft Products Update with guest speakers Jeff Bishop and Brett Humphrey.
8:00 PM – 11:00 PM
BITS Mixer
Members may purchase tickets for the lunch, registration, and mixer at a discounted price during registration for the convention.
Richard Villa will be our BITS representative at all of these activities, and will host the lunch and Mixer, and all the Saturday presentations. All of these programs will be available for members to hear over the BITS Zoom Room.
Presentations and Workshops Committee:
Presented by Earlene Hughes, Chair of the Presentations and Workshops Committee
Earlene commented that she has been really amazed at the success of these presentations during this year, and she believes that the success is largely due to the hard work of those who have done the various presentations throughout the year. She thanked everyone who has been involved with these presentations.
Earlene went on to say that she is not going to be able to continue to chair this committee due to other new projects that she is going to be involved with and she hopes that someone will take over the committee and continue to have as much or more success with these presentations in this next year.
New Business:
Nominating Committee Report:
Nominating Committee Chair Earlene Hughes reported that the committee is nominating Kelsey Nicolay for the vacant director position to be voted on at this meeting.
Earlene went on to note that the other members of the Nominating Committee were Richard Villa and David Tanner.
President Tom Jones then opened the floor for additional nominations for the open director position.
There were no other nominations made.
Richard Villa moved that nominations be closed, and that Kelsey Nicolay be elected for the open director position on the board. David Tanner seconded the motion to close nominations and elect Kelsey Nicolay as director on the BITS Board of Directors.
The membership voted to elect Kelsey Nicolay as the new director on the board.
Constitution and Bylaws Committee Report:
David Tanner, Chair of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee reported that he has distributed the list of recommended changes to the constitution and bylaws to the BITS membership with all of the recommendations suggested for change. He went on to thank all of the members of the committee for their input into coming up with the recommendations that have been distributed to the membership.
David Tanner then called on Earlene Hughes to read several motions being made by the Constitution and Bylaws Committee with regard to moving forward with our recommendations to the membership as how to proceed with the voting for the recommendations for changes in the Constitution and Bylaws. Earlene then requested the patience of the membership as she moved forward with reading four motions from the Constitution and Bylaws Committee. She indicated to the membership that as we went through those motions it would become clearer why we were asking for their patience as we introduced these motions which the membership would be asked to vote upon.
Earlene then read the first motion from the Constitution and Bylaws Committee.
Motion 1: As the summary of the constitution and bylaws committee report on which the membership relied when approving the recommended amendments was inaccurate; I move that all such amendments passed at the 2017 annual meeting be declared null and void. Further, that the Constitution and Bylaws adopted at the 2014 BITS Annual meeting be declared to be in effect.
John McCann seconded the motion.
At that point John McCann asked for the floor, and upon getting the floor he explained that in his presentation to the membership about what they were being asked to vote for in the Constitution and Bylaws that was proposed as the 2017 Constitution and Bylaws that he had made a number of statements about what was to be voted on that were totally inaccurate. As a part of what he said he noted one sample of what he had recommended that would have made ever changing the constitution and bylaws almost impossible to do if the 2017 Constitution and Bylaws was to be left in effect.
Upon John completing his statement to the membership Ray Campbell stated that based on John’s statement that he was prepared to vote to declare the 2017 Constitution and Bylaws as null and void.
Earlene Hughes then asked if there was any other discussion of the motion. There being no further discussion about the motion; Earlene ask for a voice vote on accepting the motion to declare the 2017 Constitution and Bylaws as null and void.
The membership approved the motion to declare the 2017 Constitution and Bylaws as null and void.
Earlene Hughes then made a second motion as recommended by the Constitution and Bylaws Committee.
Motion 2: I move that the Constitution and Bylaws 60-day amendment provision be waved for the purpose of adopting BITS Life Membership amendments that were adopted at the 2017 annual meeting.
David Tanner seconded the motion.
The membership approved the motion to wave the 60-day amendment for the purpose of adopting BITS Life Membership amendments that were adopted at the 2017 annual meeting.
Earlene Hughes made a third motion as recommended by the Constitution and Bylaws Committee.
Motion 3: I move that the Constitution and Bylaws Committee reconvene before July 18 for the purpose of preparing, reviewing, and presenting BITS Life Membership amendments to the membership.
David Tanner seconded the motion and pointed out that without doing this there would be no guidelines as to dues or anything else governing the Life Membership for BITS.
There was some discussion for why this motion was being made. The answer being that there were certain other amendments that would have to be made in order to add the Life Membership to the 2014 Constitution and Bylaws.
The membership approved the motion to have the Constitution and Bylaws Committee reconvene before July 18 for the purpose of preparing, reviewing, and presenting BITS Life Membership amendments to the membership.
Earlene Hughes then read a fourth motion as recommended by the Constitution and Bylaws Committee.
Motion 4: I move that this meeting recess until Wednesday July 18th at eight o’clock eastern, seven o’clock central, and five o’clock pacific time. At which voting on 2018 proposed amendments will commence.
David Tanner seconded the motion.
John McCann asked if the committee believes that this will give them sufficient time to prepare the necessary amendments. Earlene Hughes answered that she believes that the committee can complete this by the recommended time.
The membership approved the motion to recess this meeting and reconvene on July 18th 2018. At which voting on proposed amendments will commence.
The meeting went into recess at 8:49 PM EDT
Respectfully submitted
David Tanner, Secretary
Blind Information Technology Specialist