SCKCB Minutes of August 9, 2006 Meeting

The meeting was called to order at approximately 7:10 p.m. at the Alive Center 1818 31W Bypass in Bowling Green, KY, after, President Ron Milliman connected with two of our members in remote locations through the internet! He used a program called Skype. This made it possible for a total of twelve members to attend and participate at the meeting.

The members present were Ron & Palma Milliman, Kim & Michael Parsley, Max & Sue Robinson, Mitchell & Leslie Plumlee, Mitchell Reed, David Welch, Nicole Pumyam, and Lisa McKinley.

Our secretary, Palma Milliman, read the minutes from our previous formal meeting of April 19, 2006. The minutes were unanimously accepted as read.

Next, our Treasurer, Max Robinson, gave the treasurer's report. We currently have a balance of $4,035.39 in our bank account. This report was also unanimously approved as presented.

President Milliman then announced that we had a "thank you" card to pass around and sign for Dr. Gerald Sullivan. It is a "thank you" that was long overdue for his being our guest speaker at our April meeting. Since we did not have a May or June meeting, and our July meeting was a picnic, this was t he first opportunity to do this.

Then, Mitchell and Leslie Plumlee told all about their experience on their trip to Kenya, Africa. It was extremely interesting, and we all had the opportunity to ask questions.

President Milliman raised the question of whether we were going to participate in any activities related to White Cane Safety Day. It was pointed out that White Cane Safety Day, October 15, fell on a Sunday this year, and if that was not a good day for our group, we could engage in some activity on that Saturday instead. The general consensus favored Saturday, October 14. The possible activities and locations were discussed at some length. David Welch volunteered to talk to the scout leader(s) with whom he had contact about participating with us for that day's activities. The ideas of partnering with a couple of elementary schools and Barnes and Noble were also discussed. However, after considerable discussion with no agreement as to the details of any specific activity or location, a committee was formed consisting of Mitchell Plumlee, David Welch, and Ron Milliman with the purpose of exploring the range of possible White Cane Day activities we could hold, possible locations for such activities, and the details concerning the possible fundraising opportunities. The committee will report back to the membership using the SCKCB listserve and at our next meeting.

The question of whether SCKCB would contribute any of its funds to ACB National was also discussed in some detail. It was decided to delay the decision to make a monthly donation to ACB National through the MMS program, and/or a one-time donation presented at the national convention next summer until our next meeting. Though the idea of making a small monthly contribution as well as a donation at the national convention seemed to be favored.

President Milliman reported that Ted Norris recently purchased a magnification device of some sort for l ow-vision people from a vendor of all types of assistive devices and technology located in Indianapolis and that the vendor indicated his willingness to come to one of our meetings to demonstrate some of the equipment he sells if the group were interested. There seemed to be considerable interest expressed by all our members present, and so, President Milliman said he would get the contact information from Ted Norris and pursue possibly setting something up for our September meeting.

Finally, the issue of establishing our plans and goals for the remainder of 2006 and first of 2007 was brought up by President Milliman with little response from the group. It was decided to discuss it further using our listserve as the communications exchange vehicle.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:35 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Palma Milliman, Secretary