Vol. 29, No. 3
MARCH 2004
THE MID-FLORIDA VOICE
A publication of Mid-Florida Council of the Blind
TABLE OF CONTENTS
MESSAGE FROM MFCB PRESIDENT RACHEL BADER
NEXT GENERAL MEETING
FEBRUARY GENERAL MEETING REVIEW
MFCB ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
SIGHT & SOLE WALK
SOUTHEASTERN GUIDE DOGS WALK-A-THON
MFCB MEMBER DEBRA SPENCE
VOTING MACHINE NEWS - Fox News - submitted by Nicole Hugues
MEMBERSHIP - from Jay Bader
BIRTHDAY PEOPLE
Hi. I hope as many of you as possible will be able to join us at our March General Meeting. As we are in the process of revising our
MFCB By-Laws, we’ll be reading through proposed changes to be voted on at our April General Meeting. There will be time available for
discussion and answering questions.
This is a great opportunity to get involved and help shape the future of our Mid-Florida Council of the Blind. Copies of our current
By-Laws are available upon request by calling or e-mailing Jay. See you all in March.
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The next General Meeting of MFCB will be at Booth Towers, 633 Lake Dot Circle, Orlando, FL, 32801, on Saturday, March 6th, 2004,
from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. It is highly recommended that if anyone uses paratransit, please plan your rides accordingly.
President Rachel Bader will call a Board Meeting at 12:30 PM.
There is no guest speaker scheduled for this upcoming General Meeting as we will be discussing proposed MFCB By-Laws revisions.
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32 members were present at the February 7th General Meeting at Booth Towers in Orlando. President Rachel Bader began the Meeting
by announcing the passing of her retired guide dog Jester as well as longtime MFCB Member Art Valentini. Art’s funeral would be taking
place as the meeting began and Alice and Paul Wolf as well as Marion Eiermann were representing MFCB at the funeral. It was agreed
by the Board prior to the General Meeting that flowers would be sent to Art’s widow, Ann Valentini.
Then guest speaker and another longtime MFCB Member Jim Lamb spoke about the history of FCB, the Florida Council of the Blind, as
well the 30 years thus far of MFCB. As Rachel mentioned before Jim was introduced, this year marks the 30th Anniversary of Mid-Florida
Council of the Blind.
Afterwards, Rachel announced that Raffle Tickets were available for the FCB Convention. It was mentioned that 65 percent of the money
raised from the Raffle go back to MFCB. Leslie Spoone then reminded everyone about the activity noted in the February 2004
MID-FLORIDA VOICE of a Valentine’s Day Bowling Event to take place at Carter Family Bowling Lanes on Saturday, February 14th. 8
Members initially expressed interest in going to the Bowling Event.
After the Secretary’s and Treasurer’s Reports were read and approved, some Committees that were not finalized at the January General
Meeting were revisited. Patti Davis will chair the Awards and Scholarship Committee and would contact others who would be interested
in joining this Committee; Chuck Graham would chair the Transportation Committee, with Nicole Hugues a member of it; Jay Bader will
chair the Publicity and Publications Committee and would contact others who would be interested in joining this Committee; and
Shelley Justice will chair the Door Prizes Committee, with Bo Justice a member of it.
2nd Vice-President Jackie Gideons then mentioned the “Sight & Sole Walk,” which
will take place on Saturday, March 6th, at Universal Studios Orlando. She stressed
that $50.00 must be raised per person but that amount of funds raised allows you
the entire day at the park. If anyone would like a registration form, they can
contact Emily at CITE at 407-898-2483. (Details on this are noted later in this
issue.)
Then as Chair of the newly-formed By-Laws Committee, Jay Bader read the current version of and proposed revisions to the MFCB
By-Laws. After the reading, it was decided by the Members present that the revisions would be read again and then discussed at the
March General Meeting, with a final reading, any amendments proposed and discussed and final voting to take place at the April
General Meeting.
The February fundraiser was a choice of Valentine’s Day Candy or Orlando Magic Tickets for the February 8th game versus the Los
Angeles Lakers (including parking pass), which raised $47.00. Jackie Gideons won the 2 boxes of candy while Jim Lamb got the
tickets.
The following Door Prizes were given out:
1st Prize – 2-Pack of 90-minute Audio Cassettes – Gail Stamps, a guest at the Meeting
2nd Prize – Aroma Spiritual Candle – Bob Snyder
3rd Prize – Small Box of Valentine’s Day Candy – Louis Williams
4th Prize – Small Box of Valentine’s Day Candy – Bill Freeman
Congratulations to all the Prize Winners!
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Mid-Florida Council of the Blind now has a presence on the World Wide Web. Through
the Florida Council of the Blind web site, http://www.fcb.org,
there is information available on the Internet about MFCB as well as current and
some past issues of the MFCB Newsletter, both in the previous name of MUMBLES
and the new name of THE MID-FLORIDA VOICE. This is only the beginning as another
option has been made available for people to find out what is going on with our
organization.
To specifically get to the MFCB section of the FCB website, go to http://www.fcb.org/mfcb.htm.
Feedback is strongly encouraged as to the accessibility and content of the website, so if you have any questions or suggestions, e-mail
webmaster@fcb.org. With your suggestions so far, there will be some changes
forthcoming that will better what we have on the Web.
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March is the time when 2 annual benefit walks take place. The first of those is one that is close to many MFCB Members: the “Sight &
Sole Walk,” which raises money for CITE, Lighthouse for the Visually-Impaired, and the Orlando Sentinel Family Fund, a fund of the
McCormick Tribune Foundation. This year’s Walk will take place on Saturday, March 6th, 2004, at Universal Studios Orlando. Last year,
over 1,200 walkers joined to raise funds benefiting Central Florida's Visually-Impaired community.
Each walker needs to contribute or raise a minimum of $50 to participate in this year’s “Sight & Sole Walk.” Each participating walker
also receives a special commemorative “Sight & Sole” t-shirt to wear that day. After the Walk, walkers may spend the rest of the day at
Universal Studios Orlando at no extra cost. Winners in each category who raise the most funds receive special prizes and incentives.
Registration for the “Sight & Sole Walk” opens at 7:00 AM, Kick-Off is at 7:30 AM, with the Walk itself beginning at 8:00 AM and Awards
Ceremony at 9:00 AM. MFCB is planning on having a team of walkers there. If you are interested in being a part of the MFCB Walk Team
for “Sight & Sole,” please contact Leslie Spoone at 407-678-4159.
For more information on the “Sight & Sole Walk,” call CITE at 407-898-2483 or on the Web, visit
http://www.centralfloridalighthouse.org. Good luck to those who go and we hope
this year a lot of money is raised for Central Florida’s Visually-Impaired community at “Sight & Sole.”
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The other annual benefit walk in March is very important to those who work with guide dogs: the Southeastern Guide Dogs (SEGD)
“Walk-A-Thon,” which raises money solely for Southeastern Guide Dogs. This year it takes place on Saturday, March 13th, 2004, in
Palmetto, Florida, and it will start and finish at the Manatee River Fair Association and IMC Arena.
Registration for the SEGD “Walk-A-Thon” will be between 7:30 AM and 10 AM with the walk itself beginning at 8 AM. Entertainment &
lunch will be available between 10 AM and 1 PM. Raffle drawings and closing ceremonies begin at 11:30 AM. T-shirts and lunch will be
given free to all walkers who raise $75.00 or more.
MFCB Members who will be going to this “Walk-A-Thon” will be arriving a day early to pre-register at the Holiday Inn Riverview in
Bradenton, Florida, which is just a few minutes from the Walk. MFCB will be donating to the “Walk-A-Thon” as well.
Southeastern Guide Dogs is another organization that is very close to many MFCB Members. In fact, at the time of this Newsletter, one
MFCB member is training at the school with a guide dog and another will be going to SEGD shortly to train with a new one. MFCB
President Rachel Bader is currently working with her third guide dog from SEGD, with her retired second one, Jester, recently passing
away (he would have turned 14 on May 5th).
If you would like more information on the Southeastern Guide Dogs “Walk-A-Thon,” please contact SEGD Projects Coordinator Michelle
Bass at 1-800-944-3647 or on the Web, visit http://www.guidedogs.org. All the best to SEGD
and we hope that this year will raise a record-breaking amount for the school!
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One of the newest members of MFCB is Debra Spence. She wanted all MFCB Members to get to know her. So here she is in her own
words:
I'm Debra Spence, and have just joined MFCB this year. I've moved from Texas recently and live in the Hunters Creek area of Orlando. My
hobbies are listening to jazz, and reading mysteries and Star Wars novels.
I also like watching classic movies. I keep busy (as well) in spiritual matters; as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, we have meetings to attend
three times a week and we also engage in public ministry to the community.
I was born in Charleston, South Carolina, born premature and got too much oxygen (which caused my blindness). I went through public
school, with special-ed classes scheduled for one period a day. The rest of the time I was in mainstream classes.
I was always interested in people and how they felt and why. So I went into Psychology as a major, through Bachelors and then
Graduate-level Degrees. I got a Doctoral Degree by correspondence, or “distance learning.” I've worked with persons struggling with
addictions and relationship problems. Also, people I've helped have been stuck not knowing the best choices to make, or in making the
same bad ones, because of what they went through growing up. This was especially true in the area of child abuse prevention.
Because of stresses and pressures today, and things that have happened in our
past, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by negative feelings. We have to realize that
these are fueled by negative thoughts and correct these by substituting them with
positive ones. We can do this by focusing on pleasant memories and things we are
looking forward to, and by reaching out to others.
The way it works is like listening to a radio station. We can only listen to one thing that's playing at a time. When we don't like it, we switch
to something we like.
This, like any other new habit, takes time and effort. But like anything else we want, it's worth the effort. Often, we can do this on our own.
But sometimes we need a little extra help.
Based on my training and experience, and on my shared experience as being Visually-Impaired, I'd like to offer a listening ear to anyone
who needs help with current crises or past issues. I'd be willing to communicate via phone or e-mail. It can be an ongoing thing or one
time, as needed.
If enough people are interested, we could look into starting a support group. My phone number is 407-856-5317. My e-mail address is
deblou@gbronline.com.
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With the current situation of voting machines in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, MFCB Member Nicole Hugues thought this
recent story may shed a different point of view. The following article was originally posted on the Fox News website
(http://www.foxnews.com) on January 30th, 2004:
Maryland Gears Up for Primary Test of Voting Machines - by Danny Jacobs, FOX NEWS
Maryland's decision to use touch-screen voting machines in its March 2nd primary has moved it to the forefront of nationwide election
reform, according to a report released last week. But questions about the reliability of the new machines in a large-scale election have
some wondering if the forefront is where Maryland should be. Still, state officials say some change is better than a repeat of the
contested presidential election of 2000.
"There will never be a perfect election," said House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, D-Maryland. But with polls showing voters split
politically, Hoyer said there is "a premium on accurate elections."
Toward that end, he sponsored the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which gets its first test this year. Elements were on display
Tuesday in New Hampshire's presidential primary, though not a touch-screen system.
The law gives states nearly $4 billion to educate voters and poll workers and to replace punch-card and lever machines with more
modern voting equipment. It also calls for the creation of statewide voter databases and requires first-time voters who registered by mail
to show proof of identity at the polls if they did not provide that identification with their registration.
"The whole objective of HAVA is to make it easier to vote, provide assurance for voters and ensure there is no cheating," Hoyer said.
Maryland has already met most of the law's requirements — it was granted a waiver on creating a voter database — and is one of only
two states, along with Georgia, that will use statewide touch-screen voting, according to
http://www.electionline.org, a non-partisan Website devoted to election reform. Maryland is "one
of the few states that went ahead of the pack, along with Georgia and Florida," said Dan Seligson, editor of electionline.org. "They took a
long look at their deficiencies and created a top-down controlled system."
But the move away from optical scanners, punch cards and levers has not been without controversy. A study by computer experts found
security flaws in machines made by Diebold Election Systems, an Ohio-based company that has a $55 million contract to provide more
than 11,000 machines to Maryland. The study warned that multiple votes by the same person could be cast, but the state went ahead with
the purchase after a review by a private consultant and assurances that the glitches could be fixed.
During the 2002 elections, Allegany, Dorchester, Montgomery and Prince George's counties used Diebold machines without any major
incidents. Any problems reported with the machines have not been software-related, but have been along the lines of electrical outages,
Hoyer said.
Seligson said that while Diebold machines have performed well in various places around the country, it has only been used in a statewide
election once before, in Georgia.
Hoyer concedes that problems with the accuracy of Diebold-tallied results are possible — errors, either mechanical or human, have
always been part of the election process, he said. But he believes the touch-screen system is the best way to cut down on mistakes. "This
voter system is more user-friendly. It's easy to use and easy to understand," Hoyer said. "I have far greater confidence that Americans will
vote and be confident in their vote."
But that confidence could be shattered by a close or contested vote, Seligson said. Since the touch-screen systems do not keep a paper
record of votes, he said, people could become suspicious if it came down to one or two machines that miscounted votes. "If a recount is
necessary, calls will grow louder for paper trails," he said.
Congress is already considering an amendment requiring a paper trail, but Hoyer said Friday it is too soon to judge if that will be
necessary.
Suspicions have already been raised by a November letter for a Republican fund-raiser at Diebold Chairman and CEO Walden O'Dell's
house. O'Dell's letter vowed to "deliver" Ohio's electoral votes to President Bush, but Diebold said the letter reflected O'Dell's personal
views, not the company's.
But any problems that arise will be overcome, said Hoyer and Rep. Robert W. Ney, R-Ohio. The two men co-sponsored the Help America
Vote Act. "At the end of the day, we'll look back, and although there are some glitches, we'll say this makes for a healthier voting
process," Ney said.
Maryland will find out sooner than most states if election reform is on the right track, Seligson said. "Maryland moved ahead of the rest of
the country," he said. "This year will be a test to see if that decision paid off."
(Capital News Service contributed to this report.)
Copyright 2004 Fox News Network LLC
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Notes from Jay: The 2004 MFCB Members Phone Roster is currently being prepared. These will be available in Print, E-mail, Cassette
and Braille. If you are interested in having a Cassette or Braille version, please contact me as soon as possible as these versions will
otherwise only be available at the April and May General Meetings.
Please note the following MEMBER CHANGES:
ELIZABETH BOUYER
900 Emerald St.
Orlando, FL 32808
407-523-8989
TRUDY BRUMFIELD
2915 Cherokee Rd.
St. Cloud, FL 34772
407-892-2895
And a reminder that I am accepting any submissions to THE MID-FLORIDA VOICE. All submissions must arrive by regular mail or e-mail
to me by the 15th of the month as issues are prepared shortly after that. I will make sure you are credited with the submission. If you
have any further questions, please call me at 407-658-2479 or e-mail at
mfcbinfo@bellsouth.net.
Looking forward to seeing many of you at the March General Meeting!
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MARCH
10 - Sarah Brown
14 - Matti Hickson
14 - Marc Letzkus
18 - Pat Halferty
22 - Joseph Musil
22 - Olive Wright
23 - Arline Graham
29 - Judi Keister
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