Date of Meeting: October 10, 2020
When: 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Where: virtually.
Frank Ventura, President called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. Following introductions, the following announcements were made.
Jerry Berrier, Vice President, reported we have had no new members since our last meeting. We have two lists, VIBUG Support, for members, and VIBUG announce which is for everyone but does not allow members and nonmembers to share information and is only for announcements.
Bob Resnick reported our treasury is in good standing. If there is anyone who wishes to join they may do so via the PayPal button on our website and may pay via credit card or PayPal. They may also pay by check, or some other method; if anyone is having trouble paying Bob will be happy to help them; dues are$20.00. He may be contacted at treasurer@vibug.org
Jeanette Kutash reported that the September minutes have been sent out, and as she has only heard from Jerry, the minutes will be sent out in a day or so to Tim to be placed on the web site.
Frank discussed elections; anyone who has paid dues by the end of the October meeting will be eligible to vote. About a week before the meeting elections will be open to members only. You will send your voting ballot to that email address. Each officer will be tasked with counting votes for another officer. Anyone who wishes to be nominated for an office must let the officers know by November 1st at noon so that we will have time to prepare the ballot and get it out to members in a timely fashion.
Tim Cumings stated everything is running well with zoom; all recordings have been updated; minutes are all up through August and September minutes will go up shortly.
Margaret Gaffney reported that the nominating committee has recommended the following: Frank Ventura for President, Jerry Berrier for Vice President, Bob Resnick for Treasurer, Jeanette Kutash for Clerk and Tim Cumings for webmaster. Bob has stated that he will serve for this year, but if someone else would like to be treasurer he would be happy to step aside. The other members of the nominating committee were Kelsey Nicolay and Amy Ruell.
David Kingsbury announced the Carroll Center is having its annual technology fair on November 24th. After some discussion we agreed that we would form a committee consisting of Jerry Berrier, John Smith, Jeanette Kutash and David Kingsbury for purposes of deciding whether it makes sense for us to participate in the event this year. Jeanette Kutash and David Kingsbury will contact Dina for more information. The committee will decide within a week whether we recommend participating in the technology event or waiting until next year to reconsider participation.
We discussed the live captioning of our meetings, and the need for the officers to contact the people who were interested in this option as there is a financial cost to offering this service and we need to determine if it will be used and whether we should continue experimenting with the current product we are using.
Jeffrey Drucker announced there is an organization, Mass. EdP which historically has provided adaptive telephones for people who are deaf and blind. They are about to offer cellphones instead of landlines as of November 1st. They will provide IPhone 9's with apps specifically for blind people. The application for these phones is in an inaccessible PDF; Jeff has made an accessible format which the state has not approved for use as of this date. This is a federally funded program.
David Hunt announced The Library has sent out the voter information which is also available on Newsline.
Jeff Bishop talked about some of the new features that have been added to IOS14. He also talked some about features of the latest model of the Apple Watch.
Kelsey Nicolay talked about using the Jaws tandem mode.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, Jeanette Kutash, Vibug Clerk