by Penny Reeder
Once again this year, the ACB Board of Publications will host an online candidates' forum to take place on the ACB web site, http://www.acb.org, during the two weeks preceding ACB's national convention.
"This page will provide a venue for declared candidates for vacant positions on the ACB Board of Directors as well as for elected positions on the ACB Board of Publications to introduce themselves and allow our members to begin to get an idea of who wants to run for which positions and how the candidates feel about a variety of specific issues," said Kathleen Megivern, chair of the BOP. "It will work as a read-only web page where all candidates who wish to announce and who wish to participate will be asked to respond to the same set of questions. We envision the online candidates' page as a place where people who want to run for office can allow the ACB membership to get to know them. The online candidates' page will allow ACB chapters and affiliates to have more information at their disposal before they send delegates to the national convention. Last year, we were gratified to learn that a number of chapters had provided copies of the candidates' responses to their members in braille or had read all the responses aloud at membership meetings." Lively discussions ensued, and many members have told us how much they appreciated the opportunity to participate more actively in ACB's democracy because of the early dissemination of information which the online "forum" was able to facilitate.
How Will It Work?
Appointed members of the BOP have identified five questions which they believe will allow people who want to run for vacancies on the ACB Board of Directors to introduce themselves and allow voters to get to know them. The questions are:
- What are your qualifications for serving on the ACB Board of Directors?
- How would you go about building consensus on issues around which there is disagreement among the membership or the board?
- What should ACB do to expand our resources with respect to finances, members and leadership?
- What strategies should ACB use to make our advocacy efforts work more effectively, and what role should an ACB director play with respect to advocacy?
- What do you personally identify as the three major issues affecting people who are blind upon which ACB should be focusing its efforts?
These are the questions which have been identified for potential members of the Board of Publications. If you would like to serve on the ACB Board of Publications, please answer all of the questions listed below.
- Why do you believe you are qualified to serve on the BOP?
- What do you think is the most positive role played by the BOP?
- What should the BOP do to expand our resources?
Answer each question with a maximum of 250 words. Submit answers in any accessible, readable media, i.e., in print, or braille, on paper, computer disk (in ASCII text, WordPerfect 5.1, or Microsoft Word formats), or via e-mail. Pasting the text into an e-mail message is preferable to sending attachments, but attachments in ASCII text or Microsoft Word will be accepted. Submissions will not be accepted via telephone, voice-mail, audiocassette, or in handwriting. Note that we will not edit submissions for spelling, grammar, or content. The only change which will occur to submissions is conversion to the HTML code to facilitate online posting. Note further that it is our webmaster's role to convert documents into HTML, and we will not accept submissions which you have coded in this format yourself.
Last year, we were perplexed by a significant variation in the way each of the candidates provided personal information. For example, one candidate placed his name, address, employer, and telephone entry at the bottom of each page, while another placed only her name, with no additional identifying information, at the top of her document. Some respondents wrote each question and placed the corresponding answer underneath; others combined the answers to all questions into one single essay. Therefore, to prevent our having to resolve a similar perplexing situation this year, we offer the following guidance for formatting your answers:
Place your name, address, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and employer and job title at the top of each page. Center each item. The top of your page should look like this:
Jane Smith
1234 Main Street
Anytown, AnyState 00000
(555) 222-3333 (home)
(555) 000-4444 (work)
E-mail: [email protected]
Writer/Editor at AnyJob, Inc.
Write each question, and then place your corresponding answer underneath. Please number your pages.
Send your completed submissions to the following address: American Council of the Blind Candidates' Page, 1155 15th Street NW, Suite 1004, Washington, DC 20005. Responses may be submitted by e-mail, according to the guidelines noted above, to [email protected] . Time Lines
Submissions should be mailed, either by postal delivery or electronic mail, so that they reach the ACB national office no later than midnight, Eastern Daylight Time, on May 31, 2002. When we receive a declared candidate's materials, we will check the ACB membership database to ensure that he or she is a member of the organization in good standing. We hope to have the online candidates' page available at the ACB web site as soon after we have received all the submissions as possible, so that members will have access to the information in time for June membership meetings of local chapters. The pages will be available online no later than midnight, Eastern Daylight Time, on Monday, June 10, and will remain online at http://www.acb.org until the morning of July 5. We encourage ACB members who have computer access to share the contents of the candidates' page with members who do not. We anticipate that the page will become the substance for discussion among ACB members at chapter meetings and other venues where blind people get together. We will notify members on the day that the page goes live online on all the ACB e-mailing lists. In addition, Jonathan Mosen, director of ACB Radio, will utilize the contents of the candidates' page as a basis for ACB Radio coverage of the 2002 elections.
When official campaigns begin in earnest at the ACB national convention, declared candidates will present at formal and informal state and special-interest caucuses. In addition, the board of publications will sponsor a live question-and-answer Candidates' Forum, which will be moderated by Jay Doudna, at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday of convention week. The board of publications encourages all ACB members to submit written questions which will be considered for this forum to the convention press room. More details about this and other aspects of press room operations can be expected in the June Braille Forum.
"Once again this year, our process for electing officers begins at the ACB convention," says Charlie Hodge, a current member of the BOP. "Following constitutionally mandated procedures, the nominating committee will meet early in convention week to put forward an approved slate of candidates. In addition, the floor will be open on Friday, election day, as it always is, for nominations of people who may not have decided to announce in advance. We do not anticipate that this online candidates' page will alter the customary course of ACB elections in any way. We do expect the level of excitement about our candidates and the elections in general to build as we approach the dates for our departures to Houston, TX, and the 41st convention of the ACB."
Best of luck to all the candidates.