Compiled by Ardis Bazyn, ACB Membership Committee Chair
On the August ACB Membership Committee focus call, we discussed how members could better share the information they learned at the national convention with their affiliate members. We heard from some leaders of affiliates about ways they give affiliate members important details learned at the ACB convention: Linda Oliva McKinley and Tom Jones from the membership committee for ACB Diabetics in Action, Sheila Young from the Florida Council of the Blind, Sam Joehl from ACB of Virginia, and Cecily Laney Nipper from the Georgia Council of the Blind.
The suggestions offered by speakers and participants on the call included:
- Sharing national convention-related ACB community calls previewing upcoming ACB committees’ sessions and other ACB convention activities with affiliate members in affiliate and chapter email lists
- Strongly encouraging members to participate in national convention events and sessions, both in newsletters and affiliate community calls
- Suggesting the affiliate offer scholarships or stipends to members to attend the national convention
- Sharing important facts and contact information of speakers at the national convention in the affiliate newsletter
- Planning affiliate community calls to showcase events and info learned at convention
- Encouraging members to attend ACB community calls where convention programming is discussed
- Forwarding links to podcasts from the convention and encouraging members to listen to them
- Inviting speakers from the national convention to affiliate and chapter meetings
Please do encourage members to look for the links for podcasts from the ACB convention, and think of ways to get more people to attend the next convention, either virtually or in person. Contact the membership committee if you have topics you’d like us to use in upcoming focus calls; you can email them to [email protected]. In January, we’ll be discussing how to create goals for your affiliate to accomplish during the next year.