compiled by Ardis Bazyn, ACB Membership Committee Chair
A recent membership focus call took a look at setting goals you can accomplish. Members of various affiliates shared the following ideas.
Doug Powell from the Alliance on Aging and Vision Loss says their affiliate focused on important projects to keep members moving the goals along. One of their projects in 2022 was to contact Area Agencies on Aging in communities around the country. They developed a questionnaire to see whether or how they served the blindness population. The questionnaire can be found at Aavl-blind-seniors.org.
The project’s goal was to learn about the agencies and what each does, and how the affiliate can work with them. The result was getting more visually impaired advisors on these advisory boards. They needed education on assisting blind and visually impaired people with health care and effective managed service training for professionals.
What is a measurable goal? Use the SMART goal example — specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, with a timeline. AAVL is still monitoring their progress through advocacy.
Amanda Selm from Next Generation explained how she meets with committee chairs at the beginning of the year, asking each one what they wish to do. What do they want to achieve? Is it measurable based on SMART goals? She gives feedback as needed. Some are motivated without feedback. Some know they need to set goals for their planned activities.
She has quarterly meetings of chairs which helps them to stay on target. They can discuss issues of importance — leading with intention. This helps with succession planning for upcoming leaders. She expects chairs to spread the responsibility to all committee members so all will participate in planned activities. She has expectations of chair and co-chair to hold people on each committee responsible. They can mentor or encourage each committee member to go to the next level, creating a spider web. Determine who, when, and ultimate outcome. She uses the L10 format for committee meetings.
David Kingsbury from the Bay State Council of the Blind stated they planned a retreat where they defined strategies and objectives such as advocacy, communicating effectively, communication and outreach to outside audiences, social inclusion, as well as financial organization stability. At the retreat, they brainstormed about the next year. What well-defined activities could be managed? We must decide on what activity, who is doing it, and have an evaluation to show how successful the activity was. What was not accomplished? This monitoring tool could be checked occasionally and then annually.
He suggested avoiding “pie in the sky” ideas, and to create a more practical plan and road map, especially in advocacy and membership. Try to be more active and less reactive. Find where gaps are and challenge members to find what they are willing to work on.
There is a difference between established and new processes and end game. Some are easier, such as having an auction. Transportation advocacy is harder with 15 agencies — all different, so steps to reach goal may change in time. They must decide when is best to contact them.
Trampes Brown from the North Dakota Association of the Blind explained they felt the first step is determining how to measure the goal. Is the activity related to fundraising, to assist members and community, or for improving the finances of the organization? Lions are partners to assist in many of the activities since there are no local chapters. The North Dakota state agency publicizes their events for them.
Measuring why the activity should occur and what you hope to gain is valuable. The answers to those questions depends on the opportunity — is it just social or advocating to larger groups like pharmacies? Do we need mailings? Do we want to reach out to possible members in the state or are we working on teen camp? Each needs a different approach. Do we want an urban camp with more technology? The camps would depend on the number of teens and the statewide PR campaign needed. First, we reached out to primary care clinics to have meetings with staff to explain best techniques for meeting with VI clients. We wanted to find 20-25 individuals, but getting to locations is a problem since most of the state is rural. We want to provide local trainings for those less experienced with VI patients. It should be a personalized response instead of a robotic one. When setting the goal, we needed to know the background of clinics and the process of reaching out.
Audience members on the call then provided some of their goals. Georgia is reaching out to senior centers and eye doctors about talking to those with vision loss. They talked with caregivers and centers, and senior housing officials, about how to talk with blind people. Maryland went to the legislature for accessible pedestrian signals changes. Virginia contacted legislators to make them aware of blindness issues.
Plan to come to the ACB Membership Committee seminar at the national convention. The topic will be “How partnering with other organizations and agencies will help with membership growth.” The hybrid event will be held on July 5 at 4 p.m. Central.