by Penny Reeder
President Deb Lewis called the January 30 meeting of the ACB Board of Directors to order at 7 p.m. Eastern. To hear the podcast of the meeting, visit https://tinyurl.com/y4hbu3hw.
All board members were present except Doug Powell, who was excused, and Kim Charlson, who arrived midway through the meeting. Staff members in attendance included interim executive director Dan Spoone; CFO Nancy Marks-Becker; and Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs Claire Stanley. Deb asked for board approval of the agenda. It was approved with one negative vote from Gabriel Lopez Kafati.
Minutes from the two most recent board meetings were approved. Deb and Dan celebrated the meeting’s Mission Moment, expressing their sincere appreciation for the ACB staff, all of whom had been working extra hours and taken on additional responsibilities since the departures of Kelly Gasque and Clark Rachfal. Dan highlighted a number of the staff’s achievements requiring them to work far harder than what would be considered reasonable in even the busiest work environment.
Dan outlined plans for the upcoming leadership conference and officially welcomed Claire Stanley as ACB’s Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs.
Next, Deb explained why she was asking the board to make a decision regarding the advisability of holding a tour to the Kingsley Plantation during the 2024 ACB convention. She believes that controversy surrounding the advisability of holding the tour arose from inadequate communication between all parties. Deb based her decision on the long-established precedent of identifying the convention committee as the entity responsible for selecting and planning convention tours. After the decision was made, controversy regarding the appropriateness of the plantation as a tour venue increased, and since the responsibility for making decisions regarding ACB ultimately rests with the board, she decided to ask the board to accept her decision to go forward with the tour, or reverse the decision and cancel the tour.
The Kingsley Plantation is a National Park Service (NPS) tour venue. ACB has offered a recorded tour of this venue as one of the virtual tours that were made available over the last couple of years. Deb invited Cheryl Cumings, chair of the Multicultural Affairs Committee (MCAC), to share that committee’s recommendation with respect to the tour.
Cheryl said after Janet Dickelman brought the proposed tour to her attention and asked for her opinion, she convened a meeting of the MCAC. She also reached out to African Americans who live in Florida to get their input. The majority felt ACB should not sponsor the tour. “The MCAC felt that the plantation tour would raise too much controversy,” she said, “and that controversy would be something that ACB could easily avoid simply by not holding the plantation tour.”
Following Cheryl’s remarks, Director Chris Bell made a motion that ACB withdraw the Kingsley Plantation Tour from the convention. Gabriel seconded the motion. Much discussion ensued. The motion carried, with eight votes in favor, seven against, and one abstention.
The next issue on the agenda was the president’s request for the board to confirm ACB’s mission and affirm ACB’s policy with respect to members’, committees’, and affiliates’ rights and responsibilities. Deb explained her awareness that two ACB committees were discussing whether to support a rally which Blind Pride International (BPI) planned to hold during the ACB convention prompted this discussion. ACB learned about BPI’s proposed rally at the August 2023 board meeting. At that meeting Gabriel told the board that BPI planned to hold a rally in Jacksonville during the convention.
Deb said BPI’s intention to hold the rally was not a concern at the time. She became concerned about the implications for ACB when she learned the MCAC and Women’s Concerns Committees were considering supporting the rally. Deb believes the purpose of the BPI rally falls outside of ACB’s stated mission. She believes ACB’s committees, whose members are appointed by the president, and who do not have the autonomous status of ACB affiliates, cannot officially speak on behalf of ACB. Deb stated if ACB committees were to endorse or attend an event, it was her understanding that would immediately make ACB a co-sponsor of that event.
Deb asked the board to consider two motions. The first would be to confirm ACB’s policies with respect to our mission and its meaning, and the rights and responsibilities of members, committees, and affiliates. David Trott introduced the first motion, which asks the ACB Board of Directors to affirm that ACB’s sole mission and purpose continues to be to increase the independence, security, equality of opportunity, and to improve the quality of life for all blind and visually impaired people; that ACB’s Prohibited Conduct Policy provides the expectation that ACB will respect individuals’ differences and views, as ACB joins together for the common goals of assuring opportunities for blind and low-vision people; and further, that ACB’s elected officers, staff, appointed committees, and individual members are prohibited from taking a position on behalf of the organization unless ACB has taken such a position through its board of directors or vote of the membership. The motion also affirms that ACB includes both geographic and special-interest affiliates who are independent entities with individual purposes and missions, while they are advocating for equity of people who are blind; and that ACB’s affiliates have additional concerns that also shape their mission, philosophical positions, decision-making, and activities; and anyone may align themselves with these activities as individuals, but not representing the American Council of the Blind. Koni Sims seconded the motion.
Deb invited Leah Gardner, BPI president; Linda Porelle and Lori Scharff, co-chairs of the ACB Women’s Concerns Committee; and Multicultural Affairs Committee chair Cheryl Cumings regarding both motions.
Leah spoke about how much it meant to her as a young, blind teenager to discover an organization advocating for her civil rights, and how important it was to her when she attended her first convention in 1999 to find a group of ACB members who were also supporting people who were members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Linda said she was encouraged by the board’s vote to cancel the plantation tour. Cheryl said she has a better understanding how the president, board and executive director want ACB’s committees to operate. She understands that, if a committee associated with the organization puts its name to something, then that committee cannot jeopardize the non-profit status of the organization, nor can it commit the organization to a position that it does not want to take. Discussion followed.
Kim Charlson said, “... I think that our mission needs to become a 21st century mission. It carried us for the last 60-plus years, and it’s fundamentally a sound mission, but it won’t hurt for us to take a look at it through a 21st century lens [so that] in the future it can make it possible for us to be a more diverse and inclusive organization, and I hope that we can figure out a pathway to make that possible in the future.”
Deb stated the motion affirms the current mission, the independent status of affiliates, and that members — including committees — cannot take a position where ACB has not spoken. The motion carried, with 12 yes votes and 2 nos.
Cecily Nipper moved that ACB take no position on the BPI rally. Koni seconded the motion. Leah said BPI’s convention co-chairs, Anthony Corona and Gabriel Lopez Kafati, met with the director of diversity and equity in Jacksonville, and reported on that meeting to President Lewis. They worked with convention coordinator Janet Dickelman on the rally schedule. BPI would like as many people as possible to attend the rally. They are in talks with speakers from the Human Rights Campaign and various minority and disability rights organizations. They also approached ACB committees whom they felt would be deeply affected by the current environment in Florida.
Cheryl said the MCAC carefully considered whether they should support the BPI rally. “As the committee that is charged with increasing awareness of human rights, and working to improve understanding within ACB, we thought that our agreement to participate in this rally was a fulfillment of our mission as a committee.”
Secretary Denise Colley commented, “I’m just really feeling torn, because I believe in the rally, I believe in the purpose for it, kudos for BPI for wanting to do this, I fully understand why ACB Women and MCAC want to participate as committees. ... The problem is, if we vote to support it, that means we have to take an active role, and, because the board has a fiduciary responsibility in terms of our finances and resources, we would have to do things that we had not initially been a part of an agreement to do. That is the only reason I would not vote in favor of this motion.”
Michael Garrett added, “If we were to do something that would jeopardize our reputation or our 501(c)(3) status, or our relationships with partners, we could put ourselves in a tailspin.”
Gabriel Lopez Kafati stated, “At the August 15, 2023 meeting, I came before this board and the people who elected me to serve on this board, and as a spokesperson for BPI, I said that we would support coming to Jacksonville, and as a token of faith BPI would offer a peaceful demonstration that would be educational and transparent in terms of telling Florida, ‘We’re here. We want to defend the rights of those of us who are LGBTQ+ and blind, we want to defend the rights of blind women, and blind African Americans.’”
Leah reminded everyone that BPI has never asked ACB to put any resources into the rally. She explained that they asked the MCAC and Women’s Concerns Committees for their support with respect to locating speakers and sharing information with various minority groups with the goal of making the rally as inclusive as possible. BPI is simply planning to gather people and speakers together, to talk about the human rights issues that are going on in Florida, with the goal of helping everybody to feel safe, included, and heard — including all people who are blind who experience their lives within a minority status.
The motion was adopted with one “no” vote.
The meeting adjourned at 11:33 p.m. Eastern.