by Christopher Gray
Both the American Council of the Blind board of directors and the organization’s many committees have been extremely busy since our 2004 convention in Birmingham, Ala. Conventions always provide an energy boost and remind all of us of the amazing amount of work that must be done to further the missions and goals of our organization.
Under Sue Ammeter’s capable guidance, the membership committee continues to foster the growth and development of ACB affiliates as well as encourage the development of new state and special-interest affiliates. I am particularly pleased to report to you in this message my direct involvement in two recent meetings and tell you a little about them: one held in West Virginia, the other in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
As many of you know, ACB has been active to varying degrees in Puerto Rico since the early 1980s. We have had an affiliate in the territory and even have published issues of “The Braille Forum” in Spanish for the Puerto Rican and Hispanic membership of ACB. Unfortunately, this affiliate has not been given the attention it needs for several years, and it has decreased in size and effectiveness over these years. Puerto Rico faces many unique challenges, partly because of its socioeconomic position and partly because it remains a U.S. territory and thus has a different legal structure which, to be entirely honest, is little understood by most of us on the mainland.
The idea of meeting in Puerto Rico came about in conjunction with a personal vacation Marvelena and I planned to take during early September. Our plans took us within an hour’s air flight of San Juan. Neither of us has ever visited that area. Marvelena speaks fluent Spanish, which gave me confidence that we could get some positive work done, and so we decided to go and meet with people there. A letter was coordinated through the national office and we held an afternoon gathering near downtown San Juan on Saturday, Sept. 4. The response to our visit and ACB’s renewed commitment and concern for the blind in Puerto Rico was gratifying to say the least. Within five minutes of checking into the hotel, we had our first call from a member of the ACB affiliate. While the challenges for blind Puerto Ricans are great and the challenges of having an affiliate in a territory where English is not the first language spoken are great, one could only come away from the country with a profound sense that here is some essential work in which ACB can participate that will truly help blind citizens who need assistance and who wish to help themselves improve their lives and situations.
Participating in the West Virginia convention, held during the first weekend of October in Martinsburg, W.Va., was no less gratifying an experience. This affiliate has been relatively dormant for a number of years; however, with the excellent leadership shown by their new president, Jessie Rayl, the Mountain State Council of the Blind is definitely on the road to making a difference for the blind of West Virginia. Featured events included a social evening on Friday to kick off the convention and a Saturday evening banquet catered by a local company that really knew how to put out a tasty spread of excellent southern cuisine. Participation in the convention was quite good and included membership from various communities within the state.
In addition to work on membership and affiliate development, ACB launched a new fund-raising venture that has joint appeal for the national and affiliated organizations. In August and early September, affiliates were invited to purchase keychains that contained talking thermometers. Many affiliates have chosen to participate in this venture and will sell the keychains for a retail price of $10. Other affiliates have chosen to provide keychains as banquet gifts to their membership. I have every confidence that this is not only going to be a fun program for ACB members and friends, but a good fund-raising venture both for ACB and its affiliates as well.
Also, I want to make the membership aware of a new fund-raising initiative being undertaken by our organization. At its September board of directors meeting, the board unanimously voted to accept a proposal to engage in some direct mail fund-raising. Of course, we have no way of projecting success or failure of such a venture, but the board believes that there could be great benefit in a direct mail program, both for fund-raising on behalf of the organization and for promoting our message of independence and improvement of situations for blind Americans. Mailings will be carefully monitored and reviewed by the board in order to insure that a positive and forward-looking program of information is established and maintained. This is yet another major fund-raising effort being undertaken by the board, executive director and staff of ACB.
Finally, I am pleased to report that the board of directors has successfully completed its September meeting, though we did not hold this as an in-person meeting. Instead, the board chose to meet in four separate telephone conference call sessions, two in late August and two more in early October. This allowed the board to consider a range of items, some stemming from the convention, and others related to work undertaken by ACB’s executive director, Melanie Brunson, and chief financial officer Jim Olsen. The meetings were productive and have helped the organization break new ground and engage in a range of activities and programs that will lead us into 2005.
It is clear from the decisions made at convention and by the board after convention and from the support, counsel and hard work of our executive and general staff the American Council of the Blind is moving forward in a positive, reasonable and realistic direction. Through our democratic and consumer-based traditions, we are growing in our internal strength, and through that strength we’ll continue and excel in making the necessary changes to improve the lives of blind Americans and other blind people throughout the world.