To paraphrase a famous campaign slogan, "It's the Information, Stupid!" You will be far from stupid when you visit the ACB Candidates' Page. The board of publications is again hosting an Internet candidates' page on www.acb.org.
The candidates' page is a web page where people declaring candidacy for office present themselves to the ACB membership. Entries on this page do not constitute nomination for any office and people may campaign for office without submitting entries to the Candidates' Page. All candidates have the opportunity to respond to the same set of questions. This page also allows ACB chapters and affiliates to have more information at their disposal before they send delegates to the national convention. 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 from the on-line forum.
In 2008, ACB members will elect five people to fill ACB board positions and three to fill positions on the board of publications. The appointed members of the board of publications have developed a set of questions for candidates, as follows.
1. What office are you seeking, and what qualifications do you possess that make you qualified to serve in that office?
2. What would you do to strengthen the relationship between the ACB national board and affiliates?
3. How can long-term financial stability be achieved for ACB?
4. What strategies could ACB implement to make its advocacy efforts more effective?
5. Identify the issues which you think are most important to the welfare of ACB and the blindness community as a whole.
6. Tell the membership anything you think they should know when considering your candidacy.
Candidates for the board of publications should answer question 1 and may skip questions 2 through 6. Anyone seeking a seat on the board of publications should answer the following questions.
7. What specific tasks or areas of interest covered by the board of publications do you plan to address during your term?
8. How can the board of publications better serve ACB's affiliates in their newsletter efforts?
9. How do you view the board of publications affecting ACB's Internet presence?
Candidates should answer each question with a maximum of 300 words. Submit answers in any accessible, readable media, i.e., in hard-copy print or braille, 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, Microsoft Word or WordPerfect 5.1 will be accepted. Please note that the national office has an older version of Word; do not send your Word documents as .docx files. 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. Submissions will be coded into HTML for placement on the web site. It is our webmaster's role to convert documents into HTML; we will not accept submissions which you have coded in this format yourself.
Word counts are based on the total number of words in each answer, with each answer being a maximum of 300 words. Word counts will be determined through the use of MS Word's "word count" feature, in which every word contained in the answer enters into the total word count. Hard copy submissions will be converted into electronic format then counted. Entries for each answer will terminate at the end of the sentence containing the 300th word.
When submitting answers electronically, candidates should place name, address, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses at the top of the body of the submission. When submitting information in hard copy, place the requested identifying information at the top of the first page and name and a page number at the top of each subsequent page. Send completed submissions to the following address:
American Council of the Blind Candidates' Page
1155 15th St. NW
Suite 1004
Washington, DC 20005
E-mail submissions to [email protected] with "candidates page" in the subject line.
Submissions should be mailed, either by postal delivery or electronic mail, so that they reach the ACB national office no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on May 31, 2008. When we receive a declared candidate's materials, we will check the membership database to ensure that he or she is a member in good standing. The online candidates' page will be 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 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, June 6, and will remain online at www.acb.org until the conclusion of convention.
We encourage ACB members who have computer access to share the contents of the candidates' page with members who do not. Anyone who does not have Internet access to the candidates' page may call the ACB national office and request that the information be read. An announcement will go out to all ACB lists when the page is up and ready for viewing.
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 held on Thursday of convention week. The board of publications encourages all ACB members to submit written questions to be considered for this forum to the convention communications center. More details about this and other aspects of communications center operations will be included in the June issue.