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Your Vote Counts

by Deb Cook Lewis

As members of the American Council of the Blind, we are responsible for electing a slate of individuals to provide leadership as officers, board members and the board of publications. At this year’s ACB convention, we will be electing a total of five members of the ACB board and three members of the board of publications. The purpose of this article is to give you information that you can use to make informed decisions about how, and for whom, to cast your votes.

The ACB Candidates’ Page

If you plan to run for the board or BOP, the ACB Candidates’ Page is a place where you can introduce yourself, post links to your social media pages, and where you can provide responses to the following questions. (Please note: Your response to each question will be cut off at 300 words, and the BOP will not edit your responses for spelling or grammar mistakes.

Questions for Board Candidates

  1. Introduce yourself, and explain why you wish to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the ACB.
  2. Summarize any experience, knowledge, skills and/or abilities you have which qualify you to serve on the ACB Board of Directors.
  3. What do you consider to be your strongest contribution to ACB at either the national, state, special-interest affiliate or local chapter level and why?
  4. What do you consider to be the most important challenge facing ACB? How will you work to address it?

Questions for BOP Candidates

  1. Introduce yourself and explain why you are interested in serving as a member of the board of publications.
  2. Summarize any experience you have as a writer. How can you use this experience to strengthen the BOP’s oversight of ACB’s written and online publications?
  3. If you could make changes to ACB’s written and/or online communications, what would you change and why?
  4. What role, if any, should the BOP play in the written or online publications of ACB state or special-interest affiliates?

If you wish to provide contact email addresses and links to web sites or social media sites where ACB members can obtain more information, you may do so.

Instructions for Candidates’ Page Submissions

  1. You must be an ACB member in good standing.
  2. Submissions must be in braille, in print or submitted electronically. You may submit your electronic entries in Word, as an ASCII text file, or in the body of an email.
  3. Email electronic submissions to [email protected] with the subject line “Candidates’ Page Submission.”
  4. Mail print, braille and electronic submissions on thumb drives to: American Council of the Blind, Attn: Candidates’ Page, 1703 N. Beauregard St., Suite 420, Alexandria, VA 22311.
  5. The deadline for all Candidates’ Page submissions is May 15, 2020 at 4 p.m. Eastern. Late submissions will NOT be accepted.

Get to Know the Candidates

All candidates who post information to the ACB Candidates’ Page will be invited to participate in the ACB Candidates’ Forum. This year, the BOP is partnering again with ACB Radio to make the Candidates’ Forum bigger, better, more inclusive and more informative than ever before. Join us by Zoom and by ACB Radio to meet the candidates, to ask the questions and to hear the responses.

  • Date – Wednesday, June 17, 2020, 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific
  • Duration – 2 hours
  • Access via ACB Radio, www.acbradio.org.

Please note: You must register as a candidate on the ACB Candidates’ Page in order to participate in the ACB Candidates’ Forum as a candidate.

Town Hall Meeting

What would the ACB convention be without a little last-minute politicking? That’s where the Convention Town Hall Meeting comes in. The BOP and ACB Radio will host a Convention Town Hall Meeting where all candidates can engage in small group roundtable discussions to answer questions from the audience in the room as well as those participating through ACB Radio. Stay tuned to this magazine, ACB Radio and/or ACB email lists for more details.