[Greater-baltimore] Chapter Meetings

Riccobono, Mark MRiccobono at nfb.org
Wed Mar 19 18:41:00 UTC 2014


Friends,

I think the conversation about the priorities and direction of the chapter is a valuable one to pursue. I think the idea of moving to an evening weekday is worth consideration. I have been going to Saturday chapter meetings in multiple states for fifteen years. Is it the best way to approach the meeting or is it what I am used to doing? To some extent it depends on where I have been and what my life circumstances have been. When it has been difficult to get to a chapter, I have helped to build one with people who had the same limited access.

I have been reflecting on the question of an alternate time for the chapter to meet. I think the notion of having our business meeting be on a weekday evening and reserving periodic Saturdays for outreach events in the community, Braille Rocks, educational programming for the chapter, and other things is a cool thing to consider. I do note that the level of "outside" activity our chapter has been doing in the community has declined over the past couple years. Looking back on the ten years I have participated in our chapters, we have actually shifted a number of things--some worked and some did not. Maybe a new approach would change our perspective. Over the past year, I have spent time with people at the Walter's Art Museum, AVAM, Our Daily Bread, and Habitat for Humanity (to name a few) and they would all love to have engagement from our chapter. I think for many people--myself included--piling everything into a Saturday is a heavy lift. With kids who go to lessons or other activities the weekend can be tricky. I admit the weekday can be tricky as well but I think it is doable.

I would love to see us contain our meeting to a specific time and to build out our outreach and engagement in the communities. I think to try to do that all on our Chapter meeting Saturday gets very difficult. I think our experience with the breakfasts, Braille Rocks, and other things demonstrates that the consistent all Saturday commitment is hard to sustain and grow.

I do find this dialogue to be useful. I am also aware that not everything we do will work perfectly for every person. Our goal should be to find solutions that allow everyone to find ways to engage with the Federation. We know today that some of our members cannot make meetings on Saturdays for a variety of reasons. They have sometimes found participation in the At Large Chapter to be their way of connecting with the Federation family. I think we have to keep in mind that our goal is to stay connected and keep building with each other, and that might mean we need to think differently about how we carry out the business of the organization. The beauty is that we get to decide what we want to do with our organization.

Here's to a continued productive dialogue about how we better build the Federation.

Mark


Mark A. Riccobono, M.S.ed
Executive Director, Jernigan Institute
National Federation of the Blind
200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, Maryland 21230
Phone: (410) 659-9314 ext. 2357
Fax: (410) 659-5129
Email: mriccobono at nfb.org<mailto:mriccobono at nfb.org>
Twitter: @Riccobono and @NFB_Voice
Web: www.nfb.org<http://www.nfb.org/>

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