[HIABS] Local Organizations of the Blind: How to Build and Strengthen Them

[Virgil Stinnett]

Local Organizations of t

Aloha All,

Here is something to read.

Mahalo and Aloha,

Virgil

 

--------------------- 

The Blind: How to Build and Strengthen Them

by Kenneth Jernigan

 

            From the Editor: Here is how this was introduced when it ran in
the December 1965 Monitor: From the time when Ken Jernigan first prepared
his paper on how to build local organizations of the blind and delivered it
at the New Orleans Convention in 1957, it has been one of those select
documents of our movement which have served as guides to Federationists all
around the country. The ideas expressed are as good and as important today
as they were eight years ago. The demand for copies continues unabated. We
have, therefore, asked Ken to make the paper available for re-publication at
this time.

 

            At the close of the Federation convention in Washington a
seminar was held for the discussion of general organizational problems.
State and local leaders of the blind from all over the nation exchanged
ideas and talked about ways of strengthening our movement and making it
grow. One topic which received a great deal of attention was the question of
how to build strong local organizations. It was generally recognized that
the Federation can be no stronger at the state or national level than it is
locally and that the very future of our movement is largely dependent upon
the kind of local chapters which we now have and which we develop. My
purpose here is to continue what was begun at the seminar, to discuss local
organizations of the blind-how to build them, what projects they can
undertake, their purpose for existence, and their relation to the state and
the national organization.

            In the first place Shakespeare's question, "What's in a name"
has more than an academic significance for us. Our name-perhaps I should say
our names-has presented us with a real problem. If you should go into a
strange town in the United States tomorrow and ask a local member of Kiwanis
where the Kiwanis met and when its next meeting would be held, he would,
without hesitation, give you a local address and a particular date. If you
should then register surprise and tell him that you thought Kiwanis was an
international organization and that you had wanted the date and the place of
the international convention, he would probably be considerably amazed and
think you quite odd. He would likely tell you that Kiwanis is organized into
local clubs, that the local clubs are grouped into districts, and that the
districts combine to make up the international organization. He might then
give you the time and the place of the next international convention and
also of the district meeting if you were interested; but his first thought
when you asked him about Kiwanis would not be of his local club as one
organization, the district as another, and the international as still
another. He would think of Kiwanis as one organization, and he would
primarily think of it as his local club, with himself as a member.

            If instead of asking him about the time and place of the next
meeting, you should begin your conversation by making unkind or critical
remarks about Kiwanis, he would resent your statements and take them
personally. It would do you little good to explain to him that you did not
mean him or his local club, but that you were referring to the district of
the international. He would probably only become angrier at such a sophistry
and tell you that a criticism of Kiwanis was a criticism of him.

            The same is true of the American Legion, the Catholic Church,
the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and a hundred other
organizations. There is uniformity of name and no confusion. With us,
however, the situation is different. Recently I spoke at a meeting of a
local chapter of one of the Federation's state affiliates. I began by posing
a question to the group. "If, " I asked, "someone had met you on your way to
this meeting and inquired of you when and where the next meeting of the
National Federation of the Blind would be held, what would you have told
him?"

            One man in the back of the room replied, "New Orleans, July 4."

            I then asked the same question again, substituting this time the
name of the state affiliate, and the same individual gave me the date and
the place of the next state convention. He did not think of his local
chapter meeting as being a meeting of the Federation or the state
organization; yet, such was in reality the case.

            The different local and state organizations of the blind
throughout the country have grown up with all sorts of names, and it is not
now practical, even if it were desirable, to achieve uniformity. It is
necessary, however, for us to keep at a minimum the confusion which this
multiplicity of name tends to create. If every meeting of every local
chapter throughout the Federation is regarded as a local meeting of the
National Federation and also of the state affiliate, the activities of the
local will take on new meaning and importance.

            This leads quite naturally into a discussion of specific
projects which a local can undertake. Perhaps I should begin by describing a
typical meeting which might occur in a local. The president calls the
meeting to order. The secretary reads the minutes of the last meeting. The
treasurer reports, giving the current bank balance and itemizing all money
which has come in since the last meeting and all expenses. Then come
committee reports. These can be interesting or dull depending upon how they
are handled. If each separate project of the chapter is handled by a
committee which reports at every (or almost every) meeting, the broadest
possible participation and interest can be achieved. The following are
examples of committees which may be established:

 

1. Membership Committee: Any chapter will be stronger for having a good
membership committee. This committee should probably not contain fewer than
three nor more than nine members. It will work better if it holds at least
one formal meeting before each regular chapter meeting-probably about a week
or ten days before. It should secure a list of the names, addresses, and
(when possible) phone numbers of every known blind person in the area. This
list should be divided into three sub-lists: members in good standing,
delinquent members, and nonmembers.

            Each member in good standing should receive either a phone call
or a card or letter before every meeting, reminding him of the time and
place and telling him something about the program. This will provide a
project for the committee and will also stimulate interest among the general
membership, giving each person a sense of belonging and participation.

            Members who are not in good standing, who do not attend
meetings, and are apparently losing interest in the organization, should
receive special attention. Different ones of the committee may call or visit
them. Writing will be less effective. Perhaps they are dissatisfied with
something a chapter is doing. Perhaps they do not properly understand the
real nature and purposes of the organized blind movement, what it is
accomplishing and how it affects them personally. Perhaps they have never
felt that they were really part of the group or that they were needed. In
any case, they should be talked with. If possible, a member of the committee
might offer to come by the home of such a person on a meeting night and
accompany him to the meeting.

            The great problem with non-members is finding them. Local
doctors may be willing to help-in some areas they make regular referrals to
the Federation's affiliate. The postman and the minister are excellent
sources of names. Sometimes (but only sometimes) the local welfare
department will send out announcements of meetings along with aid checks.
Notice of meetings in newspapers and on radio may be tried. The important
thing is to make a determined and sustained effort to locate every blind
person in the area. The rest is simply a matter of persistence and
enthusiasm, coupled with a real understanding of our movement, its purposes
and objectives.

            One final thing should be said about membership and attendance.
It will stimulate interest if the number of those present at each meeting is
recorded in the minutes.

 

2. Committee on National Legislation: This should be separate from the
committee on state legislation. Otherwise one of the two will be lost in the
shuffle. It should be the duty of this committee to see that letters are
written on Congressional bills affecting the blind, and each bulletin from
NFB headquarters should be studied carefully and acted upon promptly. In no
single instance have all NFB affiliates throughout the nation ever combined
to carry out a really intensive letter writing campaign on a Congressional
bill. Instead, the response has always been excellent in some areas, spotty
in others, and totally non-existent in far too many. A real, united
intensive campaign by all of us in every locality would bring unbelievable
results.

            It should also be the duty of the committee on national
legislation to try to become personally acquainted with their local
Congressmen. In most instances it will be possible to arrange to talk with
him when he comes home. He should be made aware of the NFB and of the fact
that he has constituents who are members. The job in Washington will be much
easier and much more successful if even a few affiliates will do this.
Personal contact should also be made, of course, with United States Senators
when they are in the locality and can be reached.

 

As one example of an immediate problem, consider our bills on the right of
the blind to organize just introduced into the Senate (S. 2411) by Senator
John F. Kennedy and into the House (H. R. 8609) by Congressman Walter
Baring. The passage of these bills will be virtually assured if the local
affiliates of the Federation will launch a real campaign of contacting their
own local Congressmen; and I think we ought to do just that, immediately
after we go home from this convention.

 

3. Committee on State Legislation: It should be the duty of this committee
to do on a state level what the committee on national legislation does on
the national level. At least one major difference exists, however, between
state and national legislation insofar as the local affiliate is concerned,
and a word of caution should be said concerning this difference.

 

It is not as far to the state capitol as it is to Washington, and some
locals, failing to get the state organization to support a particular
measure which they want, introduce it and lobby for it on their own. This is
necessarily a self-defeating practice, for if the blind have more than one
voice in the legislative halls, their effectiveness is drastically curtailed
if not destroyed. Especially when competing groups of blind persons go
before the legislature and oppose each other, the results are disastrous. It
is difficult enough under the most favorable of circumstances to get
legislators to understand our needs and problems; and when the blind
themselves are not agreed, the situation is likely to be hopeless.

 

If the state organization as a whole cannot be persuaded to sponsor a
particular bill which a local chapter wants, of if the state organization
votes to oppose a measure which a local strongly feels should be supported,
the chapter will be well advised to swallow its impatience and go along with
the majority. If its position has merit, the rest of the state organization
can likely be brought around sooner or later; and if in the meantime it is
in a better position to demand and get support from the entire state
organization on those matters in which it is in the majority. Not only is
this a prime principle of survival, it is the very essence of true
democracy.

 

4. Publicity Committee: Besides getting announcements of meetings on radio
and good newspapers, publicizing special activities of the chapter, and
seeing that occasional articles appear about successful blind persons in the
community, this committee can undertake a variety of other activities.

 

It can place Federation material in local libraries and waiting rooms of
doctors' offices. It can communicate from time to time with the BRAILLE
MONITOR and other magazines. In short, it can and should be constantly on
the lookout for new ways of acquainting the general public with the
existence and philosophy of the organized blind movement.

 

5. There are several other committees -- Ways and Means, Nominating, and the
like -- which are more or less standard with all local chapters and require
no comment. It is rather with the specialized committee that I should now
like to deal, for there are in every locality peculiar opportunities for
chapter projects which should be recognized and developed. Each local
affiliate will be able, with a little effort and ingenuity, to come up with
its own list, and no two will be exactly alike. This is as it should be, for
the situation varies from community to community, and the activities should
fit the need. The following list is, therefore, not complete. It merely
gives examples of the kinds of things which may be done:

 

a) Education of blind children: If there are public school programs for the
education of blind children in the area, or if a residential school for the
blind is near, or especially if both are at hand, a committee may be
established to visit the schools and make a study and report. It is
important that the members of the chapter know what is being done to
education blind children and how effectively.

 

b) Parents of blind children: Because of the widespread occurrence of
retrolental fibroplasia in recent years there are blind children in almost
every community in America. They are the future members of our organization,
and we have a responsibility to see that their parents get a proper
understanding of blindness and its problems. A committee may be established
to seek out and visit parents and to work with them. The committee may wish
to help them organize a parents group. Speakers can be provided from among
the local blind for the meetings of this group. Parents should be given
Federation material and thoroughly acquainted with the organization. Above
all, they should be encouraged to attend meetings of the local affiliate and
to realize that they have a stake in its activities since its actions now
will affect so vitally their children's future.

 

c) Proofreading: In many communities there are groups which transcribe
material into Braille; especially is this true of the Red Cross, certain
Jewish groups and parents of blind children. Often they are very much in
need of good proofreaders and will welcome the opportunity of developing a
cooperative project.

 

d) Speaker's bureau: A committee can be established to contact local civic
and church groups to get time on their programs for speakers from the
chapter. If this is done on a continuing year-around-basis, not only will
acquaint many people with the existence and purposes of our movement, but it
will also make fundraising much easier. Public education about blindness is
an important aspect of our work, and the speaker's bureau is one of the most
effective ways of bringing it about.

 

e) Visiting other chapters: If there are other affiliates of the state
organization or of a neighboring state organization near enough to make such
a project possible, intra-chapter visiting will be very worthwhile. A
committee can be appointed to make the contacts and arrangements. Then, as
many members as can do so should be encouraged to make the trips. Within the
limits of its financial means, the chapter will do well to pay travel
expenses for such occasions. The results will more than justify the
expenditure--an interchange of ideas with another group the observation of
that group in its meetings; and, perhaps, most important of all, an
increased sense of being an integral part of the over-all blind movement.

 

f) Candy sale: Some local chapters have been quite successful with candy
sales, especially at Mother's Day. Arrangements are made with the
manufacturer, and specially designed boxes are procured. Consignments of the
candy are placed in banks, stores and especially in manufacturer
establishments and other such business houses; and a telephone sale campaign
is also usually carried on. A committee of chapter members should be made
responsible for placing the candy conducting the telephone sales, and
coordinating the work generally.

 

g) Federation greeting cards: Specially designed greeting cards, each
individual box containing Federation literature and being stamped with the
Federation emblem, were made available for the first time last year to local
affiliates and individuals for re-sale. These cards are purchased from the
national office of the Federation for .75 cents per box, .25 cents of which
is net profit to the national. They are resold for $1.25 per box, with the
chapter of the individual making .50 cents profit. They are attractive
cards, well worth the purchase price; and those chapters which did not
participate last year missed a good bet, both for fund raising and for
advertising the organization. This year's cards are now available for
purchase -- as a matter of fact, they will be available from now on, on a
year-around-basis. They may be ordered by writing to United Industries, 3828
Olive Street, St. Louis, Missouri.

 

h) Blood bank: A chapter can establish a blood bank, either exclusively for
the use of members and their immediate families or for all blind persons in
the area. Arrangements can usually be made with the local county blood bank,
and a chapter committee can handle the details of securing donors, providing
transportation, and making withdrawals.

 

i) NFB endowment fund: The long-range financial stability and strength of
the national organization depend upon the endowment fund. Only a few local
and state affiliates have so far established continuing projects for its
support. One state organization levies an annual assessment from all
members. Another held a raffle at its last convention and raised more than
$100 on a transistor radio. So far as 1 know, only three local chapters
have, to the present time, established continuing projects. One makes a lump
sum annual contribution. Another gives one half of the proceeds from the
raffle which it holds at it's regular monthly meetings (usually about $10).
The third makes a memorial contribution for each deceased member.

 

In time every local chapter should devise some regular means of support for
the endowment. Our national organization can be only as strong as we make
it.

 

j) White Cane projects: The immediate fundraising of the organized blind
movement at both the state and the national levels is still largely a matter
of the unordered greeting card mailings and and White Cane Week. Most of the
state affiliates carry on a White Cane mail campaign, but in addition, many
local chapters have set up projects -- raffles, dances, dinners, card
parties, and similar activities. Usually the chapter keeps none of the
proceeds from these White Cane projects, one half of the money going to the
state organization and the rest to the national. This is not always the
case, however.

 

k) Aid appeals: In almost every area there are blind persons who have been
unjustly denied aid payments from the state or had their grants reduced. The
chapter should establish a committee to acquaint these persons with their
rights and to help them with appeals. Not only should the member of this
committee study carefully their own state welfare laws and regulations, they
should familiarize themselves with the federal law and regulations. This is
a difficult task, and most chapters will have to start from the beginning,
but no other project can be more beneficial to the blind of a locality. The
national office of the Federation will lend whatever help it can to any
chapter establishing such a project.

 

1) Many other projects could be added to the list given here. Each chapter
can and should develop its own. The important thing is not that we have
uniformity, but that we have vitality and growth. In addition to its regular
standing committees every chapter should always have several special
committees working, and at least one new project under way.

 

To return now to the typical meeting of a local chapter which I began to
outline earlier, the committee reports are usually followed by old and new
business. Here a great variety of matters can be discussed: new projects
which the group is considering, information from the national or state, or
local happenings which affect the blind.

 

In one community a blind man was denied the right to serve on a jury. The
matter was considered by the local affiliate, and it was decided to help him
with an appeal to the courts if satisfactory arrangements could be made. In
another case it was discovered that a large public building had excellent
facilities for a vending stand but that the location had not been secured, A
committee was established to investigate the matter, and if possible, to
help a blind person get the place.

 

In still another instance a fund appeal letter put out by a local sighted
group to raise money to provide recreation for the blind was considered, and
it was decided to write a letter of protest to the group, with copies to the
mayor and the Better Business Bureau, explaining the harm which is done to
the blind by appeals which portray blindness as helplessness. The chapter
did not really expect the fund appeal letter to be withdrawn as it
requested, but it felt that its protest might cause the next appeal to be
more restrained.

 

After old and new business adjournment generally occurs, unless there is
what might be called the day's program: a guest speaker, or refreshments, or
some recreational activity. These items require some comment.

 

Guest speakers are not only desirable but necessary at state and national
conventions, but they should be used sparingly on the local level. It all
depends on the purpose. If there is really someone that the chapter members
want to hear, enough to shorten or eliminate business which they want and
need to transact, then by all means the speaker. If, on the other hand, a
speaker is invited simply because it seems the thing to do or worse yet,
perish the thought, because filler is needed and there is not enough
business to take up the time, the danger signs are easy to read, and the
chapter should examine itself carefully to see if revitalization is not in
order.

 

As to dances, coffee and cake, dinners, and recreational activities
generally, the question is once again one of purpose and proportion of
chapter time and energy. An occasional dance or dinner, a picnic or other
outing, can be a positive means of stimulating interest in the organization.
Some chapters have dinner with every regular meeting, and many serve coffee
or some other refreshment. If these things are properly subordinated, if
they consume a relatively small amount of the total time and energy of the
group, especially if they are kept from becoming the real purpose of the
meetings, they may be pleasant and, in some instances, even help. "When,
however, these things are not kept properly subordinated; when the members
begin to get fidgety to have the business over so they can get to the social
hour, especially when the coffee and cake are regularly provided by some
outside organization which does all the preparation and serving; then the
danger sign is flashing again, and the chapter may find, too late, that it
is helping to promote the very things it is trying to overcome. 

Having discussed specific local projects and activities in such detail, I
should now like to make these additional remarks:

 

1. The chapter should serve as a general clearing house. It should assume
responsibility for seeing that the names, addresses, and changes of address
of all known blind persons (members and non-members alike) are on file in
the state office of the organization. It should see that local blind persons
receive NFB bulletins and those who read braille get the MONITOR [in
braille]. It should report local happenings affecting the blind to the state
and the national, and in turn it should keep its members and other blind
persons in the area informed of happenings elsewhere. The chapter is the
first link in our bond of unity.

 

2. Some local leaders say that they have difficulty in raising funds when
any part of the money is to go outside of the local area--that is, when a
percentage is to go to the state or the national. Perhaps the problem is one
of approach. If a local leader goes to a businessman in the community and
tells him that the chapter is made up of local blind persons and that there
is a state organization of the blind and also a national organization, and
that "those organizations" do good work and that the local tries to help
them when it can and with any money it can spare for that purpose, the
businessman is more than likely to insist that "I want my money to stay in
this community and be used exclusively for local blind persons."

 

If, on the other hand, the local leader talks to the businessman about the
organized blind movement as a single entity, if he draws no distinction
between his chapter and the state and national but refers to them as one
thing, the question of percentages will probably not occur at all. The
businessman will be giving his check to the Federation, and he will know
that it is helping the local blind.

 

Is it really that local businessmen, newspapers, radio and television
stations, and others want their money to be physically spent in the
community, or is it rather that they want it spent anywhere so long as the
local blind get the benefit? Obviously the latter is true, for no one would
object to buying a braille watch for a local blind man even though the money
had to be spent in New York, or a braille book even though it came from
Kentucky If the chapter should send the man to another state to investigate
job possibilities for one of its members, or to represent one of them in a
legal matter, or to learn about some new aid or piece of equipment, no one
would object and if the chapter did not have enough money to pay all of the
expenses and pooled its funds with the neighboring chapter to make the
project possible, still no one would object. This, of course, is exactly
what we have done by uniting into the National Federation of the Blind.
Sometimes the problem is not with the local businessman but with the local
leaders of the chapter. We must constantly bear in mind what the real
problems of blindness are and how those problems can be solved. "Localitis"
is one of the worst diseases which can occur in our movement.

 

3. A chapter should be willing to pay the reasonable expenses of its
committees and officers in the performances of their duties. This should be
done without so much red tape and bickering that incentive is stifled and
interest killed. The purpose of fundraising is to improve the welfare of the
blind, not merely to build larger and larger treasuries.

 

4. The tape recorder is coming to be more and more of a factor in the
dissemination of information. Recognizing this, the national office of the
Federation has launched a project to make available to anyone who is
interested in tapes of Federation materials, bulletins and reports. A number
of such tapes have already been prepared and are now available. They may be
secured by writing to Dr. tenBroek at 2652 Shasta Road, Berkeley California
94708. Local chapters should take full advantage of this opportunity. A tape
recorder should be high on the list of musts for every chapter.

 

5. The broadest possible democracy should prevail at every level of our
organization. In this connection chapter presidents should be careful to
avoid the mistake of insisting too much on the strict observance of all of
the technicalities of parliamentary procedure, textbook style. If we were a
high school debating society, the situation would be different; but as it
is, we have better things to do with our time than to study the intricacies
of Roberts Rules of Order. If a chapter president is really fair in his
presiding, if he sees that everyone has a chance to be heard and order is
kept, and finally, if he moves the meeting along and gets the business
transacted, the general membership will support him and he will get little
criticism for avoiding the technicalities. Besides, he will be practicing
that democracy, for few indeed are the people who are really well versed in
the complicated maneuvers of parliamentary procedure. And parliamentary
procedure can be used as a weapon to defeat the will of the majority. Fair
play and common sense are the best foundations upon which to build a good
organization.

 

6. At this convention we have adopted an official Federation membership pin.
Its cost to the national office of the Federation is .75 cents. As you know,
we have voted to sell it to individual local members for $1.50, the .75
cents profit on each pin going into the endowment fund. Every member of the
Federation throughout the entire country should be encouraged to buy and
wear one of these pins, thus emphasizing in a visible way our unity of
purpose as a part of the over-all organized blind movement. The Federation
membership pins are now available and can be had by writing to the national
office at 2341 Cortez Lane, Sacramento, California 95825. They are available
either as stick pins with safety clasps or as screw-type lapel buttons.

 

During these remarks I have tried to summarize what I believe to be the
principles of strong and effective local organization. Our Federation is now
seventeen years old. It has grown from a handful of small state
organizations in 1940 to the powerful force which it is today. It has given
the blind, for the first time in history, an effective way of making known
their needs and desires and working toward the solution of their problems.

 

Because of the very nature of our movement we have inevitably made many
friends. Also, because of the very nature of our movement (and again
inevitably) we have made enemies. There are those who would like to see the
Federation destroyed and they are at this very moment doing what they can to
see that it is destroyed. It must be our task to keep the Federation
strong--strong at the national level, strong at the state level, and above
all, strong locally. It is no game we play, this business of organization.
It is a matter as serious as human dignity itself, with the stakes as high
as the independence and self-respect of us all.

 

We cannot all be the president of the national organization or a national
board member. We cannot all be state presidents or state board members. We
cannot all even be chapter presidents or board members. But we can all be
workers in our local chapters, and by so doing, we can determine the very
nature of the entire Federation. The Federation can never be weakened or
destroyed unless it is first destroyed in the hearts of its local members.

 

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