[Massachusetts-NFB] FW: Reminder and zoom link for tomorrow evenings email list discussion meeting

Tue Oct 6 16:06:06 UTC 2026

Hi,

I will be at the M-Enabling Summit in DC this evening, and likely unable to join you live, for the call.

That being said, I can more efficiently give you my thoughts in writing than I would be able to do on a call anyway.

Here are my comments:

I think NFBMA would be best served to have 2 lists:

List 1 of 2:
NFBMAAnnounce:
This could be a starting point for our original list. This list would contain announcements about official NFBMA activities which could enhance member and community engagement. It could also include vetted announcements from other individuals or entities in the blind community. For example an announcement about the MCB white cane walk, or a podcast one of our members did on a topic like AI, or the member to member spotlights.

There should be a team of folks that can post and or approve moderated posts to the announcement list. I don’t think the moderation should or needs to be limited  only the organization president. I think the at a minimum board members, chapter presidents, etc. should have immediate posting admin access. This would also be a good job for younger or new people interested in tech or admin services for the affiliate.

I think sometimes over the years we have had an overly top down organizational culture approach where the president of whatever layer of the organization gets involved in a lot of mundane tasks that in other organizations such work is often delegated to other or rotating staff so that several people know how to do something, and you don’t rely on the president to do every single mundane function. This could also create more specific roles for some of the other constitutional officers or board members or members at large. I think this “top down” problem may extend beyond Massachusetts, and may be a cultural problem that some may see where the president essentially has to approve every small decision like a list post.
Can you imagine if the president of Fidelity Investments or Mass General Brigham or The Red Cross had to approve every single internal communication message? Or if there was only one doctor in the emergency room that could fully and independently treat a flu case? Or only one Boston police officer that fully knew how to do all the paperwork and reports for a car accident?

The NFBMA moderator group may want to institute procedures or periodically meet for example to avoid duplication of messages, but this could be done with minimal effort.

It would also help if David Andrews did a live and recorded presentation for the mods on how the list software works, and the different configuration options. David Andrews is the admin of all the NFBNet mailing lists.

This announce only list would have all our members, and likely many community partners and supporters and likely donors.

If someone did a reply all to an announcement, in most circumstances, that message would not be approved to go to the larger distribution list. For example, someone might do a reply all saying they will attend a certain next chapter meeting, and that would be an example of something that all the announce only subscribers do not need to see.

Someone might also reply to the announcement with a one-off question, and depending on the capabilities of the list software, that question may be privately answered or needed to be submitted another way, but it would not be distributed to the announce only subscribers.

The moderation group should have both expertise in the technology, experience with NFB, experience in the blind community, and experience in internet communication protocols.

Maybe even our officers and members take “shifts” of say 1-2 weeks of moderating the announce only list. Or maybe there are 2 designated members “on shift” at any one month, etc. It is critical that the mods fully understand the technology platform and be able to fully explain in when prompted, and this would be done through colaberation with David Andrews.

List 2 of 2
NFBMATalk
NFBMADiscussion
Etc.
This would be a more open list to accommodate the expressed preference of some members to have discussions beyond announcements about related NFBMA activities, issues in the blind community, etc. There may be something that first hits the announcement list, and then further discussions about it continue on the NFBMATalk list for those members that prefer this additional level of online and communication, engagement, and colaberation.

In general, this list would be open for all to post, and there would be no administrative or technical moderation.

There are a variety of posting guidelines that could be used to give people a sense of appropriate and inappropriate posts that we may have, could develop, or take from somewhere else.

We could have internal procedures on what would be done if a person were not following these procedures. Typically mailing lists proceed with some type of warnings, temporary moderation, etc. if members do not follow established posting procedures.

This is very similar to how a variety of Facebook topic related groups operate, and almost all have “group rules,” that you must agree to in order to participate, join, or post in a Facebook group. Facebook groups are the sort of modern alternative to email lists. Although in the blind low vision community, I think email lists are still helpful as there can be accessibility and usability barriers accessing various parts of the Facebook and Facebook group platforms both on mobile and desktop browser.

NFBMA has both officers, board members, and members that have considerable expertise in these types of policy and technical list management processes, and decades of experience managing or participating in these types of internet based groups. We have members that have developed early internet platforms that were completely trailblazing in their time. We have a member that formed the still operating Blind and Visually Impaired User Group, VIBUG, which was started in the 1980’s or 1990’s and continues to meet today.

Moderating this list is not rocket science, and once it gets in to its rhythm, it should largely be self sustaining. I know that Jean Kim has also sent us some draft guidelines that could be a starting place for managing an open list.
Conclusion
In conclusion, right now, our single list is both an announcement and cdiscussion list. I think many would say it has a lot of message traffic, and people often do a reply all to a message that does not need to go to the dozens or hundreds of members.

I think my proposal of an announcement and discussion list solves nearly all of the issues that various stakeholders may have with the current list. It gives everybody whatever they might want, and the free will and agency and decision making to determine how much or little email list traffic each person wants. It also allows people to change their subscription and tolerance for list traffic perhaps depending on their other commitments or work outside of NFBMA. For example, maybe during the summer a student could take in  more of our messages than during the schoolyear.

I don’t see a downside or tangible disadvantage to the approach I propose here, but I would be curious about others perceived downsides or disadvantages if you believe they exist.

With all the information I have at my disposal, and my lengthy experience with NFBMA, I submit that this is the best solution I am aware of based on all the past experience, analysis of the current issue, and belief in how things would work under the proposed structure.

Respectfully submitted,
Mika Pyyhkala
2nd Vice President, NFBMA
(thoughts are my own, and do not reflect the opinion or policy of any other organization)

Mika Pyyhkala
Dir. of Digital Accessibility - BVI Workforce Innovation Center
Envision, Inc.
2301 S. Water St.
Wichita, Kansas 
67213
Direct: 316-440-1573
Mobile: 617-308-1114
www.envisionus.com

Envision Mission: To improve the quality of life and provide inspiration and opportunity for people who are blind or visually impaired through employment, outreach, rehabilitation, education and research.

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From: Massachusetts-NFB <massachusetts-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Adam Roberge via Massachusetts-NFB
Sent: Tuesday, October 6, 2026 11:11 AM
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Cc: adam.roberge93 at gmail.com
Subject: Re: [Massachusetts-NFB] FW: Reminder and zoom link for tomorrow evenings email list discussion meeting

EXTERNAL SENDER: Only open links and attachments from known senders. DO NOT provide your username or password. Hi Shara and Shara, Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it this evening because I have
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Hi Shara and Shara,
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it this evening because I have another commitment
I look forward to meeting you soon.
Adam
.

From: Massachusetts-NFB <massachusetts-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org<mailto:massachusetts-nfb-bounces at nfbnet.org>> On Behalf Of Shara Winton via Massachusetts-NFB
Sent: Monday, October 5, 2026 9:35 PM
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Cc: sharawinton at gmail.com<mailto:sharawinton at gmail.com>
Subject: [Massachusetts-NFB] FW: Reminder and zoom link for tomorrow evenings email list discussion meeting

Shara Winton
President, National federation of the Blind of Massachusetts
www.nfbma.org<https://shared.outlook.inky.com/link?domain=www.nfbma.org&t=h.eJxVj0sOgyAYhK9iWFeIPFRceZUfhEoENII1pundK4suupjNzJfMzBsdu0dDheact4GQ8zxxtCoAXvcnQY8KLSV1Otcmvlxya6y91yS4BfB2XfMCHsZfdCSs10B4a1VnmRCGGgFNr9RkpKUgFe_pxBhpOtlQKQXlmPKuZy0vTaY0BUgJ9Hwkk3Oq7ynjrWhy2VOgqUD_Vi4Hms8X_8g_Zg.MEUCIHxk69QCFJc0nwMwZ7N4UFiB8LWy63snY-twqm6CvJGDAiEA6AzRzVU9fhKQyQ_RpZLI89ZyxX_ZjKUAOwTBpfhhQY4>
sharawinton at gmail.com<mailto:sharawinton at gmail.com>
617-304-0347

From: ladyshirl519 at gmail.com<mailto:ladyshirl519 at gmail.com> <ladyshirl519 at gmail.com<mailto:ladyshirl519 at gmail.com>>
Sent: Monday, October 5, 2026 8:57 PM
To: NFB of Massachusetts E-mail List <massachusetts-nfb at nfbnet.org<mailto:massachusetts-nfb at nfbnet.org>>
Cc: Shara winton <sharawinton at gmail.com<mailto:sharawinton at gmail.com>>
Subject: Reminder and zoom link for tomorrow evenings email list discussion meeting

Hello everyone,

Just a reminder that our Cambridge Chapter Zoom meeting will be held tomorrow evening, Tuesday, October 6, at 7:00 PM.

As you may recall, we originally scheduled this meeting for October 1 to discuss the changes that had been made to the Massachusetts NFB email list. At that time, the list had been changed without prior notice to being moderated. Since then, the list has been changed back to its normal, unmoderated format. However, we had agreed that it was still important to move forward with our discussion so that everyone has an opportunity to share their thoughts, concerns, and questions.

I encourage anyone who has concerns or questions about the email list to please join us tomorrow evening. This will be a good opportunity for everyone to listen to one another and have an open, respectful, and constructive conversation.

Please find the Zoom link below:

I look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow evening on Zoom!

Join zoom meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/95901703256?pwd=Mk8rOXdrbExkVGdsZUd4SVhCRnlqZz09<https://shared.outlook.inky.com/link?domain=us06web.zoom.us&t=h.eJxVj81KxDAAhF9lydkmzV_bLIgLIp5EUFxkb0mT2po0qU3iuiu-u-bgYQ9zmfmYYb5BXh3YbsCY0hK3COVYN0ej4DmEGeaI3pHgosZtTQlvbpajvn6w3fr4qld192X39zoeXjR73o-3T959HM61AFcbYEvl1KfK-M8pTsFXzvVonqyEy-k0Wunk7j_KEfZhRqwZVDtQzg0xXOJOKW3EQKRQrCOaUoRbgYkQnDBIWNvRhpUlU5ZmGaPsxxxNSrHyg9r9yZsEw_pWIF2gSyuV1_jnFzT3UFI.MEUCIQDIQ5ydeIA4xSyVDi9YjyX7JgTmJElB368FMbJoCMyhQwIgN-Nv08tz6UWQmoTwHVR5m-sfAzGLtQ2SiI6rHCagEhM>

Meeting ID:  959 0170 3256
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Warmly,
Shirley Dorris
President Cambridge, chapter national Federation of the blind of Massachusetts

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