[nabs-l] Sustaining a student division in a rural state

[Peter Donahue]

Hello everyone,

    Good for those members! North Dakota has about 20 members state-wide and 
they're doing big things. If you want your affiliate, chapter, or division 
to grow you must first believe that it can despite the difficulties.

Peter Donahue

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Reed" <jim275_2 at yahoo.com>
To: "NABS mail list" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 1:47 PM
Subject: [nabs-l] Sustaining a student division in a rural state


Hello,
My name is Jim Reed. I am president of the Montana Association of Blind 
Students (MABS). I am puting this email out to reach out to other student 
division leaders for advice.

Background:
The whole state of Montana has a population of less than 1 million.
The largest city in Montana has approx 100,000
The two largest universities in the state have a combined enrollment of 
approx 50,000
The largest university has less than 10 blind students
The MABS has approx 5 members
The MABS consitution requires 4 officers (pres, VP, secretary, treasurer) 
and 4 board members
The MABS has less total membership than we have officer/board positions.

I am trying to convince our members that we need to restructure our 
leadership to reduce the number of people required, as I personally doubt 
the MABS will ever have more than 10 members.

I am running into resistance as some members seem to believe that our 
organization will grow. One person is making the argument that it is ok to 
leave an empty board as the student population is transient anyway. I 
disagree on both counts.

In the meantime, we have no board, and we have only filled our secretary 
position. With out a board, we are essentially stalled, as I dont know what 
I can do indepoendently before I cross the line from being a president to 
being a dictator.

I would be curious to hear what some of our other rural [presidents have to 
say.
Thanks,
Jim




"Ignorance killed the cat; curiosity was framed."



_______________________________________________
nabs-l mailing list
nabs-l at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
nabs-l:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/pdonahue1%40sbcglobal.net