[nabs-l] NABS Leadership Update

[Nijat Worley]

Greetings Joseph,
   I believe that there is little doubt about the legitimacy of the current 
NABS board and the process by which they were elected. Those who are angry, 
and those who want to grumble about it, and still those who want to take 
action about it, have little ground to do so. Besides, what kind of action 
would be appropriate at this point? The former board and Terri did their 
best to make sure that the elections were fair. They did almost every vote 
by a hand count at your request. I am utterly surprised that you are still 
dissatisfied about the outcome of the elections. I understand there were 
some mistakes made in the election process, and the board has made note of 
them. We will take proper action to make sure that those mistakes don't 
happen again. I do agree with you that to try to do anything  that might 
divide the organization at this point would only counter your intentions. 
NABS is an ever changing and evolving organization simply because of the 
fact that many of its members both on the board and off the board come and 
go so quickly. Nobody stays in NABS forever. We are all new to this 
organization, and we all make mistakes. I appreciate you expressing your 
concerns and telling folks to stay united, because only united, can we make 
change and strengthen this organization for the benefit of all. I always 
tell our members both at the state and national level that one does not have 
to be on the board to help out the organization and to be a leader. I think 
Arielle intends to get everybody involved in the development and growth of 
NABS. I am very pleased to say that I saw many of you at the Monty Carlo 
night helping us put it together and wrap it up at the end. We couldn't have 
done it without you. Thanks to B. J. Sexton, Caron Anderson, Willie Black, 
Jim, Jedi, and many others for staying and helping with Monty Carlo Night. 
Let us put behind us any hard feelings that may be in our chests and move on 
to bigger and better things for the sake of NABS if for nothing else.
   At your service,
   Nijat

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "T. Joseph Carter" <carter.tjoseph at gmail.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 11, 2009 12:36 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] NABS Leadership Update


> Arielle and all of NABS,
>
> I've heard more than a few rumblings about it already, and I am not sure 
> the board should try to address them:  The NABS election was a complete 
> and total fiasco lacking even the appearance of integrity.  A number of 
> people are really unhappy about it, and some are talking about taking 
> action.
>
> I feel a need to say, "Don't do it, please."  I know some of you to be 
> good students and good advocates both fro this organization and for the 
> blind in general.  If those of you I don't know are of the same caliber, 
> then you may turn fiasco into tragedy.  Think about the possible outcomes 
> first.
>
> Either you will find widespread support, or you will not.  If the latter, 
> you face marginalization and feelings of disenfranchisement greater than 
> you already feel.  That will drive you away from the organization for 
> certain.  Perhaps I am being a bit selfish here, but NABS and the NFB need 
> _you_, and I'd rather not have you fall away over something as transitory 
> as a single problematic election.
>
> If you do garner widespread support, the tragedy will be larger still: The 
> organization would faction into those who support the incoming board and 
> those who oppose the process that elected them, with a lot of people who 
> want to do both feeling caught in the middle.  There's no faster way to 
> ensure more controversial elections than to go down this road.
>
> So .. what do you do?  I made my decision before the election was even 
> over: I'm going to support the incoming board, and I'm going to encourage 
> (read: make a pain in the rear end of myself) the board to act boldly and 
> with integrity on behalf of blind students.
>
> I also intend to similarly encourage (read the same way) that only 
> registered members vote, and that each registrant gets one vote.  I can't 
> claim to have a simple and brilliant solution here yet because I can't 
> figure out how to handle runoff elections quickly and cleanly yet.  The 
> curious know my email address.  *smile*
>
> Joseph
>
> P.S. I considered suggesting the Condorcet method, but I decided not to 
> propose anything that required calculating a square root to figure out who 
> wins the election.
>
>
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