[nabs-l] Action Plan, Part 1

[Joe Orozco]

Dear all:

Over the past week there has been discussion about the state of the student
division.  The discussion came about as a result of my urging divisions to
apply for grants offered by way of my employer through its partnership with
several corporations.  In some cases I understand divisions did not apply on
account of there not being sufficient time or training or people to design a
program worthy of funding.  In short, I am told student divisions are simply
not ready for this level of operation.

, another recent development has been the growing rumors that I am planning
to seek the presidency of the national student division.  The rumors were
true.  I did spend several months carefully weighing the pros and cons of
running for the office.  In the end the cons took it, and I have ultimately
decided to serve you in a different capacity away from the board.  That
said, I will now share the plan I developed had I chosen to run for
election.  I offer the plan I would have exercised in my hypothetical
presidency in hopes that you will take what you like from my ideas and use
them to expand your own divisions.  This installment of my plan focuses on
the NABS board, but there is almost nothing here that cannot be applicable
at the state level.

The plan that follows is a practical one.  I have no use for idealistic
nonsense that does not give concrete ideas on how to make a division grow,
but because it is a practical plan, it is also a plan that lends itself to
criticism.  This is the sort of plan that meets my leadership style, and so
you will need to adjust the plan to serve you in your own leadership
capacity.  And, I fully expect you to publicly challenge those ideas you
think ridiculous.  This is, after all, mostly an exercise in development
strategy, and no great nonprofit successfully evolves according to the
notions of one single individual.

Finally, my purpose in sharing this plan with you is to motivate you to aim
higher.  I expect there to be dialogue.  At the end of my eight years with
the student division I do not want to leave it with the sense that nothing
at all has changed since the first day I came into the ranks.  If you’re
okay with these expectations, please continue reading.  Otherwise, spare
yourself the torture of a long-winded post and move on to more interesting
reading.  It was not fair of me to yell at you for not meeting my high
standards without providing you a means to get the job done, and so I will
try to make the reading for those of you who do follow this series of posts
as beneficial as possible.

Let’s begin with the structure of the national board.  Each position from
the president down to the fourth board member needs to have associated tasks
to give people an idea of the position they are running for.  Otherwise,
people run for positions with only the slate to tell them where they belong.
People who are not on the slate are then left to randomly run against people
with no real concept of what the position involves.  Again, bear in mind
that this is true of any state student division board.

In my hypothetical national board I would divide the eight board members
into two halves.  My first vice president would be in charge of strategic
initiatives.  Under this vice president of strategic initiatives would be
the treasurer, first board member and second board member, only the title of
these last two would be Director of Online Strategies and Director of
Outreach.  The other half would be made up of the second vice president, who
would be the vice president of membership development.  He or she would
oversee the secretary, third board member and fourth board member.  These
last positions would be my Director of Advocacy and Director of Education.

The purpose for giving the positions new titles is twofold.  First, it helps
keep the elected members focused on their responsibilities.  No matter what
happens in the two years of the term, no matter the activity, they will know
the scope of their duty, and the general membership will know exactly who to
contact with their specific questions.  Second, it looks really good on the
resume.  Ultimately I want my board members to use their positions as a tool
to learn new skills and then use those skills to impress potential
employers.  The National Association of Blind Students may not sound like
much to people outside the NFB, but the title of vice president of strategic
initiatives gives one pause.  It makes one wonder just what it is you did in
that position and what qualified you to hold it.

There is no need for constitutional amendments unless the board is
interested in solidifying the roles in the exact positions I’ve listed them
in.  I would recommend you maintain a certain flexibility by not committing
yourself to the constitution.

Now, I know I must have lost some of you in the layout of the positions, so
let’s briefly examine both sides of this hypothetical board.

The vice president of strategic initiatives would oversee the outreach
operations of the division.  It would be their responsibility to research,
identify and engage new members, partners and potential sources of funding.
He or she would work with the other three members of the team to create a
compelling image of the organization and sell that image to our audiences.
What they do specifically would depend on the arrangement agreed to by the
team, but integral to this position would be the composition of grant
proposals, letters of inquiry, brochures, press releases, public service
announcements, etc.

The following job descriptions are by no means exhaustive, but they provide
a glimpse of what their tasks might look like.

Proposed Duties of the Treasurer:

* Co-manage registration table at all special events with the secretary to
facilitate the collection of registration fees

* Work with the Director of Online Strategies to create and maintain a
user-friendly online payment collection system

* Oversee hard fundraising projects including, but not limited to: auctions,
door prizes, candy sells, Monte Carlo Night

* Maintain bank statements and easily produce balances by program upon
request to the board and to the membership at large

Proposed Duties of the Director of Online Strategies:

* Maintain NABSLink

* Create and cultivate social networking presences that sync up with the
main web site

* Use these combined resources to work with the Director of Outreach on
highlighting current and prospective partners and/or funding sources

Proposed Duties of the Director of Outreach:

* Create and maintain database of DSS coordinators, key legislative staff,
corporations, foundations, community-based nonprofits and media outlets

* Create templates to actively communicate with all of the above as
necessary

* Use database and other sources like Idealist to recruit volunteers for
certain specialties i.e. web development

* Promote upcoming events, initiatives, etc.

* Facilitate communication between NABS and other NFB divisions, including
but not limited to: Sports and Recreation and National Organization of
Parents of Blind Children

On the other side we would have membership development.  This vice president
would work with his or her three colleagues to take the members, partners
and sponsors discovered by the strategic initiatives team and incorporate
them into the fold of the division.  What Strategic Initiatives finds is the
job of membership development to keep.  Again, the specific tasks of this
vice president would depend on the dynamics of the team.  It is my opinion
that vice presidents should maintain a measure of flexibility to oversee his
or her team and work with the president on special projects, but among other
duties the vice president would oversee the development of seminar agendas,
event logistics, mentorship initiatives, newsletter publication and resource
development.

Proposed Duties for the Secretary:

* Co-manage registration table at special events with the treasurer to
facilitate the collection of guest contact information

* Oversee the production of Braille agendas for distribution at special
events

* Work with the Director of Online Strategies to create and maintain an
online registration system, preferably tied to payment process

* Coordinate the assignment and travel schedule of student representatives
to state conventions

* Provide final editorial review of all outbound communication, including
online and off-line communication

* Record board meeting minutes and make these available to the general
membership via NABSLink

* Maintain membership database

Proposed Duties of the Director of Advocacy:

* Liaison to NFB governmental affairs office

* Use outreach database to cultivate partnerships with DSS and legislative
offices

* Listen to and make recommendations on cases of alleged discrimination or
lack of accommodations, working with appropriate professional staff in
Baltimore as necessary

* Provide tip sheets and brief guides on dealing with professors, employers
and other common public entities

* Create and maintain repository of advocacy resources on NABSLink with the
assistance of the Director of Online Strategies

Proposed Duties of the Director of Education:

* Liaison to Jernigan Institute

* Plan and carry out monthly membership teleconferences with key topics
benefiting division development

* Provide resources and guidance on writing resumes and drafting cover
letters as well as interview skills

* Oversee the creation and implementation of resources benefiting
age-appropriate audiences i.e. elementary, middle and high school

* Tailor specific materials benefiting teachers of blind students

* Co-manage mentoring initiatives with the president

As the plan unravels we will come back to look at these roles more fully.  I
realize state divisions will probably not have eight members on their board.
The positions above are flexible enough so that occupations can be
collapsed, and even these eight members are not expected to carry out their
work without assistance.  We will also take a look at the nurturing of
volunteers later in the plan.

For now, what is important to remember is that the positions need to be
balanced in such a way as to create interdependence.  One half cannot
function without the completed work of the other.  Membership Development,
for instance, cannot put on a successful seminar if Strategic Initiatives
did not do a good job of promoting the event.  The Director of Advocacy
cannot very well run a good legislative campaign if the Director of Outreach
has not developed a functional database of congressional and state
legislative offices.  The examples evolve from there, but try to create an
atmosphere of accountability, not necessarily one of hierarchy.  There is a
difference.

Now let’s look away from the board at the components that would help support
the work of the directors.  First, each board member, including the
president, would be assigned to a seasoned leader in the NFB, preferably
someone in the National Board of Directors.  This would facilitate
communication between the student division and the organization at large,
but it would also provide each board member a means to gain guidance from
someone with superior experience in all areas of recruitment, fundraising
and general outreach.  More importantly, it would provide each board member
with the philosophical anchor by which to direct all of that member’s
assignments.  We want a vibrant division, but we want a division that is
well-grounded in the organization’s fundamental principles, otherwise we run
the risk of creating an independent animal.  At the state level the board
members could be mentored by chapter presidents and members of the affiliate
board.

Second, all state division student presidents would come together to form
the Council of Student Presidents, chaired by a person elected by the
members of this Council.  This Council would meet quarterly to provide the
NABS board with the framework for the board’s activities.  Ultimately it is
the state divisions that provide the front line of communication with local
entities.  It only makes sense that state divisions should have an official
voice in how the board carries out its business.  The Council would pass
resolutions similar to those seen at the national level of the NFB and would
be approved or rejected by the general membership at either Washington
Seminar or at the annual business meeting at the National Convention.

Passing resolutions is a practice of the NFB.  We want to train future
leaders, and thus it stands to reason that students should become familiar
with the process of writing and submitting resolutions to be debated by
fellow students.  These resolutions could not run contrary to the
resolutions adopted by the parent organization.  They would simply
crystallize the work of the board of directors in cooperation with the
general membership on issues pertinent to students.  At its simplest, these
resolutions would give the NABS board clear goals to be accomplished within
a specified length of time.  It would certainly create a level of
accountability to the board by the general membership.

For this facet of division structure there is not a comparable arrangement
at the state level unless the state division has multiple chapters across
different campuses.  Texas has been one division to have previously operated
student chapters at three separate campuses.  The idea then was to be able
to officially register with the school so that the groups could benefit from
fundraising, meeting space and donations from the school.  Consider
incorporating resolutions into your operations only if your membership is
large enough and the needs of your state distinct enough to necessitate such
a strategy.

You will, of course, notice that I did not include the responsibilities and
expectations of the president.  We’ll get to that office in a future
installment of my plan.  It is a position that in many ways warrants its own
installment.

What is important to take away from this section is that you will fail
miserably if your house is not organized.  You do not have to run elections
according to the positions I’ve listed.  You may continue to run them as the
standard constitutional labels, but keep in mind that you will set yourself
up to attract excellent talent if the positions are defined in advance.  If
you apply the specialties after the election, make sure that people
understand the full scope of their position.  Writing job descriptions like
a business may seem like overkill, but then again, what is the real
difference between a business and a nonprofit?

Second, do not overlook the support systems you can create for yourself with
the NFB.  You are not alone, and while I do not want to include any
pointless clichés in this plan, there really are people interested in
helping you get your student division off the ground, inside and outside of
your state, hence the benefit of mentors per board member.  Something in me
must care enough about you to write a hell of a long post to see you
succeed.  I assure you I am only one of many.

Now, enough with the fluffiness.  Let’s get down to the real business.

To be continued...

Joe Orozco

"A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the
crowd."--Max Lucado
 

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