[nabs-l] Action Plan, Part 2
Joe Orozco
jsorozco at gmail.com
Thu May 7 14:42:39 UTC 2009
Joseph and Angela,
You have a good point. Pragmatic though my nature tends to be, I do try to
give people the benefit of the doubt, but the dispensation of stipends could
become an unnecessary monster. So, scratch the stipend, and replace it with
Joseph's suggestion of reimbursement of the work people are carrying out. I
believe people should ultimately volunteer because they care. Nonetheless,
even if the rest of the membership flakes out, the board is held accountable
for carrying out so many of the assignments. I see no reason why the board
members, in compensation for their labor, should not receive assistance with
getting to and from National Convention or Washington Seminar. Sponsors
understand there are logistics involved in making programs function. And,
in light of the proposals I am putting out there, the board members should
receive a little tangible gratitude for their dedication. But, remember
these are all suggestions. People need to follow Joseph and Angela's
examples of questioning the ideas and shaping them to something better.
Best,
Joe Orozco
"A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the
crowd."--Max Lucado
-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of T. Joseph Carter
Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 6:12 AM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Action Plan, Part 2
Joe, I like the plan, but I am concerned about the question of
stipends. I have seen within the organization claims that
leadership comes with lots of perks and that people who have
the perks seem to expect a lot out of rank and file members
that they don't put forward themselves. I have no problem with
paying board members' expenses associated with performing their
duties. A stipend to be used at the officers' discretion, no
matter how carefully budgeted, seems to go a little too far.
Otherwise, I see little in your plan I would want to change.
Maybe a bit of the detail around how the organization raises
money to help support itself, but they're minor details.
And when you reconsider a run for the presidency and get
elected, I'll be happy to sit down and discuss them with you at
length.
*grin*
Joseph
On Wed, May 06, 2009 at 11:58:10PM -0400, Joe Orozco wrote:
>Dear all:
>
>In a landscape of grim statistics and dismal editorials regarding the
>bad economy, the hope of the unemployment rate among the blind appears
>equally worrisome. While NABS should not make job readiness the
>centerpiece of its operations, it should provide its membership one
>more added incentive for sticking around. To that end it is
my opinion
>that NABS should consider hosting a job fair at Washington Seminar.
>
>In general, planning for Washington Seminar should begin in July,
>relatively soon after the new board has been elected. There is the
>obvious point that the longer you have to plan, the less
likely you are
>to stress out the board, but for strategic purposes, the earlier the
>agenda is finalized, the sooner you can begin selling the event to
>prospective funders. Enter the Strategic Initiatives team.
>
>The team needs as much time as possible, at least four solid
months, to
>create the type of noise befitting the country's leading blindness
>student organization. Actually, there is no such thing as "too soon,"
>but four months will give this team the opportunity to shine at what
>they know how to do best. The team needs to be able to draft
excellent
>marketing materials to lure the students that are not yet planning to
>join the division at its winter seminar, and in the case of my
>proposal, they need to be able to recruit the participation of
>organizations and companies in the fields where the membership is
>interested in becoming employed. There are always job fairs going on
>in the nation's capital, and there is no reason why an organization
>like NABS could not partner up with the Independent Living centers,
>Light House, the city's Department for Disabilities, local-area
>universities and the DC NFB affiliate to put together a
well-organized
>job fair. With sufficient time, I do not see why the Washington Post
>could not be enticed into scheduling its routine job fairs to
meet that
>of the Washington Seminar. If it does not, the paper could
still be used to advertise the event on behalf of the division.
>
>The Benefits:
>
>1. Hands-on practice will always be preferable to living vicariously.
>There is great benefit to listening to three people in a row
talk about
>how cool their jobs are, but there is a greater impact to be enjoyed
>from having those people tell you how to draft your cover letter, your
>resume and how to polish your interview skills. Besides, I've
sat next
>to people who wind up not listening to these speakers because they're
>perceived as stuck-up and full of themselves. I think they
would shake
>off that perception if the speakers gave concrete advice on how they
>did things to be successful. Over time I've become a fan of
breakout sessions over general group speeches.
>There is simply more room for personal dialogue.
>
>2. Summer internships are not far around the corner from
Washington Seminar.
>DC is attractive to many college students. Why not make a concerted
>effort to ensure that our students get a unique opportunity to compete
>for those positions.
>
>3. Job prospects. Students are not students forever. Everyone is
>looking for a permanent job. On the surface the job fair would expose
>students to potential employers and give them a very real means of
>practicing their personal selling skills. It makes NABS look
proactive
>in helping its members secure future employment. On a subtle level
>things like job readiness sets the stage for a NABS alumni network.
>Many students graduate, leave the division and do nothing more
with the
>NFB because they never participated in chapter meetings. Integrating
>students into the larger movement is an ongoing process, but what
>better way to keep people around than to place these graduates
in a position to help up and coming students?
>The thing is, there is no grounds for an alumni network if the
>graduates themselves were never given anything tangible in the
first place.
>
>4. Membership incentives. As I've previously mentioned, people want a
>reason to belong to your organization. In this case we are
looking for
>reasons for people to want to come to Washington Seminar. You bring
>them in for a general session of well-chosen speakers. You showcase
>our esteemed NFB president. You break out to smaller groups to talk
>job readiness, and then you turn the crowd loose on your
collection of potential employers.
>The crowd moves out dressed to impressed, because one of the breakout
>sessions will have talked about social skills and swagger. True, some
>of the locals may only come out to be a part of the job fair, but with
>carefully planted board members about the room you ensure that every
>new person is approached and given the pitch on why they should join
>the greatness that is NABS. Dedicate four or five hours to the event.
>Coordinate it with the National Office to ensure it can be carried out
>in a way that the maximum number of people can participate. Besides,
>you should be coordinating the event with Baltimore anyway to ensure
>that the success to NABS translates to success for the
organization at large.
>
>Even though the meeting space is graciously provided by the NFB, there
>is no reason why the student division should not begin learning how to
>carry its own weight to help offset expenses. It would take a few
>years to get to a point of self-sufficiency, but things like the
>student annual banquet are things that could be potentially
picked up by a finely cultivated sponsor.
>When you throw a job fair into the program, you're providing sponsors
>one more layer of credibility, because you show them how you've been
>able to partner up with a number of businesses to come out and be a
>part of your activities.
>
>So, from the top, the online registration process is modified to
>include a question about future job aspirations. The NABS board
>compiles the data, and with the Strategic Initiatives team working at
>the helm, a database is created of businesses and organizations in the
>fields identified by the registered membership. The task may seem
>daunting, but not when you have other members in the organization in
>various occupations. And, contacting businesses out of the
blue is not
>altogether a bad leadership building exercise anyway.
Specific offices
>should be targeted in the Washington DC metropolitan area with a
>well-written letter that is accompanied by a small but compelling
>packet of what NABS is and what it does. With the right amount of
>sponsorship, the board may very well be able to afford to
feature these employers at the job fair with little or no cost
to the businesses.
>In truth, NABS could charge a very nominal fee for businesses to
>participate even if sponsorship is available, money that could be used
>to create or revise job readiness materials for the future. I'm all
>for volunteer service, but I am sure that carefully budgeted stipends
>to the board would not raise too many complaints from the
board members
>who are doing the hard work.
>
>But, it is important to plan and solidify the agenda early on to
>accommodate this venture. The agenda should be included in the pitch
>to businesses so that they see how they will fit into the
larger scheme
>of the winter seminar. It tells businesses you are prepared,
organized
>and ready to be taken seriously. Businesses do not have to send
>representatives to your job fair. Make them feel ignorant for not
>participating. By businesses I mean nonprofits, government agencies
>and corporations. Ideally they will have a national scope so that the
>student from Ohio and Oregon are just as likely to find an
opportunity back home to take advantage of.
>
>Now, the database of businesses and organizations would serve
two purposes.
>First, it would provide a springboard for the job fair idea, but
>second, it would set the stage for a mentoring program.
>
>I am thinking of a mentoring program where our students are
mentored by
>current professionals in their field of interest. If the
professionals
>happen to be blind, excellent, but my recommendation would be that the
>program not be tailored that way. Students need to understand they're
>going to be competing in a sighted world. I would encourage sighted
>mentors to be recruited to take on outstanding blind mentees. First,
>it helps create an avenue for education for the mentor. He or
she will
>be teaching the mentee about a career while at the same time learning
>about blindness and what a blind person really is capable of doing in
>the workplace. The exceptions are, of course, in situations where the
>student wants to go into the blindness field, in which case it only
>makes sense that they speak to someone in that chosen profession.
>Second, the arrangement for the mentoring program sets up networking
>opportunities. In some cases the mentor may even be able to offer the
>mentee's name for vacancies in their office when the mentee has
>graduated. We want people employed. The mentoring program could be
>one more vehicle to move people further in that direction.
>
>Perhaps this mentoring idea could be integrated into the existing NFB
>Link program. At the very least NABS should inquire into whether or
>not the modules could be borrowed to create a mentoring program
>specifically for students. The initial work can be gleaned from the
>current registration process, but thinking long-term, NABS should make
>the investment in a web-based system that can match, track and
promote both mentors and mentees.
>There are free CRM systems out there to accomplish this, but the right
>people need to be recruited by the Director of Online Strategies to
>help him or her shape the project in a way that works smoothly and
>simultaneously promotes NABS and the NFB.
>
>This is an initiative I believe the Department of Labor would find
>worth making a time or financial investment in. Here again the
>Strategic Initiatives team would need to spend time developing a case
>for why Labor or some other national entity would find it
beneficial to
>contribute services or finances. Talk to the American Foundation for
>the Blind about how their system might be integrated into this
>proposal. They're going to be just as interested in a good case for
>why it is necessary as anyone else. Do not assume that just
because an
>organization does work for the blind that they have to do
anything with or for you.
>
>Like most everything else I've written about up to this point, these
>are ideas that could be integrated at the state level. Substitute the
>Washington Seminar with your affiliate's state convention. A
>convention will draw the right volume of people and lend itself to a
>good public relations campaign that should attract the right level of
>interest from businesses. If nothing else, the mentoring
program could
>work better at the state level because creating a curriculum for the
>program that involves face-to-face meetings between the mentors could
>be more feasible, though national planning should not overlook the
>means to bring mentors to the National Convention to get the
full depth of what the NFB stands for.
>
>In summary, the problem of unemployment among the blind needs to be
>addressed. No doubt the argument will be made for how such an
>initiative is beyond the scope of the student division. I think the
>argument is without foundation. There are scores of blind people who
>leave the division to take on a myriad of careers. The
problem is that the number is not high enough.
>We need more students out there with a good job that is not always
>related to the blindness field. NABS can and should teach
students how
>to be productive students, but college is nothing more than an
academic
>training ground for future success in a student's chosen profession.
>We often tell students that there is not going to be a DSS office in
>their future place of employment and that they should begin to learn
>how to be independent. True, but there is always going to be an NFB,
>and if we can begin to cultivate a sense of loyalty to the NFB by way
>of a proactive student division that plays a major role in job
>readiness and job exposure, graduates will be able to thank
the NFB for
>the success they achieve and be more likely to stick around and help
>younger students coming up behind them. I am of course
willing to entertain arguments to the contrary.
>
>The job fair can be a part of Washington Seminar 2010. Use
the success
>of that event to build the resources necessary to build a mentoring
>program that could be fully operational by 2011, and in the meantime,
>start putting people to work in their chosen field. Education
students
>can work with the Director of Education to write curriculum enhancers
>for teachers of blind students. Business administration and marketing
>students can be put to work writing grant proposals, business
plans and
>strategic plans that analyze current strategies and make projections
>for future improvement. Math students could be enhancing a wiki
>project to show teachers and students alike how it might be possible
>for a blind student to excel in required and specialized math and
>engineering courses. Journalism students ought to be heavily
involved in the production and marketing of the Student Slate.
>Science students ought to be playing a bigger role in the planning and
>execution of youth Slam. Computer science and information technology
>students should be working with the Director of Online Strategies to
>push the web site forward to reach larger audiences. David Dunfy, for
>all his posts about the DJ Invasion, could be persuaded to host a NABS
>podcast? The point is, people are more likely to help you if you give
>them the capacity to do something they would have been doing anyway.
>If you can build NABS so that students use the organization to
complete
>classroom projects, there is a win/win situation for both the
student's
>grade and the improvement of the organization.
>
>Ambitious? Of course it's ambitious. Ambitious organizations create
>legacies. Mediocre organizations may as well stay home and play
>tiddlywinks for all the impact they will accomplish. The greater the
>goal, the longer the list of objectives required to achieve the goal,
>and the more objectives necessary to accomplish the goals, the more
>likely it is to learn how to use all those objectives for the benefit
>of other goals in the future. People should not think of how
difficult
>it would be to put on a job fair and mentoring program. People should
>be thinking about how the steps involved in preparing for the job fair
>and mentoring program can help with the preparation of student
>seminars, fundraising campaigns and general membership
recruitment, all
>of which will be addressed in future installments.
>
>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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