[nabs-l] NABS Elections: Sean Whalen for President

[nabs.president at gmail.com]

Good morning,

 

As most of you likely know, I have served for the past year as the President
of the National Association of Blind Students. While I have certainly made
some mistakes over these twelve months, I am generally quite pleased with
the progress NABS has continued to make. I would like the opportunity to
continue serving you in this capacity for another two years to continue to
build on the progress NABS has made over the last several years under the
leadership, of first Arielle Silverman, and now myself. 

 

Over this last year NABS has:

·         Strengthened ties with state student divisions

·         Instituted bimonthly conference calls for state student division
presidents and the NABS board

·         Had NABS board members in attendance at 21 state student division
seminars and state conventions (an increase of over 67% over two years ago)

·         Continued providing monthly updates on goings on to our membership

·         Reached out via our High School Committee to younger students to
incorporate them more strongly into NABS

·         Published four more quality issues of the Student Slate

·         Held monthly membership calls on various topics of interest to
blind students

·         Built a membership database to allow NABS, for the first time in a
long time, to keep track of our membership

·         Executed the most successful NABS fundraiser in at least the last
seven years, raising over $2,000 with our auction/open mic at Washington
Seminar

·         Secured a commitment from our NFB national office to hold a
student leadership seminar in the fall of 2012

·         Gained the support of the NFB Affiliate Action team to create a
multimedia CDROM informational/recruitment tool

 

None of this, of course, would have been possible without the hard work of
the entire NABS board, and several other members who volunteered their time.
However, I believe that this demonstrates that I am capable of setting a
course and working with others to get things accomplished.

 

Some of you may recall, about a year ago, when I wrote a statement similar
to this one asking for your support in another election. I then indicated
that I wanted to make communication and collaboration priorities over this
year. I think that, by and large, we have succeeded in both of these areas.
While I certainly intend to continue these improvements over the next term,
I would like to expand our goals to include outreach and expansion.

 

Consider the following two suggestions on how we might increase our
membership, and make membership more beneficial to those who are currently
involved:

 

There are a whole lot of blind students out there who have no idea about
NABS or the NFB. I believe that one of the primary purposes of NABS is to
introduce younger folks to the NFB, the many resources it has to offer, and
its positive philosophy on blindness. It is absolutely important for NABS to
reach out and more strongly incorporate students who go through our Jernigan
Institute’s programs like Youth Slam and LAW, but it is at least as
important to reach out to students to whom we do not have immediate access.
If elected, I will work to ensure that NABS reaches out to teachers, VR
professionals, and others in the blindness field to bring our message to
students who would otherwise never hear it. I am not so naïve as to think
that our message will always be received with open arms, but taking those
risks and putting ourselves out there can, and I believe will, have a large
payoff in new students reached. I believe that the aforementioned multimedia
recruitment CDROM could be a very useful tool in these efforts. I also
would, contingent on available funds and location, work to find
opportunities for NABS leaders to address, meet with, or otherwise engage
with professionals in the blindness field outside of the NFB.

 

I also believe that we can improve the quality of information we provide to,
and dialogue we engage in, with individuals both inside and outside of our
organization. In particular, as was suggested to me by a very clever member
of our Board (Briley Pollard), NABS could be much more effective in engaging
on social media platforms. I agree 100%, and, if elected, will appoint one
volunteer as Social Media Coordinator. Having one person in charge of
creating and implementing a strategy to maximize our effectiveness on
outreach, information sharing, and engaging in interactive dialogue on
social media will put a stronger focus on this important aspect of the work
we do.

 

These, of course, are only my ideas. I would welcome the opportunity to
discuss the thoughts of everybody in NABS, both on and off the board, to
establish a path forward to grow the organization.

 

I am proud of the progress we have made in recent years. I am passionate
about the work we do in NABS and the NFB, and I know I have the energy to
continue to do it for two more years. I’ve learned a lot over this year, and
would love to have the opportunity to put lessons learned into practice. I
want to work with all of you to further the goals of the federation and
build a brighter future for blind students everywhere. I humbly ask for your
vote on July 1.

 

If you have any questions for me or wish to discuss anything, please do not
hesitate to contact me.

 

Sincerely,

 

Sean Whalen

President, National Association of Blind Students

(608) 332-4147

Nabs.president at gmail.com