[nabs-l] Success and Why I Left the NFB

[Joe]

2006 was the last year I attended a national convention. While there I was
caught up in the ra ra of the movement and felt glad to be in the company of
so many people who could relate to the challenges that awaited me as a
recent college graduate. I left convention, finished up my summer as a
counselor in Iowa, and set off for DC to begin my business with the real
world. I would never take away someone's enthusiasm from attending a
national convention or Washington Seminar or one of the weekend leadership
seminars in Baltimore. They are very well-suited to boost a person's spirit,
but I believe too many people fall through the cracks when faced with
reality outside of those infrequent gatherings.

To be fair, the organization is no different from any other nonprofit
business. It needs money to sustain itself, and in turn it needs more
members to help raise the money. Still, I found it rather disappointing that
so much of the board meeting I tuned into listen to last summer was
dominated by calls to raise money for this fund or that effort. I found it
even sadder that a recent issue of the Braille Monitor, our monthly dose of
inspiration, featured several articles just to the focus of generating more
ways to drum up more financial support, but perhaps the most frustrating
byproduct of this new NFB are the e-mails from so-called friends from whom I
have not heard in years but boldly ask me to contribute to their NFB
fundraising campaigns.

In short, at some point the NFB embraced enterprise and forgot about the
movement. Between 2006 and 2012 I went on to help lead development efforts
for other nonprofits outside of the blindness field, also national in scope.
They too made fundraising a priority, but it never felt like the top, or the
only, priority. It gets tiresome when we focus on recruiting new blood and
raising new money and forget about strengthening the members and resources
we've already had.

Nowadays I have the privilege of knowing some excellent blind professionals.
I think they would do well in the NFB. They are smarter than I ever will be
and have accomplished more than I may ever achieve, but they shun the
organization because they were turned away or because they were never
welcomed in the first place. It's something I should have kept in mind when
I had my brief taste of leadership in the organization. I had too much of a
mouth on me to ever be anyone's golden child, but I was reliable enough to
get the job done. But, getting the job done should have really meant
attracting and pulling in these men and women who could have made the NFB
lots better, listening to new ideas, and most important, remaining true to
the cause and not some multi-million-dollar institute we find ourselves
incapable of sustaining.

So, what does any of this have to do with the original post? I don't want it
to ever be said I was a hypocrite. The leadership may as well know what I
think of them, but more importantly, to the college kids on the verge of
spreading their own wings, I want you to know the NFB banner will only guide
your way so far. Take what's great about the organization and leave the
political drama and marketing ploys behind. In the end it will be your own
wits and talents that will earn your pay check. The NFB will never give you
anything new. The philosophy merely helps you uncover what you always had to
be successful. Anything could happen with the new NFB president, and I will
be the first to retract my words if he is brave enough to reverse this
downward spiral. You see, we no longer live in a world where the NFB is
necessary for collective momentum. Technology has seen to that. Whether or
not the movement sticks around largely depends on how badly we want it to
exist.

Is the ACB doing it any better? That's debatable, but you know what I've
found from the people I've met on that side of the house? They seem happier,
and that's something we can't seem to figure out in our camp. The few
victories they celebrate they do with even less money. Let that be a lesson
in financial management to you.

I don't know what the hell I'm doing back here. I told myself I would never
become one of those bitter former NFB members. My only goal was to provide
different perspectives to the new generation of leaders coming up through
the ranks. After all, if you never taste the real world, you have no
business leading. That's like the teacher who teaches because they couldn't
cut it, and believe it or not, I want to see more and more of you excel at
whatever it is you want to do. The more of you there are, the greater our
strength.

Moving forward I reckon I'll keep my opinions to myself here lest I be the
rotten apple that spoils the bunch, but in some lame attempt to answer the
original question, my answer would be this:

The characteristics of a successful blind person are humility to consume
what they need to be successful, fortitude to turn away what will not, and
wisdom to recognize the difference.

Joe

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Twitter: @ScribblingJoe

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