[nabs-l] Clarification Re: Support for Vee Gaspa for Bice president

Sun Jun 18 01:34:24 UTC 2017

Chris and all:

I kindly ask this thread to be discontinued. I am saddened to see national leaders contributing to this back and forth. Harry: You are spot on. Shannon: thank you for clarifying factual information. Vee: thank you for trying to attain personal testimonies for equal access to education. Chris: thank you for your work and energy for the National Federation of the Blind. And membership: I am sorry that you must continue reading these messages. As president of the national Association of Blind Students, and one who leads with honesty and integrity, I ask that each of you consider leadership as you think about writing on our list. Think of our core values, our love, our goals, and our purpose. Think about inspiring others for a common good; think about enabling others to work; think about kindness and sincerity; think about leading by example. As Chris said, leadership is not about what you say, but about the tangible outcomes that come from your hard work. When I barely knew anyone in the Federation in 2015, but I had aspirations of being elected to the national student board, I worked, and I never gave up. If students did not want to write letters, I called them and wrote it for them. At the end of the day, it is not about credit or blame; it is about prioritizing and assuring our national goals are being met. I encourage each of you to consider this when taking on leadership. The strongest leaders are sometimes those that lead from behind. Please reflect on your intentions and thoughts as both members and leaders of the Federation. And then, think about those on this list that are not formal members. Ask yourself why? Why are you continuing to portray yourself as someone you are not or continuing negativity? This must stop now. We are here for one reason, and we are on a mailing list to share experiences, resources, announcements, and updates for the National Federation of the Blind and the national student division. I appreciate diverse opinions being shared, however this has gone too far on all counts.

Again, I appreciate the discussion and now am closing this thread.

For the Federation,
Kathryn Webster
President | National Association of Blind Students

-----Original Message-----
From: NABS-L [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Chris Nusbaum via NABS-L
Sent: Saturday, June 17, 2017 7:38 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Chris Nusbaum <cnusbaumnfb at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Clarification Re: Support for Vee Gaspa for Bice president

Dear Shannon:

Let me begin by thanking you for your efforts to respectfully clarify what you perceive to be "miscommunicated information" in recent posts to this list. More importantly, let me express publicly my appreciation for the dedication and hard work which you have put into NABS in the past year, often without receiving the recognition you deserve. You have made yourself indispensable to the Board, and we could not have achieved all that we have achieved this year without your help. Thank you!

Your note has given me cause for some reflection, so I should like to offer up some comments of my own for the consideration of our members. As you know, collecting personal testimonies from students in support of the AIMHEA Act and obtaining letters of support for the bill from institutions of higher education are two of the most significant projects with which NABS has concerned itself in the past year. Moreover, it is very easy to track the number of letters we are getting from each state using such tools as the Dropbox folder to which you refer. Therefore, it is tempting to use this project as a means for judging the quality of a leader's work--after all, the easiest and arguably most convincing test of a leader is the "tangible results" he/she produces. However, it must be noted that these results are, in part, out of our control. In order for a leader to "collect" an AIMHEA letter from a member, the member from whom the letter is to be collected must first actually write the letter. Though it is important for those who are working on this project to follow up with potential supporters, the choice to submit a letter is ultimately in the hands of each member. As much as we leaders would love to see each member write a letter, call their Congressman, and request a meeting with their university officials, the fact is that some of our members are not as active as they could be. As leaders, then, our job is to encourage our members to remain active in advocating for the causes for which we fight. If they remain inactive despite our attempts to get them involved, that choice should not reflect on us. With that in mind, I ask you: Do you know how many people Vee contacted to solicit letters? Do you know the ratio of active members in New Jersey to letters written from that state? Do you know what role, if any, Vee played in the collection of the letters you cite? Surely she must have played some role as the state President in New Jersey. And what about letters collected from other states? What role, if any, did she play in acquiring those? If you have such information (information which I do not have,) please feel free to fill me in and I will be happy to take this into consideration at election time. Until then, frankly, I remain unconvinced.

I am often reminded, however, that I can only speak for myself. Therefore, let me do that in the context of the present discussion. As you know, I serve as President of the Maryland Association of Blind Students, a position which I have occupied since November of 2015. In July of that year, I was elected to the board of the National Association of Blind Students. It will be observed, then, that I had 4 months of national leadership under my belt before being elected a state President. It will also be observed that I have been on the NABS Board a year longer than Vee has—a year in which I could have flooded my state's delegation with letters from students from whom I "collected" them. Indeed, my own AIMHEA letter was written on January 10, 2016—6 months before Vee was elected to the NABS Board, and approximately 2 weeks before she attended her first Washington Seminar, at which she had her first real exposure to our legislative work. Yet, according to the latest update I have received from the Chairman of our Legislative Committee, Maryland students have submitted a total of 7 letters.

Is this a lapse in my leadership? Perhaps it is, and, if so, I would love to hear any tips you might have to offer on how to improve. But let us consider the stakes. This is Maryland—the state which serves as home to our national headquarters, home to President Riccobono himself, and home to the very governmental affairs team which we are helping by submitting these letters. Moreover, many of us in the Maryland student division consider our national leaders to be personal mentors, and these national leaders are often intimately involved with our work. In this context, what a dismal record! Even in Maryland, a state which other state leaders consider a model for them to follow, we only outnumber the statistic you cite by 1 solitary letter. Therefore, if we are to accept your premise, what unimaginable shame I must feel! What unspeakable fear I must have when I must admit to our members and leaders the deplorable results which my efforts have produced! What utter terror I must live in, always afraid that someone will find me out! Perhaps someone should appeal to the membership and mount a campaign to have me ousted from my current position. Perhaps my affiliate President should intervene and hand over all the important work to someone who will produce better results. Or perhaps I should simply resign in embarrassment and defeat. Yet, somehow, our members still trust me. Somehow they still call me seeking advice on Federation activities. And somehow they still elect me as their President. With such a completely disgusting showing of results, how can this be?

Shannon, I, too, write this with no ill will toward you or anyone else. In fact, I write it with the greatest appreciation and respect for you. You picked up much of the work which I had failed in doing in the past year. You could have resented me and refused to do the work, but you simply picked up where I left off and gave your all for NABS's sake. So, this has nothing to do with you. I am only trying to make sure your "clarification" is placed in the proper perspective. I believe in the old adage that "there are two sides to every story." If this is true, it is important to consider weighty issues like these with both sides taken into account. Moreover, I believe that any argument which is to be deemed valid must be able to withstand the test of honest and reasonable questioning. This is why we ask tough questions of our candidates, and this is why we have this list as an open forum for the exchange of opinions. Let us continue to consider the arguments made and questions asked as we decide who our leaders will be.

Yours in the movement,

Chris Nusbaum

-----Original Message-----
From: NABS-L [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Shannon Cantan via NABS-L
Sent: Friday, June 16, 2017 12:05 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Shannon Cantan <shannoncantan.nfb at gmail.com>
Subject: [nabs-l] Clarification Re: Support for Vee Gaspa for Bice president

Aloha Vee:

  Thank you for serving on the NABS Board this past year. I was hesitant in writing this message, but I feel that it is only fair for the membership to be made aware of the work the NABS Board and NABS committees are doing.
I have worked closely with the NABS Legislative Committee for over a year now. According to our Dropbox folder, there are only 6 letters from New Jersey students, all of which were collected prior to your election on the NABS Board. In fact, these 6 letters were last modified on April 4, 2016.
Moreover, they were collected by the previous president of NABS, Sean Whalen, as well as our current NABS President and our current Legislative Committee Chair Michael Ausbun. With this in mind, if you have more letters, that's awesome, but let's not hold them hostage and let's send them on over to our Government Affairs team in Baltimore, as well as to Michael, Tarik, and Kathryn.
Now, onto the Outreach Committee. As the point person for social media for NABS, I thank you for gathering one blog post over the past year, for the month of May. I hope to see many more in the future.

Again, I do not write this message with any negative intentions. As a growing leader in our organization, it is best to be upfront and honest when holding each other accountable, but more importantly, ourselves to that same standard. I, too, have dropped the ball on occasion, as does everyone. We are human. Regardless, we are fighting for the same goal, so let's work together to do just that. ; I just wanted to point out some miscommunicated information as a leader in this fine organization.

Thanks for reading, and I hope we cross paths in Orlando.

Best,

Shannon KS Cantan

>> On Jun 16, 2017, at 2:17 AM, Gaspa, Vee via NABS-L 
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> wrote:
> 
> Hello Dustin,
> I was actually co-chair of the legislative committee from when I was
elected a board member of NABS last July and then after Washington Seminar I was moved to being one of the co-chairs of the outreach committee. While I was on the legislative committee I gathered many AIMHE letters and started the process of getting a letter from my college, Seton Hall University. Over the past 5 months much of my energy went to the outreach committee, getting monthly blogs, working on topics for the outreach calls and many other things. Thank you for being a part of the legislative committee and helping us build the Federation!
> Best,
> Vee Gaspa
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NABS-L [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dustin 
> Cather via NABS-L
> Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2017 5:30 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Cc: Dustin Cather
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Support for Vee Gaspa for Bice president
> 
> Hey Nathan,
> It has been a pleasure working on the legislative committee on the
national level. I would love to learn more about the projects that you and Vee have been working on since I have been involved only since January and I don't recall Vee being on any of the calls. As I am getting more and more involved with NABS and NFB on a legislative level and I was just curious about this past years progress that Vee has made.
> Best.Dustin Cather
> 
>>   On Thursday, June 15, 2017 3:34 PM, Nathan Clark via NABS-L
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> I have known Vee for about one year now working with her on numerous
projects such as our legislative committee at the national level in our mid Atlantic regional similar which we hosted a few weeks ago and have always been impressed by her great leadership skills, energy and passion for our organization and I believe that these skills will be beneficial for her if she wins the position of vice president for our organization. I know that if she wins the position of vice president for our organization that her work will continue to do great things for blind students throughout this country into make our organization stronger than it ever has been.v I consider the both a leader in a friend of mine in our organization and I know that I can always talk to her about anything if I need to. All of the skills I believe are what makes a great leader and why I will be rooting for her this July in the election for vice president for the national Association of blind students. Vee I want you to know that you have my full support for this upcoming election.
> Sincerely,
> Nathan Clark
> 
> Nathan Clark
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