[Nfb-krafters-korner] FW: 2018 Krafter's Korner Election Survey

Sat Jul 14 03:49:46 UTC 2018

Thank you.

________________________________
From: 12316772440n behalf of
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2018 10:18 PM
To: List for blind crafters and artists
Cc: Cindy S
Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] FW: 2018 Krafter's Korner Election Survey

Sending again.

I will reply to Jill off-list as she has taken this personally with me and not what I had intended as we all know email does not convey emotions nor inflections in one's speech. So as not to create any type of arguments, as I never intended, this will be my last post on list regarding this matter and I encourage others to not continue this discussion.

Cindy

-----Original Message-----
From: Nfb-krafters-korner <nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of jill rossiter via Nfb-krafters-korner
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2018 8:51 PM
To: 'List for blind crafters and artists' <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
Cc: jill rossiter <jillbilly4 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] FW: 2018 Krafter's Korner Election Survey

Cindy,
While I appreciate your longevity with the NFB and this division, I believe your memory regarding the Krafters division constitution is a bit a miss. I have attached a copy of it if you would like to read it again. I stated in my post from some time ago, that those were my feelings and as I understand according to the first amendment to the United States Constitution I am able to express my thoughts or feelings freely. For clarity on this matter you can read the United States constitution in it's entirety at http://constitutionus.com/

As for Cindy Zimmer's abilities to lead or her past performance as
Treasurer, no where in my post did I discredit her. Cindy is a wonderful
person and has done a great job as treasurer. I very much enjoyed meeting her at convention. As a matter of fact, she was the first person from our division I met. She recognized me and came right up and we even hugged. My statement was in response to my own personal feelings and the policy in the Krafters Constitution that the President and both 1st and 2nd nd president be blind/ low vision as you stated. Perhaps you should realize that should the president or 1st vice be unable to serve then it would be the responsibility of the 2nd vice president to serve as president. I never addressed the positions of secretary, treasurer, or general board members.
My exact statement referred to the primary leadership of the board should be blind. As you said, this was a bit late in the discussion. Also if you read the rest of my post I was encouraging everyone to work together to make this a family once more. I really do not appreciate your insinuation that I was speaking ill of Cindy Zimmer or that I myself am not familiar with the topics of which I speak. So please let's not start this new year at Krafters Division in divisive posts.
Jill

-----Original Message-----
From: Nfb-krafters-korner [mailto:nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Cindy S via Nfb-krafters-korner
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2018 1:01 AM
To: List for blind crafters and artists
Cc: Cindy S
Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] FW: 2018 Krafter's Korner Election Survey

While I am very late to this discussion, I would like to comment on a couple of key points for Jill and all KK members, especially those fairly new to NFB.

The NFB has a constitution that states that the President and Vice President of a division or state or chapter must be blind (the NFB considers low vision as being in the blind category). Second, a majority of the board (all positions), must be blind. For our division, that means that we must have four blind members on the board (the president, in our case 1st Vice President, and any other two members of the board).

As far as having Cindy Z. on the board while being a sighted member of the division (irregardless of feelings), there is absolutely NO reason that she cannot serve. She cannot be president or 1st vice president, but that is the only limitation. She is very active in this division, she does NOT hold sightedness as being superior, she embodies the NFB philosophy of blindness not holding us back, and she has done an exceptional job from the beginning of being our treasurer (I have experience with her as both a board member and a general member of this division).

These specifications in the NFB have come from experiences where chapters have been dominated by sighted individuals and taken over almost all leadership positions claiming they do not have qualified blind people to fill those roles. We want to be the blind speaking for the blind, but we have no problem with sighted individuals that get it and want to participate actively. As far as I know, the Parents Division is the only one that is allowed an exception to this rule and they may in fact try to follow these blind majority and president, and vice president rules but I am not active in that division. Even if they cannot maintain the majority blind rule they must still embody the message of the NFB. (Ramona may in fact know more about this).

I hope this has helped our new members and even our old members that may not have had enough experience with the NFB outside of their own chapter or state.

Well steeped in Constitution knowledge.
Cindy S.

-----Original Message-----
From: Nfb-krafters-korner <nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of jill rossiter via Nfb-krafters-korner
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2018 9:36 PM
To: 'List for blind crafters and artists' <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
Cc: jill rossiter <jillbilly4 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] FW: 2018 Krafter's Korner Election Survey

Ramona,
I appreciate your dedication to the division and the Federation as a whole.
I can only speak for myself, so I will. I initially joined this division to learn and fill a void in my life at that time. My daughter was very small, I had decided to be a stay at home MOM for a while, but needed something just for me. Crafts became my adult time. Over the years I not only learned to crochet, loom knit, basket weave, jewelry making, origami, kumihimo, tunishian crochet, macramé , plastic canvas, quilt, and after 3 different classes, I can finally needle knit some! I love this group! The members are my extended family. Just like any family, we will disagree and argue. My hope is who ever wins works diligently to call the family together again. That is not meant for one side or the other, but both. I am pretty sure that there has been hurt feelings on both side of the rift.
No one should be mistreated. We should be here to encourage each other.
I currently am a member of the NFB Krafters Division. I do not have a local chapter, but have approached our state president Barbara Manual about starting a chapter. I don't fore see being able to take this on until after convention. I have a lot of responsibilities at work. I am working for the Alabama Dept. of Rehabilitation Services. I have attended the last 2 state conventions. I participated in the first ever Alabama Bell Academy, which was awesome! Braille Rocks! I can truly say that I saw an amazing transformation for one of my consumers that I encouraged to attend Bell.
Here in our state TVI's are in great need. This young lady was 16, but in my opinion gained the most from Bell. She has only been blind for 2 years, and has no TVI. She blossomed. In 2 weeks time, she learned the entire braille alphabet and around 10 contractions. She became more confident in what her future would be. It has been the spark for me to fully embrace the NFB philosophy " Live the Life you want!" To answer the question about assuming the role of president in 2 years, I would be honored to serve a group which means so much to me. I like you Ramona, have a great appreciation to Joyce for having the dream and vision. I would definitely need help. I have a lot of responsibilities, but delegating should be a skill that a president should possess. I however right now am concerned with the state of the union. I feel that at this point no matter who is selected as president, there will still be problems . I know that Cindy feels that she has been mistreated this last year. I believe that Joyce feels the same. I am again only expressing my thoughts and feelings. My opinion is that because this is a division of the NFB, it's leadership should be primarily blind/ visually impaired. My feelings are based upon our parent organizations philosophy, we should be the voice of the blind speaking for ourselves. That doesn't mean that I don't think that Cindy could be a good and effective leader. It means that because we ourselves want to control our programs and mission, we want to self determine our own divisions and needs. I pose this question, how difficult would it be for someone blind to take over a local knitting guild? The first task would be to prove to the guild that in fact you can knit. Then that a blind person can be responsible and organized. Then that a blind person can effectively run meetings. Each time having to prove yourself. So my thought is due to this attitude that the sighted world has of blindness, we should have privelleges among our own organizations. I don't mean to offend or state that my thinking is the right one, but my own. I would love to see the division grow in membership. I would love to seek out young and talented blind individuals to help us start our own youtube channel. I want to see classes which are challenging. We have had a lot of classes this year.
Some challenging some not. Having both is good, but sometimes smaller projects could be reserved for Monday night chats. Like with the craft extravaganza , we can promote the smaller projects to non members and show them how phone classes are held. I would like to see the division move towards charitable projects again. We once spoke of partnering with the human services division, why not revisit that idea. I want to be able to teach classes again. I want to be more than a voice on the chat line and silly squirrel storyteller. I want a group of friends again, and not enemies. So once you have time to read and process my novel I wrote, I hope you realize that in the words of Joyce Kane " It takes all of us to make Krafters Korner what it is".
Sincerely,
Jill Rossiter

-----Original Message-----
From: Nfb-krafters-korner [mailto:nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ramona Walhof via Nfb-krafters-korner
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2018 8:39 AM
To: 'List for blind crafters and artists'
Cc: Ramona Walhof
Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] FW: 2018 Krafter's Korner Election Survey

Do we know that nobody else wants to seek office? Or is this the nominating
committee recommendations? I haven't heard Cindy say she would not
continue as Treasure if asked. Also, members need to be reminded who is serving on the Board and not up for election this year. If one of them is elected to an office, then that position becomes open.

I don't object to the survey if it makes people feel better, but nobody can really express opinion unless he or she knows the complete picture.
I haven't heard enough from Tammy or Joyce to know at this point which one I would vote for for President. Joyce has done a wonderful job and has said she wants a successor. Is this too soon? Why is Tammy not running for Vice President to prepare? Does Jill really want to be President in two
years? It is not urgent that I know these things today, but if they are at
the convention, I will ask. If they are not there, then I am concerned about how strong a President or Vice President anyone can be. Not every leader has to be at convention every year, but the President must interact with the entire NFB in order for the Division to be strong.
I am not seeking office, but I have seen how things work in the NFB for more than fifty years, and I have seen what things don't work. And I care about both the Division and the NFB.

Ramona
Ramona

-----Original Message-----
From: Nfb-krafters-korner [mailto:nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Cathy Flesher via Nfb-krafters-korner
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2018 5:13 PM
To: 'List for blind crafters and artists' <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Cathy Flesher <flowersandherbs at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] FW: 2018 Krafter's Korner Election Survey

Hi Ramona and all,

I believe the survey is for those who cannot attend the convention to have the opportunity to have their voices heard. When the results of the survey are posted, all of us can get an idea of how the members who are not attending convention feel. yes, there is only one position with more than one person running, but it would be interesting to see who folks would like to vote for if they were able to attend convention.
In future years, we may have more than one person running for other positions.

Make this a wonderful day!
Cathy F

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