[NFBMI-Talk] request for the resignation of Robert Earl Parsons from the office of the president of the National Federation Of The Blind Of Michigan

Thu Dec 19 14:16:00 UTC 2024

Mr. President, during your time as president, you have done real harm to the
Michigan affiliate of the national federation of the blind. It is time for
you, Robert Earl Parsons. to resign your office and withdraw from leadership
of any kind in this affiliate. Should you fail to do so before the end of
the year, I am asking the NFBMI Board to, investigate all of the charges
that our treasurer, Mark Eagle, Past president Fred Wurtzel, and Tara Morgan
Board Member, have made against you: "election fraud", "conflict of
interest", "lack of open meetings", "Lack of due process in member
expulsion". I request that the Board hold an open meeting, similar to the
mini convention, where all members can speak and vote, with your fitness to
lead is the only agenda item. Any one of these four charges constitute
grounds for removal from office and or expulsion. In addition to these
charges, I add the charge that you have shown yourself to be unfit, or
unable to lead our affiliate in the manner that we have always required from
our presidents in the NFBMI.

The two most important responsibilities of a leader in the National
Federation Of The Blind are, one, to keep the affiliate running smoothly so
we are able to do our work, and two, To ensure that the affiliate programs
and activities are consistent with federation practice and philosophy. No
one could call our affiliate, as it is today, healthy. And many of us
believe that you have betrayed our members and our philosophy.

You have failed as an administrator. We have all known for more than a year
that our first Vice President was stepping down. You did nothing to insure a
smooth transition. So the daily administrative tasks of running our
organization aren't getting done. We have just come out of the most divisive
election that NFBMI has seen since 1974. While we as members are trying to
heal these wounds, you are trying to isolate and villainize the half of the
organization that didn't vote for you. The one thing that the affiliate is
unified about is that we voted unanimously that you were not to hold anymore
secret meetings. within weeks of that vote you held a secret meeting. Do you
really think you can get away with it because you didn't call it a board
meeting, or because you excluded nearly half of the board, who you said you
didn't trust? We are told that there was a Quorum. Present. If it quacks
like a Board meeting, and smells like a board meeting, it probably was a
Board meeting. 

You have undermined the Mission of the NFB in two important ways. You have
manipulated things so that you deny the membership the right to ask
Questions of presenters at the convention. This is especially true regarding
the Bureau Of Services For Blind People (BSBP). In fact you have not
permitted any discussion of trying to reverse the executive order that
destroyed the Michigan Commission For The Blind, at Board meetings, and the
convention. 

You have also undermined the 50 year long struggle that the Detroit chapter
has waged against the Greater Detroit Agency For The Blind, which is and has
always been A part of the sighted industrial complex You did so while we
were in active negotiations with them. You did this without notice or
discussion with us about this. You just took it upon your self to go in a
different direction in the name of the NFB. Perhaps you think that we were
intimidated by your abuse of power. We backed off for the moment to avoid
embarrassing NFBMI any more than you already have. We later found out that
you were in touch with the GDABVI President. Who is a life long member of
the MAB. She played you like a Violin.

You complained to me, the one time we spoke this year, that you were getting
pushback from the membership because you "Have "a new agenda." I don't know
what your agenda is. You have not bothered to share it with us, the members.
What ever it is, it is clearly not the agenda of the NFB. Real leaders share
there vision openly and inspire there members to follow and expand and
deepen it. Since you were elected our president in 2022 you have not been
about Sharing ideas. You have been about intimidation, manipulation and
secrecy. Why are you so afraid of us, the blind, especially women and older
people? You have it backwards Robert. It is the President who is responsible
to the membership. We the members are responsible, of course, to represent
the NFB to the best of our ability. We are not responsible to your personal
hidden agenda

         You are well aware that I, and many others have tried to speak to
you about these questions. See my email of 8/8/2022 (attached).

You, Robert Earl Parsens, have done us enough. harm I hope you will show
sense enough to leave, and spare yourself, and the NFBMI, any further
embarrassment.

Yours in federationism 

Stephen Handschu

773-209-4539

 <mailto:stephenhandschu at gmail.com> stephenhandschu at gmail.com

President 1Touch Project

Vice President Himelhoch Tenant Council 

Board member Access Ready

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