[Ohio-talk] Membership, listservs, and other things

[Eric Duffy]

Rachel and Richard put together a great membership building call tonight. 

Ever Lee Hairston was one of our presenters. The other was the Rock.

I am pleased with the way some of the committees are working  so far, and to others I say get busy.

One of the things we had some discussion about tonight was appropriate behavior and information for listservs.

I know that in an effort to inject a little humor, I am some times guilty of putting things on Ohio-talk that are just as well left off the list.

You will note that most of the time the  minutes from the Board of Directors meetings are posted to Ohio-Talk. There are times when I decide for one reason or another that they will not be publicly distributed. In any case we do not post the minutes until they have been approved by the board. 

Chapters that have list serves often distribute the minutes of the most recently conducted meeting to the list in advance  of the next meeting. This is so the minutes can be adopted at the next chapter meeting.

This is a fine thing  if the chapter has a policy or a practice that says minutes will be distributed by email and voted on at the next business meeting of the chapter. The Capital Chapter operates in this way. It works for us at this time. 

What we must not do is attempt to conduct the business of chapters and or divisions over listservs.



The question was then asked about whether or not committee minutes should be put on a listserv for a chapter.

To the degree that minutes are taken during a committee meeting those are internal documents of the committee. They may contain information and discussions that are best left to the committee. What  a chapter or division should be concerned about is the report of the committee. In other words what action is the committee recommending be taken by the chapter or division.  These reports should be presented to the meeting of the chapter or division and then adopted. This does not mean that all of the recommendations in the report are automatically adopted. The report of the nominating committee is presented to the convention and then adopted. This does not mean that those nominated by the committee to serve are elected by unanimous ballot. 


I have seen chapters try to conduct votes on listservs. That is not appropriate. 

Article VI. of the Constitution National Federation of the Blind of Ohio says in part: The board may be polled by telephone, email, or mail ballot on any question.  Should I choose to poll the board by email, I will not do it over Ohio-Talk. 

Our constitution does not have provisions for conducting meetings of the affiliate in this way. 

One of the things that makes us the strong democratic organization that we are is that we can have great internal debates and discussions filled with passion on both sides of an issue, but once the vote is taken we work together to support the will of the majority as long as the action taken is in compliance with the policies, programs, and constitution of the Federation. 

Listservs are not internal. they are part of the greater Ethernet. Things that I wish I had never posted are out there forever.

In the name of transparency some people say put absolutely everything out in the sunlight for the world to see. We have nothing to hide in this organization, but those who fly too close to the sun will disintegrate. 

I have had people say I want you to explain this thing or that thing to me on the listserv so that we have transparency.  I give them something to do to find the information they are looking for and I don’t hear from them on the topic in question again. 

I could have save this discussion for chapter and division presidents, but I want us all to think about how we are using Ohio-Talk and the listservs of our chapters and divisions.

You all do pretty well when asked to end a particular thread, and I hope that will continue to be the case. I have removed one person for inappropriate conduct on Ohio-Talk, and I don’t regret doing so. There are others who have come dangerously close to meeting the same fate. 

Our listservs will simply not be used by those who wish to engage in activities that are destructive to the organization or to its elective leaders. I would urge those of you who moderate listservs to also insist that your listserv be used appropriately. 

Presidents talk to your chapter or division about listserv etiquette. 

This is intended to give us all some food for thought and not to create a major debate.

Thanks.

Eric