[Ohio-Talk] BECOMING THE LEADERS WE DESERVE

[Patricia McPherson]

Thank you for a great leadership call tonight. Thanks for the information in this email, it was very interesting. Let’s grow the Federation and make Ohio strong!
Pat


> On May 19, 2020, at 12:15 PM, Richard Payne via Ohio-Talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> Norma Beathard was born on January 25, 1956, in Conroe, Texas. She was the
> first of five children born to Robbie and Joseph Beathard. Norma was born
> legally blind because her mother contracted rubella during her pregnancy;
> however, Norma's blindness remained undetected until she began walking. At
> that time her parents began to notice that she seemed to bump into things
> that a sighted child should see, and they had her vision tested. A
> determination was made that she was blind when she was two years old. Years
> of surgery followed with no improvement.
> 
> Norma was an active child. She joined her siblings in most of the games they
> played, and her blindness was not a real obstacle when she was small. But
> she couldn't read the blackboard when she started school, and she
> experienced a number of problems related to her vision as she grew older.
> 
> Norma always attended school in rural communities, a circumstance which she
> describes as "both a blessing and a curse." Because no one in her life knew
> anything about blindness skills, she wasn't able to learn Braille or cane
> travel. She used large print books, which were bulky and heavy for a tiny
> girl. Since her vision was extremely limited, she had to read with her nose
> practically touching the pages of her books, even though the print was
> enlarged. Despite the lack of training in blindness skills, Norma feels that
> she received a quality education because she had caring teachers who always
> found ways of making it easier for her to learn. She was fortunate to have
> the same teacher from her first grade year through her third grade year, and
> that teacher was determined that Norma would be included in everything the
> class did. Her name was Jean Todd, and she spent countless hours offering
> Norma one-on-one instruction. Other teachers with similar attitudes were a
> part of Norma's life throughout her K-12 experience.
> 
> Professionals in the field of work with the blind were not as helpful. When
> Norma asked for Braille training, she was told by a rehabilitation
> professional that she was wasting his time, and she was made to feel guilty
> because, according to him, she was depriving a "real" blind person of the
> opportunity to learn by making this frivolous request. Eventually she was
> able to convince him that he should provide her with training, and he
> traveled to her small town and spent two hours with her. This was woefully
> inadequate, but it did allow her to learn the alphabet, Braille numbers, and
> some punctuation symbols. Her experience with inadequate Braille training
> has made Norma a strong advocate for providing Braille education to children
> with low vision.
> 
> After completing her education, Norma found herself living in a small
> community with no opportunities for a blind person. She knew she had to
> leave her rural home if she was to become successful. Her father was opposed
> to her leaving, but her mother understood that a different environment would
> provide Norma with a better chance of living the life she wanted to live. So
> she took the unusual step of going against the wishes of Norma's father;
> drove Norma to the bus station in Lufkin, Texas; and purchased a ticket to a
> better life for her daughter. Norma traveled to Austin that day, and
> although she had no idea what she would do to become successful, she was
> confident that she would be able to make a life for herself.
> 
> Norma began her working life as an employee at the Travis Association for
> the Blind. That employment did not last long because Norma found that she
> couldn't live on the $1.05 an hour that the sheltered workshop was paying
> its trainees, and her questions about how to make a higher wage went
> unanswered. In fact, it became clear that she was unlikely to be paid the
> federal minimum wage anytime soon, so Norma began to look for other work.
> She also married during this time and began a family. Her first son was born
> on March 10, 1976, and her second son was born on March 10, 1978. Once her
> children were out of diapers, Norma started work at the Texas School for the
> Blind. She worked as a dorm parent at the school from 1979 to 1982.
> 
> After a divorce Norma found the National Federation of the Blind and became
> an active member in 1983. By 1985 she was living in Houston, and she was an
> important part of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas leadership.
> She didn't hold elective office in the Federation, but she worked hard to
> help the affiliate president and other leaders to carry out the
> organization's mission. She became president of the Houston Chapter in 1989,
> and she continued in that role for eight years.
> 
> When Norma joined the Federation, she met Glenn Crosby. Glenn was serving as
> president of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas, and as the two
> worked closely together, a personal relationship developed. They were
> married on April 15, 1989. Each of them had two children, and the two
> families have blended into a harmonious group. Glenn and Norma are now the
> proud grandparents of seven grandchildren, ranging in age from three to
> twenty.
> 
> Four years before they married, Glenn asked Norma to begin managing the
> office for his food service business, and they became professional partners.
> The Crosbys owned five food service locations during the late 1980s and
> early 1990s, but they sold all but two of the locations and were operating
> those two locations when they retired in 2013.
> 
> Though both Norma and Glenn grew up in Texas, they decided they wanted a
> change in 2001, and they spent about a year in South Dakota. Then they spent
> several months in Ajijic, Mexico. Ajijic is near Guadalajara, and, while
> they enjoyed their time there, they needed to be closer to home for business
> reasons. So in 2005 they moved to Ruston, Louisiana. Shortly after arriving
> in Ruston, Norma was elected to serve as president of the North Central
> Chapter of the NFB of Louisiana. She remained in that position until January
> of 2009, when she and Glenn made the decision to move back to their native
> Texas. They now live in Alvin, near Houston, on four acres of land and have
> a few cows.
> 
> In 2012, Norma was chosen to serve as the first president of the Lone Star
> Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas. Then, at the
> affiliate's 2014 convention, she was elected to serve as the state
> president. While Norma believes strongly that it is not necessary to hold an
> office in order to be an effective leader, she is honored to serve as both
> the president of the NFB of Texas
> <https://www.nfb.org/about-us/state-affiliates/texas>  and, since her
> election at the 2015 National Convention, as a member of the organization's
> national board of directors.
> 
> 
> 
> Everette Bacon
> Rehabilitation Professional
> 
> Everette Bacon was born in Huntington Beach, California. At the age of five
> he was diagnosed with cone-rod dystrophy, a condition which had run in his
> family on his mother's side for thirteen generations, causing rapid-onset
> blindness primarily in female family members. Despite the diagnosis,
> Everette's family took the advice of teachers and medical experts, believing
> (or, more accurately, hoping) that since Everette was male and his vision
> was not deteriorating rapidly like that of other family members, he was
> unlikely to go blind. As a result, Everette did not learn Braille or other
> alternative techniques during his school years. Looking back, Everette says,
> his mother and other family members wish that they had encouraged him to
> learn Braille and other blindness skills.
> 
> When Everette was around eighteen his entire family moved to Texas. Everette
> pursued a degree in church music at Dallas Baptist University. He jokes that
> he was pushed toward music because "you know, blind people sing." His first
> job was teaching a seventh grade choir, but he found it not to his liking.
> Searching for other employment in order to earn money to help his wife
> through medical school, Everette ultimately accepted a management position
> with Blockbuster Video in 1997. He was very successful in this position,
> winning several awards and steady promotions. By 2004, he was managing ten
> stores in the Houston area.
> 
> Everette's eye condition began to worsen, and instead of giving up, he
> adapted by using alternative techniques. "I started carrying a cane, mainly
> for identity, but I was using it when I felt I needed it." "I was never
> embarrassed or ashamed about becoming blind, because I grew up around blind
> people, adapting was something you just became accustomed to doing."
> However, when he asked for reasonable accommodations from his employer,
> instead of granting these accommodations, Blockbuster terminated his
> employment despite his outstanding record. The company even went so far as
> to describe Everette's conduct as "fraudulent," implying that he had
> deceived the company about his capabilities, even though he had previously
> been praised and awarded for his work.
> 
> This experience traumatized Everette and his family. His wife, mother, and
> other family members sent angry emails to everyone they could; urging
> readers to avoid shopping at Blockbuster based on discrimination against the
> blind. One of these emails found its way to Scott LaBarre, the president of
> the National Federation of the Blind of Colorado and a successful disability
> rights attorney. Scott took Everette's case, and ultimately Everette
> received a settlement from Blockbuster. More importantly, though, he learned
> about the National Federation of the Blind and the many battles the
> organization has fought in the effort to advance and protect the civil
> rights of blind people. "I had heard of the Federation and been told that
> they were militant," Everette says, "but my experience taught me the
> importance of our advocacy." There are so many reasons to be proud of whom
> we are as blind people, and the Federation has paved the way for our climb
> to the top of the mountain of civil rights!
> 
> In 2004, Everette and his wife, Dr. Angela Peters, moved to Salt Lake City,
> Utah. Everette became involved in the Utah affiliate and developed what he
> describes as life-changing relationships with dedicated Federationists like
> Nick Schmitroth, Karl Smith, and Deja Powell. These friends helped Everette
> improve his blindness skills and grow in the movement. Everette was also
> looking for new employment opportunities in Utah and heard about a job
> opening as a Blindness Skills Teacher at the Utah Division of Services for
> the Blind and Visually Impaired. Everette remembers speaking with Ray Martin
> about the fact that he knew nothing about teaching blind people, Martin told
> him that being blind was the most important qualification. The agency
> supported Everette in his pursuit of a master's degree in rehabilitation. He
> went from teaching technology to supervising the technology staff, and now
> serves as the agency's field services coordinator, overseeing all of the
> agency's technology and employment services, supervising a staff of nine.
> 
> Everette began advocating for Utah's blind residents with an effort to
> encourage a prominent local cinema chain to incorporate audio description
> technology into its theaters, so that blind people who wanted to experience
> movies with audio description could do so. An avid movie fan with an
> extensive collection dating from his Blockbuster days, he believes that
> audio description can enable blind people to connect more easily with their
> sighted peers when discussing entertainment. "One of the most valuable
> lessons I have learned from the NFB is the understanding that blending in to
> society is an important skill. Being able to relate to our sighted
> colleagues about movies, television, politics, and sports are excellent
> paths to opportunities that help change common misconceptions about
> blindness."
> 
> In 2012, Everette was elected president of the National Federation of the
> Blind of Utah. He is proud of the affiliate's successful advocacy for a
> state "mini-508" law requiring accessibility of new state websites and
> procurement of accessible electronic and information technology; subject to
> fines when agencies fail to comply. His advocacy for accessibility made him
> an outstanding candidate to serve as the Federation's representative on the
> Disability Advisory Committee to the Federal Communications Commission
> (FCC). He was nominated for appointment to this committee by President
> Riccobono and duly appointed to serve by the FCC in 2015. Everette is chair
> of the Utah Library Advisory Board. He also sits on the Utah Assistive
> Technology Council and the Library of Congress' National Library Service for
> the Blind's Audio Equipment Advisory Committee (Western Region). He was
> unanimously elected to the Board of Directors of the National Federation of
> the Blind at the organization's 2015 convention. He and Angela and their two
> dogs live in Salt Lake City, but Everette still roots for his beloved Dallas
> Cowboys.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> James R. Gashel
> Secretary
> Advocate, Ambassador, Executive, and Father
> 
> 
> Jim Gashel was born in 1946 and grew up in Iowa. After his early
> introduction to the National Federation of the Blind as Kenneth Jernigan's
> student at the Iowa Commission for the Blind during the 1960s, he has been
> devoted to serving the blind community in various capacities. A 1969
> graduate of the University of Northern Iowa with work toward a master's
> degree in public administration at the University of Iowa, Jim started his
> career teaching speech and English for one year in Pipestone, Minnesota. He
> then accepted a position as assistant director at the Iowa Commission for
> the Blind in Des Moines. With that move, he found his calling is working
> with the blind and finding ways of solving the problems that face them as
> individuals and as a minority.
> 
> On January 1, 1974, Jim joined the staff of the National Federation of the
> Blind as chief of the Washington office, where he became one of the best
> known advocates for the blind in the United States; combining his commitment
> to blind people with his interest in the political process. As the
> Federation's scope and influence evolved, so did his roles and
> responsibilities. In his professional career of almost thirty-four years
> with the Federation, he held the positions of chief of the Washington
> office, director of government affairs, and executive director for strategic
> initiatives. Jim's Federation work has led to significant changes in
> virtually every law directly affecting blind Americans: the Social Security
> Act, the Rehabilitation Act, the Randolph-Sheppard Act, the Americans with
> Disabilities Act, the Copyright Act, the Individuals with Disabilities
> Education Act, and the Help America Vote Act. In addition to championing
> these causes, Jim has won the love and respect of the thousands of blind men
> and women across America who have directly benefited from his informed and
> effective personal advocacy. No matter what his position, through his drive
> and devotion to Federationism, Jim has earned the informal title of the
> organization's non-lawyer lawyer.
> 
> With his first wife Arlene, Jim is the father of three adult children and
> the grandfather of nine. His daughter Andrea and her husband Jeremiah
> Beasley have four children, daughter Valerie and husband Sam Costanza have
> three, and his son Eric and wife Miranda have two.
> 
> During Jim's service at the NFB, he received the Commissioner's Award for
> Outstanding Leadership in Rehabilitation Services to the Disabled, the
> highest honor presented by the commissioner of the United States
> Rehabilitation Services Administration. He is also a recipient of the
> secretary of labor's Outstanding American Award. In 2001 Jim and his second
> wife, Dr. Betsy Zaborowski, jointly received the NFB's highest honor, the
> Jacobus tenBroek Award, honoring them for their achievements through decades
> of leadership in work with the blind.
> 
> In November 2007, Jim and Betsy moved from Baltimore to Denver, Colorado,
> but Betsy soon died after a recurrence of the condition retinal blastoma,
> which had caused her blindness from childhood. In September 2012, Jim
> married Susan Kern, now Susan Gashel. Their marriage occurred a few months
> after Susan had returned to Colorado after retiring as an assistant attorney
> general in the state of Hawaii. Beyond continuing Jim's active work on
> behalf of the blind through involvement in the Federation, and Susan's work
> to uphold rights and opportunities for blind Randolph-Sheppard vendors, Jim
> and Susan are passionate about downhill skiing and all the Rocky Mountains
> have to offer near where they lived for a time in the Vail Valley of
> Colorado. They now live in Hawaii.
> 
> Beyond his volunteer activities, Jim served as vice president of business
> development and product evangelist for KNFB Reader, LLC, until his
> retirement in December 2017. While serving as the Federation's executive
> director for strategic initiatives, he led the public introduction and
> launch of the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader, the world's
> first truly portable text-to-speech reading device for the blind. As part of
> this effort he raised and administered the funds necessary to support
> pre-release beta testing, product announcement, and public promotional
> efforts to bring the product to market in 2006. Jim's work with our KNFB
> reading technology brought him full circle in his career since, after first
> meeting Ray Kurzweil in April 1975, he also organized and raised the funds
> necessary to test and launch the original Kurzweil Reading Machine, released
> in 1977 as the world's first text-to-speech reading system for the blind.
> 
> Jim was elected to the NFB's national board of directors in 2008 to fill an
> unexpired term and was reelected in 2009. He was then subsequently elected
> to the position of national secretary, a position he has held since 2010.
> Serving in each of these capacities, he brings to the board both expertise
> and contacts in the blindness field and an abiding commitment to the work of
> the NFB. In accepting his 2001 Jacobus tenBroek Award, Jim offered comments
> that remain relevant today and reflect his approach to our mission. "All I
> would ask is that all of you remember that it's all of our responsibilities
> to go out and work for the movement. We can't all go out and climb a
> mountain like Erik [Weihenmayer] did, and we can't all do the wonderful
> things that every one of you do all the time, or raise five or six million
> dollars like Betsy did, but we can all work for this movement. We all have a
> place in it." Jim's place is absolutely unique.
> 
> 
> 
> National Federation of the Blind of Ohio
> 
> 
> 
> Extend an invitation for you to join a powerful presentation on: "BECOMING
> THE LEADERS WE DESERVE".
> 
> 
> 
> May 19, 2020
> 
> 7:00 P.M. EDT.
> 
> 
> 
> The most effective and inspiring leaders are defined by their core values.
> Their behavior reflects and reinforces those values.  Good leaders operate
> from a deeply held set of moral or ethical principles at the core of their
> commitment to make a change.
> 
> 
> 
> So, come and learn from three dynamic and influential leaders in the
> National Federation of the blind, Norma Crosby, Business-Minded, Self-Taught
> Entrepreneur, Everette Bacon, Member of the National Board of Directors and
> Utah Affiliate President and James Gashel, Secretary of the National Board
> of Directors and Vice President of Business Development at K-NFB Reading
> Technology Inc.
> 
> 
> 
> Richard Payne is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
> 
> The meeting will be held on May 19 at 7 PM EDT.
> 
> This meeting is open to all so please join us.
> 
> Topic: BECOMING THE LEADERS WE DESERVE!
> 
> Join Zoom Meeting
> 
> https://zoom.us/j/4081850851
> 
> Meeting ID: 408 185 0851
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> <james gashel secretary nfb 2-2020.docx>
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