[Sportsandrec] Addressing some issues

[Joe Shaw]

Dear list police,
I do not think this post should have made it through the censors.
Are you really insulted that people do not appreciate your hard work Joe? 
For the record, I appreciate it. Thank you very much Joe for all the work 
you and the board do for the Sports and Recreation division  throughout the 
year.
 As for perspective, I wonder how much work non-boardmembers do in most 
divisions, chapters, and organizations. In my experience in many of the 
above, the answer is usually not much. This is the burden of being one of 
the leaders is providing for the many. I wonder how many things individual 
members have been asked to do?  I think people enjoy being asked to do 
things.
Does chastising the membership for not doing more encourage them to do so? I 
doubt it. I laugh at and enjoy your little fit but some could be offended by 
it. I recognize it for what it probably is frustration of not having as big 
an event as last year through little fault of your own. You guys set a 
pretty high standard last year. It was at a much easier location and will be 
again which will make this event look lack-luster having Dallas bounce up in 
2010 again through no fault of anyone on the board.
On the last board call, a discussion was had as to list behavior and what 
was tolerable. I personally feel that having a board member crack on the 
body for offering suggestions as to what we might be interested in as events 
is one of the more discouraging and damning things to happen here. The 
question was posed as to how a parent of a blind child or a newly blind 
person would feel reading these  posts? Is the board comfortable with this 
being read by a stranger?   I love this division and believe everyone here 
does. I read and comprehended your plite as a hard working board member.  I 
empathise. I hope you will read and comprehend my feelings as a member. I do 
not speak for the masses as I do not believe you to have spoken for the 
board in it's entirity. I hope you understand I do not write my response to 
your post with mallace or anger just making a potential counter to your 
point.
Let us work and play hard and well together going forward.
"Give a toast to the sun" "Drink with the stars" "Get thrown in the mix and 
tossed out of bars" "Zip to Tijuana I wanna rome" "Find Motown tell them 
fools to come back home" Kid Rock Cowboy
Joe Shaw
National Federation of the Blind Sports and Recreation Fund Raising Chair 
and member at large
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joseph Hamilton" <jhamilton at societyfortheblind.org>
To: <sportsandrec at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 10:28 AM
Subject: [Sportsandrec] Addressing some issues


> Hello List,
>
> I wanted to bring some perspective to the list as a board member charged
> with monitoring list traffic.
>
> Several times within the last Month, people have inquired about a tandem
> event in Detroit.  Just for the record, the Extravaganza for this year's
> convention has been in the planning stages since last November.  We made
> several attempts to contact local bicycling groups to host some sort of
> event.  We discovered the closest group I Michigan was in Kalamazoo
> which is 168 miles west of Detroit.  We also researched the possibility
> of using a Canadian group but Windsor does not have such a group, or at
> least we couldn't find one.
>
> I am one a group of people who has put in time brain storming and
> researching so we could have an event similar to the one in Dallas last
> year.  Actually, my favorite sport Goalball, is not being offered at
> this year's event either.  That is because the city of Detroit does not
> have very good access to services.
>
> All that being said, as a whole, we need to be more appreciative of the
> work that has been done.  Perhaps if you had contacts that could have
> made an event like this possible, you could have attended one of our
> meetings in January.  Now we are less than two weeks from the Convention
> and so all the questioning of what can be added or changed is insulting.
> I am individually appreciative of all your ideas and offers to help.
> Just remember that you offered because in September, when we begin
> planning for the Dallas convention, I expect we should have quite a good
> group of involved planners.
>
> I am sure just from my working with the planning committee, no one wants
> to leave off sports.  In Dallas, goalball was the highest attended event
> and we were not able to offer it this year.  I recognize the popularity
> of the tandem event.  I know that in Dallas last year we had to put a
> cap on participants and the board is very open to ideas to help grow
> this event for the convention in 2010.  I will say that all the
> questioning and external planning is pretty insulting, because as I said
> we have been trying to make the best of this situation for the last 7
> Months.
>
> I just ask you to consider the hard work put in by folks on this event
> before you start complaining about what got left out or cut because of
> limited space, resources and time.
>
> Perhaps we can all view Detroit as an opportunity to try a new sport or
> recreation.  Once we finish up with this extravaganza, we can all get
> together and talk about Dallas and what the future holds.
>
> Thanks for all of your participation and support of the S&R division.
> Without you, we have no event or group at all.
>
>
>
> Regards Joe
>
>
>
> Joseph Hamilton
>
> Program Manager,
>
> California Access News
>
> Society for the blind
>
> 2750 24th st. Sacramento CA, 95818
>
> 916-732-4010
>
> jhamilton at societyfortheblind.org
>
> www.societyfortheblind.org
>
>
>
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