[acb-hsp] affiliate growth

[peter altschul]

And Kenneth is an awesome singer as well.  Thanks for the kind 
words, and good luck with your meeting.

Best, Peter



> ----- Original Message -----
>From: "Kenneth  Semien, Sr." <semien at sbcglobal.net
>To: "Discussion list for ACB human service professionals" 
<acb-hsp at acb.org
>Date sent: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:15:24 -0500
>Subject: Re: [acb-hsp] affiliate growth

>Greetings Darian & HSP Members:
>My name is Kenneth Semien, Sr.  of Beaumont, Texas.  Please be 
informed that
>the Workforce Diversity Workshop was enlightening and because of 
the
>impression that Darian made upon me, I felt compelled to become a 
member
>immediately following the workshop.  Peter provided insight in 
regard to
>diversity and I enjoyed the team assignments.  I am proud to be 
able to
>report that I acquired information that will be useful during an 
upcoming
>meeting with my Southeast Texas Regional Workforce & Inclusion 
Council that
>I serve on.  I was glad to pay my dues before leaving the 
workshop and will
>try my best to participate on each call.  I am currently serving 
in several
>capacities within ACB and am a candidate for President of ACB of 
Texas, of
>which I serve on the majority of our committees as well as Second 
Vice
>President.  I do understand that many of us are very busy and 
often have to
>determine what is most feasible at the time, therefore schedule 
conflicts
>will arise at one time or another.
>I look forward to meeting each of you by phone and hopefully in 
Columbus
>next summer.
>Have a great and productive week.
>Kind Regards,
>Kenneth Semien, Sr.

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Darian Slayton Fleming" <darehart56 at hotmail.com
>To: "Discussion list for ACB human service professionals" 
<acb-hsp at acb.org
>Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 2:40 PM
>Subject: Re: [acb-hsp] affiliate growth


>Hello List:

>I have been following this thread for the past few days and thank 
everyone
>for their comments.  I thank Andy for his comments as well.

>I have remained silent, because as President, I want to be 
careful and fair
>in what I say, for the sake of officers and other list members.

>I want to say first, thank you to Peter for presenting to those 
who attended
>our program.  He gave an excellent presentation.  I felt it was 
pretty well
>attended, and we learned a great deal,, including that we might 
want to
>build on the subject at a future program.

>Our activities this year were sparsely attended with 10 at the 
networking
>session, 2 at the business meeting and closer to 20 at the 
Diversity
>Program.

>Several officers were unable to attend convention this year due 
to finances
>and other commitments.  I attended, even though finances and my 
husband’s
>health were of great concern to me.

>We intended to have a business meeting including elections, but 
we did not
>have enough members for a quorum.

>In regards to the conference calls, we cut back to every other 
month due to
>low attendance and low participation in presentation.

>In terms of affiliate activities, officers may organize events, 
but it takes
>the membership as well as the officers to make events successful.

>We have had strategic planning conference calls, also attended 
mostly by
>officers and few members.

>We have sent articles to “The Braille Forum” to help 
publicize, but although
>we get them in by deadlines, the editor does not print them for 
months, so
>by the time they are published they are not timely.

>We have advertized events on the leadership list, but that has 
not increased
>participation.

>We developed a schedule for the entire year of 2011 with planned 
topics for
>each conference call.  Still these calls were sparsely attended.

>We have partnered with other affiliates in the past, and plan to 
in future.

>Some of these issues are brought forward by people who do not 
necessarily
>participate in phone or face-to-face events and who are not paid 
members.
>Some of the complaints are offered by people who do nott share 
the entire
>story.  For example, presenters who agree to speak on calls fail 
to show up
>on time and only join calls when they receive calls asking if 
they were
>going to present, and then they join the call 30 minutes late.  
This after
>reminder emails have been exchanged and assurances of attending 
on the
>prescribed date.  These calls are on Sunday evenings, and those 
in the
>Eastern time zone, especially, are on the phone late in order to 
fulfill
>their commitment to the organization.  If a speaker shows up 
late, this makes
>calls longer, and people are anxious to get off the phone when it 
is that
>late.  So, let’s all remember that there is always more to 
stories than we
>may hear at times.

>As president, I am very aware of my other life obligations, and 
that my
>officers and friends/affiliate members, have lives beyond HSP.  I 
understand
>that my attending only through Thursday indicates a lack of 
commitment.
>However, I submit that I weighed my commitment to HSP against my 
hardships
>and feel I made the best compromise I could-I arrived in time to 
place an ad
>about functions in the student paper in time to publicize events.  
I was
>available for affiliate role-call and I attended the nominating 
committee
>meeting.  I asked at affiliaite role-call if any other members of 
HSP were
>present at convention, could they help represent the affilaite 
durign
>voting.  No one offered to help.  I learned later, throughout the 
week, of
>members who were present, but to heavily committed to other 
activities to
>help.  I chose to leave early to honor my commitments to my 
marriage and my
>family.  I felt this was the best compromise I could reach given 
my
>circumstances.

>We welcome input and participation.  I would appreciate hearing 
from people
>as things arise.

>I intend to hold a business meeting by phone prior to our August 
5th
>conference call.  I hope we will have enough paid members on the 
business
>meeting part of the call to allow us to have elections  If not, 
I may need
>to appoint people to positions that are vacated because current 
officers
>cannot continue to serve.  Marlene will send out a conference 
call reminder
>shortly.

>I urge you to attend the call on August 5th.  Let’s discuss 
what you want
>out of this affiliate, what part you are willing to take in 
improving the
>affiliate and make a plan for the next year if we can.  Please be 
thinking
>of ideas.  I expect to discuss current problems and solutions.

>Sincerely,

>Darian Slayton Fleming
>ACB-HSP President

>Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 11:38 AM
>To: Discussion list for ACB human service professionals
>Subject: Re: [acb-hsp] affiliate growth

>Actually, at least in this group, that is what we do.  But, you 
can lead a
>horse to water, but you can't make him drink.  We had a 
conference call in
>June, and I think that all of 4 of us showed up, and half of that 
4 were not
>going to convention, and the other half were leaving on 
Wednesday.  This
>isn't the NFB.  Many people do not attend convention, and many 
who do do not
>stay the whole time.  I recall Mitch saying on Friday that there 
were so few
>people there that he could identify all of the voices that he 
heard.  Perhaps
>organization business should be shifted to earlier in the week.



>Andy





>From: acb-hsp-bounces at acb.org [mailto:acb-hsp-bounces at acb.org] On 
Behalf Of
>Kevin LaRose
>Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 9:50 AM
>To: Discussion list for ACB human service professionals
>Subject: Re: [acb-hsp] affiliate growth



>IMO, a lot of this is stuff that needs to get sorted out before 
the
>convention, if at all possible.  Since a vast majority of 
convention business
>is done on Friday, I think it’s extremely important that the 
affiliate has a
>presence then.  I have to say it does bug me when affiliates go 
to the
>microphone on Sunday night without knowing who the delegate 
and/or the
>alternate and/or the nominating committee rep will be.  To me, it 
makes
>affiliates look really disorganized.  I think there needs to be a 
conference
>call right before convention on which it can be determined which 
affiliate
>members will be attending, and for how long.  That way 
assignments could be
>made ahead of time.  Just a thought.

>KL



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