[acb-hsp] affiliate growth

Mon Jul 23 22:33:04 EDT 2012

Thanks Jessie.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "J.Rayl" <thedogmom63 at frontier.com>
To: "Discussion list for ACB human service professionals" <acb-hsp at acb.org>
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 7:32 PM
Subject: Re: [acb-hsp] affiliate growth


> Welcome to ACB-HSP, Kenneth.
> That is very cool that you joined the affiliate and were able to catch the
> diversity seminar.
>
> Jessie Rayl
> thedogmom63 at frontier.com
> www.facebook.com/Eaglewings10
> www.pathtogrowth.org
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Kenneth Semien, Sr." <semien at sbcglobal.net>
> To: "Discussion list for ACB human service professionals"
<acb-hsp at acb.org>
> Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 4:15 PM
> 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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