-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Crawford [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2003 7:26 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Democracy email list formed




                 BLIND DEMOCRACY EMAIL LIST FORMED!

       In an effort to provide blind folks from any organization with a
place to discuss democracy and democratic principles and how to build a
more perfect democracy within your group, I have worked to set up a new
email list.

                 The goal is to have a kind of think tank where civil and
thoughtful discussion can energize the democratic spirit to offer new
ideas to existing and future organizations.  the only rules are no
obscenity and personal attacks.

       Some topics may include issues like what should the relationship
be between the national organization and it's political subdivisions,
what are compelling national interests and to what extent do they create
priorities, what should elections be like, what are the proper terms of
officers and Board members, what are the basic rights of every member
both relative to the organization as a member and as a blind person,
what checks and balances ought to exist in what forms of governance,
what access to information do members have and to what extent if any
should information be withheld and on what basis, what mechanisms need
to exist in an organization to safeguard member interests and how should
accountability be defined and enforced?  These are but a few of the
topics that could stand good discussion and could well lead to new
thinking within blindness organizations.  On the other hand, the
discussions could reasonably lead to defense of the status quo. In any
event, people who care about making our organizations as democratic as
they can possibly be within the context of what members want should sign
up and offer respectful even if passionate contributions.

       I am new at list administration and so some features like auto
responders, no mail, and archives will probably come later, but I think
I have the basic stuff going including digests.

       Interested folks can subscribe at the following web site and you
will receive a confirmation message to which you respond and then you ar
in.

http://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy

--  charlie Crawford.


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