Jacob,

the world is not changed and blind people are not benefited when people
sit at home.  The tug that occurs in the give and take of life means that
paid staff of an organization will occasionally quit and seek other
employment.  Leaders of an organization will change.  Innovative projects
get started, people become engaged and motivated, things happen, and the
people involved and others grow from the experience.  Sometimes
organizations become inactive or dissolve altogether.

Here in the Chicago area, where both of us live, tens of millions of
dollars will be spent to improve our lives.  These improvements include
automated stop announcements on city and suburban buses, talking
automatic teller machines at six banks in our area, audio described
movies at four movie theaters, and new voting machines that will allow us
to cast a vote independently without sighted assistance.  Nearly all of
this was accomplished by blind people and those with other disabilities
who were actively engaged and involved with these issues and
organizations.

Before chucking one group or another, consider the people involved and
those that you might be working with.  Are they involved in the issues
with which you have concern?  What have they done to make our community
better?  Can you participate, learn, and develop with this group?  There
are many opportunities, if you are open to them.

Kelly


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jacob Joehl" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2003 11:43 AM
Subject: Re: Jonathan Mosen Explains Why He Left ACB Radio


> I read the book referred to in Jonathan's message, "People of Vision: A
> History of the American Council of the Blind." This was before Charlie
> Crawford's resignation came to light and after the departure of
Jonathan
> Mosen. Therefore, Mr. Crawford's resignation came as a surprise to me.
I
> have heard speeches given by both him and ACB current President Chris
Gray,
> and they both seem very articulate. I may be mistaken about this, but
it
> seems that they both did/do a great job. I have given a great deal of
> thought to joining ACB but I never seem to be able to make it to any
> meetings. Now, however, I'm beginning to sort of regret the thought. To
each
> his own, but in my opinion there's just way too much bickering in both
the
> ACB and the NFB. I suppose I will give this some more thought.
> Jacob
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kelly Pierce" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, October 20, 2003 7:48 PM
> Subject: Jonathan Mosen Explains Why He Left ACB Radio
>
>
> In the past few years, one of the tremendous communications vehicles
> available to the blind was ACB Radio.  The founding director was
Jonathan
> Mosen of New Zealand.  This summer, Jonathan resigned from ACB Radio
and
> took a job with adaptive technology vendor Pulse Data, needing to move
> himself and his entire family to a completely different part of his
> country.  He offered little explanation about what led to his
resignation
> of a job that at one time he found very personally rewarding and
> humbling.
>
> Following the abrupt resignation on Friday, October 17 of Charlie
> Crawford, the Executive Director of the American Council of the Blind,
> Jonathan today explains in his web log (some call these diaries blogs)
> about why he left as director of ACB Radio.  The blog can be found at:
>
> http://www.mosenexplosion.com
>
> I copied today's entry below.  For purposes of clarification, the
> midpoint exchange rate at the time this message is being composed is
one
> New Zealand Dollar = 0.595135 U.S. Dollars, according to:
>
> http://www.xe.com/ucc/
>
> Kelly
>
>
>
>
>
>     Monday, October 20, 2003
>
>     The Council in Crisis It was with a profound sense of sadness, but
> not a bit of surprise, that I learned of the resignation of Charlie
> Crawford as the Executive Director of the American Council of the
Blind.
> Charlie is a man of integrity, and I can only surmise how difficult it
> has been for him to have been Executive Director during a time when the
> ACB under present leadership has indulged in the practices that it
> alleges in its recent book was the purpose of the Council being founded
> in 1961.
>
>     I have not communicated with Charlie since his resignation, but
from
> the brief statement Charlie has issued publicly on this matter, it
would
> appear that a gagging clause has been inserted into Charlie's
settlement
> package, essentially meaning that a sum of money has been paid on the
> condition that Charlie keep his mouth shut on the specific issues
> relating to his departure. One can only imagine the legal wrangling and
> acrimony that must have led up to this parting of the ways between
> Charlie and ACB. And given Charlie's strong commitment to transparency,
> it must have been tough to accept these terms in order to give him and
> his family a little security as he wanders into the uncertainty of
> joblessness. Let no one blame him, his family must come first. Such a
> gagging clause, I must say in fairness, is not uncommon when someone as
> senior as Executive Director leaves an organization. The question is
> however, is this appropriate in an organisation whose very reason for
> being is to conduct advocacy on behalf of the blind in a highly
> democratic, transparent, open manner. Or at least, that was the case
> once.
>
>     So it appears that Charlie will not be able to speak publicly about
> what I can only imagine must have been the extraordinary heartbreak and
> personal anguish he has experienced as he has seen constitutional abuse
> after constitutional abuse practiced by the present leadership of the
> Council. I however, as a much less significant player in the recent
past
> on the ACB scene, have no such gagging clause by which to be bound.
>
>     Many people have asked me why I left ACB Radio. Indeed, this has
> been the source of some speculation on the ACB-L list following
> Charlie's resignation. Incidentally, although I sent my subscription
> request to rejoin this list over 48 hours ago as I write this, my
> request has not been approved. I understand that ACB now manually
> approves each and every subscription to its list. I guess they just
> forget to approve a few.
>
>     Obviously I was offered a new position that I enjoy very much, but
> people still want to know what was it that made me of a mind to accept.
> I have only told a very small number of people about the real issues
> surrounding my departure up until now, and until I heard of Charlie's
> resignation and speculation about my own departure, I had no desire to
> write my story down for a wider audience. Had I done so a few months
> ago, it would have been with a deep sense of anger. Of course, there
was
> always the platform of ACB Radio to tell my story, but I can honestly
> say I was never tempted to do this. Few people have the privilege of
> getting behind a microphone and talking to a world wide audience, and
to
> use this position in an inappropriate way is just not my style.
>
>     But the reason I am writing this piece now, on my own personal
> Weblog where I share my thoughts with those who choose to read them,
> three months to the day that I left, is because I met a lot of people
in
> ACB for whom I have immense personal admiration and respect. Some of
> those people are paid staff who go well beyond the number of hours and
> duties specified in their job descriptions. Others are hard working,
> committed, passionate and thoughtful people who have volunteered for
> years to advance what they believe in. Despite not being an American, I
> have been a member at large of ACB and I have come to care about what
> happens to the organisation. So my purpose in writing this piece is to
> call upon members of the ACB to save their organisation, to rescue it
> from the moral bankruptcy and hypocrisy of employing the same tactics
it
> criticises in other organisations.
>
>     I need to be completely up front in my explanation of my departure
> and say that finances were a significant factor. ACB Radio was of
course
> a seven day a week job in reality. One was always checking to make sure
> systems were working and that everything was under control. Even when I
> took a break over our summer, it was impossible to really let it go
> completely. It wasn't until after I left that I truly realised what a
> full-on job it was that never allowed one to relax completely. It was
> also an incredibly rewarding, fun job. But fun doesn't feed a family.
> When I started ACB Radio, one New Zealand dollar was worth about 42
> American cents. This meant that it was possible for ACB to pay a pretty
> meagre wage but make it liveable in a New Zealand context. I also had
> other consultancy work to keep me going. However, as ACB Radio grew, it
> was impossible to do anything else really, and ultimately I was paid a
> full 40 hour week, of course in reality the work often took twice that
> long. Even the production of a quality two hour Main Menu, with lots of
> help from contributors, could have been a full-time job in itself.
>
>     Over time, the exchange rate between the US and New Zealand took a
> dramatic turn. The US dollar now buys around 60 New Zealand cents. Over
> time that adds up to quite a pay cut. There were some on the ACB Board,
> when this issue was brought to their attention, who said essentially
> that it was tough, that I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to
> be paid in US dollars. The issue is of course that at the time ACB
Radio
> started, it had no independent funding to speak of. However, it
> ultimately grew to a level where it was receiving quite a lot of
> sponsorship and the money did exist to compensate for the exchange rate
> fluctuations despite the rest of ACB being in a fragile financial
state.
> They got a competent professional for much less than any American would
> have accepted, but when the station became successful and money came
in,
> they weren't prepared to stop what became a significant pay cut. I
> obviously felt that I was not treated as a valued employee.
>
>     However, despite having to make economies, I probably would have
> stuck with ACB Radio because I enjoyed it so much, if that had been the
> only issue. But it wasn't. Not by any means. My primary motivation in
> leaving was because of the frightening interference by the President of
> ACB in ACB publications, in particular the Braille Forum. Many of you
> will already know that the Braille Forum was originally called the
> Braille Free Press. What a shame that name was never retained, for
> perhaps the very use of that name would have guarded against the
blatant
> abuse of Presidential power that many of us have seen occurring.
>
>     I'd like to site some specific examples. The issue of the Iowa
guide
> dog complaint and the way ACB chose to deal with it was the topic of
> considerable public debate. In an organisation which has a "free
press",
> clearly a topical issue is going to receive considerable exposure. Yet
> rigorous attempts were made to water down a question for the acb.org
> Candidates' Pages on the Iowa complaint. I must make it clear that the
> President was not the only person party to this, in many of these
> situations he was fully supported by Ralph Sanders as Chairman of the
> ACB Public Relations Committee. Ralph felt that the Iowa complaint
> should not be raised directly because it would "create division among
> the membership". Hmmm, might that have been said about publishing
> material from the McDaniel faction by the NFB in the late 1950s
perhaps?
>
>     People in politics who don't like the fact that they have misread
> the tide of public opinion will frequently shoot the messenger, IE the
> media. A sustained attack on the integrity of the Editor of the Braille
> Forum was orchestrated, based on the premise that the Editor had an
> "anti-Gray agenda." We all make mistakes, and I've no doubt some have
> been made by the Editor of the Forum, however no employee deserves to
be
> subjected to a constant barrage of intimidation and harassment on a
> regular basis regarding articles and letters to the editor. The
> President chose to make a big deal out of the number of letters to the
> editor printed in the Forum on the Iowa issue. Not only was he
concerned
> about the space they were taking up, but also about the fact that they
> were very much tilted in favour of GDUI and against the Board's
> position. The trouble is, you can only publish what you've got. And the
> reality is that hardly anyone was writing in to support the Board's
> position. If they did, the letter was published. It is standard
practice
> in a letters to the editor column to publish a mix of contributions
that
> reflect the balance of opinion. On an issue so topical, the Forum, as
> long as it's run by a competent journalist, is going to allow
expression
> by members in a democratic organisation on the issues of the day. But
> the President, and a number of members of the Board of Publications,
> sought to shut that dialogue down. They claimed the letter writers
> didn't understand, didn't have the full facts, a theme that kept coming
> up when anyone wrote in to criticise the leadership.
>
>     Another issue was of course the letter written by an articulate and
> thoughtful ACB member, seeking to express concern about People of
Vision
> not being published in all formats simultaneously. This was, once
again,
> a hot topic, and the author put the matter forcefully but eloquently.
> Chris Gray, in an e-mail to the editor of the Forum, "formally
> requested" that the letter not be published. He gave five reasons for
> this "request". 1 Not even the print version of the history was yet
> available, so discussion of accessible versions at that moment was
> putting the cart before the horse.
>
>     2 The proposed letter was written without full knowledge of the
> facts. To use this to promote a political agenda was, he said,
> inappropriate at best.
>
>     3 No decision could have been made about accessibility issues until
> ACB had information regarding cost, time of availability and so on.
>
>     4 There is no purpose served in the magazine of the American
Council
> of the Blind criticizing the holding of a history gala in Pittsburgh.
>
>     5 The appearance of controversy on ACB's Listserve is hardly
grounds
> for the inclusion of an article or letter in the Braille Forum.
>
>     Those were Chris's five reasons as to why the Editor not publish
the
> letter. If you read and analyse each reason carefully, you'll see how
> spurious each of them is. Ultimately, the show-down was avoided when
the
> writer withdrew the letter after discussions with, among others, the
> President himself. So here we have a situation where the Editor of the
> publication once called the Braille Free Press is told not to publish a
> reflection by a member of genuine concern about an organisational
> decision. What's really concerning about this is that the person who
> must ultimately take responsibility for the decision being complained
> about was the same person intimidating the Editor into not publishing.
> And that's precisely what the ACB was established to stop and why the
> Board of Publications was created. Surely in a democratic organisation,
> the answer would have been to give the President a right of reply.
>
>     There is another aspect of this issue that should not go unremarked
> upon. The way the President is conducting the affairs of ACB is
> completely anathema to modern principles of governance theory. Good
> governance practices are quite clear. If you have an Executive Director
> who employs staff, the President and Board holds the Executive Director
> to account for the performance of the National Office. It is
> inappropriate, say all the governance experts, for the President and
> Board to try and give instructions directly to staff members. The
> Executive Director manages their performance, and the President and
> Board manages the performance of the Executive Director. Perhaps,
> ultimately, that is now what they've done. Perhaps the Executive
> Director simply wasn't prepared to operate under this kind of regime
any
> more, and I don't blame him.
>
>     Rather than stand up and defend the rights of the once great
Braille
> Forum, the Board of Publications instead elected to set up a committee
> to oversee the Forum. It included a system where this committee would
> see and approve the entire table of contents for each issue. The Board
> of Publications had caved in to dictatorship. This didn't surprised me,
> because at one Board of Publications meeting when the subject of
> inappropriate Presidential interference was being discussed, the
> Chairman of the Board of Publications said that because he was the
> Presidential appointee on the Committee, his role was to serve the
> President. I told him, in some shock, that actually his role, like the
> rest of us, was to serve the Constitution. Things really had got to a
> sorry state.
>
>     As a journalist who values freedom of the press, as someone who had
> the vision that although ACB Radio was funded by ACB, it could be the
> BBC of the blind community, as someone who genuinely admires past
> leaders of the ACB, it was an impossible situation for me. Despite the
> fact that I myself did not appear to be in the firing line, apart from
a
> few pathetic and typically barbed comments by the Chairman of the
Public
> Relations Committee, I felt that it was only a matter of time before
the
> gang closed in on ACB Radio's journalistic freedom. And indeed I
started
> to find myself more reticent about bringing up the topical issues as
> they affected ACB. I felt my confidence waning. I was upset, sad and
> disgusted. It was time to go.
>
>     Having announced my resignation, I actively encouraged Steve
> Speicher to run for President. Steve is a nice guy, but I was
> disappointed with the campaign. He left his run way too late, and was
> not direct enough about the Constitutional crisis facing the
> organisation. I did my best to remain professional to the end of my ACB
> Radio time, despite considerable emotional stress.
>
>     I would like to take this opportunity to thank the National office
> staff for their gift to me at the Pittsburgh Convention. Several people
> remarked to me how odd it was that Chris Gray never made one mention at
> Convention of the fact that I was leaving and of my contribution. I'll
> leave you to figure it out.
>
>     So what is to be done? Well, a number of things, but I think there
> is one important first step that must occur. Just as those brave souls
> did prior to the ACB being formed, it is time for an alternative
> publication to be launched, a publication that is free from
Presidential
>
> censorship. What better name for it than the Braille Free Press. And of
> course, today's truth-sayers have a tool at their disposal that the
> founders of the ACB could never have dreamed of, the Internet. Let some
> brave soul begin a Braille Free Press web site, that professionally and
> in a scholarly way tells the truth about what is happening. Because if
I
> can relate to you the information I just have, others know much more.
>
>     In closing, I would like to make a few points which are obvious to
> me, but in past experience I think will not be obvious to all. I do not
> personally dislike Chris Gray. I doubt that he'd want to after this
> post, but I would have no hesitation in having a beer with Chris. We've
> debated these issues one to one privately and he knows that I have a
> very different view from him in terms of Presidential involvement in
> publications. Chris has been very supportive of ACB Radio at critical
> times during its history, and he deserves plenty of credit and thanks
> for that. However, I strongly, emphatically and passionately believe
> with all my heart that his style of leadership is slowly killing the
> American Council of the Blind. It is not pretty watching a good friend
> die, but perhaps it's not too late to breathe new life into the ailing
> body?
>
>
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>
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VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html