Hi,
First, Jacobus tenBroek was mostly an elitist, not a dictator in the sense
that Kenneth Jernigan became. I'm not sure that I would call Jernigan a
dictator in his early years as president.
Certainly the early NFB felt the need for a tightly controlled leadership
setting the organizations course. But when you go back to those days and
realize it was a much different world, perhaps that approach made some
sense. Certainly I bought into it in 1969. I'd been blind four years, gone
through the Rehab Unit, attended the University of Washington, and done lots
of volunteer work. Mostly I recall people feeling hopeless and depressed
over being unable to find work outside of the sheltered shops. The
attitudes of blind people reflected those of the general population. All of
us, blind and sighted alike, bowed before the Universal Blind Stereotype.
We blind folks did not believe in ourselves. Forget the NFB's philosophy of
the Independent Blind Guy, manning the barricades and never going back.
Most of us snickered at that sort of silliness. We knew we were inferior.
So of course it made sense for a group of bold blind people to say that they
would need to set a higher standard. And of course many of the rank and
file blind people would oppose such talk.
And remember, the agencies working in the field were full of professional
do-gooders who believed that their job was to help through doing for the
blind.
If you ever feel you have a bit of time, go on line and look up the speeches
by Jacobus tenBroek. Those speeches are what turned me around.
Later, Jernigan pulled all control away from the state affiliates and made a
tight central government. He was the "all Knowing" leader. Jernigan and I
had several discussions in which we were strongly opposed to one another.
But he had the control, and he always won.
In the end, the NFB has morphed into a national agency for the blind. It
still claims to be a membership organization, but the focus is on developing
the Jernigan Center and making strong ties with the corporate world.
Anyway, while I do tend to be ddown on the NFB, it served a valuable role in
the development of a new, stronger blind population. The very fact that we
can now challenge the old ways of the NFB is proof that we've come a long
way.
Carl Jarvis
From: "Tuan Nguyen" <ngtapop925@hotmail.com>
To: "Abby Vincent" <aevincent@ca.rr.com>; "'Ken Metz'"
<kenmetz1946@gmail.com>; <rmilliman@twc.com>; <leadership@acb.org>;
<acb-l@acb.org>
Cc: <gduiboard@gdui.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2013 11:04 AM
Subject: Re: [acb-l] [leadership] Serious Affiliate Concern And Some
Questions
Hello ACB,
The behavior of the GDUI President, as far as the disclosing of information
is concerned, is almost similar to the behavior of NFB's first dictator
TenBrook. I have learned about this when I was reading the first five or
six chapters of People of Vision; the dictator did a lot of activities
secretly, ranging from increasing executive director's pay to financial
matters. The very disturbing thing is the dictator did not inform or advise
his executive committee of the happenings. I have no doubt that the other
two dictators, Jornigan and Maurer would act in the same manner. I'm now
very angry! Whoever the President of GDUI must step down forthwith.
Best,
Tuan Nguyen President, CCB Students
> From: aevincent@ca.rr.com
> To: kenmetz1946@gmail.com; rmilliman@twc.com; leadership@acb.org;
> acb-l@acb.org
> Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2013 10:09:45 -0700
> CC: gduiboard@gdui.org
> Subject: Re: [acb-l] [leadership] Serious Affiliate Concern And Some
> Questions
>
> I went to GDUI's web site to see if I could read the minutes of the board
> meetings. I can't. I'm not authorized. In the good old days, there was no
> log in required. Now there is a way to log in. I got my username from the
> system and am now waiting to get a password. First there's a code they
> send you to get the password, if you're really the owner of the account.
> I'll see how long it takes, then see if I can read the minutes when logged
> in. Also, the latest board meeting listed was last January.
> Abby Vincent
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: acb-l-bounces@acb.org [mailto:acb-l-bounces@acb.org] On Behalf Of
> Ken Metz
> Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2013 9:03 AM
> To: rmilliman@twc.com; leadership@acb.org; acb-l@acb.org
> Cc: gduiboard@gdui.org
> Subject: Re: [acb-l] [leadership] Serious Affiliate Concern And Some
> Questions
>
> Hi Ron and all.
>
> Let me state for the record that you are correct. I am a paid GDUI member,
> and the link you referred to in your message below also tells me that I am
> not authorized to see the January, 2013 GDUI Board minutes. STherefore,
> whatever they may be trying to hide is a definite issue, and the GDUI
> leadership ought to go into that link and find out why it says
> unauthorized.
>
> I agree that GDUI is incorporated, and, in my opinion, we will now begin
> to work towards getting our organization back for the purpose of providing
> help to guide dog handlers as was the intent and fine work of this
> affiliate over 40 years.
>
> Ken Metz
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: acb-l-bounces@acb.org [mailto:acb-l-bounces@acb.org] On Behalf Of
> Dr. Ronald E. Milliman
> Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2013 7:22 AM
> To: leadership@acb.org; acb-l@acb.org
> Cc: gduiboard@gdui.org
> Subject: Re: [acb-l] [leadership] Serious Affiliate Concern And Some
> Questions
>
> For the record, I never stated that I got error messages when attempting
> to access any of the pages on the GDUI website. Admittedly, I did not
> check every single page. However, what I did state is that some pages were
> not available to me, and I received the following message when trying to
> read them:
>
> "You are not authorised to view this resource."
>
> I received this notice when I tried to access and read the meetings for
> the following meetings:
>
> GDUI Board Meeting Minutes
>
> The following documents are approved minutes of the GDUI Board of
> Directors.
>
> January 9, 2013
> December 20, 2012
> December 12, 2012
>
>
> However, the following meeting minutes were available for me to read:
> November 1, 2012
> August 23, 2012
> August 2, 2012
>
> I assume the rest of the older dated minutes were also available, but I
> did not check them all. If you want to see if you can duplicate my
> experience, go to:
>
> http://www.gdui.org/index.php/GDUI/gdui-board-meeting-minutes.html#main
>
> I have herewith supported my point; thus, let the evidence speak for
> itself! I am not making any accusations. I am only presenting the facts.
> You can draw your own conclusions. For me, personally, I have to question
> why I am "not authorised to view this resource." In my mind, it raises the
> issue of transparency and openness. In my mind, it makes me suspicious
> that there is something to hide or cover up or something that someone
> doesn't want the rest of us to know about. Maybe, there is a very simple
> explanation; that is, I am not a paid member of GDUI; thus, I am "not
> authorised to view this resource." In which case, it seems like it would
> simply say "this section of our website is available to GDUI paid members
> only," and if that were the case, then, it seems logical that it should
> apply to all meeting minutes, not just select minutes.
>
> Also, for the record, I posted my initial message regarding this topic to
> only the ACB-L email list. I am not the one who expanded this to the
> leadership list or beyond the ACB-L list.
> Ron M.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: leadership-bounces@acb.org [mailto:leadership-bounces@acb.org] On
> Behalf Of Laurie Mehta
> Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2013 1:30 PM
> To: leadership@acb.org
> Cc: gduiboard@gdui.org
> Subject: [leadership] Serious Affiliate Concern And Some Questions
>
> Hello,
>
> I am addressing ACB leadership today to inform you of the interference
> that some ACB leaders are apparently imposing (or have imposed) on an
> organization that is currently affiliated with ACB. This interference and
> malicious public propaganda is unacceptable and it places ACB at risk of
> public scrutiny that could be damaging to ACB and its reputation.
>
> A message was posted publicly by an ACB official and has been widely
> circulated (please see below) which makes several irresponsible
> statements.
>
> Firstly, this gentleman, who is NOT a member of GDUI, lodges significant
> criticism of GDUI's duly elected leadership in his public e-mail.
>
> For the information of anyone who may be interested, GDUI is currently
> affiliated with ACB, however, GDUI is also an incorporated organization in
> and of itself. GDUI is a law-abiding corporation that responsibly follows
> its governance documents and all laws that it is obliged to follow.
>
> It is widely known that ACB has repeatedly, officially asserted that its
> governing philosophy is one of absolute non-interference with the business
> of any of its affiliates.
>
> Yet, in the e-mail (below) the following statement is made regarding the
> author's perception of some opposition to the legitimate officers of GDUI:
>
> (quoting Dr. Ronald E. Milliman from the message which appears in its
> entirety below) "Among those who are included in this opposition group are
> GDUI's last five former presidents."
>
> In response to that, I have the following questions please:
>
> Is this individual asserting that the current ACB President wishes herself
> to be classified as part of an opposition group involving itself in an ACB
> affiliate's business?
>
> If so, does the ACB President (one of the five individuals alluded to in
> the quoted statement) wish to be considered as involving herself in an
> affiliate's business by being part of an opposition to any of that
> affiliate's duly elected leadership?
>
> Please share, what do other ACB leaders think about how the public e-mail
> and any involvement of the ACB president represent ACB's stated philosophy
> of absolute non-interference in any affiliate's business?
>
> Thank you all for your attention in this matter which is so very important
> for the future of ACB-affiliate relations.
>
> Finally, this individual (who should be familiar with appropriately
> reporting any technical problems he might encounter) has stated in his
> e-mail that he allegedly had some difficulty while visiting GDUI's
> website.
> He has not reported his experience to anyone who can investigate the
> matter, however.
>
> I invite him to write out the details of what page he visited (its url)
> and what link or links he clicked, which resulted in him getting an error
> message (and what that error message was), and then to send that
> information to webmaster@gdui.org for the issue to be investigated.
> It is the standard method of reporting encountered problems to any
> organization operating a website to detail the issues encountered and send
> to the webmaster.
>
> Sincerely,
> Laurie Mehta
> President, GDUI
> president@gdui.org
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dr. Ronald E. Milliman" <rmilliman@twc.com>
> To: <acb-l@acb.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2013 8:36 AM
> Subject: Re: [acb-l] SERIOUS ISSUES REGARDING FREE SPEECHWITH GUIDE DOG
> USERSINC.
>
>
> As many of you know, GDUI received several awards or certificates of
> recognition for its website from the PR Committee; that is, their website
> as it was in the spring of 2012. Since then, it has changed and is no
> longer the award winning site that it was at the time it was recognized
> for its outstanding layout and design. For instance, when I recently tried
> to access it, I ran into this caution, a caution that was not present on
> any of their pages when their site was recognized by our PR Committee:
>
> You are not authorised to view this resource.
>
> To make another point, all one has to do is ask this one simple question:
>
> Can our most outstanding, most active ACB members and former GDUI members
> all be wrong about the GDUI leadership, its president in particular? Among
> those who are included in this opposition group are GDUI's last five
> former presidents. These were highly devoted, loyal, and dedicated members
> of GDUI, an affiliate they cared deeply about. Can they all be wrong and a
> small number of current GDUI leaders be right?
>
> Ron M.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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>
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