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<DIV>Denny, Conference calls can and do work for many organizations, including
ACB but they don't seem to work for us. The more that are on a teleconference
call the more likelihood you have that there will be problems. We have over
twenty members on our board and that number will increase as we take in new
affiliates. That raises a very delicate question: is our board too large to be
effective and if so, what can we do about it. Most organizations have rather
small boards of directors to run the organization's business. But the smaller
your board is, the less memberrs will be able to make their views known and be
represented. But when you elect officers to represent you, you give them the
right to make decisions for you and you trust that they will do a good job.
Large boards like ours can become very unwieldy and it can be very difficult for
them to make decisions. There will either be too many opinions or
there will be too many people just sitting at meetings going along
with whatever is proposed because they don't know how to vote. So back to my
question about the size of our board. Many years ago, on a van ride to a board
meeting, Mike Keller raised this question. He said the board was too large and
it was smaller then than it is now. At the
time, I didn't agree with him but now I am beginning to think he was right. But
what to do? People have tried to eliminate the directors, but that would only
reduce the size of the board by three, which isn't going to help that much. How
important is it to have every affiliate represented. On the surface that seems
very important but as the organization grows, that makes the board larger and
less capable of doing its business smoothly. But if affiliates aren't
represented, members don't feel that they have a say in what is going on. Mike's
idea was to have regional representation. St louis affiliates would get
together and elect someone to represent the st Louis area; Kansas City
would elect a KC rep, there would be a rep for the Springfield-Joplin area and
so on. I thought at the time and still think that this idea was interesting but
probably not practical But it could be worth a look. Doo all of our affiliates
feel that they need to be represented on the board? Some affiliates find it very
difficult to find someone who wants to take on that responsibility. Would a
board consisting of the elected officers and three to five directors elected by
the assembly be more effective and still represent the views of the majority of
our members? The ACB board represents a national organization but is much
smaller than ours. There are fifty state affiliates in ACB but each state is not
represented by a member on the board. Also, with a much smaller board, you could
afford to have more meetings in person that non board members could attend and
be heard at their own expense. Another problem with a board of our size is
that members don't speak up or even vote. last night, a vote was taken on a
motion to donate money to an organization who requested it. It turned out to be
very controversial with many people asking questions and giving opinions. But
when the voice vote was taken, you could hear two or three half-hearted yes
votes and a few loud no votes. In other words, most boared members
apparently said nothing or spoke so softly that they couldn't be heard.
Maybe they had no opinion' maybe they hadn't decided or didn't
care. So our president, very wisely, I think, called for a time-consuming
roll call. Even then, some members spoke so softly and hesitantly that it was
hard for Virginia to know who or whether they voted at all. One person lost her
phone connection and called back too late to vote, although her vote could have
made a difference in the outcome. Folks, when you are on the <BR>Board, you have
to speak up, take a stand and be heard. Otherwise, your presence on the board is
a waste of your time and that of your affiliate. That sounds harsh but that is
what being on a Board of Directors means. If not, you are wasting your time
being there. I am not on the Board email list, so if someone forwards this
message to that list, I would have no problem with that. John </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=dhuff@moblind.org href="mailto:dhuff@moblind.org">Denny Huff</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=weidlich@swbell.net
href="mailto:weidlich@swbell.net">'John and Donna Weidlich'</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, March 02, 2010 9:09
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> RE: [Missouri-l] Board
Meetings</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">John,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">
I understand your frustrations and I share in some of them. I am all
ears if you have any suggestions for a solution.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Thanks,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Denny
Huff<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">President<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Missouri
Council of the Blind<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">(636)
262-1383<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">(888)
362-1383<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Rounded MT Bold','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><A
href="mailto:DHuff@MoBlind.Org">DHuff@MoBlind.Org</A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<DIV>
<DIV
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<P class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">From:</SPAN></B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> <A
href="mailto:missouri-l-bounces@moblind.org">missouri-l-bounces@moblind.org</A>
[mailto:missouri-l-bounces@moblind.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>John and Donna
Weidlich<BR><B>Sent:</B> Monday, March 01, 2010 10:02 PM<BR><B>To:</B> MCB
LIST<BR><B>Cc:</B> Virginia Berberick; CHAT LIST<BR><B>Subject:</B>
[Missouri-l] Board Meetings<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal>I have just finished listening to the live streaming of the
open portion of tonight's MCB Board meeting and I feel that I need to make
some observations for what they are worth. As you know I have been a member of
the MCB Board during many administrations and have participated in Board
meetings in many venues. I have been at face to face meetings and on
conference calls. I have been in open meetings and closed meetings. i have
participated in meetings where members who were not on the board were not
allowed to speak and in meetings where guests could freely speak. I have seen
well run meetings and poorly run meetings, controversial meetings and quiet
meetings. I have sat through meetings and listened to them over the Internet.
I fully realize the meetings via conference calls save this organization a
considerable amount of money and that this is very important in a time of
budget cuts. But the more I have observed conference calls, both as a
participating Board member and as a passive listner, the more
totally and completely convinced I have become that teleconference calls are
an extremely inefficient way for a Board of our size to conduct business. On
every teleconference call that I have participated in or observed, there
has been confusion. There has consistently been problems with roll
call votes that have affected the outcome of motions. Even though members are
repeatedly asked to mute their phones, there is background noise which is very
distracting. The constant muting and unmuting of phones is also distracting
and makes it hard to follow the discussions. Some callers can be heard clearly
while others can barely be heard at all. Members come onto the call late and
are not aware of the motion being debated or voted on. Members often
leave the call and then are not present when a vote is taken. Members
are called on to give information but they are not there, even though they
were on the line when the call started. A good deal of time was spent on
Monday night's call dealing with the issue of a member who was not on the
board and therefore ineligible to participate being on the call and being
asked to hang up. There was no way to know if the member obeyed the
President's request to leave the conference. On a close roll call vote, a
member lost her phone connection and was unable to vote and her
vote might have changed the outcome of the motion. These problems are not
confined to tonight's call. They have happened frequently on numerous calls. I
could give many instances of this but I won't go into long details. But trust
me, I could. As I said, I know this saves us money but are we saving money at
the cost of the most efficient way to conduct the business of the
organization? I know we need to have more meetings because of all of the
business that we need to deal with and I know it is not always pracgtical for
us to travel to a meeting site but I also know that teleconference calls are
filled with problems. I believe we need to look seriously at this issue and
figure out the most cost effective way of dealing with board
business that is also in keeping with good business
practice and, most important with democratic procedure. If we must
have calls, members must be aware of how to conduct themselves while on the
phone. Members cannot continue to come on the line and leave the line and come
back as some are doing. It makes it impossible to get accurate vote counts.
The other problem with calls is that they are essentially closed meetings.
Even though we can listen, we can't speak or have input. Members without
computers are completely exxcluded from even listening to the call. In the
case of tonight's meeting, to my knowledge there was never an announcement
that the Board was meeting or that the meeting would be streamed. I heard that
there was going to be a meeting and went online to see if it was there and it
was. I suspect that many members who might have listened may not have even
been aware that there would be a meeting or that it was being streamed.
I admit I don't know the answer but I don't believe that what we are
doing is working. The democratic process is being compromised for the sake of
saving money. Any thoughts on this? John <o:p></o:p></P></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal>ASAP! <BR>ALWAYS SAY A
PRAYER!<o:p></o:p></P></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>