By David Kingsbury | From BayLines Express, December, 2022
As this year draws to a close, we can be proud of several big successes. The Votes Act, which was signed by the Governor in July, introduced fully accessible online voting statewide. This effort built on BSCB efforts undertaken in collaboration with the Disability Law Center in 2021 to introduce remote online balloting in Boston and several other municipalities. We worked with the office of the Secretary of State, the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind (MCB), and others to get the word out to our community. We will continue efforts to promote this voting system so even more members of our community use it during the next election cycle.
The legislature approved a $1 million earmark for the Social Rehabilitation line item of the MCB budget. This continued and expanded efforts from previous years to provide computer training and equipment to Massachusetts residents who are blind and ineligible for vocational rehabilitation training. Many BSCB members contacted their legislators to voice support for this funding.
This year, we finally began to emerge into what we hope will be a post-pandemic world. In early October, we held our first in-person social event since 2019, a well-attended lunch at the Not Your Average Joe’s restaurant in Watertown. In November, we conducted our annual Fall Conference in hybrid fashion, with the in-person part taking place at the Carroll Center and the remote part conducted over Zoom. Hybrid events are here to stay, and a big challenge going forward will be to make sure the technology works smoothly so that all attendees can fully participate.
This has been a transitional year for our Board and committees. New officers were elected during the Spring Convention, including James Gleason as our new Secretary. James replaced Jerry Berrier, who did a fantastic job in this position for seven, yes, I said “seven” years. In November, we reluctantly said goodbye to Second Vice President and Membership Committee Chairperson Cheryl Cumings, who moved with Tim to the Seattle area to pursue new career opportunities. The Board elected Myra Ross to fill the Second VP position and I appointed Pam Loch to head up the Membership Committee.
Around mid-year, Nona Haroyan and Jerry Berrier were appointed to Co-chairs the Advocacy Committee. Both have done a great job reinvigorating it, and they are in the process of laying out an ambitious advocacy agenda for us to pursue.
A newly created Transportation Committee has initiated a dialogue with MCB on ways to streamline ADA eligibility renewal procedures with the regional transit authorities around the state. Because the RTAs all report to the Department of Transportation, we hope to engage this agency in this effort.
Thanks to the ongoing efforts of the Communications Committee, BSCB continues to provide news and information to members through an impressive variety of avenues, including the Council Connection radio show and podcast, the BayLines Express monthly newsletter, and the Third Thursday monthly Zoom calls, among others. First VP Sharon Strzalkowski has recently initiated the scheduling of quarterly calls with our chapter presidents to seek feedback and suggestions on how to better do our work.
We have started formulating a strategy for the BSCB, with the objective to develop a framework for proactively identifying priority activities and becoming more accountable to membership. We hope to finalize it early next year.
What are our most important challenges for the coming year? Efforts that began during the pandemic to foster greater statewide member engagement need to continue. Member numbers need to grow. Each of us should set a goal of recruiting one new member each over the next couple of months. Do you know somebody who could benefit from BSCB membership? Reach out to him or her and make a sales pitch. As mentioned already, tweaking technology so we can seamlessly deliver hybrid events will be a priority going forward. Fortunately, we have some great tech minds in BSCB and ACB Media has an amazing amount of expertise and experience that we can draw on. Expanded efforts to recruit and retain a diverse membership in terms of ethnicity, gender and age need to continue.
Our job is a never ending one, there’s lots to do and you are all welcome to lend a hand. Let’s work together to make 2023 BSCB’s best year ever!