[Mt-blind] Mining the past in the treasure state - an archive of Observers, and the charter date

[Jim Marks]

Thanks back at you, Rik.  The charter is for the Montana Association
for the Blind, not the NFB of Montana, right?  Or does the name
include the word, "of," instead of "for?"  The difference between "of"
and "for" is pretty great in that the "of" preposition implies a
membership driven organization while "for" implies a charity or
objective-oriented organization with the blind being beneficiaries
rather than members.  I personally like using "of" because it reflects
who we are and is more respectful of the first class citizenship
status.  Who the heck wants to be the object of charity, anyhow?

One more question is whether the charter includes any written
obligations for the chartered organization.  When the MAB/NFB of
Montana charters a chapter, there are written obligations for the
chapter.  Does national have something similar for the state?

Thanks again!  This discussion has been wonderful, and I thank
everyone for pitching in.  The MAB/NFB of Montana really is one heck
of a great organization!

Jim Marks
blind.grizzly at gmail.com


On 11/15/07, RJ / KJ <d28rik at msn.com> wrote:
>
> November 15, 2007
> To the Montana Blind-L discussion:
>
> Boy, has there been a wellspring of well-written pieces in the list this
> week!
>
> I just wanted to thank you - Jim Marks, Joy Breslauer, Cody Grieser, Jim and
> Dar Aldrich, Flo Nelson, and whoever I might be forgetting.  who has written
> this week which could easily be described as first person oral history on
> the subject at hand, the blind organization in Montana and its historical
> relationship to the national organized blind.
>
> I started to write something up on Sunday, November 11, but then got way
> laid and distracted, and actually, in truth, sort of started to weigh the
> value of going back and spending the time to write, when it seemed like it
> might not be more than just airing out old laundry and not accomplishing the
> needed understandings between peoples that seem to always be at odds.
>
> But reading these posts this week, I have benefited so very much. Thank you
> again.  I may yet choose to chime in, if it would be of any help.
>
> As to the charter of affiliation with the NFB, I have  a copy of it.  It is
> dated July 5, 1982.  Signed by Kenneth Jernigan, NFB President, and Laurence
> Marcelino, NFB Secretary, and by Montana Association for the Blind
> representative, John D. Ford.  Witnessed by Mary Ellen Anderson and by Elsie
> R. Grove.
>
> As Jim Aldrich, and Jim Marks speculated earlier, it was indeed not a
> document until this time.  There may have been another document, but this is
> the one I was told by the national office that counted.
>
> Here are other things that I have.  And I would wonder if some of you could
> beat the bushes for more to add to our endeavor of collecting our history.
>
> What I have is print copies of The Observer.  I started getting them in the
> mail in the fall of 1982.  But to my regret, I did not start saving them
> until the November / December 1988 issue.  I have I think all the print
> copies up until September 1992.  This was the last one published with Lelia
> Proctor as Secretary-Treasurer and editor of the newsletter.
>
> I just wish I had earlier editions, too.  I would just bet my lunch money
> that the rest of the copies are somewhere in our treasure state,  Do any of
> you have any?  Know of members with print copies? I would offer to use my
> K-1000 scanning program and make e-text copies of these if they are not
> already stored digitally somewhere.
>
> I hope that someone else has the electronic copies of the newsletter which
> were produced on computer after that time.  John and Bernice DeHaas were
> editors, then I was for about 5 years, then Dan Burke, then Joy Breslauer
> and I think then back to the DeHaas's.  But I am not sure about those latter
> copies after I was editor.  I have not been as much of an archivist in
> recent years.
>
> Contact me off list if you can or want to send me the earlier print
> newsletters.  Some of you may have them in Braille.  I reckon they could be
> transcribed to an electronic form, with those find fingered talents some of
> you all have in better shape than my guitar calloused and factory worker
> stiff hands.
>
> The collection of news, of thoughts, of actions, deeds, intentions, and even
> the disappointments of dreams not realized.  All valuable, all worth saving,
> I believe.
>
> Thank you again for the good week of discourse.
> Stay connected?  Please do keep your focus.
> Seeing ain't all with the eyes, is it now?  Ha! Not hardly!
>
> Rik James
> Bozeman
> d28rik at msn.com
>
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>


-- 
Jim Marks
blind.grizzly at gmail.com