Resolution 96-12 has sparked much discussion on another blind related 
conference so I thought I'd see what others may think of it.  Frankly, I 
think it is as Shakespeare said, "Much Ado About Nothing," and only further 
hurts our immage among dog guide users which is at an all time low after the 
October Braille Monitor and after Peggy Pinder-Elliott's comments at the Dog 
Guide Division meeting.  
I think it is an outrage that any group is expected to grease the N.F.B.'s 
palm in order to hold a networking breakfast, luncheon or for that matter any 
function for its own graduates or associates.  Let's back off of this it is 
only hurting us.
                       _RESOLUTION _96-12
  WHEREAS, the National Federation of the Blind promotes
security, equality, and opportunity for the blind; and
  WHEREAS, the Federation promotes gatherings of blind persons
including blind children, parents of blind children, and sighted
supporters of the blind at local, state, and national conventions
in order to increase positive attitudes toward blindness and
blind people both in the blind community and throughout society
as a whole; and
  WHEREAS, one of the means by which the Federation increases
positive attitudes toward blindness and blind people is by
promoting respect for blind people; and
  WHEREAS, the Seeing Eye, Inc., has been attending Federation
conventions for the past twenty-five years, and has for the past
twenty-three years availed itself of Federation convention
facilities to hold an annual breakfast for its graduates, at no
cost to the graduates; and
  WHEREAS, Seeing Eye representatives have been able to reduce
their hotel costs by at least two-thirds by taking advantage of
Federation hotel rates, even though many Seeing Eye staff members
have consistently been unwilling to pay the nominal registration
fee (currently ten dollars) paid by all who attend Federation
conventions; and
  WHEREAS, because of rising convention costs the Federation
finds it necessary to charge vendors, agencies, and all other
non-member groups a fee for the use of meeting rooms for their
activities at Federation conventions; and
  WHEREAS, the Seeing Eye has refused to pay the fee and has
refused to deal with the Federation directly but instead has
begun the practice of holding its breakfasts for Seeing Eye
graduates and guests at a neighboring hotel, this despite the
fact that the Seeing Eye is the richest guide dog school in the
United States, having millions of dollars at its disposal; and
  WHEREAS, at the 1995 NFB Convention in Chicago the Seeing Eye
attempted to undermine the Federation by engaging in subterfuge
in planning and holding its breakfast outside the hotel, in that
it singled out its graduates and surreptitiously provided them
with information about the time and location of its breakfast,
thereby attempting to create a schism between its graduates and
other members of the National Federation of the Blind; and
  WHEREAS, in the Spring/Summer, 1996, issue of _Harness _Up!, a
publication of the National Association of Guide Dog Users, a
division of the National Federation of the Blind, the Seeing Eye
was warned that the Federation would no longer tolerate such
behavior and that the Federation would no longer announce or
sanction Seeing Eye breakfasts if they were to be held secretly
and outside Federation convention premises; and
  WHEREAS, during the registration period at the 1996 annual
meeting of the National Association of Guide Dog Users at the NFB
Convention, the Seeing Eye again engaged in subterfuge and
trickery, handing out Braille information concerning the location
of its breakfast in such a way as to take advantage of the fact
that the majority of the members of the Division, being blind,
would not be able to see what Seeing Eye staff members were
doing; and
  WHEREAS, the breakfast was held the following day at the
Marriott Hotel, causing discomfort to Seeing Eye graduates and
others who attended, because it was clear that the Seeing Eye was
attempting to disrupt Federation activities by trying to isolate
its graduates from the other members of the Federation; and
  WHEREAS, these reprehensible practices of the Seeing Eye are an
insult to the organized blind of this country and a calculated
act of hostility toward the Federation: Now, therefore,
  BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in
Convention assembled this fifth day of July, 1996, in the City of
Anaheim, California, that the National Federation of the Blind
express its extreme displeasure with the behavior of the Seeing
Eye and its staff members; and
  BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, if this situation cannot be
amicably resolved, the President of the National Federation of
the Blind be authorized and instructed to call for and organize
picketing of Seeing Eye headquarters in order to inform the
general public that, while the Seeing Eye trains and provides
guide dogs and instruction in their use, its attitude toward
blind people and the organized blind movement of the nation is
characterized by contempt and disrespect; and
  BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, if no resolution of this problem
can be achieved, we give the broadest possible publicity to this
cavalier behavior toward the blind by the Seeing Eye; and
  BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent
to the Seeing Eye.
Harvey 
--- msged 2.07
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