From: Bill Reif 
Subject: responsibilities of leadership
On 1997-10-20 Harvey Heagy said:
   >I'll give you an example of what I am referring to.  Now this is a
   >very miner issue in comparison to the stakes we have to deal with
   >on the national level, but it illustrates my point.  In 1983, I
   >was president of the Houston Chapter as well as in charge of the
   >Houston/Austin chapters charter bus to the nac tracking in
   >Jackson Mississippi.  On our way back, I consulted with the bus
   >driver on the proper way to proceed regarding the purchase of
   >food for the return trip which was about 8 hours for the Houston
   >people na 3 hours longer for the Austin people.  We advised the
   >people to stop at a super market before we left Jackson since we
   >would be hitting a lot of dry areas along the way wherein stores
   >would be closed and those who wanted alcoholic beverages would
   >not be able to purchase them.  After putting it to a voice vote,
   >most people wanted to drive on so we did.  After a while they got
   >hungry and thirsty and we had to keep getting on and off the
   >interstate to look for places where food and drinks could be
   >purchased.  By the time we finally found one, we lost a lot of
   >valuable time and since the outlet was a convenience store type
   >things were a lot more expensive.  People then complained about
   >the prices and the time lost whereas if they had listened to
   >those who knew the situation they would not have faced this
   >situation in the first place.
   >The point is I let them have their way even though I knew it was
   >not in their best interest.  Sure there were some disgruntled
   >people who continued to blame me for what happened, but you can't
   >win with that type anyway.
It seemss to me like you abdicated your responsibility as leader,
trading the comfort of both driver and passengers for a little personal
popularity, and the chance to let people experience that good feeling,
(which proved to be short-lived in this instance) that comes with being
asked to participate in a decision, however ill-informed one happens to
be.  With the facts at your disposal, there was almost nothing to gain
by putting such a procedural matter to a vote.  You should have been
willing to confer on those over whom you had charge, for this limited
purpose, the benefits of your superior knowledge of the situation.  The 
consequences of your failure to act in accord with good sense far 
outweighed the minimal good putting it to a vote achieved; and while you
could thus not be blamed for a bad decision, I doubt it increased your 
popularity to the degree you imagine.
The example you give in this post, perhaps better than anything we have
said, illustrates the inherent problems that would result if matters
that are essentially administrative are decided by a membership that is
almost certainly less informed of the considerations relevant in making
a decision.  Matters of organizational policy and statements of
organization philosophy are quite different, as they involve the
direction in which the leaders, who work for the membership, will take
the organization.  Most of your complaints about the allegedly
heavy-handed tactics of NFB leadership involve their insistence in
implementing various procedures by which conventions are conducted,
programs administered, or resources expended.  For the same reasons you
would not second-guess every action a driver would take in getting you
somewhere, (unless he/she was obviously lost) so, you should have enough
trust in the NFB leadership and its staff to let the president preside
and let administrators administer.  Should their judgement consistently
prove inadequate, (as judged by a sufficiently large portion of the
membership) you and the NFB would be better off were they removed than
we would be assuming all their duties or second-guessing all their
actions.  If I believed such second-guessing was usually necessary, I
would have no need of the organized blind movement and could simply do
my own research, form my own opinions, and act toward legislators or
through letters to the editors as I saw fit.  It would be easier than
quibbling with the leadership over every trivial matter.
Bill Reif
Springfield, Illinois
Mencken's Metalaw:  For every human problem, there is a neat,
simple solution; and it is always wrong.
Net-Tamer V 1.10  - Test Drive
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