Harvey, it seems to me that you make good sense, and it seems to me as
well that this commodity is far too scarce in NFB these days.
Often, the question of what rights we have is far less relevant than how
we exercise them.  I have (and should always have) the right under the
U.S.  Constitution to advocate that all blind people be put in zoos, but
I doubt that even the most backward among us would suggest that I devote
even a nanosecond to this intriguing cause.  Thus, NFB certainly had
the right to adopt those work rules described in an article in the June,
1992 issue of "Baltimore Magazine" (an article called "Blind Loyalty," I
think), but I sure thought there was no wisdom in those products of
paranoia.  My chapter could have closed meetings if it wanted, but who
in the hell would join us if we did that?  And so, NFB probably had the
legal right to tell the people from The Seeing Eye they couldn't inform
its graduates of the breakfast across the street from the convention
hotel, which I gather is what was attempted.  The question is one of
wisdom:  how can we be so willfully stupid?  The talent in our outfit is
far too great for there to be any excuse for cluttering up our time with
rubbish like Resolution 96-12?
I had a conversation last month with The Seeing Eye's executive
director, Ken Rosenthal.  He said, among other things, that (as he
understood it--he's pretty new) the school had paid the fee and had the
breakfast in the convention hotel in the first year of the charge.  It
had then decided that the five hundred dollar charge was not appropriate
for it, since it was not at the convention to sell a product or service:
 the breakfast was and is for the graduates, not for making new sales.
I thought this quite sensible.  Five hundred dollars (that's the figure
Rosenthal gave me) is not a lot of money, but it's much more than
necessary to charge for a room in which to have a meal that I doubt
lasts even two hours.  Unlike those having exhibits at our conventions,
the Seeing Eye folks attend for only a short time.  I think your point
concerning NFB's relationships with exhibitors is an extremely good one.
 I only wanted to note that there nevertheless is an important
difference between a guide dog school graduate breakfast and an exhibit
available to potential customers from time to time throughout the
convention.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.  I hope I haven't included too
many typos.
Al
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