by Steve Jacobson

As most of you already know, Ryan Strunk felt that his new job responsibilities would not permit him to devote the time and energy that he felt was required to be president of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota. On April 13, he announced on our NFBMN-NEWS email list his decision to step down as president. As vice-president, the responsibility of the office of president has therefore come to me.

Whenever presidents change, people like to talk about "transition." I'm not going to write much about that here even though I certainly think about it. Rather, I am going to write about the need for your understanding and your help, and here's why.

As little as a month ago, I had no idea I would be writing this article for our newsletter. I don't have strong ideas of what sort of impact I want to make as president. Since I have never felt I would do a better job than those who were president before me, this just was not something I seriously contemplated. Still, anybody who runs for the office of vice-president must consider the possibility that they could be called upon to step in. I have been fortunate as vice-president to have worked closely with Ryan during his time as president, and I have learned from him. Before that, you gave me the opportunity to serve as vice-president when Jennifer Dunnam was president, and I learned a lot from her during her presidency as well. Further back still, I served in several other capacities when Joyce Scanlan was president, and needless to say, she, too, taught me a great deal. Each of these presidents brought their unique strengths and skills to the office of president. Therefore, while I don't have a master plan as such, I do have my experience with our past presidents from which to draw.

There is another important source of energy and experience upon which I place a great deal of faith. That is, of course, the experience and energy that each of you bring to this organization as members. I count on what each of you provide as we continue forward.

So exactly what does "continue forward" mean? It means we need to work together on a number of on-going challenges. Over the past twenty years, we have made great progress toward being able to cast our votes with complete privacy. Still, we have seen a huge increase in absentee and early voting which brings with it new challenges. That process was mostly accessible in the 2020 elections, but we are working to make it better.

As I write this, our state legislature is still meeting. Although our bill on blind parents' rights will not likely reach the finish line this session, we know from our other legislative successes that these things always take time and a lot of persistence on our part. We will move forward next year and continue building on the very good support we have received this year from both parties—thanks to the efforts of so many of our members. We will ultimately make sure that, under the law, government and court decisions involving blind parents are not made on old and inaccurate stereotypes of blindness and are informed by the evidence of the thousands of successful blind parents throughout our country.

The adult training center that we started here in Minnesota, BLIND, Incorporated, remains an important part of our work as an organization. We need to continue working closely with them, offering our support and our help.

We need to continue to advocate for blind persons who have been unfairly treated. This can be complicated sometimes but is an important part of our mission as an organization.

We must remain active in guiding and influencing the services that are provided to blind people. Sometimes we do this through our advocacy work, but it is also achieved by being active on the State Rehabilitation Council for the Blind and its committees.  We must also make our position known, both when something needs to be fixed and when something is done well.

We must continue giving attention to the education of blind children in Minnesota. We cannot reach our full potential as blind adults if we don't get an education that is equal to that received by sighted children.

Our concern for education can't stop with K-12 education. Our Student Division is an important way to improve opportunities for blind students after high school. Clearly, we must support our Student Division in its important work.

Finally, as we know far too well, the pandemic has had a great impact on how we can interact as members. We have learned to use Zoom to meet virtually and that has allowed us to maintain our many connections with one another. As we emerge from the pandemic, while recognizing it is not over, we need to explore how best to resume meeting in-person as we can. At the same time, we can use some of the tools we have found to offer additional alternatives to connect with members. However, even with our best efforts, these past two years have made it harder to get to know new members. We must work to strengthen all of our chapters and divisions and look for ways to bring new members into our Federation Family.

Of course, to move forward, we need also to continue our efforts to raise funds through our various fundraising activities. Our Walk for Opportunity is a great way for us not only to raise money but also to demonstrate that we are active and capable human beings.

Nothing I have written here is new. What is important, though, is to take time to reflect on the fact that what we are as an organization is bigger than any one of us including the president. What we achieve can only be done through the efforts of each and every one of us. So, when I say I need your help, what I really mean is that we all need our help. We will move forward in all of these areas as long as we continue to travel this path together. Although it is true that I am counting on you, it is even more true that we must count on each other. I am confident that we will do just that.