Recent Board Meeting
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Margie Donovan
Aug 10, 2026, 7:39:48 PM (3 days ago) Aug 10
to ch...@guidedogusersinc.org
I just listened to the board meeting. I have a few things I would like to say about the discussions.
First re ACB receiving money from Uber, they receive money from a number of entities that we advocate with for better services. So does the NFB. The difference between the ACB and the NFB is that the NFB will take on companies despite the fact that they are receiving money/sponsorship. ACB doesn't. This issue is much larger than GDUI. I would like to see a more global resolution which may be able to work with other affiliates to put together a more comprehensive resolution.
Re the awards, I am happy to help with the process and with the history. I have chaired this committee both in the 90s and more recently. We have never given an award to anyone who has not published at the time the committee meets to review the nominations. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever nominated themselves in the past. I see the real issue as a leadership issue of making sure when chairs of committees are appointed, they need to know what to do and what is expected of them. I have never taken time to search for further information on a nominee. We only go on what has been submitted. It has always been part of the committee's job to do a fair amount of outreach to encourage people to nominate. During my most recent term as chair of the Awards Committee, we had several nominations for most categories, which was a direct result of the committee members reaching out to members.
I think this awards issue brought up a larger issue and that is succession planning. It is not fair to expect a new committee member to know everything about the job. Maybe job descriptions for all the committees would be appropriate??
Finally, clearly if a committee member knows a nominee, they must recuse themselves from any discussion and voting on that particular person. We had this come up when I chaired the committee and the member of the committee did recuse themselves from the call that was set up just to discuss the one nominee.
Margie Donovan
GDUI Life Member
First re ACB receiving money from Uber, they receive money from a number of entities that we advocate with for better services. So does the NFB. The difference between the ACB and the NFB is that the NFB will take on companies despite the fact that they are receiving money/sponsorship. ACB doesn't. This issue is much larger than GDUI. I would like to see a more global resolution which may be able to work with other affiliates to put together a more comprehensive resolution.
Re the awards, I am happy to help with the process and with the history. I have chaired this committee both in the 90s and more recently. We have never given an award to anyone who has not published at the time the committee meets to review the nominations. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever nominated themselves in the past. I see the real issue as a leadership issue of making sure when chairs of committees are appointed, they need to know what to do and what is expected of them. I have never taken time to search for further information on a nominee. We only go on what has been submitted. It has always been part of the committee's job to do a fair amount of outreach to encourage people to nominate. During my most recent term as chair of the Awards Committee, we had several nominations for most categories, which was a direct result of the committee members reaching out to members.
I think this awards issue brought up a larger issue and that is succession planning. It is not fair to expect a new committee member to know everything about the job. Maybe job descriptions for all the committees would be appropriate??
Finally, clearly if a committee member knows a nominee, they must recuse themselves from any discussion and voting on that particular person. We had this come up when I chaired the committee and the member of the committee did recuse themselves from the call that was set up just to discuss the one nominee.
Margie Donovan
GDUI Life Member
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