REPORT OF THE NATIONAL OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS Your national officers and board of directors are pleased to report that the year since the last convention has been one of marked progress for the Blinded Veterans Association. Membership has grown substantially, and the field service program has continued to serve increasing numbers of blinded veterans. The board of directors held three meetings since last year's convention. At its meeting on December 7, 1957, held in Washington, D.C., the board reviewed the resolutions adopted by the 12th annual convention and directed the executive director to take appropriate action to implement them. Action has been taken on all convention resolutions. In an effort to maintain closer liaison with the membership, board members elected from the six director districts agreed to write to the members in their respective districts soliciting their views on organizational and other matters. Requests for service and information were referred by board members to the BVA headquarters staff and the views of members on policy matters were referred to the board of directors. The board of directors held a second meeting on April 12, 1958, in New York City, and approved a budget calling for expenditures of $105,709 during the fiscal year July 1, 1958-June 30, 1959. The budget provides for field service to individual blinded veterans in six field areas. The board met on July 15, 1958, in Seattle and approved reports for presentation to the convention. At this meeting, the board appointed William W. Thompson to the position of executive director, succeeding Irvin P. Schloss, who resigned effective June 14, 1958, to become the legislative analyst of the American Foundation for the Blind. The executive committee, which consists of National President John E. Mattingly, and Board Members Melvin J. Maas, David Schnair, and W. Marshall Smith, took action in September 1957 to confirm the appointment of Douglas W. Kinney, of San Francisco, Calif., to be the field representative in field area VIII, succeeding George M. Gillispie, who resigned effective October 4, 1957. On April 29, 1958, the executive committee designated National Service Director William W. Thompson to serve as acting executive director for the period from June 14, 1958, to July 15, 1958. The board has empowered the executive committee to act on association business between board meetings. ELECTIONS FOR BOARD OF DIRECTORS In accordance with the provisions of the BVA bylaws, elections for the board were held in director districts 1 and 2. On March 17, 1958, letters soliciting nominations were sent to members residing in the above-named director districts. Julius D. Morris of New Britain, Conn., was nominated from district 1. Joseph Lampasi, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and David L. Schnair, of New York City, were nominated from director district 2. On May 2, 1958, ballots and short biographies of the candidates were mailed to all members in districts 1 and 2. The results are as follows: District 1: For Morris, 60 votes. District 2: For Lampasi, 20 votes; for Schnair, 75 votes. Both Mr. Morris and Mr. Schnair were elected for 3-year terms, which will begin after the installation ceremony at the banquet on Saturday night, July 19, 1958. MEMBERSHIP As of June 30, 1958, the Blinded Veterans Association had 718 members. These consisted of the following: 193 life members; 80 paying toward life membership; 372 annual members; 13 associate life members; 2 paying toward associate life membership; and 58 annual associate members. For the purpose of comparison, total membership figures for the past several years are as follows: 1957, 724; 1956, 621; 1955, 562; 1954, 464; 1953, 502; 1952, 492. The distribution of voting members as of June 30, 1958, by regional groups, was as follows: On September 17, 1957, the national president reappointed National Vice President Robert A. Bottenberg, Board Member Guy Stone, and Executive Director Irvin P. Schloss as trustees of the BVA life membership fund. The trustees continued to invest life membership dues in securities of Wellington Fund, Inc., a mutual fund. As of June 30, 1958, the life membership fund of the Blinded Veterans Association owned 867 shares of Wellington Fund securities at a total cost of $12,060.11. On that same date the fund contained $79.87 in uninvested dues and $313.24 income held for distribution to the appropriate regional groups and to the national organization. The sum of $294.12 received as a capital gain distribution at the end of December 1957 was reinvested in Wellington Fund securities in order to increase the future yield to regional groups. PERSONNEL As a result of staff changes during the year, the Blinded Veterans Association now has eight full-time employees. The budget for the fiscal year, beginning July 1, 1958, provides for an executive director, a national service director, an administrative assistant, five field representatives, as well as three full-time and one part-time clerical staff members at BVA headquarters. The personnel complement at BVA headquarters in Washington, D.C., consists of William W. Thompson, executive director; Loyal E. Apple, national service director; Jack H. Street, administrative assistant; Miss Anne A. Holst, secretary; and Miss Mary Martin, clerk-typist. The following BVA field representatives are working full time in their respective field areas: Charles P. Jones, field area II (New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania); Loyal E. Apple, field area III (Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio); Robert L. Robinson, field area V (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee); and Douglas W. Kinney, field area VIII (Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming). There is currently a vacancy in the position of field representative for field area VII (Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin), created by the resignation of Darwin W. Niles, effective July 11, 1958. BVA FIELD SERVICE PROGRAM During the fiscal year just completed, the BVA field service program has been operating with a complement of six field representatives. These men have been working in 20 States and the District of Columbia. Three BVA field areas are being operated as a direct result of financial grants from the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, D.C.; the American Foundation for the Blind, New York, N.Y.; and the Lilly Endowment, Inc., Indianapolis, Ind. The OVR and AFB grants which had been awarded for 1 year have been renewed for an additional year. The Lilly Endowment grant was originally made for 3 years, the first of which has just ended. In August of 1957, George M. Gillispie, senior member of the BVA field staff, submitted his resignation to become effective in October of that year. Gillispie activated the pilot field area in New England in September of 1953 and laid the valuable groundwork for the future expansion of the field service program. His resignation was accepted with deep regret by the executive director. Douglas W. Kinney was hired to replace Gillispie in field area VIII (Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington). Following a 2-week period of working with Gillispie in the field, Kinney spent 4 weeks observing the Blind Rehabilitation Unit in the VA hospital at Hines, Ill. Between July 1, 1957, and June 30, 1958, six BVA field representatives contacted and assisted 513 blinded veterans in 251 communities in Alabama, Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Of these men, 388 were contacted for the first time; and during the year, many were contacted on several occasions. As in the past, the BVA field service program has operated by utilizing all available resources within the community to aid blinded veterans with problems they are encountering. In the period of this report, 89 agencies and organizations have rendered a variety of services to blinded veterans as a direct result of BVA field activity. The Veterans' Administration, being the community agency with the largest number of services for blinded veterans. was utilized most often-in 144 cases. The public agencies serving blind persons contributed valu able assistance in 87 cases. State employment services, veterans employment representatives, other veterans organizations, private agencies for the blind, and BVA regional groups were among the other resources utilized by BVA field representatives to assist blinded veterans. A detailed list of these community resources appears at a later point in this report. It is interesting and important to note that BVA regional groups were utilized more frequently during the past year as community resources. Several groups have their own service officers, and in other groups this function is handled by a committee. Where these groups have been located within an active field area, highly effective coordination with the national field service program has been developed in many instances. This has resulted in freeing the BVA field representative for activity in other parts of his field area. These local service officers are not BVA field representatives; but in certain situations, their services can be profitably used by the field representative in the same fashion as the services of other resources within the community. The table which follows is a statistical presentation of the different types of service rendered by and through BVA field representatives during the past year. It is well to point out here that the types of service and the time spent in assistance vary widely from case to case. This degree of variance will depend on such factors as the veteran's job status, his physical condition, his home and family environment, and how he reacts to his blindness. The objective to be reached in a particular case is another important variable as far as the time and the effort of the field representatives are concerned. It ranges from the few minutes it may take to secure certain information to the months required to develop certain job opportunities. A list of community resources used in the field service program during the past fiscal year and the number of veterans served by these resources follows: California State Department of Professional and Vocational Standards.... 1 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; National Institutes of Health, District of Columbia____ 1 Community resources Number of veterans 7 Local private agencies for the blind... Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc., District of Columbia.. Municipal agencies: Atlantic City Housing Authority---- Private law firms: King & King, Attorneys at Law, Norfolk, Va. State agencies for the blind____. Alabama State Vocational Rehabilitation Division_. Arizona State Division of Public Assistance and Services___ California State Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation__. Florida Council for the Blind_. Illinois State Vocational Rehabilitation Division__. Indiana State Board of Industrial Aid and Vocational Rehabilitation for the Blind____ Kentucky State Vocational Rehabilitation Division_. Maryland State Vocational Rehabilitation Division_-_-. New Jersey State Commission for the Blind__ North Carolina State Commission for the Blind.. Oregon Commission for the Blind and Prevention of Blindness. Pennsylvania State Council for the Blind_.. South Carolina State Department of Public Welfare, Division for the Virginia Commission for the Visually Handicapped-- Washington State Department of Public Assistance, services for the blind State civil service commissions___. New Jersey—— State employment services.... Alabama Arizona California District of Columbia_. Florida Illinois New Jersey. New York. Washington State veterans affairs commissions____ Florida Indiana U.S. Civil Service Commission___ Central Office, D.C----- Region II, New Jersey.. 2 |