By Susan Glass

For the last two years, the BC has featured profile articles about several CCB chapters: Orange County chapter, ACB Capitol chapter, Greater Los Angeles and Glendale Burbank chapters, Fresno, Silicon Valley, Humboldt, and San Francisco chapters. We are by no means finished sharing our chapter stories; we still need to hear from East Los Angeles, Active Blind Inland Valley, Bayview, Compton, Contra Costa, Golden Gate, Greater Bakersfield, Lakewood, Long Beach, High Desert, Redwood Empire, San Bernardino, San Diego Braille Club, San Diego, San Gabriel Valley, and Solano County.

If I haven't named your Chapter, please nudge me, because I want to include all voices.

I can see that to publicize all of us in timely fashion, I'll need to write at least two profiles per issue. But in the meantime, the 8 chapters who have shared their stories with us have brought to light several strengths common to CCB chapters, as well as several needs and challenges that we all face. This article attempts to gather strengths, needs, and challenges into one accessible place, a midpoint check in if you will, as we move forward into 2017.

* Engaging in Community Service as an Educational and Networking Tool

The CCB chapters profiled thus far embrace the value of serving their surrounding communities, and in so doing, educating those larger communities about the viable presence and needs of blind/visually impaired people.

The Greater Los Angeles Chapter for instance, participates in an annual holiday toy drive sponsored by one of their local television stations. They also sing holiday carols at nearby nursing homes, and in June of 2017, they plan on procuring nonperishable items for a city-wide food drive.

The Humboldt chapter created and maintains a water front sensory garden where all citizens experience the textures and fragrances from a plethora of plants. While citizens experience the garden, they encounter blind and visually impaired people caring for it, and at the garden entrance stands a box of braille alphabets available to any interested person.

The San Francisco chapter sponsors the Alice Chavez Pardini Education Advancement Grant that annually provides $2,500 to a legally blind student who demonstrates a need for assistance in improving educational access.

Likewise, the Silicon Valley chapter awards an annual $1,000 technology grant to a blind or visually impaired individual from Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Mateo and San Bonito Counties, who can show that a particular piece of adaptive technology will enhance his/her work, education, or quality of life.

The Fresno chapter hosts Dining in The Dark experiences for their surrounding community, where attendees eat a meal while blindfolded, and are served this meal by their blind and visually impaired hosts. They also hear stories of blindness and visual impairment, and end their evening with a deeper understanding of blindness, not as handicap, but as opportunity.

Chapters with service projects on which they can focus tend to mobilize, grow, and experience success. When their successes are known to their surrounding communities, it's easier for them to appeal to those communities when fund-raising time comes around, since they appeal for funding from a base of success rather than one of need.

* Educating Members

A second strength of CCB chapters is our ability to educate our members.

Around election time, nearly all of us invite representatives from the League of Women Voters to our meetings to acquaint us with local, state, and federal issues.

Several chapters have legislative committees who regularly update members on state and federal issues directly affecting them as blind people.

Several recruit program speakers who address everything from audio description, to adaptive technology, to recreational opportunities.

For a time, the Orange County chapter featured a "Program Corner" at each membership meeting. One meeting might feature books as its Program Corner, and members would share their favorites. Another meeting might feature hobbies as the Program Corner, and yet a third might feature favorite recipes.

When a chapter educates its members while also meeting their social needs, it's bound to stay healthy.

* Collaborating on Fund-Raisers

Andrea Pitsenbarger, who is president of the Orange County chapter, shared the following fund-raising strategy: "We network with other organizations in our community who are also having fund-raisers. Certain of our chapter members know people at the Braille Institute, AA and several senior centers. They are our points of contact. We attend events sponsored by their organizations, and they in turn attend ours." Several other chapters engage in this strategy.

Thus, the frequent announcements in the California Connection about upcoming chapter picnics, holiday parties and other fund-raising, community-building events.

CCB chapters might consider extending this collaborative fund-raising approach beyond blindness organizations to other community groups seeking to benefit the common good. I write this suggestion with the caveat that we avoid becoming too diffuse, as we want to retain our ultimate focus on bettering the lives of blind and visually impaired people.

* Advocating for Our Issues

Advocacy throughout our organization has assumed many forms. The ACB Capitol chapter's proximity to the state legislature has enabled it to spearhead advocacy efforts on all our behalf. A case in point was when members of this chapter testified before the state legislature to prevent a drastic funding cut to our Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Chapter Vice President and Advocacy Chair Margie Donovan also tirelessly worked with her constituents to bring audio description to Broadway Sacramento, one of the city's performing arts venues. More recently, she arranged for Audio Description Project Director Dr. Joel Snyder, to hold a describer training seminar in the Folsom area.

Humboldt chapter members advocated for audio description in their local movie theaters, and for audible traffic signal installation throughout their community.

There are of course, many ways to advocate, and they can range from overt efforts like these, to the daily examples that we all set by living actively in our communities.

* Challenges Apparently Faced by All CCB Chapters Surveyed

Thus far not surprisingly, all chapters face the challenge of balancing between the needs of members seeking a social outlet, those who want to focus on local issues, and those wishing for deeper involvement in, and ties to, both CCB and ACB.

Recruiting new members, especially younger ones is a challenge. Sarah Harris of the Fresno chapter, believes that using social media will go a long way toward reaching these young people, provided of course, that we offer activities that interest them. Sarah is now a member of the CCB Publications Committee, with specific responsibilities that involve helping CCB build a social media presence.

Pam Metz of the Los Angeles chapter, invites CCB as it recruits new members, to "reflect the diversity of every group in the United States."

The Glendale Burbank chapter is rising capably to this invitation, boasting an age range of 30 to 82, with occupations as varied as a former Broadway actor, a teacher, a social worker, a therapist, an attorney, an employee at The Braille Institute, parents, grandparents, the list continues. Congenial, hospitable, welcoming, and homey, are the words members use to describe their chapter. One member has made others aware of gay pride, another of the challenges inherent in alcoholism recovery. All of course, come together to grapple with the challenges of limited vision and blindness.

The challenges listed here are significant, and we'll need to hear from every voice in every chapter to meet them.