Hello, my name is Earl Allen. I have been a Federal employee the past 9 months. I am here to explain the facts of the By-Laws. This current version of By-Laws was discussed, revised, and amended at NTC 2007. It was made official and posted online on December 11, 2007. This set of By-Laws replaces all previous versions of DHHIG’s By-Laws.
There are three ways to be of member of DHHIG – Government workers who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing; hearing Government employees who work WITH Deaf and Hard of Hearing employees; and lastly, any sign language interpreters, Disability Program Administrator, or any supervisor can become a member of DHHIG. (If you meet one of the 3 qualifications, go to www.DHHIG.org to apply to be a member)
The DHHIG Board has five positions – Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and Board Members-at-Large. These must be elected in by the general Members except the Vice-Chair which can also be elected in by the Board. Each position on the Board has qualifications listed on the DHHIG website. Be sure to check them out. DHHIG must also have six Standing Committees which are: Development, Finance, Governance, Membership, By-Laws, and Public Policy.
I encourage all members to become actively involved within DHHIG by checking out the By-Laws, become familiar with them and if you see something that’d need revising or improved, please contact the By-Laws Chair.
Thank you for your time!
March 23, 2009 at 12:14 pm |
This is worrysome because the Board have been disrepecting the Bylaws and abusing them. They appointed 2 people to be on board without members approval, and they didn’t have the committee till recently. Thanks to your blog
Again, they have to respect the bylaws. Its there for a reason and it is to prevent what they are doing now!
March 23, 2009 at 12:24 pm |
John, why don’t you give me your real name? We all know it is not the John we all know and love.
But yes, you are correct. We need to be concerned about how the By-law is being treated at this moment. I send in my application to chair the By-laws committee and haven’t hear anything.
The Board did respond to our concerns about the appointment of the board members in our letter. Their response was that they overlooked it.
Again, the by-laws provided a clear instruction on how we can amend the by-laws. This is not an acceptable excuse (oversight) to abuse it.
March 23, 2009 at 12:26 pm |
It’s possible the board dont understand the bylaws. Vote people who can read English to serve on the board.
March 23, 2009 at 12:36 pm |
No need to give in my real name.I don’t want to add my name to a long list of victims.
These board don’t know how to handle personal and business issues seperately. David Stout is an excellent example. The real John too. Just look at their comments. I don’t need to say any more.
March 24, 2009 at 11:03 pm |
This is a comment about the following posting approved by CFDGE leaders who seems to be bent on allowing all kinds of negative and inflamatory comments about DHHIG to be posted on their blog (while professing to want to be future DHHIG leaders):
——————
” John Says:
March 23, 2009 at 12:36 pm | Reply
No need to give in my real name.I don’t want to add my name to a long list of victims.
These board don’t know how to handle personal and business issues seperately. David Stout is an excellent example. The real John too. Just look at their comments. I don’t need to say any more.
—–
JohnO’s comment:
“John Says”, I’m glad you cannot find anything more to say. The next brave thing for you to say is who you are. Then come out and volunteer and do more for DHHIG than David Stout is doing. Challenge him as a better DHHIG Volunteer.
David Stout is currently the most tireless, hardworking volunteer DHHIG has. He has saved DHHIG thousands of dollars in website maintenance cost using his skills selflessly.
People like you who hide in a closet typing on a computer behind fake names and try to hack into our website repeatedly, costing us countless hours of labor and untold distraction.
Unfortunately, people who claim to want to improve DHHIG give you platform to sling mud at valuable the few DHHIG volunteers still around.
Come out, leave your computer in your closet and volunteer to improve DHHIG. Write a better bylaw for DHHIG. Show the world that you are an educated DHHIG member who cares.
DHHIG board cannot fix the bylaw unless YOU – the educated member – do something constructive about it. (At least, show us you really have even read the bylaw you complain about….)
Answering your questions is not personal. Mud-slinging behind a fake name is personal.
March 24, 2009 at 11:59 pm |
(This is not a DHHIG board response. I am NOT speaking for the DHHIG board.)
Mr Earl Allen,
Thank you for your VLOG comments about DHHIG bylaws and for encouraging members to volunteer.
I couldn’t see what was on the paper given to you to show viewers in the VLOG you made, so I’m not sure which version of DHHIG bylaws you have read.
We look forward to having you volunteer and become actively involved in improving these bylaws. Please send specific change proposals you wish to make to the dhhig bylaws committee for consideration and presentation to the other dhhig members for a membership vote.
You may have read elsewhere where I wrote on this site that the bylaws cannot be changed by the DHHIG Board. If you think DHHIG board is not following the bylaws, please contact the board at info@dhhig.org and ask them constructive questions first. Constructive proposals by e-mail to this e-mail address is the most effective way to make your request known.
My experience is that some members hide in their closet and push others to complain, yet they will not propose specific solutions or tell members exactly what the problem is and how to constructively fix the problem.
DHHIG cannot move forward when people with ulterior motives try to stop the very process that is supposed to allow these changes to happen. We operate on volunteer fuel. No one is paid. The more volunteers on board, the more we can do.
DHHIG need those of you who know how to fix the problems to come out with solutions. Contrary to what some people think, no one is going to stop changes except by membership vote.
Hope to see you at the flagship DHHIG event between May 5 – 7 in Washington D.C. It’s the best DHHIG event and its only held every two years.
Since you are a new member, try your best not to miss the event. It’s such a great experience that I’ve not missed any in over 10 years….
March 25, 2009 at 12:10 am |
One tad problem Mr.John O…. There is no By-Laws chair yet.
Mr.Allen was just merely stating the facts from the by-laws not expressing any concern.. Read his words carefully.
I’m getting the big picture, you guys are trying to paint us as the bad guys now… hacking into your website???!!! what the heck…..Please stick with the facts.
If you look at it, theres only one person posting anonymous comments from what I see recently…….. his/her comments are not negative, but Facts…. David’s recent email to everyone just proved it to why people are scared of speaking up now.
We present our concern to you guys with SOLUTION when we sent in our concern letter regarding the election.
Guess what you did…. posted a crab to insult us. So quit trying to paint us as the bad guys. You do not accept any new ideas or concerns at all….
April 5, 2009 at 3:51 pm |
John0
Thank you for your post. I trust that my response below will offer some clarification to the issues that you proposed in your post.
First of all, it was indicated in the VLOG and the text below the VLOG that the paper I showed is the most recent version of the By-Laws that was revised and amended at the recent 2007 NTC. If viewers want to be picky about exactly which paper I briefly flashed, then they can at their own discretion pause the clip and zoom the screen to get a closer look at the paper. Simply put, if I indicated that it is the most current By-Laws, then I question the relevancy of your concern about exactly which By-Laws I have read and showed.
Secondly, you proposed that I should contact the Board directly via e-mail with constructive questions and constructive proposals. Although sending an e-mail is one way, it is not necessary the best way. This website with supporting VLOG’s was established to express concerns through the visible media accessible to anybody. Simply put, the more visibility of concerns, the more awareness of issues at hand, therefore, the better involved we all can be in promoting constructive changes.
Furthermore, a “volunteer” is a person who offers himself or herself for a service or undertaking willingly and without pay. In theory, anybody who does something directly or indirectly with the purpose of promoting an agenda are in themselves doing something. I may have yet to be directly involved with a committee established to focus on improving the By-Laws but the fact that I’ve volunteered my time to share the facts regarding the By-Laws through this VLOG should not be questioned.
Finally, I’ve reviewed the VLOG and the text below it and I see that I’ve identified myself by name and my length of Federal service, but I did not mention how long have I been a member of DHHIG. The VLOG was not created for me to share an autobiography about myself, but for me to share some facts about the most common issue. In the future, refrain yourself from questioning or stating facts about VLOGGers who at least doing something for the greater goods.
Thank you for encouraging my presence at the next NTC in May. Because I don’t work within the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area, I’ll try to make every effort to attend this conference.
March 25, 2009 at 11:03 pm |
Steven,
I’m very open to your ideas. I actually think you have good ones and I’ve actually been very supportive of you when you were on the DHHIG board. Unfortunately, you were the one who bullied me into silence when you claimed I was attacking your ideas when I merely asked you to clarify some things proposed. I also learned how sensitive you were to claims of “micromanaging”.
Freedom of speech includes instances where you may express observation of facts in analogies. I have stated elsewhere that picture of a crab does not target you or anyone and it is not a DHHIG board message. Why do you keep harping on it to distract from main issues?
It is a fact that anonymous posters were/are allowed on your blogsite and they posted some trash about the event we are working hard to plan. I see that some onf them have now been removed.
You may think that I am trying to paint you as “bad guys” but I am only being clear about my distaste of anonymous posters.
Anonymous taunting of a person BY NAME (or their hard work) is insulting. If you give it a platform, you implicitly encourage it. That’s why “tabloid journalism” is not always respected.
I know you expressed that you would like to know who these anonymous people are as well but a simple policy rejecting anonymous posts on your blogsite would give you crediibility that you do not support taunting of current DHHIG volunteers. I know you are on DHHIG volunteer’s side but please demonstrate it with that simple policy.
I will always have distaste for people who taunt volunteers who are working hard for DHHIG especially when they themselves have done nothing for DHHIG. Mind you, this is the first time we have ever really experienced this phenomenom.
March 26, 2009 at 12:49 am |
John O, I see that you enjoy twisting facts with other facts from other situation to make the facts stick on your side.
After what just happened with recently e-mails, I don’t blame some people for being anonymous.
April 1, 2009 at 10:01 am |
[...] Earl Allen stated what the By-Laws were and you all are aware there are issues regarding the By-Laws. We all [...]