BCA Inform – Recommendations

In September our BCA Inform will look a little different to our normal monthly Inform events and is a wonderful opportunity for you to be a part of shaping BCA into the future. We want to hear from you!

Registering for this event will allow you to attend and vote on recommendations given at the September BCA Inform and also give you the opportunity to make recommendations yourself - you will be able to include your recommendation in the ticket registration process here. Recommendations must be submitted by Tuesday, 24th Aug 2021 (You will still be able to register here for the event after this date but no longer be able to submit recommendations).

Background

In recent years, BCA has been seeking to more actively engage with members. We have held forums and spoken with many members to find out what they want from BCA. In response to member feedback, at our 2017 and 2019 national conventions, we reintroduced a session to enable members to bring forward recommendations for discussion regarding issues which BCA might address. Unfortunately, there was not time during our BCA Connect events to schedule these sessions, so we are dedicating an online or face-to-face session annually to the discussion of your recommendations.

Guidelines

To be eligible to submit recommendations, you must be a full member of BCA or a BCA branch.

Recommendations should be short, easy to understand statements and should be:

Be no more than 250 words in length.
Be written in simple language without jargon or acronyms.
Clearly state the issue and recommend a solution or action to be taken.
Be relevant to the work of BCA and its members.
Be constructive and positive.
Be of national relevance.

Recommendations should suggest particular actions that the BCA board could take in relation to issues directly impacting on people who are blind or vision-impaired or the functioning of the organisation. For example, recommendations could relate to BCA policy and advocacy work, strengthening engagement with branches, or any other aspect of the organisation’s work (specific examples of recommendations can be found below).

Recommendations Session

Recommendations received will be reviewed by the Board subcommittee and shared at the September BCA Inform – Recommendations event. If the number of recommendations received exceeds the time allocated for the session, the committee will prioritise those recommendations of most relevance to members for discussion. The remainder will be considered by the board.

The session will be chaired by the president or their delegate. Each recommendation will be read and the person who made the recommendation, or their delegate, will have three minutes to speak to the recommendation. The recommendation will then be discussed, before being voted on.

Post-session

The recommendations committee will prepare a brief report outlining the recommendations submitted and which of them were endorsed by session attendees. The board will provide updates on progress of recommendations via BCA’s various communications channels.

Example Recommendations

Example Recommendation 1:

“That the BCA board considers adding a third day to the national convention. This would allow more time for sessions and would make it more cost-effective for people who are blind or vision-impaired living in regional and remote areas to attend.”

Example Recommendation 2:

“BCA is aware that blindness service agencies face pressure to compete for the fundraising dollar and the need to remain financially sustainable which the Changes to the disability services funding environment has bought about.

However the dignity of people who are blind or vision impaired and the contribution we make as participating members of Australian society must remain as a core principle in all fundraising and promotional activities.

In recent times there have been disturbing examples of fundraising that capitalises on fear and portrays blindness and vision impairment as tragic. This is not in keeping with stated philosophies of independence and re-ablement. Further it potentially makes fundraising in the name of people who are blind or vision impaired and the societal attitudes it promotes, slip back by decades.

It is recommended that BCA develops a position document on the fundraising by agencies providing services to people who are blind or vision impaired calling on fundraising which is based on dignity, independence and re-ablement, and promotes people as valuable members of society.”

Example Recommendation 3:

“That BCA work to create peer support groups for marginalised communities such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and people from LGBTQI+ communities to support them and raise awareness of specific challenges they face in addition to blindness or vision impairment.”