Ola Sisters,
If you missed the first Candidate Forum for Board of Directors candidates, you can read my responses to all questions. Sisters, this is definitely a time for us to really reflect and choose candidates who are the difference! We are evolving as a Sisterhood and now is the time to work towards the Swing Phi Swing that will make great strides in our communities, region, nation, and world. FIND YOUR VOICE AND SWING!
Would you be opposed to
changing the rules regarding educational requirements?
Yes, I would be opposed to changing the rules regarding
educational requirement because according to the Black Book, for graduate
membership, it only requires they either have a college degree, technical
degree/certificate, or a professional person with a record of 5 or more years
commitment to community service. I would
only recommend a change to defining what constitutes a professional person and
how long they have been on the job. As
far as undergraduates, 24 college credit hours seems sufficient as this sister
would be moving into her sophomore year of college. This would provide sufficient time to help
build an undergraduate chapter and to be mentored by graduate
chapters/sisters. This is an opportunity
to help bridge the generational gap.
What are your views on dual membership? (Greek members joining
Swing Ph Swing?)
I am against dual membership seeing that we go through an entire
rites of passage, take oaths, and pledge a commitment to Swing. I learned in Secrets of our House several years ago from Sis. Founder Ellen
Tomlinson that Swings did not want to pledge Greek because they felt they were
Black and were with the people. I think the idea of it creates confusion to our
Sisters who believe once a Swing always a Swing but then see others leave to
become a Delta or AKA. I stand committed to Swing and there should be no
question of it. Dual membership should not
be considered for the sake of boosting our numbers for financial gain or better
opportunities to partner. There needs to
be a proper protocol to deal with Sisters who pledge another organization or
considering to bring in a member who has denounced another organization.
How could Swing capitalize on our 501c status?
Swing can better capitalize our 501c status by creating national
philanthropic opportunities of fundraising and leveraging chapters strength to
earmark funds to assist the SHE Foundation.
We have great opportunities to put on charity banquets, scholarship
functions, etc. We can even leverage our
connections with members who are making great strides in their communities and
have national recognition and making them the ambassadors for our philanthropic
efforts.
If elected, what are the first three issues you would like the
Board to address?
- Updating the Black Book
- Re-evaluating the National budget
- Refining the National Initiatives to secure
external funding
What changes need to occur within SWING to reinvigorate the
current membership and to bring in quality members within the sisterhood?
I think we have quality members but we must find ways to invest in
our membership, to nurture leadership, and to provide meaningful opportunities
to network and fellowship. We have so
many opportunities during our national convention to provide training of our
members and bonding. The need to
reinvigorate or reawake members is from the perception that they are sleep and
idle. We have to recognize the fact that our Sisters are still moving on and
making great changes in their lives. Perhaps it is the leadership and the
structure of our organization that needs to be reinvigorated. We have to catch up.
Will you be a board member who will comply with the constitution
and bylaws of the organization and not change them to fit your personal agenda?
I think rules and laws are important but can be changed if it is
for the betterment of our Swing house. We
have to understand the social contract we make within our organization. What
makes for a good Sisterhood? What is right for our Sisterhood? What do we value
in our Sisterhood? This is an ever-evolving question. We all want the basic rights of being a
member of Swing – your Ebony Pearl, access to training and events, and communication. But, we also need to ensure there is a
democratic process so that our members can make changes to what is unfair and
to bring about change to improve our house.
That power should not be relegated to a select few. We are elected into
these positions but we also are here to represent the body collective. Every
one has a voice to be heard and we should not be a Sisterhood that is against
any form of reason that can help us build a better SWING.
How will you ensure that the Judiciary Committee is used
effectively and justly? Do you feel National Officers should be impeached if
they do not perform their duties according to the Black Book?
Number 1: The Judiciary Committee is only as effective as the
Constitution and Bylaws of our organization.
Number 2: Making sure that Sisters are compliant is a major task that
must be undertaken by those who are rational and just in their reasoning. Number 3: To ensure effectiveness, the
judiciary committee must be detailed in their investigation and providing a
standardized process of documenting their findings. Number 4: In order to be just, there should
be a balance between who resides on this committee, which should be the Judiciary
Chair, the Constitution/Bylaws Chair, and the National Vice President (who
resides over membership).
Officers have to be accountable of their duties and conduct and it
is the National President and Board Chair’s duty to make sure officers are
doing the work and there is a fair system of evaluation. I think there is step by step approach that
can be taken with officers just like a job: verbal warning, write up with a
probationary period, then request for resignation. This is a process that must be refined and a
step towards the professional demeanor of which national officers should be
aware of.
What are three ways you would make the
Boards activities more transparent?
Communication. Board minutes should be
published regularly on the internal Sister site so that Sisters know what
business is being taken care of.
Access. Sisters should have a more open
means to work with Board members on their committees and Sisters should be
solicited for their help. By barring
Sisters to work on Board committees, we are only limiting our capacity for
greatness and creating distrust in our ranks.
The board is not an island to itself.
Collaboration. The Board must have a symbiotic
relationship with the Executive Office and the SHE Foundation. None of us can
survive without the other, yet we all have different functions. We must
clearly define our roles and work collaboratively in order to meet our goals
as an organization.
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What
steps would you develop to ensure that the voting results are provided to the
membership in a timelier manner?
Swing
needs to implement online or computer based voting. With smart investments, we can ensure that
elections run smoothly and accurately. Just as we do in national elections, we
enter a voting booth and click on the box that represents our vote. We should not fear technology because we are
surrounded by it in our everyday lives.
By automating elections, we can have smoother and quicker elections and
the Nom/Rec committee simply makes sure the voting room runs smoothly or to
troubleshoot tech issues. For those who
cannot attend national elections, absentee ballots can still be submitted
through the mail or with the assistance of the IT officer, a web based vote
could be accepted with the proper ID authentication.
Do
you think that elections should be held electronically? If not, why not? If so,
what are your ideas/suggestions for the process?
Yes,
elections should be held electronically. There are numerous kinds of software
or web based applications we can use to do this. This will help our elections run quicker and
smoother, it involves less paper, and Sisters will not have to wait so long for
the results. Absentee ballots could even
be done electronically or on paper. Such
software as Election Buddy, Elections Online, Voting on Demand, or Election
Trust would be great companies to begin our research on the best choice for our
organization. Smart investments in
laptops to create electronic voting booths can help ease this process. It has
to be implemented strategically and just because it’s electronic doesn’t make
it better. We have to test the process
repeatedly to ensure proper outcomes.
Even the nominations process can be done online, as it was done with our
chapter and creating online forms to facilitate this process can be implemented
and be the first step to digitizing our elections process.
What
program would you create to make sure that the members are getting new Black
Books with Amendment changes?
It
should be the responsibility of the chair of Constitution of Bylaws to ensure
proper distribution of the Black Book in print and in digital format. We have to be more “green” in our production
of various Swing publications and should not be committed to a printing of the
Black Book with each Amendment change.
Amendment changes can be posted in the Sisters Only section of the
national website. New members should receive the latest copy of the Black Book
at the time of their induction. If Sisters want the entire Black Book, they
will have access to it digitally or can purchase it for a nominal fee.
How
would you improve the selection of chapter, member and community awards
recipients?
For each award, there has to be a set criteria for each award and
for member awards, Sisters should be notified to accept their nomination.
Chapters must have completed a set amount of community service
hours, completed 3:4 national initiatives, and provided photo/article evidence
of their work in at least 2 issues of the Ebony Pearl annually.
I think all awards should be chosen by a separate awards committee
which is a random sample of sisters who will anonymously vote on a select
number of chapter, member, and community awards.
What
process would you propose that would ensure that all Chapters are submitting
reports as required and that they are being reviewed to ensure all Chapters
are functioning according to the Constitution and Bylaws of SWING?
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The process I would propose for chapters to ensure all chapters
are submitting reports as required is working closely with the grad and
undergrad affairs officers. As far as functioning properly, this would have a
lot to do with financial reporting, ROP certification and compliance, working
to complete national initiatives, and the national active status and national
training of chapter officers. This
review process can be done during the Symposium and during regional meetings in
which chapter presidents can meet with Grad/Undergrad officers and the
Constitution/Bylaws committee on a regular (if not annual) basis. So much can change within a year and an
extraordinary amount of time should not lapse on how often we keep our chapter
level leadership informed and trained on the rules that govern us. Also, we must determine how these reports
will be used and will this be a way for the organization to evaluate a chapter’s
effectiveness. And we need to determine
if reports are submitted quarterly and reviewed by members of leadership to
ensure proper compliance. We have to
better utilize our face-to-face meetings and digital communications to make
sure we are doing as we are supposed to
be doing. This is where open
communication and training can happen b/c the chapter presidents must ensure
proper compliance and accountability.
