Sierra Services for the Blind, Memborship

Sierra Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired
offers full services, at no charge, to clients in the foothill communities of Nevada and Placer Counties and beyond.

We help blind and visually impaired individuals stay in their homes and out of institutions.

Membership
Sierra Services for the Blind is unique in that it is ultimately controlled by a membership, rather than the Board of Directors. Made up mostly of clients, this membership is structured similar to stockholders.

The by-laws require the Board to have an Annual Meeting of the Membership on the first Wednesday in May. The Board of Directors must subject any changes they desire to the by-laws to a vote of the Membership. The Membership in turn can make changes it desires. As an example, an individual membership must be in place 30 days before the May meeting. A member rose in a year that the meeting was held on Wednesday, May 1st. Since most clients are elderly, and their pensions arrive on the 3rd of each month, this meant they had to pay more than 30 days in advance. It was moved and seconded that the formal date be April 5th of each year that a Membership must be active for the member to vote at the Annual Meeting of the Membership.

This example shows how closely the membership, especially the clients who are members, look at the agency, and the care they show toward management.

Another aspect is the Memberships ability to control the makeup of the Board of Directors. At the Annual Meeting members can vote out members of the Board they feel are not acting in the best interest of the agency. Several years ago several board members felt they should close the agency. Client members of the board were able to convince them that the votes were available to have them removed from the board at the Annual Meeting. Finding the case to be true, they resigned before the meeting. The members also have the ability to vote individuals on to the Board of Directors.

Voting Memberships are in two basic categories. Annual Memberships are set in the by-laws at $10 per year. The low cost is specifically designed to allow any of our fixed or low-income clients be become members. A Life Membership is available at $100. There are also two levels of non-voting Corporate or Business Memberships by paying an Annual fee of $100, or a Lifetime fee of $500.

The purpose of the Memberships is to allow the community, and specifically the clients to maintain control of the agency. In this manner they are assured the agency will continue to meet the needs of the client, and retain their stated purpose to provide the education and training, counseling and transportation necessary to retain the independence of the blind and visually impaired of our community.