National Women's Branch changes

Speaker 1 00:29

Hello and welcome to this week's program, I'm Vaughan Benison. You may have seen if you're a member of Blind Citizens Australia, news in the recent member update about changes to the branch bylaws of the National Women's Branch. If you're not a member of Blind Citizens Australia, I'd encourage you to become a member and you'll be able to get the member update each week from BCA. Otherwise you can have a look at the BCA website and there's information there.

But to find out more, we speak this week with Katrina Taylor, current president of the National Women's Branch. Let's talk about some of the changes that have happened in the Women's Branch over the last couple of years. We haven't heard as much, there were quite a number of the women talk conferences going on at the time. Is that still happening? And what other activities is the branch involved in?

Speaker 2 01:11

Okay, so what we have been doing is just the women's talk conferences or what you now call them, just branch workshops. They've been rolling out for another couple of years. So we've covered topics like turning negatives into positives, dealing with the transitions in your life, living alone when you have a disability, growing old when you already have a disability, amongst other themes which have been led by branch members. And I've often taken the form of a group discussion because we believe everyone has something to contribute and we want to hear what people have to say. They can also then share it with other members that are present as well.

So that's just one thing we have rolling. We still have our weekly word game, word Wednesday, which we've got about eight members taking it and turned to host. That now on our dial -in number, so it's a Wednesday arvo for a bit of word fun and word games. Book Club is once a month on the fourth Wednesday of the month and each member takes it in turn to pick a book. So if you nominate the book, you're the one that will be leading the discussion for the next month and they are all titles that are available in the Vision Australia library as well, making it easier for people to access. And our super -duper big change is that our branch bylaws finally got a long overdue review and update and were passed overwhelmingly by the membership at our AGM last year.

Speaker 1 02:55

When was the last review of the bar laws, [indistinct]?

Speaker 2 02:58

Yes, it was. It was in 2002 when our now BCA President Fiona Woods was actually the Women's Branch President. So a good 20 years ago and you're absolutely right, very much in need of some change. 

Speaker 1

Let's go back a little bit further though. Tell us a little bit about the branch and its inception and some of the significant achievements that have been made over that time.

Speaker 2 03:26

Okay, now you're stretching my memory because I wasn't actually a part of BCA at the time rather of the branch's inception which was in the early 90s and the late Diana Braun as people might be aware was our very first branch president and from what I understand it was to give women a voice and for blind and vision impaired women to have the opportunity to support each other and learn from each other as well and have some of the issues addressed because as you might appreciate certain issues affect women who are blind and vision impaired differently to how they affect men who are blind and vision impaired.

Speaker 1 04:13

And there have been a number of significant achievements. One of them I can think of is the publication of the book about blind parents.

Speaker 2 04:22

Yes, that's right. If I recall correctly, children are fun for everyone. There was also a publication about nursing at home. It was recognising that women primarily take on the role of caregiving, particularly if they have an elderly parent living with them. So this was a resource that was created to assist women who are blind or vision impaired in that role.

Speaker 1 04:48

That's really interesting. I wasn't aware of that one. Is that still available?

Speaker 2 04:53

I'm not sure that it is. We are looking to find a copy of it so that we can actually keep it in our archives and also look at reviewing it as well because obviously a lot has changed since that was created.

Speaker 1 05:09

Yes and the same thing with the Blind Parenting book. I have a feeling I read that book but I certainly don't have a copy of it and as far as I know it's not still available for purchase or borrowing from any of the libraries.

Speaker 1 05:20

There have been a number of other publications though from the Women's Branch including some cookbooks I understand.

Speaker 2 05:27

Yes the Scales Away. So that was a cookbook that was created where you don't need a set of talking scales or a sighted person around to read the scales for you as all the recipe measurements are in cups and table spoons. Making it easier for people to cook but also it was available in different formats as well. As not everyone has internet access allowing them to google whatever the latest recipes that they want to cook.

Speaker 1 05:56

What are some of the other key achievements of the women's branch, particularly in the last, say, 20 years or so?

Speaker 2 06:03

Okay, I think one of the key achievements has been the inception of the Diana Braun Aspirations Award. I notice this award that is presented by Ann Arlie by the branch to a woman who has made a significant contribution to the lives of women who are blind or vision impaired within Australia. I think the first year was 2013 and I believe that that went to Karen Knight from Queensland and last year we actually had our first posthumous award presentation which was presented to the late Barbara Gudgeon of Cairns fan of Queensland.

Very sadly, Barbara died as we were finalising the criteria for the award last year and Barb had been very, I think, very significant in the promotion of Braille and helping with people to learn adaptive technology, reading etc in both New Zealand where she was originally from and then later in Australia where she immigrated to with her family.

Speaker 1 07:23

You made a point earlier about the changes to the bylaws that were recently adopted by the branch. Tell us about some of those changes and what they mean for the branch generally.

Speaker 2 07:38

Okay, the significant changes are that we now have a new branch purpose, which is very much focused around supporting and empowering women and girls who are blind and vision impaired, and that's through peer support, assisting them to become less isolated, providing access to resources, encouraging skill development, particularly in the area of leadership as well. So in line with that, we've made some significant changes to our branch membership. Previously, anyone who was a BCA member, whether they were male or female, could become a full or associate member of the branch.

As a result, we did have a number of men join the branch, but as a result of the bylaws, now only women and girls or also people who are female, identifying and non -binary are able to become branch members, whether it's associate or full members.

Speaker 1 08:52

That's a pretty big change, changing your membership midstream while you've got other members who arguably are disenfranchised by that. What's the impact?

Speaker 2 09:02

Initially, we have been advertising the changes. We have also sent a letter to the who have been affected by this to let them know of the changes and that if they do identify the gender as male that they will be taken off the membership list and the details removed as the membership will cease and but also I think it goes the other way as I am aware that there are a number of women who have not gotten involved at the branch or joined the branch because they knew that men were present and didn't feel that it was appropriate to be hearing things that are personal to women when men are part of the branch.

Speaker 1 09:50

Yeah, how many people are we talking here?

Speaker 2 09:53

it was 35, which is a bit over 5% of the branch membership.

Speaker 1 09:59

You've made the argument that some people felt more comfortable with the idea of the branch being women only. And I guess you've considered things like recent cases where men and or women have made discrimination complaints against organizations that bar them from membership on the basis of gender and you've prepared for that.

Speaker 2 10:19

Yes, I believe that we have because the branch is about supporting women and as part of that we need to provide that safe space where we can talk freely about the issues we face and also it's not culturally appropriate for many women due to being from a migrant background or an indigenous background to have a man present when dealing with such issues and as it says on the on the door it says women's branch it doesn't say people's branch I mean if men want to form their own branch I think they actually should so they can address the issues that are specific to them.

Speaker 1 11:01

So that change was made a couple of months ago now. Have there been any negative ramifications? And in particular, what have been the positive ramifications of the change?

Speaker 2 11:11

Well, so far of the men that I have emailed that have replied to me, they've all been very supportive of our decision. I have said they completely understand why we are doing it and have asked that we take them off the membership list. We are yet to see what the other responses are. But I think generally it has been a positive response to our changes and also just having a set of branch bylaws that are very much up to date and reflective of where the branch is at and setting it up for a firm future as well.

Speaker 1 11:50

And have you had many new members since the branch laws were implemented?

Speaker 2 11:57

We have had maybe five or so, or given we've just come through January, which is always a quiet time period anyway. And I'm guessing they might have joined anyway, who can say, as I said, you don't need to supply a reason for joining the branch.

Speaker 1 12:14

That's still a significant injection of new members though, isn't it, over the last month or so?

Speaker 2 12:19

Look, it is at the time of our AGM in November, we had 470 members.

Speaker 1 12:30

Does that make it the single biggest branch in blind citizens Australia?

Speaker 2 12:34

That would be my guess. I guess only other rivals would be Queensland or WA, but we've never compared numbers.

Speaker 1 12:43

So what are some of the other key changes that you've made to the bylaws?

Speaker 2 12:46

Okay, around the branch committee, we now have a branch committee with seven positions all up including three ordinary member positions. And the other significant change to that is that only full members can be part of the branch committee.

Speaker 1 13:08

Well, it sounds like there's a lot happening and there's a lot of change afoot. What are some of the hopes and dreams you have for the branch during your current time?

Speaker 2 13:18

[indistinct] branch is that we will be able to reach more of our membership, particularly the members on the fringe such as Indigenous members, members living in rural areas, also members from a culturally and linguistically diverse background would be great, and also to see what we can do with our junior members as well. I think our youngest member is about two, so it would be great to be able to reach out to the junior members and their families to see how we can support them and influence the next upcoming generation of blind and vision impaired women.

Speaker 1 14:01

Katrina Taylor there - and if you'd like to get in touch with the women's branch you can email NWB at bca.org.au. If you'd like to get in touch with blind citizens Australia generally bca at bca.org.au ... bca@bca.org.au is the email address and if you'd like to do so by phone 1800 033 660 ... 1800 033 660. And in fact it's about the phone system that we will be speaking next week with a member of the Queensland branch. In the meantime, I'm Vaughan Benison - do take care. I'll talk to you again next week