Bill Raeder's Retirement Letter
February 12, 2007
Dear Friend,
After 31 years at the helm, I have decided it is time to retire from my position as president of National Braille Press. You are one of those I want to inform of this, before the news is broadcast in our newsletter.
No specific date has been set; it will depend on the time required for the Board of Trustees to recruit and install a replacement. Their newly formed Succession Committee, charged with this recruitment responsibility, has a preliminary goal of completing the task this coming fall. You will hear more from us as succession plans are further developed.
The time just seems to be right. Somehow, over the course of these three decades, with wonderful staff, trustees, donors, and braille readers, we have realized a steady growth and development in the variety of services offered, in the number of blind people served, and in the charitable support raised.
In the late '70s, we built our braille transcription and pressing capacity to serve other organizations wishing to communicate with their braille-reading constituents. In the '80s we reinvigorated our publishing program. We added our Children's Braille Book Club, Syndicated Columnists Weekly, and a steady flow of information pamphlets and books helpful to blind people in all sorts of activities - from operating computers and cooking, to baby care and job-seeking. In the '90s, we became more acutely aware of the needs of blind schoolchildren, and started our braille textbook transcription service, now serving primary and secondary students in all 50 states and Canada with educational materials including the all-important standardized achievement tests. In the current decade, we added our ReadBooks! Because Braille Matters program, to seek out and serve families with preschool blind children across the country, to broaden awareness on the part of the parents of the importance of braille literacy, and to stimulate early reading by the children.
Now, we have in the last year developed a strategic plan to further build on our success in all these programs, with added emphasis on components such as expanding relations with parents and teachers, and tactile graphics. We found we have been right on regarding our mission, and well-directed toward addressing unmet needs. Our challenge now is to forge ahead with renewed energy and creativity in the further growth and development of our services and new strategic initiatives.
As these challenges keep coming, as the Press gets larger and more complicated to manage, and as I advance in my eighth decade of life, I am finding that the lifting is getting heavier. What better time to pass the reins to someone with new energies, new ideas, and new inspiration - to pass them on now, when the Press is at its best, and opportunities arising from our strategic plan are great.
I have loved my work here, and have been truly blessed with a most fulfilling career. I now look forward to a more relaxed pace, with time to read and to travel, to stay en rapport with friends and family, and to explore new vistas - and to opening a new chapter in my relationship with National Braille Press.
With warm and appreciative regards,
William M. Raeder
President
