Regional Chairmanship Responsibilities

It's become obvious recently that a single State Chairman in each State is
not going to be sufficient to meet all the needs that must be addressed.

What several states have suggested, and we think is an excellant idea, is to
have a single State Chairman who is responsible for handling applications
for the state and coordinating any state level activities; BUT also having
one or more "Regional" Chairmen to handle activities in specific geographical
areas or metropolitan concentrations. This issue arose in California, 
naturally, where the population (and thus the BBS Communities) are separated 
but are concentrated in several areas. In Alabama, for instance, the State 
Chairman is concentrating on the Birmingham area while a "Regional Chairman" 
is concentrating on activities in the Huntsville area.

This dispersion of activity seems to be much more practical since a Chairman
in say Los Angeles is not going to be aware of the TV and Newspaper coverage
of the BBS Community in San Francisco.

We see the difference between a "State" Chairman and a "Regional" Chairman as
being simply that the State Chairman will essentially be a Regioanal Chairman
who assumes the additional responsibility for processing and maintaining new 
applications and the State Member List, and for coordination with the National 
ABBSA Office.

              Note: THIS IS NOT A HEIRARCHICAL STRUCTURE!

Regional Chairmen should, of course, coordinate their activities with each
other so everyone is kept up to date on activities and ideas, but there is NO
authority invested in any one Chairman over another.

This is simply a case of us not thinking everything completely through during
the formation of the ABBSA. We simply forgot that each major city will have
it's own newspapers and Television stations and really need to be handled
separately.

So if you the State Chairman of your state is in a different geographical or
metropolitan area than you and you would like to take on the responsibility of
being a Regional Chairman, please contact your State Chairman or the National
ABBSA Office.

Even if there is no State Chairman and you would like to take on Regional
Responsibility please get in with us at the National Office.