ICAN webmaster asks for help

The ICAN webmaster wrote in to the support group email list today asking for list members to help get the ICAN website up higher in Google searches. Evidently, her Google search last night for the term “VBAC” did not return ICAN until page 12.  I think she is right to say that “no one is ever going to go 12 pages to find ICAN.” She makes specific requests to help change the situation. One is to make a post with a link to a new YouTube video, which I am happy to do. The video is attempting to make the point that many women who were told that cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD) — “the baby’s head is too large to fit through the pelvis” — necessitated that they have a c-section. In fact, CPD is not so prevalent as the medical professionals are seemingly so quick to have their patients believe. The video documents the birth weights/sizes of the c-sectioned babies of mothers who were told they had CPD and the same stats of the subsequent babies’  born to these same women via VBAC (vaginal birth), and in some cases, HBAC (home birth). The point is documented clearly so do pass it on to those who could use this education. You can find the video here (Try to ignore the music choice!)

My hope is to have time in the near future to spend some more time on the ICAN issues, as well as other birth activism groups and issues. I have been asked many times about the information I posted so long ago about my seeking the information regarding the organization’s membership, work, goals, and so on, and I have had to continually say that I am getting to it! Sorry to report that I am still short of the time to give this the attention it deserves. However, thank you for the inquiries and for bearing with me.

Choosing organizations to support

For a few months, I have been participating in ICAN’s online support group, through Yahoo. I have been trying to decide if I would like to become a member of ICAN, but the website offers very little information. Last week I posted a list of my questions but no one has responded, other than to say, that they were forwarding the list to the president of the organization.

Shouldn’t this information be readily available to all? Shouldn’t anyone else be able to answer it?

I will post my email questions and list below.

Not unsurprisingly, some women on the list give answers, such as my membership fee buys me happiness at supporting ICAN’s work. But what is that work, exactly? How do you know what you are supporting? Are you supporting self-appointed board members’ travel to what end? A mission statement is fine, but where are the annual reports, the accountability that shows how people’s money is being used to support the mission statement?

Another example of answers is  “as for who gets what position, I trust the women on the board to choose who they think is best.” Imagine! The irony is that the women who are volunteering answers like this are the same women who say they never should have trusted OBs or the medical professionals because they wound up with c-sections.

Here was my email:

It looks like some good work was done. I have been reading through the ICAN website trying to learn a few things about the organization before becoming a member. But I don’t see answers to several questions:

1. To become a member you must become a member at a local level, achapter, yes?

2. How do members vote for the board members?

3. How do board members become board members if there is no membership-based nomination and procedure?

4. What are the voting rights that come with the membership?

5. In other words, what is the voice of the individual member in the organization?

6. What is the membership “buying” a member? Other than Clarion, discounts?

7. That is, if it is to do advocacy, etc, I don’t see any annual reports that show how the membership fees are being spent or
contributing to the organization’ s goals, so am I looking in the wrong place? I believe NPOs must make public these facts, right?

8. Is there a strategic plan in place? Projected plans for spending/budgets.

9. These open positions do not show on the website, where I was looking to see how one can be considered to fulfill the position. How does that happen, and what is the process for selecting the ones who fill the position?

10. If you can only join local chapter, if you move within a short time, does your membership move with you to your “new” local chapter?

Let us stay tuned to see if anyone will respond.