BOARD OF PUBLICATIONS
Meeting Minutes
July 6, 2008
The American Council of the Blind Board of Publications met in person with one member joining via speaker phone on Sunday, July 6 2008 at the Galt House Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky. Paul Edwards called the meeting to order at approximately 10:15am. Members Present were: Jenine Stanley, Ken Stewart, and DeAnna Quietwater Noriega. Cindy Van Winkle was absent. Others attending were: Ex officio Members Ron Milliman and Barry Levine; ACB Representatives Sharon Lovering, Melanie Brunson, Earlene Hughes, and Chrissie Cochran.
Thanks: Paul expressed thanks from ACB and the BOP to DeAnna Quietwater Noriega and Cindy Van Winkle for their service to the board. He also expressed thanks to Sharon Lovering for her work throughout the year.
June Minutes: Ken moved to approve the minutes as corrected via email. The motion was seconded and carried.
Resolution 2005-15 After hearing a brief history of the resolution and work to date on its three provisions, the group discussed ways to serve those who do not access information via the internet or email. Melanie Brunson said that the new phone system for the Acb national office would have more capabilities to provide information via phone and also in Spanish. Regarding how to provide training to those who wish to use technology, the discussion yielded several suggestions, including workshops on basic email use and use of email and web browsing by phone products as well as a series of articles in the Braille Forum about technology issues.
Paul thanked Ron Milliman for his work on the initial survey of Acb members regarding technology and all who worked on the various provisions of this resolution. It was felt that the BOP would be a facilitator in future actions.
Editor’s Report: Sharon provided a written editor’s report prior to the meeting. She also reported that the Convention Communications Center was operational and that the only thing needed was for the braille translation software to be available on a medium other than floppy disk for future use.
There were 200 braille and 150 print copies of the newspaper being produced for general circulation. There were 150 braille and 690 print copies being produced for individual delivery.
ACB Radio: Chrissie Cochran reported that listenership for all streams is slowly on the rise. New programming includes Relationship Connections, hosted by Debbie Hazelton, who is a licensed counselor. This program is unconventional and has received excellent response. The Sports Show, hosted by Steven Guerra, focuses on younger elements and as yet has no audience figures to report. Main Menu is still the Number One show with Marlaina closely behind.
ACB Café is broadening to include poetry and short stories and will be brought up to a higher bit rate stream in the coming months.
ACB Treasure Trove is now outsourced which allows for sponsor drop-ins. These have been well received.
ACB World is being used for programs in other languages such as Finnish, Swedish and Hebrew. Affiliates are also using the World stream to broadcast their conventions. Jenine thanked Acb Radio on behalf of Guide Dog Users Inc. which is doing so during the Acb national convention.
ACB Interactive showcases the talents of blind broadcasters to the public. Although copyright requirements necessitated changes for broadcasters, and some broadcasters left due to accessibility issues with one software package, the team was able to create a method for logging copyright information. Chrissie recommended that ACB explore copyright issues again with Sound Exchange at the end of this calendar year. She recommended exploring options with Live 365 and other such services, noting that doing so may gain us a wider audience and will be easier for new broadcasters and listeners alike to use. Paul said this issue would be discussed at the BOP’s first teleconference after convention. To assist in this discussion, Chrissie will prepare a brief summary of the issues involved in changing providers.
Chrissie continues to investigate the possibility of “click through” services but such services may pose problems with Sound Exchange.
Web site: Earlene Hughes reported that on-line convention registration closed on June 28. She requested that there be better coordination in future between the various iterations of the program and thanked Sharon for her help in correcting discrepancies between versions.
PR Committee Report: Ron reported that the Press Release Handbook for Affiliates and Chapters was available through the Convention Information desk in electronic media with print and CD copies available through him. The handbook will appear on the ACB web site after convention for reading and/or download. He also noted that the PR committee is exploring a series of conference calls in which they will ask for PR representatives from affiliates and chapters. The first 12, or a number to be determined, will be selected to participate in the calls.
Web Site Redesign: Paul reported that he has convened a task force to study a redesign of the Acb web site. The task force consists of himself, Jenine Stanley, Ken Stewart, Earlene Hughes and Donna Pomerantz. Their initial report and direction will be ready by September 1.
Resolution Relating to ACB Mail: Ken submitted a resolution regarding identifiable labeling of ACB mail and brought it before the BOP for discussion. Both Paul and Melanie expressed concern about using a resolution to accomplish this task. After further discussion, there was consensus to withdraw the resolution. The BOP will continue to work with the Acb national office on a solution regarding this matter.
Open Conference Call: Paul noted that the BOP has discussed having open conference calls during its meetings. He proposed October 1 as the date for the first of these calls. Further structuring will be done at intervening BOP meetings.
Tuesday Topics: Paul reported that the BOP program on Tuesday Topics was aired on only the second half of the broadcast day There was sufficient interest however. He noted that subject listings for the Tuesday topics archives are being prepared.
Ex Oficio ACB Board Representative: Paul agreed to serve as ex oficio representative to the ACB Board for the coming year.
Candidates: The BOP granted Charlie Hodge and Judy Jackson, both candidates for BOP offices, time to speak.
Next meeting: The next meeting of the BOP will take place via teleconference on Monday, August 4, 2008 at 9:00pm EDT.
Paul moved that the meeting be adjourned at approximately 11:45am. The motion was seconded and carried.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jenine Stanley, Recording Secretary