Call to Order
The July 1, 2022, ACB Conference and Convention Board of Directors Meeting was called to order at 10:01 AM Central Time by President Dan Spoone. Members of the Board and guests participated both in person and virtually.
Roll Call and Introduction of Guests
The call of the roll was conducted by the secretary, Denise Colley. members present: Dan Spoone, Deb Cook Lewis, Ray Campbell, Denise Colley, David Trott, Kim Charlson, Chris Bell, Jeff Bishop, Donna Brown, Jim Kracht, Doug Powell, Kenneth Semien, Pat Sheehan, Koni Sims, Michael Tally and Jeff Thom. Board of Publications Member Penny Reeder was also present.
Staff present: Eric Bridges, ACB Executive Director, Clark Rachfal, ACB Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs, Swatha Nandhakumar, ACB Advocacy and Outreach Specialist, Jo Lynn Bailey-Page, ADP Coordinator & Grant Writer, Nancy Marks-Becker, Chief Financial Officer, Cindy Hollis, Manager of Membership Engagement, Kolby Garrison, Membership Services Administrative Assistant, Sharon Lovering, Editor, Rick Morin, ACB Media and IT Manager, and Larry Gassman, ACB Media Coordinator. Many guests were also introduced.
Approval of Agenda: Dan Spoone, President
It was moved by Bell and seconded by Brown to approve the meeting agenda. The motion carried.
Review and Approval of Minutes: April 1, 2022, and May 19, 2022 – Denise Colley, Secretary
It was moved by Campbell and seconded by Trott to approve the April 1 minutes of the telephonic Board meeting. The motion carried.
It was moved by Brown and seconded by Bell to approve the May 19 special Board meeting minutes. The motion carried.
Mission Moment: Dan Spoone and Eric Bridges
A huge “shout out” was given to the convention Broadcast team for all of their hard work and commitment to deliver our first hybrid convention. Dan also thanked the members of the Convention Coordinating Committee, the Convention Program Committee, the Convention Steering Committee, special interest affiliates, ACB committees, ACB staff, and our member volunteers for their countless hours of work to bring this event together. Eric added that three of ACB’s core values: flexibility, collaboration, and initiative, to meet the identified planning milestones.
Official Introduction of Bill Reeder: Dan Spoone and Eric Bridges
Dan reported that Bill Reeder is stepping in as ACB’s interim Resource Development Consultant. ACB needs to have a resource development presence because a revenue stream is so critical to this organization.
Bill has served on the ACB Advisory Committee for the last year, and he comes with 30-plus years of development and fund-raising experience. After a series of weekly meetings, a proposal, with some financial compensation was developed for him to use his expertise to assist ACB in moving forward with our development objectives during the transition, and help in training a new Director of Development in the future. The contract has not yet been signed pending Board approval. The cost of Bill’s assistance and expertise will be around $13,000 to cover the remainder of the year. Much of that is capped at ten hours a month, and anything that goes over that will be considered pro bono.
It was moved by Trott and seconded by Thom to approve entering into a contract with Bill Reeder to provide Director of Development functions until the new person is hired and trained. The motion carried.
Consent Agenda: Dan Spoone
It was moved by Campbell and seconded by Bell to approve the reports on the consent agenda. The motion carried.
It was moved by Trott and seconded by Sims that any policies or procedures reviewed and officially approved at the Board meeting become effective immediately. Thom made a friendly amendment that the motion add the language “unless explicitly stated in a motion to the contrary”. This was considered friendly by both the maker and seconder of the original motion. The motion carried.
Convention Report: Janet Dickelman, Convention Coordinating Committee Chair
Janet reported that things are going well with the Convention. The hotel and convention center are doing their best in assisting convention attendees. Recruiting volunteers has been challenging this year.
It was moved by Campbell and seconded by Brown to approve the convention report. The motion carried.
President’s Report: Dan Spoone
ACB Resolutions (3.0) and Voting Task Force (3.0): Dan stated that, given expressed concerns about the length of the Convention, there is more work to be done on resolutions and voting processes. Therefore, both the Resolutions and Voting Task Force ad hoc committees will continue to function for another year. Ray Campbell has agreed to continue to serve as chair of the Resolutions Task Force 3.0 Ad Hoc Committee, and Patrick Sheehan will continue to serve as chair of the Voting Task Force 3.0 Ad Hoc Committee.
Formation of an ACB Media Support Committee: Dan reported that this Committee will be established and will be similar in structure to the Community Support Committee. A chair for this Committee will be identified soon. Rick Morin will serve as the staff lead for the committee.
Thom asked for clarification on the specific charge for this committee. Dan responded that, as ACB Media has moved from ACB Radio and grown and developed into ACB Media Network, we need to reflect this organizational transition. ACB conventions, DC Leadership Conferences, and state conventions can no longer be supported without the significant involvement of ACB Media. With a fulltime ACB Media staff position, we need to continue to get feedback and support from our volunteer affiliate and committee leadership. Representation on this Committee will include these two groups, as well as ACB Board members. The Committee will be charged with developing a set of more defined guidelines and policies, as was done with the ACB Community Support Committee.
Formation of a Mental Health and Wellness Committee: Dan reported that there have been multiple discussions with the Advocacy Steering Committee and a group of ACB members interested in the intersection of blindness and mental health. Last year, they formed a group named the Mental Health and Wellness Working Group. Their efforts have focused on formalizing a Mental Health and Wellness Committee within ACB. This committee will provide information, referral, education, and advocacy. It will not diagnose or provide counseling or therapy.
Campbell requested that this Committee develop a set of specifically defined goals and objectives to present to the Board. Dan reported that he will be appointing Pam Shaw to chair this Committee, and he will be working with her to identify other members for the Committee.
It was moved by Bell and seconded by Colley that ACB move forward with the formation of a Mental Health and Wellness Committee. The motion carried.
A Thank You from the Auction Committee: The Auction Committee expressed their appreciation to the Board of Directors for all their support and donations to the July auction.
ACB Leadership email List: Dan Spoone and Deb Cook Lewis
Dan and Deb, with some assistance from staff, have been working on putting more structure around the ACB Leadership Email List with a more formal monitoring process. They are also working on cleaning up the List since this has not been done in some time. Those currently subscribed automatically to the List include members of the ACB Board of Directors, staff, the ACBES Board, BOP board members, committee chairs and co/vice chairs, and all affiliate presidents. This totals roughly 130 unique individuals. That leaves about 180 other individuals on the List who don’t fit into any of those categories. They will reach out to all state affiliate presidents to let them know who is subscribed from their affiliate so they can then determine who should remain on the list. Each affiliate will have up to three different members on the list who don’t fall into the other categories. Once the list is updated, the next step will be to put a monitoring process in place. The original intent of the Leadership List was to serve as a forum for leaders to discuss topics that deal with ACB or blindness-related issues. The original List Guidelines will be reinstated when the list cleanup is completed.
Powell brought up the issue of adding the DKM First Timers and JPMorgan-Chase Leadership Fellows to the Leadership List. President Spoone acknowledged this was a good idea and will pursue this suggestion.
Next Telephonic ACB Board of Directors Meeting: Dan Spoone
Dan reminded Board members that the next telephonic Board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 31 at 8:00 PM Eastern Time.
The fall Board meeting will be held in Schaumberg, Illinois October 22, 2022 with an all-day Board workshop on October 21st. It will begin at 9:00 AM CDT.
Miscellaneous: Bell asked if there were any updates to the correspondence the Board received from ACB Next Generation and the Florida Council of the Blind. President Spoone spoke with both affiliate presidents, the ACB Next Generation vice president, and the executive committee of the Florida Council of the Blind.
Dan said that as we continue to go through our Entrepreneurial Operating System Traction approach, the final step will be defining our key processes and procedures.
It was moved by Semien and seconded by Trott to approve the President’s report. The motion carried.
Board Stipend Policy: For new Board members, the current policy was reviewed. Currently, a Board member can request up to $1,000 to help cover documented expenses to attend a Board meeting.
In light of the significant increase in air travel costs, Kracht inquired as to the procedure for entertaining a motion to change the $1,000 Board stipend. It was moved by Kracht and seconded by Sheehan to allow the $1,000 stipend to be increased to recognize any economy class air fare amount booked at least thirty days in advance that exceeds $500 as being added to that stipend, and that this policy be reviewed again in eighteen months.
At the call of the question by the president, the voice vote was to close to call and a roll call vote was taken. The result of the roll call vote was that the motion passed with seven yes and six no, with two Board members not present at that time to vote.
Staff Reports:
Executive Director: Eric Bridges
(See the report contained in the consent agenda.)
Staffing Update: As was highlighted in his written report, Eric talked about the challenges around staffing changes and filling vacant positions. With the departure of Tony Stephens, the recruitment for the Public Relations Specialist position was pulled to allow time to determine the best option in regard to the management of our communications department moving forward. Another staffing reassignment is that, with Tony’s departure, Clark Rachfal will become the staff lead to the Get Up and Get Moving Committee.
Possible Relocation of Alexandria Office: Eric discussed about the Alexandria Office situation referenced in his report. The ACB Alexandria office is on the fourth floor of the building, and next summer, the second and third floors are schedule for renovation. The commercial real estate market in the Northern Virginia area has remained soft due to a number of businesses and government agencies that are working remotely. The landlord has offered to abide by the terms of the lease, but would let ACB exit the lease without penalty if we find another location. Eric would like to explore other location options to see if there might be cost savings and/or office space that would be more efficient and similar in size.
Campbell moved and Sims seconded a motion that the Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer be authorized to explore the availability of other similar office space in the immediate area. The motion carried.
Grants and Sponsorships: Nike is a new Health Hero for Get Up and Get Moving. They are a new player in the disability accessibility space. In addition, Johnson & Johnson and MGM joined as convention Sponsors. Vispero increased their sponsorship and is a Diamond Sponsor.
Advocacy Update Report: Clark Rachfal
(See the report contained in the consent agenda.)
Accessible At Home COVID Tests: Conversations with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) around the accessibility of At Home COVID Tests are ongoing. One of the ways we will be increasing access to these more accessible tests is that DHHS will be shipping a number of these tests to the convention for distribution to attendees.
Web and Online Accessibility: ACB is continuing our advocacy with our federal partners at the national level to help move forward both regulations and legislation to make the online environment as accessible as possible.
Voting Accessibility Update: In a year of mid-term elections, we have had great victories by the Bay State Council of the Blind, as well as advocates in Rhode Island. The governors of both states have signed in to law legislation that allows for people with disabilities to receive, mark and return absentee ballots accessibly and electronically.
Thom brought up the concern about coming up against cyber security computer scientists about the full accessibility and security of receiving, marking and returning ballots accessibly and electronically. In addition to requirements for security, people with disabilities have a civil right that our election experience needs to be accessible. ACB is working with groups like Democracy Live and Tusk Philanthropy, who are working not only to improve the accessibility and security of technology, but also with researchers to provide information on how this can be accomplished.
Membership Engagement Report: Cindy Hollis
(See the report contained in the consent agenda.)
Cindy reported that we have twelve hosts, the majority of who have never worked conventions before. Host check-ins are being held on a regular basis, every month since January, and they typically have over 50 hosts attend monthly, even though they are only required to attend 1 each quarter. A quarterly facilitator check-in is also held, and the Community Support Committee is holding quarterly town hall meetings.
Cindy also shared that the Community has been averaging more than 400 events since January 2022, and, as of the end of May that number went up to 412 events. As of June 30, 2022, the Community has held 8,957 events since its beginning in March 2020. Since March of 2021, they have held ACB Presents the Daily Schedule every morning on Clubhouse. In October they added Zoom to the mix, and are now holding a collaborative event.
Chief Financial Officer’s Report: Nancy Marks-Becker
Julie Fischer began her employment in the ACB Minnesota office as the new Human Resource/Payroll Specialist. She has been very busy taking care of HR duties and trying to understand our convention registration process.
Chris Sawyer also started in March as the Thrift Store General Manager. He is taking care of the day-to-day operations of the Thrift Stores, ensuring that the processes we have in place are followed, and starting new strategies to bring more customers into the stores.
Convention Registration: Another large task over the past quarter has been moving our convention registration process to reflect a hybrid convention. A media database has also been developed. Previously, individual emails had to be sent out with the Zoom links to all convention speakers, presenters, panelists, facilitators, attendees, etc. This process was very time-consuming. The database will have all the convention sessions, presenters etc. with all their contact information. Once all those people have been entered into the database, individual data will not need to be re-entered. Once a change gets made in the Minneapolis Office, everyone who needs to know the change will receive the update automatically.
ACB Audit: Every year in March to April ACB has our annual audit. Once again we received a clean audit, which is the best rating that an organization can receive.
2022 Resource Development Report and Introduction: Bill Reeder
(See the report contained in the consent agenda.)
Bill Reeder stated that, with the departure of Tony Stephens, he has been working with Eric and Dan to build a comprehensive roadmap for the next six months and beyond. He said that one of the things he has encountered in working with everyone is how much serious fund-raising skill already exists at the staff and volunteer level. Jo Lynn Bailey-Page with her grant writing experience, Clark Rachfal and his corporate relationships, Cindy Hollis and her work with individual leaders. One of the strategies will be how to best leverage these very successful initiatives that are already taking place.
It was moved by Campbell and seconded by Thom to approve the staff reports. The motion carried.
Financial Narrative for 2022 Year-to-Date: David Trott, ACB Treasurer
(See the report contained in the consent agenda.)
This report is for the four months ending April 30, 2022
Total Revenue, 2022 YTD Actual: $515,161
Total Revenue, 2022 YTD Budgeted: $578,540.
Total Expenses 2022 YTD Actual: $664,240
Total Expenses 2022 YTD Budgeted: $725,679.
Net Operating Loss 2022 YTD Actual: $149,079
Net Operating Loss 2022 YTD Budgeted: $147,139
Total Net Contribution 2022 YTD actual: ACBES: $166,469
Total Net Contribution 2022 YTD Budgeted – ACBES: $86,221.
Convention Profit (Loss) 2022 YTD Actual: $103,888
Convention Profit (Loss) 2022 YTD Budgeted: $139,564
Total Unrealized Gain (Loss) 2022 YTD: $-592,713
Total Surplus (Deficit) 2022 YTD Actual: $-471,435
Total Surplus (Deficit) 2022 YTD Budgeted: $78,646
It was moved by Brown and seconded by Bell to approve the treasurer’s report. The motion carried.
Review and Approval of The Code of Conduct Process Procedure: Patrick Sheehan, David Trott and Jeff Thom
(See the written report provided to the Board.)
The policy as presented generated a lot of questions and discussion.
It was moved by Bell and seconded by Sims that the Code of Conduct Process document, as currently written, be approved and go into effect on an interim basis, subject to a process whereby the presidents of our State Affiliates and the ACB membership have an opportunity to review it and provide written comments within the next 30 days, and that it come back to the Board for finalization at the August 31 Board meeting.
Trott proposed a friendly amendment that any additions or changes be reviewed by our attorney for any legal feedback prior to Board finalization. This was considered friendly.
Bishop proposed a second friendly amendment that along with bringing this document to the affiliates for input, it also be brought before the entire membership through a series of Community Events where we give them ample opportunity to provide input, to ensure that all concerns are considered. The amendment was considered friendly and Bell added the language that any discussion be based on the document being publicly posted and made available to everyone prior to any Community events.
Thom proposed a third friendly amendment that the timeline for affiliate and member feedback and providing written comments, be extended to allow ample time for discussion, and that it come back to the Board for finalization at the fall ACB Board meeting in October. It too was considered friendly.
President Spoone requested some procedural clarification from the ad hoc committee related to implementation of the process. Instead of having to put together a three-person Code of Conduct panel, and, potentially, two Conflict Resolution Teams with two members each, would it not be more prudent to appoint a chair and six committee members? The Committee could then determine the makeup of the Code of Conduct panel and the Conflict Resolution Teams based on relationships between committee members and the Complainant and the Respondent in any given situation.
The motion would then read “It was moved by Bell and seconded by Sims that the Code of Conduct Process document, as currently written, be approved and go into effect on an interim basis, subject to a process whereby it is shared with the presidents of our State and Special Interest Affiliates, and brought before the entire membership through a series of Community Events where we give them ample opportunity to provide input, to ensure that all concerns are considered, that any discussions be based on the document being publicly posted and made available to everyone prior to these Community Events, that any additions or changes to the process document be reviewed by our attorney for any legal feedback prior to Board finalization, and that the document and feedback received comes back to the Board for finalization at the fall ACB Board meeting in October”. The motion carried.
Board of Publications (BOP) Report: Penny Reader, BOP Director
The large print guidelines that the BOP adopted are now in effect and were applied to this year’s convention program. The March ACB Braille Forum was the first issue that was printed according to those guidelines. The BOP supports the changes with respect to the Leadership Email Discussion List that were described earlier in this meeting. The Blog is still going full steam and they encourage people to write posts.
Bell moved and Campbell seconded a motion to approve the Board of Publications report. The motion carried.
Discussion on The Draft ACB Media And Affiliate Engagement Policy: Dan Spoone and Rick Morin
President Spoone informed the Board that, at present, this Draft ACB Media And Affiliate Engagement Policy is being shared for informational purposes.
Rick Morin briefly reviewed areas the Policy addresses and justifications. The goal is to have a more formalized process of doing business between ACB Media and our affiliates and the services and resources ACB Media can provide for affiliate conventions. The plan is to socialize this Policy by taking it to the affiliates and to the membership, holding Community Events and any other opportunities to share and solicit feedback. A formal document will be brought back for Board approval at the fall Board meeting.
It was moved by Bell and seconded by Trott that the ACB Media and Affiliate Engagement Policy Draft be transmitted to the affiliate presidents and be made available to the ACB membership for purposes of providing written or other comments, and that the document be finalized and presented to the Board for approval at the fall Board of Directors meeting. The motion carried.
Approval of Document Retention Policy: Clark Rachfal and Deb Cook Lewis
Clark reported that it has become evident over the past year with ongoing legal advocacy that ACB is involved with that we do not have a uniform policy on how ACB handles electronic communications and file storage.
Deb added that ACB has so much recorded media because of the number of Community Events held and recorded each week, all the ACB Media streams, and all of the other content that we have that are all taking up a significant amount of space. It requires content management to find things, and knowing the expectations for minimum length of time required to keep certain items would be very helpful.
It was moved by Campbell and seconded by Bell that the Board adopt the Document Retention Policy as proposed.
Trott expressed concerns on behalf of the Archives Committee about the language in this document that seems to be contradictory to the work that they are doing related to the preserving of thousands of pictures and recordings we want to preserve and store for historical purposes.
Clark reiterated that this policy was written from a legal perspective. It notes what may be deleted after a given time period, but not that it has to be. It is to reduce the burden on the organization of what we would be required to produce if it is outside the time limits set forth in this particular policy. He is in agreement that this policy will not meet the needs and purposes of the History and Archives Committee, and it would be appropriate to have a specific policy related to archives. However, in terms of the materials produced by staff in the course of ACB’s business operations, they need a framework like this in place to reduce the burdens on the organization.
Campbell then withdrew his motion because, while this policy is written from a legal standpoint of what we have to do, we also want to preserve our history as much as possible. His suggestion was that those involved in drafting this policy work with the Archive Committee to come up with some language that would address all of the needs and bring it back to the Board for consideration at the August 31st Board meeting.
It was moved by Trott and seconded by Thom that we accept this Document Retention Policy as written, with the addition that we will work to set up a way of ensuring that those things that we need to preserve in our historical archives are identified and protected, and bring that policy language back to the Board for review and final adoption at the fall Board meeting.
In response to the motion on the floor, Eric attempted to clarify that we are really talking about two different documents. This policy addresses business operation and legal exposure that ACB as a business could incur or face. Secondarily we are talking about our history and documents in archives that we wish to retain that we can specify to whatever degree we want to keep in whatever format for however long. We can have both of these. It was agreed that there is nothing in the current motion that says the archive language and the document retention policy language has to speak to all of our business-related needs within one document.
The question was called for and the motion carried.
Discussion on The Length of the 2022 ACB Conference and Convention
In the interest of time, it was moved by Powell and seconded by Campbell to postpone this agenda item until the August 31 Board meeting. The motion carried.
Committee Reports (as needed)
Campbell briefly talked about the four committees he is liaison to and their convention activities.
Brown provided an update about the Mentoring and Peer Support Program. There has been a little bump in the road with the creation of the application forms. Applications are to go live for the guides (mentors) and explorers (mentees) on July 15 and will close on August 15, and by the end of August the twelve explorers will be selected and will be matched with a guide. The program will begin in September.
President Spoone talked about the work being done through the UniD Project working with the University of Hawaii and the National Park Service to audio describe NPS visitor brochures. At last count, UniD is up to about 80 visitor center brochures that have now been fully field tested and ACB has satisfied the Google grant requirements.
Three people will be leaving the Board after this meeting. Patrick Sheehan has termed out and Michael Talley and Jim Kracht have chosen not to seek re-election. President Spoone took the opportunity to thank each of these gentlemen for their service to ACB over the last four or eight years.
It was moved by Sims and seconded by Brown to adjourn. The motion carried.
Denise Colley
Secretary
Date submitted: 08/26/2022
Approved: 08/31/2022