Call to Order/Introductions
Adoption of Agenda:
- Ron reviewed the Agenda.
- Motion: Susan moved and Deb seconded adoption of the Agenda. Motion passed.
Approval of July 1 Minutes:
Motion: Susan moved and Donna seconded adoption of the July 1, 2017 Minutes. Motion passed.
Open Forum:
- Ken Stewart asked if the BOP has considered adding a lead paragraph to Braille Forum articles giving a brief bio of the author. Ron said this is a good suggestion and will be considered.
- Doug Powell said it was a pleasure serving on the BOP, and he congratulated Donna on her election to the position he previously held.
- Jo Lynn Bailey-Page explained that her primary reason for attending the meeting is to learn what’s happening with ACB Radio and the Braille Forum. These are both supported in part by grants to ACB, and she is currently working on progress reports for the funders.
Work Plan Review and Update:
Ron explained that the Work Plan was developed following the 2016 convention to lead and guide efforts of the BOP. It was ambitious and we were not able to complete all of the items. Ron reviewed the items in the Plan and asked people to identify what is still relevant, what needs to be added and what needs to go away for now. If anything is added, something must be taken off of the plan. Ron will update the Plan and circulate it before the next meeting. BOP members should then let him know which areas are of interest to them for this year’s assignments.
ACB Braille Forum Cartridge Production Contract:
Braille Forum RFP’s:
Conduct procurements for ACB Braille Forum producers for braille, large print and audio files; we do this every two or three years so will not be on this year’s plan. Will need to develop a more structured procurement process based on experience of last year.
Budget:
Occurs annually, same process as last year. This year long range budget planning is needed.
Develop a spreadsheet to document distribution of the ACB Braille Forum by mode:
This is the KPI spreadsheet. We will refine the data, particularly related to ACB Radio, and issue KPI statistics more consistently. We do know that there were about 9000 points of access for the Braille Forum last year which is useful information to share with funders.
Provide feedback to Convention committee on program and other materials:
- Katie indicated that there is continued interest to review the structure and presentation of the convention documents to make them more useful and streamlined. She thought additional input from the BOP would be welcomed and it should stay on the Plan.
- Larry suggested that the BOP might want to also consider changes to presentation of the Candidates Forum given that there were 95 more people online verses 15 in person. There was discussion regarding the significant increase in participation for many convention events offered online.
- Ron noted that our feedback last year was on the documents as they are now produced. We did not weigh in on overall structural changes that could be made for the documents such as implementation of a style guide for formatting. This year we can take a supportive role as more fundamental structural changes are implemented.
Develop recommendations for content of the E-Forum to take advantage of the online format:
- There was significant discussion last year regarding both the merits and constraints of whether the E-Forum should have fundamentally the same content and format as the paper ACB Braille Forum with no consensus reached by the BOP. Most of both publications are now predetermined by long standing tradition which means there is relatively little space for different or new types of content. It was initially thought that the E-Forum would not have size limitations because it is electronic, but we now produce an audio version at a cost determined by size. We don’t know at this time if the budget amount could be raised to accommodate the increased cost.
- Denise said she recalled the initial intent was for the publications to be different from each other but that difference was never defined and disseminated to potential contributors. There has also been concern about producing publications with differing content if everyone doesn’t have access to both. This may have been resolved for the most part by addition of the audio format.
- Ron would like to engage the Marketing group so that we also include consideration of the potential audience as we determine the overall intent and content of both publications.
Conduct routine BOP activities:
Monthly meetings; track volunteer hours; midyear meeting presentation; Select winners for Ned E. Freeman, Vernon Henley and Liggett Free Press Awards; Candidates page and forum; writers’ workshop.
Review of Editorial Policies:
This needs to occur this year. It was agreed to include any recommendations for ACB Constitution and Bylaws amendments as part of this activity.
Large Print Reader Preference Survey:
The survey was created and conducted in collaboration with CCLVI. Deb will follow up on the timeline for tabulation of the results. Next step will be evaluation of current large print production standards in light of survey findings, and making recommendations to the Board.
Work Plan Priorities:
- The role and scope of the ACB Braille Forum and E-Forum;
- Recommendations for the ACB Conference and Convention program in collaboration with other relevant groups;
- Long range budget considerations;
- KPI’s established and updated regularly to meaningfully track relevant data;
- Review of Editorial Policy.
Large Print Reader Preference Survey:
Deb thought that the process of conducting the survey at convention went smoothly. Ron thought the most valuable aspect of this project is a much more trusting and collaborative relationship between the BOP and CCLVI.
BOP Chairman’s Report: Ron Brooks
Ron publicly acknowledged the people who facilitated the BOP events at Convention. This included: Susan and Deb who presented the Board of Publications Awards in General Session; Susan and Paul who did a phenomenal job hosting the Candidates Forum; Doug facilitating the Writer’s Workshop which had great attendance and was well received; Doug for representing the BOP at the ACB Board; and everyone for writing summaries of the General Sessions for inclusion in the braille Forum.
Ron thanked Doug for his service to the BOP noting, in particular, his work on the Editorial Policy Manual, contribution to the Large Print Survey, and his general bent for structure and “getting it done correctly.” Ron said that if he could propose something that satisfied Doug he knew he was at least half way there.
Editor’s report: Sharon Lovering
Sharon was on vacation and sent her report in advance.
July 2017, Issue type: hard copy; Print Page Count: 48
- Braille Distributed: 695; Returned: 9; Return Rate: 1.3%; Received: 686
- LP Distributed: 2,668; Returned: 15; Return Rate: 0.6%; Received: 2,653
- Cassette Distributed: 939; Returned: 5; Return Rate: 0.5%; Received: 934
- CD Distributed: 134; Returned: 1; Return Rate: 0.7%; Received: 133
- Electronic Distributed: 5,289; Returned: 0; Return Rate: 0; Received: 5,289
- Total Accessed (Excludes Returns): 9,695
August 2017, Issue type: electronic; Print Page Count: 48
- Electronic Distributed: 5,296
- Total Accessed (Excludes Returns): 5,296 (as of 7/28/2017)
September 2017, Issue type: hard copy; Print Page Count: 48
- Braille Distributed: 684
- LP Distributed: 2,656
- Cassette Distributed: 930
- CD Distributed: 132
- Electronic Distributed: none yet
- I am finalizing the September issue as I write this. I will be on vacation July 29-August 7, returning to the office August 8th.
- I am also working on the 2016 annual report with Kelly, Nancy and Eric, and continuing to work on the national office photo/video inventory.
The communication center at this year’s convention was outstanding. Thanks to Deb and her sister Kim, Susan, and Doug for coming by to help. I really appreciate your support and assistance! While there, I learned how to use the smaller, lighter weight Juliet 120 embosser, and boy, did that thing go fast! I had it race one of the 150s – both embossers doing the same document – and it did the same amount in half the time. Having it was a godsend after one of the 150s started dropping dots down the left-hand side and the middle of the odd sides of the pages.
Deadlines for the Rest of the Year
- September: July 24, 2017
- October (electronic): August 23, 2017
- November: September 25, 2017
- December (electronic): October 23, 2017
Other Reports
ACB Radio: Larry Turnbull
- General session, LUA, GDUI, and workshop recordings are now available at: https://acb-events.pinecast.co/. The podcast feed is: https://pinecast.com/feed/acb-events. The session on fundraising was not recorded due to lack of personnel, and the session on the Orbit Reader had technical difficulties so is not available.
- General session listener counts were each around 230. The 411 workshop and friends in Art Showcase were each 125; Rehab Issues taskforce and Candidates Forum each had 95; The Editors Workshop and Membership Seminar each netted 25; and the banquet had 115 listeners. Audio Now does not track unduplicated listener counts so is difficult to measure but there were approximately 500 calls per day for general sessions and 400 calls for workshops.
- Paul observed that the phone is still significantly important for many of our members who do not have internet access and we should continue to support its use. There was discussion that the numbers of remote attendees for the convention are growing each year while the numbers attending in person are diminishing.
Email Lists Stats: Bob Hachey
June
- ACB-L Number of Members: 309; Messages Posted: 172
- ACB-Chat Number of Members: 138; Messages Posted: 416
July
- ACB-L Number of Members: 312; Messages Posted: 207
- ACB-Chat Number of Members: 138; Messages Posted: 6
Social Media and PR: Katie Frederick
- It was agreed that Ron will contact Kelly to receive the social media stats for each month.
- Katie reported on the photography and video production done at convention which will be useful for the web site and for other PR activities. She noted that a more structured policy and schedule for photography and video needs to be in place to provide more direction to the photo and video resource people.
Other Business and Announcements
Paul raised the issue of why the convention is only broadcast and archived with audio and not video. There was brief discussion of issued that might be involved with video streaming. It was agreed this issue should be explored more thoroughly in the future with the Communications group to see if we could stream video through Facebook or other readily available and affordable means.
Next Meeting:
The next scheduled meeting is September 5, 2017 at 9:00 PM Eastern.
Adjourn
Deb moved and Donna seconded adjournment. the meeting adjourned at 10:48 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Deb Lewis, Secretary