Board of Publications Meeting Minutes for March 7, 2018

 The meeting was called to order by Chairman Ron Brooks at 9:03 p.m. on March 7, 2018.
Members present: Ron Brooks, Chair; Deb Lewis; Paul Edwards; Donna Brown. Susan Glass was excused.
ACB employees and contractors present: Sharon Lovering; Larry Turnbull.
Ex officio members present: David Trott, ACB Treasurer; Katie Frederick, Public Relations; Bob Hachey, Listserv Manager.
Guests: Sue Ammeter; Ralph Smitherman.

Ron reviewed the agenda.
Motion: Paul moved and Deb seconded adoption of the Agenda. Motion passed.

Motion: Paul moved and Donna seconded adoption of the January 9, 2018 Minutes. Motion passed.

Sue Ammeter expressed appreciation for the new cartridges.

Ron reviewed the background of how the ACB E-Forum was established. A lengthy discussion resulted in several points of consensus. Almost everyone has access to both magazines. Content of the two magazines can and should be different and determinations should be made regarding how to allocate space rather than assume every issue has every topic. There was also interest in making the E-Forum a themed magazine or themed with regular columns. An architecture could be built for each magazine with completely separate content and intent. We could experiment with the E-Forum and survey readers for feedback. Before the April meeting, everyone will brainstorm a list of topics and designate whether they might be for the Braille Forum, the E-Forum or both. Ron and Sharon will attempt to develop an architecture to allocate the space in both magazines for discussion at the April meeting.

Deb reported that Paul, CCLVI and Ron have all sent contributions. Paul and Deb need to spend time putting together a draft. Deb noted there is gray area in terms of the role of the BOP and the role of the marketing and communications group. Katie wondered if the BOP was still relevant and needed in the current culture. Ron said the BOP was created because there was thought to be a need for a separate body that managed communication and maintained a free press. Constitutionally speaking the BOP is charged with overseeing communication. ACB’s communication has evolved but the organizational structure of the BOP has not changed to incorporate new strategies. The strategic plan is tightly structured and headed in good directions, but we still constitutionally have the BOP which is not clearly accounted for in the strategic processes. We now need to collaborate with the strategic initiatives that relate to communication. Paul said that the BOP role is not to micro manage but rather to be the constitutionally mandated point of review for written communications. Ron said we need to identify the communication points and key players where a collaboration strategy is needed.

Ron has identified a resource for the workshop. Cheryl Brown is a personal branding expert in the financial services industry but has also volunteered for Paralympics and is interested. Ron will follow up with her, will share her bio and will then write the program description. David suggested we submit the Workshop for CEU credits. Ron will follow up with Janet for this.

There was discussion on the list prior to the meeting and consensus to name the newspaper “The Gateway Gazette” in support of the convention theme.

•    Appointed to the Marketing and Communications Action Planning Committee. Stepped down from the ACB Membership and Affiliate Development Action Planning Committee.
•    Reviewed and commented on draft web pages for the new ACB website under construction.
•    Connected with potential speaker on the topic of personal branding for 2018 BOP Writer’s Workshop.
•    Worked with BOP members attending the Midyear meetings to finalize BOP presentation notes.
•    Provided written comments to the subcommittee working on the BOP Editorial Policy Manual Review process.
•    Distributed thoughts on ACB Braille Forum and E-Forum formats and content to the BOP for comment.
•    Shared list of potential names for the 2018 Convention newspaper and invited other submittals.
 

Braille Distributed: 666; Returned: 1; Return Rate: 0.2%; Received: 665
LP Distributed: 2,598; Returned: 6; Return Rate: 0.2%; Received: 2,592
Cartridge Distributed: 990; Returned: 1 came back here, others went to Perkins; Return Rate: unknown
CD Distributed: 12; Returned: 1; Return Rate: 8.3%; Received: 11
Electronic Distributed: 6,108; Returned: 4; Return Rate: 0.1%; Received: 6,104

I’m currently working on the March issue, and I have far more articles than will fit in one issue. I’ve cut Affiliate News down to bare-bones, time-sensitive information; I’m holding out Here and There, High Tech Swap Shop, MJ Schmitt’s memorial article, Ardis’ membership focus call summary, the Nevada accessible prescription label article, the candidates’ page article, the summer auction article, the MMS article, an article about music and an article about sleep deprivation. The largest two articles this month are the president’s message, which is about the Delta Air Lines-guide dog issue, and Jeff Thom and the voting task force’s article about remote voting, both of which must go in March. As it stands now, I can fit about 7,500 words in a 64-page issue at the new large print standard (Verdana 20-point bold, with 24-point bold headline). I am working with Bill Hendrix at United Book Press to get some cost numbers for an extra 16 pages; stay tuned.
 
I am also working on the annual membership updates. This year, all but three affiliates are using AMMS. Thanks to Nancy Becker’s persuasion, Utah has made the switch to AMMS! Other new users include Wyoming and AAVL. Updates come in on a daily basis, sometimes a little at a time, sometimes a lot. So far, more than 1,000 updates have come in, and I’ve taken care of them all. The most popular updates requested are to change to digital cartridge or to email, and changes of address. As of today, I’ve also received 16 death notices from various affiliates, most of them from Missouri.

Distributed: 6,129; Returned: 1; Return Rate: 0.0%; Received: 6,128
* I also received one cartridge back and one cassette from a previous year, as well as one braille copy and 9 large print copies of January.

Braille Distributed: 671
LP Distributed: 2,601
Cartridge Distributed: 892
Electronic Distributed: 6,196
Total Distributed: 10,360
 
I’m currently working on the April issue. I have plenty of articles to choose from, and they’re all good ones! There’s an update on the Delta service dog issue, as well as plenty of convention information. I plan to put the article about the newspaper in the May issue, since convention starts in late June.
 
I am also working on the annual membership updates. Updates come in on a daily basis, and the numbers took a significant uptick around February 15th. So far, more than 3,000 updates have come in, and I’ve taken care of them all. The most popular updates requested are changes of address and changes of format (often, to email or cartridge). The new DPO Push feature in AMMS allows me to push a button and make the change(s) that an affiliate has made in an individual’s record – or delete that change if I have more recent information, or reason to doubt the accuracy of the change. It’s made a huge difference in the amount of time it takes me to make the corrections and changes. What used to take hours now takes minutes.
 
One other thing I am working on is the list of articles for the Freeman, Henley and Liggett awards. I will send that out as soon as it’s complete. We’ve got just under a month to go until the deadline.
 
Sharon also announced that family medical issues may interfere with her participation at convention and she will need backup. She will distribute a list of duties so we can determine how best to back her up.
 

Listener stats from Stream Licensing should be available again by next report. Midyear presidents meeting had 45 listeners and the legislative seminar had 38 listeners on the server. Audio Now had 450 for the Presidents meeting and 600 for the seminar. There were 45 listeners on the server and 525 on Audio Now for Sagebrush.
 
Larry is building an Alexa skill to pull streams and podcasts.
 
Paul asked about the Zoom account for the Candidates Forum. Larry said there were complications with the limitations of one licensed user. Deb explained that only one account should be needed which can have multiple users. Larry will discuss with Eric.

ACB-L, Membership:
January, 320; February, 323
Messages Posted: January, 162; February, 129
 
ACB-Chat, Membership:
January, 139; February, 137
Messages posted: January, 167; February, 280

No data was available.

Getting information out about the tenth anniversary of the Walk. Also promoting the 60th anniversary of RSVA.

There was no other business.

The next meeting is scheduled for April 3, 2018 at 9 p.m. Eastern.

Paul moved and Donna seconded adjournment. The meeting adjourned at 10:23 p.m.
 
Respectfully Submitted,
Deb Lewis, Secretary