The ACB Board of Directors met by teleconference on Wednesday, August 21, 2013. President Kim Charlson called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. Central Time. At the call of the roll, the following board members were Present: Kim Charlson, Jeff Thom, Marlaina Lieberg, Ray Campbell, Carla Ruschival, Mitch Pomerantz, Berl Colley, Janet Dickelman, Michael Garrett, George Holliday, John McCann, Patrick Sheehan, Dan Spoone, and David Trott. Board Members Absent: Sara Conrad, and Allan Peterson (Allan joined the call later in the meeting). Board of Publications Representative Denise Colley was present. Staff present: Melanie Brunson for entire meeting, and Tom Tobin, joining during the meeting.
The agenda was read by President Charlson. A request was made to add an item, before the Development Report concerning progress on Strategic Plan Goal 1 regarding ACB’s Twitter team. Trott moved and McCann seconded approval of the agenda as amended. The motion carried.
ACB Pre-convention and Post-convention Board Minutes. These were previously sent to the board and all requested corrections made. Pomerantz moved and Dickelman seconded adoption of both sets of minutes. The motion carried.
Election of board representatives to Credentials and Public Relations Committees. Pomerantz moved and Thom seconded re-electing McCann and Conrad to the Credentials and Public Relations committees, respectively. The motion carried.
Logistics for Fall Board Meeting: President Charlson would like for a subcommittee to work with her and Dan Spoone to put together the framework for our fundraising planning activities on Friday, September 27 at 1:30 p.m. Subcommittee members include: Melanie Brunson, Michael Garrett, Carla Ruschival and Jeff Thom.
Janet reported that we will be meeting near the Monaco Tower in the Riviera, the same tower in which we all will be staying. Since we have two suites available to us during the weekend of our meeting, we will raffle off chances among those attending the fall board meeting to be upgraded to the second suite. Tickets will be $10 each or 3 for $25. Not only will board members have a chance to enter and win, but also those coming for 2014 Conference and Convention planning. Carla Ruschival is the person those interested should call and she will handle credit card charges for this.
Goal 1 Report: Carla announced to the board the new ACB Twitter team: Lisa Brooks, Jim Denham and Michael Malver. This team will work with John McCann to enhance ACB’s Twitter presence at www.twitter.com/acbnational. We currently have 463 twitter followers. Carla and Francine continue to post information to ACB’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/americancounciloftheblindofficial. We need to add a link to ACB’s website so people can “like” this page.
Fundraising and Development Issues Report and Discussion: Melanie updated the board on two items. First, she and Lane had a lengthy meeting with Integral Resources Inc. (IRI) with whom ACB contracts to Discussion ensued concerning acquisition of new donors, retention of past donors and the possibility of ACB being part of a joint venture with IRI to expand our reach.
Thom moved and Pomerantz seconded to request that Melanie come back to the Fall board meeting with answers to questions about us keeping our donors, with a figure of how much we still owe IRI and to give us a better sense of the weekly reports we receive from them. The motion carried.
Melanie next discussed the contract we’ve entered into with a firm that researches grant opportunities and writes proposals to be submitted. This firm is helping us identify funding support for audio description.
At this point, Tom Tobin joined us to discuss other development issues. The back to school direct mail solicitation is going out to 3,515 addresses, featuring the story of a young man who is visually impaired, his hopes, dreams and aspirations. We’re targeting lapsed donors, inviting them back. The mailing will go out Friday, August 23. Melanie and Tom will get together to make sure board members receive a copy of the mailing.
Tom also reported that Jo Steigerwald, ACB’s grant writer has approached several foundations from which we were denied grants in the past. Letters of inquiry will be submitted to foundations seeking support for Audio Description, general operations and the Kids Explorers Club.
Tom further stated that Jo has identified 15 grant prospects to whom proposals will be submitted between now and April 2014. Melanie will provide a list of the grant prospects to the board. All told, we should have 25 grant proposals to submit.
There being no further business, McCann moved and Thom seconded to adjourn the meeting. The motion carried and the meeting adjourned at 9:03 p.m. central time
Ray Campbell,
Secretary
Date Submitted: 9/13/2013
Date Approved: 9/28/2013