Board of Publications Meeting Minutes for March 12, 2019

Call to Order/Introductions

The March meeting was called to order by Chairman Ron Brooks at 9:04 p.m. on March 12, 2019.

Members present: Ron Brooks, Chair; Deb Lewis; Penny Reeder; Paul Edwards; Susan Glass.

ACB employees and contractors Present: Sharon Lovering.

Ex officio members present: Kim Charlson, ACB President; David Trott, ACB Treasurer; Katie Frederick, ACB Public Relations; Bob Hachey, Email list manager.

Guests: Lynn Nishihara; Terry Pacheco; Donna Pomerantz; Derek Selbo.

Adoption of Agenda:

Ron reviewed the agenda.

Motion: Deb moved and Penny seconded adoption of the agenda. Deb suggested adding the convention workshop since we are approaching the program due date. It was added under Other Business, and the amended motion passed.

Approval of February 5 Minutes:

Motion: Susan moved and Penny seconded adoption of the February 5, 2019 minutes with spelling corrections. Motion passed.

Open Forum:

There were no items.

Discussion of BOP Editorial Policy Manual

Deb reported that a near final draft was sent two weeks ago incorporating changes from the last meeting. These included how the BOP will select the ex officio representative to the ACB Board of Directors and a description of supported alternative formats for ACB publications.

Penny asked for clarification on consensus regarding the ex officio appointee and is still not comfortable with the outcome. Deb said that a number of alternative approaches were put forward and this option appeared to have consensus but could be discussed again if requested.

Sharon noted and Deb acknowledged that it was previously agreed to correct an error concerning the Hollis Liggett Braille Free Press Award, his middle initial is S, not K. There was brief discussion of whether the family could have concern about portrayal of the award, but it was initially proposed by the BOP with no obligation to the family. It will now be known as the Hollis Liggett Braille Free Press Award.

Bob stated that he likes the section on email lists. It was agreed that Deb will clarify that the BOP’s obligation to resolve dispute resolution extends only to national, open lists such as ACB-L and ACB Chat.

Bob asked for clarification that the BOP has no jurisdiction over affiliate lists. deb said this is covered in the section on Consultation to Affiliates.

Paul asked about maintaining two classes of ACB documents. Deb explained that the class designations were simplified but there are still essential documents and all other documents. There is clarity that ACB’s obligation extends only to essential documents. And that other documents will be produced in alternative formats based on resources and capacity to be determined by staff and the committee or Board responsible for disseminating the information.

Deb reviewed items for the appendices which currently include the email list rules and guidelines and the large print guidelines. Katie indicated that the Style Guide is not ready for inclusion, so Deb will reference it as a work in progress and will be included when ready.

Lynn asked if guidelines for formats such as PowerPoint would be included. Deb said ACB currently does not produce or support content in PowerPoint, but there are a number of resources that CCLVI could use to establish guidelines.

Motion: Paul moved and Susan seconded that the Board of Publications accept the rewrite of the policy manual and forward it for information purposes to the ACB board of directors. Motion passed.

For the April BOP meeting, Deb and Paul will draft a proposed constitutional amendment regarding appointment of the ex officio representative to the ACB Board and will determine if any other amendments are necessary. The policy will be posted as provisional pending conformance by the ACB Constitution.

Finalization of Format for the Large Print ACB Conference and Convention Program

Ron briefly reviewed the work to date and summarized a letter from the CCLVI Board reiterating their support for the recommendations incorporated in the large print guidelines approved by the BOP in 2017 subsequent to the survey conducted at the convention in Reno. They recommend Verdana bold 20 point, 22 point for subheadings and 24 point for headings, 1.5 spacing between lines, single column, justified left and ragged right margin, 1” top and bottom margins with .75 left and right margins, page numbering in outer corners, and centered headings.

Ron said there is agreement that some problems with the program document for the St. Louis convention were due to poor formatting but there was also significant concern that the overall size of the document is now 300 pages, and that the print is in fact too large for many people to comfortably read. These concerns combined with CCLVI’s position to support only the adopted guidelines puts the BOP “between a rock and a hard place” in terms of making a recommendation for this year’s convention program. Ron invited Donna to comment first.

Donna stated that she was speaking for herself, not CCLVI. She thanked the BOP for their efforts and commended the survey process that resulted in the current guidelines which she believes represents the voice of the people. She appreciated acknowledgement of the formatting challenges experienced last year noting that those were a problem regardless of other factors. She hopes the BOP can find a way to thank those who participated in the survey in acknowledgement of their effort. She asked if we could recommend the book be divided into more volumes, and Deb said we are recommending that the calendar and possibly other relevant items be placed in a separate volume.

Lynn asked if last year’s convention program was available for download. Deb said she would try to locate it in the archives and send out a link to it.

Kim said she recognized the points of view, but we need to realize this is a 300-page document, and we’ve got to make it more readable for people, including better formatting. She suggested the BOP consider reserving bold for headings because there was no contrast change in the document, making it hard to skim for information. She also suggested 18-point font with 20-point headings to make the document a more manageable size.

Deb noted that while the survey was valid, it did not include samples of large documents, and many of the results were very close which could yield different outcomes given there were only 75 participants. She also noted that acknowledgement of the survey participants is evident in our commitment to follow the results everywhere except possibly in the convention program which is a totally different type of document than anything else ACB produces.

Terry suggested .75” margins with a .5” gutter would reduce the document by 35-40 pages. She also supported 18-point and suggested we could use reverse color for headings to make them stand out.

Ron reviewed numbers from the survey results. The strongest preference was for bold over normal but the fonts and point sizes were all very close. He noted that the samples were read top to bottom but our convention document is a reference to be skimmed. Contrast and breaks are important to ease of skimming and finding information quickly. David noted that he voted for bold in the survey based on the types of samples, but would never vote for bold in such a large document that is not meant to be read from top to bottom.

Ron proposed that we establish guidelines specific to the convention program, test these for this year, and solicit feedback from users of the program to get their response. There was general discussion of the options.

Motion: Deb moved and Penny seconded that the Board of Publications recommend the following guidelines on a one year trial for the 2019 convention program with discretion given to the editor for minor changes as needed:

Font 18-point Verdana with major headers of at least six points and minor headers of at least four points larger
Centered headings with reversed high-contrast backgrounds
Margins of .75” with a .5” gutter
Proportional line spacing of approximately 1.15

The BOP further recommends that a separate volume be created to include the calendar as is done for Braille. If feasible, this volume could also include other important information such as the exhibitors list, hotel information, etc.

The BOP will solicit feedback from users of the large print program to determine the usefulness of the format and specific reasons why it did or did not work for them.

These recommendations apply only to the convention program and not to any other publications produced by ACB including “The ACB Braille Forum.”

Motion passed on a voice vote.

Deb will work on this part of the minutes first and submit them to Ron for his response to CCLVI.

Logo and Graphics for the Dots and Dashes Publication

This item was previously raised by Terry who thought it would be good if the logo on this email publication spelled ACB in Morse Code. Sharon reported that leadership seminar and other activities were in the way, but Kelly is planning to create this logo when time permits.

Update on May, June and July Braille and E-Forum Magazines

Based on the articles received, the April theme has become aging rather than healthcare. May is travel and convention tips, Susan will send out a reminder for articles. This is a good opportunity to promote affiliate convention programs. June is multicultural and diversity which touches a large number of committees and affiliates.

Motion: Paul moved and Deb seconded that the July issue will be independence, including topics such as independent voting, Marrakesh Treaty, etc. Motion passed.

Chairman’s Report: Ron Brooks

Due to major family obligations, Ron was unable to spend significant time on BOP activities this month.

Editor’s Report: Sharon Lovering

February 2019

Electronic distributed: 6,423; returned: 1; received: 6,422

March 2019 Issue type: hard copy; Page count: 80

Braille distributed: 662; Cartridge: 860; Large print: 2,481; Electronic: 6,518

This year’s leadership meetings were a success! The weather was perfect for our day on Capitol Hill. We had a good cadre of high-school and other volunteers, and there were enough of them to go around. Many were able to stay the whole day, which was a tremendous help. There were a lot more restaurants on Capitol Hill this year than last year, too.

I’m currently working on the April E-Forum, hoping to have it out the door tomorrow or Wednesday. I don’t have a president’s message and am about 1,500 words short of the usual E-Forum total. I’ll see how it fits and keep you apprised.

Other Reports

ACB Email Lists: Bob Hachey

Leadership Subscribers February: 270; Messages: 104

ACB-L Members: 339; Posts 98

ACB-Chat Members: 155; Posts: 220

Social Media Stats

February 2019 Facebook: 4,060 likes

Disability Emoji approved by Unicode consortium (ACB collaborated w/ apple on blindness related emoji): 9,189 people reached; 146 likes, loves, and wows; 140 shares

People With Disabilities Are Entitled to a Free Lifetime Pass to National Parks: 6,518 people reached; 100 likes, loves, and wows; 155 shares

Oscars: audio description brings film to life for blind people, it deserves an award too: 3,583 people reached; 100 likes and loves; 75 shares

Twitter: 2,628 followers

Blindness related emoji approved by Unicode Consortium (ACB collaboration w/ Apple): 18,652 impressions; 69 engagements

People with disabilities entitled to free lifetime pass to national parks: 2,278 impressions; 31 engagements

January 2019: Facebook: 3,997 Likes

Architect Goes blind, says he’s gotten better at his Job: 9,270 people reached; 112 likes, loves, and wows; 91 shares

Court Says Domino’s Pizza Website Must Be Accessible to the Blind: 4,090 people reached; 108 likes, loves, and wows; 83 shares

Blind Runner Simon Wheatcroft: 3,690 people reached; 76 likes, loves and wows; 37 shares

Twitter:

ACB Advocacy Update w/ Margaux Joffe from Verizon Media discussing Disability Collection: 1,398 impressions; 46 engagements

ADP Birthday – accomplishments over last decade: 1,398 impressions; 46 engagements

Aira’s free 7 day trial: 1,287 impressions; 36 engagements

Public Relations: Katie Frederick

PR is assisting affiliates to get up and running with Facebook and Kelly is providing consultation to them on their affiliate logos and webpages.

Other Business and Announcements

The BOP meeting at convention will be Saturday, July 6 from 10:00 to noon. The Workshop will be Wednesday July 10 at 1:30 PM. Penny will be unable to participate in the workshop because it conflicts with the GDUI lunch. Deb proposed a hands-on workshop on how to access ACB publications in their various forms. This could include resources for affiliates on how to produce their publications in various formats. Ron suggested we might divide the room so participants could choose subtopics most relevant to them. Deb will be the facilitator. Ron and Deb will create the program description.

Next Meeting:

The next meeting is scheduled for April 2, 2019 at 9 p.m. Eastern time.

Adjourn

Deb moved and Susan seconded adjournment. The meeting adjourned at 10:59 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Deb Lewis, Secretary