Board of Publications Meeting Minutes: May 7, 2024

The Board of Publications Chairperson, Penny Reeder, called the May 7, 2024, meeting to order at 9 p.m. Eastern time. No changes were made to the agenda.

Board members present: Penny Reeder, Cachet Wells, Jeff Bishop, and Zelda Gebhard. Absent: Cheryl Cumings.

Ex-Officio members present: Sharon Lovering, ACB Braille Forum Editor; Rick Morin, ACB Media and IT Manager; Katie Frederick, Member Lead on ACB Public Awareness Steering Committee; and Scott Thornhill, ACB Executive Director.

Cachet moved to approve the April minutes, seconded by Penny. Minutes were approved.

None presented.

Member on the Mic (MOM) Anthony reported that we are in the process of producing two – one will be posted at the end of the month, and an interview is scheduled with a former scholarship recipient planned for later this week for Scholarship in Spotlight.

Individuals responded with interest to our plea for ACB members to join the team resulting in the addition of a person to help Tim in the editing process and another with experience in doing all three aspects of production – interviewing, audio editing and transcribing.

As there is only one more MOM in process, reminders requesting nominations for MOM have been placed in Dots and Dashes, will soon appear in the ACB Community daily schedule and Anthony will also post to the email lists to stimulate interest.

ACB Voices Blog Reviewers

May – Penny and Zelda
June – Cachet and Penny

Penny thanked Sharon for the written Editor’s Report. She asked why the statistics show that the cartridges are only sent out every other month. Sharon said that two issues are placed on each cartridge as per our agreement with Perkins. It was noted that this results in delayed receipt of sometimes time sensitive information.

May 2024 Statistics

April 2024

Braille distributed: 481
Braille returned: 8
Braille return rate: 1.7%
Braille received: 473
Cartridge distributed: 0 (cartridges go out in the odd months)
Large print distributed: 1,232
Large print returned: 13
Large print return rate: 1.05%
Large print received: 1,219
Email distributed: 5,584
Email bounces: 57
Unsubscribes: 2
Electronic return rate: 1.02%
Electronic received: 5,527

May 2024

Braille distributed: 487
Cartridge distributed: 312
Large print distributed: 1,255
Email distributed: 5,539

June 2024

Braille to be distributed: 480
Cartridge to be distributed: 0
Large print to be distributed: 1,230
Email to be distributed: TBA

Deadlines for the Next Issues

July-August 2024: pre-convention issue; deadline: May 24, 2024
September 2024: theme TBA; deadline: July 26, 2024
October 2024: theme TBA; deadline: August 23, 2024
November-December 2024 – theme TBA; deadline: September 23, 2024

May’s Table of Contents

President’s Message, by Deb Cook Lewis

Jacksonville Convention Snippets, by Janet Dickelman

Seeking Volunteers for the 2024 Information Desk, by Cecily Laney Nipper

Summary of the January 30, 2024 Board Meeting, by Penny Reeder

Alliance on Aging and Vision Loss (AAVL) Working for the Futures of Us All, by Doug Powell, President

How to Start an AAVL Affiliate in Your State, by Frank Welte

You’re Not Old Unless You Think You’re Old, by Larry Johnson

Thoughts on Losing Sight Later in Life, by Sandy Troiano

When Your Adaptive Skills Take a Hit as You Age, by DeAnna Quietwater Noriega

Adapting Games in Braille: A Do-It-Yourself Guide, by Andrew Smith

Recent Books about Blindness and Vision Loss, by Doug Powell

A Sacramento Success Story, by Jeff and Leslie Thom

Expertise, by Nancy Scott

What Her Bones Know, by DeAnna Quietwater Noriega

Here and There, edited by Cynthia G. Hawkins

June’s Table of Contents

President’s Message: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?, by Deb Cook Lewis

Extras, Extras, Read All About Them!, by Janet Dickelman

Walking into a Brighter Future in Jacksonville, by Donna Brown

ACB Membership Committee Convention Sessions, by Ardis Bazyn

Serving on the ACB Board of Directors: Here’s What You Need to Know, by Kenneth Semien Sr.

Summary of the March 2024 ACB Board of Directors Meeting, by Penny Reeder

Letter to the Membership of ACB

Experiencing a Solar Eclipse with Description from Be My Eyes AI, by Jessica Mandich

Affiliate News

High Tech Swap Shop

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As I write this, I’m putting the finishing touches on the June issue. It is going to press today.

I continue to put together the Dots and Dashes newsletter. The next issue will go out on May 6th; the one after that, the 20th.

I’m still working with the archives/history committee on preserving and digitizing old recordings and documents from ACB events and identifying people in photos. Some of the work involves digitizing board minutes. Another part of the work includes cleaning up and modernizing old issues of the Forum to current large print standards and organizing them on our SharePoint drive. I have finished 1978 and 1979, and am working my way through 1977. As of today, I have Word and text files for January through September. Big thanks to Jennifer Arnott at Perkins, who found a copy that had the pages that were missing from our copy and scanned them in and sent them to me. I was able to copy and paste them into the Word file. I’m missing a few words from an article in June 1977. Michael Byington is looking for it in his file cabinet and will let me know. I will do the braille files once I have all 12 months in Word and text.

I continue to record the Washington Connection, and some of the other boxes on our phone system, such as the national convention box, the scholarship information, and the state convention box. I updated those on April 19^th.

I will be working to update the Job Connection next week.

Sharon Lovering, Editor
ACB Braille Forum

July-August 2024: pre-convention issue; deadline: May 24, 2024
September 2024: Convention Wrap up; deadline: July 26, 2024
October 2024: White Cane Safety and Employment; deadline: August 23, 2024
November-December 2024 – theme TBA; deadline: September 23, 2024

Sharon will need help in the Communication Center during the ACB convention. Those BOP members who plan to attend in person include Cachet, Jeff, Zelda, and Katie. They are encouraged to volunteer when available. Penny invited members listening to help as well.

Penny thanked Rick for implementing the setting for a 5-day limit per subject. The issue was discussed. Consensus was to continue the 5-day limit, to be reevaluated in September.

The Braille Institute has developed a new font called Atkinson Hyperlegible to help with legibility and readability for people with low vision. Penny asked if the Council of Citizens with Low Vision International (CCLVI) has reviewed the font. Zelda reported that the CCLVI board will be meeting next week, and she plans to bring it up. Discussion revealed consensus to stay with the current Large Print Guidelines recommending the use of Arial.

Jeff reported that the handout created after the initial training is complete except for a few tweaks made necessary to reflect recent changes made to Groups.io.

Part II of the Groups.io training is scheduled for May 29^th.

An invitation and a reminder will be sent to those on the ACB Editor’s email list to attend the Smart Brevity training on Friday, May 10 from 8:30 to 9:30 PM Eastern. Jeff and Zelda will facilitate, and Katie will host. The group will watch the TED Talk and review highlights of the book. We will also consider renaming the email list to reflect the broadening of the scope to include more than editors and possible change of quarterly gatherings to a different day and time.

Katie suggested that we consider sharing the topic of Smart Brevity with the Affiliate Presidents also.

A reminder was made to all those planning to participate in the 2024 ACB election to send their information to Sharon Lovering at [email protected] by 11:59 p.m. on May 20. The Candidates’ Pages will be posted on June 3.

Those with Candidates’ Pages will be asked to participate in the Candidates’ Forum on June 19.

Any candidate may submit a 30-second audio promo to air on ACB Media.

Penny brought attention to the document written by ACB Board Director, Kenneth Semien Sr. about the expectations and responsibilities of ACB board members. It was compiled to help those interested become better informed and prepared to serve in this important leadership position. It was written specifically for the ACB Board of Directors, but some is also applicable to the ACB Board of Publications.

Rick has been wondering about trends in terms of the amount of podcast listens and the streams. He looked at the last two years previous to the end of April 2024.

The stats revealed 19.3 percent less listens than last year. His theory is that we are putting out fewer podcasts as the number of listener hours usually follow the number of podcasts.

Penny asked about the 2024 Leadership Survey. Scott reported that Claire and Kaitlyn are working on it.

When looking at the podcasts over the past two months, technology, braille forum, and leadership meetings came out on top. Of the top ten podcasts of all time, Main Menu scored eight of the top ten positions. Details are in the spreadsheets previously emailed.

Convention AV team consists of Michael Babcock, Brad Snyder, and Jeff Bishop.

After they met, Zelda prepared the final draft, implementing the changes the committee made. We started with the 2019 version which is not the version we currently work under. Zelda will post both the 2015 and 2019 versions to the BOP email list for the committee’s review prior to the June meeting.

Penny requested Rick put the ACB Board of Directors document created by Kenneth on ACB Media. Zelda suggested that we develop one for the Board of Publications once our roles have been defined.

Penny has been asked to attend the Berl Colley Leadership session to share with the membership information about the BOP for those considering running for one of the three elected BOP positions.  

Candidates Forum is scheduled for June 19^th. Katie and Penny will write the questions. During the forum, they will take turns asking questions and timing the responses. They will reserve time for questions from the attendees.

Tuesday, June 4, 2024, beginning at 9 p.m. Eastern time.

Respectfully submitted,
Zelda Gebhard, Director
ACB Board of Publications