BOARD OF PUBLICATIONS
Meeting Minutes
February 19, 2010
These minutes were prepared from a recording of the meeting provided by Chair, Paul Edwards.
The ACB Board of Publications met in person as part of the ACB Midyear meeting in Washington DC at approximately 7:30pm, Friday, February 19, 2010. Members present were: Paul Edwards, Marcia Dresser, Ken Stewart, Judy Jackson: Absent: Jenine Stanley; Ex oficio members present: Berl Cauley, Larry Turnbull; Absent: Michael malver. ACB Staff: Sharon Lovering.
Adoption of Agenda:
Marcia moved to adopt the proposed agenda as amended. The motion was seconded and approved.
Minutes: Marcia moved to adopt the January minutes as amended. The motion was seconded and approved.
Introduction to the BOP:
Paul gave a brief introduction to all guests about the BOP and its role of maintaining freedom of speech.
Editor’s Report:
Sharon gave an overview of the report she provided to the BOP prior to the meeting.
PR Committee Report:
Ron Milliman sent a report prior to the meeting about the activities of the Public Relations Committee. Mitch Pomerantz reported that Sky Radio will air a 3-minute interview about ACB on approximately 29,000 American Airlines flights and 44 CNN Airport newscasts this summer. The radio PSA is now the property of ACB and is on our web site.
Internet Oversight Committee:
Paul reported that this committee had come up with a set of guidelines for all email lists administered at the national level. The guidelines would also be made available to other list moderators and ACB affiliates who could modify them as appropriate, as long as credit was given for their source.
Pedestrian Safety Handbook:
Debbie Grubb reported that this edition of the Pedestrian Safety Handbook features articles written to address the specific needs of our population. Authors include: Janet Barloe, Lukas Frank, Beezie Benson, Dona Sauerburger and Lois Stevens. Articles span the range of topics from advocacy to explanations of modern intersections and crossing techniques with information on how to talk with traffic engineers and a technical explanation of current regulations. The Environmental Access Committee plans for this edition of the book to be a living document, housed primarily on the ACB web site with active links that will require monitoring by the committee.
Debbie asked that the Environmental Access Committee continue to work on the document, assuring that all information and web links are accurate. She would then ask that the BOP take over the final edit and process of layout and design for the web site. Ken asked what should be done with current content on the web site that is out of date. Debbie suggested that this content should be removed until the new book is available.
Marcia moved that the BOP take responsibility for the final edit of the Pedestrian Safety Handbook. The motion was seconded and approved.
ACB Radio:
Paul and Brian Charlson will host the streaming coverage of the ACB Presidents Meeting and Legislative Seminar. Larry reported that ACB Radio is now airing content from IAAIS (International Association of Audio Information Services). Programming produced around the world will also be coming from United Nations Radio. Larry is gathering resources and expects to have ACB Radio’s Treasure Trove stream produced in-house by this spring. Paul also reported that the ACB Radio team has been working with the Accessible Meetings software for producing live programming, interviews and call-in shows. Paul extended thanks to Seratech for donating the software.
Web Site Task Force:
Chris Gray asked for accountability of the BOP as to why nothing has been done yet on the web site. Paul fielded this question, noting that there were significant communications issues between all involved. Paul stated that Chris was welcome to attend any BOP meeting or web site task force meeting to learn more. Jenine was not present to answer questions on her work as committee co chair with Paul.
Social Networking:
Paul reported that the BOP feels it is important for ACb to have a presence on the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. As part of an overall strategy to address this issue, the BOP drafted a document and sent it to the ACb Board for consideration regarding establishing that presence and dealing with any existing Facebook or Twitter sites claiming to represent ACB. The intention of the BOP was to work cooperatively with anyone having such pages and if cooperation was not possible, to ask that the pages be removed if not revised. The ACb Board had a number of questions regarding what they felt to be ambiguities in the proposed statement. In an effort to facilitate closure of the issue, ACb President Mitch Pomerantz offered to work with BOP representatives to amend the statement to address the board’s concerns. The board would then provide input via email and the statement could be used to continue activity on developing the sites. The BOP agreed that Paul and Jenine would work with Mitch on creation of this document.
DAISY Initiative:
Berl reported that a group has been meeting with representatives from IRTI, makers of the Eclipse software for DAISY conversion. The group is prioritizing documents currently for DAISY conversion and looking at options for purchasing or obtaining the newest version of the Eclipse software for all group members.
Sharon reported that at the time of the meeting Earlene Hughes was working on getting the documents for the Mid Year meeting and Legislative Seminar on line in DAISY format by the end of the weekend.
Marcia moved to approve a request by the DAISY Subcommittee of the Information Technology Resources Management Committee to authorize production of current issues of the Braille forum for download from our web site in DAISY format. The motion was seconded and approved.
Oral History Project:
Berl reported that since the initial approval of the program last year they have been able to conduct seven interviews and continue to amass names for future interviews.
BOPEEP:
Ken reported that he had informal inquiries into how large print might be made more accessible in the Braille forum using different fonts or color contrast but had nothing formal to report or recommend.
Ken also asked what changes would be made in envelopes and other letterhead to make them more recognizable in terms of large print. He was under the impression that some previously recommended changes would happen with the change of address at the national office but has not yet seen these changes. Paul noted that he has discussed this issue with Melanie Brunson and other ACB staff and as letterhead and other logos move into an electronic format, they will be easier to edit to make such changes without incurring additional cost.
Conference Calling Service:
Ken expressed concerns about the current conference calling service and noted that he has heard many complaints from ACB committee members on various committees that the current system is not working well. Ken noted that he has been doing research on donations for conference call services but has had no luck garnering solid information. Melanie reported that the main issue with other services is cost, per minute per caller, which is prohibitive for as much committee calling as ACB does.
Convention Planning:
The BOP will hold its regular meeting on Sunday, July 11 from 10:30am to Noon. There will also be a workshop on Thursday, July 14 at 3:00pm but the topic has not yet been determined. There will also be a Candidates Forum on Thursday evening.
Awards:
Paul and Sharon reminded BOP members that the deadline for all three award nominations is April 15.
Next Meeting:
The BOP will meet via teleconference on March 1 at 9:00pm EST.
Adjournment:
Paul moved the meeting be adjourned. The motion was seconded and approved.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jenine Stanley
Recording Secretary