BOARD OF PUBLICATIONS
Meeting Minutes
September 5, 2011
The ACB Board of Publications met via teleconference on Monday, September 5, 2011 at approximately 9:05pm EDT. Members present were: Paul Edwards – Chair, Marcia Dresser, Judy Jackson, Jenine Stanley, Ken Stewart; Ex oficio members: Berl Colley, Ron Milliman Absent: Bob Hachey. ACB Staff/Contractors present were: Sharon Lovering, Larry Turnbull and Earlene Hughes. John Jeavons was also present as an invited speaker.
The Board of Publications sends its regards and deepest sympathy to the family of “People of Vision coauthor Marjory Megivern who was killed in an automobile accident August 30, 2011. We wish her husband Jim the very best in his recovery from injuries sustained in the accident.
Approval of Agenda:
Ken moved to adopt the agenda as proposed. The motion was seconded and adopted.
Minutes:
Ken moved to accept the August minutes as corrected. The motion was seconded and adopted.
Web Site task Force:
Earlene reported that she, Larry and Pratik Patel are working on changes to the Drupal theme to incorporate ease of reading for large print users. These changes include fonts, sizing and some color adjustments. Earlene also reported on the progress of adding a dedicated donation system to the site. They are working on finding a compatible module to accomplish this task.
Jenine reported that Larry is working to move the ACB Store onto our server using Drupal. DeQue Systems will no longer maintain the store site but is helping with moving things over. Larry will train Carla Ruschival and Lane Waters to administer the daily working of the site. This achieves one of the BOP’s goals of having all of our applications under direct ACB control. Larry is planning a September 23 roll-out of the store site.
PR Committee:
Ron reported that this year the committee will be offering direct assistance to affiliates on PR issues rather than creating another handbook. They will hold a series of conference calls as well. Earlene will add the latest handbook on marketing to the web site. Ron agreed to send announcements of the PR Committee’s meetings and conference calls to the BOP email list.
Referred Resolution:
The BOP invited John Jeavons to discuss his resolution that was referred back to it during the 2011 general convention. The resolution deals with providing means for ACB Radio to fund itself through three primary functions. All broadcasters utilizing ACB Radio would be required to become members of ACB. All broadcasters would be charged a fee to cover the cost of their use of ACB Radio, particularly rights management costs. Any person or entity broadcasting advertising would be charged commensurate fees.
After John Jeavons presented each part of his resolution, the BOP held a lengthy discussion. It was noted that based on the internet radio market at this time with over 36 stations being owned or operated by blind people and the general practice being not to charge broadcasters for the privilege of airing their programming on such stations, the BOP could not support the first two portions of Mr. Jeavons’ resolution.
It was noted that ACB Radio has a separate group looking into funding and corporate relations, advertising pricing and related issues. All agreed that some type of advertising fee should be charged for those programs or other submissions categorized as advertising by ACB Radio and other authorized parties.
Ken moved that the issue of existing programming that functions more as advertising be taken by Larry before the ACB Corporate Relations Committee and the ACB Radio Management Team. The motion was seconded and adopted.
Leadership Training:
Berl reported that the Leadership training planned for July 6, 2012 has been scaled down slightly to invite up to 50 people, one per affiliate. The committee has asked for funding through the ACB budget process and continues to meet monthly.
Next Meeting:
The next meeting of the BOP will take place on Monday, October 3 at 9:00pm EDT.
Adjournment:
Jenine moved to adjourn at approximately 12:00am EDT. The motion was seconded and adopted.
Submitted by Jenine Stanley
September 6, 2011