American Council of the Blind Board of Directors Meeting Minutes July 5, 2019

Call to Order, Roll Call, Review and Approval of Agenda, and Adoption of Minutes

The American Council of the Blind (ACB) Board of Directors met on Friday, July 5, 2019 for its Conference and Convention meeting at the Riverside Hotel, Rochester, NY. President Kim Charlson called the meeting to order at 9:01 a.m. At the call of the roll, the following board members were present: Kim Charlson, Dan Spoone, John McCann, Ray Campbell, David Trott, Mitch Pomerantz, Jeff Bishop, Denise Colley, Sara Conrad, Dan Dillon, Katie Frederick, Jim Kracht, Doug Powell, Pat Sheehan, Michael Tally and Jeff Thom. Board of Publications Member Deb Cook Lewis was present representing that body. Staff present: Eric Bridges, ACB Executive Director, Kelly Gasque, ACB Executive Assistant and Media Design Specialist, Clark Rachfal, ACB Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs, Claire Stanley, ACB Advocacy and Outreach specialist, Sharon Lovering, ACB Braille Forum Editor, Tom Tobin, ACB Director of Development, Jo Lynn Bailey-Page, ACB Grant Writer, Larry Turnbull, Managing Director of ACB Radio, Nancy Marks-Becker, ACB Chief Financial Officer and Cindy Van Winkle, ACB Membership Services Coordinator. Following roll call, several guests introduced themselves.

President Charlson reviewed the agenda. Campbell moved and Bishop seconded adoption of the agenda as presented, the motion carried. McCann moved and Sheehan seconded ratification of the email vote approving the February 23, 2019 ACB Board meeting minutes, the motion carried.

President’s Report

President Charlson presented her report. Highlights included:

World Blind Union: Mitch Pomerantz reported that the North American-Caribbean region of WBU met on May 31, 2019 in Trinidad. Several of the Caribbean nations, including Trinidad and Barbados which were formerly represented in WBU through the Caribbean Council of the Blind were accepted as individual members of WBU. Mitch indicated several other Caribbean nations are pursuing individual memberships. Mitch indicated there was some discussion about the 2020 WBU Quadrennial assembly taking place in Madrid, Spain with our region meeting June 18, the WBU meeting from June 19-22 and the International Council on the Education of the Blind and Visually Impaired (ICEVI) overlapping with WBU, with their meeting ending June 23. The major focus at the Quadrennial will be on employment.
Kim along with Eric Bridges and Dan Spoone discussed the ACB Advisory Board. We have four individuals confirmed as members of the advisory board, with one additional member needing to sign required documents. The four confirmed members are Erin Pitera, Chief Executive Officer of FMP Consulting, Brett Humphrey, Software Developer from Microsoft, Matt Hanley, formerly of the Washington Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights who now operates his own legal practice and Lee Nasehi, Chief Executive Officer of Vision Serv Alliance. The board plans to meet sometime in August or September.
Revocation of the Charter of the Virginia Association of the Blind. McCann moved and Thom seconded that the Charter of the Virginia Association of the Blind be revoked, the motion carried. Efforts will be undertaken to contact those members of the now former association and invite them to join either as ACB Members at Large or the ACB of Virginia.
ACB Advocacy and Outreach Specialist Claire Stanley indicated she and Nicole Beito from the Minneapolis area office are crafting a Diversity Policy statement for ACB. They plan to present it to the board for approval at the Fall board meeting.
ACB Code of Conduct Policy. After Kim offered some opening remarks on the need for a code of conduct policy, ACB Constitution and Bylaws Chairman John Huffman read the following amendment: Article III, Membership, Voting and Dues. Strike the current Section E and replace it with:

“E. Code of Conduct and Disciplinary Action. The Board of Directors in consultation with competent legal council is herein authorized to establish a code of conduct policy applicable to those attending national ACB meetings and/or functions. All ACB members in attendance shall be given notice of the terms of any such code of conduct policy. Consistent with Article X of this constitution, the relevant provisions of Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised respecting disciplinary procedures and actions shall govern in all cases to which they are appropriately applicable.” Pomerantz moved and McCann seconded that the board of directors publicly endorse the amendment to Article III, Section E regarding the code of conduct policy, the motion carried. The policy as most recently drafted was read to the board, however, it cannot be adopted unless and until the constitutional amendment endorsed by the board is adopted by the ACB Membership.

ACB Vision Statement. The proposed ACB Vision Statement was read to the board. Three changes were recommended; change “world” to “Society,” add “public” before the word awareness and add “and support” at the end of the statement. Campbell moved and Pomerantz seconded that the vision statement be adopted as amended, the motion carried. The amended vision statement is attached to these minutes.
The proposed ACB Core Values statement was read to the board. It was recommended that the five core values be re-ordered as follows: Integrity and Honesty, Respect, Collaboration, Flexibility and Initiative. Campbell moved and Frederick seconded adoption of the amended core values statement, the motion carried. The amended core values statement is attached to these minutes.

Campbell moved and McCann seconded acceptance of the President’s report, the motion carried.

Prior to presentation of the staff reports, the JP Morgan ACB Leadership Fellows were introduced to the board. They are: Donna Browning, Virginia; Rosemarie Facilla, Michigan; Don Kalman, Ohio; Rachel Schroeder, Illinois; and Amanda Selm, Kentucky. One of our Durward K. McDaniel first timers, Ted Boardman, Indiana was also in attendance at the board meeting and was recognized.

Staff Reports

ACB Executive Director Eric Bridges began presentation of the staff reports. Highlights included:

We have received $365,000 in conference and convention sponsorships for 2019. This is a 5% increase over last year, and a 118% increase since 2014. We have acquired two new Ruby sponsors this year, OrCam and Walmart.
Thanks to receipt of an anonymous donation, we were able to update the ACB Office in Alexandria, with new furniture and more modern decor. Eric acknowledged Kelly Gasque for her work managing this project, and Sharon Lovering for her help cleaning out things which needed to be either discarded or put into storage.
ACB is working with the Smithsonian Natural History museum. They are developing a new app describing the museum which will be available in October. The museum wants to ensure the blindness community can engage with the exhibits in a meaningful way. Eric also tested the audio description of the Insect Zoo which is part of the natural history museum. This will also be launched to the public later this fall.
Claire Stanley discussed some upcoming television program work involving guide dogs. As this is confidential at present, not much more can be said about it at this time.
Eric indicated he was interviewed for a documentary on the history and future of digital accessibility. It’s working title is “Lights, camera, access.” He was one of three individuals who are blind interviewed for this project. The documentary is supposed to premier this fall at the Computer Museum in Silicon Valley.
Eric moderated a panel presentation during the M-Enabling Summit on collaboration between advocacy organizations and corporate America. He also participated in another panel on how corporate America could be more inclusive of people who are blind or visually impaired. Eric discussed ACB’s work with both Cisco and Apple. He has heard from several of the companies represented during the panel in which he participated who are interested in working with ACB.
Eric has done a tremendous amount of traveling. Through this, our organization’s profile has been raised.
Eric introduced Cindy Van Winkle as ACB’s Membership Services Coordinator. Cindy talked briefly about her excitement working for ACB members and some of her plans going forward.
Eric attended the Vision Serv Alliance conference in May. Vision Serv is an umbrella organization consisting of Lighthouse programs for people who are blind, guide dog schools and others. ACB is now a member of Vision Serv which should give us more opportunities to work closely with programs and organizations serving people who are blind.
Finally, Eric acknowledged Chief Financial Officer Nancy Marks-Becker and her team. Nancy has offered a valuable perspective as the Vision Statement, Core Values and other policy documents have been crafted. Her team also does an incredible amount of work around the conference and convention.

ACB Radio Managing Director Larry Turnbull presented his report. While he didn’t have full listener counts to give, he indicated we’re averaging from 5,000 to 10,000 calls per month to the phone version of ACB Radio hosted by Audio Now. Larry indicated that the licensing service ACB Radio had been using to be copyright compliant went out of business rather suddenly. He’s looking at different agencies, as we have to be copyright compliant for ACB Radio Café and ACB Radio Interactive. Larry has also been testing out an OS upgrade for ACB’s servers, and he’s putting a backup team in place to manage ACB Radio for a short time during August as he will be taking medical leave.

ACB Board Member Jeff Bishop discussed rebranding and consolidation of the ACB Radio Streams. As a result of doubling of licensing fees, we’re going to merge ACB Radio Interactive into ACB Radio Café. In 2020, the ACB Radio team is going to be rebranding ACB Radio so it truly is what it has been set up for, to be the voice of ACB. This could mean getting rid of streams which don’t serve our mission, possibly changing names of some streams and pushing hard to get all affiliates on ACB Radio.

ACB Chief Financial Officer Nancy Marks-Becker presented her report. Highlights included:

ACB received a clean audit in March. We ended the year with a net loss of $60,298.
Affiliate Member Management System: Nancy indicated she has received positive feedback on the Chapter feature that was added to AMMS this year. This feature allows affiliates to certify and sort their members by chapter and reach out to all members of a chapter when needed.
Early member registration: Nancy indicated this was a big success, and that we had several individuals become ACB Members at Large in order to take advantage of it. During the five days registration was open to members only, 310 people registered, and one tour sold out on the first day.
Nancy discussed the legacy endowment fund and that we need a policy so we can recognize the endowment as part of our operating budget. There are three types of policies. All of them are portfolio percentage based. Option 1 protects the corpus, option 2 includes smoothing terms and option 3 both protects the corpus and includes smoothing terms. Portfolio Percentage means you take a certain percentage of the portfolio and include it as part of ACB’s budget. Spoone moved and Powell seconded approval of Option 3 for the Legacy Endowment policy, with smoothing terms and protection of the corpus, the motion carried. The revised policy is attached to these minutes. The portfolio percentage for each year for budgeting purposes will be determined during the Fall board of directors meeting.
Nancy introduced Nancy Christine Feela and Nicole Beito from the Brooklyn Center office, and acknowledge the good work they are doing for ACB.
Nancy informed the board that ACB now meets all 20 of the BBB Wise Giving standards and is an accredited charity through June of 2021.
Michael Garrett, Chair of ACB Enterprises and Services reported to the board that the ACB Thrift stores in Amarillo and Lubbock, Texas are operating well. Both stores have recently hired new managers. Through the end of April, ACBES achieved a profit of $121,235, some $22,000 over budget.

ACB Braille Forum Editor Sharon Lovering presented her report. After asking for questions on her written report sent prior to the meeting, she gave a conference and convention communications center update. We have four Braille Embossers, two faster ones and two larger ones. These were loaned to ACB by Enabling Technologies/Humanware. She acknowledged all of the individuals who helped get things set up as well as those working in the communications center.

ACB Director of Development Tom Tobin presented his report. After entertaining questions on his previously sent written report, he discussed:

Direct mail. 2,216 packets were sent out for the Spring appeal, featuring Donna Brown. As of June 28, we’ve received $5,519 from 148 gifts representing a 4.42% return and an average gift of $38.88. Expenses were $3,573. We did an 11,000 packet acquisition mailing in March for the purpose of acquiring new donors. We have acquired 51 new donors and he and Jo Lynn will be doing handwritten, personal thank you cards to each of them.
Planned giving: we have sent correspondence to ACB’s constituents inviting them to include our organization in their estate plans. Some 3,000 pieces were sent out.

ACB Grant Writer Jo Lynn Bailey-Page presented her report. After entertaining questions on her previously sent written report, she discussed:

Since 2015, ACB has grown its grant submissions from 24 to 50 per year. IN that same time period, we’ve grown from receiving $30,000 in funding to $52,000. This year so far, we’ve been awarded $10,000 from the Delta Gamma foundation and $5,000 from the Dreyfous foundation.
Jo Lynn explained that we were not selected as a recipient of funds through Google’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) impact challenge. While ACB was not selected, Google has offered to introduce us to other potential funders.
We’re continuing our focus on general operating support in our grant requests. Jo Lynn feels we have a good mix of foundations supporting ACB.

Campbell moved and Powell seconded that the board recess into Executive Session for discussion of advocacy and administrative issues, the motion carried, and the board recessed into Executive Session at 12:23 p.m.

The board returned to open session at 2:20 p.m. President Charlson announced that the board received updates on the issues stated on the agenda, and she asked Secretary Campbell to read the following motion which was adopted during Executive Session: Pomerantz moved and Trott seconded that the board defer the request of the Colorado Council of the Visually Impaired & Blind (CCVIB) for affiliation with ACB to the October board of directors meeting subject to representatives of the ACB Board and/or the Constitution and Bylaws Committee meeting with CCVIB to draft bylaws that are not in conflict with the letter and spirit of the ACB Constitution and Bylaws. Those CCVIB members in attendance at the 2019 ACB Conference and Convention shall be considered members at large of ACB for voting purposes. The motion carried.

ACB Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs Clark Rachfal presented the Advocacy and Governmental Affairs report. Highlights included:

Clark and Clair have been meeting with congressional offices to make them aware of ACB’s concerns about accessibility to autonomous vehicles. Most of the offices, while grateful to be aware of our concerns, are waiting for legislation to be introduced. The autonomous vehicle issue is being championed by the automobile industry.
Thus far, no congressional offices have been willing to champion the issue of accessible durable medical equipment, particularly for managing diabetes. The issue has been addressed to the 300 member Congressional Diabetes Caucus. Clark also indicated they are pursuing action on this imperative through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid services and the Washington Lawyer’s Committee.
We are working on re-introduction of the Medicare Demonstration of Coverage for Low Vision Devices Act, and the Cogswell-Macy Act dealing with education of children who are Blind or Visually Impaired. Representatives Maloney (D-NY) and Bilirakis (R-FL) have agreed to introduce the Medicare legislation, and are circulating a Dear Colleague letter seeking additional co-sponsors. Also agreeing to sign on as initial sponsors are Representative Schiff (D-CA) and Representative Cohen (D-TN).
Clark indicated the staff is continuing to have conversations with air carriers around service animal issues. He also reported on several resolutions passed during the 2018 conference and convention that are being worked on.

Campbell moved and Pomerantz seconded acceptance of the staff reports, the motion carried. ACB Treasurer David Trott presented the Treasurer’s report. As of April 2019, Total Revenue was $413,623 with total expenses of $447,895. Campbell moved and Bishop seconded acceptance of the Treasurer’s report, the motion carried.

ACB Conference and Convention Coordinator Janet Dickelman presented the Conference and Convention report. Highlights included:

Janet and her telephone registration team processed 125 telephone registrations for this conference and convention. Altogether, 721 people pre-registered.
Janet discussed several items related to the conference and convention
She has never seen a conference and convention where ACB received as many media requests.
2020 conference and convention, July 3-10, 2020 in Schaumburg, Illinois.
2021 conference and convention, July 23-30, 2021 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Campbell moved and Kracht seconded acceptance of the Conference and Convention report, the motion carried.

Officer and Board Liaison Reports

Board of Publications representative Deb Cook Lewis presented the Board of Publications report. Highlights included:

The themed E-Forum and mini themed ACB Braille Form issues are being positively received.
The BOP has been hard at work updating the ACB Editorial Policy manual. The manual has undergone a face lift reflecting the collaborations which the BOP has established. The updated manual will be put on the ACB Website shortly.
The BOP is continuing their work to improve both the large print conference and convention programs, and the readability of materials on the ACB Website.
The BOP conference and convention workshop will look at all of the ways people can access ACB’s various publications.

Campbell moved and Trott seconded acceptance of the Board of Publications report, the motion carried. Two members of the ACB Board, Mitch Pomerantz and John McCann were recognized as they are concluding their service on the board. Both shared some remarks. President Kim Charlson was also recognized for her term as ACB’s first female president, and shared remarks thanking the board for working together for the good of ACB.

There being no further business, McCann moved and Powell seconded that the meeting be adjourned. The motion carried, and the meeting adjourned at 3:55 p.m.

Ray Campbell
Secretary

Date submitted: 8/03/2019

Date Approved: 8/22/2019

Updated ACB Vision Statement, Updated ACB Core Values Statement, Updated Legacy Endowment Policy

Board of Directors Approved Motion

I hereby certify that at a meeting of the American Council of the Blind, a corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the District of Columbia, held the 5th day of July, 2019, at which said meeting a quorum was present and acting throughout, the following motion was unanimously adopted and is now in full force and effect:

Vision Statement:

To create a society without barriers for the blind and visually impaired community through advocacy, public awareness, collaboration and support.

Core Values:

Integrity and honesty - Our word is our bond serving as a foundational element demonstrating our strong democratic principles and values.

Respect - We treat others as we expect to be treated. We welcome each individual's unique talents and honor diverse work and life styles.

Collaboration - We believe success comes from working together to create solutions that advance the organization's mission through partnerships and teamwork.

Flexibility - We adapt to ever-changing circumstances and situations. We are receptive to multiple points of view and ideas.

Initiative - We can and do make a difference in all of our efforts. We embrace continuous learning, hard work, personal responsibility, accountability and motivation.

Board of Directors Motion: ACB Legacy Spending Policy for Budgeting Purposes

Board Approved Motion

Percentage of portfolio with smoothing terms and corpus restrictions

A specific percentage of the portfolio would be designated for budgeting purposes, but the corpus or principal investment could not be drawn from for budgeting purposes. The amount allocated for budgeting purposes would be based on a percentage of the portfolio’s value at the end of each quarter over three or five years. The portfolio percentage allocation for the following year would be determined during the Fall board of directors meeting.

Spoone moved and Powell seconded the motion.

ACB Board of Directors Meeting Minutes July 5, 2019