The ACB Board of Publications met via teleconference on Monday, December 5, 2011 at 9:10 PM EST.
Members present were: chairperson Paul Edwards, Marcia Dresser, Judy Jackson, Ken Stewart. Absent: Jenine Stanley.
Ex officio members present: Berl Colley, Bob Hachey; Absent: Ron Milliman.
ACB Staff/Contractors present: Sharon Lovering, Larry Turnbull, and Earlene Hughes.
A number of observers also participated in the call.
On behalf of the BOP members, Paul expressed regret at the resignation of Jenine Stanley, and our profound gratitude and appreciation for her service and contributions to the BOP. President Pomerantz has appointed Nolan Crabb to assume Jenine's position, effective in January.
Agenda and Minutes
Marcia moved and Judy seconded adoption of the meeting agenda as read by the Chair. The motion was adopted. Marcia moved and Judy seconded adoption of the minutes of the November meeting as submitted by Jenine Stanley. The motion carried.
ACB Radio
Larry reported that listener counts are holding steady. At any given time, Mainstream has, on average, 25-30 listeners; the Café has 40 listeners; Interactive has 15-20; and Treasure Trove has the highest listener count at 95-100. Those affiliates who streamed their fall conventions had between 20 and 35 listeners, on average. The ACB Store will be going live on the Web very shortly. Everything is on the new server except BANA and ACB Radio; these will be transferred over soon. The ACB Radio management team is working with a committee to develop a policy regarding advertising on ACB Radio as well as convention sponsorships.
Editor's Report
Sharon reported that the new braille embosser, a Bookmaker, is up and running. The December Forum is out. Sharon has begun the process of sending out the membership lists to the affiliates.
Paul announced that our budget this year is about $71,000, which is a substantial reduction from last year. He said that this is largely due to Sharon's diligence in putting together the budget, and to her skill in negotiating the contracts for the production of the Forum. Charlie Hodge commended Sharon for the timeliness of the "Passings" column. Beginning next month, Paul will send a notice of our meetings to the leadership list.
Leadership Training
Approximately 50 people will participate. Funds have been allocated in the amount of $6,250 for this training, which will be held on July 6 in Louisville prior to the convention. The agenda is almost complete. Ray Campbell's subcommittee is developing a CD of materials for participants to look at prior to the training; they can add to the CD during the training and take it home with them. Berl will meet with Lane Waters and Mike Godino to figure out a way for folks to register for the training.
Oral History Project
Berl is interviewing people for Volume Two. Larry will ask Jeff Bishop if he is willing to do the production. Charlie Hodge suggested some people Berl might want to interview, and Paul urged Berl to check out the rosters of the ACB Board of Directors for other ideas.
DAISY Conversion
The conversion of back issues of The Braille Forum and other files to DAISY format will resume in March.
Web Site
Earlene reported that she continues to follow the work schedule set forth by President Pomerantz and the Web Site Task Force. She put the new Pedestrian Safety Handbook on the Web site. It is a Word document, and people can download individual chapters. She also posted the MMS form and trained Sheila from the Minneapolis office on how to access the database. Earlene said that the online donations project required a considerable amount of time to complete, and she expressed thanks and appreciation to Larry for his invaluable assistance. A lot of the functions we need in order to make things accessible on a Drupal Web site have not been converted from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7, which has made things very challenging. It is now possible to make a donation to ACB online using either PayPal or authorize.net. Paul acknowledged the tremendous dedication and hard work of Earlene and Larry in order to make this happen; he also praised Earlene for her diligence and many accomplishments during this very difficult period. The scholarship application was completely rewritten, and went online as of December 1. The Braille Forum is now available via podcast, and people can get it on iTunes. As time permits, Earlene will post back issues of the Forum as well as the resolutions from previous years. The 2011 resolutions will be posted by the end of the year. The 2011 revision of the ACB Constitution has not been posted because Melanie Brunson is still working on one section.
Because technology has changed so drastically since 1998 when Earlene became the ACB webmaster, the president and the executive director have decided to issue a new proposal for this position, which will go out to bid. Everyone on the BOP greatly appreciates Earlene's nearly 14 years of service to ACB, and we hope to continue to work with her under the new contract.
Internet Oversight Committee
ACB-l is currently very low traffic, and the content has returned to blindness issues only. The ACB chat list is very busy. Bob plans to invite ACB officers and Board members to join ACB-l.
Copyright Statement
After a brief discussion, the BOP voted unanimously to make two changes to the ACB copyright statement. The revised statement reads as follows:
Copyright © 2011 American Council of the Blind
All content made available in publications, in any media on any web site domains administered by ACB, or as a broadcast or podcast on ACB Radio, archived or not, is considered to be the property of the American Council of the Blind. Those responsible for creative content may allow their materials to appear elsewhere with prior notification to the ACB national office and with appropriate attribution.
Plans for Midyear Meeting
Paul will speak to Melanie about widely publicizing the BOP meeting on Friday night. We also need to make sure we have a PA system available at the meeting. Next month we will discuss how to rework our Saturday afternoon presentation, since Jenine is no longer a BOP member.
Miscellaneous
In response to an article Ken sent to the BOP, we discussed the concept of the digital divide. We concluded that, whereas in 2005 the digital divide referred to people who had access to computers and the Internet and those who did not, the digital divide in 2011 reflects the difference between people with and without access to high-speed Internet service.
Bopeep
Paul will ask Jenine to continue to oversee ACB's presence on Twitter. The current terms of office will be included in the January issue of The Braille Forum. In the February issue, Nolan Crabb will be listed as an appointed member of the BOP.
The meeting adjourned at 10:45 PM EST.
The next meeting of the Board of Publications will take place on Monday, January 2, 2012.
Respectfully submitted,
Marcia N. Dresser