The BOP met via teleconference on Monday, December 10, at 9:00 PM EST. Members present: chair Paul Edwards, Denise Colley, Nolan Crabb, Marcia Dresser, Judy Jackson; ex officio member Berl Colley; ACB staff/contractors Annette Carter, Sharon Lovering, Larry Turnbull. Absent: Bob Hachey, Ron Milliman. Several guests also participated on the call.
Judy moved and Marcia seconded adoption of the agenda as read, with the addition of a presentation by Ray Campbell. The motion carried. Marcia was unable to send out the minutes because her email is not working; therefore, approval of the November minutes will be deferred until January.
The BOP did not discuss large print issues because the representatives from CCLVI were unable to attend the meeting.
Social Networking
ACB board member Ray Campbell spoke to us about the Goal One objective of increasing ACB's presence in the social networking arena. We have a decent presence on Twitter, but need to get on to Facebook and LinkedIn. When people search for "blindness" on social networking sites, we want ACB to immediately come up. The committee put together a document outlining their suggestions, which Ray will provide to the BOP. All ACB pages must have the ACB logo, contact information, and a link to the ACB Web site. Photos must be kept up-to-date and have appropriate descriptions. Postings must be timely. For example, if a legislative alert is emailed to the leadership list, a synopsis must immediately be posted on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, with a link to more detailed information. Postings must be removed when they are out of date. There should be a team of people responsible for administering each site so that someone is available throughout the day. Postings on Twitter must be hash tagged, and the Facebook page should be a fan page. People who already administer social networking pages for affiliates would be good resources. Whoever administers the ACB pages must be on the leadership list so that they will always receive the important and timely information. The ACB staff must know who these administrators are, and they will work together. Ray offered to assist the BOP to write a "job description" for potential candidates so that they know what is expected of them. Paul pointed out that for the past 18 months the BOP has tried, unsuccessfully, to find someone to administer the ACB Facebook page. A team approach is best, but it will be very hard to find volunteers to take on this time-intensive responsibility. Paul, Marcia, and Judy will put together a posting to the leadership list that will begin to propose the concept of a team approach to administering ACB's social networking sites. Nolan will be the BOP liaison on the Goal One calls.
Leadership Training
Four follow-up calls were offered to those who took part in last summer's leadership training. Of the 26 participants, only nine attended these calls. Accurate contact information was not available for several of these people, which underscores the importance of maintaining up-to-date membership lists. The Crossroads leadership training, sponsored by Kentucky and Bluegrass, will take place on March 15 and 16; Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, and Michigan will participate. The Midwest training, spearheaded by Ray Campbell and Jim Jirak, will probably occur in August. ACB Students might join this training. Since Arizona, New Mexico, and Louisiana have expressed interest in leadership training, a South-Central event will be organized, which will hopefully include Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. This might be a five-night teleconference rather than in-person training. Blind Pride, who also expressed interest, can join any of the three. Berl is continuing to gather archived material for the Oral History Project. In addition to newsletters, tapes of informal events are also welcome.
ACB Radio
There was an average of 45 listeners during the World Blind Union meetings. The ACB auction was streamed from the Clear Channel studios in Louisville; thee were 127 listeners, and this event raised $4,145 for ACB Radio. The new server should be up and running by January 15. Paul asked Larry and Annette to figure out a way to identify donations made specifically to ACB Radio.
Web Site Task Force
The task force has recommended that, for the time being, those wishing to provide large files for download (such as an entire manual) use only RTF format. People can then convert these RTF files to braille or large print on their own. Nolan asked the BOP to check out the "Donate" page in terms of accessibility. Nolan and Annette will draft a document that will provide hard and fast deadlines to those who plan projects that need a Web page component. Once the task force approves it, the BOP will review it and make a final recommendation. Annette provided two hours of Web training to Sharon, Barbara and Francine. This was the first of several classes in which they will learn to post things to the ACB site. Annette will be focusing on security, accessibility, consistency, and visual appearance. Marcia moved and Judy seconded adoption of this report; the motion carried.
Editor's Report
The January issue of The Braille Forum has gone to press. She also sent off several issues to be bound. The next "budget" meeting with Sharon will take place on Friday, January 4, 2013 at 3:30 PM EST. The Forum is now available on Newsline, which means that anyone in this country with a telephone has access to our publication. Judy moved and Denise seconded adoption of Sharon's report; the motion carried.
The BOP will hold an executive session on Wednesday, December 12, at 2:00 PM EST to discuss the ACB budget. The number of issues of the Forum to be published has been reduced from ten to nine, and the BOP will consider various alternatives to address this.
The meeting adjourned at 11:45 PM EST.
The next meeting of the Board of Publications will take place via teleconference on Monday, January 7, 2013 at 9:00 PM EST.
Respectfully submitted,
Marcia N. Dresser, Secretary