The ACB Board of Publications met via teleconference on Monday, May 6. Members Present: chair Paul Edwards, Nolan Crabb, Denise Colley, Marcia Dresser, Judy Jackson; ex officio members Berl Colley, Bob Hachey; ACB staff/contractors Sharon Lovering, Annette Carter, Larry Turnbull. Members absent: Ron Milliman.
Chair Paul Edwards convened the meeting at 9:05 PM Edt. Nolan requested that a discussion regarding a job description for individuals selected to handle ACB’s social networking presence on the website. Marcia moved and Nolan seconded adoption of the agenda as modified; the motion carried.
In reference to the April, 2013 meeting minutes, Ken commented that, when referring to the people who went into executive session, the terminology should be “the BOP voting members”. Nolan moved and Denise seconded approval of the April, 2013 meeting minutes as amended; the motion was adopted.
Editor's Report
The May electronic issue of the ACB E-forum has gone out and Sharon is now working on the June issue. She has also been working a great deal on credentials and the new database. We still have two affiliates whose membership information is not completed yet, and Sharon and Jean Mann are trying to make contact with them to determine what is going on and how they can help. Discussion took place around final selection of a name for the convention newspaper. It will be called the Columbus Explorer.
ACB Radio
New content has been added to both ACB Interactive and ACB World News and Information, with one more possible program for ACB Mainstream. The new program on ACB Interactive is called the Jazz Guys being done by Chris Gray and Don Thompson, and is being aird on Mondays from 6pm – 8pm Eastern Time. The content being added to World News and Information is from BBC World Service, CBC, Radio Australia and Public Radio International. Main Menu has been picked up by a few more radio reading services, and Larry has heard that it is now the number one blindness technology show. Shortcuts have been added to the website so people can get to the streams a little quicker.
Leadership Training
Berl reported that the Leadership Institute is in a holding pattern for now. Berl is still needing to contact the newly elected president, to ascertain how she would like to proceed with the Institute. The committee is also supporting the Midwest regional training scheduled to take place in August. They have entered into a contract with a hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. If it is the newly elected president’s desire that the Leadership Institute continue, the committee would like to hold another national training again at next year’s convention in Las Vegas.
Oral History Project
Both Berl and Marcia have attempted to make contact with Anne Simms to see about getting her assistance to secure the ACB historical tapes that Otis Stevens has in his possession. They will continue working on this. Paul has had contact with a lady, now living in Montreal who is a charter member of ACB. She has a lot of good recollections and indicated she would be glad to participate in our oral history project. He will send Berl her contact information.
ACB-L Update
Bob has been transitioning over to a new computer so Anne has been primarily moderating the list for the last couple of weeks. A request was submitted by a list participant asking ACB to set up a list relative to blind people who have cerebral palsy. Paul said that the recommendation to him should be that he can go to any number of places to set up a group if he so wishes.
Website Task Force
Nolan presented the proposed Goal 1 Committee Social Networking job description. It reads as follows: “Job Description for Social Media Administrator:
Candidates wishing to be considered as administrators for any of ACB’s social media sites will
- Post content to these pages on a daily basis (updates, photos, external links to text, audio or video content, etc.);
- Regularly remove and block individuals from the list of followers or friends to ACB social media pages suspected of posting inappropriate content, including spam. If a team of individuals is administering a page two individuals will have this authority;
- Provide assistance to individuals seeking to post content. This includes identifying appropriate content to post, as it is received, and in those cases where individuals can post, helping them to do so;
- Provide technical assistance to individuals seeking to like or follow ACB’s social media pages;
- Regularly change passwords on social media pages to minimize the risk of accounts being hacked. In cases where a team of individuals administers a page, two individuals shall have this authority;
- Meet regularly with the Board of Publications and provide status updates on their social media responsibilities.
In order to be considered the candidate should have the following qualifications and experience:
- A strong working knowledge of ACB’s goals and mission, as well as a broad knowledge of issues related to blindness and visual impairments;
- The ability to post content on social media sites and pages;
- The ability to update their assigned social media pages on a daily basis;
- The ability to create postings which fit into prescribed size limits of the social media pages they’re assigned to administer, including the use of appropriate hash tags in the case of Twitter;
- The ability to work with a team of individuals, if necessary;
- Strong oral and written communication and editing skills.”
Under the candidate qualifications section it was recommended to add the word commitment to the sentence that would then read “The ability and commitment to update their assigned social media pages on a daily basis“.
It was moved by Nolan and seconded by Denise to accept this job description, as provided by the Goal 1 Committee, as modified. Motion carried. The Board of Publications unanimously approves this job description. Carla suggested that this document be added into the minutes as a link off the minutes on the website. If the document is created as a separate page it can also then be linked to other things from the website as well.
The website taskforce continues to make progress. Most recently they have attempted to untangle the spaghetti bowl that is the Braille Forum podcast. Prior to late in 2012 the podcasts were always there and people could go in and download them. After November things seemed to unravel and the feeds were no longer available. The taskforce looked into it with Potomac Talking Books and determined that it wasn’t Potomac Talking Books fault. Larry has been able to replace and rebuild the new feed. He has found a service called lipsin.com where we could store the podcasts. For $20 per month they will not only provide the RSS feeds and storage for the podcasts, but will also code a couple of apps for the android and iphone where an ACB podcast could come right to the android or iphone. This could be another area where ACB could bring in funds by charging $2.99 for the app, and ACB could get half of the proceeds. The website taskforce has already recommended to the ACB Board to move forward on this. The Board of Publications unanimously approved moving in this direction.
The taskforce is continuing to make updates to the ACB Mini Mall and Treasures retale facilities and it is now live. They also continue to make progress in the area of updating and removing things from the website that no longer have merit.
There have been issues for some time with Potomac Talking Books being slow in putting up the files on the website that become the Braille Forum podcast. Paul requested that Sharon make a note that reminds the BOP to incorporate the quick delivery of the audio files to the web in the next contract with Potomac Talking Books. Paul will also draft a letter asking that they make an effort to post more quickly. Nolan inquired about the status of the facebook letter requesting our facebook page back. Paul will check with Melanie on the status of the draft letter he submitted some time ago.
Implementation of Daisy Contract
Paul announced, for purposes of the minutes, that, in a meeting of the Board of Publications held to review three bids for the production of Bard ready versions of the ACB Braille Forum and the ACB E-Forum, the contract went to Jennco In Reading Ma. The decision that was made by the Board of Publications was essentially unanimous of those who were present. He will be meeting with Steve Dresser, representing Jennco, to discuss some of the logistics and get some clear dates established in terms of exactly how this will all work. NLS is still not ready for us, but it is important that we start getting the practice and putting our materials on the website so we can begin to test how all of thiss works. After some discussion it was decided that those who will be reading the ACB E-Forum will alternate articles and Steve is fine with putting the individual pieces together. The recordings will be produced as wav files which will give him the optimal ability to operate.
Unfinished Business
There was lengthy discussion on the letter to the editor ACB received addressing issues with Humanware and how appropriate letters to the editor should be defined. Humanware had been contacted, but at the time of this meeting there had been no response. A vote was taken with the decision to print the letter.
We received emails from three individuals with six name suggestions for the E-Forum and one phone submission. Marcia and Denise will confer and send the list out to the voting members of the committee with a recommendation.
There will be no June meeting of the BOP unless it is determined later that such a meeting is needed.
Respectfully submitted,
Denise Colley on behalf of Marcia N. Dresser, Secretary
This web page was last updated on August 13, 2013.