via conference call
The meeting was called to order by Chair, Denise Colley at 9:01pm EDT.
Members present: Denise Colley, Tom Mitchell, Judy Wilkinson, and Doug Powell
Absent: Ron Brooks (on business travel)
Ex Officio members present:
Absent: Nolan Crabb (PR), Bob Hachey (IOC), Kim Charlson (President)
Editor: Sharon Lovering
Contractors: Annette Carter (Website)
Absent: Larry Turnbull (Internet and ACB Radio)
Guests: Melanie Brunson, Ken Stewart
The agenda was approved as distributed.
The meeting minutes were approved as distributed with Judy abstaining
Guest Comments: none
Google Analytics - Melanie Brunson
Through a contact from Eric, we were made aware of “Google for Nonprofits”, and a free three-month consultant service to help nonprofits understand which Google analytic applications would be useful for their organization. They are talking about YouTube and the website, AddWord to bring more viewers to the website, and grants to help nonprofits afford to use Google apps. The consultant encouraged us to put audio and video material on our YouTube channel and link it to the website. 57 percent of donors say they have responded to an appeal after viewing a video about the organization.
We’ve installed Google Analytics on the website which will give us tons of information about visits and visitors to the website. Right now, as a baseline (since April 30) 62% of visitors go to one page and then leave. We want that number to decline and have people spend more time on their visit.
Melanie took questions and promised to keep us informed as this project progresses.
Editor's Report
Nutshell Report for May 2015
April 2015
Issue Type: email only
Print Page Count: 52 (if it had been printed)
Date Posted to Website: 4/2/2015
Date E-mail version sent: 4/2/2015
E-mail issues mailed: 3,097
# Of Miscellaneous Copies Returned Undeliverable: 34
May 2015
Issue Type: hard copy
Print Page Count: 48
Large Print Issues Mailed: 3,290
Date Large Print Issues Mailed: 4/29
Braille Issues Mailed: 785
Date Braille Issues Mailed: 4/30/2015
Cassette Issues Mailed: 1,340
Date Cassette Issues Mailed: info not available yet
CD Rom Issues Mailed: 162
Date CD-ROM Issues Mailed: 4/29/2015
Date Posted to Website: 5/1
Date E-mail version sent: 4/30/2015
E-mail issues mailed: 3,095
# Of Large Print Copies Returned Undeliverable: 2
# Of Braille Copies Returned Undeliverable: none yet
# Of Cassette Copies Returned Undeliverable: none yet
# of CD Rom Copies Returned Undeliverable: none yet
# Of Miscellaneous Copies Returned Undeliverable: 4
I am working on the June issue, as well as the Freeman-Henley-Liggett award items. Thanks to Kelly Gasque, who scanned the Arkansas newsletters so that I could get them out to you in a format you could read for the Liggett award. Thanks to those who have already sent in your Freeman votes.
June’s issue is chock-full of convention sneak peeks – some of these meals, tours, and seminars sound fabulous! We’re all going to have a tough time deciding what to choose when the pre-registration form comes out. (I was drooling over the descriptions of some of the breakfasts in “Affiliate News.”)
There have been some major changes in the D.C. incorporation laws. Please read the article entitled “Attention All ACB Leaders and Members!,” and urge your affiliate’s membership chairperson to do the same. All your new members must be in to the national office no later than June 5th so that they can vote at convention.
Denise asked Sharon how much of her time is taken with updating addresses from returned copies. Sharon answered that it takes anywhere from ten minutes to two hours depending on the number of returns that day.
Denise also asked how long it takes for Perkins to produce the audio files and return them to us. Sharon didn’t know that and Larry was not on the call to answer. Denise is trying to develop a production template that will be realistic and will have issues available to members at the same time. She also wants to send out a reminder for the electronic version when it is available so that no one who wants to read it is unaware of its availability.
Website - Annette Carter
May 2015 ACB Braille Forum
Performed module updates and security updates on sites as needed
Affiliate and committee updates as needed
Ongoing adding pages to new site and adding alias to URLs
Job postings
BOP meeting minutes posted
ACB/ADP 8th Audio Description Institute registration project
ACB Honors 2014 Giving Society Donors project
Google Analytics modules and configurations
I asked what the status of the new website was. Denise and Annette said that with the time allotted to Annette and with the Google project going on, the Web Task Force is asking Annette to devote her time to keeping the current site up to date. There is no scheduled deadline for migration to the new site.
Committee Reports
PR Committee, Nolan Crabb/Tom Mitchell
Tom reported that most of this month’s call was devoted to working on the Conference session. Tom also suggested that members of the Committee spread the word about submitting articles for consideration to the electronic issues of the ACB Braille Forum. They seemed to be responsive to the widening horizon that the electronic version can be.
ACB Radio, Larry Turnbull
As for activities on ACB Radio there is not much to report for April.
We did add another broadcaster to the ACB Radio Interactive team.
His name is Mike Bernard.
He is figuring out the best time to broadcast and we will announce when he will be on as soon as we have that worked out.
The Florida Council of the Blind will be streaming its convention on Live Event May 17 through May 19 2015.
An announcement will be going out about this in the next few days.
Here are the listener counts for the month of April:
Server:
ACB Radio Mainstream 765
ACB Radio Cafe 210
ACB Radio Treasure Trove 2160
ACB Radio Interactive 635
ACB Radio World News and Information 245
ACB Radio Live Event 0
Phone:
We had 3600 calls for the month of April.
45% listened to mainstream
35% listened to Treasure Trove
10% listened to interactive
3% listened to café
7% listened to World News and Information
0% listened to Live Event
Web hits:
We had 2600 web hits for the month of April.
Downloads:
MainMenu Archives 1700
Speaking Out for the Blind 85
We picked up 3 subscribers for the ACB Braille Forum and E Forum podcast.
We picked up 2 subscribers for ACB Reports.
We had 4848 tuning hours reported by Stream Licensing for the month of April.
We had 196 calls to the ACB Braille/E Forum hotline for the month of April.
Lists, Bob Hachey
No report.
Social Media, Carla Ruschival
No report.
Old Business
Editors Workshop
Denise reported that we have our three panelists: Sharon Lovering at the national level, Judy Wilkinson at the state level, and Susan Glass at the local level. Denise will have a call with them to organize the presentation about two weeks before the Conference.
Candidate Pages
Denise took our suggestions and published the questions the officer candidates will respond to. She had spoken to Larry who thought there were enough channels available on the Braille Forum Audio Now line to house each candidate’s responses. She asked us to discuss how we should make this opportunity available. I suggested that in order to be fair in terms of technological savvy, everyone’s responses should be turned into synthesized speech. Other members concurred with that approach.
We also discussed giving candidates the opportunity to make sixty second spots to run on ACB Radio. After some discussion about making sure we give a fair opportunity to every candidate, Denise said she would discuss the logistics with Larry.
Candidates Forum
Kim asked Denise if we could move the Forum up to the afternoon. Denise responded that the 7:00pm time was already published, and we would have to ask any caucuses meeting that afternoon to move their caucus time earlier, so it wouldn’t happen this year. However, Kim asked us to ask people around us what they thought about the Forum and their ideas to make it serve everyone better. I suggested we start a thread on the Leadership list and perhaps on L to find out what they thought about the Forum and any ideas they had to make it better also. Denise thought that was a good idea, but wanted us to wait until after this year’s Convention, and that we should work on the questions to make sure they elicit useful information.
Awards
We decided to meet in Executive Session at another time to discuss awards. Denise will talk to Ron and see if we can find a time to do that. We subsequently met and made no decisions that needs to be recorded.
McDaniel Anniversary Issue
The DKM Committee told Sharon they would provide material for the anniversary issue. We decided to transcribe a General Session by the end of July to be included in the September issue which would free up space for the DKM material. We are going to ask the DKM Committee to submit their material by the end of August to give Sharon plenty of time to work out what will fit.
Policy Manual
I mentioned that I had not had time to look at and start to edit the Policy Manual, but I wanted to keep it in our consciousness as an agenda item.
Website
Judy acknowledged that she had not surveyed the website to see how easy it was to subscribe to different versions of the Forum yet.
New Business
Social Network Announcements
Denise mentioned that Carla is looking for another FaceBook person, so if we know someone who is interested, we should steer them to her.
How does a Special Interest affiliate, Committee, or Task Force know that an announcement about an event gets broadcast on FaceBook and Twitter? We decided we need to find out from Carla how one does that.
BOP Meeting at Convention
Ron and Tom will not be attending. We didn’t figure out how to include members not able to attend in person. However, we decided one of the agenda items for that meeting could be a discussion of the edits to the Policy Manual since that would help audience members understand what we do and how.
Conference Call Problems
Ken Stewart mentioned that he was late to the call since he got several busy signals when trying to call in, so he waited for a while and then finally got in. Sharon said she would contact tech support and see if anything can be done to prevent that in the future.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:15 pm EDT.
Respectfully submitted,
Doug Powell, Secretary