Board of Publications Meeting Minutes for October 9, 2018

The October meeting was called to order by chairman Ron Brooks at 9:03 p.m. on October 9, 2018.

Members present: Ron Brooks, Chair; Deb Lewis; Penny Reeder; Paul Edwards. Susan Glass was absent.

ACB employees and contractors present: Sharon Lovering; Larry Turnbull.

Ex officio members present: Kim Charlson, ACB President; David Trott, ACB Treasurer; Katie Frederick, ACB Public Relations; Bob Hachey, ACB Email List Moderator.

Guests: Tom Mitchell; Ken Stewart; Terry Pacheco; Denise Colley.

Ron reviewed the agenda.

Motion: Paul moved and Deb seconded adoption of the agenda. Motion passed.

Motion: Paul moved and Penny seconded adoption of the September 4, 2018 minutes. Motion passed.

Tom stated that he is delighted with the direction we have taken with the E-Forum and topics. He is also very pleased with the cartridge edition of the publications and how easy it is to navigate.

Ken asked again about whether a brief author bio (a couple of lines) could be included with ACB Braille Forum and E-Forum articles. Ron expressed concern about space constraints but agreed to put this discussion on the next agenda.

Terry expressed concern that the large print and electronic versions of the convention program were not usable for many low vision individuals. She cited the font, formatting, and number of pages as specific issues. She offered to assist with the process next year based on her experience as an Accessible Format Specialist. Ron explained that changes were made this year in response to a survey conducted last year. Further work now needs to be done in order to refine both the guidelines and production methods. Ron said that at an upcoming meeting, the BOP will gather the necessary stakeholders to review portions of the post-convention survey related to the convention program format as a first step toward recommending changes for next year. He noted that while the results of our survey overwhelmingly supported the font, layout and size that were used, it did not take into full account the impact of such changes for individuals needing to scan a large document such as the convention program. Deb stated that some of the format difficulty also resulted specifically from producing the online version directly from the PDF used for the large print without enough intervention and correction of OCR errors in both text and formatting. Paul invited Terry to write an email detailing her specific concerns and recommendations. She agreed to do so.

This item was on the agenda, but was postponed until November.

Ron led a discussion on expansion of the ACB Braille Forum and E-Forum. Penny asked whether it was necessary to maintain columns such as High Tech Swap Shop that might be better served in a more immediate format such as a listserv or social media. Sharon responded that this is one of the most popular parts of the publications. There was discussion of access to information through the Leadership, ACB-L and Announce lists. Deb suggested that the primary issue is whether there is both sufficient content and staff resources to consistently increase page count for the E-Forum, and a secondary issue is to determine what content is most relevant for the publications and what is better conveyed through other media. Sharon said that content is always held over from the hard-copy issues, and is now also being held over in themed E-Forum issues. There was lengthy discussion of the merits and cost of increasing both the E-Forum and the Braille Forum. The total cost of proposed increases is approximately $3,000.

Motion: Paul moved and Penny seconded that we make a budget request to increase the ACB E-Forum from 80 to 96 pages and to increase the ACB Braille Forum from 64 to 80 pages for one year at which time the BOP will evaluate the impact of this change. Motion passed.

Ron inquired regarding the cartridge inventory and whether we need to request additional funding. Kim said that 300 individuals have not returned two or more cartridges and a letter will go out to them in the next week. Kim will advise Ron regarding the remaining inventory and any budget considerations and will also post the letter to the BOP list.

David recommended that Ron notify Jo Lynn of the budget request for the magazines so she could also include this in her grant requests on our behalf. Paul and Denise also recommended that we make Jo Lynn aware of the positive impact of the E-Forum themed issues. Ron will follow up.

The due date for submissions is October 25. Sharon has 6 articles and needs more. Lots of short pieces on any kind of tradition, family recipes, etc. are good. Katie will write an announcement for social media. Penny will include information in her Announcement to GDUI. Paul has an article on ACB traditions that have gone away. Penny mentioned the Marlaina show on traditions and it was agreed that Larry will try to get this to Kim as a bonus track for the cartridge.

The theme will be relationships in the big sense: relationships with one another, loneliness which is lack of relationship or lost relationships, etc. Could feature BPI, Families and Aging. Will need more brainstorming in November.

There have been a number of themes suggested by readers in addition to those already agreed to by the BOP. Some of these might not be appropriate for a themed issue, but are worth covering. Ron asked if we should consider having some mini themes included in hard copy issues if the budget increase is approved. It was decided that we might not be formally ready to take on mini themes, but could definitely develop feature articles on topics of interest that don’t lend themselves to a full theme. There was also discussion that for overall organization, the theme should be delineated from other content, it should be introduced, and the feedback survey should be placed at the end of each issue.

Braille Distributed: 678; Returned: 5; Return Rate: 0.7%; Received: 673

LP Distributed: 2,566; Returned: 26; Return Rate: 1%; Received: 2,540

Cartridge Distributed: 744

Electronic Distributed: 6,387; Returned: 3; Return Rate: 0%; Received: 6,384

Electronic Distributed: 6,390

Braille to Be Distributed: 671; Large Print: 2,538; Cartridge: not available

The November issue is finished. It went out the door to the producers on October 3rd. You might want to have a few tissues handy when reading a couple of the articles.

For the first time, the Mini Mall catalog went out with the October E-Forum.

I continue to work on identifying people and writing descriptive captions for the convention photos I have CDs for. I am currently working on 2005’s photos.

People are calling now about the 2019 presidents’ meeting and legislative seminar, wanting the dates and the basic information. Dates are Thursday, February 21-Wednesday, February 27th. The schedule is as follows: board meeting Saturday, the 23rd; affiliate presidents’ meeting Sunday, the 24th; legislative training Monday, the 25th; and Capitol Hill day Tuesday, the 26th. We will again meet at the Crowne Plaza Old Town, 901 N. Fairfax St., Alexandria, Va. More information will be available later on this year.

Per our discussion at a prior BOP call, Kelly has created a number of new cover designs that include the new ACB logo and tagline. I will describe them below.

Sample cover A is similar to the current cover. It has a slim blue box at the top, and the writing inside is in white; it says “The ACB.” Below that is a white box with the words “Braille Forum” in blue. Underneath that is a large square blue box with the volume number, month and year, and issue number in the top left corner, each with its own line; the new ACB logo and tagline (ACB in print and braille on the left side of a slim vertical line; to the right, American Council of the Blind, Together for a bright future) are at the bottom center of the box.

Sample cover B is also similar to the current cover, as well as to sample A. The first two boxes are the same. The large square blue box has the volume number, month and year, and issue number at the top center of the box as one line, separated by bullets, and the new ACB logo and tagline at the bottom center of the box.

Sample cover C has some similarities to the previous two covers. It has the slim blue box at the top, with “The ACB” in white writing, centered, and the white box with the words “Braille Forum” in blue. The large square blue box has a slim white line, then the volume number, month and year, and issue number as three separate lines beneath it, then another slim white line; the new ACB logo and tagline are centered at the bottom.

Sample cover D is a different story altogether. It has one large blue box. At the top, inside the blue box, is a white box saying “The ACB Braille Forum” with a slim blue horizontal line on either side of “The ACB.” In the blue portion of the box, down a few lines, is a slim white line, then the volume number, month and year, issue number, and another slim white line. At the bottom of the box is another white box with the new ACB logo and tagline, centered, in blue print.

Motion: Deb moved and Paul seconded to adopt design A. Motion passed.

The ACB Advocacy Update, which is currently offered as a podcast, will be coming to Mainstream. Legendary Insights will be discontinuing in December. Paul asked about including In Touch from the BBC and Larry will look into this.

ACB-L Members: 336; Posts: 149

ACB-Chat Members: 147; Posts: 52

Leadership Subscribers: 263; Messages:  103

One poster on ACB-L was placed on moderated status for going way off topic.

No data was available.

Katie met with Kim to discuss the role of the PR committee and how to make it more effective. There will be a focus on involving newer members and on reaching out to affiliates.

There was no other business.

The next meeting is scheduled for November 13, 2018 at 9 p.m. Eastern time. This adjustment was made to accommodate the elections.

Deb moved and Paul seconded adjournment. The meeting adjourned at 10:57 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Deb Lewis, Secretary