Roll Call of BOP and Guests
Katie Frederick, newly appointed Chair of the ACB Board of Publications, called the meeting to order at 9 p.m. Eastern on the evening of August 3, 2021. Penny called the roll. Katie, Zelda, Penny, Cheryl, Cachet, Jeff, Rick, Dan, and Sharon were present. Lisha, who manages the ACB-Conversation e-mail discussion list, was also present, along with several other guests. The BOP meeting was streamed live over ACB Media. Katie announced that Deb Lewis is now the ACB officer liaison to the BOP. Prior to her appointment to chair the BOP, Katie served on the BOP as a representative from the Public Affairs Steering Committee, and David had represented the ACB Board of Directors on the BOP. Deb will now fill that role.
Katie explained that she will, henceforth, do her best to conform the BOP meeting agenda to the L-10 format which ACB boards and committees are now attempting to follow. She read through the agenda and, following a motion made by Zelda and seconded by Penny, the BOP unanimously approved the agenda.
Approval of June meeting minutes
Zelda moved, and Penny seconded the motion, to approve minutes from the June BOP meeting, and the motion was adopted unanimously.
Public Comment
Paul Edwards, now a guest because his term of service on the BOP expired in July, congratulated new BOP members, Cheryl and Cachet, and returning members, Penny and Zelda, and pledged to continue helping with ACB publications and media.
Terry Pacheco encouraged the BOP to address the topic of formatting documents appropriately to maximize their readability. She encouraged the BOP to pay attention to the expanding methods of communicating within ACB – including information disseminated by, through and for the ACB Community – and reminded the BOP that this responsibility is included under the mandate of the BOP as specified in ACB’s constitution and bylaws.
Katie responded that formatting of documents is something we will be addressing via MarkDown training, which would be discussed later on in the meeting.
Guest Mary Haupt expressed a desire to make every issue of the ACB Braille Forum available in braille, and to format the ACB Braille Forum podcasts in a way that allows a listener to navigate by articles. She also complained about recent delays in receiving the braille magazine.
Deb responded that this is a year when the BOP and the editor review the contracts for braille production, so we will be reviewing bids which the various braille producers submit as well as other contract stipulations, including requirements related to production timing.
Sharon said that Clovernook experienced several outbreaks of COVID-19 among their workers and actually had to close production on several occasions.
Also, the ACB Convention Committee had requested that Clovernook produce the convention program first, before brailling the July magazine – which accounts for the late arrival of the July Braille Forum.
Guest Jane Perry said that she hadn’t known that the Braille Forum is available on NLS digital cartridges, and she asked if anyone can submit an article.
Sharon told her how to request the magazine on digital cartridge and assured her that anyone can submit an article.
Katie reminded everyone that we send out announcements of coming Braille Forum themes via our e-mail discussion lists
Guest Regina Marie suggested that perhaps ACB can solicit specific donations that would fund braille production for issues that are not currently available in braille.
Guest Pat Tussing said that she loved the braille convention program but wished it could have been released earlier.
Deb encouraged her to include that comment on the convention survey which will be distributed soon.
Guest Mary Haroyan suggested using Constant Contact to encourage members to write articles for the Braille Forum and to inform them regarding themes projected for coming issues.
Headlines
Data:
Social Media and ACB Media Statistics
Katie will retrieve social media statistics from Kelly Gasque and share them with the BOP after the meeting.
Jeff shared statistics for ACB Media. He said that ACBMedia.org had over 41,000 hits, beginning July 1, and after convention, ACBMedia.org is getting between 200 and 300 visitors each day. He said that Jennifer Flatt will have lots and lots of convention-related statistics to share.
Rick said that ACBMedia is averaging around 700 total listeners each day between Zoom and ACB Media. They really haven’t looked yet at the number of people who phoned in each day, and considering a reasonable estimate for that number, the number of participants each day probably averages at least a thousand.
Dan said that our Clubhouse subscribers increased to over a thousand during convention. Rick added that the number of Clubhouse visitors for general session was relatively low, but participation increased dramatically during Clubhouse-only social events.
Rick said that Tyson Ernst is leading the team that will be producing convention podcasts. The first set of podcasts is scheduled to be released on August 6.
Rick added that, with affiliate convention season beginning, they are beginning to make plans for managing streaming and podcasting that related content.
Cheryl asked how a member can become a podcast editor, and Rick and Jeff responded that anyone interested can call Jeff, Rick or Tyson, or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Responding to questions about how one can find specific podcasts, Dan and Rick said that tracks have worked well as an organizing principle, and Rick noted that, under Itunes, there is an ACB Channel where one can subscribe and then locate the individual tracks and find podcasts which will be released under each one. Jeff said that one can subscribe from within the Apple Podcast app, and one can also go to ACBMedia.org/podcasts to find links and RSS feeds to podcasts. ACB Media will be the hub for all things digital.
Dan suggested that we instruct ACB committee chairs regarding how to add links to their podcasts on the web pages.
The Public Awareness Steering Committee
During its recent meeting, where the topic was convention debriefing, the committee had discussed a need to improve branding with respect to our convention sponsors and exhibitors presentations. The steering committee is waiting for all of the data which Jennifer Flatt has collected and will be sharing. Another committee goal is to analyze the enormous amount of e-mail that was generated during convention, with a goal of reducing information duplication during coming conventions.
Deb and Katie agreed that management of excessive and duplicative e-mails, including on the Leadership list, will continue to be one of our “rocks” (i.e., goals) during the coming year. We still need to obtain a membership list for Leadership as a first step toward determining who should be on the list and what kinds of information are exchanged there and on ACB-Conversation.
Editor’s Reports
Below are editor’s reports for June and July.
Editor’s Report July 2021
Statistics
June 2021
Issue type: electronic
Page count: 96
Email distributed: 5,232
Bounces: 304
(mostly “mailbox full,” “vacation/auto reply,” “suspended,” or “undeliverable”/bad email addresses)
Unsubscribes: 6
Email return rate: 5.8%
Email received: 4,928
July 2021
Issue type: hard copy
Page count: 80
Large print distributed: 2,230
Braille distributed: 654
Cartridge distributed: 507
Email distributed: 5,295
Deadlines for the Next Issues
September 2021 (hard-copy): New Beginnings (and convention wrap-up), July 26th
October 2021 (electronic): Pedestrian safety and transportation, August 25th
November 2021 (hard-copy): Fall free-for-all, September 24th
I sent the August issue up to Perkins for recording on July 1st. The International Relations Committee did themselves proud!
I continue to record the information about ACB’s community calls into our phone system.
I am also continuing work on cleaning up and modernizing old issues of the Forum to current large print standards, and organizing them on our Sharepoint drive (at the moment, from the 1990s through today). I’m including Word, text and BRF file formats in the Forum folders on Sharepoint. I have finished the year 2000, and have gone back to fix a few years’ worth that, for whatever reason, did not save in the updated format. Then I will start on the 1990s.
I am working on an update for the June-July ACB Job Connection. It seems that no sooner do I get the job bank updated, I get another inbox full of new jobs to list.
I am also working on updating the Washington Connection. I’m waiting for the information for the last two boxes.
Editor’s Report
August 2021
Statistics
July 2021
Issue type: hard copy
Page count: 80
Large print distributed: 2,230
Large print returned: 16
Large print return rate: 0.7%
Large print received: 2,214
Braille distributed: 654
Braille returned: 1
Braille return rate: 0.2%
Cartridge distributed: 507
Cartridge returned: unknown
Email distributed: 5,295
Email bounces: 311
(mostly “mailbox full,” “vacation/auto reply,” “suspended,” or “undeliverable”/bad email addresses)
Email unsubscribes: 2
Spam notices: 1
Email return rate: 5.9%
Email received: 4,984
August 2021
Issue type: electronic
Page count: 96
Email distributed: 5,046
September 2021
Issue type: hard-copy
Page count: 80
Large print to be distributed: 2,204
Braille distributed: 657
Cartridge distributed: TBA
Email distributed: TBA
Deadlines for the Next Issues
October 2021 (electronic): Pedestrian safety and transportation, August 25th
November 2021 (hard-copy): Fall free-for-all, September 24th
I am currently working on the September issue, and aim to have it out the door Friday.
Exciting news! I received the hard drive containing all the ACB photos that Kim’s assistant at Perkins scanned for us. I haven’t had a chance to take a look at it yet, but I will check it out once September’s out the door. I continue to record the information about ACB’s community calls into our phone system.
I am also continuing work on cleaning up and modernizing old issues of the Forum to current large print standards, and organizing them on our Sharepoint drive (at the moment, from the 1990s through today). I’m including Word, text and BRF file formats in the Forum folders on Sharepoint. I have finished the year 2000. I’ve had to go back to fix a few years’ worth that, for whatever reason, did not save in the updated format. (Of those, I’ve fixed 2006, 2005 and 2004, and am halfway through 2003. After that, I will double check 2000-2002.) Then I will start on the 1990s.
I have updated the Job Connection for late July, and will be working on an addendum as soon as I get the Forum out the door. It never fails - I send the job bank out, and in comes an onslaught of new job listings!
I have also updated the Washington Connection several times over the last couple of weeks. The Social Security change in notice policy (in box 1014) is of particular interest to our audience.
Sharon Lovering, Editor
American Council of the Blind
Sharon added that, toward the end of convention week, the Braille Forum list located on Groups.io was hacked. She alerted list members regarding the hack and set the list to a one-way list on moderated status. She alerted about 150 subscribers and most have re-subscribed.
Sharon said that, actually, we have been sending the Braille Forum out via Constant Contact rather than via the e-mail list. We have continued to hold onto the list in case we cannot solve the accessibility issues associated with Constant Contact. Rick added that the list is locked for the moment.
During the discussion of themes for upcoming issues that followed, themes suggested by guests and BOP members included: A Journey Through History, which could involve soliciting stories and memories from members celebrating ACB’s 60th anniversary (e.g., the Sixty Greatest Moments of ACB); or interviews profiling older members of ACB for which we could enlist help from members of AAVL; how senses other than vision can assist people who are new to vision loss; ACB holiday traditions; and a special interest affiliate roll call (especially to coincide with the beginning of the year when memberships are renewed); and An Advocacy Issue, with a focus on the Teddie Joy bill which involves providing rehabilitation services for older adults who are losing vision.
The themes we agreed upon were:
For December: ACB Holiday Traditions;
For January: An ACB Special Interest Affiliate Roll Call; and
For February: “Touching Blindness,” focusing on the importance of the sense of touch, especially to people who are blind.
We tentatively decided to create a recurring column which would focus on profiling older members of ACB who might share stories, via interviews, like the kinds of stories one might hear while sitting on a grandparent’s knee. Cachet expressed an interest in working on such a column, and Rick suggested that providing training in how to interview would be a good Editors’ Workshop topic.
Rocks
The Editors’ Workshop
Zelda said that, although we had originally planned to hold an Editors ‘Workshop in June, the date coincided with the ACBND convention, and so Zelda couldn’t attend. We had already decided to host quarterly editors’ workshops, and forego the more traditional workshop at convention. Because Zelda already has another commitment for the second Friday in August, she has re-scheduled the “kick-off” Workshop for the third Friday in August, August 20. That will focus on the basic building blocks of communication, e.g., clarity, being concise, having a catcher, being complete, and correct. Penny, Cachet, and Paul volunteered to help, and others, including Rick and Katie, said that they would attend.
David Kingsbury has volunteered to present a workshop on formatting for the September quarterly meeting.
Zelda thanked Rick for adding members to the Editors’ List, which now has 50 subscribers.
At the November meeting, we can ask attendees to suggest topics for the workshops that will be held in 2022. Paul suggested that November’s meeting might also present a good opportunity to get current and former BOP members together to talk to affiliate editors about how we select winners for the Hollis Liggett award – thereby informing them about the award and stimulating their interest in nominating publications.
Deb said that we might want to think about expanding the categories of publications/communications that qualify as acceptable Hollis Liggett nominations – especially considering Zelda’s discovery that a number of affiliates choose diverse ways of communicating information to their members. This might be one of our rocks for the coming year, and any new criteria that we arrive upon would apply to the 2023 Hollis Liggett Award.
2021-2022 MarkDown Course
Jeff said that the Information Access Committee (IAC), the Public Relations Committee, and the BOP plan to coordinate to offer a course in MarkDown, with two goals for students:
The first is to create content that is accessible to print readers, and the second is to present documents that look professional.
MarkDown can be used to generate documents using several iOS apps, using WordPress on the web, and using an add-in called Writeage within Microsoft Word.
The course will be highly interactive and repeatable.
They anticipate developing the training course during September and October and beginning to provide training in November and December.
Dan added that if we can, we should integrate the MarkDown training into an affiliate communications kit that was discussed at last-year’s presidents’ meeting.
Affiliate Web Site Assistance
In addition, the IAC, the PR Committee and the BOP hope to collaborate with others with the appropriate technical expertise to create, perhaps over the coming year, a template which ACB affiliates can use to create accessible web sites.
Final Discussion
The final discussion concerned whether to change the time for the BOP meeting, and everyone agreed to keep the day and time the same.
The meeting adjourned shortly after 11 p.m. Eastern, and the next meeting of the ACB Board of Publications is scheduled for September 7, 2021.
Respectfully submitted,
Penny Reeder