Board of Publications Meeting Minutes: February 6, 2024

The Board of Publications Chairperson, Penny Reeder, called the February 6, 2024, meeting to order at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time.

No additions were made to the previously shared agenda.

Board members present: Penny Reeder, Cachet Wells, Jeff Bishop, and Zelda Gebhard.

Absent: Cheryl Cumings

Ex-Officio members present: Sharon Lovering, ACB Braille Forum Editor; Rick Morin, ACB Media and IT Manager; Katie Frederick, Member Lead on ACB Public Awareness Steering Committee; Deb Cook Lewis, ACB President; plus, Dan Spoone, Interim ACB Executive Director and invited guest Cindy Hollis, Manager of Membership Engagement.

Cachet moved to approve the January meeting minutes. Penny second the motion. No corrections were offered. Minutes approved.

Mary Haroyan – Thanked the BOP for holding open meetings. She asked if there is still an ACB Announce List? She was told there is a list anyone can subscribe to by sending an email to [email protected]. Currently only staff can post to this list. Cindy offered for inclusion on the daily ACB Community Schedule, chapter related, affiliate related, or committee related posts may be sent to [email protected]. Deb mentioned there has been interest expressed in having an announcement only list and that will be considered.

Penny brought forth the topic of increased activity on the list. She asked for comments from others in attendance. It was felt that the list serves a great purpose for getting information out and for allowing members to express themselves. However, there was concern that conversations have gotten out of control. Though the list guidelines are posted regularly, perhaps we could do a better job of moderating. Being able to express one’s opinions is good but to refute or debate another’s viewpoint should not be allowed. Conversation needs to be respectful and multiple messages expressing similar content is not respectful of the more than 500 individuals on the list.

Penny reminded everyone that the current moderators are Deb, Katie, and herself. If someone on the list feels the rules are being violated, they should send a message to Contact Group Owner instead of replying to the list. Replying to the list or forwarding just create another additional email for all on the list.

Katie encourages the BOP to re-evaluate who is moderating and perhaps add additional moderators. She also encouraged review of the guidelines.

Deb stated that groups.io allows for a topic to be muted. This prevents us from having to block someone or be punitive in any way. To reduce traffic, readers may also mute a topic for themselves.

Penny asked Rick if it would be possible for ACB Media to do some groups.io training to individuals on how they can manage their email.

Penny will be unable to moderate for a specific time and will communicate on the BOP email list the need for someone to fill in.

Guest input:

Terry Pacheco suggested that we inform people how they can Reply to Sender instead of Reply All which ends up going to the group. This would greatly reduce the number of emails on the list.

Jamica Miller feels the list has gotten out of hand. She is mainly on it to get the announcement and is wondering if she should unsubscribe or if she should wait it out. The options are to unsubscribe now and resubscribe later. Groups.io also allows you to select a “no mail” setting or emails can be viewed in a digest mode. Any of these options could be used to manage a busy email list.

Penny will talk to Rick this week about scheduling future training. Any groups.io training sessions will be announced on the ACB Community daily schedule.

Kenneth Semien has noted that many are sending the same message to both Conversation and Leadership by cc’ing. This also creates more traffic. He has noted emails containing threats to the moderators to not curb the conversation.

Deb asked if there is a setting in groups.io that would prevent people from sending an email to multiple lists at the same time. Rick will look into it and then he and Penny will talk.

There was continued discussion regarding formatting of the ACB Community daily schedules to make it more accessible to those who view it visually. Zelda has reviewed multiple daily schedules as far back as November to note the specific inconsistencies of formatting. She has reported her findings to Cindy and her team, and they are working diligently to make this communication more accessible to low vision readers. Some individuals use settings that change the contrast on the devices they use to view the schedules. The Community team and Zelda will continue working together to finetune the formatting.

Terry Pacheco offered to share some formatting assistance to Cindy and her team at a later time.

Sharon reported that she has started digitizing the ‘70s Braille Forum. The legislative imperatives are recorded and up on the Washington Connection. She has completed the March issue of the Braille Forum. Penny asked if she ended up with enough content and Sharon said she did. Penny requested earlier notification of the need for more content.

Sharon confirmed that ACB will not be doing affiliate PSA or news releases.

February 2024 Statistics

January 2024

Braille distributed: 514
Braille returned: 4
Return percentage: 0.77%
Braille delivered: 510
Cartridge distributed: 362
Large print distributed: 2,113
Large print returned: 27
Return percentage: 1.3%
Large print delivered: 2,086
Email distributed: 5,379
Electronic bounces: 32
Spam: 0
Unsubscribes: 3
Return percentage: 9.4%
Email received: 5,347

February 2024

Braille distributed: 509
Cartridge distributed: TBA
Large print distributed: 2,085
Email distributed: 5,379

Deadlines for the Next Issues

April 2024: Multicultural Affairs Committee; deadline: February 23, 2024
May 2024: TBA; deadline: March 25, 2024
June 2024: TBA, deadline: April 26, 2024                                                 
July-August 2024: TBA; deadline: May 24, 2024

February’s Table of Contents

Registration Is Now Open for the 2024 ACB Leadership Conference!

Collaboration at Our 2024 Conference and Convention, by Janet Dickelman

Get Curious, Explore, Become Engaged, and Focus on Making Impactful Contributions, by Kenneth Semien Sr.

Summary of the November and December Board Meetings: Resolutions, New Hires, D.C. Leadership Conference, the Budget, and More, by Penny Reeder

Free to Be Free: Why Human Rights Matter, by Daveed Mandell

My Right to Vision through Books, by Cheryl Cumings

ACB of Maine Wins the Right to Accessible Electronic Absentee Ballots, by Lynn Merrill, with Pauline Lamontagne, Nicholas Giudice, and Cheryl Peabody

Washington Council of the Blind’s Work on Accessible Voting 2023, by Judy Brown

Equipping the Blind – Saving Lives Around the World, by James Boehm

Progress Over Perfection, by Hayley Agers

Are You a Thermometer or Thermostat Leader?, by Randy Conley

Affiliate News

Special-Interest Affiliate Spotlight: Turn a New Page – Join LUA in 2024, by Carla Ruschival, President

Here and There, edited by Cynthia G. Hawkins

High Tech Swap Shop

March’s Table of Contents

Learn About Continuing Education and Professional Development Hours, by Janet Dickelman

The ACB Constitution and Bylaws Committee Wants to Hear from You, by John McCann

It’s Time to Get Ready for the 18^th Annual Summer Auction, by Leslie Spoone

ACB Women’s Committee Breast Cancer Support Group

Blind Women in Employment, by Lynne Koral

A Celebration of Life and Love: Linda and Tom Go to Hawaii, by Linda Samulski

A Loving Or Hostile World — What Do We Want Our World to Become? It’s Our Choice, by Larry Johnson

Meeting Rick, 1968, by Michael Moran

Join Us at the Interstate Auction, by Pat Tussing [Two-sing] and Cecily Laney Nipper

Spoken Word Ensemble, by Annie Chiappetta

BITS and Pieces That Make Affiliates Strong, by Jeff Bishop

Affiliate News

Here and There

High Tech Swap Shop

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Our move up to the sixth floor went off without a hitch. We are unpacked and settled in. It’s a much smaller office than the one we were in on the fifth floor. We only had room to set up two braille embossers in the printer room. But we do have a balcony off the conference room!

I am working on the March issue of the Forum. I will get that to press as soon as possible after the move.

I continue to put together the Dots and Dashes newsletter. The next issue will go out on February 12^th; the one after that, the 26th. We will most likely alter the schedule a bit to work around the leadership conference.

I’m still working with the archives/history committee on preserving and digitizing old recordings and documents from ACB events and identifying people in photos. Some of the work involves digitizing board minutes. Another part of the work includes cleaning up and modernizing old issues of the Forum to current large print standards and organizing them on our SharePoint drive. I have started work on the 1970s, beginning with 1979. The bumper sticker mentioned in the June issue hangs on the front wall of my office. It’s bright yellow and reads “I brake for white canes and guide dogs.”

I continue to record the Washington Connection, and some of the other boxes on our phone system, such as the national convention box, the scholarship information, and the state convention box. It was updated this morning, February 6^th, with the legislative imperatives and a couple of other interesting items, including a Georgia voting rights case. Contents:

• Registration Is Now Open for the 2024 ACB Leadership Conference
• Are You an Aspiring Student?
• New! Websites and Software Applications Accessibility Act Legislative Imperative
• New! Communications, Video, and Technology Accessibility Act Legislative Imperative
• New! Medical Device Nonvisual Accessibility Act Legislative Imperative
• New! Medicare and Medicaid Dental, Vision, and Hearing Benefits Act Legislative Imperative
• New! Senators Hassan and Braun Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Improve Accessibility of Medical Devices
• New! Justice Department Files Statement in Case Alleging that Georgia Voting Law Discriminates Against Voters with Disabilities

I updated the ACB Job Connection, which posted on January 24th. I will work on the February update once I get March out the door.

In addition, I’m handling press releases, getting them to the newswire service, setting the distribution group, the time we want them posted, etc.

Sharon Lovering, Editor
ACB Braille Forum

Our most recent Editor’s Gathering was held on January 12^th at 8:30 PM. It was well attended and well received. Jeff and Michael Babcock presented information on affiliate podcast through ACB Media and text to audio through platforms such as Eleven Labs. The quarterly schedule will include gatherings in May, August, November, and January.

Since the inception of both the ACB Affiliate Editor’s email list and the quarterly gatherings 2-1/2 years ago, we’ve become aware that affiliate communications to members include many other forms beyond traditional newsletters.  Because of this we have expanded those welcome to the list and the gatherings to include others involved in communications. Zelda asked Cindy to post a plea to the president’s list for them to provide names and emails of their current communications teams. There has been a good response to that resulting in the addition of 10-15 to the email list. Now that the response has slowed, Zelda will post a thank you and additional plea to the Leadership List.

Member on the Mic Update  

Anthony had reported to Penny that there are two ready to go, and he will send to Katie, two others in the que. There are five individuals interested in being on the team to help with the various aspects of MOM.

BOP Blog Editors:

February - Cachet and Jeff

March – Zelda and Penny

Penny, Jeff, Zelda, and Deb will schedule a preliminary meeting to work on the update.

Rick had previously shared the below statistics. He further reported that the stats are trending similar to the past with the Community 38% of the listening hours on Media. There are about 8 podcasts that make up 80%.

The ACB Media Calendar is up and running. Feedback has been positive. The legislative imperatives are up on Media 9 and put up on podcasts. The Media Support Committee has met a couple of times. They are working on a project for the JP Morgon Force for Good to include Media which would involve a scheduled Community Channel. Wrote up a scope document of the roles and responsibilities of Media Support Committee and Community Support Committee. The Media Support Committee is going to be focused on production and delivery of content and the Community Support Committee is focused on the actual creation of the content.

Groups.io are doing a reverification process. All but 122 have reverified and they will be removed on Sunday.

ACB Media January 2024 Listen Hours

Row Labels  |  Sum of TLH  |  Sum of TLH2  |  Sum of TLH3  |  Sum of Active sessions

ACB Media 5  |  6246.32   |  37.41%  |  37.41%  |  10696
ACB Media 3  |  3160.82  |  18.93%  |  56.35%   |   4193
ACB Media 1  |  2572.93  |  15.41%  |  71.76%   |  4679
ACB Media 6  |  1916.88  |  11.48%  |  83.24%  |  1498
ACB Media 4  |  1107.44  |  6.63%    |  89.87%  |  1111
ACB Media 8  |  738.82   |  4.43%    |  94.30%  |  1293
ACB Media 2  |  655.85   |  3.93%    |  98.23%  |  1558
ACB Media 10   |   150.2   |   0.90%   |   99.13%  |  522
ACB Media 7   |  73.73   |   0.44%   |   99.57%  |  252
ACB Media 9  |  72.3 0.43%   |   100.00%   |  224
(blank)     |      0.00%   |   100.00%
Grand Total   |   16695.29    |   100.00%   |    26026

January 2024 Podcast Listens

Podcast   |  Sum of Listens   |  % of Total   |   Cumm % of Total
ACB Community  7061      52.65%  52.65%
ACB Events  854 6.37%    59.02%
Main Menu    853 6.36%    65.38%
ACB Braille Forum and E-Forum      650 4.85%    70.23%
Sound Prints 519 3.87%    74.10%
ACB Tuesday Topics   458 3.42%    77.51%
ACB Sunday Edition   333 2.48%    79.99%
ACB Conference and Convention    326 2.43%    82.42%
Pride Connection 280 2.09%    84.51%
ACB Convention: Audio Described Tours       211 1.57%    86.09%
ACB Business      200 1.49%    87.58%
ACB Crafters 193 1.44%    89.02%
ACB Advocacy Update       183 1.36%    90.38%
ACB Focus: Technology     177 1.32%    91.70%
ACB Focus: Audio Description  155 1.16%    92.86%
ACB Reports 114 0.85%    93.71%
ACB VISAbilities  114 0.85%    94.56%
ACB Focus: Entertainment 97   0.72%    95.28%
ACB Focus: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion   96   0.72%    96.00%
CCLVI: Let's Talk Low Vision     69   0.51%    96.51%
ACB Focus: Health and Wellness    63   0.47%    96.98%
ACB Convention: Exhibits  61   0.45%    97.43%
ACB Diabetics in Action     58   0.43%    97.87%
ACB Focus: Education and Employment (2021)    51   0.38%    98.25%
ACB Focus: Guide Dogs    44   0.33%    98.58%
ACB Focus: Literacy   38   0.28%    98.86%
ACB Focus: Education       22   0.16%    99.02%
ACB Focus: Employment   21   0.16%    99.18%
art-parlor       19   0.14%    99.32%
ACB Focus: Advocacy 18   0.13%    99.46%
ACB Focus: Transportation and Advocacy (2021) 15   0.11%    99.57%
Podcasts en espanol de la ACB       15   0.11%    99.68%
WCB Newsline Unleashed 11   0.08%    99.76%
Creative Journey  8     0.06%    99.82%
ACB Focus: Leadership     7     0.05%    99.87%
ACB Focus: Transportation       7     0.05%    99.93%
CCLVI Special Events 6     0.04%    99.97%
ACB Focus: Human Interest      4     0.03%    100.00%
Grand Total   13411     100.00%

Guest Input:

Janeen Lea asked if there would be a possibility of having audio described tours on the Media streams at times other than during convention. Rick noted that we have been given permission to use the audio tours for a specific period of time. Most of the tours are available as podcasts.

Penny reminded everyone when they are on the Conversation email list to be kind and respectful of one another.

The next meeting of the BOP will occur on March 12, 2024, beginning at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,
Zelda Gebhard, Director
ACB Board of Publications