by Penny Reeder
President Deb Lewis called the convention meeting of the ACB Board of Directors to order at 9 a.m. All board members and staff members with scheduled presentations were present, either via Zoom or in the meeting room. The meeting agenda was approved. Minutes from the April 30 board meeting were approved with one correction.
Janet stated that 1,071 people had registered for the convention, and 566 were there in person. Another 175 people were expected to attend the Blinded Veterans Association (BVA) annual convention, which was taking place in tandem with the ACB convention.
Next year’s convention will be held July 4-11 at the Hyatt Reunion Downtown Hotel in Dallas, Tex., and the fall board meeting would take place there on Nov. 1 and 2. Janet said that planning for conventions beyond 2025 would begin after convention.
Deb then gave her president’s report. She explained that many of the staff reports that appeared on the agenda for presentation at this board meeting would not be presented during general sessions, since the board meeting podcast would be made available online shortly after the meeting.
Regarding ACB’s Leadership Conference, Deb said that Scott and Nancy Becker were able to secure a nightly room rate of $155 at the Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel in Arlington, Va., for both 2025 and 2026. There was some discussion about the dates for 2026. After further research, the board, President Lewis, Scott Thornhill, and the hotel were able to agree on March 6-11, 2026. The board approved the contract, with the $155 room rate, for the 2025 and 2026 Leadership Conferences. For 2025, the dates are March 14-18.
Former ACB president Mitch Pomerantz summarized the Prohibited Conduct Complaint Investigation Panel’s activities during 2023. Mitch said there was only one complaint that required the panel to conduct an investigation.
Scott Thornhill told the board that in the coming year, he anticipates that ACB will focus primarily on three specific areas of concern: accessibility, employability, and health care. However, ACB won’t abandon other concerns. ACB has begun to explore accessibility, and to research feasibility, and is prepared to move forward with the development of an Accessibility and Training Services Department as part of ACB. “We would be looking to provide assessments, remediations, and monitoring,” he said. “These activities could yield, not just a revenue stream for ACB, but also an opportunity to employ more blind people. This focus would also strengthen our relationships with partners, including those who are sponsoring this very event. A focus on providing accessibility and training services will represent a winning direction for ACB, our members, and our partners, across the board.”
Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs Claire Stanley told the board that she and Advocacy & Outreach Specialist Swatha Nandhakumar are developing milestones in pursuit of achieving ACB’s goals with respect to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. They have met with members of the Multi-Cultural Affairs Committee (MCAC) to seek their feedback regarding how ACB’s advocacy goals mesh with the needs of diverse groups within the organization for equity and inclusion. She and Swatha are working to identify other civil rights organizations with whom ACB might want to partner to address shared organizational goals with respect to DEIA.
Claire stated that ACB continues to work actively in a coalition with many disability advocacy groups to push forward the Communications, Video, and Technology Accessibility Act (CVTA). (That bill was re-introduced on July 25.)
ACB is working on achieving the goals expressed in the Websites and Software Applications Accessibility Act, including deciding how to proceed after the 118th Congressional session ends. Although ADA Title II regulations requiring governmental web sites to be accessible have finally been promulgated by the Department of Justice, there is still work to do with respect to mandating accessibility of websites and other entities that fall under Title III.
In addition, ACB is working with Guide Dog Users, Inc. (GDUI) and the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) to create a pilot pre-check program under the auspices of the Department of Transportation that will allow guide dog users to fly with their guide dogs without having to fill out a separate attestation form for every flight taken.
ACB has joined other advocates in attempting to persuade Congress to re-establish a program similar to the Affordable Connectivity Program. Claire encouraged anyone who has been negatively affected by the demise of that program to send their stories via email to [email protected]. Kim Charlson said that the FCC recently announced its intent to seek input on expanding the use of E-Rate, which may benefit people who had relied on the Affordable Connectivity Program.
Swatha shared a report regarding the progress ACB has made toward achieving the goals contained in the 2023 resolutions. To hear the update, visit https://www.acb.org/2024-convention-general-sessions-and-banquet-podcasts-and-youtube.
Tabitha Kenlon, Audio Description Project (ADP) Coordinator, briefly reported on planning for the Audio Description Awards Gala, which is scheduled for Nov. 14. She said that award winners have been selected and notified. The gala will be broadcast in English and Spanish, and with captioning, audio description, and American Sign Language.
Tabitha also announced that, through a combined effort involving Jo Lynn Bailey-Page, Rick Morin, Dan and herself, ACB applied for and received a grant from the Consumer Technology Association to fund the development of an Alexa skill which will be linked to a new database being created for the re-designed ADP web site.
Development Officer Kolby Garrison shared news about successful fund-raising efforts, including the Brenda Dillon Memorial Walk; the ACB Summer Auction; the Monthly Monetary Support program; the Annual Giving Society; and the ACB Strong initiative. The Angel Wall honored seven new ACB Angels this year.
Jo Lynn told the board that the organization’s success in procuring a number of grants over recent months has depended directly upon productive collaboration among teams made up of ACB managers and staff members. To date, ACB has received $64,500 from foundation grants.
Manager of Membership Engagement Cindy Hollis began her report by celebrating the success of the weekly meeting of affiliate presidents, which is known as “Humpday Happy Hour.” She said that the ACB Community averages 437 events monthly and, as of May 31, has presented a total of 18,521 events since its launch in 2020.
ACB reported a 5.8 percent increase in membership in 2024. State affiliates experienced a 3.9 percent increase, and special-interest affiliates increased membership by nearly 25 percent.
ACB’s Media and IT Manager Rick Morin began his report by telling the board that the audio-visual team’s job is to make things look easy. “My job,” he continued, “is to tell you that that ain’t the case!” During the first week of virtual convention programming, ACB Media counted 9,000 listener hours. There were about 600 listeners to the ACB Media stream, and hundreds of people were listening on Zoom.
Rick praised the ACB Media Support Committee for their hard work in developing content management guidelines and policies. He expressed ACB Media’s appreciation to JPMorgan Chase for the assistance that their Force for Good project is contributing to ACB Media’s goal of redesigning their infrastructure. “We have made more progress in the last two months toward achieving our goals than we made in the previous three years,” Rick said.
Nancy Becker, Chief Financial Officer, stated that ACB’s collaboration with the Blinded Veterans Association was working out extremely well for both groups, already resulting in first-rate swag for convention attendees, and a remarkably full exhibit hall. She thanked the Minneapolis team for their excellent work.
Michael Garrett invited board members to ask any questions they had regarding the financial narrative. He said that the clean financial audit which ACB recently received means that ACB’s financial statements fairly represent the organization’s financial position in all respects.
Rick and ACB Media Support Committee Chair Rachel Schroeder asked the board to approve a policy to bring ACB Media into compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s legal requirements. This policy will require ACB Media to add metadata tags to everything that is played on ACB Media 4. Starting now, any audio file that cannot be appropriately tagged must be excluded from streaming on Channel 4, podcasts, or playing over Zoom.
Board of Publications chair Penny Reeder stated that BOP members have been working hard to assure that all of ACB’s communications are respectful and acceptable to all. One change for the ACB-Conversation list is the limit on the number of days during which discussion on a particular topic can take place.
Each quarter, Zelda Gebhard puts together a meeting for everyone who communicates on behalf of an ACB affiliate. Recently, Jeff Bishop and Zelda presented a session on “Smart Brevity” to help affiliate communicators learn to express themselves in interesting — and brief — ways.
Other trainings that the BOP had a hand in this year involved two sessions presented by Jeff Bishop to help ACB members understand how to participate effectively on our Groups.io lists, and two training sessions on using the NLS eReaders.
The meeting adjourned just after 3 p.m. Eastern.