Board of Publications Meeting Minutes: June 4, 2024

The Board of Publications Chairperson, Penny Reeder, called the June 4, 2024, meeting to order at 9 p.m. Eastern. No changes were made to the agenda.

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

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 and Scott Thornhill, ACB Executive Director.

Sharon noted by email that the information center should be changed to the communication center. This change has been made. Penny moved to approve the May minutes as amended, seconded by Cachet. Minutes were approved.

No comments were received from participants.

Penny thanked Cindy and staff for the addition of the Quick Glance to the daily ACB Community Schedule. It streamlines the process of finding a specific call and is appreciated.

Guest Comment: Mary Haroyan said she missed ACB Reports. Rick reported Mike Duke had been putting this out and it historically had been one of the most popular podcasts. Rick will contact Mike to see if he has plans to restart the creation of it again.

Member on the Mic (MOM)

Anthony reported the next MOM is in production with the transcription in progress. Three have been contacted and Anthony will record the next interview soon.

He will put out another message asking for volunteers to join the production team. There has not been much interest from the scholarship recipients with only three choosing to be interviewed for the Scholarship Spotlight. To increase interest, we will reach out immediately after the convention this year with the opportunity. We talked about also including the DKM 1^st Timers and ACB JP Morgan Chase Leadership Fellows and plan to do interviews of those recipients as well. We will include them along with a monthly scholarship recipient with one at the beginning and one at the end of each month.

Anthony also clarified that the official way of nominating an individual for MOM is to send notification to Sharon Lovering. Promotion will continue in Dots and Dashes and the email lists.

Deb suggested that some of the MOM audio interviews like the recent one with Roger Petersen, containing both individual information and ACB history should be shared with the History Committee. Anthony said his team would be willing to do a third category geared towards ACB history. He encouraged Deb and others to suggest individuals for interview.

ACB Voices Blog Editors

June - Penny and Cachet
July – Cheryl and Katie

In addition to the emailed monthly report the following were discussed.

The High Tech Swap Shop column was discussed and confirmed that, as previously decided, will only be included in the ACB Braille Forum when there is content available.

Those choosing cartridge as their format receive two issues at a time. Penny asked how much more it would cost to send each issue separately. Kim Charlson joined us for the discussion. Each cartridge/mailer set costs $8. There is also a timing issue as the cartridge/mailer needs to be returned and this takes time and would be difficult to accomplish on a monthly basis. Each subscriber may retain up to three sets before Perkins puts a hold on their subscription and awaits the return of one before mailing is resumed. They receive a quarterly reminder if they have three unreturned. Kim reported the current attrition rate is good at 2% - those not expected to be returned. The cause may be due to death or institutionalization. Zelda asked if that information could somehow be shared with the affiliates. Sharon said she tries to pass it along by making note of the deceased in the AMMS but no direct contact with the affiliates is made

Braille Forum Themes

July-August 2024: Convention issue; deadline: May 24, 2024
September 2024: Convention Wrap up; deadline: July 26, 2024
October 2024: White Cane Safety and Employment; deadline: August 23, 2024

Statistics

May 2024

Braille distributed: 487
Braille returned: 8
Braille return rate: 1.64%
Braille received: 479
Cartridge distributed: 312
Large print distributed: 1,241
Large print returned: 4
Large print return rate: 0.32%
Large print received: 1,237
Email distributed: 5,539
Email bounces: 33
Unsubscribes: 1
Electronic return rate: 0.06%
Electronic received: 5,506

June 2024

Braille distributed: 480
Cartridge distributed: 0
Large print distributed: 1,230
Email distributed: 5,536

July-August 2024

Braille to be distributed: 477
Cartridge to be distributed: TBA
Large print to be distributed: 1,216
Email to be distributed: TBA

Deadlines for the Next Issues

September 2024: convention wrap-up; deadline: July 26, 2024
October 2024: white cane safety/employment; deadline: August 23, 2024
November-December 2024 – theme TBA; deadline: September 23, 2024

June’s Table of Contents

President’s Message: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?, by Deb Cook Lewis

Extras, Extras, Read All About Them!, by Janet Dickelman

Walking into a Brighter Future in Jacksonville, by Donna Brown

ACB Membership Committee Convention Sessions, by Ardis Bazyn

Serving on the ACB Board of Directors: Here’s What You Need to Know, by Kenneth Semien Sr.

Summary of the March 2024 ACB Board of Directors Meeting, by Penny Reeder

Letter to the Membership of ACB

Experiencing a Solar Eclipse with Description from Be My Eyes AI, by Jessica Mandich

Affiliate News

High Tech Swap Shop

July-August’s Table of Contents

(subject to change)

President’s Message …, by Deb Cook Lewis

Advocacy in Action: Reflections for Disability Pride Month, by Swatha Nandhakumar

Last-Minute Convention Information, by Janet Dickelman

Affiliate News

Ocean Breezes to Walk Us into a Brighter Future, by Donna Browning

MMS at the ACB 2024 Conference and Convention, by Jean Mann

Inspiration Begins with ACB, by Kenneth Semien Sr.

Summary of the April 30, 2024 Meeting of the ACB Board of Directors, by Penny Reeder

Focus Call Tips and Information, compiled by Ardis Bazyn

From Guide Dog Users, Inc.’s Advocacy Committee: Report those ads that encourage doting pet owners to break the law and identify untrained pets as service and guide dogs!, by Penny Reeder

Here and There, edited by Cynthia G. Hawkins

High Tech Swap Shop

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As I write this, I’m working on the July-August issue. I’m waiting for one last article. I’ve proofread everything else that’s come in, set the table of contents up, and am ready to roll once I receive that article.

I continue to put together the Dots and Dashes newsletter. One issue is going out June 3rd; the one after that, the 17th. Then we will take a break to allow us to prepare for the national convention. The next one after that will be July 15^th.

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 finished 1977, 1978 and 1979, and am working my way through 1976. As of today, I have Word and text files for January-February, March-April, May-June, July-August, and the convention supplement. That leaves me the September-October and November-December issues. I’ll do the braille files once I have all the issues in Word and text.

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. I updated the Washington Connection on May 20^th.

I am also responsible for the ACB Job Connection. Sometimes jobs pour in from a variety of sources, including NIB, South Texas Lighthouse for the Blind, and other places. Other times, it’s catch as catch can. I will update the Job Connection after getting July-August to press.

Sharon Lovering, Editor
ACB Braille Forum

Several members have volunteered to help Sharon in the communication center. Those interested and available should contact Sharon. She is looking for help in the daytime for 2-hour shifts or drop in help from 8AM to 4PM or in the evening starting at 7:30 PM for bursting, collating, and stapling brailed papers.

There is no need for human readers of the newspaper as we will be using 11 Labs again this year. Rick reported that he is using the voice of Sarah for the convention.

Penny asked who will be available to present awards at the banquet. Katie, Cachet, and Zelda will be in attendance and volunteered to present the awards. Sharon will also assist with the awards during the banquet. She will inform us of which award recipients will be in attendance.

Zelda prepared the final copy, implementing the changes our committee made. She then sent that document as well as the 2015 document on BOP email list the night of our last meeting.

Penny asked for comments or input in preparation for the next steps.

Deb acknowledged the work Zelda did on the document to bring it up to date but in order to make possible substantial changes she would like us to go through and identify the areas that need further attention. She feels others should be included in the revision so she will put together a work group that will include the BOP and others that would be impacted to address this document. They will work on this task between the convention and the fall board meeting. The goal is to have a draft on the ACB Board agenda in October. Zelda mentioned that she felt the document is vital in order to clearly define the role and responsibilities of the current BOP but would also be useful for those interested in running for election to the BOP in the future.

Jeff reported the handout covering the first Groups.io training has been completed and will be linked to the podcast of the training. Part II of the training was postponed and will be held in August or September.

Penny thanked Zelda and Jeff for facilitating the excellent training about Smart Brevity during the May Editor’s Gathering. Katie scheduled and hosted the event. It was recorded and that recording was made available to those on the Editor’s list. They would like to make it available to the membership. Zelda will send the link of the recording to Rick and a podcast will be created. Deb and Rick will talk and determine where the podcast should be placed as there currently is really no logical place.

We discussed how best to share Smart Brevity with the affiliate presidents. Consideration was given to posting the link to the recording to the president’s list or do another presentation with their perspective in mind. It was suggested that a Smart Brevity training could be included during the President’s Meeting at the 2025 ACB Leadership Meetings. The group agreed.

During the Editor’s Gathering, we decided to be more inclusive and change the name of the email list from ACB-Editors to ACB-Communicators. Rick was asked to change this on Groups.io. Zelda will send a message to the subscribers of that list to inform them of the change. Also, a quarterly meeting date change was considered. Input was requested and provided. The date will remain the 2^nd Friday at 8:30 PM Eastern. The next Communicator’s Gathering will be Friday, August 9^th.

Those with a Candidate’s page will be invited to attend the Candidates’ Forum scheduled for Wednesday, June 19. It will be streamed on Media 6. Penny, Katie, and Cheryl will meet to plan the Candidate’s Forum.

Penny will send a notice to those candidates inviting them to create a 30-second audio promo to be aired on ACB Media A. Deadline to submit promos to Rick was set for Wednesday, June 12.

Guest Comment

Amanda suggested that we could present Smart Brevity to the affiliate presidents during a weekly Humpday Happy Hour. 

There were no stats shared because Rick has been busy planning for the convention. He previously shared the need to transition off our existing infrastructure. Today, they met with Live 365 and had a particularly good dialogue. Rick is programming Media 9 with native Live 365 scheduling algorithms which Larry was able to access and work with today and it looks promising. They have Station Playlist, which we are already familiar with, available virtually for $75.00/month which will be needed in just a few streams. This will enable us to get scheduling done by more people and we will be able to sunset Azure entirely for a lot less money. Today’s meeting with Live 365 was made possible by Force for Good (JP Morgan Chase).

The eleven 2024 resolutions will be made audible with 11 Labs and posted directly in Live 365.

Scott shared some information from the DC Leadership Meetings Survey. Kaitlyn, while transitioning out of her job yet still helping with communications through convention, did compile statistics from the survey responses.

2/3 of the attendees prefer their communication to be electronic.

Over 90% were satisfied with the communication prior to and during the Leadership Meetings.

The vast majority were satisfied with the programming and breakouts and sessions.

Over 50% of the attendees were over 50.

Over 85% of the attendees were Caucasian.

Just under ¾ of the attendees were totally blind.

Announcement:

This being Penny’s last meeting as chair of the BOP, she expressed how much she appreciated having had the opportunity to serve in this way. She is willing to help the BOP in whatever way is needed and she can in the future.

Deb thanked Penny for her years of service on the BOP specifically her willingness to do whatever needed to be done from chairing the BOP, to taking BOP meeting minutes, to being the representative on the ACB Board and writing the summaries of those meetings as well.

Next BOP Meeting: August 6, 2024 beginning at 9:00 PM, ET.

The meeting was adjourned and then returned for an executive session.

Respectfully submitted,
Zelda Gebhard, Director
ACB Board of Publications