by Charles S.P. Hodge
President Chris Gray called the fall meeting of the ACB board of directors to order at 8:40 a.m. (Central daylight time) on Saturday, September 21, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Minneapolis, Minn. The secretary’s roll call found all board members present, and there were approximately 10 guests and three staff members, executive director Charlie Crawford, chief financial officer Jim Olsen, and director of advocacy and governmental affairs Melanie Brunson, in attendance.
Several board members suggested items to be added to the draft meeting agenda, and the agenda as amended was adopted. M.J. Schmitt volunteered to compile a to-do list during the subsequent meeting.
Review and adoption of minutes from previous board meetings
The board adopted the minutes of the July 6 post-convention board meeting, as circulated by the secretary. Review of the minutes of the June 29 pre-convention board meeting proved to be a matter of controversy.
The controversy revolved around a motion which had been offered at that pre-convention meeting by Mitch Pomerantz and which instructed a number of committees as well as the board of publications to submit reports to the board of directors as recommended by an ad hoc committee chaired by Dr. Otis Stephens. Although the Pomerantz motion was defeated, after its failure, Crawford had commented that in his view the board of directors had gone beyond its proper authority in even considering such a motion with respect to the board of publications. Subsequent to the convention, both Crawford and Gray had circulated their contrary views with respect to the power of the board of directors to command action by the board of publications. At the insistence of the two protagonists, the secretary had attached their extensive written commentaries to the pre-convention board meeting minutes.
The board defeated a motion to strike Crawford’s initial statement from the pre-convention meeting minutes. Since the issues and matters contained in Crawford’s and Gray’s subsequent commentaries were actually discussed at this (September) meeting, the board adopted a motion to attach their writings to the minutes of the September board meeting.
The board then turned its attention to a presentation from a representative of the Minneapolis Hyatt Regency Hotel, which, in conjunction with the Millennium Hotel across the street and the Minneapolis Convention Bureau, was putting together a competitive proposal for the 2007 ACB national convention. The board indicated its interest in considering her facility’s 2007 convention proposal at the mid-year meeting.
Executive Director’s Report
Charlie Crawford said that certain functions in the national office should be refocused to gain the greatest efficiency. For example, he indicated that more of his time will be directed to assisting with and coordinating ACB’s ongoing fund-raising efforts, and less of his energies will be devoted to advocacy and governmental affairs matters. He also indicated that more of Terry Pacheco’s time will be redirected to working to foster ACB’s membership recruitment and development endeavors. The convention detail work will by necessity have to be picked up by members of the convention coordinating committee.
In response to questions from board members, Crawford indicated that the scholarship program support raffle which could not be held at the Houston convention will be held at the national office this fall as soon as an appropriate license can be procured from the District of Columbia government.
The matter of better capacity to track and appropriately respond to individual donations was raised by several board members. The board adopted a motion requesting President Gray to acquire computer software to give ACB a modern donor database, and to situate the software in an appropriate location and assign a staff person to implement and maintain the database. The president will monitor implementation of the donor database and make further reports and recommendations to the board as needed. In addition, the board adopted a motion requesting that the president arrange for regularly scheduled teleconference calls between ACB staff members and volunteers who may be assuming functions previously carried out by staff members to insure that both staff and volunteers are communicating with one another during this transition period.
Next, the board turned its attention to a teleconference presentation by fund-raising consultant Mark Silver, concerning various strategies for members to meet their fund-raising commitments to the organization.
Report on Advocacy and Governmental Relations
After an executive session, and during lunch, Melanie Brunson gave her report to the board. She indicated that all priority one resolutions from the Houston convention had been acted upon by staff, and that actions were also under way with respect to a number of other 2002 resolutions. Brunson reported that the Department of Justice on behalf of the Department of the Treasury had submitted a motion to dismiss or in the alternative, to seek summary judgment in ACB’s lawsuit against the Treasury demanding identifiable paper currency. The Justice Department is arguing that providing accessible paper currency would constitute an undue and costly administrative burden for the Treasury which is not required under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. ACB’s attorney has requested and been granted an extension of time until the end of October to respond to the Justice Department’s submission.
Brunson said that there is a continuing need for ACB affiliates and members to submit written comments to the Access Board on the report of the Public Rights of Way Access Advisory Committee (PROWAAC), which endorses accessible pedestrian signals and the use of detectable warnings on curb cuts and sidewalk ramps. Finally, Brunson told the board that she is cautiously optimistic that election reform legislation including provisions for accessible voting equipment and funding for its installation will be passed during this session of Congress.
IDEA Task Force White Paper Report
Paul Edwards reported to the board on the position paper developed by the ACB IDEA Task Force which sets forth a number of recommendations for consideration by Congress during the reauthorization process for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, scheduled to take place in the next Congress. The board adopted a motion approving and endorsing the recommendations contained within the task force’s white paper and requesting that ACB affiliates also take action to endorse and support their recommendations.
Membership Committee Report
When the board reconvened after lunch, Ardis Bazyn reported to the board on behalf of the membership committee. She indicated that while the committee had been actively working with three special interest groups, there were no affiliate charter applications ready for presentation at this meeting. Bazyn said that she expected affiliate charter applications from the revived human service providers and the blind industrial workers to be ready for presentation at the mid-year meeting. In addition, she indicated that members of the committee were actively working in a number of states to either revive struggling affiliates or to re-establish ACB affiliates. She also reported that the membership committee is working hard to develop a membership recruitment and development “tool kit” including new public service announcements which will be distributed to ACB affiliates before the end of the year. The board accepted the membership committee’s report.
Returning to a piece of unfinished business from the morning session, Charlie Crawford concluded his report by indicating his intention to have national office staff work more closely with both the membership committee and specific ACB affiliates to assist in carrying out membership recruitment and development projects. He also indicated that the editor of “The Braille Forum,” Penny Reeder, had prepared a written report for the board which would be promptly forwarded to each board member. The board adopted a motion accepting the executive director’s report.
Next, the board considered and defeated a motion offered by Carla Ruschival which would have expressed the board of directors’ displeasure to the board of publications regarding the tone of, and unauthorized prepublication and Internet distribution of, an (unpublished) editorial regarding alleged discrimination against guide dog users by the Communicating Computers Foundation in South Dakota.
The board did adopt a motion offered by M.J. Schmitt urging the board of publications to include in each subsequent issue of “The Braille Forum” highlights of the executive director’s weekly “News Notes from the National Office” e-mail messages. The supporters of the approved motion argued that ACB members who do not have access to computers, e-mail and the Internet would be informed by reading “News Notes,” even if belatedly.
ACB History Committee Report
Charles Hodge regretfully reported to the board on behalf of the ACB History Committee that during the week immediately following the national convention, with no prior warning, the publisher of the ACB history had returned the finished manuscript to Professor Megivern claiming that the manuscript was unacceptably long, and reneging on their contractual agreement. Hodge recommended that ACB should enter into a new agreement with a leading digital online publisher for prompt publication of the ACB history. By motion duly approved, the board adopted this central recommendation. The board also approved the vast majority of the history committee’s other detailed recommendations designed to further ACB’s efforts to have the book published promptly, and accepted the history committee report.
President’s Report
President Gray indicated that the lion’s share of his time and energy since the national convention had been spent in developing various fund-raising initiatives for ACB. While acknowledging that results of these efforts to date have been meager, he indicated considerable optimism that several fund-raising initiatives will start bearing positive results for ACB by early next year. Gray also announced the formation of an ACB transportation task force with Ron Brooks of New Mexico and Alice Richhart of Georgia as co-chairpersons. The board accepted the report.
Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer Ardis Bazyn indicated that as of June 30, ACB was confronting a budget shortfall or deficit of approximately $160,000 for the current fiscal year. The board adopted a motion accepting the treasurer’s report.
The board of directors meeting was recessed, and a corporate membership meeting of the American Council of the Blind Enterprises and Services Inc. (ACBES) was held. During the ACBES corporate membership meeting, LeRoy Saunders, Dawn Christensen and M.J. Schmitt were elected to seats with two-year terms on the ACBES board of directors.
Budget Committee Report
When the ACB board of directors meeting reconvened, the first order of business was to begin the budget committee’s report. In light of the looming budget shortfalls reflected in the treasurer’s report, the board’s first action was to adopt a motion authorizing the use of up to $200,000 from board-designated reserves to cover anticipated budget shortfalls or deficits through the end of the present fiscal year. Then, the board adopted a motion directing the board of publications to cut $6,200 from the remaining budget allocation for the final three anticipated issues of “The Braille Forum” for the present fiscal year. After much agonizing over a budget committee recommendation that all discretionary spending be frozen for the remainder of the fiscal year, the board adopted a motion authorizing a special ad hoc committee composed of Carla Ruschival, Oral Miller and Paul Edwards to meet with chief financial officer Jim Olsen overnight with the aim of identifying further specific budget cuts which could be recommended to the board for action on Sunday morning.
Next, the board adopted a motion approving a recommendation from the executive director that future ACB budgets should be constructed by using the concept of budget centers and a three-tiered priority system. The motion also envisioned that the present and incoming budget committees along with the executive director would constitute a special budget task force which was charged with developing a first quarter 2003 budget incorporating the previously approved budget center and three-tiered priority concepts. The envisioned first quarter budget is expected to be sent to the board on or before December 1, and the board is expected to act upon it at a teleconference call meeting around December 15.
The meeting was recessed until 8 a.m. on Sunday, September 22.
Sunday morning
When the board reconvened, Crawford attempted to clarify exactly what he meant by the budget center and three-tiered priority concepts which had been adopted by the board the previous afternoon. He explained that with respect to expenditures, the first priority level constitutes only those expenditures which the organization is legally obliged to make through binding contracts, such as paying rent on our lease for the national office. The second priority level constitutes those expenditures which we normally or customarily make, such as publishing “The Braille Forum,” and the third and lowest priority level includes those expenditures which we would like to initiate or establish if and when appropriate funding might become available.
Similarly, on the revenue side for each budget center, the first priority level are those revenues which we know almost to an absolute certainty will come to us during that budget year. The second priority level are those revenue items which we can conservatively yet reasonably expect to materialize during a particular fiscal year, and the third and lowest priority are for those untried and riskier revenue sources which we hope may come in during a budget year.
The board adopted a motion instructing the special ad hoc budget task force to include in its December 1 report to the board specific recommendations for an appeal mechanism which would permit a particular budget center which was running up against the limit of its budget allocation to argue for further spending authority to be transferred to it from specific other budget center(s) which are underspending their budget allocations.
Then, the ad hoc overnight cost-cutting committee made its report. The committee had identified and recommended to the board a series of reductions in various budget line items where funding allocations existed which reasonably could be anticipated not to be spent in this budget year. The recommended budget cuts totaled $25,000, and the board adopted a motion approving the recommended budget reductions.
The board then adopted a motion establishing a baseline for the first quarter 2003 budget not to exceed $353,000. The board also adopted a motion approving a recommendation from ACB’s auditors that a separate and distinct ad hoc investment committee should be established. The approved motion authorizes the creation of an ad hoc three-person investment committee to be composed of the ACB treasurer and two additional members to be appointed by the ACB president.
The board also adopted a motion offered by Carla Ruschival that during the next budget year, ACB begin the process of bringing both the revenue side and the expenditure side of the ACB convention account online or on-budget for budgeting purposes.
Convention Site Selection Report
Carla Ruschival reported to the board on her activities in attempting to develop convention proposals for future ACB conventions. Ruschival intends to present proposals for the board’s consideration and possible action at its mid-year meeting in Pittsburgh, Pa., in February 2003, for both the 2005 and 2007 conventions. She anticipates that the 2005 proposals will come from the west (excluding California), and that the 2007 proposals will come from the upper midwest or from the northeast. She has approximately a dozen separate entities under active consideration for the 2005 and 2007 convention site selection competition. The board adopted a motion accepting the report of the convention site selection coordinator.
Election of Executive Committee
The board took a brief recess during which the officers and directors met separately to elect their respective members to the executive committee for the coming year. When the board reconvened, Gray announced that the officers had re-elected first vice president Steve Speicher and immediate past president Paul Edwards to serve on the executive committee. The directors had re-elected Mitch Pomerantz and Oral Miller to serve as members of the executive committee. Thus, the makeup of the executive committee for the coming year remains unchanged from last year’s committee composition.
Then the board turned its attention to several recommendations which had been made by the board of publications at the post-convention board of directors meeting, but which had been deferred for consideration until this meeting. While a number of these recommendations had been overtaken by intervening events or were no longer relevant, the board did take action with respect to some. For example, the board adopted a motion referring the BOP’s recommendation for purging the subscription lists for all editions of “The Braille Forum” to the budget committee for its consideration while developing the 2003 ACB budget.
With respect to the issue of royalty payments which must be made by Internet broadcasters such as ACB Radio, the board adopted a motion requesting that the ACB president in consultation with the director of ACB Radio actively monitor this matter and make further reports and recommendations to the board as necessary.
Election of Budget Committee
In several closely contested races, the board re-elected treasurer Ardis Bazyn and Brian Charlson as members of the budget committee. Then, the board elected new board member Patrick Sheehan as the third member of the budget committee.
Resource Development Committee Report
President Gray told the board that he had delayed appointing a new committee chair, pending the outcome of the budget committee elections just held by the board. He indicated his intent not to act as chairman of the committee himself.
Gray told the board that the committee continued to be involved in a number of fund-raising initiatives, and that he believes that ACB will start to see positive income results from some of these projects beginning early next year. The board adopted a motion to defer further consideration of the Dodge Fielding fund-raising report until the mid-year board meeting. The board also adopted a motion authorizing the chief financial officer to acquire the necessary computer software and to enter the necessary arrangements with a responsible banking institution to immediately implement the “M&M for ACB” monthly donation program. The board discussed a number of fund-raising ideas, and adopted a motion accepting the report of the resource development committee.
Jerry Annunzio made a report to the board regarding the “major donor” program which he had agreed to initiate for ACB. He indicated that after consultations with Mark Silver, he had established a goal of identifying 140 names of potential major donors, and a goal of raising $50,000 from such major donors by the end of this calendar year. While challenging, he indicated that he was better than halfway toward achieving his major donor identification goal, and he wants to begin the process of making approaches to identified major donors beginning in November. The board adopted a motion accepting the report of the major donor coordinator.
Charlie Crawford explained to the board his reservations about pending legislation in Congress that would authorize Medicare reimbursements for services provided to blind and visually impaired individuals by providers such as occupational therapists and physical therapists who do not have the training in blindness or low vision that other providers also included in the legislation, such as O&M instructors, rehabilitation teachers and low vision specialists, are required to have. The board adopted a motion espousing the position that in order for professionals who provide services to blind or visually impaired individuals to qualify for Medicare reimbursement, they must have the sort of training in blindness and low vision usually required of professionals such as O&M instructors, rehabilitation teachers and low vision specialists.
The board adopted a motion dissolving the voting rights task force which had completed its work in developing ACB’s voting rights handbook, expected to be online by Election Day.
The board adopted a motion instructing the scholarship committee to amend the eligibility criteria for ACB scholarship recipients to permit part-time students to be eligible to compete for and win ACB scholarships.
The fall ACB board of directors meeting adjourned at 12:15 p.m. (Central daylight time) on Sunday, September 22.