by Charles S.P. Hodge
A telephone conference call meeting of the ACB board of directors was called to order by President Chris Gray at 8:35 p.m. (Eastern standard time) on Tuesday, February 11. Secretary Donna Seliger called the roll, and all board members were present except for Steve Speicher and Alan Beatty. ACB Executive Director Charlie Crawford was present on the call, but Chief Financial Officer Jim Olsen was not.
This was the third in a series of conference calls aimed at allowing the board to continue its consideration of the recommendations of the budget committee. (See the March 2003 “Braille Forum” for a summary of the first two calls.) President Gray and budget committee chairman Brian Charlson picked up with the budget committee’s recommendations at the point where the board had halted its review on February 2.
At its January 16 telephone conference call, the board had accepted the budget committee’s recommendation to limit board members’ reimbursable compensation at the mid-year meeting to only one night of lodging expense and one day's meal or per diem expense. The budget committee’s earlier recommendation of a line item in the amount of $2,400 to support advocacy efforts on behalf of individuals had been withdrawn by the committee in its revised report. Similarly, the committee’s initial recommendation regarding elimination of the office manager’s position in the national office was also being withdrawn in the committee’s revised report since the incumbent employee of that position had recently left ACB’s employ for a more remunerative position. While the executive director has asked another staff employee in the national office to take over much of the functions of the office manager position, a vacancy in one staff position in the national office will be allowed to exist for a period of time until ACB’s budget circumstances take a turn for the better. President Gray then indicated that he was going to defer further discussion of the budget committee’s recommendations regarding potential performance bonuses for both the ACB executive director as well as that portion of any potential bonus for the chief financial officer attributable to ACB until an executive session of the board could be held during the board's mid-year meeting in Pittsburgh.
The board then turned its attention to the budget committee’s revised recommendation in favor of a 3 percent cost of living pay increase for employees in the national office except the executive director. Mitch Pomerantz moved that in light of ACB’s difficult budgetary circumstances, further consideration of this recommendation should be deferred until the post-convention board meeting in July. The motion failed on a roll call vote of five in favor to eight against. Those voting in the affirmative were Ed Bradley, Oral Miller, Mitch Pomerantz, Carla Ruschival and Donna Seliger. Those voting in the negative were Jerry Annunzio, Ardis Bazyn, Brian Charlson, Dawn Christensen, Paul Edwards, Billie Jean Keith, M.J. Schmitt and Pat Sheehan. The board then adopted a motion made by Brian Charlson to accept this budget committee recommendation.
Next, the board turned to the committee’s revised recommendation in favor of a 5 percent pay increase for the manager of ACB Radio, and for additional compensation for ACB’s webmaster. After some discussion, the board decided to defer further consideration of this matter until its mid-year meeting. The board did, however, vote to increase the webmaster’s contract work hours from 20 to 30 hours per week at the current hourly pay rate.
Next, the board turned its attention to the committee’s revised recommendation to limit funding for “The Braille Forum” to an amount which would permit publication of only 10 issues of “The Braille Forum” in the 2003 budget year with two of these issues being slightly larger combined issues. Charlson moved to adopt this revised budget committee recommendation. The board adopted this motion on a roll call vote of seven in favor to six against. Those voting in the affirmative were Jerry Annunzio, Ardis Bazyn, Brian Charlson, Dawn Christensen, Paul Edwards, Donna Seliger and Pat Sheehan. Those voting in the negative were Ed Bradley, Billie Jean Keith, Oral Miller, Mitch Pomerantz, Carla Ruschival and M.J. Schmitt.
(Author’s Note: This directive was subsequently overturned by the board of publications during its February 28 conference call meeting at which the BOP voted to limit the remaining seven issues of “The Braille Forum” during the 2003 budget year to 48 print pages rather than the 56 print page issue size utilized over the past three years. By implementing this page reduction, the BOP hopes to derive sufficient savings to enable the ACB to publish an 11th issue of “The Braille Forum,” which is proposed as a 2003 convention issue, tentatively planned for the fall. The BOP views this temporary page count reduction as a regrettable interim setback for “The Braille Forum” which was necessitated by budgetary constraints beyond the control of the BOP or the editorial staff.)
The board then came to grips with the committee’s recommendation to authorize no board travel, lodging or meal reimbursement expenses to hold its customary September board meeting. Paul Edwards moved to adopt the committee’s recommendation on this matter. However, after some discussion, the motion was defeated on a roll call vote of five in favor to eight against. Those voting in the affirmative were Brian Charlson, Dawn Christensen, Paul Edwards, Oral Miller and M.J. Schmitt. Those voting in the negative were Jerry Annunzio, Ardis Bazyn, Ed Bradley, Billie Jean Keith, Mitch Pomerantz, Carla Ruschival, Donna Seliger and Pat Sheehan. Carla Ruschival then made a motion that a September face-to-face board meeting be held this year, but that board members would be expected to cover out of their own pockets their travel, lodging and meal costs to attend that meeting. After considerable discussion, the motion carried by a voice vote.
Since the board had completed its review of all of the budget committee’s original and revised budget notes, assumptions and recommendations, President Gray entertained a motion to adjourn which was promptly made, seconded and adopted by the board, and the meeting adjourned at 10:20 p.m. (Eastern standard time).