Present: Charlie Hodge, Chair, Cindy Burgett, Winifred Downing, Mike Duke and Deanna Noriega; Ex Officio present: Janelle Edwards and Ralph Sanders, Secretary. Staff Present: Sharon Lovering, Acting Editor; Dave Williams, Managing Director of ACB Radio.
Guests present: Laura Oftedahl, Producer of ACB Reports:
Charlie called the meeting to order at 8:00p.m. EDT. He reviewed the proposed agenda for the meeting.
Winifred moved that the agenda be approved. Mike seconded the motion which carried.
Charlie introduced Laura who is retiring as theProducer of ACB Reports at the end of 2005.
Laura presented the background history of ACB Reports and her involvement since 1986.
It was agreed that Mike would survey radio reading services to see how many stations are playing the ACB Reports. It was further agreed that we would survey the membership at the convention.
Mike said he would be happy to assume responsibility for ACB Reports next year if it is going to still be done.
Charlie established an ACB Reports sub-committee to work on determining the future of the Reports including Mike Duke as Chair Person, Dave Williams and Ralph Sanders.
The BOP thanked Laura for her hard work and dedication on behalf of the ACB.
Minutes of Meetings:
Ralph moved approval of the minutes of the meetings held on December 13, 2004, February 18, 2005, March 7, 2005 and April 25, 2005. Mike seconded the motion. There was a lengthy discussion about the nature of the content of some of the Minutes. It was agreed that discretion must be used in characterizing discussions of sensitive matters during meetings.
The Minutes were approved as distributed.
Chair Person's Report: Charlie reviewed his discussions with Ray Campbell, Chair Person of the Constitution and By-Law Committee, to pass an amendment that would make the ACB Constitution and By-Laws consistent on the use of the term Chair Person throughout.
He reviewed the recent exchange of emails between himself and the web master over the issue of making reports to the BOP.
It was generally agreed that Manual Section 9.2 should be revised to require the Web Master to make a report to the BOP each year at the time of the BOP meeting at the ACB National Convention, and, more often if the Web Master or the BOP felt it necessary.
Biennial Review of BOP Policy Manual Committee
There was a lengthy discussion of Manual section 5.1 and 5.2.
Charlie passed the gavel to Winifred so he could engage in debate over Ralph's proposed language for 5.1.
After a lengthy discussion, it was agreed that Ralph and Charlie would attempt to find a compromise wording for 5.1 to present to the BOP for its meeting at the ACB Convention.
Deanna said her computer had crashed and that she currently could not send emails.
Ralph said he urged the BOP to think through the implications of the position of electing a Secretary. He said that the reason the Manual revision was voted in was because of the narrow vote at the 2004 convention over electing a Secretary. He said that he felt that if the Board ceased having a Secretary, that an amendment would come back to the Convention to elect a Secretary.
It was agreed that Manual Section 5 would be revisited at the meeting of the BOP on Sunday, July 3, 2005.
Ralph reported that the matter of approving Minutes by circulation had not been resolved by Melanie.
Awards for Newsletters
Charlie discussed his view that the news letter wards should go forward.
Winifred said she felt the issue had been dispensed with at the April 25 meeting.
Ralph noted that on March 7, the BOP had voted to name the two awards. He said he felt that if the BOP was not going forward with the awards, there had to be a motion to reconsider the names and then the BOP needed to reverse its prior action.
After a lengthy discussion, it was agreed that the news letter awards would be taken up at a future meeting.
There was a general discussion about the points of view expressed on the list about making changes to the candidate page on the web site. Since there is nothing that can be done to make changes before the 2005 convention, it was agreed that the issue would be taken up after the Convention.
Cindy said she would take it upon herself to post a notice that the BOP was listening closely to the discussion and would take up the suggestions prior to the 2006 convention.
Future Meetings:
It was agreed that the first meeting after the convention would be held on August 15, 2005, to allow Melanie time to review applications for Editor and forward the appropriate material about the candidates, including writing samples, to the BOP.
Cindy moved that the meeting be adjourned. Deanna seconded the motion which carried. The meeting was adjourned at 10:55p.m. EDT.