Board of Publications Meeting Minutes: December 2, 2025

Meeting commenced, Tuesday, December 2, 2025 at 9 p.m. Eastern.

Chairman Zelda Gebhard welcomed board members, guests and the community. She noted public comments could be submitted to this email: bop.mail@acb.org.

BOP members present: Deborah Armstrong, Jeff Bishop, Belinda Collins, Ralynn McGuire

Ex officio members present: Katie Frederick, past BOP chair and ACB Board Liaison; Sharon Lovering, Editor of “The ACB Braille Forum”

ACB officers and staff present: Scott Thornhill, ACB Executive Director; Deb Cook Lewis, ACB President

Rick Morin, ACB Media and IT Manager (not present at the December meeting)

Jeff motioned, Belinda seconded. Approved.

Jeff motioned, Belinda seconded. Approved.

Deborah Armstrong asked if a style set was developed for the approved ACB large print guidelines. It was suggested she create a template for this; no official template exists.

Sharon reported January’s Braille Forum was at the presses. Zelda expressed appreciation for Dots and Dashes plus the statistics included in her report to the BOP mailing list.

Braille Forum Themes and Deadlines

• Feburary: The heart of ACB is membership – December 19th 2025.
• March: Adapt, Change, Be – January 23, 2026
• April: (Multi-Cultural Affairs) From Inclusion to Belonging – February 20, 2026.

Zelda commented themes for May and beyond would need to be decided at the next meeting.

Debrah reported the first column of Affiliates in Action will appear in February’s forum featuring the government employees affiliate.

Rick requested Zelda ask the BOP to list statistics they would like to see in his media reports. Members agreed what he produces now is excellent. Deborah suggested popularity rankings, but Deb Cook Lewis said they had less data on ACB community presentations than on the magazine shows.

Drafts were posted on the BOP mailing list and feedback integrated. Jeff, in particular, submitted a detailed proposal integrating those suggestions. Some small points were discussed, and the guidelines were approved by consensus with these alterations. In particular, sections 4 and 5 were merged. It was also suggested that the reply to individual poster policy be maintained for the conversation list.

Consistency Between Lists

The board agreed rules about multiple postings to leadership and conversation list should not be changed at this time. there was discussion about the policy stating postings to the ACB community list cannot be cross-posted to the conversation list. But it was agreed this policy could be dropped.

This alteration, along with others, was approved. So moved was Deborah and seconded by Belinda. Deborah has agreed to make an audio recording of the finalized guidelines. A consensus agreed guidelines for the conversation list would be posted on the 15th of each month. A link to the guidelines will also appear in the message’s footer. Zelda will communicate these changes with Rick.

Deb Cook Lewis also suggested sending out a one-time post five days before the guidelines would first appear, explaining they had slightly changed and stating that the BOP was open to feedback. Belinda agreed to assist in moderating the conversation list.

Zelda reported on her visit to a regular gathering of ACB affiliate presidents to update them on doings of the BOP. She plans to have another meeting for ACB communicators and one president suggested a training on how to better promote their affiliate to the public. TheBOP welcommed this idea with Ralynn assisting Zelda. Zelda proposed the next meeting for ACB communicators to happen on January 9.

Zelda said she still needs a list of presidents and planned to ask Cindy for one so she can find who is responsible for communications with each affiliate. (Note your secretary has the list and is contacting affiliates already for inclusion in her forum column.)

Zelda reported contacting Kenneth Semien SR about working on this project. Note: he leads the ACB INSPIRE initiative which pairs leader mentors together with mentees. Deb Cook Lewis said the candidates’ forum must fall on the Wednesday before convention begins on Monday, July 13. Katie and Zelda will be drafting a timeline for candidates.

Zelda reported contacting Anthony Corona confirming he is still interested in “Member On the Mic.” Belinda will be helping with this.

Volunteer editors rotate each month. Belinda and Zelda will do it for December. Deborah agreed to volunteer for March. Jeff and Ralynn will do January.

Deborah suggested ensuring if a post is rejected that the submitter be told why.

Deb Cook Lewis requested the BOP have a presence at the national convention. She suggests a breakout session for Sunday morning in place of a general session. Jeff suggested a panel of newsletter editors talking especially about digital newsletter production and generating member engagements through regular and subsstantive communications.

Jeff also suggested a convention session together with the membership committee on helping affiliates increase membership. He said it was important for the BOP to be involved because communication with membership is vital. He will speak with the membership committee about this idea.

A few simple questions from the public were answered. Debbie Hazleton suggested some positive language for promoting the plan for increasing membership seminar. There were also positive comments about the communicators group and the proposed convention sessions.

Meeting adjourned 10:15 p.m. Eastern. The next meeting will be held on January 6, 2026.

See: https://acb-business.pinecast.co/