Call to Order/Introductions
The February meeting was called to order by chairman Ron Brooks at 9:01 p.m. on February 5, 2019.
Members present: Ron Brooks, chair; Deb Lewis; Penny Reeder; Susan Glass.
ACB employees and contractors present: Sharon Lovering; Larry Turnbull.
Ex officio members present: David Trott, ACB Treasurer; Katie Frederick, ACB Public Relations.
Guests: Ralph Smitherman; Lynn Nishihara; Terry Pacheco; Sara Conrad; Donna Pomerantz.
Adoption of Agenda:
Ron reviewed the agenda.
Motion: Susan moved and Deb seconded adoption of the agenda. Motion passed.
Approval of January 8 Minutes:
Motion: Penny moved and Susan seconded adoption of the January 8, 2019 minutes with a spelling correction. Motion passed.
Open Forum:
David said he would like to go on record thanking the BOP for the revised “ACB Braille Forum” cover which looks good with our name on the front. Ron said the acknowledgement for this goes to Katie Frederick, Kelly Gasque and Sharon Lovering for their excellent coordination and work on this task.
Terry suggested that the logo on the Dots and Dashes publication (which includes some dots and dashes) should spell out ACB in Morse Code. After discussion, Ron agreed to include this on the March agenda.
Discussion of BOP Editorial Policy Manual
Deb said future revisions will include the date in the filename. The latest revision has ** to indicate each revised section. The Documentation section is still undergoing major revisions and is the only section not ready for comments. Most changes were made for clarification based on previous discussion and were described in the last Minutes. One area to resolve was whether the ex officio member for the ACB Board of Directors will be appointed by the Chair, elected by the BOP, or some other alternative. There was consensus that serving as ex officio member to the Board is a growth opportunity for BOP members, and that there was value in consistency of representation over a period of time. Ron proposed, and it was agreed, that the Chair will nominate, and the BOP will endorse the nomination for ex officio representative to the ACB Board. Guidance that consideration should be given to alternating annually between appointed and elected members when feasible will also be included.
Deb summarized the recent meeting of the formats working group. The recommended production standard for documents will be updated from MS Word 2003 to Word 2013. Word styles will be used based on guidance in the ACB Style Guide to be referenced in the Appendix. Deb would like to see a copy of the style guide, even if still in draft, to be more specific about how this applies to alternate document formats and to avoid any contradictions between it and the Editorial Policy. It was recognized that styles do not always convert perfectly for alternate formats, but there is increasing harmony as development progresses. We’ll want to capture any variances for inclusion in the style guide. Formats we will commit to for ACB governing documents and other materials determined to be essential for distribution to ACB members include: Word, HTML, plain text, formatted braille, tagged PDF, and hard-copy formats of braille, standard print and large print. As resources become available, DAISY text and DAISY audio will also be produced.
Documents made available by ACB that are not considered necessary to distribute by the ACB board or by the Board of Publications will generally be made available only in electronic formats with priority for Word and HTML and may be made available in other formats based on resources and capacity to be determined by staff and the committee or board responsible for disseminating the document.
Deb has reviewed this proposal with Eric who agrees to prepare the upcoming convention program in Word and HTML, and work to develop DAISY capacity over the next year. Currently much of the convention program document preparation occurs in the MN office so this means shifting some aspects of formatting to Alexandria in order to take advantage of Kelly and Sharon’s formatting expertise.
Deb agreed to prepare a near final draft for distribution in two weeks, and the policy will be included on the March agenda.
Follow-up on Format of the Large Print Version of the ACB Conference and Convention Program
Ron briefly reviewed the scope of this task which involves modifying the large print style guide specifically to accommodate the conference and convention program based on significant feedback. He stressed the importance of input from CCLVI and others who have been helping to solve this problem. Sarah agreed to take particular questions back to the CCLVI board for additional input. Ron indicated a final decision will be made in March to allow enough time to implement it prior to convention.
Deb explained that she sent out the compilation and comparison of CCLVI and APH large print guidelines used by the previous work group. She also contacted various publishers regarding large print cookbooks which might be used in similar ways to the convention program. She learned that cookbooks were generally Arial bold and ranged from 16 to 26 point with most at 18 point. Line spacing was generally 1.15 (the Word default for large print) or 1.25. Deb spoke with representatives of AER who pointed out that since vision loss varies with age, the print size and typeface desired by older users was often very different from that preferred by younger users, making it difficult to please everyone. And, as Terry noted during the work group meeting, there is a significant difference in requirements for those who comfortably use large print versus those who are less able to do so but who may not have learned to use alternatives to print. Overall, the industry uses 16 point with 1.15 spacing or 18 point with 1.25 spacing, bold, and varied fonts with the majority using Arial. APH does not recommend Arial because the letters aren’t evenly spaced, but its use is common.
It was agreed to recommend to Janet that the calendar along with the hotel information and exhibit list become a separate volume like the separate calendar volume in the braille version. There was concern that this volume should include some advertising, but there was strong feeling that it should be treated like the braille calendar which does not contain advertising.
Terry offered that she had given the typeface additional consideration and now wondered if Tahoma might be a good compromise between Verdana and Arial. It is wider spaced than Arial but letters are less thick than Verdana, which creates a clean look using less space overall. She also explained that a 0.5” gutter on the inside margin allows enough space to change margin requirements from 1” to 0.75”. Terry strongly encouraged use of centered headings. Ron also noted that when scanning through a document, centered headings are easier to identify.
Donna thanked Ron and Deb for the outcome to date and noted that she supports the survey findings and decisions that were made because there was good participation from the membership. She supports splitting the convention program into smaller booklets for ease of handling and adding HTML as a format. She was pleased that budget is still not a factor in the decisions about large print. She hopes we do not go below 18 point bold for any document. Deb will send Donna a copy of the final guidelines that resulted from the survey and are in use for all but the convention program.
Deb said that the BOP needs to consider facilitating training in use of technology that supports new formats ACB uses so that members can access information in the way that works best for them, and to encourage reduction of hardcopy formats.
It was decided that Sarah will ask the CCLVI board about use of 16 versus 18 point, preference of typeface, bold or not bold, 1.15 compared to 1.25 line spacing, and use of centered headings.
Finalization of Presenters and Topics for the February ACB Leadership Seminar
Ron recommended that Deb and Paul make the presentation as follows:
- Deb - Acknowledge Kim, Eric and Sharon for their efforts on behalf of the BOP, the ACB Braille and E-Forum magazines and the other ACB publications
- Paul – discuss the new approach to themed issues of the ACB Forum
- Paul – discuss work being done to update and modernize the BOP Editorial Policy Manual
- Deb – talk about the work we have been doing with Sharon, Eric and CCLVI to address concerns of large print readers with a focus on improving the quality and formatting of the ACB conference and convention program. Invite people to provide comments and suggestions.
- Deb – close by acknowledging all BOP members by name and by reminding people about award nominations and the Candidates webpage, forum and Town Hall Meeting.
Initial Plans for ACB Candidates Page, Forum and Town Hall Meeting
Ron proposed the following schedule:
- Monday, April 1 – Announce details for the BOP Candidates Webpage, Forum and Town Hall Meeting in the April edition of the ACB E-Forum, via social media and by email.
- Friday, May 17 – Candidate statements for the candidates page are due to Sharon.
- Friday, May 31 – The candidates page is live.
- Wednesday, June 19 – ACB Candidates’ Forum via phone and Zoom
- Wednesday, July 10 – ACB Town Hall Meeting
Update on April, May, and June E-Forum and Braille Forum Magazines
April’s theme is healthcare. May will be convention topics including tips for managing at convention, etc. June will be diversity and multicultural life in North America.
Chairman’s Report: Ron Brooks
- Participated in conference call to develop large print format and guidelines for the ACB conference and convention Program
- Circulated draft midyear presenters and talking points to BOP list for comments/concurrence
Editor’s Report: Sharon Lovering
January 2019 Issue type: hard copy; Page count: 80
Braille distributed: 670; returned: 4; return rate: 0.6%; received: 666
Cartridge distributed: 714; received: 714
Large print distributed: 2,517; returned: 81 *; return rate: 3.2%; received: 2,436
Electronic distributed: 6,392; returned: 3; return rate: 0%; received: 6,389
* In January, 29 of these copies came back unaddressed.
February 2019
Electronic distributed: 6,423
March 2019
Braille to be distributed: 664
Cartridge to be distributed: ~860
Large print to be distributed: 2,481
I’m currently working on the March issue of the Forum, and hope to have it out the door by Friday at the latest. I worked with Kim on her article while she was in the office at the end of last week.
Our affiliates have really been working hard on their annual updates – I’ve received about 3 reams worth of paper’s worth of additions, deletions, corrections, and deceased notifications. I have just received our first nominee for the Liggett Award, which I will be sending around as soon as I get March out the door.
I’m also working on brailling the Forum raffle tickets, preparing for the annual leadership meetings (formerly known as midyear), and continuing to work on descriptive captions for the 2008 convention photos.
Other Reports
ACB Radio: Larry Turnbull
Listener counts for January 2019:
ACB Radio: Mainstream 2105; Café: 275; Treasure Trove: 2235; Interactive: 985; World News and Information: 729
ACB Radio Live Event: 20 listeners for the ACB of Minnesota Convention
We do not have listener counts for the phone this month as Audio Now has been bought by Zeno Media and the infrastructure is still in transition.
Web hits: 15,542 web hits for January.
ACBRI on demand visits 2142
Downloads:
MainMenu Archives 175
Speaking Out for the Blind 10
ACB Braille and E Forum 875
ACB reports 615
We picked up 35 subscribers for the ACB Braille Forum and E Forum podcast.
We picked up 43 subscribers for ACB Reports.
We picked up 52 subscribers to the Main Menu podcast.
985 tuning hours reported by Stream Licensing for January for ACBRadio Interactive.
985 tuning hours for January for ACBRadio Café.
ACB Email Lists: Bob Hachey
Leadership Subscribers January: 266; Messages: 98
ACB-L Members: 336; Posts 156
ACB-Chat Members: 152; Posts: 315
Social Media Stats
These were not available.
Public Relations: Katie Frederick
Katie left early due to not feeling well and did not provide a report.
Other Business and Announcements
There were no items.
Next Meeting:
The next meeting is scheduled for March 5, 2019 at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
Adjourn
Deb moved and Paul seconded adjournment. the meeting adjourned at 10:54 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Deb Lewis, Secretary