Board of Publications Meeting Minutes: March 4, 2025

The Board of Publications Chairperson, Katie Frederick, welcomed those present and called the March 4, 2025, meeting to order at 9:00 PM, ET.

Board members present: Katie Frederick, Jeff Bishop, Cheryl Cumings, Bel Collins, and Zelda Gebhard.

Ex-Officio members present: Sharon Lovering, ACB Braille Forum Editor; Rick Morin, ACB Media and IT Manager and Deb Cook Lewis, ACB President.

Zelda read the agenda. Jeff moved to approve the agenda. Cheryl seconded the motion. Motion carried.

Sharon corrected the upcoming meeting date from 2024 to 2025. Jeff moved to approve the minutes as corrected. Bel seconded the motion. Motion carried.

Sheila Young expressed concern about the negative comments on the email lists. Katie reassured her that these are addressed on a case-by-case basis and that some of them are addressed in a private way therefore, moderation is not necessarily seen on the list. We are hopeful the new guidelines will help us maintain a more positive email list. Anyone with concerns is urged to send them to the List Owner.

Matt Selm suggested we use the feature on groups.io to allow routine sharing of email list guidelines. He is also concerned about the cross posting that occurs on the lists (when an email is sent or forwarded to more than one list at the same time). He also asked where to send a Letter to the Editor. Letters to the Editor should be sent to Sharon at slovering@acb.org. The Conversation list guidelines are currently being sent to all subscribers on the 1^st day of the month. Since many email lists are sent on the 1^st,  we may start sending them on the 15 in order to gain more visibility. We will also consider providing a link to the guidelines in the footer of each email. Deb acknowledged that there is widespread frustration with the ACB lists and that information will be shared during the President’s Meeting at the Leadership Meetings. This discussion will include information about the many ACB lists and the focus of each. There will be changes in usage and those changes will be enforced.

Zelda clarified that the Conversation List is moderated by the BOP and the Leadership List is moderated by the ACB President.

Jeff suggested that we have an organized way to deal with the moderation of the list and do it with one voice and use one email address. Deb said that the BOP can have an ACB email address that we could use for this purpose.

Amanda Selm – Wanted clarification of the inclusion of Leadership Fellows and DKM First Timers on Leadership List. Deb described the current plan of including the Leadership Fellows on the Leadership List.

Terri Terlau – Is there any way within groups.io to block cross posting. She was told there is no way to prevent this from happening. Deb believes there will be less cross posting as a result of the decrease in widespread event posting. It was also suggested that perhaps some training would be beneficial.

Melissa Moreno – Asked for clarification of those who will be allowed to subscribe to the Leadership list. Deb stated that in addition to the past ACB presidents, ACB Board, ACB BOP, and ACB Committee Charis, each state and special interest affiliate may choose three to also be subscribed to the Leadership list.

Editor’s Report - March 2025

Statistics

February 2025

Braille distributed: 452
Braille returned: 4
Braille return rate: 0.88%
Braille received: 448
Cartridge distributed: 349
Large print distributed: 1,037
Large print returned: 10
Large print return rate: 0.96%
Large print received: 1,027
Email distributed: 5,501
Bounces: 32
Spam: 0
Unsubscribes: 2
Return rate: 0.6%
Email delivered: 5,469

March 2025

Braille distributed: 441
Cartridge distributed: TBA
Large print distributed: 1,044
Email distributed: 5,581

April 2025

Braille to be distributed: 447
Cartridge to be distributed: TBA
Large print to be distributed: 1,066
Email to be distributed: TBA

Deadlines for the Next Issues

May – Older Americans, AAVL; deadline: March 21, 2025

June – All things Convention; deadline: April 23, 2025

July-August - deadline: May 23, 2025

March’s Table of Contents

Tuesday Evenings with Great-Grandfather: Lessons in Political Discourse, by Deb Cook Lewis

A Note from the Executive Director, by Scott Thornhill

Advocacy in Action, by Claire Stanley

Summary of the 2025 Legislative Imperatives, by Kyla Ventura

Learn about Continuing Education and Professional Development Hours, by Janet Dickelman

Join Us and Spring Into Action!, by Cecily Laney Nipper

Get Active: Resources and Variety Are the Keys, by Connie Bateman

Get Up and Go!, by Thomas J. Murphy

Pedaling My Way to Fame and Misfortune, by Janet di Nola Parmerter

Christmas Bowl, by Abbie Johnson Taylor

Spring Forward: 10 Tips to Maximize Your Spring Cleaning from a BVI Perspective, by Anthony Corona

The Gift That Keeps on Giving, by Tom Tobin

Shaping the Future of Accessible Learning: Your Voice Matters, by Kaili Makeoka

Be A Leader Anyway, interpretation by Amanda Selm

Warpaint, by Nancy Scott

In Memoriam: Edward Lex Potter, March 24, 1932-January 14, 2025

Here and There, edited by Cynthia G. Hawkins

***

As I write this, I am working on the April issue, and the ACB national office prepares for the annual D.C. Leadership Conference.

I continue to put together the Dots and Dashes newsletter. The next few issues will go out March 3^rd and March 24th.

I’m still working with the archives/history committee on preserving and digitizing old recordings and documents from ACB events and identifying people in photos. Some of the work involves digitizing board minutes. In the old minutes, I have worked my way through the ‘80s and am working on the ‘90s.

I continue to work on digitizing and modernizing old issues of the Forum to current large print standards and organizing them on our SharePoint drive. I’ve finished 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969, and am working my way through 1965. Once I finish that, there will be only two years left to do.

I continue to record the Washington Connection, and some of the other boxes on our phone system, such as the national convention box, the scholarship information, and the state convention box. I hope to update it again soon.

I have also updated the Job Connection. The new one posted on March 3rd.

Sharon Lovering, Editor

May – Older Americans, AAVL; deadline: March 21, 2025

June – All things Convention; deadline: April 23, 2025

July-August - Health and Wellbeing (mental health and wellness committee?) deadline: May 23, 2025

September – Fall Prevention and Emergency Preparedness. First Alert and Emergency Box.

October – Attitude of Gratitude and Health Benefits of a Positive Gratitude

November-December – Wins for Winter – accomplishments for the year

The deadline for nominations is April 1. Send nominations to Sharon at slovering@acb.org.

Next gathering will be on Friday, April 25^th.

Rick shared a report on the BOP email list. Old Time Radio keeps getting bigger and bigger with more listener hours than Community. Total listener hours are trending up and podcast listens are trending down.

Rick officially welcomed Michael Babcock who is working with Cindy on Community.

The plan for phase 2 of the JPMorgan Force for Good project was for them to assign programmers to work with Live 365 and they were going to do some work around accessibility. They declined it after doing an accessibility audit.

Sagebrush was last week, and all technology worked well.

A grant with CTA will fund some more streams with commercial licenses and help with some additional costs as well.

Media committee has been working. They are working on both an approach to AI music and a policy around PSA’s.

Leadership email guidelines were shared on the BOP email list. They will be approved by the ACB Board. The Conversation Guidelines will be shared with the board but do not require ACB Board approval.

Conversation Guidelines

Discussion was held about the appeals process, cross posting and forwarding issues and adjustments were made to the guidelines draft.

Zelda moved that we accept the guidelines as amended. Jeff seconded the motion. Motion carried.

Katie will send the guidelines to Deb for inclusion in the board meeting packet. A copy will also be attached to these minutes.

Zelda sent Anthony a list of the 2024 DKM recipients and also sent information to the recipients about the opportunity to participate in Member on the Mic. If they wish to participate, they will contact Anthony directly. Kaila Allen’s interview is ready to be posted. The next one in the queue is Jason Miller, a 2024 DKM First Timer.

The article with this information may be found in the April ACB Braille Forum.

The meeting was adjourned.

Next BOP meeting is scheduled for April 1, 2025, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

Respectfully submitted,
Zelda Gebhard, Director
ACB Board of Publications