Call to Order:
The February 10, 2025, virtual meeting of the Board of Directors of the American council of the Blind was called to order at 7:00 PM Eastern time by President Deb Cook Lewis.
Roll Call and Introduction of Guests: Denise Colley, Secretary
At the call of the roll the following Board members were present: President Deb Cook Lewis, First Vice President David Trott, Second Vice President Ray Campbell, Secretary Denise Colley, Treasurer Michael Garrett, Immediate Past President Kim Charlson, Chris Bell, Donna Brown, Peter Heide, Gabriel Lopez Kafati, Cecily Laney Nipper, Terry Pacheco, Rachel Schroeder, Kenneth Semien, Koni Sims, and Jeff Thom. Board of Publications Member Katie Frederick was present representing that body.
Staff present: Scott Thornhill, ACB Executive Director, and Nancy Marks-Becker, Chief Financial Officer.
Guests: Janet Dickelman, ACB Convention Committee Chair and Julie Palm, Parliamentarian.
Review and Approval of Agenda: Deb Cook Lewis ACB President
President Lewis reviewed the meeting agenda.
It was moved by Bell and seconded by Semien to approve the agenda. The motion carried
Review and Approval of Minutes: September 23, 2024; November 2, 2024; and December 9 & 16, 2024: Denise Colley, Secretary
Some minor punctuation corrections were offered by Heide to the September 23, 2024 meeting minutes. It was moved by Nipper and seconded by Bell to approve the minutes as corrected. The motion carried.
There being no corrections/additions to the November 2, 2024 ACB Board Meeting Minutes, it was moved by Brown and seconded by Campbell that they be approved. The motion carried.
Trott requested parliamentarian clarification on process for the December 9 and December 16, 2024 ACB Board meeting minutes. The process has been to hold two budget meetings, but recess at the end of the first one and then move out of recess for the second meeting, essentially making it one meeting. Should they actually be considered two separate meetings with adjournment at the end of each meeting. The parliamentarian confirmed this should be the actual process. The first meeting should be adjourned until whatever date and time has been set for the second meeting. There should be two separate sets of minutes. The first meeting should have been adjourned and signed off on and a separate document started for the second meeting. These minutes will need to be corrected in this way.
It was moved by Garrett and seconded by Schroeder to accept the December 9 and December 16, 2024 ACB Board Meeting Minutes as separate documents. The motion carried.
Convention Information Update: Janet Dickelman, Convention Chair
In December, hotel contracts were signed for the 2026 Conference and Convention in St. Louis, Missouri (July 24-31, 2026), the 2027 Conference and Convention in Jacksonville, Florida (July 23-30, 2027), and the 2028 Conference and Convention in Atlanta, Georgia (June 30-July 7, 2028).
Review and Approval of Proposed Minneapolis, MN Convention Hotel Contracts for 2029 and 2032. We have received a proposal from the Hyatt in Minneapolis, Minnesota for July 13-20 2029, at a rate of $139 per night. They are also offering us a multi-year contract to return in 2032, from July 9-16, at a rate of $149 per night.
It was moved by Campbell and seconded by Thom to give the Convention Coordinator the go ahead to pursue the two Minneapolis Hyatt Hotel contracts for 2029 and 2032. The motion carried.
Fall Board Meeting: The 2025 fall Board meeting at the Hyatt in St. Louis will be October 31, and November 1, 2025. It will be at the convention rate of $104 per night.
Potential Hotel security costs: To hire security from within the hotel or even from an outside source will be approximately $150 an hour. Anyone can reach out to security if needed and ACB would have a quick response time if security were needed in the general meeting room or at the banquet.
President’s Report: Deb Cook Lewis
Prohibited Conduct Policy: The prohibited Conduct Team has requested that the Board consider some revisions to the Prohibited Conduct Policy based on our experience to date with the Policy and its implementation. Initially President Lewis planned to invite Mitch Pomerantz to meet with the Board in executive session to outline the teams concerns and thoughts. However, because we are a small organization trying very hard to protect confidentiality in the evaluation of cases brought before the team, she has decided instead to appoint a small short-term ad hoc committee to work with Mitch and his team to evaluate the concerns and determine whether recommended changes to the Policy would be warranted. That Committee will then report back to the Board on those recommendations, and the Board will then socialize the proposed changes that would be appropriate, since this does impact our members. If recommendations need to be made, the Board would then adopt a Policy change.
David Trott was asked to lead this ad hoc committee, and Kenneth Semien and Katie Frederick were also appointed. This Committee will bring a timeline for this review process back to the Board at the Leadership Conference. President Lewis indicated she would like to have this issue resolved before the 2025 convention.
Update on committee structure and assignments: All committee chairs have been identified and organized, and the Steering Committee chairs will be receiving the official lists in the next few days. All Committee chairs have been asked to submit their current committee rosters and these are currently being reconciled.
One new Steering Committee, the Governance Steering Committee is being created which will include the Voting Task Force; the Constitution and Bylaws Committee, Resolutions Committee, Credentials Committee, and the Nominating Committee.
Affiliate and National expectations document revision update: Kim Charlson will be chairing this working group and an email list has been created for their work. There are plans for breakout sessions around this task at the Leadership Conference. This group will consist of all presidents who are either currently serving on the Board and those from affiliates of varying sizes. Those on the working group consist of Jeff Bishop, Cecily Laney Nipper, Sandra Sermons, Donna Brown, Peter Heide, Patrick Sheehan, Mikey Wiseman, Michael Byington, Steve Blow, Ray Campbell, and Denise Colley. Plans are to have this project completed before Convention, and the Leadership Conference will be used to take input before fully commencing this project.
Bell recommended that we engage our attorney as we work on this task, because the concept of affiliated organizations has a place in corporate law, and we want to make sure that confusion is not created and that DC Law, incorporation regulations, governance and policies are all considered in the process.
Lopez Kafati asked for further clarification about how this working group was established. His concern was that no board communication was provided throughout this process.
Resolution on Decisions Impacting ACB Members update: Google Workspace is being set up and this will allow ACB to set up email addresses with ACB.org extensions, and these Google accounts will be assigned to committees so they can have an official email address where they can be reached. Google Workspace can also be used for file storage to help committee members store and access documents. A dedicated email address will be set up to receive comments on this resolution and its implementation. The specific email address will be publicized to the membership.
ACB Comments on the Proposed ACVREP Certification of Occupational Therapists: President Lewis thanked everyone for all the thoughtful comments that were received from members around this issue. ACB submitted comments to ACVREP, which were collaboratively crafted by Scott Thornhill, Claire Stanley, Deb Cook Lewis, Jeff Thom, and Anisio Correia from AAVL. ACB’s comments aligned with those of many others and were in response to a 2023 resolution. President Lewis was appointed to represent ACB on an ACVREP-appointed advisory group to review, line by line, all of the proposed certification requirements, scope, and other issues, and give feedback and advice to the subject matter expert panel.
The review process brought together people who had different ways of working and different nomenclatures. The ACVREP Board did receive very specific comments about what would need to happen for this process to be effective. It is believed that they will likely take a pause and consider different approaches. There will be further consideration of the knowledge requirement and scope of work. ACVREP hopes to have opportunities for additional consumer input into this process.
Campbell requested that a copy of ACB’s comments be shared with the membership to alleviate the perception that ACB had not provided comments.
Leadership email list updates and revised guidelines: The Board of Publications has been in the process of updating the guidelines for the ACB Conversation list, and hopes to have something for Board review and approval at the March Board meeting.
The process for maintaining the ACB leadership list and determining who will be subscribed is being updated. Those subscribed to the list include the Board of Directors, Board of Publications, committee chairs and vice chairs and co-chairs, past ACB presidents and three other individuals from each affiliate who are identified by that affiliate’s president. Presidents are updating their affiliate’s information and sending identified names to the ACB president. Once revised, the Leadership List guidelines should be shared on the email list on a more regular basis.
Deb said she is currently moderating the Leadership List on her own, so she will be recruiting additional moderators, but they will need to be individuals who definitely understand how the Leadership list operates. Thom recommended that, once the guideline modifications are completed, we might want to hold a couple of informational calls to help people understand what is and is not appropriate discussion.
Executive Director’s Report: Scott Thornhill
Accessibility and Training Services Program: The ACB Accessibility and Training Services Program is being launched. Kolby Garrison is serving as the new Accessibility and Training Services Program Area coordinator. A committee will be set up shortly to help support that program and the new email address will be [email protected]. Anyone who has accessibility issues with an app, website, or even physical location can send an email to that address. A process is being developed for reaching out to seek resolution. This corporate training services component will focus on such things as disability inclusion, technology, audio description, and other topics on which companies wish to receive more information.
Staffing updates: ACB has hired a new accountant, Yuqing Xia, for the Brooklyn Center Office. Other staff changes include Hannah Park is now serving as the internal Communications Coordinator; Mike Johnson will continue as ACB’s contracted external communications contractor; and Scott Thornhill is holding off on filling the Advocacy and Outreach Specialist position at this time.
ACB Thrift Stores: February 10 was the 40th anniversary of the Amarillo Thrift store, and it was celebrated with a chili cookoff and everything in the store being 40% off. Next year will be the 40th anniversary of the Lubbock Store. Both stores are doing very well. Scott encouraged everyone to follow and support both stores on Facebook.
Master Calendar: We are working on a master calendar that will have our important dates such as outreach regarding planned giving, committee and Board meetings, outreach events, deadline dates, etc.
DC Leadership Conference: Attendance is looking good and sponsorships are on track to meet the budgeted goal.
Proposed Endowment policy revision: Nancy Marks-Becker
The revised Endowment Policy is a reorganization of wording to make it easier to understand how distributions of funds received will be handled. The only change proposed is that any funds below $25,000 remain in the Operating Account instead of transferring it to the reserve investment account.
It was moved by Pacheco and seconded by Nipper to adopt the proposed Endowment Policy revision. The motion carried.
Proposed Bank signor Policy: Nancy Marks-Becker
The Bank Signatories Policy is required to include the ACB treasurer, ACB Executive Director and the Chief Financial Officer. To update the bank signature cards there needs to be approval from the Board stating the change has been approved. We hope this resolution will work anytime in the future there is a change in the Treasurer, Executive Director or CFO.
It was moved by Campbell and seconded by Colley to accept the adoption of the resolution. The motion carried.
Trott brought up his recollection that, at one time, our CFO was bonded and asked if this was still the case. Nancy is not bonded but will investigate the cost and process for doing so should the Board determine this is something they would like to put in place. The recommendation was that we consult with our auditors to get their perspective on this issue.
It was moved by Heide and seconded by Thom that ACB consult with our auditors to get their perspective on the need to secure surety bonding of our CFO and that at our next Board meeting the CFO update the board on the procedures and security steps and safeguards she has in place for dispersing payments so the Board will have a clearer understanding of ACB financial procedures. The motion carried.
Organizational Discussion: Deb Cook Lewis
President Lewis acknowledged that we are all very sensitive to the feelings and frustrations of our members in the current political climate, and concerns about the programs we as an organization find paramount in our world. There is a lot of uncertainty about things being proposals and uncertainty in our political climate. Part of ACB’s strategy and responsibility must include ways of hearing the fears and concerns of members and helping to focus those concerns into ways that work for personal advocacy. Our shared experience as blind and low vision people unite us, and ACB must take the time to be clear and certain of the information shared and the approach/recommendations we make on actions. If our rights under laws and regulations are being attacked, then we have to respond vigorously as individuals and as an organization, and it is important to ensure we are getting and acting upon solid information.
Adjourn
There being no further business it was moved by Pacheco and seconded by Campbell that the meeting be adjourned. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned at 10:33 PM Eastern time.
Respectfully submitted,
Denise Colley
Secretary
Date submitted: 02/25/2025
Date Approved: 03/15/2025