Board of Publications Meeting Minutes: February 3, 2026

Meeting commenced, Tuesday, February 3, 2026 at 9 PM EST. 

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

Board members Present: Deborah Armstrong, Jeff Bishop, Belinda Collins, RaLynn McGuire.

Others present:

Katie Frederick, Past BOP Chair and ACB Board Liaison

Sharon Lovering, ACB Braille Forum Editor

Rick Morin, ACB Media and IT Manager 

Deb Cook Lewis, ACB President

Scott Thornhill, ACB Executive Director

Deborah moved, RaLynn seconded. Approved.

Belinda moved, RaLynn seconded, approved.

There was a request to enhance ACB link to include more information, such as the titles of songs played on Karaoke. Another member of the public also expressed this concern while listening with an Amazon smart speaker. Jeff responded ACB link is being worked on and Rick said he'd research whether the Smart Speakers could voice the metadata for a broadcast. Deb Cook Lewis also covered some technical details about Live365 and ACB media. Another member also had concerns about the way in which the Karaoke was edited for broadcast and podcasting. 

There was also a concern expressed regarding politically oriented and controversial subjects on community calls.  Jeff suggested discussing it with the ACB Community Support committee.

There was a question about ACB Link being available for Android. Jeff explained it was removed by google from the play store and he discussed some of the hurdles that kept a new Android version from being developed

 There was a question about replaying ACB board meetings on ACB media; they are not, but they are available in the business podcast, Rick explained.

Sharon explained how weather had delayed production of the January forum. She sent a detailed set of statistics to the board. She also enumerated these upcoming Braille Forum themes and deadlines:

Deborah reported she has several interviews scheduled and has written another article about the Alabama State affiliate.

Rick outlined upcoming ACB media changes which will not affect listeners directly. Changing the infrastructure will reduce the costs for ACB plus accessibility for Live365 has improved. Rick gave a detailed history of how these changes came about.

Rick also explained that future plans included moving away from live streaming ACB community calls but continuing to make many of them recorded broadcasts and podcasts.

Rick also said Jeff is working on a Windows version of ACB Link.

Deborah asked if the streaming links for ACB media would change which could affect third-party devices and apps like the Victor Stream. Rick said no.

Deborah agreed to send the audio recording of the guidelines she made to Zelda. She wanted to be sure she hadn't recorded a draft and what she read was the final version -- it was.

Zelda reminded listeners the guidelines appear the first day of each month and the public is welcome to email the BOP should they have questions about the guidelines.

Zelda announced it will occur on February 13th. The topic will be "Reaching the Public with PSAS". Ralynn will assist. Zelda will post its information to the ACB-communicators list. Communicators had asked questions about this topic and how a PSA differs from other forms of communication. 

ACB is sponsoring one hybrid session on the Sunday where there is no general session. A panel is being developed on the topic of generating member engagement for affiliates. Several names were recommended to be invited to speak. There was some discussion about this topic and the people mentioned. Jeff was nominated to facilitate which he agreed to do.

Zelda agreed to send a draft to the BOP.  Members will make suggestions.

No articles were received recently. Deborah agree to help with it in March.

For purposes of monitoring the conversation list, Zelda will send out a contact list with texting numbers so the BOP can stay in close contact. Jeff offered Chief's contact info but the BOP decided dogs' opinions are not relevant!

There was some future planning discussion about stimulating interest in prospective candidates plus creating guidelines for the candidates forum hosted by BOP. 

There were announcements about the upcoming DC leadership conference.

Deborah suggested Zelda talk about quilting to the ACB crafters.

Adjourned 10:12 p.m. Eastern time.

Find them at: https://acb-business.pinecast.co/