by Winifred Downing
Future Conventions: Most of the Saturday morning, June 29, 2002 meeting was given over to a consideration of future convention sites. Carla Ruschival explained that, contrary to some perceptions of the past, hotels are very much interested in hosting the ACB convention, especially because it is scheduled over the Fourth of July. ACB reserves a large number of rooms, schedules many meals and receptions of various kinds, and spends well in restaurants, bars, gift shops, and so on. To date 23 hotels have contacted ACB, and 19 are at some stage in the convention process.
Convention planning has changed since the 1980s because nowadays, it often includes multi-year arrangements. The Adam's Mark hotel chain, for example, wants very much to retain an association with ACB. Members of their management spoke to the board as did representatives from hotels in several other cities. In their presentations, they reviewed available rooms and suites, room rates, and taxes; proximity of airports, bus stations, and Amtrak; dog relief areas; number and location of restaurants; attractive features of the area for tours; accessibility for people with disabilities and whether shuttles would be necessary. Of concern to ACB convention planners are the steadily increasing room rates in all parts of the country. An interesting aspect of the bids made by some of the hotels is rebates of from $5,000 to $10,000 to aid the organization in its convention expenses.
Established convention sites for the future are Pittsburgh, Pa. in 2003; Birmingham, Ala.in 2004; and the Adam's Mark, Jacksonville, Fla., in 2006. In 2005 the hope is to have a location in the west, and in 2008 one in the east or northeast.
President's Report: Chris Gray reviewed the long history ACB has had in encouraging and subsidizing provision of various kinds of radio services to blind and visually impaired people culminating in ACB Radio. In February he had expected that he could release information about the radio device that will give access to the Internet, but details are unfortunately not clearly established as yet. A motion was passed empowering the executive committee to continue its work with Smart Media and report at the September board meeting. More immediate results have come from ACB's involvement with promoting election procedures that will give all people the opportunity to vote privately with the assurance that their votes will be counted. Paul Edwards and his committee deserve praise for developing "The Voter Access Guide," which is expected to be available at the ACB web site by the end of September, to assist in this effort.
Florida, Alaska and Maryland have already adopted meaningful laws on this subject. A new area of involvement for ACB is a lawsuit aimed at influencing the U.S. Department of the Treasury to make paper currency identifiable by blind and visually impaired individuals. That was actually a recommendation of the National Academy of Science more than five years ago, and ACB has asked the court for an injunction to prevent the treasury from issuing any more inaccessible paper currency. Options that can be used to identify currency include differences in color, texture, shape, clipped corners, or tactile markings to name several. However, the ACB lawsuit does not tell the U.S. Department of the Treasury how to make paper currency accessible; rather, ACB demands that it do so without further delay. The discussion is timely since currency redesign is scheduled for next year. From a public relations point of view, it is important for ACB to communicate and collaborate with other entities that are particularly interested in this matter like vending machine companies and banks. One hundred fifty countries have already taken steps to make their currencies accessible, so ACB's effort is entirely appropriate.
Old Business: Two items mentioned earlier in the session followed up on subjects taken up at previous board meetings:
1. A letter was sent to Frank Kurt Cylke, Director of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, concerning the library's cooperation with the effort to make Newsline, the creation of the National Federation of the Blind, widely accessible to patrons. In his response, Cylke assured ACB that the anonymity of all applicants to Newsline is protected and that they would not be contacted by the NFB. The letter did not address what ACB sees as transparent advertising by the NFB through Newsline.
2. The ACB history has been completed and sent on to the publisher. Since pagination has not been determined, the exact cost is not known, but printing will begin from three to six months after final editorial decisions have been reached.
Adjournment: Adjournment of the pre-convention board meeting was preceded by an extensive discussion of the recommendations of the ad hoc Committee on Communications which will not be detailed here because they were obviated by a constitutional amendment adopted by the convention later in the week.
Staff and Committee Reports: The post-convention board meeting opened on Saturday afternoon, July 6, with the report of Charlie Crawford, ACB Executive Director. He sees his responsibilities as centered on office procedures, governmental affairs and advocacy, and dissemination of information. These areas are being positively affected by an improved telephone system including applications that may be possible using technology employed in the "Convention Ear" computer system, by Internet arrangements that derive twice as much speed for half the expense, and by association with appropriate offices in Washington that have resulted in sustained and valuable relationships.
Report of Melanie Brunson, Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs: There have been court decisions and other occurrences that adversely affect the ADA, and in the next few months, specific efforts will be made to ensure that the act is not weakened by decisions based on emotions which can stem from the fear of terrorist activity. ACB's consultation with appropriate governmental entities has led to a decision to allow blind and visually impaired people to carry styluses on airplanes. Sustained efforts have been made to increase funding for programs affecting older Americans. Funding was improved this year from $19 million to $25 million, and a further increase to $30 million is being sought for next year.
The Accessible Voting Task Force has prepared a comprehensive manual on Election Reform Advocacy which we plan to produce and widely distribute. Along with its value for solving election access problems which blind people may be experiencing in their local areas, the guidebook can also lead to some great publicity for ACB.
It is important that the textbook bill, which is called the Instructional Materials Accessibility Act (IMAA), gets through Congress before attention is concentrated wholly on the reauthorization of IDEA. Congressional support in both houses of Congress is being sought. Discussion of some of the resolutions passed in 2001 occurred, and the prioritization of this year's resolutions followed. They are grouped in three categories: (1) those which need immediate action; (2) those which require action but of a more sustained nature; and (3) those which must be watched over a period of time with appropriate actions to be taken as necessary.
Report of Penny Reeder, Braille Forum Editor: 2,320 braille copies of the Forum are being mailed; 12,710 large print; 7,720 audio cassettes; 745 computer disks; and 558 e-mail issues, 100 more than at mid-year. E-mail subscriptions are particularly welcome since the only cost involved is the time it takes ACB's webmaster to prepare the files. The intention is to seek printing and recording bids early this year and to attempt to arrange two- year contracts in the hope of preventing costs from increasing.
Since the mid-year meeting, the national office has released eight news releases, the two which have received the most popular attention have dealt with ACB's successful effort to exclude blind people from inclusion as part of a class of people with disabilities with whom 7-11 stores had reached a settlement, and the suit being brought by the ACB to require changes in design of paper currency.
Membership Committee, Pam Shaw: Toward affiliate expansion: (1) Preparations are under way for a special-interest affiliate for people associated with workshops to be called Associated Blind for Industrial Development and Equality (ABIDE). (2) Work is continuing toward formation of a new affiliate for professionals in human services with charter presentation scheduled for the September board meeting. (3) A motion was passed to encourage the membership committee and Oral Miller to work together to promote some means by which international associations will be encouraged and nourished.
To reverse the trend the committee noted toward decreases in membership in many affiliates and near failure of some, a plan for increasing membership will be presented to the meeting of the board in September. The recently organized affiliate in New Mexico attracted 25 to 35 members at its convention; it is, however, a very young group and may need assistance in developing leadership.
Convention Committee, Cynthia Towers: Items which caused some concern at this convention and will need to be considered in preparing future conventions:
- Should the ACB child-care arrangements be available to parents who do not attend the banquet?
- The level of assistance required on tours is ever increasing with expectations surpassing what is offered under present conditions. More assistants would require higher tour costs. A task force should be convened to arrive at what kinds of assistance should be expected of ACB representatives: medicines? eyedrops? dressings?
- Fifteen percent of people using the guide dog relief areas do not clean up after their dogs. Some sort of sound clues should indicate where the trash receptacles are, and hotel personnel should not be requested to walk dogs.
- Some exhibitors leave very early on the last day the exhibit hall is open, thus depriving members of an opportunity to visit exhibits on the final day. What action can, or should, be taken to correct this situation? Perhaps choice placement in next year's exhibit hall should be denied to those who leave early.
- A plan is being considered to combine the activities of the convention office with those of the information desk to make arrangements easier for members and ACB workers.
Following up on executive session, a motion was adopted: That an ad hoc committee be appointed including members of the convention committee, a mental health clinician, a lawyer from the board of directors, and such others as the president deems appropriate, with the responsibility of reviewing and updating our current reasonable accommodations guidelines and presenting to the board at the September meeting the document they prepare.
Jerry Annunzio: A request was presented to the board of directors that a letter of appreciation be sent to the designers of the logo who charged nothing for their services beyond cost, an expenditure already covered by the sale of ACB pins with a profit of $500. Handsome luggage tags with the logo are also being sold.
In the Major Donor Campaign Annunzio has been asked to develop, he proposes that a list of previous donors be established, that they receive letters of thanks with specific information about what their contributions have accomplished for ACB, and that a request be made for increased monetary participation in the work of the organization. It is hoped that board members will help to identify and contact those who can become major donors.
Another area of concentration is the Combined Federal Campaign, conducted by states where charities present their programs for acceptance in order to receive contributions from groups of federal employees much like the United Way Campaigns. A motion was passed instructing the executive director to prepare a report, an implementation plan, that will enable ACB to be fully recognized as a nationally designated program in the United Way Campaign.
ACB Enterprises and Services, Paul Edwards: An executive director has been hired, and various changes have been made which result in lower earnings that are expected to be only temporary. Sales are up, but so is overhead, causing gains that are less both in terms of budget projections and comparison with last year's earnings. A new and attractive store has been opened in West Allis, Wis.; and sources of additional items for stock are being explored, like merchandise returned to stores and items left over from garage sales. Not having a vehicle available for pick-up is a severe problem.
Board of Publications, Winifred Downing: 1. To avoid waste and duplication, the BOP seeks a purge of all forms of "The Braille Forum" and an examination of mailing labels used by the various mailing entities.
2. The manual expressing its editorial policy will be revised to accord with the appointment of the Public Relations Committee and the decision to have Jonathan Mosen as an ex officio member. His recommendations for guidelines to be used by ACB Radio in member participation and programming will be included in the manual, and it will be posted on the ACB web site.
3. Mike Duke was elected to serve on the Public Relations Committee, and Charles Hodge has been appointed BOP chair.
4. The following requests were made: that the Board of Directors write the Recording Industries Association of America seeking relief from payments for copyrighted music played on ACB Radio. That, to increase involvement in the candidates' page on the web and the Candidates' Forum at the convention, instructions for the candidates' page be printed in the April, rather than the May, issue of the Forum, and that Charlie Crawford be asked to remind members about the candidates' page in weekly "News Notes." That next year's convention program, with any changes adopted, be submitted for final examination by the editorial department to avoid some of the omissions and confusion that occurred this year. That Jonathan Mosen be appointed as an ex officio member of the convention committee to address some of the difficulties he encountered this year in arranging coverage by ACB Radio.
Final Decisions, Election: Billie Jean Keith was elected to be the board representative on the newly designed public relations committee.
Budget Recommendation: At the September meeting, permission will be sought to allocate funds for the first three months of the coming year to avoid having the budget committee's hands tied.
September Meeting: The September board meeting will occur on September 21. Carla Ruschival will identify the location by August 1.