1. Call to Order: Jennifer Dunnam
Jennifer Dunnam, BANA chair, called the meeting to order at 10:04 EDT. The following board members were in attendance:
Jennifer Dunnam, National Federation of the Blind (NFB), Chair
Tamara Rorie, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress (NLS), Vice Chair
Dawn Gross, Alternate Text Production Center (ATPC), Secretary
Jessica (Jessi) Rivera, Associated Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ASB), Treasurer
Frances Mary (FM) D'Andrea, American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), Immediate Past Chair
Sandra (Sandy) Ruconich, American Council of the Blind (ACB)
Guy Toles, AMAC (Accessibility Solutions and Research Center)
Cathy Senft-Graves, American Printing House for the Blind (APH)
Mary Nelle McLennan, Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER)
Whitney Gregory, Braille Solutions, Region 4 Educational Service Center
Tracy Gaines, California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CTEBVI)
Tina Seger, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Darleen Bogart, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind)
Vivian Seki, Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Cynthia (Cindy) Skandera, Horizons for the Blind
Diane Spence, National Braille Association (NBA)
Jackie Sheridan, National Braille Press (NBP)
Kim Charlson, Perkins School for the Blind
Jen Goulden, associate member Crawford Technologies
Susan (Sue) Reilly participated in her role as administrative assistant.
Observer
Diane Bergeron, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) on behalf of Darleen Bogart
2. Self-Introductions
Roll call of the Board members served as self-introductions.
3. Agenda Review
Jennifer Dunnam presented the agenda, no changes were requested.
4. Arrangements/Planning for Spring Meeting
Darleen Bogart provided information about the upcoming spring meeting to be hosted by the CNIB May 2-4, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Thursday and Friday are scheduled as full days, Saturday will adjourn at noon. Thursday's meeting will be held at CNIB with transportation provided from the hotel, Friday and Saturday will be held at the hotel. Darlene will send an email to BANA-l in the next several days with the hotel information. Please contact Darlene Bogart with any questions or concerns as well as dietary restrictions. Passports are required for those traveling from the United States.
5. Teleconference Service
Jessi Rivera reported that AT Conference charges BANA $130 per month in addition to any teleconference charges whereas Zoom charges $187 per year. She asked that the Board consider cancelling AT Conference. Sandy Ruconich and Mary Nelle McLennan both reported that they have used Zoom for several meetings and highly recommend that Zoom be used by the Board. Tamara Rorie mentioned that AT Conference offers moderated calls but is not sure if Zoom does. A moderated calls uses an operator to control when and who can speak, this is particularly useful for webinars and large meetings. To save $130 a month, it was determined that BANA could use a member organizations conference service if needed for large meetings. The settings for Zoom have been changed to eliminate a host key; when the host dials in, the call is ready to go. Members chairing a meeting with Zoom need to coordinate with Sandy Smith.
By General Consensus it is agreed that the AT Conference service will be canceled.
6. Memberships
Organization membership dues are coming in, please make sure that payments are sent to Jessi Rivera at ASB. A payment reminder will go out Monday to organizations that have not yet sent in their dues.
Braille Institute has informed Jennifer Dunnam that it is cancelling its associate membership for the time being. Jennifer will talk with them again in March to see how the two organizations can be connected in the future.
7. General Committee on UEB, including Tech Guidelines
FM D'Andrea reported on the charge to the General Committee on UEB to develop a guidance piece related to technical aspects of UEB especially related to standardized testing. The draft document sent to BANA-l January 29, 2019 is modeled after a UKAAF document that has been successful in the UK. She asked for comments for the Board:
Cathy Senft-Graves indicated that Kyle DeJute at APH has several suggestions and questions, Cathy will send her comments to FM D'Andrea. Whitney Gregory will also send comments.
Board members are encouraged to send comments to FM D'Andrea by the end of Friday, February 8, 2019. The committee will make any necessary changes and hopefully get a draft to the Board prior to the spring meeting.
8. ELMP Guidelines Update
Jennifer Dunnam reported that the document is stuck at the copyright permission requests. Cathy Senft-Graves reported that the committee needs to include descriptions of the print examples but will not write them until they know which examples they will be granted permission to use.
The document still needs to be approved by the Board before it can go to the Publications Committee. The committee should not expect the document before the summer.
9. Publications Update
Mary Nelle McLennan reported that the Publications Committee has met and retooled several of the publication processes. They've also spent quite a bit of time harmonizing the Publications Workflow, the BANA Review Process, and the institution of Content Quality Control.
Jen Goulden, Jennifer Dunnam, and Mary Nelle McLennan have spent a great deal of time working on this and believe that major time hurdles have been cut. Such as, running the Content Quality Control simultaneous with the Technical Review process. This will allow for the input from the CQC and the technical review to be incorporated into one document prior to the Board review. A copy edit will be performed early in process hopefully eliminate a later copy edit.
The key piece missing is the technical experience previously brought to the committee by Susan Christiansen, the committee is meeting again next week to determine how to fill the void. Guy Toles indicated that he may have some ideas for an individual who can provide the technical support. Mary Nelle will send an email to BANA-l indicating the requirements of the individual.
10. Outreach Committee Update
Sandy Ruconich reported on the activities of the two Outreach subcommittees as follows:
Podcast
With the help of Kim Charlson, the committee has identified the place to host, store, and distribute podcasts. Sue Reilly will sign BANA up for billing, she reports that the podcast has been uploaded and that the RSS feed ready to go but that the logo artwork does not meet Apple's specifications. Steve D'Andrea will help Sue to enlarge the BANA logo. The next step is to advertise the podcast on the BANA website, Facebook, and a BANA announcement. Tamara Rorie will draft the announcement.
In order to get the first podcast show off the ground, Kim Charlson offered to pull several dates together for the individuals involved. It was agreed that the interview with Jennifer Dunnam, chair, be presented first, the history podcast with Darleen second, and then the interview with FM D'Andrea regarding UEB.
Exhibits
The CTEBVI conference is to be held in San Francisco, CA April 11-14, 2019. Guy Toles volunteered to coordinate the exhibit onsite. Guy will send an email, please respond if you are attending the conference and will be able to work the booth. The same materials presented at NBA will be shipped for CTEBVI, Sandy will be in contact with Grant Horrocks to determine which material needs to be replenished.
The fact sheet and the sign with the logos of the member organizations require updating. Each of the handouts will be evaluated for corrections.
Mary Nelle McLennan reminded the Board that the documents on the About BANA page of the website need to be updated, Jen Goulden and Diane Bergeron offered their assistance. Ruth Rozen and Judy Dixon were mentioned as individuals that could be asked to assist with the task.
11. Other Business
Mary Nelle McLennan briefly addressed BANA's strategic planning status.
FM D'Andrea reported that she received an email from Frances Gentle at RNIB in Australia indicating that RNIB will be releasing two technical materials training courses; a primary level and a secondary level. The courses will be released in May.
12. Adjourn
Jennifer Dunnam adjourned the meeting at 11:00 EDT.
Respectfully submitted,
Dawn Gross, Secretary