Thursday, November 7, 2019 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Friday, November 8, 2019 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, November 9, 2019 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Hosted by Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Meeting in Cincinnati, OH
Prior to the start of the meeting on Thursday November 7, board members had the opportunity to tour the Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
1. Call to Order: Jennifer Dunnam
Jennifer Dunnam called the meeting to order at 11:05 a.m. Eastern and thanked Clovernook for hosting the meeting.
2. Welcome from Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Chris Faust, president of Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, welcomed the touring BANA members and thanked them for their contribution to braille.
3. (Agenda item #4) Self-Introductions: Representatives and Observers
Attending:
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
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
Guy Toles, CIDI (Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation)
Tracy Gaines, California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CTEBVI)
Tina Seger, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Danette Johnson, Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Cynthia (Cindy) Skandera, Horizons for the Blind
Diane Spence, National Braille Association (NBA)
Amber Pearcy, National Braille Press (NBP) attending as the alternate for Jackie Witterschein
Kim Charlson, Perkins School for the Blind
Jen Goulden, associate member Crawford Technologies
Susan (Sue) Reilly participated in her role as administrative assistant.
Not in attendance:
Sandra (Sandy) Ruconich, American Council of the Blind (ACB)
Diane Bergeron, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind)
Observers:
Charlotte Begley
Judie Crank
Kyle DeJute
David Grimes
Lisa Hall
Micheal Hudson
Kim McEachirn
Elizabeth Seger
Karen Schoenharl
Mary Vicario
4. (Agenda item #3) Seating of BANA members
Danette Johnson was welcomed to her first in-person meeting as the newly appointed representative of Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired. She provided a brief background of herself.
Amber Pearcy is in attendance on behalf of Jackie Sheridan Wittershein and the National Braille Press.
5. Meeting Arrangements: Tina Seger
Tina Seger explained the arrangements for the BANA meeting. Clovernook will host a dinner Thursday evening at 6:30 for those interested in attending.
6. Board’s Liability Statement: Dawn Gross
Dawn Gross, BANA Secretary, read the following Indemnification Statement: "BANA indemnifies its Officers and Board of Directors and holds them harmless from all claims of every kind, including court expenses, attorneys' fees, and the claimed amount arising from the performance of their duties as Officers and Directors except for their own acts of dishonesty and gross negligence." (Adopted March 30, 1987)
7. Agenda Approval: Jennifer Dunnam
Jennifer Dunnam announced several changes to the agenda. The strategic planning implementation will begin Thursday afternoon, the Helen Keller Archives presentation and discussion of the BANA Timeline will occur on Friday.
MSC FM D’Andrea moved and Mary Nelle McLennan seconded the motion that the agenda be approved as amended. The motion passed unanimously.
8. Chair's Comments: Jennifer Dunnam
Jennifer Dunnam explained some of the typical procedures that take place during a BANA meeting. These include the fact that the administrative assistant is present to help with notetaking, and that the BANA secretary takes the minutes. Frances Mary D’Andrea records "to do" items for all members and sends the list to the Board immediately following the meeting.
Jennifer asked that as we move through the committee reports, we take the time to evaluate the charges and determine if there are sufficient resources, whether the charge needs to be done, and if it is a priority. If there is time at the end of the meeting, an "Around the Table" session will be held allowing organizations to highlight some of their braille related activities.
9. Braille Formats Technical Committee: Cindi Laurent
Guy Toles, liaison to the Braille Formats Technical Committee, summarized the report which is on file.
Guy Toles reported that Cindi Laurent will be stepping down as chair to the Braille Formats Technical Committee. The committee does not yet have a recommendation for a new chair. An individual will be presented to the Board by the end of the year and a vote will be conducted by email.
Discussion of the changes needed to Braille Formats 2.3.6e due to the U.S. adoption of the Marrakesh Treaty occurred. It was determined that discarding Charge 362 and creating a task force to review the copyright language would be most expedient.
MSC Guy Toles moved and Cathy Senft-Graves seconded the motion to discard the following charge assigned to the Formats Committee: Revise §2.3.6e of Braille Formats working with the APH Intellectual Property and Rights Manager and NLS, to bring the language in alignment with current copyright law by the Fall meeting. The motion passed unanimously.
[Charge 362 (8/14/19): Revise §2.3.6e of Braille Formats working with the APH Intellectual Property and Rights Manager and NLS, to bring the language in alignment with current copyright law by the Fall meeting.]
MSC FM D'Andrea moved and Whitney Gregory seconded the motion to create a task force composed of Cathy Senft-Graves as chair, Guy Toles, and Tamara Rorie to update the copyright language of Braille Formats. The motion passed unanimously.
MSC FM D'Andrea moved and Tamara Rorie seconded the motion to charge the Task Force for Reviewing Copyright Language to revise §2.3.1 and 2.3.6e of Braille Formats working with the APH Intellectual Property and Rights Manager and NLS, to bring the language in alignment with current copyright law by the winter teleconference. The motion passed unanimously.
MSC Tamara Rorie moved and Dawn Gross seconded the motion that Randy Davis be reappointed to the Braille Formats Technical Committee with a term ending in 2021. The motion passed unanimously.
10. Nemeth Code Technical Committee: Dorothy Worthington
Dawn Gross, liaison to the Nemeth Code Technical Committee, summarized the report which is on file.
Dawn reported that the committee made great strides on the Nemeth Code rewrite during the face to face meeting held in Minnesota September 30-October 4, 2019. The committee continues to hold biweekly Zoom meetings to move through the remainder of the rules.
During the 2019 summer teleconference the Nemeth Code Technical Committee was charged to work with the Publications Committee to make a revised version of the Graphic Calculator Guidelines. The difficulty of creating the currently posted version was revisited and Dawn Gross questioned whether the document should be revised whereby starting the difficult process of creating an accessible PDF again or if an errata should be created. Through discussion with the Publications Committee it was determined that it would be more feasible to create an errata.
MSC Jessi Rivera moved and Guy Toles seconded the motion to discard charges 364 and 365. The motion passed unanimously.
[Charge 364: (8/14/19) Work with the Publications Committee to make a revised version of the Graphing Calculator Guidelines for the purpose of correcting errors.]
[Charge 365: 8/14/19): Work with Nemeth Committee to make a revised version of the Graphing Calculator Guidelines for the purpose of correcting errors.]
MSC Jessi Rivera moved and Tina Seger seconded the motion to charge the Nemeth Code Technical Committee to create an errata to the Graphing Calculator Guidelines. The motion passed unanimously.
MSC Dawn Gross moved and Tamara Rorie seconded the motion that Mary Denault, Allison O'Day, and Susan Osterhaus be reappointed to the Nemeth Code Technical Committee with terms ending in 2021. The motion passed unanimously.
Discussion turned to the ruling by committee regarding the placement of the Open Nemeth Code Indicator and the Nemeth Terminator. Further rational was felt to be needed before the ruling can be posted to the BANA Web site.
GC The Nemeth Code Technical Committee is asked to provide to the Board the original question posed to the committee to warrant the clarification given in the ruling by committee. In addition, the committee is asked to clarify exactly which situation(s) the ruling is trying to cover, and make the language clearer.
In the future, rulings by committee should include the question asked so that it can be posted, if necessary, to the BANA website.
11. (Agenda item #22) Continuing the Implementation of Strategic Planning
Mary Nelle McLennan facilitated the report of BANA’s two strategic implementation teams that were tasked with addressing the strategic question: “What actions should BANA take to more effectively develop, maintain, and update codes and resources and provide them to the community in a timely manner?”
Tamara Rorie provided a brief overview of project management and what it entails. Tracy Gaines reported on the work of Prong 2 and the work group reviewed the documentation created and sent to BANA-l. Guy Toles reported on the work of Prong 1.
12. (Agenda item #11) Tactile Graphics Technical Committee: Aquinas Pather
Diane Spence, liaison to the Tactile Graphics Technical Committee, summarized the report, which is on file.
The committee received one question since the spring meeting pertaining to the creation of stem-and-leaf plots in UEB technical material. The answer provided by the committee and included in the Fall 2019 Meeting agenda will prepared for posting to the BANA web site.
Unit 6 Diagrams for Technical Material has been completed. The committee will review all sections to make sure revisions are final and then move back to the supplement and revise as necessary. The committee will need help from the Publications Committee to revise the index.
MSC Diane Spence moved and FM D’Andrea seconded the motion that Aquinas Pather be reappointed as chair of the Tactile Graphics Technical Committee with a term ending in 2021. The motion passed unanimously.
MSC Diane Spence moved and FM D’Andrea seconded the motion that Allison O'Day be reappointed as member to the Tactile Graphics Technical Committee with a term ending in 2021. The motion passed unanimously.
13. (Non-agenda item) Helen Keller Archives: Micheal Hudson, APH
Micheal Hudson, Museum Director at American Printing House for the Blind, gave a brief presentation about the American Foundation for the Blind Helen Keller Archive. In October 2019, AFB and APH announced a partnership that will bring AFB's historical collections, both the AFB Archive and the Helen Keller Archive, to the museum at APH.
14. (Agenda item #12) Music Braille Technical Committee: Karen Gearreald
Tamara Rorie, liaison to the Music Braille Technical Committee, read the report which is on file.
The committee is currently in maintenance mode. The committee continues to review the code; there are a few things the committee would like to clarify but they have not reached a point where an errata is ready.
MSC Tamara Rorie moved and FM D’Andrea seconded the motion that Karin Auckenthaler and Christina Davidson be reappointed to the Music Braille Technical Committee with terms ending in 2021. The motion passed unanimously.
MSC Tamara Rorie moved and Tina Seger seconded the motion that Karen Gearreald be reappointed as chair of the Music Braille Technical Committee with a term ending in 2021. The motion passed unanimously.
15. (Agenda item #13) Foreign Language Task Force: Jennifer Dunnam
Jennifer Dunnam, chair of the Task Force on Foreign Language, summarized the report which is on file.
The task force has created a twelve page draft of the Foreign Language Guidelines. The document provides a listing of sections in Braille Formats that address foreign language. The task force has suggestions for possible changes to Braille Formats and requests a charge to work with the Braille Formats Technical Committee. It is the task force's goal to submit a document to the Board for approval at the March 2020 meeting.
At this time the task force is not looking to add members. Patrick Janson, chair of NBA's Foreign Language committee would like to be involved with BANA, the task force will share relevant information with Patrick.
Kim Charlson would like to ensure that the World Braille Usage webpage is a useful resource for transcribers and requests to work with somebody to add BANA content. The following motion resulted:
MSC Kim Charlson moved and Jessi Rivera seconded the motion to charge the Foreign Language Task Force to work with Perkins to update the World Braille Usage webpage once the Foreign Language Guidelines are approved. The motion passed unanimously.
MSC Tamara Rorie moved and FM D’Andrea seconded the motion that Jennifer Dunnam, Jen Goulden, and Rebecca Sherwood continue as the members of the Foreign Language Task Force. The motion passed unanimously.
MSC Guy Toles moved and Jessi Rivera seconded the motion to charge the Braille Formats Technical Committee to work with the Foreign Language Task Force to discuss questions about formats for foreign language, and, if agreed upon as a result of the discussions, to prepare a few revisions to Braille Formats regarding foreign language. The motion passed unanimously.
MSC Guy Toles moved and FM D’Andrea seconded the motion to charge the Task Force on Foreign Language to work with the Braille Formats Technical Committee to discuss questions about formats for foreign language, and, if agreed upon as a result of the discussions, to prepare a few revisions to Braille Formats regarding foreign language. The motion passed unanimously.
16. (Agenda item #14) Ad Hoc Committee on Early Literacy Materials Production: Bonnie Read
Cathy Senft-Graves, liaison to the ELMP committee, summarized the report which is on file.
The final version of the BANA Guidelines for the Transcription of Early Educational Materials from Print to Braille was submitted to BANA-l for review on October 4, 2019. No additional input was received by the Board resulting in the following motion:
MSC Cathy Senft-Graves moved and Whitney Gregory seconded the motion that the BANA Guidelines for the Transcription of Early Educational Materials from Print to Braille be approved for publication. The motion passed unanimously.
MSC Cathy Senft-Graves moved and FM D’Andrea seconded the motion that the disposition of Charge 136 be changed from "Ongoing" to "Done." The motion passed unanimously.
[Charge 136: (11/3/05) Develop guidelines for transcription of consumable materials and other forms that require direct entry on the braille page.]
MSC Cathy Senft-Graves moved and Tina Seger seconded the motion that the Ad Hoc Committee on Early Literacy Materials Production be charged to work with the Publications Committee to prepare the BANA Guidelines for the Transcription of Early Educational Materials from Print to Braille for publication. The motion passed unanimously.
Discussion of the terminology "UEB Math" or "UEB Technical" and whether the terms can be used interchangeably took place. End users don't necessarily understand the terms and members of the board feel that providing a consistently used term and its definition would be helpful.
MSC Kim Charlson moved and Mary Nelle McLennan seconded the motion to charge the General Committee on UEB to develop consistent terminology for referring to braille in technical materials to be completed no later than the Spring 2020 meeting. The motion passed unanimously.
The committee is requesting no change in membership at this time.
17. (Agenda item #15) Ad Hoc Committee on Chemistry: Cary Supalo
Frances Mary D’Andrea, liaison to the Ad Hoc Committee on Chemistry, summarized the report which is on file.
The committee has slowly started rewriting the Chemistry Code. They recently held a face to face meeting and will continue to work on meeting more frequently and finding ways to work more efficiently.
The committee is in need of another member to help with the work, another chemistry transcriber would be best. Guy Toles has the name of several chemistry transcribers that he will share with FM D'Andrea, Jennifer Dunnam, and the Appointments committee.
GC The BANA board requests that the Chemistry Committee provide drafts of at least two rules in time for the Spring 2020 meeting.
18. (Agenda item #16) Ad Hoc Committee on Standardized Tests: Diane Spence
Diane Spence, liaison to the Ad Hoc Committee on Standardized Tests, summarized the report, which is on file.
Diane Spence has resigned as chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Standardized Tests in order to focus on completing the Tactile Graphics Guidelines.
MSC Diane Spence moved and Guy Toles seconded the motion that Whitney Gregory be appointed as chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Standardized Tests. The motion passed unanimously.
MSC Diane Spence moved and Tina Seger seconded the motion that Marilyn Breedlove, Katherine Padgett, and Diane Spence be appointed as members of the Ad Hoc Committee on Standardized Tests. The motion passed unanimously.
Discussion turned to the College Board only providing braille math testing in Nemeth within UEB and not in UEB without Nemeth, which is how some students are being instructed. There was discussion of possibly sending the College Board the terminology position paper which will be created by the GCUEB. Also discussed was the question of BANA's role in the advocacy around the issue when many organizations have advocacy as their core mission.
19. (Agenda item #18) Report of General Committee on Unified English Braille: Frances Mary D'Andrea
Frances Mary D’Andrea, chair of the General Committee on Unified English Braille, summarized the report which is on file.
FM D'Andrea continues to share information such as the ICEB newsletter, new rulings to the Rules of UEB and Guidelines for Technical Material to the BANA-l listserv.
The ICEB Code Maintenance Committee held a vote about adding the shortform word DeafBlind to the Shortforms List in Appendix 1. While the vote was in the affirmative it has not been publicized because of the larger issues to be worked on (i.e. internal capitalization and standalone rules).
MSC FM D’Andrea moved and Jessi Rivera seconded the motion that BANA ask the ICEB CMC to consider adding the words 'nearabout' and 'nearabouts' as allowable shortform words. The motion passed unanimously.
The "Background and Position on Use of Computer Braille Code" document will be ready for Board approval by the next meeting.
The Provisional Guidance for Transcribing Mathematics in UEB has been posted to the BANA website.
MSC FM D'Andrea moved and Dawn Gross seconded the motion that the disposition of Charge 341 be changed from “TBA” to “Done.” The motion passed unanimously.
[Charge 341 (11/1/18): Create a guidance document regarding effective practices for transcribing technical materials working in conjunction with Braille Literacy Canada.]
MSC FM D'Andrea moved and Cathy Senft-Graves seconded the motion that the disposition of Charge 349 be changed from “TBA” to “Ongoing.” The motion passed unanimously.
[Charge 349 (11/1/18): Update the UEB information on the BANA website.]
MSC FM D’Andrea moved and Tamara Rorie seconded the motion that “An Overview of BANA Rules, Guidelines, and Guidance Documents” be approved. The motion passed unanimously.
MSC FM D'Andrea moved and Tamara Rorie seconded the motion that the disposition of Charge 351 be changed from “TBA” to “Done.” The motion passed unanimously.
[Charge 351 (5/2/19): Create documentation that explains the difference between a guideline and a code, and what is meant by "provisional."]
MSC FM D’Andrea moved and Whitney Gregory seconded the motion to charge the GCUEB to work with the Publications Committee to post on “An Overview of BANA Rules, Guidelines, and Guidance Documents” on the BANA website. The motion passed unanimously.
Cindi Laurent and Judy Dixon have both requested to step down from the General Committee on UEB.
MSC FM D'Andrea moved and Tamara Rorie seconded the motion to appoint Kyle DeJute and Tina Seger to the General Committee on UEB. The motion passed unanimously.
20. (Agenda item #17) International Council on English Braille: Frances Mary D'Andrea, Jen Goulden, Peg Mercer, Jennifer Dunnam, Rebecca Blaevoet, Karen Gearreald, Sue Reilly, Natalie Martiniello, Judy Dixon
Frances Mary D’Andrea presented a general update on issues related to ICEB.
The next full general assembly will be hosted by RNIB in London, England May 10-15, 2020. A braille conference will be held in conjunction with the general assembly meetings. A call for papers has been issued; if you would like to present a paper, please submit your proposal by November 15, 2019. The next teleconference will be held November 25, 2019.
MSC Kim Charlson moved and Whitney Gregory seconded the motion to send FM D’Andrea, Jennifer Dunnam, Tamara Rorie, and Judy Dixon as US delegates to the 2020 ICEB General Assembly and that BANA pay expenses as needed. The motion passed unanimously.
21. (Agenda item #19) Committee on Electronic Braille: Jen Goulden
Jen Goulden, chair of the Committee on Electronic Braille, presented the report which is on file.
The electronic log file created by the committee can be found in banafiles.
The committee could use another educator. Please forward names to Jen Goulden.
Jennifer Dunnam provided an update on JAWS and its ability to display braille mathematics in more cases without having to install third-party software. iOS 13 now has the option to use Liblouis's translation tables for the braille output; this option includes some inaccuracies not found in the braille translation traditionally used in Apple's operating systems.
22. (Agenda item #20) Publications Committee: Mary Nelle McLennan
Mary Nelle McLennan, chair of the Publications Committee, summarized the report which is on file.
No further action has been taken to design an archive code section or place the BANA Braille Excellence Awards information on the BANA website. These will be revisited during the website migration.
The BANA Guidelines for the Transcription of Early Educational Materials from Print to Braille will require a lot of work to be made publication ready. The Provisional Guidance on Transcribing Math in UEB has been posted to the BANA website.
Whitney Gregory will write a few sentences to send to the Committee on Electronic Braille explaining some of the Duxbury/MathType limitations.
The "Technical Specifications for BANA Authoring Committees" formerly "Guidelines and Specifications for Authoring Committees" was reviewed, Board members asked questions and provided constructive criticism. Once the technical specifications are finalized, they will be sent to the BANA-tech listserv, which sends emails to committee chairs and Board members.
Sandy Smith continues to support the BANA website while the Task Force on Web Site Investigation investigates and develops a migration plan for the website.
23. (Agenda item #21) Task Force on Web Site Investigation: Jackie Sheridan Witterschein, et al.
Kim Charlson presented the report on behalf of Jackie Sheridan Witterschein, the report is on file.
Kim reported on the findings of the task force and ultimately the recommendation that BANA migrate its website to the Drupal platform. Kim then reported that one of ACB's priorities is to get its website and BANA's off of physical servers. They want to get away from physical servers and into the cloud so that there is plenty of storage space. ACB has not made a final decision but is leaning towards some sort of Microsoft cloud based storage with an accessible interface. Kim feels that ACB is close to having a viable solution for web transition that will also address BANA's file storage and security.
Sandy Smith has provided the name of a highly qualified programmer, Chris Nagel, who also understands accessibility. She will reach out to Chris and Jennifer Dunnam will follow up with him. After the migration has occurred and the templates are in place the designated members of the Publications Committee will be able to update the content of the website.
24. (Agenda item #23) BANA's "work plan" for the year
Jennifer Dunnam requested that Board members review the “Timeline” document and suggest items that may be missing from the working list.
25. (Agenda item #24) BANA Appointments Committee: Tracy Gaines
Tracy Gaines, chair of the Appointments Committee, presented a verbal report.
MSC Mary Nelle McLennan moved and Tamara Rorie seconded the motion to remove Mary Nelle McLennan from the BANA Appointments Committee and appoint Jennifer Dunnam. The motion passed unanimously.
Tracy Gaines will send the final appointments process documents to Sue Reilly to be posted to banafiles.
26. (Agenda item #25) General Committee for Review Process: Jennifer Dunnam
Jennifer Dunnam, chair of the General Committee for Review Process, presented a verbal report.
The General Committee for Review Process will work with the Tactile Graphics Technical Committee and Publications Committee to determine the process for reviewing the tactile graphics revision. A meeting will be set immediately following this meeting.
27. (Agenda item #26) Nominating Committee: Frances Mary D'Andrea
FM D’Andrea, chair of the Nominating Committee, presented the Slate of Officers for 2020, which is on file. It was noted that each officer can serve for up to five years. The slate of officers for 2020 is as follows:
Chair: Tamara Rorie (year 1)
Vice Chair: Mary Nelle McLennan (year 1)
Treasurer: Jessi Rivera (year 2)
Secretary Dawn Gross (year 4)
MC FM D’Andrea moved that the slate of officers be elected by acclamation. The motion passed unanimously.
Jennifer Dunnam will become the Immediate Past Chair of BANA as well as the chair of the Nominating Committee.
MSC Whitney Gregory moved and Jessi Rivera seconded the motion that FM D’Andrea be reappointed to the Nominating Committee. The motion passed unanimously.
MSC Tamara Rorie moved and FM D’Andrea seconded the motion that Kim Charlson be reappointed to the Nominations committee. The motion passed unanimously.
28. (Agenda item #27) Braille Research Committee: Frances Mary D'Andrea
FM D'Andrea, chair of the Braille Research Committee, summarized the report which is on file.
FM D’Andrea continues to send messages related to braille research to the BANA Board. She observes that, with this and other resources for information about braille research, a BANA research committee may be unnecessary in this form.
MSC FM D’Andrea moved and Tamara Rorie seconded the motion that Charge 303 be discarded. The motion passed unanimously.
[Charge 303 (5/19/16): Keep the BANA board informed of various research projects on braille, their outcomes and their implications for the BANA board.]
MSC FM D’Andrea moved and Jessi Rivera seconded the motion to dissolve the Braille Research Committee and the members thanked for their service. The motion passed unanimously.
29. (Agenda item #28) Outreach Committee: Sandy Ruconich
Guy Toles read the report which is on file.
Discussion of who is responsible for filling out the application to exhibit at the NBA conference took place. It was recommended that the Outreach Committee create a procedure manual for exhibiting at the different conferences. Resources need to be evaluated, if BANA does not have board members to staff the exhibit then BANA should consider not exhibiting at the conference. The following motion resulted:
MSC Tamara Rorie moved and Guy Toles seconded the motion to charge the Outreach Committee (subcommittee) to develop procedures for whether and how exhibits should be handled, to be completed by the Winter 2020 Board teleconference. The motion passed unanimously.
Tamara Rorie volunteered to write up policies and procedures to bring to the Board by the BANA winter teleconference.
Kim Charlson requests to be the individual to keep a list of podcast ideas to help keep the process moving.
GC Kim Charlson is the manager of the podcast process.
MSC Kim Charlson moved and Tina Seger seconded the motion that the disposition of Charge 356 be changed from "TBA" to "Ongoing." The motion passed unanimously.
[Charge 356 (5/2/19): Continue to explore and develop avenues of communication with BANA's constituents.]
MSC Guy Toles moved and Cathy Senft-Graves seconded the motion that the disposition of Charge 357 be changed from “TBA” to “Ongoing”. The motion passed unanimously.
[Charge 357 (5/2/19): Ongoing development of podcast episodes.]
30. (Agenda item #32) Awards Committee: Sandy Ruconich
FM D’Andrea presented the report which is on file.
FM will present the Darleen Bogart Braille Excellence Award to Dr. Robert Englebretson at the Getting in Touch with Literacy conference. Tamara Rorie will create and send out a press release announcing the award.
31. (Agenda item #40) Task Force on Optimal Formats of BANA Publications: Kim Charlson
Discussion occurred about the user survey of optimal formats, resulting in a decision that to devote resources for this topic was not a priority at this time.
MSC Kim Charlson moved and Tamara Rorie seconded the motion to discard Charge 361. The motion passed unanimously.
[Charge 361 (5/2/19): Create a survey to gather user input for determination of optimal formats for BANA publications.]
MSC Tamara Rorie moved and Cathy Senft-Graves seconded the motion to disband the Task Force on Optimal Formats of BANA Publications. The motion passed unanimously.
32. (Agenda item #29) Bylaws Committee: Jennifer Dunnam
Jennifer Dunnam, convener of the Bylaws Committee, presented a verbal report.
The Bylaws committee has been charged with conducting a complete internal review of the policies to ensure that all necessary updates are made. A teleconference will be schedule to conduct the review.
The committee has also been charged to consider membership as it relates to the size and composition of the BANA board. In May 2019, the committee brought a proposal that was felt to need further work, particularly regarding the categories of organizations. The committee will continue to work on a proposal ensuring that all types of braille community members are represented in a balanced manner, while making sure that the size of the Board remains such that it can still function and get work done.
MSC Kim Charlson moved and Cathy Senft-Graves seconded the motion that Jennifer Dunnam be appointed chair of the Bylaws Committee starting in January 2020. Motion passed unanimously.
MSC FM D’Andrea moved and Jessi Rivera seconded the motion to charge the Bylaws Committee to update the Policies and Bylaws to reflect committee changes as of the Fall 2019 meeting. The motion passed unanimously.
33. (Agenda item #30) Ad Hoc Committee on Braille Signage and Labeling: Kim Charlson & Debbie Gillespie
Kim Charlson, liaison of the Ad Hoc Committee on Braille Signage and Labeling, presented a verbal report.
There is nothing to report at this time, Kim will engage the committee and speak with Debbie Gillespie.
34. (Agenda item #31) International Initiatives
Kim Charlson announced that she was elected president of the World Blind Union North American/Caribbean region for 2020-2024. Diane Bergeron was elected vice-president, Charles Massop and Mark Riccobono will serve on the executive board.
The World Braille Council is still part of the World Braille Union but have not met since 2018. It will be up to the next president of the World Braille Union to reconstitute a new World Braille Council.
ICEBI will meet in June in conjunction with the World Braille Union North American/Caribbean region, FM D'Andrea will attend.
35. (Agenda item #33) Secretary's Report: Dawn Gross
The Board discussed changes to be made to the 2019 summer teleconferences minutes. These changes will be incorporated into the minutes.
MSC Kim Charlson moved and Tina Seger seconded the motion to approve the 2019 summer teleconference minutes as corrected at the 2019 Fall meeting. The motion passed unanimously.
Dawn Gross, BANA secretary, read the email motions and votes that had taken place since the Spring 2019 Board meeting. They are as follows:
5/24/19
MSC Dawn Gross moved and Mary Nelle McLennan seconded the motion to approve up to $6000.00 for a face-to-face meeting of the Nemeth Code Technical Committee.
Voting deadline was Thursday, May 30, 2019, 5:00 p.m. Eastern
Voting Yes: ACB (Sandy Ruconich); AER (Mary Nelle McLennan); AFB (FM D'Andrea); APH (Cathy Senft-Graves); ASB (Jessi Rivera); ATPC (Dawn Gross); CIDI (Guy Toles); Clovernook (Tina Seger); CNIB (Diane Bergeron); CTEBVI (Tracy Gaines); Hadley (Vivian Seki); Horizons (Cindy Skandera); NBA (Diane Spence); NBP (Jackie Sheridan); NFB (Jennifer Dunnam); NLS (Tamara Rorie); Perkins (Kim Charlson); Region 4 (Whitney Gregory). The motion carries.
8/9/19
MSC Cathy Senft-Graves moved and Diane Bergeron seconded the motion that Bonnie Read, chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Early Literacy Materials Production, be permitted to use content from the draft of the BANA Guidelines for the Transcription of Early Educational Materials from Print to Braille in a presentation at the CNIB Foundation conference in Toronto on October 29-30, 2019.
Voting deadline was Tuesday, August 13, 2019, 5:00 p.m. Eastern
Voting Yes: ACB (Sandy Ruconich); AFB (FM D'Andrea); APH (Cathy Senft-Graves); ASB (Jessi Rivera); ATPC (Dawn Gross); Clovernook (Tina Seger); CTEBVI (Tracy Gaines); Hadley (Vivian Seki); Horizons (Cindy Skandera); NBA (Diane Spence); NBP (Jackie Sheridan); NFB (Jennifer Dunnam); NLS (Tamara Rorie); Perkins (Kim Charlson); Region 4 (Whitney Gregory)
Not Voting: AER (Mary Nelle McLennan); CIDI (Guy Toles); CNIB (Diane Bergeron). The motion carries.
9/4/19
MSC Sandy Ruconich moved and FM D'Andrea seconded the motion that Dr. Robert Englebretson receive the 2019 "Darleen Bogart Braille Excellence Award, presented by the Braille Authority of North America."
Voting deadline was Sunday, September 8, 2019, 5:00 p.m. Eastern
Voting Yes: ACB (Sandy Ruconich); AFB (FM D'Andrea); APH (Cathy Senft-Graves); ASB (Jessi Rivera); ATPC (Dawn Gross); CIDI (Guy Toles); Clovernook (Tina Seger); CNIB (Diane Bergeron); CTEBVI (Tracy Gaines); Horizons (Cindy Skandera); NBA (Diane Spence); NBP (Jackie Sheridan); NFB (Jennifer Dunnam); NLS (Tamara Rorie); Perkins (Kim Charlson); Region 4 (Whitney Gregory)
Not Voting: AER (Mary Nelle McLennan); Hadley. The motion carries.
9/18/19
MSC Dawn Gross has moved and Tina Seger seconded the motion that the 2019 Spring meeting minutes be accepted as corrected.
Voting deadline was Sunday, September 22, 2019, 5:00 p.m. Eastern
Voting Yes: AFB (FM D'Andrea); APH (Cathy Senft-Graves); ASB (Jessi Rivera); ATPC (Dawn Gross); CIDI (Guy Toles); Clovernook (Tina Seger); CNIB (Diane Bergeron); CTEBVI (Tracy Gaines); Horizons (Cindy Skandera); NBA (Diane Spence); NBP (Jackie Sheridan); NFB (Jennifer Dunnam); NLS (Tamara Rorie); Perkins (Kim Charlson); Region 4 (Whitney Gregory)
Not Voting: ACB (Sandy Ruconich); AER (Mary Nelle McLennan); Hadley. The motion carries.
36. (Agenda item #34) Treasurer’s Duties: Jessi Rivera
Jessi Rivera presented the report, which is on file.
The members of the task force have not formed a physical document. Jessi Rivera plans to present a thorough outline by the Spring 2020 face to face meeting.
37. (Agenda item #35) Treasurer's Report: Jessi Rivera
Jessi Rivera, BANA treasurer, led the Board in a review of the Financial Statements. The approved 2020 budget will be emailed to BANA-l after finalization by Jessi.
Housekeeping items:
1. Should each task force be a line item on the budget? The decision was made to keep each task force on the budget.
2. Reimbursement requests are to be submitted to the treasurer in a timely manner, and must be submitted in the year the expenses occur.
MSC Mary Nelle McLennan moved and Guy Toles seconded the motion to accept the financial reports as reported. The motion passed unanimously.
MSC Whitney Gregory moved and Dawn Gross seconded the motion to approve the 2020 budget. The motion passed unanimously.
38. (Agenda item #29) Bylaws Committee: Jennifer Dunnam
Discussion returned to the updating of the Bylaws and Policies. There is a provision that states that they can only be amended at a face to face meeting. It was proposed that the bylaws be suspended to allow for the approval of routine updates at the 2020 Winter teleconference.
FM D’Andrea moved and Kim Charlson seconded the motion to approve routine updates of the Bylaws and Policies at the 2020 Winter teleconference provided that they are provided 30 days prior to the meeting. The motion passed unanimously.
39. (Agenda item #35) Treasurer's Report: Jessi Rivera
Returning briefly to the Treasurer's report, a short discussion of placing a portion of the cash in BANA's general fund into an interest earning account took place. Jessi Rivera will investigate the options and make a proposal at the 2020 winter teleconference.
40. (Agenda item #22) Strategic Planning
FM D’Andrea and Mary Nelle McLennan made a heartfelt presentation to Jennifer Dunnam, honoring her for her hard work, diligence, and grace under fire during her tenure as BANA Chair. Jennifer was presented with a thoughtful gift from the Board.
Mary Nelle McLennan announced that the two strategic prongs will come together to create one core team of six individuals. The team will consist of Whitney Gregory, Jen Goulden, Tamara Rorie, Guy Toles, Tina Seger, and Jessi Rivera; Mary Nelle will continue to help and facilitate. Each of these individuals will be given one of the tasks that resulted from the prong work and from the strategic planning of this meeting, i.e. training units and how they will be delivered, the roll out plan, reporting and monitoring of committees, how we develop, evolve and design the role of liaisons. Guy will continue working on the training units, Tamara on the roll out plan. The core team will engage the rest of board members at the appropriate time.
41. (Agenda item #36) Certificates of Appreciation: Dawn Gross, Kim Charlson
Kim Charlson will send Certificates of Appreciation to Saul Garza, Cindi Laurent, Judy Dixon, Vivian Seki, Cheryl Wecels, Robert Englebretson, Darleen Bogart, Cheryl Kamei-Hannan, Cay Holbrook, and Tessa McCarthy.
42. (Agenda item #37) Directory Update: Sue Reilly
Sue Reilly sent an updated directory to BANA-l, please review and inform her of any changes. Sue will send out a revised directory after the new year.
43. (Agenda item #38) BANA's Listservs: Kim Charlson
Kim Charlson reported that she recently received listserv training and can now build as well as manage the listserv lists. In the next few months, Kim will send a document to BANA-l indicating who is on each of the listservs. Along with ACB's ongoing website process, ACB is potentially looking to change the list manager they use, this could affect the BANA listservs.
44. (Agenda item #39) BANA's Archives: Frances Mary D'Andrea
FM D’Andrea, chair of the Archives Committee, presented the report which is on file.
FM sends BANA and ICEB materials to Anne Rich at APH and continues to be in contact with APH about the issue of archiving email. Kim Charlson will explore the listserv reporting features for email archiving.
45. (Agenda item #41) Press Releases: Tamara Rorie
Tamara Rorie, BANA Vice chair, will create press releases for the following items: award of the Darleen Bogart Award for Braille Excellence to Robert Englebretson; BANA podcasts; the fall meeting and announcement of new BANA officers; and the posting of the Provisional Guidance for Transcribing Mathematics in UEB.
46. (Agenda item #44) Upcoming Meetings
44.1 Spring 2020: NFB
Jennifer Dunnam reported that the spring meeting will take place March 19-21, 2020 in Baltimore Maryland at the National Center for the Blind. The first two days will be full days, the last will be a half day. Jennifer will send out hotel information in the next few weeks.
44.2 Board Teleconferences
The 2020 winter BANA teleconference is schedule for Thursday January 23, 2020 at 1:00 pm Eastern.
44.3 Fall 2020: NBA
The BANA fall 2020 meeting will take place in San Antonio, TX November 7-9, 2020. Sunday and Monday will be full days, Tuesday will be a half day. The meeting will be held at the Embassy Suites Riverwalk Downtown just after the NBA Conference held November 4-6.
47. (Agenda item #45) Future BANA meetings:
Spring 2021: NLS
Fall 2021: APH
Spring 2022: ASB
Fall 2022: AER
Spring 2023: Perkins
Fall 2023: NBP
Spring 2024: Horizons
Fall 2024: AFB
Spring 2025: CTEBVI
Fall 2025: CIDI
Spring 2026: Hadley
Fall 2026 Region 4
Spring 2027 ATPC
Fall 2027 ACB
Spring 2028: CNIB
Fall 2028: Clovernook
48. (Agenda item #42) Unfinished/continued business
Returning to the Chemistry Committee, FM D'Andrea reported that Guy Toles reached out to transcriber Kristin Kepford. Kristen has expressed interest in being on the Chemistry Committee.
MSC Tina Seger moved and Mary Nelle McLennan seconded the motion to appoint Kristin Kepford to the Ad Hoc Committee on Chemistry with a term ending in 2021. Motion passed unanimously.
49. (Agenda item #43) New Business
No items presented.
50. (Agenda item #46) Around the Table: Organization Updates (time permitting)
The Around the Table Organization Updates are not recorded in the minutes.
51. (Agenda item #47) Adjournment: Jennifer Dunnam
Jennifer Dunnam thanked Tina Seger and the Clovernook Center for the meeting arrangements.
MSC Tina Seger moved and Dawn Gross seconded the motion that the meeting be adjourned. The motion passed unanimously.
Jennifer Dunnam adjourned the meeting at 12:09 p.m. Eastern.
Respectfully submitted,
Dawn Gross, Secretary