The BSCB Executive Board meets on a monthly basis by phone (usually the second Sunday evening each month) to review the organization’s activities and make policy and management decisions. Minutes are prepared by the BSCB Secretary and are approved by the Board. The most recently approved minutes are presented below. An archive of the last year’s minutes can be downloaded in PDF format.
Board call minutes for May 14 2018
List of Officers and Board Members
Brian Charlson President
David Kingsbury First Vice President
Frank Ventura Second Vice President
Jerry Berrier Secretary
Rick Morin Treasurer
Rose Miller board member
Dianna Leonard board member
Mary Haroyan board member
Carey Scouler board member
Ex Officio
Steve Dresser Webmaster
Bob Hachey BayLines editor
DeAnn Elliott Legislative committee chair
(Secretary’s note: All votes were unanimous unless otherwise noted.)
David Kingsbury called the meeting to order at 7:32 PM. Frank was unable to attend. Due to a conflict, Brian was unable to join the meeting until 8:40 PM, and Rose joined at 8:20. DeAnn had to leave at 8:10 after presenting her legislative report.
The agenda was adopted.
Rick made, Mary seconded and the board approved a motion to adopt the minutes of our April meeting.
Treasurer’s report; Rick
Prior to this meeting, Rick e-mailed detailed reports along with the following report:
Of note are the following:
We are currently cash positive in the amount of $6,866.89. This is roughly the amount of money we Prepaid for our 2018 convention during 2017 when we changed the date of the 2018 convention. We are at a break even with major expenditures ahead.
Our account/asset balance without investment is $41,822.84.
Our accountant is preparing our Annual federal and state non-profit tax submissions due May 15. Either they will be filed tomorrow or an extension will be filed. Our Annual filing with the MA Secretary of State’s Office is current.
A $150 Gift Card for Legal Sea Foods has been ordered as our donation to the ACB Auction.
I have requested guidance from ACB’s Chief Accountant, Nancy Becker, regarding how we should proceed with regards to chapter checking accounts. BSCB does not hold a 501 c 3 group designation. A previous email laid out the issues at hand and possible approach. Rather than shutting down our Bank of America Accounts, we are now anticipating that we will open a series of new business bank accounts owned by BSCB for the use of each chapter at a bank that offers accessible online banking along with good terms. Lainey Feingold advised us that the National banks known for their accessibility are Bank of America, Chase, and Capital One. Chase does not do business in Massachusetts and we have not yet reached out to Capital One.
I have received notices regarding the renewal of our Liability and Directors and Officers Insurance policies. Financial processes between BSCB and the Chapters are essential to maintain our coverages.
All but two members at large have paid their dues for 2018. I am preparing invoices to the chapters for the amounts they owe BSCB in accordance with our by-laws.
We paid ACB National $965 in annual dues
Stipends to our primary and secondary delegates to the National Convention have not yet been paid.
BSCB’s portion of Braille Day expenses are $116
Our final charge from the Marriott for our March Convention was $1083.53
We shipped the ACB owned microphones we used for our Convention back to Minneapolis at a cost of $110
Monies ($1000) for BSCB Scholarship have not been paid nor set aside.
(end of written report)
Mary will investigate the accessibility of DB Bank.
Mary made, David seconded, and the group approved a motion to accept the treasurer’s report.
There was no president’s report
Legislative report; DeAnn
DeAnn submitted the following written report:
The BSCB has been involved in discussions within the blindness community about the state budget. Sen. Michael Barrett has been a champion of additional funding for the MCB, and an additional $1.55 million was added to the budget in the Senate version, released this week. The amount is different from the House version; our drive to get an amendment added to the House version resulted in 50 co-sponsors, but was not enough to get the amendment added to the House budget. The issue will now go into conference, where we will continue to advocate for it. There are no guarantees. Regardless of the outcome, we may want to consider doing something to thank Sen. Barrett for his work when the budget is finalized.
The new Executive Director of the DLC has invited a representative from the BSCB to speak on a panel at the upcoming REV UP conference, to be held this Friday, May 18. The purpose of the conference is to strategize about ways to increase the participation of voters with disabilities in upcoming elections. The BSCB speaker will be Cheryl Cumings, who will present our 2016 Voter Access Survey. We have made arrangements with Perkins to have two copies of the survey brailled for distribution, and hardcopies will also be available. Brian will discuss a small funding request to cover Cheryl’s transportation expenses, as well as printing and braille costs.
The Senate will vote on Net Neutrality this week. Our Sen. Markey has introduced the issue under the Congressional Review Act. To date, he’s one vote short. 51 votes are needed.
There seems to be good news concerning the Marrakesh treaty, which would remove copyright barriers for the distribution of braille and other reading materials. It seems likely that there will be a successful outcome, as it has bipartisan support.
DeAnn will introduce the BSCB’s resolution on the Common College Application this week for consideration at the upcoming ACB convention in July.
Mass. General Hospital has formed a committee to explore accessibility issues and is requesting input from the BSCB. DeAnn has been an MGH patient for 20 years and has agreed to attend one or two meetings to share our agreement with Mass. Eye and Ear and to discuss general accessibility issues for blind patients.
The legislative committee will meet in May; if fall conference dates are confirmed, the committee will begin to plan for the conference presenters. The current plan is to invite aides from various state and national congressional offices to speak about constituent services and ways that legislative offices can be a partner to advocates.
(end of written report)
Jerry made, Mary seconded, and the board approved a motion to authorize up to $250 to cover Cheryl Cumings’s transportation and braille production expenses for the Rev up Conference.
DeAnn has submitted the Common College application issue to ACB national and she has identified an employee at Perkins who has had difficulty with the Common App and who has expressed a willingness to be involved.
Transportation report; Rick
Rick and Brian will appoint a vice-chairperson to coordinate the transportation summit tentatively planned for early fall.
Rick said the T wants to terminate the MOU with AACT. Rick is in favor of that.
Mary said a great transportation coalition has been established in central Massachusetts.
Transportation budget cuts are still under consideration.
Membership report; Mary
Mary submitted the following written report:
The committee met on May 4. New member Lina Coral representing BSCB Students, joined the committee, replacing Dianna Leonard.
Members brainstormed some ideas of places to contact in order to ask whether the BSCB brochure could be placed in an area of resources. If there is a positive response, then we will send out either an electronic or hard copy version.
(end of written report)
David said he is tweaking the large print brochure.
Spring convention report
Frank submitted the following:
We will return to the Burlington Marriot for 2019
We have signed a contract for the second weekend in March
I am currently looking for a program director
(end of written report)
Social Committee report; Rose
She thanked David, Mary and Nina for being willing to participate on the committee, which will meet on may 15. .
Publications committee report; David
David submitted the following written report:
The website is ready to have content added. Comments on the message I sent out last Tuesday on site content and links would be appreciated. The three of you who have not yet sent your short bios should do so soon.
The Pubs Committee seeks approval of $150 for Training by Jacquie Tolisano for several members on how to post content to the website. This training would be done before the end of June at the Carroll Center on an evening or weekend for several hours.
We are almost ready to transition over to the Philmore line. Board comments on the current menu items, synthetic voices, etc. are welcome. A board decision is requested on when the current phone line account should be closed, and when to announce to members and collaborators that we have a new phone line.
Mary participated on our last call to discuss preparing business cards. She agreed to check out options with National braille Press and Cory agreed to check out options at Perkins. Going ahead with this would require funding approval from the Board.
(End of written report)
Jerry made, Mary seconded, and the board approved a motion to authorize up to $200.00 to pay Jacquie Tolisano to train key BSCB members to manage the website.
Material for the newly created Philmore phone service can be sent to David or Steve; they will retain them in a Dropbox folder.
Philmore folders now have material in them.
Steve made, Mary seconded, and the board approved a motion to target June 15 as the transition date to begin using Philmore.
We will need to get the word out that our old phone number is no longer valid.
ACB annual Convention
Those planning to attend include Brian, Mary, Steve, Frank, Dianna, Joe Yee, Carl Richardson and Sharon Strzalkowski. Possibly Daisy Russell and Emily Pepi.
We agreed to pay the same stipend amounts as last year; $1,000 for the delegate and $800 for alternate delegate.
Rick made, Jerry seconded, and the board approved a motion to appoint Brian as BSCB delegate.
Mary expressed willingness to serve as alternate, but she said she would decline the stipend.
Brian suggested she could return the stipend to BSCB if not needed.
We discussed appointing Dianna as alternate delegate, but she declined.
Jerry made, Rose seconded, and the board approved a motion to elect Mary as alternate delegate and Steve for the nominating committee.
Jerry made, Rose seconded, and the board approved a motion to provide Kim Charlson with the same stipend given to alternate delegates, based on the fact that as president, Kim receives no reimbursement from the national office other than for her room.
On May 15, the day after this meeting, Rick e-mailed the following :
“Clarification regarding how National Convention Stipends have been paid in the past.
Prior to 2016, the delegate was given $1200 and the alternate $600.
In 2016 and 2017, the primary was given $1000 and the alternate $800 on the basis that since Brian who was the primary those years would not be paying for a room, the alternate would be subsidized an additional $200 taken from the delegates stipend.
In accordance with last night’s board vote, I will issue checks in the amount of $1000 to Brian and $800 to Kim. The info above is for future reference.”
Our next meeting is scheduled for June 10 at 7:30 PM.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:02 PM.
Respectfully,
Jerry Berrier, Secretary