FCB Executive Committee June 2, 2022

A meeting of the Executive Committee was held at the Sheraton Orlando North in Maitland, Florida on June 2, 2022.  The meeting began at 5:00 PM.  Those in attendance were:  Sheila Young, President; Mikey Wiseman, 1st Vice-President; Cassandra Jessie, 2nd Vice-President; Mark Lear, Treasurer; Sally Benjamin, Membership Secretary; Mary Tyson, Recording Secretary and Jim Kracht, Immediate Past President. Guests were American Council of the Blind President, Dan Spoone and Koni Sims, our Officer Liaison from American Council of the Blind.

Motion was made by Mikey and seconded by Sally to approve the minutes of the April 19, meeting.  Motion carried.

Motion was made by Cassandra and seconded by Mark to approve the minutes of the May 9, meeting.  Motion carried.

Discussion of status of the Greater Miami and Tampa chapters was tabled until the next meeting of the Executive Committee.

Jim Kracht reported that he had signed final papers for the estate regarding the trust of Agnes Capetto and reported to the Budget and Finance Committee that a check had been received in the amount of $17,981.58.  

It had been voted on by the FCB membership that 10% of the amount received from the estate would be donated to the National Braille Press.  There was some confusion as to whether a flat $2,000 should be made or 10% as voted on by the FCB membership.  Mikey made a motion that the 10% guideline be followed and the motion was seconded by Cassandra.  Motion passed and a donation of $1,798.15 will be made to NBP.  The balance of the money received is to be invested in the Merrill Lynch American Investment Management account.

A letter was written by the Executive Committee to the American Council of the Blind regarding some ongoing concerns.  Mikey asked Dan Spoone to speak in order to initiate an open dialogue.  

Dan noted that he had read the letter several times and understood that a great deal of the anger and frustration was related to communication. He is very sad that things have come to this point as he has been involved in FCB for many years and has had good ongoing relationships.

Mikey spoke regarding our ongoing frustration as the Executive Committee with interactions with ACB whether it was on an individual or organizational basis.  He said that as things currently stand, it is unknown what to expect from the ACB leadership   and unknown if they can be counted on to support our members.  He suggested that the minutes of this meeting be shared if they wish, for the purpose of transparency.  He asked Dan Spoone if he had any specific questions about the letter.

Dan said that the FCB Executive Committee had never reached out to him in an official capacity to have a dialogue about any concerns that they may have had. Mikey responded that an email had in fact been received from ACB stating that they would be happy to provide in-person support for any technical   issues that may arise at the FCB convention.  Dan said that this had been the intention, for Rick Moran to attend in person, and that there had been many conversations between Rick, Mikey and Sheila.  Unfortunately Rick was unable to attend due to personal Circumstances beyond his control.  Sheila explained that the concerns arose from an Email from Tony Stevens in the ACB office, received two days before she spoke with Rick, in which it was stated that ACB was not allowing Rick to come because it was too close to the national convention.    At that time there was no explanation of this decision.  Mikey said that although he had been outvoted on the topic of video streaming the convention, he understood that it was thought that the FCB convention would be a good test environment for the ACB convention and was doing his best to make it work.

Mikey wanted to move on to the list of questions in the letter to the ACB Board of Directors in which we were striving to have a clear understanding of what we can expect, how we can expect it and who we can expect it from.    

Dan said that he thought the email in question was inappropriate and he had asked the Executive Director of ACB Communications, Eric Bridges, to reach out to Sheila and provide a better explanation of the situation.  Rick was also more than willing to have a conversation with Sheila in this regard. Sheila did receive calls from Eric and Rick who provided further explanation of the circumstances.     Sheila went on to say that from this point forward we are looking for the proper procedure to follow when we have a specific concern.  What is the chain of command.  Who do we speak to and who can we expect a response from.  


Dan spoke on how the chain of command in ACB has changed as the organization has grown over the last year or two.    He explained that Rick Moran is now a fulltime ACB employee who is responsible for IT in ACB Media management.  He is not involved in the day-to-day organization of state and affiliate conventions. ACB is now supporting and streaming 25 conventions each year at no charge for ACB staff. Currently there is one contractor, Larry Gasman, and two volunteers, Deb Cook-Lewis and Cecily Nepper who take the lead role for state and affiliate conventions, and they report to Rick Moran.  Any concerns regarding ACB media should be directed to Rick.

The next level up, Communications Director is currently an open position. Rick’s boss is Tony Stevens who reports to the Executive Director, Eric Bridges. It is Eric Bridges’ job to guide and direct the ACB staff.    

Mikey stated that due to the amount of growth and change within ACB that the communication problems have increased.  He found himself on a phone call with someone he did not know who was telling him how to proceed with our convention issues.  He had no idea what role they had with ACB and thus terminated the conversation.     The person turned out to be an ACB Media volunteer.  Mikey suggested that the development and training of the volunteers needs to be enhanced.  He asked that Koni Sims, Officer Liaison, make any comments and that we then listen to any concerns of other committee members. 

Sally Benjamin stated that she had not been in favor of the letter that was written and that    she felt that this needed to be worked out outside of a meeting setting.  

Dan said that he acknowledges the failure in communication and that ACB Media needs to have written policies and procedures and definition of the roles of the personnel involved so that an affiliate will know who to approach with any questions or concerns.  He will be appointing a committee after the national convention, that will support ACB Media and help them with their policies and their roles and responsibilities.   It will be member driven along with members of the Board of Directors.

Mikey apologized and said that he had just been trying to raise a red flag regarding our concerns. He said that this was in no way personal and acknowledged all of the hard work done by Dan and Leslie Spoone.    

Mark Lear said that he believed that now that the concerns have been brought forth in the letter that Dan will look at them and get answers for us.  He thinks that the development of the committee that Dan mentioned could go a long way to resolving some of these issues.

Jim Kracht said that the letter was written because things were not working right and that we needed to be heard.  For instance, he felt that a letter should have been written in response to the email of Tony Stevens.  He felt that there should have been more documentation.  Jim said that he would not apologize for saying what needed to be said after months of frustration and an inability to determine who was responsible for what.  He simply asked that efforts be put in to reading the letter, understanding it and providing answers to the questions.

Mary Tyson said that she was sorry that things had gotten to this point.  She said that one of the best friends to an administrator is a book of policies and procedures so if this is going to be developed, that this would be a big step forward.

Cassandra Jessie said that one of her greatest concerns was the side conversations that have taken place.  The he-said/she-said situations only cause confusion.  Further, she stated that if it’s not in writing that it didn’t happen.   When policies and procedures are developed and disseminated this should resolve many of those issues.

Koni Sims thanked us for inviting her.  She said that communications are a problem in many organizations.  She came across a document of guidelines called Affiliate and National Organization Expectations. This is an older ACB document that when updated could provide valuable information to members and affiliates.  She understands the situation we are in and feels that ACB can improve on their communication and transparency.  She stated that she had heard of communication problems from other affiliates.  She suggested that ACB was having growing pains and that we need to continue to work as a team and to move forward.  

Mikey thanked Koni for attending and issued an invitation for her to attend meetings at any time.  He thanked Dan for his outreach and agreed to serve on the new committee that is being appointed for ACB Media.

Dan suggested that a meeting be held in August, after national convention, to try to work through what worked and what did not work to establish a foundation for future conventions and collaborative efforts.

Motion to adjourn was made by Mikey and seconded by Mary.  The meeting was adjourned at 6:35 PM.

Respectfully submitted by,
Mary Tyson,
FCB Recording Secretary