About ReadAssist

Meeting Minutes

Home

About ReadAssist

eAvailable Books

Tools and Devices

Fans and FanAc

Contact Us

About

Jimmy's Corner

Officers and Committees

Finances

Record of Meetings

Activities

November 15, 2003

The following members were present in the ReadAssist Chatroom at Baen.com:

Judith Lasker, Chairperson
Evan Mayerle, Technical
Pam Poggiani, Web Design
Morgen Kirby, Publicity
Janet Dailey, Communications

Chair called meeting to order at 2:11 PM CST, November 15, 2003, and declared a quorum. All relevant documentation regarding this Board will be kept by the Communications Officer & Recorder. Minutes of October 18, 2003 meeting were posted on November 6, 2003. The publicity and websites reports were distributed before the meeting to all board members. There was no activity for the Treasurer's Report, except for a few cents of interest. Expect the report to be sent to all board members shortly.

Vanished Board Member

Chair brought up the question, what if a board member has left the bar? Is there a connection? These are connected with a board member who never officially resigned his position, but emails are now undeliverable.

Mayerle moved to declare Preston resigned as a board member as well as from the Treasurer positon of the ReadAssist Board. Dailey seconded. Approved by Board vote.

Poggiani moved that no connection with Baen be required to serve on the ReadAssist Board. Mayerle seconded, with a caveat, as a general purpose motion rather than for a specific candidate. Approved by Board Vote.

Misconception

Poggiani requested that we do what we can to correct a broadly held misconception that ReadAssist is only for those who are disabled, we welcome all that help, or just want to read Science Fiction. All board members will spread the word. Dailey is writing an article and will post a notice on the Bar. Discussion about possibly getting ReadAssist fliers/bookmarks included in convention registration packets was brought up. Con-going members will make inquiries with concoms and get with Poggiani about the details at least a month or so before the Con itself, which will allow time to get agents, if needed to get URLs from dealers.

T-shirts

Chair brought up the possibility of using T-shirts. Dorsett mentioned it some months ago. Dailey said there are still some Eric Flint Philosophical Strangler T-shirts. Kirby will present some ideas next month. We will include adult, juvenile and children's books.

Website

Poggiani had the RA website reviewed by Teresa, a blind BF who pronounced it "quite user-friendly" for her equipment.

Tasks to do:

Dailey to write an ebook article.
Dailey to write and post a notice on the Bar about ReadAssist: focus on ReadAssist is not JUST for the disabled, and basic info.
Kirby to come up with marketing ideas for ReadAssist.
Kirby to test some ideas, using some t-shirts (blue ones with Philosophical Strangler on them), which can be seen at www.ericflint.net
Dailey will coordinate use of PS t-shirts after we have some proposals.
Boyes to write a "Scholarship publicity release" about the RA scholorship for a potential disabled SF writer at Clarian West writing seminar.
Dorsett to post an 'Announcement to bar for participation.' Kirby to help here as well.
Kirby to research juvenile, children, and other SF related (e.g. Evan's 'Fuzzy World' or SCA) links,which may be appropriate, to add to the RA website. Will coordinate with Poggiani.
Mayerle will forward information on RA to his contacts/websites.

Submitted by Janet Dailey, Commo & Recorder, November 25, 2003.

Committee Reports

Treasurer's Report

Current Balance is $1362.76 reflecting an interest payment of .27 on Nov 4, 2003.

Website Report

The website's links pages were last updated on September 30, 2003; links for consideration are accumulating, and I should get to them soon.

It has come to my attention that many people have never visited ReadAssist's website because they believe that it is for only handicapped fans. The website is not for handicapped only; it simply includes them, excluding no one. The website has links to sources of ebooks and audio books, which can be used (indeed, are sometimes preferred) by the hale and sighted as well as by the handicapped. And, if the hale and sighted do not use (purchase) them, the market will be too small; the prices will rise or the sources will disappear. We need better, and more, publicity.

Luis Cedeno, Webmaster, has a line on a couple of suppliers of free guestbook programs and counters, and will investigate them as soon as he can.

/s/ Pam Poggiani, Website Designer

Publicity Report

Bookmarks were distributed at MileHiCon, and buttons were supplied to the ReadAssist Agent for the first time.

Bookmarks and buttons are at OryCon; a supply has been sent for LosCon.

It has come to my attention that many people have never visited ReadAssist's website because they believe that it is for only handicapped fans. It is not! It does not exclude the handicapped and the blind, as many other sites do. We need better and more publicity to draw all fans to the website so that these sources do not disappear.

An online magazine devoted to epublication of books has asked us to submit an article on ReadAssist and its website ("your services, reason for being, and the needs of reading-challenged individuals"). This is a great opportunity, if someone will write the article.

/s/ Pam Poggiani, Publicity Deputy

Back to Last Meeting

Return to Index Page

On to Next Meeting