The TAPING RECORDER October 31, 2001 No. 10-02
News from and about Taping For The Blind Inc.

RECOGNITION…We have been publishing this newsletter since April and haven’t
taken the time to recognize our officers, directors, and advisory
directors. It is high time we corrected this condition.

OFFICERS…Our officers for 2001 are: Chris Kiersted (President), John
Deming (VP Planning), Sam Bertron (VP Development), Nadine Saffell
(Secretary), Sarah Braham (Treasurer), and Betty Sanders (Past President).
We thank them for all the work they do!

DIRECTORS…Here are the members of the Board of Directors: Bob Bartlett,
Fredell Belasco, Susan Boggio, Dr. Ed Bradley, Bill Gordon, Mary Farish
Johnston, Joe Laughlin, Janet Parisi, Robin Rice, Peggy Weiser, and Jim
Wood. The following are Lifetime Directors: Ted Pfister and Leila
Reynolds. We thank each of these dedicated individuals for their hard
work, too!

ADVISORY DIRECTORS…These people are interested in our organization and have
special talent or community recognition that makes them very helpful to us:
Chris Bell (City of Houston Council member and mayoral candidate), Pat
Berry (Time Warner Cable), Bill Brown (Houston Astros), Tony Chase (Chase
Telecommunications), Jeff Clarke (Houston PBS), Scott Hochberg (Texas State
Representative), and Mimi Holt (CPA). We sincerely appreciate the help
these people offer to Taping.

NOMINATING COMMITTEE AT WORK…The Nominating Committee has been at work and
Chairman Jim Wood will present their report to the Board of Directors at
the November 15, 2001 meeting. Committee members are Bob Bartlett, Bill
Canning, Fred Dawson, and Robin Rice. Thanks to this committee for its
good work.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION…The great conversion project began on October 28, 2001.
While the construction is going on, we will be on the air from 7 a.m.
until 10 p.m., Monday through Friday. On weekends we will be on the air
from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The balance of the time until the new equipment is
operational will be filled with the Audio Reader from Kansas, which we will
get off the satellite. We will only be converting one recording booth at
this time, so recording will remain the same, otherwise. While the
construction is going on, we ask you to please take extra care getting
around, as it will get messy before it gets clean again. We do not want
anybody having any sort of injury during this very exciting time for us.
Having new digital equipment will improve our reliability substantially,
and ease that constant nagging fear that our operations staff has had about
something breaking that can’t be fixed. There will be some variations in
the broadcast schedule, and Jim Martinez will contact readers individually
about these changes. These changes are temporary and we will return to our
regular schedule when this conversion is complete.

We will use the TAPING RECORDER to keep you updated on the construction
and installation, so watch your e-mailboxes!

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY…The building will be open from 7 – 11 a.m. on
Thanksgiving and the Friday following. Regular hours will be observed over
the weekend following the holiday. We hope each of you has a wonderful
holiday!

CHRISTMAS PARTY…You and a guest are invited to our annual Christmas party
on December 5, 2001, from 5 – 7 p.m. at 3935 Essex Lane. We hope to have a
successful digital conversion (phase 1) project to count among our
Christmas blessings.

COMING SOON…Our listeners have donated to the fund-raising campaign that
ran in September and they have donated extra money for our capital campaign
to update recording booths. They are about halfway to funding a "listeners
booth," and this request will continue to the next listeners campaign. We
will be asking our volunteers to do what our listeners are doing—give their
regular donation, and add some for the capital campaign and the funding of
a "volunteers booth." You will be seeing more on this in the days ahead.

REMEMBER THE FRIENDS CAMPAIGNS…Remember that it is time for our "Friends of
the Board" and "Friends of Taping" campaigns. We encourage all volunteers
to participate in the "Friends of Taping" campaign—let your friends know
about the terrific work you do while helping Taping raise money at the same
time. Contact Cynthia Franzetti for details.

DID YOU KNOW?…This time we turn our focus on a man that has 30 years of
volunteering to Taping under his belt, and he continues these efforts,
regularly reading the "Men’s Hour" which includes articles from "Esquire"
and Men’s Health." There isn’t much around Taping that Otto Schlamme
hasn’t done, but we want you to know him even better. For example, did you
know…That Otto was born in Wuerzburg, Germany, and that he came to Texas in
1938 when Hitler was making Germany most inhospitable? (Fortunately Otto
had relatives in Halletsville who furnished the required affidavit that
allowed him to come to Houston)…That he joined the Army in 1943 and served
in the European theater of operations in General Patton’s army?…That he
returned to Houston in 1946, married and had two children? (Son Thomas
Schlamme is a producer and director currently working on the NBC hit "The
West Wing," and Tommy’s wife is actress Christine Lahti, and Otto’s
daughter is very cool, too, but this isn’t about them)…That he founded and
ran Otto Office Supply Co. from 1954 – 1984?…That he started his
volunteering with Taping in 1971 after the death of his first wife?…That he
also volunteers at M.D. Anderson Hospital, the Clothing Pantry for the
Indigent, and the Holocaust Museum? We thought you would like to know!

SPECIAL THANKS…We offer a special thank you to Arthur Martinez (Jim’s dad)
for the use of his van and for helping with several other tasks in
connection with the remodeling. Your help is sincerely appreciated, Mr.
Martinez!

END WITH A LAUGH…As usual, we have much more but will end for now, and will
offer a bit of bumper sticker logic: I am a nobody, and nobody is perfect,
therefore, I am perfect!

RLB