The TAPING RECORDER March 29, 2002 No. 203-01
News from and about Taping For The Blind, Inc.

VOLUNTEER RECEPTION--Please join us as we honor our volunteers for their
dedicated efforts to Taping. The reception will be April 21, 2002, from
2 4 p.m. at 3935 Essex Lane. There will be short speeches, refreshments,
service awards, and the fellowship of our volunteers, who are some of the
world's finest! Please plan to attend so your good work can be recognized.

WEBSITE OPERATIONAL--We are very pleased that our website is up and
running. If you haven't visited it yet, please do so at the following address:
http://www.tapingfortheblind.org
We even got them to take the banner ad for Register.com off when
we appealed their uninvited foolishness. We have plans to add a photo
gallery, and soon we will add a privacy policy (no website should be
without one). This is Version 1 of our design. Version 2 will feature
audio streaming of the HTBR broadcast, assuming the Board approves and that
we can figure out the mechanics of that change. On down the road, we may
even see about developing a secure site in order to accept credit card
donations, and beyond that may be extensive archiving of programs so they
may be listened to on demand. You can see, we have plans ahead for our site.

The site was designed without "eye candy" since our purpose is to
get the Taping message out to those who may want volunteering opportunities
or to those who can benefit from our services. Our site was designed for
accessibility by all that was a major goal. We have had one prospective
volunteer contact us through the site. We don't have statistics on how
many have visited the site, but if you visit, it will help. Search engines
look to see where people are going, and as a result of those visits,
various sites get recognized by these engines.

The site was designed and produced by the FOLP Web Design
Team. Who is that, you ask? It is an all volunteer army consisting of
Lynn Johnson, Joan Gallo, Victoria Bartlett, and Bob Bartlett. Lynn serves
as webmaster and has done an extraordinary amount of work getting us on the
Web. No, we are not at liberty to tell you what FOLP stands for one of
those things where we'd have to hurt you badly if we told you and we don't
want to go there. Thanks to this terrific team for their hard work putting
the site together. We also thank the Houston Area League of Personal
Computer Users for hosting the site their price was right! Thanks, too, to
Register.com for removing their banner ad.

We welcome your comments about the site, as well as future plans
for the site. There are plenty of links for sending mail on the site, or
you can send your message to rlb19@....

RUNNING FOR TAPING--Our sincere thanks to the runners who participated in
the Compaq Houston Marathon and the El Paso Half Marathon. The following
people ran and raised money for Taping with their efforts: Bob Dougherty,
Paul Dudash, Tracy Minish, Ted Pfister (Lifetime Director), and Dena Marks
Sokolow (Director). We sincerely appreciate all their efforts. And
remember, it is not too late to send a donation acknowledging their hard work

THANKS, DESCRIBERS--Thanks to describers working our local theater scene
recently. Carol Worsnop described "Jitney" at the Alley on February 3rd,
and Julie Fulks described "One flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" at the Alley on
March 17th. Julie flew in from her work assignment in Dallas to do that
description. Thanks to both for their dedicated work

THANKS TO RODEO DESCRIBERS--We had great work done again this year in
conjunction with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo as we described the
parade and six performances of the rodeo. Our thanks to Ted Pfister and
John Borrowman for their work describing the parade to an onsite crowd of
about 40, as well as to Cynthia Franzetti for onsite setup and Jim Martinez
for getting the simulcast on HTBR from 10:30 a.m. 12:00 p.m. Thanks to
Bill White, Avery Bonnee, Ted Pfister, John Borrowman, and Cynthia
Franzetti for describing rodeo performances. We appreciate our
relationship with the world's biggest rodeo and everybody that works these
events for Taping!

RUNOFF ELECTION--The runoff election is coming on April 9, 2002, and Taping
volunteer Chris Bell is involved in a runoff for the Democratic nomination
for the 25th Congressional District. Good luck, Chris!

NEW VOLUNTEERS--We have several new volunteers that we want to offer a warm
Taping welcome: Lawrence Foust is reading the "Wall Street Journal"; Khaki
Grubbs is the new reader for the "At Home" show; Christopher Hart has
joined our Custom Recording corps; David Holloway will be a radio book
reader as well as a new reader on the "Short Story Show" (see MORE CHANGES
below); Nancy Newell Kline will be a Custom Recording reader; Marie Roberts
will help on the front desk, as well as work in Custom Recording; and Jane
Zimbaldi is the new reader for "Teen People." We welcome each of you and
hope your association with Taping is a wonderful experience for you, as you
are doing important work.

IN THE NEWS--Longtime volunteer Otto Schlamme's son Thomas (Emmy and Golden
Globe winner) was honored February 10th at the American Jewish Committee's
National Human Relations Award Dinner. Thomas Schlamme is the Executive
Producer of the NBC hit "The West Wing." A smiling Otto was there among
the glitterati toasting his son's success.

NEW GRANDPARENTS--Our congratulations to Bill and Diane Brown who became
new grandparents on March 4th. Welcome to Luke William Roiseland! I am not
certain if this young man's first gift from Grandpa will be a baseball
glove, or a microphone, or a baseball glove with a microphone sewn
in. Luke's mother, Allison, is now learning all the delights and
challenges of parenthood, and Bill & Diane are proud of them all!

MORE CHANGES--Thanks to Norma Jean Miller for her good work on the "At
Home" show she has moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. *** Mary Lee Baumgartner
is no longer reading "The Texas Gardener" as she is getting married and
moving to Melbourne, Australia. *** Dennis Tompkins has taken over reading
of "The Texas Gardener" as well as working on the Wednesday Chronicle
reading. *** Elizabeth Cargill is no longer reading the "Short Story Show,"
as her schedule no longer permits her to read for us. David Holloway has
taken over this show. *** George Nevers has moved from Custom Recording to
work on "Environmental Notes." *** Rick Walter is taking a short sabbatical
from his reading for Taping.

MORE GOOD WORK--We have already been receiving high praise for work Mary
Pedersen has done in describing the floor layout of the Adam's Mark Hotel,
site of the American Council of the Blind National Convention from June 29
to July 6, 2002. She has also done the same type of description for the
convention overflow hotel, the Westchase Hilton. Both scripts will be
posted on the ACB website (www.acb.org), and tapes of the Adam's Mark were
handed out at a mid-winter meeting of the ACB board. This is a first for
the ACB convention and we always like to set a high level of
accomplishment thanks to Mary, it is happening! Keep in mind that she
also did the "Voter's Guide" as well as continuing her regular show,
"Discover" magazine. AWESOME!

YOU ARE MISSED--We want to let Kate Rodwell, a longtime reader, describer,
and most recently helper on the front desk know that she is missed. She is
out due to illness. Hurry back

MORE NEW VOLUNTEERS--Since we are catching up with this edition, we have
more new volunteers to welcome to Taping: Stephen Lovett is a new book
reader for HTBR; Gregg Peterson will work in Custom Recording; Olga
Rodriguez is the new reader for "Latin World"; Lisa Foronda will substitute
on second hour Chronicle reading and do Custom Recording work; Brian Thomas
will work in Custom Recording; Bob Cayce will do Custom Recording work;
Frances McLaughlin will work in Custom Recording; Dee Weaver will work in
Custom Recording, and her husband, William "Weave" Weaver, will work on the
front desk and do clerical tasks; Lyn Schmaltz will work on the front desk
and do clerical work; and Cullon Connely will give us clerical help and
work on the front desk. Again, we welcome all our new volunteers and thank
you for helping us with the many tasks we need to accomplish.

GOOD LUCK--You might have heard John McCarthy working the front desk and
answering phones. John is an ex-Enron employee who is leaving to take a
job in Maine, and we wish him Good Luck!

OUR SYMPATHY--The sympathy of our entire Taping family is extended to Dr.
Bill Gordon who lost his wife, Elva, on February 22 due to a stroke. They
were married for over 60 years.

SORRY--This edition of the RECORDER is on the long side this time as we had
no edition published in February, but I think we are caught up once again,
and we will try to keep to a regular monthly publishing schedule.

RLB