The TAPING RECORDER September 2003
News from and about Taping For The Blind, Inc. www.tapingfortheblind.org

NEW HTBR SCHEDULE--We began our new schedule for HTBR programming on
September 8, 2003. Thanks to Dr. Ed Bradley, Vice President of Client
Services, the Listeners Committee, and Jim Martinez, Radio Manager, for
developing the new schedule. We don't change just for the sake of
change. Rather, we respond to listener comments as well as using the
experience of other radio reading services to make our schedule
user-friendly and user-useful. This is always challenging and we
appreciate the effort that goes into making a new schedule work. This year
we have added "The Blind Handyman," a program aired with permission of ACB
Radio (www.acbradio.org) and the creators of the show. It is some good ol'
boys in Lufkin, and the show is great fun--it is a sort of Click & Clack
but doesn't focus on cars. It focuses on how to do routine chores with
adaptive equipment and techniques. We are also developing another show
that will feature blindness-related topics in the Houston area. Jim
Bratton is working on developing this show. The first edition of this
monthly work will look at the upcoming Career Day for Blind & Visually
Impaired 2003. The planning for this series of seminars designed to help
unemployed and underemployed blind folks find work has been done in the
Taping conference room. The event will happen on October 18 at the Houston
Lighthouse, but we don't have an air date for the show yet. We are excited
about our new schedule and hope our listeners are as well.

LISTENERS CAMPAIGN--Our Fall Listeners Campaign started September 1. (It
actually started earlier than that with a mail stuffing party in the
conference room. Thanks to all who helped prepare that mailing.) The
mailing included a letter and a copy of our new program schedule, as well
as a gift envelope. The point of the exercise is to announce our new
schedule as well as raise some money. We ask our listeners to contribute
in April and September, and these campaigns are generally very successful.

MARATHON--The signup party for the HP Houston Marathon was in Memorial Park
early this month. Taping was represented by Ginger Gish and Bob
Bartlett. We had 4 runners signup to "Run for a Reason" on behalf of
Taping. We have others, including regular Taping volunteers, that will run
as well (see runners named later in this letter). If you know someone who
is planning to run in the HP Houston Marathon, ask them if they are running
for a charity, and if they aren't suggest Taping to them. We need to have
our runners raise $3000 for Taping or we run the risk of being dropped as
one of the approved charities for the marathon. Remember, if you want to
participate, they have marathon, half marathon, and 5K events and walking
in the 5K is perfectly permissible. In addition, when our runners put
their pledge sheets on the bulletin board, please pledge some money to
them! Thanks!

FOR SALE--If you are interested in buying one of our old reel-to-reel
recorders or cassette recorders, they are available for $50.00. They are
sold as is. Each has been tested and we are only selling the ones that
work. If you are interested, contact any staff member for more information.


THE GOOD ONES--You may have seen Cynthia Franzetti during the TV news story
about the new Better Business Bureau (BBB) initiative to rate charities and
announce their findings as a service to our community. Taping and the other
charities that were included meet all BBB guidelines and standards and are
members in good standing with the BBB. It is nice to receive this positive
recognition.

SPECIAL THANKS--It seems as if Taping volunteers are always doing something
out of the ordinary, but how about George Nevers and Morton Fefer. They
recently completed reading a complex paper dealing with serious mathematics
and geophysics. It took many hours of extra work to get it right, but they
did it! Another demonstration of the dedication of our volunteers!

RUNNING FOR A REASON--Earlier in this issue we mentioned the HP Houston
Marathon. We have new runners running for Taping including Daniel
Brauweiler, Whitney Daley, Morton Fefer, and Jean Wrench. Continuing on the
Taping team are Ted Pfister, Anita Simpson, and Dena Marks Sokolow. We
wish our runners great success with their training and thanks to each of
them! Race day is January 18, 2004, so please support our Taping team!

DID YOU HEAR?--There is an FCC requirement that radio stations do a certain
amount of public affairs programming. These are the programs that are on
at very odd times and generally nobody hears them. We are pleased that
Cynthia Franzetti and Bob Bartlett were interviewed by Mike Mollett, Public
Affairs Director for Cox Broadcasting in Houston. The interview was aired
on Cox stations as their "FYI Houston" show at 6 a.m. on Sunday, September
23. We hope you were up to hear it. But we aren't too surprised if you
missed it. One never knows about these things, so this was another
excellent opportunity to tell the Taping story.

LIGHT THE CANDLES--We apologize for not having the September birthdays in
our August issue, but it turns out, there wasn't an August issue. We say
better late than never so here are birthdays for September: 09/01 Michael
Johnston, Julian Spring; 09/05 Joe Laughlin, Dena Marks Sokolow; 09/07
Bernard Lewis; 09/16 Sandy Vanderburg; 09/17 Angela Herald; 09/20 Bill
Brown, Anne Chatoney, Allen Richards; 09/22 Carolyn Babb, Rob Priske; 09/23
Deborah Filip; 09/24 Julie Machal; 09/26 Judy Hoctor; 09/27 Marty Ryan;
09/28 Anne Sharpe; 09/29 Justin Blount; and 09/30 Sam Bertron.

October birthdays include: 10/01 Polly Clark, Carol Gehrig; 10/02
Maricela Amezcua; 10/04 Monica McHam; 10/05 Mary Farish Johnston, Jo Marks;
10/10 Marcie Corder; 10/11 Sandra Louvet; 10/13 Kate Rodwell, Ellin Royds;
10/14 Kathy Osman; 10/19 Steve McCarthy; 10/20 Henry Fiur; 10/21 Dave
Herfort; 10/26 Tony Amante; and 10/30 Lyndon Joslin. Happy Birthday to all
from the TAPING RECORDER. Remember, if you had a birthday during September
or October and it didn't show up in our list, please let Ginger know so we
can update our records. We only give the day, not the year!

OUR SYMPATHY--The entire Taping family extends their sympathy to the family
and friends of Hugh Powers who died recently. Hugh served on the Board of
Directors.

MORE TO COME--There is lots more going on as committees work on updating
our website as well as looking at our office automation, but we'll save
that for a later issue. Keep smiling, they'll wonder what you're up to!

RLB