The TAPING RECORDER June-July, 2005
News from & about Taping For The Blind,
Inc. www.tapingfortheblind.org

We are quite late on our June edition, but relatively early on our
July edition, so we'll do our best to get you caught up on events.

IAAIS CONFERENCE REPORT--Executive Director Cynthia Franzetti and Radio
Manager Jim Martinez attended the International Association of Audio
Information Services conference last month in Lawrence, Kansas. Here is
Cynthia's report on that trip:

Kansas Conference Notes
By Cynthia Franzetti

Why Kansas? This is the question I was asked most when I told someone
about the International Association of Audio Information Services annual
conference in Lawrence, Kansas from June 1 through June 6. You may recall
this group met in Toronto last year. We will meet in San Diego next year.

Lawrence is a lovely city -- rolling hills and trees, population of 80,000,
the home of the University of Kansas. Jim Martinez and I both attended the
conference. We flew to Kansas City and took a shuttle bus to
Lawrence. The hotel was on the Kansas River and a short walk away to their
main street with shops, eateries, and arts. It was accessible for
conference attendees who are sight-impaired.

More importantly, Lawrence has the second oldest radio reading service in
the country. Their broadcast reaches every inch of Kansas. Their offices
are in a lovely, large, old home, one block from the university campus. An
addition was added to the house; they share space with the public radio
station that, like ours, carries their broadcast over their sideband. They
have eight full-time staff, compared to our four. They do so much, so
well; we can all learn from them.

Learn we did -- at general sessions and at informal networking
gatherings. Jim attended workshops with titles like "Studio Equipment and
Soundproofing on a Shoestring" and "Working with Your Public Radio
Station." I attended those on "Raising Money through Estate Planning,"
"Corporate Giving -- Positioning for more and larger gifts," "Working with
your Lions Clubs," and "Collaborating with Talking Books, Libraries, and
State Agencies."

And, I'm sure you have already heard Taping has two new awards recognizing
our program excellence. The first Program of the Year award is in the Live
Interview category -- for our "Turning Sight into Sound" periodic program,
hosted by volunteer Jim Bratton. The second Program of the Year award is
in the Narrative Reading category for "Booked to Die," read by volunteer
Joan Gallo. I hope you all will bask in glory -- knowing that our service
and our readers are, once again, recognized by the jury of our peers. Good
work and congratulations to all of you!

I am so proud and honored to represent Taping For The Blind at this
conference. I come away knowing anew (in spite of our duct-tape patched
carpet, crumbling front curb, and peeling paint) that we, too, do so much,
so well. Our readers deliver program quality that surpasses most services,
and rivals the best few. Our Board and support staff -- both paid and
volunteer -- provide unequalled service with overwhelming dedication. We
hear horror stories of divisive Boards, or problem volunteers, and I'm
happy those issues don't apply to Taping. I come home committed to
expanding our broadcast reach -- to South and East Texas areas without
radio reading service. We can do better at marketing our custom recording
and audio descriptive services, too. (Incidentally, we learned El Paso is
using our broadcast 22 hours a day, broadcasting their paper in place of
the Houston Chronicle.) Expansion is technologically do-able. We'll need
to form partnerships to make it happen. More clients, more areas served,
and more collaborative partnerships will translate into increased
fundraising opportunities. And, more dollars will enable us to further
improve and expand services. It is an exciting time in Taping's
history. I feel so fortunate for the opportunity to lead this great
organization, to serve our clients, and to work with all of you. Thank you!
* *
And our thanks to both Cynthia and Jim for their hard work on
behalf of Taping!

UPCOMING--Upcoming meetings for Taping include the Executive Committee
(July 7); Development Committee (July 21, 11 a.m.); Board of Directors 3rd
Quarterly Meeting (July 21, noon); and probably some others we don't have
on the calendar yet. We do expect to start Speaker's Training for our fall
speaking agenda, so watch for that as we'll put out the call for volunteers
for this effort.


OUTREACH COMMITTEE HELP WANTED--Are you one of those creative sorts that
could help Outreach Committee Chair Joan Gallo present Taping to the
outside world? We hope that we can find some more good help for this very
important committee. If you want to discuss it, please call Joan at
713-743-8190. And thanks in advance for your help!

CONGRATULATIONS--We have great news to report about volunteer Fred
Dawson. Fred joined the Grandfather Club in April as Doug & Marsha Dawson
presented baby Sophia for consideration. All are doing well, and Fred is
getting more mileage to and from Austin to celebrate this beautiful
granddaughter!

Bob & Victoria Bartlett were pleased to join the Grandparents Club
as their daughter Elizabeth & her husband John Powell Jr. brought Aidan
John Powell into the world on June 22.

All babies, parents, and grandparents are doing well. This was
the first grandchild for both Mr. Dawson and the Bartletts!

LIGHT THE CANDLES--Best wishes to the following volunteers celebrating
birthdays in June: 06/01 Scott Burman, Paul Lester; 06/03 Margaret
Downing; 06/05 Lyn Schmaltz; 06/06Ulyesse LeGrange; 06/09 Linda Brown;
06/11 Kerry Ward; 06/14 James Falick; 06/15 Dr. Ed Bradley, Stephen Wood;
06/17 Joe Hegar, Mike Mullally; 06/28 Kenneth Grigsby; and 06/29 Barbara
Crawford.

And for those celebrating in July: 07/02 Doris Wood; 07/03 Dick
Hokenson; 07/05 Marion White; 07/07 Diana Mitchell; 07/09 Ginger Gish;
07/10 Julian Silverblatt; 07/11 Susan Boggio; 07/12 Cynthia Franzetti;
07/14 Shana Brown; 07/15 Cheryl Donaho; 07/19 Michelle McCarel; 07/20 Peter
Tsan; 07/22 Linda Reneberg;
07/23 Gordon Guillory; 07/27 Mary Pederson, Ted Pfister, Dorothy Vetrano
Betty Woelfel; 07/29 Jane Zimbaldi; and 07/30 Fran Sanders. We hope all
will have, or have had, a wonderful celebration! If you had a birthday in
June or July and do not see your name listed, please notify Ginger Gish so
we can update our records.

GET WELL WISHES--We are sorry to report that Diana Mitchell fell recently
and suffered a broken pelvis. Dee Weaver is still repairing from a broken
hip but has returned to her volunteer work at Taping. We wish Sandy Louvet
quick recovery from a recent surgery. Get well wishes are also extended to
Adie Marks (husband of volunteer Jo Marks and father of volunteer Dena
Marks Sokolow) who had a stroke recently. We also wish a speedy recovery
for Kelli Cook who had surgery recently.

ON THE MOVE--When your commute to Taping becomes burdensome, we reluctantly
understand. Such is the case for Chris Van Deusen, volunteer and part-time
engineer, who has moved to Austin to take a job in state
government. Custom Recording volunteer Dran Alessi has moved to Portland,
Oregon, where she has been accepted at Oregon Health & Science
University. Yes, these commutes qualify as burdensome, so we wish both
Chris & Dran good luck in their new life adventures!

GETTING THE WORD OUT--We work hard to get the word out about Taping, so we
try to go wherever potential clients gather. Such was the case at the
American Council of the Blind of Texas convention held recently in
Houston. Mary Pedersen did a great job describing the hotel for the
attendees, and we exhibited in the exhibition hall both days it was
open. Our thanks to Fred Dawson, William Weaver, Pat Pilkington, Otto
Schlamme, and Lindsey Buchanan. They did a great job getting the word out
about Taping.

GOLDEN PLUS--Congratulations to Hannah and Bernard Lewis for celebrating
their fifty-fifth (55) wedding anniversary on June 11, 2005. Absolutely
wonderful!

OUR SYMPATHY--The sympathy of the entire Taping family is extended to
Ulyesse LeGrange whose sister passed away recently.

GINGER SAYS--Ginger Gish has asked us to tell you about a new way available
for donating to Taping on behalf of our HP Houston Marathon team. They now
have a website that is secure and easy to use. The link is:

http://www.active.com/donate/tapingfortheblind

At the website you will be able to set an amount and will then receive an
e-mail confirmation of your donation. The "Invite a Friend" link is also a
very convenient way to get friends involved.

Keep in mind that you can also donate through the "Give" link on
our website (www.tapingfortheblind.org). We are doing everything we can to
make giving to Taping as simple and secure as possible.

REMEMBER--There are worse things than getting a call at 4 a.m. and finding
it is a wrong number. It could be a right number.

RLB