Audio Description Project

Audio Description International Conference 2002

Presented by
Audio Description International
and
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
March 23-24, 2002

ADI Organizational Meeting #2

Facilitator - Craig Dreeszen

Election of officers and board members for Audio Description International

Craig reiterated the ADI bylaws stipulating a board size of between 12 and 21, five of whom are AD users. Election to the board requires a vote of 50% plus one of those voting. Everyone who has registered and paid for the Conference is an ADI member and there are five proxy votes. 45 votes in favor will result in election to the board.

A question was asked about term length and Craig suggested that the Board might need to consider the possibility of staggered terms.

Craig offered advice concerning qualities to be considered in choosing board members. He suggested that in the absence of staff, ADI board members will both govern and operate the organization although board members can enlist others to help. He stated that board members could be expected to:

Develop plans to re-build ADI organizational capacity
Have national and global vision of the role that ADI can play in the community
Raise funds for ADI
Attend ADI events
Be a paid member of ADI
Participate in board and committee meetings (these may be virtual or face-to-face)
Travel to ADI board meetings, which may be held in Washington D.C. (at board members' own expense unless funds are raised to meet these costs)
Represent the interests of ADI on behalf of all audio describers and users (given that describers are colleagues and sometimes competitors, ADI board members must take care to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest)
Lead ADI to provide information, education, referrals and advocacy to advance the mission to "promote audio description services," etc.

A question was asked regarding financial commitments and the only requirement is membership in ADI. Fred Brack noted that many of the candidates have executive backgrounds and may be accustomed to delegating responsibility. He suggested that this board would need to actually do the work of the organization.

Each board candidate was invited to stand and comment briefly on background and qualifications for board membership. (Reference the list of nominees detailed earlier.)

Betty Siegel clarified the voting procedures and distributed ballots. The results of the board election are included in the minutes of the first board meeting. A record of the minutes document is at the end of this Conference Proceedings document.

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