Braille Authority of North America Board Meeting
Monday, December 15, 2025, 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time
1. Call to Order: Jen Goulden
Jen called the meeting to order at 1:02 P.M. Eastern time.
2. Roll Call: Amber Pearcy
The following board members were in attendance:
- Jen Goulden, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind), Chair
- Wendy Buckley, Perkins School for the Blind, Vice Chair
- Amber Pearcy, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, Library of Congress (NLS), Secretary
- Danette Johnson, Hadley, Treasurer
- Marie Zaldivar, Alternate Text Production Center (ATPC)
- Judy Dixon, American Council of the Blind (ACB)
- Frances Mary (FM) D'Andrea, American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
- Kyle DeJute, American Printing House for the Blind (APH)
- Mary Nelle McLennan (MN), Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER)
- Tracy Gaines, California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CTEBVI)
- Hollie Knight, Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI)
- Tina Seger, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired
- Jennifer Dunnam, National Federation of the Blind (NFB)
- Georgie Sydnor, National Braille Press (NBP)
- Susan (Sue) Reilly, Administrative Assistant
- Holly Bullock, associate member Crawford Technologies
Observer:
Callie Brusegaard, U.S. Representative to ICEB
Not attending:
- Diane Spence, National Braille Association (NBA)
- Aquinas Pather, associate member Allyant
Emily Coleman, Associate Member Council of Schools and Services for the Blind (COSB)
3. Approval of Minutes From Last Meeting: Amber Pearcy
Amber reported that several iterations of the meeting minutes from the fall 2025 meeting had been sent to the board for feedback.
MSC: Amber moved to approve the minutes from the fall 2025 meeting. Tracy seconded. Motion carried.
3.1: Report of email vote: Amber Pearcy
An email vote was conducted beginning November 10 on Danette’s recommendation that BANA renew its CD for a new term of five months at the same interest rate of our current CD, which is 3.72. Jen called for all votes to be submitted by November 17, 2025.
MSC: Danette made a motion which recommended that BANA renew its current CD for another five-month term. FM seconded. The motion carried with the following votes:
- Jen Goulden, CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind): yes
- Wendy Buckley, Perkins School for the Blind: yes
- Danette Johnson, Hadley: yes
- Marie Zaldivar, Alternate Text Production Center (ATPC): yes
- Judy Dixon, American Council of the Blind (ACB): yes
- Frances Mary (FM) D'Andrea, American Foundation for the Blind (AFB): yes
- Kyle DeJute, American Printing House for the Blind (APH): yes
- Mary Nelle McLennan (MN), Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER): yes
- Tracy Gaines, California Transcribers and Educators for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CTEBVI): yes
- Hollie Knight, Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI): yes
- Tina Seger, Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired: yes
- Diane Spence, National Braille Association (NBA : yes
- Jennifer Dunnam, National Federation of the Blind (NFB): yes
- Georgie Sydnor, National Braille Press (NBP): yes
4. Spring Meeting: FM D’Andrea
FM is planning to send an email shortly with meeting details and details about accommodations. The Standardized Test Committee will meet after the BANA meeting beginning on Wednesday afternoon and ending on Saturday.
5. Happy 50th to BANA!: Jen Goulden
Jen reported that BANA will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2026. She asked the board to think of ideas for celebrating the organization and appointed a task force to plan events. Jennifer Dunnam, FM D’Andrea, Jen Goulden, Judy Dixon, and Wendy Buckley will serve on the task force, and Jennifer has volunteered to chair it.
MSC: Jennifer moved to Charge the task force to provide recommendations to the board for the fiftieth anniversary celebration and to update the board at our monthly teleconferences. Judy seconded. Motion carried.
6. ICEB Update: Callie Brusegaard
Callie reported that ICEB has been invited to join the Global Braille Literacy Campaign, which is a partnership between the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) and the World Blind Union (WBU). The campaign is comprised of working groups focused on the following: advocacy and media, information resources, and research.
The UEB Code Maintenance Committee voted to approve Section 6.1.1 of The Rules of Unified English Braille 2024, which is the section on the visible space. The Executive Committee has ratified this change. There are several other issues relating to the visible space that still need to be addressed, and this will be the next point of focus for the Code Maintenance Committee. There may be other changes to Section 6 that occur.
ICEB now has a U.S. bank account, which means that the process for paying dues will change; all transactions will occur online.
7. GCUEB: Wendy Buckley
Wendy reported that the committee continues to meet to work on the document entitled Guidance on Transcribing Mathematics and Science in UEB; they hope to finalize this within the next month or two.
8. Financials: Danette Johnson
Danette reported that the CD will automatically renew now that the vote has passed. BANA’s annual financial review has been completed, and the reviewer concluded that all procedures and registers are in good standing. Danette met with Marie to discuss transition procedures. She thanked the board for the opportunity to serve as treasurer, and Jen thanked Danette for all of her service to the BANA board.
9. Braille Formats: Hollie Knight
Hollie brought two questions from the braille formats committee regarding their work on the updated guidelines. First, the committee asked for confirmation that the board only intends for the sections of the Guidelines for Transcription of Technical Material to be incorporated into the braille formats guidelines wherever examples would be helpful, as opposed to general discussion of formatting technical material. The board confirmed that this material is to be included in specific sections as needed.
Regarding the changes to nested lists for exercise questions to align with the rules of the Nemeth code, the committee requests permission to add a note that this treatment of list material also applies to exercises containing UEB technical material. The board approves of this note.
FM reminded the board that there is a charge for the formats committee to work with the General Committee on Unified English Braille to sure that their changes align with updates from that committee.
10. Awards Committee: Jen Goulden
Jen reported that Judy Dixon is the new chair of this committee. There is not a need according to the BANA policies to add another member to this committee, but we will continue to think of anyone who should be added. The committee needs to consider why we are not receiving nominations for the Braille Excellence Award. It may be necessary to review the award criteria and consider broadening it.
MSC: Judy charged the Awards Committee to review and update the awards criteria as needed and to execute the process of giving out the BANA Braille Excellence Award. FM seconded. Motion carried.
11. Production updates from APH: Kyle DeJute
Kyle reported that there should be a sale date by February for the tactile graphics guidelines and the supplement.
12. Board Orientation: Jen Goulden
Jen reported that she is waiting to hear from any additional people who would like mentors. She hopes to pair mentors and mentees in January. Wendy sent a draft of the orientation packet for the board’s review but has not received feedback. This document will be revisited at the next meeting.
13. Bylaws: Jennifer Dunnam
Jennifer recommended that if BANA is going to be asked more frequently to sign off on advocacy letters, it may be a good idea to develop some parameters around making this decision.
MSC: Jennifer moved to charge the bylaws committee to recommend parameters for the BANA board regarding signing onto advocacy letters. FM seconded. Motion carried.
Jennifer welcomed recommendations and thoughts from anyone outside of the Bylaws committee.
14. Website: Sue Reilly/ Jennifer Dunnam
Sue and Jennifer have worked with Pumex to update the BANA website to the latest version of drupal. One welcomed change is that the capcha requirement for signing up for BANA-Announce has been removed and replaced with a more accessible checkbox. BRF files can be posted more easily, and many of the back-end functions are easier to perform. BANA is in discussions with Pumex about a maintenance contract to ensure that future updates will not fall as far behind as this current one. Now that the updates have occurred, Sue hopes to begin making structural changes, particularly concerning archiving certain material and information about officers.
15. Standardized Tests: Kyle DeJute / FM D’Andrea
Kyle and FM reported that the committee continues to meet and to make progress. They are beginning to plan their in-person meeting time. They have developed a draft table of contents, and much of their work thus far has been around front matter and introductory material. They have also been working to determine the overall structure of the guidelines document.
16. Next meeting: Jen Goulden
Our next meeting will take place on February 2, 2026, at 1:00 P.M. Eastern Time.
17. Fall 2026: Hollie Knight
Hollie shared the following possible dates for the fall meeting: October 12-16; or November 2-6. Most agree that the week of November 2 would be the better week; therefore, Hollie will send an email to gauge availability. We are tentatively thinking that the 5th-7th of November would be preferred.
18. Adjournment: Jen Goulden
Jen adjourned the meeting at 2:09 P.M. Eastern Time.
Upcoming Meetings:
- Spring 2026: AFB
- Fall 2026: CIDI
- Spring 2027: CTEBVI
- Fall 2027: Foundation for Blind Children
- Spring 2028: ATPC
- Fall 2028: ACB
- Spring 2029: CNIB
- Fall 2029: Clovernook
- Spring 2030: NFB
- Fall 2030: NLS
- Spring 2031: Perkins
- Fall 2031: NBA
- Spring 2032: APH
Respectfully submitted,
Amber Pearcy
January 21, 2026