RFB&D NJ Unit Newsletter 1-08 text

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Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic
New Jersey Unit
69 Mapleton Road
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
Phone 609-750-1830
Fax 609-750-9653

Reader's Note

January/February 2008
Tony Gruenewald, Editor

Our 50th Anniversary Gala is around the corner!

Don't miss your chance to celebrate with us!

The 50th Anniversary Gala will be held on April 17, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Princeton. Here's what will take place at the Gala:

Cocktail Reception from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. You will see all your RFB&D friends while hors d'oeuvres and beverages are enjoyed by everyone attending.

Dinner starts at 7 p.m. Sharing a wonderful dining experience among friends and other volunteers will provide you with a great evening..

Award Program: Guest speakers will provide inspiring stories and special awards will be presented to RFB&D-New Jersey Unit volunteers Cathy Brown and Peg and Jim Hastings and former studio Director and Executive Director Anne Young.

How can you get involved?

Donated $125 to attend the gala--this provides you with a ticket to the reception and dinner/award program. The Gala proceeds go directly to support RFB&D NEW Jersey Unit. This is a great was to make a gift while enjoying a wonderful evening!

Help sell ads for the Gala Commemorative Program Book to local businesses that you've developed relationships with. For every $1,000 in ads you sell, you'll receive one free Gala ticket. The Program Book is an important part of our celebration.

Celebrate with us all year long by participating in the Gala and other 50th Anniversary events and programs throughout the year.

Volunteer happenings

Fiona and Martin Case report from Vermont the birth of their first child Benjamin. He was born on November 13. Martin is teaching at the University of Vermont.

Congratulations to John Schivell on two new grandchildren and Susan Schwirck on her tenth.

Manishika Agaskar has been named recipient of the Wellesley College Book Award and a finalist in the Ayn Rand Institute's Fountainhead Essay Contest. She was also accepted into MIT where she says she will continue to volunteer for RFB&D at the Boston studio.

Jim Amick, Harold Cymes and Al Klein are celebrating their 80th birthdays.

Keith Reid-Green was in a serious accident in Virginia around Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, his wife passed away and Keith suffered serious injuries which he is recovering. He's home now and will rejoin us when he is able.

Former staff member Raya Kuzyk is an Associate Editor for Library Journal. Another former staff member, Stacy Nied is a School Psychologist at Cambridge Elementary School in Kendall Park and is involved with the Educational Outreach Center.

Patty Kessler and Dave Carta are engaged and planning an October wedding. Match.com eat your heart out!

Claudia Homoki is in Boca Raton, Martin Rome is in Palm Springs, Sandy Shapiro is in St. John and Maurice Harding is in Bangkok. Julia Bernheim is with Earth Watch learning about Cheetahs in Namibia. What do all these places have in common? They're warmer than New Jersey.

Dear Aunt Bea…

Aunt Bea reminds everyone that the Outreach and Administrative Offices are closed for Presidents’ Day, Monday, February 18. THE RECORDING STUDIO WILL BE OPEN.

Dear Aunt Bea,
It's the end of a journal reference. It says 3:4:487. Which language is it? Is it Biblical? What does it mean?
Baffled in Booth 3

Dear Baffled,
It's English. It means volume 3, number 4, page 487. If is says 3:487 it means volume 3, page 487. In case you forget, translations are on the window on both sides of the booth.

Charles St. John

Charles St. John, who gave RFB&D 15 years of Wednesday evenings, passed away in December. He was 82. He led a remarkable life, including a stint in General MacArthur's Honor Guard, some long haul truck driving and working as an engineer. No matter the situation, Charles always could find a way to smile about it. He will be missed.

Hmmm...it's snowing...is the studio open?

One of the harder decisions the staff at RFB&D has to make is trying to figure out if the weather is bad enough to close the studio. It's especially tough if staff is already in and it starts snowing later in the day. Among the factors are whether the seminary is going to be able to get the parking areas and walkways clear enough to be safe, if schools and other local institutions are closing, and well, travel reports from volunteers already trying to get to the unit.

RFB&D’s voice mail message will be changed to alert volunteers to studio closings. Call the main number at 609-750-1830 , the press 4 to connect to the studio. Please call before you leave the safety and comfort of your home. And you can also check our Web site: www.rfbdnj.org.

If we make the decision to close during the day, we will make every effort to call all the people scheduled to volunteer for the rest of the day. If your phone number has changed, please see a staff member so we can update it in our records.

A Message from RFB&D CEO John Kelly

John Kelly, CEO of our national organization, sent this letter to staff at the end of 2007. Here are some of the highlights:

2007 – A Look Back

Please join me in looking back and celebrating some of the successful events for RFB&D during the past 12 months:

We concluded fiscal year 2007 this past June with over 185,000 people served – a new record for RFB&D and the first milestone in our plan to reach our goal of one million people.

We achieved an all-digital environment organization-wide. This has not only improved how we serve our members every day, but also built a platform of new technology from which we can launch a range of new products and services in the years to come.

We launched our new educator Web site – www.learningthroughlistening.org – to share with teachers the benefits of listening and the value of RFB&D products and services as an everyday classroom tool for students with print disabilities.

2008 – A Look Forward

Consider just some of the new programs and initiatives already being worked on for 2008:

We will launch Mainstream Media and its support services, making our digital library available for people with print disabilities to download from the Internet to their pcs and personal MP3 devices.

Our new national sales and marketing initiative will capitalize on new market opportunities and address competition.

A theme emerging from this year's strategic planning work – “RFB&D Everywhere” – describes what our hard work and dedicated follow-through will create in the years to come. Everyone in American who needs RFB&D products and services will know who we are and how to connect with us.

We are re-engineering our private and public fundraising. New colleagues have joined talent already here to create new RFB&D revenue-generating strategies and programs aligned with RFB&D's future needs. These efforts will raise new awareness, identify new funding sources and focus our collective energies on prospects of the highest potential.

We are collaboratively developing our management processes and organizational interrelationships consistent with our ongoing strategic planning. With the ultimate goal of serving our members and working together as effectively and efficiently as possible, each of us will provide input in our evolutionary development

So, I ask you to join me in celebrating where we have been in 2007 and anticipating with excitement what is ahead for RFB&D in 2008 and beyond. This is a great organization becoming greater.

Thank all of you for your contributions to accomplishing our mission.

John Kelly

GM giveth...and GM taketh way

It had to happen. General Motors was going to reclaim Steve Montefusco. With the new GM/UAW contract they gave him a choice: Ohio, Missouri or Kansas. So we're losing almost 1,900 hours of volunteer work a year. Over the past five years he's driven from Toms River five days a week and donated more than 7,200 hours of his time, amazing computer, audio and musical talents and sense of humor to our members, fellow volunteers and staff. To say he will be missed is an understatement.

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome the new kids on the block

No, the 1980s teen idols are not coming to read at Record-A-Thon (although rumor has it they are reforming to tour–ummm…is that necessary?) We do have a few new staff members, though.

Some of you know Jeff Kaplan as a weekday morning volunteer. He has taken a temporary position as an Assistant Production Director through June. Jeff's background with computers and outgoing personality are a great addition to the team.

Celia Rechtman has joined the Educational Outreach Center as Member Services Coordinator making sure our New Jersey schools and members have the Learning Through Listening tools they need to succeed.

Cutting your descriptions to the quick.

“This author uses 20 words to say what he can say in five!” I hear that complaint about every hour and a half from readers emerging from their recording session. Well, what about the listeners who hear our descriptions?

Ask yourself: Does the caption describe the photo or illustration enough to not add anything? Does what you add add anything to the listener's understanding of the text?

“I've just read two hours and didn't stop once.” But when you did that, did you spend time with the computer recording yourself staring at the book trying to figure out the visual you had to explain? Is the student getting the recording wondering whether his or her CD player is malfunctioning because there is a gap of silence.

If you need to figure it out, by all means, STOP THE RECORDING. Listening to someone think out loud (“there are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven columns”) is just more stuff the listener has to wade through to get to the point…and finish their homework. And extended silence is…the recording of nothing.

If you're not sure what's going on in an illustration, don't guess. If you don't know the relationship of the people in the photo, don't even try to guess.

If the figure takes up all of a page, you don't need to say it takes up the whole page, just describe it. If it's the only figure on a page with text, you don't have to orient the listener to where the figure is located. If they can see it, they'll know. If they can't see it, they wont care if it's at the top or bottom of the page. If you've misstated something, stop and fix it. Please don't record yourself saying “pardon me” or “excuse me”.

And please avoid using “we see,” “we note” and “I will” from descriptions. Just like we like concise writing in the books we record, our listeners like concise language in the figures we describe.

RSVP adds benefits to volunteering

The Retired Senior & Volunteer Program (RSVP) is a nationwide volunteer program that invites adults age 55 and over to use their life skills to answer the call of their community in need. RSVP offers you

free supplemental on-the-job liability insurance

free supplemental accidental and auto liability insurance

mileage reimbursement for going to and from your volunteer site, up to $15 monthly

Invitation to an annual recognition event

A quarterly newsletter

For more information, see Michelle for literature about the program.

9,800 hours…we're 55% of the way!

Jessie is making good progress on her way to scaling the 9,800 hours to her diploma. The winter weather has only slowed her down a bit and with warmer weather and Record-A-Thon on the horizon, her ascent should pick up and her fingers should be grasping that old sheepskin by June. Keep up the good work! And of course, the least glamorous, but crucial part of the process is checking. We don't get credit for the reading until it is checked, corrected and SMiL'd. If you're checking, please don't get bogged down in the story (oh, those Math books have great plots). We should be checking: 1) The beginning & end of the file 2) The page mark and announcement 3) One figure per reader 4) One footnote per reader 5) Reader changes 6) All edits.

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