Al Schon
Executive Director

I just returned from the annual conference of the Interantion Association of Audio Information Services. This group represents over 100 radio reading services providing services like ours around the world. It was a great time to meet with other people working in the field and get refreshed with new ideas.

This year's conference, held in Jackson, Missisippi, offered some great sessions on how to enhance programming make fund raising effective, work with volunteers, develop good websites and understand new technology coming online.

I found the session on website development especially helpful, as we continue to raise the funding needed to enhance our web presence. Our plans include putting much more information about our service on the website. More importantly, it will also give listeners the option of listening to our broadcasts over the internet. They will even be able to download programs from our archives so that they can listen to them at their convenience. I want to publicly offer my thanks to volunteer Dr. Tom Shea for his support on this project. Due to his generosity, we now have the funds needed to implement the first phase of this project. Programmers have started working on the website and expect to have it up and running withing two months. As additional funding becomes available, we will be adding to the functionality of our site.

One of the other highlights of the conference is the awards ceremony. Stations are encouraged to compete by submitting recordings of their volunteers' programs in a variety of categoires. This competition is the reading service equivalent of the Oscars or Emmys and is eagerly anticipated by all the stations. For the second year in a row one of Minds Eye's volunteers won an award for her program in the news digest category (see story inside).

I admit that I enjoy the conference because it gives me an opportunity to learn new skills and the chance to show off a bit by winning an award. However, I always leave the conference with a profound sense of respect for all those people who work so hard every day to give people like our listeners the information and entertainment they so desperately need - information that allows them to be well informed, feel less isolated, and be more self sufficient. Without a doubt, this is one of the hardest working groups of people around, and I am proud that Minds Eye is part of an association that does such good work for so many of our friends and neighbors. I am equally proud of all the wonderful volunteers who make all of our stations possible!