[Nfbf-l] Exciting Newsline happenings

Tue Feb 2 00:50:55 UTC 2010

Thanks Sherri for the news update and stats. 
And thanks to all of you who make Florida Newsline the success that it is!

Gina Minichiello
NFBF Board Member
NFBF Fundraising Committee Chairperson
Greater Jacksonville Chapter, Treasurer
minichiellog at comcast.net
904-571-9117

----- Original Message -----
From: Sherri <flmom2006 at gmail.com>
To: nfbf-l at nfbnet.org, flagdu at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:10:38 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: [Nfbf-l] Exciting Newsline happenings

Hello everyone.
I just received a newsletter from our Newsline coordinators from the National Center. There are so many exciting things going on with Newsline and NFBF. 

I am so excited about Newsline and so proud of all my users in Florida. I hope those who are not using it will contact me and I will either sign you up or get your user information to you if you are already signed up. I am so happy for all those who have helped us increase our user minutes. That is very important in seeking additional funding for our Newsline program! I am especially glad for our regional and sub-regional libraries who sign up hundreds of people a week. Sometimes, that results in a duplicate sign-up, but if you are signed up twice, I can always remedy the situation.

Keep up the good work NFBF! My heart-felt thanks go out to you. And a special "thank you" to Grant Downey for keeping the Florida channel updated with all kinds of new interesting announcements and to Kirk Harmon and Katie Hicks for sending out all those welcome letters. I also thank Kirk for his work helping me with Newsline calls. I thank Wendy Wilson for her marketing efforts. I also want to thank Gloria Mills for her work managing the Newsline funds. My thanks go out to Sabrina Deaton because she is going through and cleaning up our subscriber data base. And finally, my thanks to all those who unselfishly give their time to spread the word about our Newsline program. I thank those who contact me and let me know what they have been doing and request brochures and literature to hand out. Keep up the enthusiasm NFBF! And happy Newsline listening. Oh and last but certainly not least, I thank Joyce Hildreth and the folks at DBS who totally support Newsline. 

Here is just some of the latest news.

Sherri Brun

"We've got lots of good news to share with you this month!  We encourage you to share the information below with your colleagues and clients so that they can be aware of, and tell others about, these exciting developments.  

Firstly, you will all shortly have an opportunity to meet Paul, our new, more human-sounding voice.  Paul from NeoSpeech, who, as you may recall was subscribers' top choice in our recent poll, will be available sometime early February.  One benefit of this new voice is that it sounds much more human than the current Eloquence voice, so that newly blinded individuals unfamiliar with synthesized speech (such as seniors) may feel more comfortable using NFB-NEWSLINE®.  Those with a slight hearing loss may also appreciate this new voice as it may be easier to hear and follow.  While we do think many individuals will like and use Paul, we want to stress that this new voice is not a substitution for the Eloquence voice, rather, it is an additional voice provided to afford our subscribers with greater choice and flexibility.  We view that those who are not familiar or comfortable with synthesized speech may prefer to use Paul initially, but may in time prefer the Eloquence voice as it offers a faster reading speed." 

"Another terrific development will soon be available to subscribers: subscribers accessing the news via the telephone can now make an on-demand request to have an article sent to their e-mail inbox on demand.  This is great news for those who want to read an article again for research purposes, or if they find they don't have time to fully read or appreciate a complex or lengthy piece.  To use this feature, subscribers simply press #9 (pound nine) during the reading of an article, and the article will be sent to the e-mail address on file."  

"We had tremendous achievement across the board in 2009, making terrific improvements over the previous year's usage and new member statistics, as evidenced below: 

2008
New Users:                    5,916
Total Emails:                  1,156,020
Total Calls:                    1,675,387
Total Minutes Used:        32,793,945

2009
New Users:                    13,340         
Total E-mails:                1,833,343     
Total Calls:                    1,772,046     
Total Minutes Used:        33,935,582

                  Statistically Speaking 

In December, 2009 we received a total of 152,392 calls (up by 946 over November's usage), and added a total of 2,688 new subscribers.  Excellent work, everybody!

Top Ten Minutes Used:

We received a total of 2,883,120 minutes of use in December.  Kudos to Florida and New York, who have made increases of 5,392 and 4,046 above November's usage, respectively. (Editorial comment) We are still in third place in terms of total minutes used behind California and New York.

Top Ten New Subscribers: (Editorial comment) For this, I thank our marketers, our NFBF members out there spreading the word and our Talking Book librarians for signing up so many people.

 1.       Florida with 2,335
2.       California and Arkansas with 27 each
3.       New Jersey with 24
4.       Texas with 23
5.       Pennsylvania with 19
6.       Wisconsin with 18
7.       Massachusetts with 13
8.       Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan with 12 each
9.       New York, Maryland, Washington, and Nebraska with 11 each
10.     North Carolina with 10

E-mail Superstars:

We sent a total of 155,994 e-mails in December, an increase of over 7,000 above November's usage. 

1.        Texas                   13,051
2.        New York              10,286
3.        Florida                  8,151
4.        Pennsylvania         7,756
5.        North Carolina       6,908
6.        Massachusetts       6,447
7.        California              6,338
8.        Colorado               6,273
9.        Michigan                5,510
10.      New Jersey            5,506

Top Ten Registered Subscribers:

Below is our Gang of Ten, congratulations to you all!

1.        Florida with 17,305
2.        California with 6,751
3.        Maryland with 3,038
4.        Texas with 2,967
5.        Michigan with 2,684
6.        North Carolina with 2,654
7.        Wisconsin with 2,438
8.        New York with 2,396
9.        Ohio with 2,315
10.      Massachusetts with 1,956

Please feel free to call me if you have any questions. My toll-free Newsline number is (800)603-8578.

Sherri Brun, NFBF Secretary and Newsline® Coordinator
E-mail:  flmom2006 at gmail.com
http://www.nfbnewslineonline.org
http://www.nfbflorida.org

"Don't give up something you want forever for something you want only for now!"
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