MIDTESOL Board Meeting

Sat. January 27, 2001 

  1. Call to order. Tom Riedmiller called the meeting to order at 10 a.m. Board members present were: Dennis Muchisky, Cheryl Eason, Karen Schwelle, Frank Bramlett, LuAnn Sorenson, Tom Riedmiller, Cece Prieto-Morehouse, JoAnne Zoller Wagner, Jeanne Angel, Leslie Wolk, William Eubank, Joan Hamilton, Cathy Howland, Theresa Bries, Ayse Gursel Stromsdorfer.
  2. The agenda was amended in the following ways: Jeanne added to #18 where we’ll meet in 2002. Frank added to the treasurer’s report the status of the audit. William moved that the agenda be approved and it passed. Frank moved that the Board minutes from October 10, 2000 be approved. Jeanne seconded it. Motion was passed.
  3. President’s report. Nothing specific. President will make comments as meeting progresses.
  4. Treasurer’s report was sent by email. It is already posted on MIDTESOL website. Jeanne asked about the balance between September and January. Frank explained that Susan was waiting to close out the account and the remainder has not been deposited yet. Frank has contacted someone who could do the audit. When was the last audit? Who did it? Can our new auditor see the old auditor’s report? Cathy reported that Wes Eby and Calla Shields did an audit when Kevin Curry took the books. Kevin arranged for an audit before they were passed to Susan, more than five years ago. Who maintains the permanent financial records? Frank has a box of records that goes back to 1993. Wes Eby might know. There is a tentative deadline for the first weekend in June. We have already voted that we would spend up to $400 for this service. Frank’s contact is an auditor for the University of Nebraska.
  5. Membership report . Theresa emailed the numbers this morning. 499 total members, MO 314, IA 91, KS 45, NE 30 and Other 19. There are 69 members whose memberships might expire in June and July and will be deleted. TESOL received our membership list in mid-December. Some people want to be added to the list in late January. This is not possible. There have been a lot of inquiries on status lately.
  6. 1st VP report. Ron’s report sent over email. It was agreed that it was a great idea to focus on K-12 to bring more people in. There was a discussion of ways to contact K-12 people in NE. Cathy said IA addressed to all school districts and also to AEA agencies. Frank suggested that Nancy Rowe of the State Dept of Education in Lincoln could be contacted. Joan needs contact info for Rowe. The fall conference will be held Oct 19-20 in Kansas City at UMKC. Jeanne will contact Ron regarding the summer meeting at UMKC so there can be a walk-through of the facilities. Jeanne will have Ron check with Cathy to see if the 22nd or 23rd is a possibility. Cheryl pointed out that it is great to address the public schools, but should not be exclusively that—we need to include adult ed and university. Leslie, who works in the public schools, says the problem is taking time off work and getting financial help. Joan added that public school teachers are overworked and have trouble preparing presentations. (Ayse joined at this point.) Cheryl asked, “What is the incentive for public school teachers to present?” Cathy answered that an incentive could be added credit—maybe we could offer credit for participating or attending. Joan said we could offer professional growth points toward recertifying. Perhaps we could give examples of things we’d like to hear from them. Money could be made available for substitute teachers. Bill wondered if LuAnn could write an article to encourage public school teacher participation. LuAnn accepted this. Could there be a forum for talking about K-12 issues? or a roundtable? We could combine this with a breakfast meeting. Joan will send Ron a form about professional growth points. Cathy said teachers could use an hour of graduate credit. Every district has their own way of doing things. Bill will contact Ron about possibility of getting graduate credit. Cece will ask Ron about the credit. Joan will send professional growth points. Cheryl warned to be careful if Southeast Missouri grants credit for something at UMKC campus. Maybe UMKC could do it. Jeanne said we need the recertification points for each state. Joan said we need to figure out one way of stamping or certifiying so that they look official. Karen reminded that the next newsletter deadline is April 1. Joan can send the copy of the form and send it to Ron—we need to make up something that is MIDTESOL specific. A certificate of attendance is not enough. Presenting at the conference is different. Leslie said that this has to be something the district puts together and approves or graduate credit. Cathy and Joan confirmed this. Tom is going to look into a form which would be MIDTESOL-specific. JoAnne suggested a subcommittee which could discuss this on email –Leslie might be willing, in March. Joan will also consider this, but after March. Ayse suggested that a presentation itself could be considered a mini-institute—the presentations which offer credit could be marked in the program, so that both giving and taking sessions could be given credit. Tom suggested perhaps a pre-conference institute on standards or something else of interesting. It went over well in the Omaha conference. There needs to be a press release to schools of presenters.
  7. Past President’s report. Jeanne is the chair of nominations. There are four positions to elect this fall: 1st VP, secretary, NE rep and MO rep. Each of those are two-year terms except the 1st VP. Some people are willing to run for a second term. Jeanne will get the information to the newsletter. Nominations can be sent to Jeanne or you can self-nominate. The 1st VP needs to plan the upcoming fall conference, and then at the fall conference the gavel is passed, then that person is president for one year, and the following year will be the past pres. This person must have been a MIDTESOL board member. All board members must be MIDTESOL members. The 1st VP is our rep to the affiliate meeting, so he or she must be a TESOL member. The Board members take office 30 days after board meeting, so that if a secretary was leaving the position, he or she would still have the responsibility for the annual and executive board meeting, etc. same for treasurer. This takes care of the needs of the conference. The ballot must be in people’s hands by Sept. 5, 45 days before the conference. Jeanne counts and sends them to the president. Jeanne will need a set of mailing labels from Theresa. Bill will put the info on the website.
  8. Publishers’ liaison. Ayse reported that one publisher has advertised, with the rest soon to follow. LuAnn will send Ayse a copy of the newsletter so that Alta books can pay. Cece would like 10 copies of the newsletter. Ayse reported that rep addresses are difficult to keep up with, since they change often. The MIDTESOL list of publishers is thin—8 people. Ayse has added craftspeople to the list. What about a 3rd world craft store World’s Window and a Latino crafts store? Cece will contact the vendors and will send contact info to Ayse. Tom asked for a report by the beginning of April. Ayse will send out letters in May. Tom asked if Cathy and Jeanne could chat with vendors at the Iowa ESL conference to see if they could go to the KS conference. Charles Rankin of the Midwest Equity Assistance Center would know of some people. Jeanne will send that address to Ayse. Ayse said keeping track of phone calls and letters for reimbursement is cumbersome, so she is not going to charge. Tom encouraged her to charge for big bills. Another rep from Cambridge Press wanted to know if we had grad students to sit at their booth at TESOL for pay. Ayse will email the info to Tom. Asye will talk with Bill about how to put teaching tips on a database to put on to the web. She is still looking for teaching tips for the newsletter. Ayse requested info to add to the database of publishers.
  9. Webmaster’s report. From Oct 1, 2000 to today we have had 16,000 visits to the website, including 7,500 unique visitors. We have had 1,500 visits to the volunteer form. Renner’s article attracted the attention of the North Central Regional Laboratory, which requested permission to reprint it into their website. 10 members have signed in to the web board on our website so far. You can upload your reports by cut and paste. There can be public or private conferences. It costs $100 for the year. Live chats are also possible. Bill can set that up.
  10. Rules and resolutions. Dennis reported that the summer meeting is the only meeting reimbursed for mileage and lodging. For the other meetings, board members are reimbursed for the night prior to the conference. Regarding the status of the newsletter editors, in Article Six—makeup of the executive board--newsletter editors are listed as an optional plural, so each of them has a vote. Tom asked for a summary of reimbursement policy to be sent to all of us. Jeanne said that there’s some confusion regarding shared vs. private rooms. Ayse suggested a limit on what reimbursement should be for the hotel, up to $100. Joan proposed postponing a ruling on this. Dennis moved that this be tabled for further discussion. The motion passed. For the June meeting the current policy remains in effect.
  11. Awards committee. The travel award was announced in the last newsletter. The original deadline was Jan. 1, then it was changed to the 15th, when the newsletter was received, so now it has been extended to this coming Monday January 29. In the future, we will send postcards to announce the awards. Cheryl requested labels for the fall conference. She has two applicants now. A grad student at McGill university wanted to apply, offered to join MIDTESOL. Theresa moved that the applicants live or work in the region and be a MIDTESOL member. Cece seconded it. The motion carried. Bill would like to set up a permanent page regarding travel awards and requested that Cheryl send him the info. Cheryl will need two sets of labels ASAP.
  12. Resources and employment. No report.
  13. Sociopolitical concerns. No report.
  14. State rep reports. IA—A Republican congress is vowing to push English Only again. All the info about the February conference in Iowa is in the newsletter. KS see MIDTESOL newsletter. NE is continuing to have a lot of growth, with over 200 students from the Sudan civil war. Frank is continuing to develop the grad program at UNO and receiving good feedback. MO—no report.
  15. Newsletter editors. Tom reported that cost of paper was pricey, but an ad and a donation helped out this time. The cost was $700 for the TESOL issue of 2,000 newsletters. Tom is going to negotiate on the price next time. The quality of the new printer was amazing—they did all the mailing for us and gave us a nonprofit rate. The next deadline is April 1. The need people to do book reviews. Grad students might want to do this. Frank asked for a list of books to review for the newsletter. Tom asked that it be sent to the whole list. JoAnne suggested bringing books for review to the October conference. Tom welcomed Karen and LuAnn as full members of the board.
  16. Historian’s report. nothing to report.
  17. TESOL 2001—Tom reported that the meeting on Jan. 13 in St. Louis went well. Karen said we can always use more volunteers, especially for the awards raffle. Tom needs volunteers for Saturday for the employment clearinghouse. We received 320 volunteers through the website, and we have a total of 400 volunteers.
  18. Art work at TESOL. Jeanne reported that this will most likely be presented at the invited session Thurs afternoon at 4 p.m. Gov Vilsack is not able to attend. The lieutenant gov might be able to come. We will receive $15,000, or a formula based on membership, potentially 22,500 or more. We are guaranteed $15,000, with the first payment due on Feb. 1. Frank should receive $7500 soon. We do not receive money for people whose registration is waived or cancelled. The pat on the back award will be awarded in the fall.
  19. Breakfast event. At the Mayfair on March 3 from 7 –8:30 or 9. No downpayment required. Planned for 100. No sales tax. $10.50 per person. Members are free.
  20. MIDTESOL table. Cathy reported that we will sell a mood meter, a magnet to stick to a white board or refrigerator. The MIDTESOL name will be on the bottom. They cost $1.35 apiece and sell for $3. There is a minimum order of 250 units; 500 will be ordered. Pencils for 14 cents each, with MIDTESOL written on them. The minimum number is 1,000. They will be distributed to people who show interest. We may also distribute candy. Pens are 29 cents each—perhaps too steep. Tom is preparing greeting cards based on the prairie plants based on the artwork for the TESOL office. We might also sell iron-yourself transfers for t shirts.
  21. Other business. Tom asked us to think about what we should do with the nest egg of money. Tom would like to hear from people before the end of April. What can we do in the future? Jeanne will check about the status of the Midwest regional and will email people about the fall 2002 conference.
  22. Ayse requested an updated list of MIDTESOL members. JoAnne will work on that.
  23. The meeting was adjourned at 12:17.
  24. MIDTESOL table. The publisher’s exhibit room is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, so there is some security—Tom can store some valuables there. Cheryl could give Joan a list of graduate students. Theresa can set up a schedule for the afternoons. Cece will send hours her teachers are available to Theresa. Cathy Tues evening; Theresa Wednesday; Cece Thurs; Joan Fri. There will be sale items in the breakfast area on Saturday.

 

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