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MIDTESOL Board Meeting Saturday June 23, 2001 Summit Technology Center Lee's Summit, MO Present: Cecilia Prieto-Morehouse, Tom Riedmiller, Ron Long, William Eubank, Cheryl Eason, Leslie Wolk, Karen Schwelle, JoAnne Zoller Wagner Prior to the meeting, the Board toured the facilities for the fall meeting. The location of fall conference, October 19-20, 2001, is the Summit Technology Center, Lee's Summit, MO, 10 miles from Kansas City. The facilities have up-to-date technology equipment in each of six classrooms available for presentations. The Board recommended that we have technology training for presenters prior to the conference. 1. Tom called the meeting to order. 2. Nine are needed for a quorum, so we will vote, but the votes will not be binding. Tom will write a ballot for distributing to absent Board members by email with a required response date. William moved to approve the agenda. Cece seconded it. Approved by acclimation. JoAnne moved to approve the minutes. Cece seconded it. Approved. 3. President's Report. Tom made some calls about the annual report to the state of Missouri about our status as a non-profit organization and the state rep said we were OK. William made a motion that the vice-president take care of this to keep it up to date for terms of three years. Cheryl seconded the motion. The Board approved the motion. Ron Long agreed to do this for the next few years. Ron suggested that we send the past president Genevieve Lennon a thank you note for her service. Ron moved that we honor Genevieve Lennon with an award and that we pay her costs to come to the conference. Motion approved. Cece will call Gloria Directo and will email Leslie regarding the nature of the gift. Reidmiller reported that TESOL went really well, and it was nice to have everything under one roof. Central office glitches-some of the staff made some mistakes, especially regarding signs. There were problems with non-communication on their part. Cheryl reported on the results of the feedback sheets which were collected at the conference. There was dissatisfaction with the opening plenary speaker. There weren't enough bags, people didn't like the bags-size or quality. People did not enjoy downtown St. Louis in February, particularly for evening meals. The Ramada Inn was a problem-filth, homeless people in the bathrooms, elevators which didn't work and smelled bad. There was a capacity problem. The bus companies that did the educational visits did a great job. There was not enough access to water. People wanted healthy food available, such as fruit and yogurt. There were regular sessions held during the plenary, so the plenaries were not well attended. The MIDTESOL breakfast had about 60 people in attendance. We had 6800 attendees. We received $15,000. William reported that the two affiliates in the area of Salt Lake are very small. The conference will be held April 9-13, 2002. The convention will be under one roof. Ron reported the TESOL is seeking out places where the convention would be held under one roof. 4. Treasurer's Report. Frank's report is attached to these minutes. There was a discussion of which bank to move the account into, such as a large chain bank, for example Firstar, to avoid the problem of each treasurer having to open an account in their city. It was decided to ask Frank to continue until September 1, 2001. The Board expresses appreciation for his service to date. Ron suggested possibly paying someone to pay the bills, while preserving the office of treasurer, because continuity is crucial. Ron suggested that we have an itemized list of income regularly on the treasurer's report. Ron suggested that in the future we consider putting some money in a money market. Cheryl said she would be willing to be treasurer next year, beginning in October. 5. Membership report. Theresa sent her report via email prior to the meeting. It is attached to this report. Cheryl suggested that Iowa membership is down because of the Iowa ESL conference. Ron suggested that membership fluctuates according to where the fall meeting is. Ron suggested that the membership secretary send a letter to faculty in the MA TESOL programs to encourage the students to join MIDTESOL. Tom suggested contacting Central office to get mailing labels for this. Ron suggested that we have a directory shortly after the fall conference. Tom asked if, in addition to having the alphabetical listing, we could have additional lists at the end of the directory of members by state with affiliation. The Board would like to thank Theresa for all the work she has done as membership secretary. 6. Past President's report. As attached. We need to add that we need a new Iowa rep, if Cathy Howland desires to do Awards and Cheryl becomes treasurer. We also need to add a Kansas rep to the list, as Cece's term ends in October 2001. Karen is working on asking people to be co-editor of the newsletter. Tom will call possible reps in Iowa, Ron and Cheryl will contact possible Kansas reps. The Board expresses appreciation to Jeanne for her work. 7. Publisher's Liaison. Ayse's report is attached. The Board suggests that Ayse contact Christopher Renner for Kim Kreicker's address. Christopher will be in the office next week, but not the week after that. The fee Ayse reported is acceptable. The fee would include registration and lunch. Ron thought we could accommodate as many exhibitors as can come. Ron suggested that we charge only the registration fee for nonprofit third world missions crafts stores which exhibit. One room is 25' X 30', the other is 25' X 23', so we should have room for all the exhibitors who would like to come. Ron suggested that we get a commitment no later than September 1 for the publishers who are coming. The Board would like to thank Ayse for her diligent work on this. Tom will ask Monica Mingucci, as Employment rep, to coordinate a jobs bulletin board at the conference. Ron asked Karen to include an announcement about the jobs bulletin board in the newsletter, so that employers could know in advance. Leslie suggested that educational institutions might want tables for recruiting stations. She will let Ron know if she has specifics. 8. Webmaster report as attached. William requested that members at large send news and announcements relevant to their states to him in an electronic format. Currently some of the rep reports are blank or out of date. We need more articles on teaching reading or reading skills. Karen will send the January newsletter to William in text format. William proposed several projects: 1) we could support MIDTESOLers in publishing efforts; 2) we could conduct membership drives in each state; 3) we could use the web for inter/intra state surveys devised by ESL students or professionals; 4) we could research potential for MIDTESOL in the four-state area, especially with current data and projections, in a wide sense of ESL and second language education K-12 in the area. Tom suggested that we could integrate a directory of information about ESL sites in the four states on the web. 9. Rules and Resolutions. We would like to ask Dennis to make a proposal about regularizing the term beginnings and endings, since they seem to be irregular-not everyone's term ends in October, for example. 10. Awards. Cheryl reported that it cost us $112 to send more than 400 postcards announcing the TESOL academy awards, not counting the mailing labels from Theresa. We received eight responses. LaDonna Brunk from Eldora, IA was chosen. Tom suggested we could contact people by email in the future, at least partially. Cheryl reported difficulty in choosing the recipient based on the current criteria. Ron offered to consult with Cheryl on possibilities. We did not list the Academy awards on the web because some out of staters joined just to apply for the awards. Pat on the Back. The company had made up quite a few wooden plaques with a shape of the four states, but now they're out of the plaques. Ron suggested that the company continue with a similar design, for the sake of efficiency. Travel awards. The reimbursement process has gone more smoothly lately. Best of MIDTESOL. Ron will find a form for conference participants to vote for the Best of MIDTESOL award to use at the fall conference. 11. Sociopolitical concerns. No business. 12. Iowa report. Refer to newsletter. 13. Kansas representative report. Cece directed us to her report in the newsletter. She also announced the formation of the Kansas City Kansas Community College Language Institute, which is a coalition of credit/academic ESL, credit/academic foreign language, non-credit ESL/Foreign Language and workforce development in the Kansas City area. The coalition has allowed her to receive some grants for more computer equipment for the ESL lab. In addition, Kansas City Kansas Community College has established mandatory evaluation and placement for ESL students. Ron suggested that Cece make a presentation in the fall for adult educators regarding this project, and Karen asked that she write up the project for MIDTESOL MATTERS. 14. Nebraska report. Refer to newsletter. 15. Missouri report. Refer to newsletter. 16. Newsletter. Luann has gone to Harvard to teach ESL. Karen is working on a replacement. Karen thanked Phyllis for help with the mysteries of non-profit bulk mailing. Karen and Luann are hoping to get better results with Microsoft 2000, as the previous software was problematic. The deadline for the upcoming issue is July 15. They requested that all Teaching Tips articles be sent to Ayse Stromsdorfer. Website recommendations or conference reports should be sent to Karen. Karen will announce the job announements bulletin board for the conference so that employers can inform William or Monica in advance of the conference. William has suggested that we have more articles on teaching ESL reading, vocabulary, or grammar, since those are areas of interest to persons reading our website. Ron asked that we have some reminders regarding the Fall conference in the next issue. 17. Historian's report. Leslie has been collating materials and still has two boxes of materials. She needs a history of MIDTESOL. Ron suggested that Leslie contact Peggy Anderson for information and consultation on this. JoAnne asked where the MIDTESOL Matters are archived. Leslie has a complete set since she has been historian, but it is not clear that all the issues are in the archives. Leslie will check on this, as some past newsletter editors have extra issues. 18. First VP report. Ron submitted a report on the October conference plans. The facilities are in place. Plenary speakers have been arranged. The registration fee has been reduced by 20% to make it more affordable. The possibility of offering CEUs is being explored. Ron needs a good number of people submitting proposals, which are due September 1. He needs proposal readers/ reviewers for the week following September 1. Ron will coordinate this process. Tom and Karen volunteered. Cheryl suggested inviting K12 people to read. There is a computer lab available for conference presentations. Ron is working on a pre-conference institute with state boards of ed. The Board VOTED to support the PCI up to $1500. We had six votes for this. Ron expects to find funding, but asked for this motion just for a fallback if needed. The Board VOTED to allow Ron to go up to $10 a person for the reception, though it is anticipated that the cost will be less. Suggestions were pumpkin pie or another harvest theme dessert, caramel and regular popcorn, coffee, and mulled cider. Ron needs volunteers to work the reception-help people get from one place to the other, monitor food supply, etc. William volunteered. Ron is considering entertainment for the reception. It was recommended that the music be background music to allow people to talk. Ron reported that he is having Kansas school systems send out information on the MIDTESOL conference. Ron moved that we go to Nebraska in 2002, Missouri in 2003 for the purposes of re-establishing the rotation. William seconded it. Motion approved. November 7, 2002 will be the Midwest Regional TESOL Conference in Minneapolis at the Thunderbird Lodge. 19. New business. No new business. 20. Ideas for the future. Ron has volunteered to set up a listserv for MIDTESOL members, and another one for the executive board. 21. The meeting was adjourned at 4 p.m. |
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Added to the WWW on 08/11/2001
