Executive Board Meeting Minutes

January 10, 2004
Teleconference

Attending: Susan Schindler, Jennifer Johnston, Jane Robison, Jan Rodriguez, Dennis Muchisky, Cheryl Eason, William Eubank, Cathy Howland, Barbara Adelman, Leslie Wolk, Barb Schwarte, Marguerite Martinez, Sheila Monk, Victoria Springer

Call to Order at 10:20 -Susan

Approval of Agenda

Motion: Barbara motioned to approve

Second: Cheryl seconded

Motion Approved

Approval of Minutes

Changes to be made:

• Add Barbara Adelman to "attending" executive board meeting on Oct. 2
• Barb’s name misspelled "Sporty" instead of "Schwarte"
• Jan’s 2^nd VP report should be IA instead of IO for Iowa
• Ladonna should be spelled LaDonna
• In MO report—Dennis’s name needs to be capitalized

Motion to Approve: Dennis moves

Second: Barbara A seconds

Motion Approved

President’s Report -Susan

Nothing to report.

First VP -Jane

• Missouri ESL Educator’s Spring Conference—please e-mail if you didn’t get a brochure
• To be held on March 12-13 at SMSU’s English Language Institute
• Wants to encourage people to present at conference—proposals by Feb. 10
• Gave details about conference
• Marguerite didn’t get information—Jane will send
• The link on our website to hotels for conference is not up yet—webmaster will put it up next week
• We’ll get some help from Ozarks Tech College—there is a newsletter for Adult Ed. Programs around the state and they are advertising the conference for us—someone recommended that it be required for in-service every year
• Barbara A.—doesn’t think they’ll approve that it be required
• MIDTESOL info will be available at spring conference—wants to set up a table for people to sign up for membership
• Barb S.—their state spring conference is in Feb.
• Cathy H—MIDTESOL is a sponsor
• Cheryl—Iowa rep. Has sent in a request for MIDTESOL to help sponsor
• Dennis—found MIDTESOL pencils—if anyone needs
• Jane asked Cheryl if she needs to send a request for MIDTESOL presence at MO State Conference—Cheryl says usually for MO, MIDTESOL gives $200 for support
• Jane brings up Fall MIDTESOL Conference
• Has two candidates for place: Hyatt Crown Center and Marriott at Plaza
• Has concerns about the cost—$99 for Hyatt, $112 at Marriott for rooms—little cheaper at Hyatt for people staying there
• Jane gives overview of costs for each—it would be less expensive if we held conference at a university like UMKC
• Dennis—worried about hotel room costs
• Margarite—a new hotel just opened in North Kansas City—can find out hotel costs—they have the convention center and maybe costs less—will find out and e-mail Jane
• Cathy H.—asks if Jane has talked to Wes Eby—suggests he may be a good contact
• Jane needs help coming up with a title or theme for conference and suggestion for plenary speaker and pre-conference presenter—asks board to e-mail her with suggestions
• Jane says it is hard to get a date on the schedule due to lack to space
• Cheryl—thinks early Oct. date might be better than Nov.—people get busier closer to holiday—lots of Iowa public school teachers couldn’t attend in Nov because of other conferences going on
• Cheryl--suggests as MIDTESOL speaker, Laurel Pollard —wrote the book Zero Prep
• Sheila—worries about having enough people to fill the room quota? Would there be an alternative location offered?
• Cheryl—last year at Cornhusker, they didn’t give alternatives and that helped fill the room quota
• Cheryl—reason that Lee’s Summit was well-attended because most people were driving from their homes
• Susan says that Marguerite is a good KC contact

2^nd VP -Jan Rodriquez

• Membership is up 5 from last report—now at 307
• Missouri 155
• Iowa 87
• Kansas 24
• Nebraska 26
• Other states 15
• 103 members due for renewal at end of month
• One member is dissatisfied with membership benefits—would like more than just a renewal notice
• Cheryl—suggests sending the most recent newsletter to that person—send a copy of MO Educator’s meeting conference coming up—remind her that fall conference. is coming up in KC area
• William—thinks it is responsibility of members to look for that info on their own
• Cheryl—benefit of being a member is that we can have conferences—conferences are our opportunity to educate people
• Cheryl—would be happy to tell that person why they should belong to MIDTESOL

Past President -Dennis

• Nothing to report.
• Wants everyone to think about officers for next year

Treasurer -Cheryl

• Year-end totals from treasurer’s reports for 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 do not reflect actual situations
• 2001-2002 did not include fall 2002 conference income
• 2002-2003 did not include large expenses for plenary/pre-conference presenter and substantial amount of refunded conference registration money to people who did not attend
• 2002-2003 also did not reflect newsletter expenses that have yet to be submitted
• Actually, 2002-2003 is down about $4,000 from 2002-2003
• Reasons why 2002-2003 is down
• Large increase in amount being spent on board members’ rooms & travel expenses. Fall 2003 conference total for reimbursements to board members is actually $3,213.46 because one more person submitted request since table giving comparative information was submitted.
• State support was not solicited for the fall 2002 conference. Fall 2003 received $500 from Nebraska, $500 from UNL, and $600 from Missouri.
• Speaker costs for fall 2003 were substantially more than they had been in the past.
• Unlike we had anticipated, the fall 2003 conference itself did not lose money thanks to:
• Susan’s hard work and careful planning, solicitation of state and university support
• Ayse’s success in getting participation from publishers
• Lois’s negotiations with the Cornhusker Hotel which resulted in very little being spent for facilities and AV equipment for the presentations

• Suggestions for next year’s conference
• Ask on registration forms if receipts are needed. Many individual requests for receipts were received this year—as late as mid-December. This necessitated many unnecessary mailings.
• State on the registration form the policy for the refund of registration fees. At a set point, refunds should no longer be available.
• Have a clear, efficient plan for notifying the Best of MIDTESOL winner and making timely arrangements for that winner to attend the Iowa Culture and Language Conference the following February.

• Asks do we have a "Best of" from Fall NE Conference?
• Nola Magady is the winner of Best of MIDTESOL Award

Publisher’s Liason -Ayse

Not in attendance

Webmaster -William Eubank

• Has plans to get together with Victoria in next month to rework some of the website

Awards -Cathy H.

• Needs nominations for "Pat on Back" award for Fall Conference—please send in
• Barb—is there a list on website of past recipients for this award?
• William—there is not a list—if historian can provide this info, William will put it on website
• Will ask 2002 and 2003 Best of MIDTESOL winners to submit presentations at next February’s conference (Jan Rodriquez was the winner in 2002 and Nola Magady in 2003)
• Will send postcards to MIDTESOL members encouraging them to apply for a scholarship to attend a TESOL Summer Institute as soon as she gets the dates for those
• Upon receiving dates for the Fall Conference, will prepare a call for Travel Award Applications

Rules and Resolutions -Barbara

Nothing to report

Historian -Leslie

• Has a Mac—trouble opening documents
• Susan will make copies of everything for Leslie

Sociopolitical Concerns -Barb Schwarte

• At fall conference, would like to organize a presentation on political aspects of 2^nd language teaching and funding—maybe would invite someone to speak on legislation—perhaps a panel discussion
• What is the policy—if you have someone not in field that comes to present, do they have to pay registration fees?
• Cheryl—there is no policy—hasn’t happened yet
• It may be easier to get people to come if they don’t have to pay registration.
• Jane says that many agencies have funds to do things like this, but we shouldn’t charge registration fee
• Wants to get some materials related to political concerns on the website, with William’s help—hopes to have some information by end of semester

Iowa -LaDonna

Not present

Kansas -Marguerite

• Will have a Kansas State conference in Salina March 12-13

Nebraska -Joan

Not present

Missouri -Sheila

• Not much to report.
• DESE is continuing training through Regional Professional Development Centers for those ESL people giving the newly mandated MACII
• There is some misunderstanding as to who needs to take the MACII and who should take the MAP

Newsletter -Victoria

• She and William have discussed working on the web site graphics and will meet with her husband, who is a graphic designer, to develop a new look for the MidTESOL web site, hopefully within the next 30 days.
  
• Has made contact with the previous editor but have not yet received any previous materials from her. It was suggested that she contact Tom Riedmiller at UNI for assistance.
  
•  Raised the question of whether or not a physical, paper newsletter was needed in addition to posting the newsletter of the web site. Perhaps we could cut costs and labor by simply sending a postcard-type mailer to let membership know what was posted. Cheryl Eason commented that certain information, such as the president's report and four state reports, needed to be mailed out along with the listing of new articles posted on the web site. Victoria will produce a modified newsletter (compared to what's been done previously) sometime within the next 30 days and work with William to get it posted on the web within the same timeframe.
  
• Has received materials from Houghton Mifflin Company that are open for review. Dennis Muchisky suggested posting a call for reviewers on the web site with a list of the texts available.
  
• Reported that Houghton Mifflin is sponsoring the Houghton Mifflin Award for dedication to community college teaching that provides funds for community college instructors to travel to International TESOL. For details, go to: http://www.tesol.org/mbr/awards/tesol/houghton.html.
• One piece of information Victoria didn't get to share during the call is that she is now employed as an instructor in the IEP at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas. She will let everyone know as soon as she has her contact information set up there.

Secretary -Jennifer

• Asked for everyone to e-mail their reports for her today

Old Business

• Barbara A—we should offer a choice of addresses being listed or not in the directory

New Business

• Susan—as soon as we get dates for fall conference set, we need to get dates for summer meeting
• First and 2^nd weekends in June not good for this meeting

Adjournment