AECT Board of Directors Board Meeting Conference Call Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 3 p.m. Eastern   Attending:   Phil Harris, Executive Director*      Ward Cates, President* Wes Miller, Past President* Pat Miller, President-Elect* Lois Wilkins, Secretary-Treasurer* Barbara Lockee, Theory & Research Representative* Jenny Johnson, International Division Representative Bill Sugar, Multimedia Production Representative Ted Frick, Change Division Representative Mary Herring, Teacher Education Representative Mary Beth Jordan, School Media and Technology Rob Branch, Appointed Affiliate Organization Representative Trey Martindale, Design & Development Ana Donaldson, Board Representative at Large B Scott Schaffer, Training & Performance Representative Susan Jones, Distance Learning Representative   (*Executive Committee)   Unable to attend:   David Willard, Corporate Representative Hans Wennberg, ECT Representative Don Little, Management Representative David Wiley, Board Representative at Large A   Guests:   Addie Kinsinger, ECT president Charlie White, membership chair   Ward Cates called the meeting to order at 3:04 p.m.   I. Approval of the agenda   Mary Beth Jordan moved approval of the agenda. Barbara Lockee seconded the motion. The motion carried.   II. Approval of the minutes   Mary Beth moved to approve the minutes of the January 21, 2007 meeting. Scott Schaffer seconded the motion. The motion carried.   Executive Director’s Report   III. Update on T.H.E. Journal lawsuit   Phil Harris reported that the lawsuit for the use of the expression tech trends has been filed in federal court. T.H.E. has not responded to the court document; Prentice Hall, the company that owns T.H.E., can respond at any time.    IV. Report on elections   Mary Herring was elected the new president-elect and Kay Persichitte the new board member-at-large. A large number of members participated in election. At this time, five of the divisions have provided slates of candidates for division elections.   V. Tech Trends survey results and publication   Nearly 300 members participated in the Tech Trends survey. Results will be reported in the May/June issue of Tech Trends.    VI. ISMF festival   Due to other priorities, Indiana University cannot propose hosting ISMF in the summer of 2008. ISMF is surveying sponsors asking whether they would prefer a summer date to the October/November date to find out whether they would like to move it to a college town to reduce costs of attending the festival. Georgia teacher sponsors would prefer continuing to hold the festival in October and having a media summer camp in addition.    VII. Financial update   As of mid-February, Phil expects the organization to be $75,000 in the black in June. Early bird convention registrations are part of the plan; Phil asked board members to consider taking advantage of the early bird offer. The summer conference will also have an impact on the budget. The balance of $17,000 due from Springer for Tech Trends will have a positive impact on the budget.    Results of the elections will appear on the web page and in an email to the membership from Ward.       VIII. Discussion: Policy for divisions failing to submit officer slates Many of the divisions failed to meet the deadline for submitting a slate of candidates to the AECT office for division elections. The board discussed setting a policy stating that divisions that have not provided a slate of candidates to the AECT office for their division elections by February 21 will have their current officers’ terms extended until the next election cycle (January 2008).   The board also discussed the impact this policy would have on board representatives’ terms. If they stayed on the board another year it would disturb the three-year rotation. Another issue was whether to include dissolving a division if it cannot put up a slate of officers for two years in a row.   Wes Miller moved that divisions that have not provided a slate of candidates to the AECT office for their division elections by the January meeting of the AECT full board will have their current officers’ terms extended one year until the next election cycle. If a division fails to put up a slate of officers two years in a row, that division shall be in jeopardy and shall come before the full AECT board for discussion of continuation/dissolution. Barbara Lockee seconded the motion.   Board members agreed to set a date of March 11 for this year only. In the future, a division that failed to submit a slate two years in a row would be discussed at the February board meeting.   The motion carried without dissent.   IX. Anaheim Convention update   Pat Miller reported that the call for proposals is closed and the division planners are getting the review process in motion. The division planners are doing a great job. A total of 733 proposals were submitted for this year’s convention. Some divisions are still looking for reviewers. In response to an issue about graduate students serving as reviewers, Pat has asked the planners whether they address the issue of peer review and whether graduate students should be included as reviewers. The planners are aware of whom they’re assigning proposals to, and all proposals will be reviewed by professionals as well as graduate students. The controversy concerns whether proposals should be reviewed by graduate students. Planners are assigning proposals to the reviewers most qualified to review them.    Pat will address issue in the next enewsletter.   Phil Harris noted that the review process should reflect the programming we want, and the professionals we want to attract to the convention.   X. ESC report   Trey Martindale reported that ESC is in the process of moving everything off members.org. Larry Vernon set up announce (communication officer only one who can post) and discussion (opt in – member choice) listservs. ESC is working on the new website, aectnow.org, and looking for volunteers, including a graphic designer, people familiar with a content management system called drupal, and people with html skill. Two or three divisions have switched their blogs to aectnow.org   XI. Adjournment   Mary Beth Jordan moved to adjourn at 4:30 p.m. Rob Branch seconded the motion. The motion carried.    Next meeting: March 21, 2007, at 3 p.m. Eastern time