Minutes from the AECT Board Call – 20 Jan 2010, 3:00-4:30 pm Eastern

1.       The meeting was called to order by Spector at 3:03 pm. All members of the Board were present with the exception of Mary Beth Jordan who had an unexpected medical situation requiring attention. We trust that all went well there.

2.       The minutes from the 17 November meeting were circulated and approved – motion by Barbara Lockee, second by Tony Pina.

3.       Action items:

a.    The details of the IPTPI affiliation agreement (Indonesian Educational Technology Society) were circulated in advance with a recommendation from the Executive Committee that they be approved. So moved by Trey Martindale with a second by Bob Appelman. Passed unanimously.

b.   The Boise State University affiliation agreement was circulated in advanced and discussed. Motion to approve by Bob Appelman and second by Nantida Mani. Passed unanimously. Discussed getting more institutions to consider similar kinds of support for AECT – Virginia Tech donated $5,000 and the University of Georgia is making $5,000 available to the AECT President to travel and represent AECT as required.

4.       Information items:

a.    Abbie Brown’s mother passed away recently – a fruit basket and flowers were sent on behalf of his AECT family.

b.   Mike Spector and Sharon Smaldino represented AECT and its two journals at the National Technology Leadership Coalition Summit meeting at the Punahou School in Honolulu. NTLC affiliation was initiated by Mary Herring; NTLC is an association of association with the educational technology journal editors as the core group. Outcomes of the meeting include a letter being draft to be sent to Arnie Duncan about the significance of educational technology for learning and instruction. There were three strands at the two-day meeting: global education, digital engineering, and performance assessment. The performance assessment strand is drafting two grant proposals involving AECT to be submitted to NSF ITEST – one focuses on workshops/conferences and the other focuses on instrument development and validation. The next NTLC summit meeting will be Washington, DC in September.

c.    We will plan to have the February 17^th AECT Board meeting in Second Life. Tom Atkinson will arrange a help session a few days before the board meeting and board members will be invited to log in to second life at 2:30 to minimize any last minute problems. We will aim to have the tele-conferencing available as a second option for those unable to get into the SL meeting room for whatever reason.

d.   Marie Sheldon has left Springer and Sarah Burrows has left Taylor-Francis/Routledge – both for family related issues. We expect our publications not to be affected at all and wish both them all the best and thank them for their strong support.

e.   The application for not-for-profit, charitable donation 501.3c status for AECT International is now at IRS with approval expected very soon – update in February.

f.     Budget details are not yet available from AIT for a mid-year budget. Basically, the 2009 convention generated about $90K with about $20K less than projected in income but also about $20K less than projected in expenses. 

g.    AECT is now officially a member of the New Media Consortium (NMC). The Horizon 2009 and 2010 reports are available to any AECT member for circulation electronically – soon to be linked through the AECT Website.  There are no copyright issues involved in circulating NMC reports as they subscribe to creative commons attribution.

h.   Webinars have and are being scheduled. TED held a webinar in December and is planning another one. D&D has two planned for February and March around the best article and best book selections. MPT is also planning webinars.

i.     The new conference planning system (All Academic) to which AECT has subscribed is working well All Academic.

j.     The biannual summer Research Symposium is scheduled to begin Tuesday evening with a dinner held in common with those attending the AECT Board meeting and summer leadership meeting July 19^th – 20^th. The call for proposals closes this Friday. The symposium is being organized by Les Moller and will be held at the Union building on the Indiana campus and proceed on July 21, 22 and a half day on the 23^rd. and the Summer Leadership update.

k.    The AECT and division Elections are underway and will remain active until the middle of February. Some divisions failed to submit any candidates – a recurring problem to be addressed at the summer leadership meeting.

l.     The new Website should ready to unveil by the February Board meeting.  

m. AECT will be represented at the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education (CNIE – a new affiliate) with presentations by Mary Herring and Sharon Smaldino and one other person yet to be determined. Mary is still considering proposals for the second AECT slot at this conference to  be held May 17-19 in New Brunswick, Canada.

n.   Barbara Lockee reports that all is going well with AECT 2010 planning. Randy Hollingsworth has proposed organizing a Research to Practice Panel, and Susan Stansberry has proposed a session showcasing school kids involved in a student media program – could be  jointly sponsored with ISMF. Dick Clark (UCLA) is organizing study trips in the Anaheim/LA area for the conference.

5.       Discussion items (action possible in some cases):

a.    NCATE response (two page letter from NCATE President Jim Cibulka) did not really address the $20K membership fee issue and only discussed the program review fees charged to AECT for doing NCATE reviews. Spector expressed disappointment and suggested we might propose reducing the membership fee significantly – further discussion tabled until the February meeting.

b.   Strategic Plan survey discussion (Spector, Herring – survey results (n=32) available at http://aect.org/voiceline/strategicResults.asp) – tabled for further discussion at the February Board meeting.

c.    Membership fees – discussion of pros, cons, and possibilities. Phil Harris initiated the discussion with a proposal to raise the regular membership rate from $99 to $150. He argued that we needed to invest in order to grow while delivering value for membership. Revenue has exceeded expectations with Springer and the journals. Bob Appelman thought we should not have raised the student membership fee but that has already been approved by the Board to increase to $75 effective March 1. Several persons (Spector, Herring, Martindale, and others) thought $150 might be too high and result in lost members.  We agreed to task the Executive Committee with bringing a well reasoned proposal to the Board in February including rationale, likely revenue impact, and how the issue will be presented to the membership.  

d.   We discussed the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) issue raised by Delia Neuman. There was consensus that the new definition of ‘school librarian’ was too broad and included those school media and technology specialists now covered within AECT and our involvement with NCATE accreditation. We agreed that we need to have a presence at both the virtual panel meeting March 5^th and 6^th and the meeting being organized by the National Board. Carol Brown agreed to coordinate an effort to see that this happens – working with Delia Neuman, Leslie Blatt, Lois Wilkins, Mary Herring and others who express an interest.

NOTE: These minutes were collaboratively compiled by Carol Brown and Mike Spector. Any and all errors are due to random climate change effects.