Minutes - May 13, 2002

AECT Board of Directors

Conference Call

May 13, 2002

3:00 P.M.4:40 P.M.EST

 

 

 Attending

            Charlie White, President*

            Ed Caffarella, President-Elect*

Rodney Earle, Development Representative

Jim Ellsworth, Performance Representative

Jay Harriman, Management Representative

            Phil Harris, Executive Director*

Jim Hayden, States Representative*

Al Januszewski, Theory and Research Representative

Delia Neuman, At-Large Representative

            Carl Stafford, Divisions Representative

            Connie Tibbitts, School Media and Technology Representative

            Guy Westhoff, Teacher Education Representative  

(*Executive Committee)

 

Unable to Attend

            Doreen Barrett, At-large Representative  

Marcy Driscoll, Past-President*

Cindy Elliot, Distance Education Representative  

K. J. Saville, Secretary-Treasurer*

 

Guests:

Addie Kinsinger, Foundation Liaison

            Rick Xaver        

             

                     

II.  Approval of Minutes - White

Note:  The minutes were approved at the end of the call, when a quorum had been achieved; 9 yeas and 1 abstention.

 

III. President’s report -  White

A.      The office sent notices to about 400 members whose memberships had elapsed, and 198 renewals were received in April and May.  Charlie discovered lots of dead email addresses in compiling these notices, and the office is generating a default list that will help us create a cleaner database.

B.       Charlie attended the Maine conference and recommended the keynote speaker (the editor of Mad magazine) for the Anaheim conference; he will also attend the New Jersey conference.

C.       Charlie spoke in favor of Les Moeller’s request that we add to the website a page that lists schools that offer ed tech/ISD programs.  Phil and Rick will determine what we already have in preparation for a discussion about whether we should continue to compile and offer this information.

 

IV. Human Capital Campaign -  Kinsinger

A.      Addie outlined a plan to move toward a goal of enrolling 400 new members over a 3-year campaign.  She hopes for 200 members by Dallas, a somewhat lighter total in the second year, and a push in the third year to reach the total.  Various Board members made positive comments on the plan.

B.       Discussion covered several aspects about how to promote the campaign:

1.        Guy will prepare a brochure (prototype to be presented at the Summer Institute) and a conference presentation.

2.        The office will create procedures for (1) signing people up at the conference, (2) linking prospective sponsors without access to graduate students with others who have large numbers of students who might be sponsored, and (3) ensuring a focus on international members.

3.        Robert Harrell will work toward the involvement of past presidents; Bill Burns will also be involved in this.

4.        Jim Hayden and others are working on creating a slogan.

5.        Rick will provide information about the campaign’s continuing progress.

 

V. President Elect’s Report - Caffarella

The proposal reviews are nearing completion.  Divisions have been informed of

the number of hours allotted and are working to fit acceptances into the available

slots.  Because some additional rooms may be available, we may be able to

accommodate more presentations than originally assumed.

 

VI. Past President’s Report—Marcy Driscoll (via email)

A.      Marcy had a good experience representing AECT at the Arkansas Instructional Media conference.  They’re a strong, active group that should be well-represented in Dallas.

B.       Dick Cornell has been nominated for an AECT office and has therefore withdrawn from membership on the Nominations Committee.

 

VII. Executive Director’s Report—Phil Harris

A.      Registrations for the 2002 Summer Institute are beginning to come in, and Board members should register soon.

B.       Phil’s recommendation of Reno as the site for the 2003 institute raised a number of issues:

1.        Costs for rooms and food are excellent, although there are no cheap airfares except through Southwest.  Hotel rates are in the $70-$80/night range; current representative fares are $214 (Denver), $259 (Chicago), and $359 (New York).

2.        We need to consider the impact of local attendance at this summer’s workshops.  If there’s significant drive-in attendance, then Reno (which has a smaller population base than Chicago) might not be a good site.

3.        We also need to consider the implications of holding the Summer Institute in a casino hotel, which is the only possibility for Reno.  This kind of venue raises the question of whether AECT could be seen as supporting gambling and its attendant social evils.

4.        The Board voted 9 yeas and 1 abstention to accept Reno as the site of the next Summer Institute if we do in fact continue the Summer Institutes.

C.       The site for the 2004 conference will be New Orleans.

D.      Rick is working to make the Dallas program downloadable or beamable.   This would allow attendees to search for presenters’ names, presentation times, etc., and customize their schedules.

E.       Rick is also in discussions with Palm to buy a number of Palm Pilots that we could resell at the conference as a member benefit:  if we buy 30 units at $200 each, Palm will give us 7 units for free, enabling us to sell the 37 units at $170 each.  The plan would require a cost outlay of $6,000; the question is whether we could actually sell 37 units.  Several Board members suggested that Rick explore similar options with developers of educational applications for Palm; there are a number of these, and they might be inclined to offer a better deal.  Phil and Rick will continue discussions with Palm and some of their competitors.

F.       The collaboration with NSBA is improving:  e.g., there will be a letter from NSBA in our program welcoming us to some of their presentations.  We may be moving toward the full integration of programs and the scheduling of joint sessions for the Anaheim conference in 2003.

G.       Rick continues to work on the Research Handbook and is finding the internal links from chapter to chapter and the digitizing of the tables, charts, and graphs particularly challenging.

H.      Phil and Al presented a solution to the issue of how to get input from the Distance Learning Division on the monograph on distance learning prepared by the Definitions and Terminology Committee.  A small group (Cindy Elliott, Mary Herring, Publications Committee Chair Sharon Smaldino, and perhaps several others) will review the manuscript and report to Phil by May 20.  The expectation is that this review will be positive and will meet the need for the appropriate “content” division to have a voice in the document.  The situation has sensitized the Board and the office to the larger issue of the conflicts that can arise when divisions work independently on projects of mutual interest and responsibility.  Phil expects the monograph to be approximately 50 pages long, and he plans to publish the first run (750 copies) in July.

I.         Bill Burns has agreed to head up an initiative regarding marketing for the Dallas conference.  He’ll receive a 25% commission on any underwriting he secures for the conference, and he’ll present his first (one-month) report in June.

J.        The March financials were sent to the Board, and the April ones will be sent soon.

Next meeting:  Monday, June 17, 3:00 pm EDT.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Delia Neuman

June 13, 2002