PAECT Board Meeting
November 12, 2005
President Jim Bolton at
In attendance: Ron Bennett, James Bolton, Shirley Campbell, Jack Day, Karen Galbraith, Mary Beth Hengelbrok, Linda LaCoe, Wally Leech, Sean McDonough, Ann Noonen, Jamie Plaster, Dan Shelley. Martin Friedman joined via webinar at 10:23 a.m. Kyle Peck joined at 11:28 a.m. via webinar.
Sean made a motion to approve minutes from the last board meeting. Jamie seconded the motion. Minutes approved.
The positions open for election were reviewed and updated. The treasurer position was added to the list.
Ron Bennett presented the treasurer’s report. (See PAECT Budget and PAECT Revenues Budget Dated 11/12/05). Karen Galbraith asked the treasurer if any student showcase people had sent vouchers to him. Ron responded yes, about 3 or 4. Sean McDonough made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report. Jamie Plaster seconded. Motion passed. Report accepted.
President Bolton welcomed Shirley Campbell to the
meeting. Shirley is currently working
with Celina Byers from Bloomsburg on ITS certification and its requirements for
possible changes. According to Shirley,
she wants to study what skills a person has who is doing a good job and also,
bad job. She would like to possibly run
a survey through the IU’s and also possibly at PETE & C. She also wants some kind of work session at
PETE & C where all types of individuals are invited including IT certified
people, IT non-certified people, administrators, teachers, etc. PATI data might also be used to pull
information together for the state.
Shirley would like to hold the work session on Tuesday or hold a Sunday
afternoon workshop. Problems might exist
with holding a session either day for attendance due to associated costs (of
attending the conference, of arriving early to the conference). Martin suggested to possibly hold several of
these sessions across the state and how this might best run. Sean stated that one of his roles at PDE is
to review these requirements to take to the Bureau of Certification. He stated that his bureau couldn’t really do
anything about certification except make a recommendation to the certification
bureau. He wants to back this
recommendation up with research.
According to Martin, the schedule for PETE & C is already pretty
well set; however, he might be able to bring in part of this discussion. A concern is to make sure that holding the
session at PETE & C is not a once-and-done but to continue getting
data. Wally requested Shirley to share
with the group her vision of what she wants to see happen so we, as PAECT, can
help. Shirley said she would like to see
certification come out as redefined into two separate certifications, a classroom
technology person and a district technology person. Dan stated that he is getting mixed
discussions on what is there now (as certification and if it exists). For a classroom computer teacher there is
only one certificate available. It is a
business education teacher certification.
This is not practical because they do not talk about integration. Dan stated that Robert Morris is not longer
offering ITS certification. Wally
discussed the media specialist certification and how this is a good certification
but how it evolved. He stated that about
1992ish schools recognized the importance of technology in schools and schools
wanted to bring in “techie” people and education people recognized into the
future that these technology tools would be needed in the future to do the
integration part and decisions that were being made for the classrooms were the
network people, not necessarily educators.
Wally hopes…..wants Sean to help us to bring clarity to this issue. Ann stated that history has been there about
this issue and people refer to a checklist that the auditors use that determine
if people need the certification or not but no one had been able to put their
hands on this “list”. As a side note,
Ann worked at PSU on this issue for the last year. Ann collected job descriptions and offered
them to Shirley if they will help. Ann
said that PDE sent out via Penn-Link two job descriptions quite a while ago to
help determine if you need certification or not. Marjorie Blaise (PDE) has made a statement
that anyone can teach teachers – that you do not need certification. Sean really wants to see the research
piece. Ann referred Shirley to Susan
Miller from
Another piece for these conversations, according to Jim, is
right now PAECT has a webinar classroom with 30 seats at
Sean McDonough made a motion that “PAECT creates a task force to impact the future direction of professional technology standards and certification”. Wally Leech seconded. There was no further discussion on the motion. It was approved unanimously.
After acceptance of the last motion, President Bolton moved for appointment of Shirley Campbell to head up the task force. Dan Shelley seconded. It was approved unanimously.
A suggestion was made to Shirley that she might want to contact the presence committee immediately for web presence. Also, Shirley asked for volunteers to serve on the task force. Volunteers included Dan Shelley, Linda LaCoe, Ann Noonen, Jamie Plaster, and Mary Beth Hengelbrok. Celina Byers will also be on the committee.
President Bolton raised the question of “Why instructional technology doesn’t have a governor’s institute? (like math or science)” Jim asked Sean to ask Michael Golden.
Mary Beth Hengelbrok updated us on membership. She handed out copies of CD’s holding the membership files. She created in Filemaker Pro. Currently there are 492 members in the database. A question was raised if all have been sent pins. Mary Beth responded that all but 75 have gone out and they will be going out next week. Ron Bennett asked how many of these memberships have come in because of the summit or keystones. Mary Beth responded that only 183 are paid memberships. All others were free for one year with renewals in February.
Kathleen Smith created an invitation for the banquet (a copy was shown). Members present made suggestions for additions, deletions, and/or changes. All reference to this invitation should be sent to Martin or Kathleen Smith.
As a continuation of the membership update, a discussion occurred in regards to having a person help with the secretarial aspect. Mary Beth feels we really need this if we want this organization to be a professional organization. She suggested that Jim Flynn, Edinboro, does this for another organization and would be able to help us in the direction.
Jim requested the written plan of the presence committee. And, he reminded members present that updates to the webpage and/or questions and comments regarding the webpage should be sent to the presence committee. Jamie stated that she contacted Mary Ann to post the update for NPAECT.
Mary Beth ended her discussion of membership by stating that she is looking for more updated information for the following people: Gary Neights, Gerald Schaeffer, and Claire Starner.
Jack Day updated us on elections. He currently has 3 of the 6. He will be holding elections at the business meeting of PAECT at PETE & C (which is held immediately preceding the banquet). Some discussion then occurred regarding the environment of the PAECT banquet at PETE & C.
Sean McDonough updated the board on PETE&C. At their annual meeting, there was a
discussion of the use of a conference manager.
It was just an initial discussion to determine if the group is doing
things in a correct manner. Linda
questioned a correct manner in regards to what?
Sean replied by stating how the money is distributed in regards to a
conference manager. Sean is now the Sunday
night session coordinator. The group is
looking to survey on the overall aspects of the conference for future
years. They have contracted with a
company to get this data. As a reminder,
the conference will be held in Hershey through 2008. Hopefully the data received will help in
deciding where to hold the conference starting in 2009 and, what time of year
to hold it. Mary Beth made suggestions
to move to the
Sean wants to make sure to secure a booth for PETE & C for NJAECT. The booth is available from our motion at the last meeting. Ron just needs to send payment. Sean requested each of us to share with people that registration is online and there is a 20% discount when registering before the end of December. Martin discussed the program review process and stated that he would like the program reviews to be completed by Thanksgiving weekend.
Finally, Sean discussed the focus in on higher-ed for this year. In what way do we have to connect to higher-ed to expand the RFP process in March? He would like to see a strand to focus in on higher-ed needs. Dan said many things from PDE goes get routed to people that do not always pass along the information to the appropriate person(s). A task force is one way to help higher-ed design programs for future certification. Another way, according to Jim, is Michael Golden’s focus.
A discussion occurred regarding the PAECT booth at PETE&C. Mary Beth will now organize the booth with help from Ron to secure the manpower. Karen Galbraith has the banner. It was suggested that pictures from NECC could be posted. Karen suggested we purchase a new banner. Karen Galbraith questioned about new membership forms for the booth. Mary Beth stated that the form needs to be redone and standardized to make sure the necessary information is received. Karen asked if Mary Beth would write down what information she needs and get that to Karen, Karen will get the forms created for the booth. The discussion moved to what to hand out at the booth. Someone discussed USB drives could be handed out to members. Dan thinks key chains and candy for non-members. Ron reminded the group that people would have to be responsible to get the items. Martin shared his knowledge of purchasing thumb drives. He stated that recently he purchased 60 thumb drives that were 128 MB and water-proof with a USB extender cables, without a logo for about $15 each. Mary Beth said it would cost about $45 - $50 to have the artwork done and then additional costs to add a logo. The question was raised on how quickly Martin could get these and how many we should order. Concerns were then raised as to the size and if they are too small, no one will use it. We then discussed what we started to discuss at the last meeting about handing the thumb drives out at the banquet only if you attend. The discussion moved into a discussed about giving a t-shirt to everyone that is a member. Dan doesn’t think the drive is practical. He felt they are expensive and will not get much bang for the buck. We also talked about a vendor supplying to put their logo on one side and ours on another. Another discussion was about getting a book at the banquet – if you come, you get it. We also discussed software as another possibility to push the idea of integration of technology. Ron reminded the group at this point that we have two issues, something to hand out at the booth and something to hand out at the banquet. It was decided that pens are used the most for the giveaway at the booth (as we all shared what pens we are using!). Jim asked for a volunteer to embrace the concept and work on getting the pens. Ron said he will make sure that the pens happen. Jamie said she will look into the banquet items (somewhat concentrating on software).
As a break in the action, Wally handed out samples of the brand new peanut butter kisses (Hershey of course!). As the discussion quieted during this taste test, it was concluded that these are excellent!
Sean McDonough asked when the Board meeting will be held at PETE & C. In the recent past it has been held Sunday at 5 p.m. Sean stated that Sunday is very full and if we choose to have it that day, we have a 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. timeframe. There was some discussion of the times and days. It was decided the board meeting would start at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday (although all are invited to come earlier if you wish. An invitation will be placed on the website.
Martin Friedman asked if he needs to look into getting tchotchke (or chachka according to dictionary.com) and if so, is there a cost cap? Jim said there is no cost cap but included to be as close to $0 as possible.
Discussion then occurred regarding funding for PAECT officers for PETE & C and representatives for other conferences. This was a tabled discussed from last meeting. Figures were reviewed for registration, room and board, and mileage. Questions were also raised about districts paying for conference fees. After calculating costs, Martin stated that he has a hard time justifying that we implement this standard and possibly cause detriment to the organization in the future (in terms of funds). Jim agreed with Martin. Jim still felt that representatives should be sent to the ISTE Conference and the national conference. The AECT representative should go to AECT and the ISTE representative should go to NECC. Jamie brought the issue to the table that we have room provided to attend these board meetings but not for the board to attend the board meeting at the conference. Jim stated that past practice has never paid for this. Jamie questioned why we couldn’t look at one room and mileage (just like we do for other board meetings). Jim didn’t feel it was a simple discussion but Jack thinks if we do it now, it is what we’ve been doing all along. Jim believes it is in the practices and procedures. Linda questioned if the board members could receive a copy of these practices and procedures to read (even though it needs to be revised – according to Jim). At this time, it is believed that Ron has the only copy. From past practices, the president and vice president had their registration, lodging, and meals paid for. In looking at the numbers, Ron stated that it would cost approximately $2100 for mileage to Hershey and at $118 for one night’s lodging, we would be over $4000. Martin suggested we calculate what it costs for all meetings and come back with that figure and may have to cap that.
Jim feels we also need to identify which board members we are discussing. Ron stated that $4000 is already budgeted just for the conference. Jim thinks that Jack has a valid point that it is a board meeting. Jim and Ron will discuss and come back with a vote. Jack clarified that it does not have to be paid.
Another topic that was tabled from the last meeting was the payment of the membership fee for PAECT of board members. Linda voiced her opinion that she does not mind paying the membership fee and supporting the organization as was discussed at the last meeting. Martin added that maybe a reduced rate lifetime membership should be offered for volunteerism.
Ann Noonen, our PAIMS representative, discussed the PETE&C keynote speakers and how they are working with the Discovery Network to have Hall Davidson for opening ceremonies and on Monday. Tuesday's speaker will be Kathy Schrock and the commencement speaker is Tony Brewer. Discovery Education is sponsoring a pre-conference with 100 teachers led by Hall Davidson and Kathy Schrock.
Ann also discussed an awesome resource that schools across
Jim asked Kyle about the 21st century higher
education summit. According to Kyle, it
will be held May 24 – 26 at
Jamie Plaster updated members present on the regional happenings of NPAECT. They are holding a student showcase (about 1000 people involved) to see what students are doing with technology (including web pages, bulletin boards, presentations, etc.). She is working with Edinboro to host the showcase in the spring. She is also working to integrate higher-ed graduate students to present as well. According to Jamie, the expected date is Wednesday, April 26.
Wally Leech stated that as a regional representative he has been meeting with people and will probably hold a meeting after the holiday.
Dan Shelley is working on holding a workshop for the SouthWest region.
According to President Bolton, virtual board meetings are
scheduled for December 10 and January 21.
However, the January meeting was for a meeting prior to PETE&C. It will be tentatively changed to a physical
meeting in Hershey.
Sean McDonough made a motion to adjourn. Dan Shelley seconded. Meeting adjourned at 11:37 a.m.