PAECT

Board of Directors Meeting

Hershey, PA

February 20, 2005

Proposed Minutes

President Jim Bolton called the meeting to order at 6:10 p.m.

Voting Board Members Present:  Ronald Bennett, James Bolton, Jack Day, Martin Friedman, Linda LaCoe, Wally Leech, Sean McDonough, Jacqueline Smith, Carol Tiedemann

Non-voting members present:  Mary Ann Achorn, Sally Bair, Kathleen Brautigam, Karen Galbraith, Mary Beth Hengelbrok, Holly Jobe, Jamie Plaster, Kathleen Smith, Paul Welliver

Present via Conference Call:

Video – None

Audio – None

Meeting Start:

President Bolton asked members to read over the minutes from the last meeting.  With no adjustments or corrections, a motion was made by Sean McDonough to approve the minutes.  Wally Leech seconded.  Minutes were approved.

Ron Bennett started the treasurer’s report by reminding all members to sign in.  He distributed the treasurer’s report including both expense and revenues.  Ron reviewed the reports.  He reminded anyone having reimbursable expenses to complete the necessary forms and to submit them to him.  Wally commended Ron on his quick payment of expense requests.  Martin Friedman made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report.  Sean McDonough seconded.  Motion carried, report approved.

President Bolton welcomed visitors to the meeting including:  Jay Himes, Executive Director of PASBO, Kathleen Brautigam from PDE and the ISTE Team.

Holly Jobe gave a report on ISTE and NECC.  Things are in full swing with both the program committee and the MVP team.  There are booths for ISTE and NECC downstairs (at this conference) to promote NECC.  We currently have about 250 people in the database for volunteers but need many more.  Rosie and Jim head the welcome committee.  They will be doing things for first timers.  Flyers will be available on the web for items such as what to do in Philadelphia, etc. to really make people welcome to Philadelphia.  Sally has been doing a wonderful job getting students and entertainers.  Holly asked each of to approach people in our region and ask them to sign up by going online and registering their name in the database!  Just as a reminder, though, the volunteers still need to pay the registration fee and find their own housing.  However, according to Holly, volunteers do get the early bird registration fee.  And, we ask that the volunteers work for 3 hours or more.  There are mostly daytime needs for volunteers but there are also some nighttime help needed.  All PETE&C attendees received an advance program for NECC.  Holly said it looks like we will have Internet2 access in the convention and conference centers.  Holly listed some of the evening events – Monday night is the opening reception, Tuesday night is the dance and film festival, and Wednesday are special tickets events.  Holly continued her report by stating that we have great partners in the area.  The Franklin Institute is giving all people with conference badges free admittance.  Holly reminded board members that if you haven’t already made your reservations to make them as soon as possible.  PAECT will get a room at the conference center.  Carol Teitelman is working on the use of this room for various events. The room will have about 8 round tables in it.  PAECT will be using the room for the showcase for Keystone Technology Integrators.  Another use of the room will be Michael Golden’s session.  Poster sessions will also be held in this room.  There will be times that others may use the room such as for sessions that were not accepted by NECC but still quality sessions.  Another possibility is to the use the room as a meeting place for carpools of PA people.  We need to coordinate people to be there as greeters from PAECT.  Jim is trying to coordinate vendors to make food available in the room.  Kirk is trying to get large (blown up) photographs of students using computers from across the state.  Kathy Brautigam questioned if we need to get sign-offs from the schools and names of students.  It was decided that Kirk should be emailed to send out the request for photographs again and to remind people that they must be clearly focused pictures.  Jim reminded members that the PAECT reception is going to be Tuesday night.  He said it is going to be a fun event and we’ll invite everybody.  Linda suggested contacting LAM systems if they could be of service to us since she was recently talking with them and they missed the deadlines to be a vendor at the event but sounded very interested in somehow being there.  Carol brought to Jim a “pink jacket award”, although there are also black jackets.  She suggested the award would tie in nicely to our organization and with our ties to ISTE.  This award is a way to recognize great people that have a great way of making the connection of technology and the curriculum.  There are 8 criteria.  And, as an affiliate, we can solicit applications.  There are no limits to the number we contribute, but we are asked to keep it to 2 to 3 per event.  They will need a 40-45 day advance notice of recognition so we would have to “move” right now for a June award.  Carol recommends forming a committee.  Sean McDonough nominated Jack Day for the committee since it would be part of his awards duties as immediate past president.  Carol said the makingithappen website has the application.  Martin asked Carol to send us an email.  Some discussion occurred about possibly having one from each region.

Karen Galbraith reported on the PAECT Student Showcase.  The date for this year is May 9 at the Rotunda.  Wally Leech made two recommendations after noting that it is wonderful that we hold this at the state capitol.  He first suggested sending invitations to other committees and departments.  He especially thinks it is a good idea to send the information and invitation to the technology department at the state level (especially since funding is not as great as it used to be).  With this suggestion, President Bolton welcomed Kathy Brautigam to come to the event. 

Jay Himes, Executive Director of PASBO wished to say a few words.  In discussing PETE&C, he feels we might have broken records in attendance.  Mr. Himes also thanked PAECT for our support and in working with PASBO’s leaders in making PETE&C happen.  Sean McDonough asked Jay if we would have a presence at the PASBO conference in April.  Jay responded yes.

President Bolton continued the meeting by regretfully announcing that Vicki Williams has resigned as Parliamentary Committee Chairperson.  He noted that Vicki has done an excellent job for us for many years and how sad we are to see her go. President Bolton also regretfully announced that Sally Bair submitted her resignation earlier this evening as Committee chair for CoSN.  With these two resignations, PAECT is in need of a parliamentarian and a CoSN committee chairperson.  To fulfill the parliamentarian position, it is requested the person know Roberts Rules of Order. 

President Bolton announced the new website.  This new site will be live by the end of the PETE&C conference.  He thanked Mary Ann Achorn and her son for putting the site together for us.  He joyfully announced that the site contains lots of pictures, is interactive, and has links for NECC and the volunteer’s page.  Mary Ann added that the student multi-media crew would be at the PETE&C Conference tomorrow to take pictures of the conference.  Please email Mary Ann with critiques and any updates that you have.  Her email address is:  machorn@hershey.k12.pa.us.  Jim also announced that we have a new brochure and copies are available.

Jim discussed the PAECT pins.  He displayed the pins that will be available.  They will be 1inch pins containing the script PAECT.  He said new members would get a pin mailed to them.  Mary Ann will send out a membership card and a pin after this conference.  This ties into the presence committee.  Jim is challenging this committee to look at sending a calendar containing the bylaws, etc. to members.  He showed examples of calendars he has received from PAESSP.  He also discussed the technology coordinator’s book and how we might possibly purchase these and give to members.  According to Jim, these purchases could go towards the “do you care I’m alive” questions we receive from members.  President Bolton felt we should do these mailings throughout the year, one item at a time for constant communication.  He also suggested sending an invitation to the PAECT reception at NECC.  Finally, we should have a link on the webpage to draw attention to the new webpage.

Jim then continued by stating that this us to what do we (PAECT) do?  Sean asked what we do now in light of the mention of the Department of Education’s café website.  Yesterday, Jim stopped in at Penn State at ‘thon (the dance marathon).   What impressed Jim is all of the signs posted of supporters of event.  This brought up the possibility of us doing charitable events.  We could say $5 of members’ dues is going to be donated to “this” organization.  Jim “throws” this out for discussion and thoughts for a future meeting.  Paul Welliver suggested his view to direct our attention to a technology-related event such as the student showcase.  Linda suggested if we wanted to sponsor an event such as the dance marathon that we should push our money to be used for hosting the website or some tech piece associated with it.  Mary Ann stated that normally the sponsoring schools often sponsor these areas already, but added that she agrees with Paul.  Mary Ann also suggested some assistive device groups.  More discussion on this topic will occur at a future meeting.

Vice President Martin Friedman updated members on the 501.3c status by announcing that PAECT will have this status within 3 months.

President Bolton discussed that several years ago PAECT went away from having an executive secretary and a central mailing address and phone number.  The lawyers from 501.3c want this and a lot of activities are requiring this.  Jim would like to have us generate conversation about this.  He also stated that any legitimate organization charges $50 for membership.  He then added that any legitimate organization has an executive director with a central address that people recognize and that holds the organization together.  We are still trying to work together and we are still so close.  One of the challenges is with the connection to ISTE and NECC.  Jim wants us to think about this.  He stated that in the past we were spending $5400 a year.  Discussion then occurred on the position for a part-time person.  Jackie said she thinks our mailbox is up for renewal in May.  Mary Ann said Act 48 is also ready for renewal (which requires a mailing address). A suggestion was made to have PAECT do Act 48 at NECC.

Sally Bair gave a report on CoSN.  She had handouts of CoSN and the ETAN newsletter.  Sally mentioned that she has been trying to get at least one member from each region to advocacy day training.  She said the training is hands-on and about advocacy at the federal level.  CoSN and ISTE partner together for advocacy.  Sally is encouraging that this board (PAECT) step up to the plate and attend and promote advocacy training.  According to Sally, “We are at the point where we need to get involved, stand up, be heard, and take some action”.  Martin stated that everybody should go to the ETAN site and sign up so you get these items.  Sally reminded everyone to not send snail mail to legislators, as they may never get them.  She said the best way to contact them is to use email, the forms available on websites, or better yet, faxing.

Martin introduced Michael P. White and welcomed him to PAECT.  Also, welcome to Mark Jones.  Mark Jones questioned how many charter schools are familiar with this organization.

Ron Bennett emailed all regional directors a copy of the staffing list and times of the PAECT booth.  He requested to please make sure regional directors notify all people scheduled to work the booth. 

Paul Welliver reported on the archives.  He reminded us that last year all the materials that Janet Holiday had were brought to his doorstep along with items from others.  He has a stack of stuff of his own too.  He is in the process of organizing.  Paul handed out a listing of all categories of the collection and requested members present to submit to him items that they have from the past.  Paul expects that by the next board meeting, he will have all the materials organized. 

President Jim Bolton announced target dates for future meetings:

March 19, 2005 - virtual meeting

            April 16, 2005 - face-to-face meeting with time and location yet to be determined

            May 14, 2005 – virtual meeting

Jacqueline Smith had the names of people from AECT to attend our next board meeting.

Kathleen Smith congratulated Karen Galbraith on her nice job on the PAECT brochure.  Sean McDonough stated that there are several items that are incorrect in the brochure.  Martin said to send Karen corrections to Karen since she is responsible for.  Mary Ann will change the web version.

Sean McDonough reported on the bus transportation for NECC.  It would be Coach USA out of Eric.  It is a 56-passenger bus and would make two runs, a northern tier run and a southern tier run.  It will probably be $75 per person per round trip “ticket”/run.  Some members commented that this is about how much it would probably cost just to park!  The bus would go down Sunday and come home Thursday.  It will drop the passengers at the convention center and then it would be each person’s responsibility to get their own transportation to their hotel.  Sean would like to see if we could put something at the PAECT booth to see if people are interested.  Suggestions were made to make sure we get an upfront commitment for payment.  Sean asked what should be the cut-off date for a decision if there aren’t enough people.  No decision was made.

President Bolton thanked all for all their hard work and what been doing. 

Martin Friedman made a motion to adjourn at 7:47 p.m.  Sean McDonough made a second.  The meeting was adjourned at 7:47 p.m.