Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English Language Arts
Executive
Board Meeting Minutes
Members Present:
Mari Sue Bethke, John Zbikowski, Jacki Martindale, Jim Vollmer, Joanne
Katzmarek, Bill Schang, Tom Scott, Chris Van Hoof, Marti Matyska, Ruth Wood,
Bonnie Frechette, and Trista Dauk
I. Call to Order and
Approval of Agenda
President Tom called
the meeting to order at 9:00 A.M.
Bonnie moved to approve the agenda as printed; Mari Sue seconded the motion. The motion carried.
II.
Secretary’s Report-Chris Van Hoof
Bonnie moved to
accept the May 1, 2003 minutes as printed.
Jim seconded, and the motion carried.
III. Treasurer’s Report-Scott Oates
Scott was unable to attend
the meeting, but he sent a written report (see attached handout). After some discussion, Bonnie motioned to
set the convention manager’s stipend at $1,000. Jim seconded the motion. The motion carried, with one dissenting
vote. Jacki motioned to set the
executive treasurer’s stipend at $500.
Bonnie seconded the motion; the motion carried. Due to concerns about a deficit spending
budget, Bill Schang motioned that John chair a subcommittee, appointed by Tom,
to explore budgeting possibilities and come back with a report/recommendation
at the February board meeting. The motion carried.
·
An updated list of district directors
was passed around for corrections.
·
If directors have information and/or
activities that would be appropriate for inclusion in the Directors Handbook,
please forward such things to Mary Graber.
·
Marti handed out a list of districts
that have helped over the past several years at the convention, and Mary G.
needs to assign district(s) for the 2004 convention and let Marti and Jacki
know which ones they are.
·
Trista sent
the revised membership form to Scott in May, and Judy Knoll has the new
form. Trista and Judy discussed
concerns about CESA districts and how to include that information with the
membership mailing. In order to be economical, it was decided that a note of
explanation directing people to the website map of districts would be better
than sending a two or more page mailing.
·
Trista will
contact Judy to check the status of membership renewals. According to Tom, WCTELA ordered a new list
of license holders from DPI (which would be current up to June, 2003), and the
new membership forms may be delayed because we are waiting for the list from
DPI.
·
After
discussion from district directors about not knowing who their members are, it
was agreed that Tom will send the membership data base to Trista. Trista volunteered to look for ways in which
this information could be maintained or altered to be more useful to directors,
and she will relay that information to John so it can be considered during
budget subcommittee discussions.
·
WEJ-Ruth Wood is still accepting material for the fall issue of
WEJ until Nov. 1. She also needs volunteer schools for the
spring issue, so she invited those on the board to volunteer their schools or
others that may be good. David Beard,
Ruth’s colleague, is interested in archiving the WEJ.
·
Update-The September issue is ready. There have been some
concerns with printing that are being worked out, so you should expect to see
the issue soon.
·
Website-John
hasn’t been able to put up a traffic counter because of technical difficulties,
but he is still working on it. The Call for Proposals for the 2004 Convention
has been added to the site. The idea of
adding convention presentation information to the website is ongoing. Including messages, such as those from Ellen
Last, is being done. John mentioned
that a policy to restrict or define what gets posted on site should be created.
(see NCTE website for an example.) Tom directed John to create such a policy
for review at the February board meeting.
Ruth moved to authorize a $30 addition to license renewal, which is
coming up later this year, to allow for an email address in addition to our
domain name. Bonnie seconded the motion, and it was approved.
·
Video-Mari
Sue reported that the group met with Ben Logan over the summer at his
home. They have so much great footage
that we are now looking at a video just of Ben Logan. In addition, Bill has the name of a woman from Milwaukee that
writes poetry about Milwaukee. He will be following up on this lead.
Katherine Conover is looking for
nominations for the Burris Award.
·
The group
met on Friday afternoon and discussed creating a strand for the convention.
They will work in cooperation with Jacki and Marti on this project.
·
The group is
looking for information and concerns from cooperating teachers and schools
concerning the preparation and performance of student teachers. If you have any
information, send it to Ruth.
Helen Dale received a variety of information from Tom over the
summer.
Gerhardt Fischer has been named as Ellen Last’s replacement. He was invited to attend this meeting, but
given the short notice was unable to attend.
He is planning to attend the February board meeting, and in an email to
Tom, he recognizes DPIs need for WCTELA’s input on state level issues.
B. Elections/Nominations
Debbie Kinder is responsible for putting a slate together by the
February board meeting. In addition, we are looking to fill
district director vacancies in Districts 4, 9, 11, and 12. If you have any
ideas, please forward them to Debbie.
C. Awards-(See
appointment under new business)
E. Wisconsin Communication Association
Brenda Willuz
is the WCA person working with Jacki and Marti on the convention.
A.
2nd Vice President-Bill Schang
Bill recommended having the 2005 convention in Madison as a one
day convention. The board will act on the recommendation under new
business. The potential dates are April
21-22 or April 28-29.
B. 1st Vice President-Jacki Martindale
Jacki reported that Dr. Richard Beach from the University of
Minnesota has been contracted as the
keynote speaker. The Calls for Proposals were handed out. They are also
available online.
No additional report
·
The group reviewed
the resolutions from the summer retreat (see attachment) and felt that we are
already making good progress on many of them.
·
Mari Sue
moved to accept Bill’s recommendation to have the 2005 convention in Madison
for one day. Jim seconded the motion,
and it was approved.
·
Jim moved to
approve the following statement of inclusion of people of color as a draft
proposal for the annual meeting. Joanne seconded the motion, and it carried.
It is the policy of the Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English
Language Arts that it demonstrate sensitivity to the concerns of people of
color and they be represented on all Council-sponsored programs. People of color refers to historically
underrepresented groups-African Americans, Pacific Islanders, American Indians,
Asian Americans, and Latinos. To this end, the following actions are to be
undertaken where possible:
1.
to include
people of color on all appointed committees, task forces and other official
groups;
2.
to include
people of color among the leadership of the above groups;
3.
to include
people of color among the nominees presented by each nominating committee;
4.
to include
people of color in WCTELA conventions and woekshop sessions dealing with
interests of people of color and using as leader or consultants practicing
teachers of color from the levels of instruction concerned;
5.
to include
people of color in verbal and visual materials intended to represent or
describe WCTELA;
6.
to include
people of color as targeted groups in any recruiting efforts.
In order to determine the effectiveness of this policy, the
Executive Board will monitor the success.
The intent of this policy should not be construed to mean every
subcommittee within a committee or task force or other official group.
VIII.
New Business
·
Tom
appointed Carol Conway-Gerhardt to be our awards coordinator. Jacki moved to
endorse the appointment of Carol Conway-Gerhardt for a three year term. Bonnie
seconded the motion, The motion carried.
·
After some
discussion about staging a convention with WSRA, the group decided to proceed
with the possibility.
·
Summer
retreat dates and location—to be determined by Jacki
·
Location of
February Board meeting—to be determined
The meeting adjourned at 12:05.