Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English Language Arts

 Executive Board Meeting Minutes

Saturday, September 25, 2004

Howard Johnson Hotel, Wisconsin Dells

 

Members present:  Jacki Martindale, Tom Scott, Chris Van Hoof, Marti Matyska, Bill Schang, Scott Oates, Mary Graber, Mari Sue Bethke, Carol Conway-Gerhardt, Lynn Aprill, John Zbikowski, Gerhard Fischer, Orin Mueller, and Penny Parsons

 

I.                     Call to Order and Approval of Agenda

Jacki called the meeting to order at 8:35 a.m..  Mary made a motion to approve the agenda as published, and Mari Sue seconded the motion.  The motion carried.

 

II.            Secretary’s Report-Chris Van Hoof

Bill moved to approve the minutes from the April 29,2004, Executive Board Meeting with the correction of “St. Benedict” for “St. Benedictine.”  The motion was seconded by Mari Sue and approved.

 

III.           Treasurer's Report-Scott Oates

Scott submitted a written summary of the current budget. The organization has approximately $9,600 in the checking account and a $10,000 CD that will mature this summer. Carol moved to approve the treasurer’s report; Lynn seconded the motion, and the motion carried.

 

IV.           Committee Reports

A.      District Director Liaison-Mary Graber

Mary shared an updated address list of directors, and she expressed a desire to find directors for the missing slots. A handbook for new directors has been developed and will be given to new directors. The ballot for director elections will be in the Update.  An officer list was passed around for address corrections.  Jacki will be updating the list and sending it to people as soon as possible.

 

B.      Membership-No report

               

C.    Publicity

Publicity is no longer a standing committee, and it will be removed from future agendas.

 

D.      Publications and Website

1.    Update

·         After a lengthy discussion, it was motioned by Mary to send the Fall Update to all 300 license holders in the state. Tom seconded the motion. The motion carried.

·         The Update needs to include a membership card as an insert. Scott will hire two students for $50 each to stuff and fold the mailing. Other membership issues that were discussed in relation to the publication of the Update include attempting to track dates of renewals to see if the fall mailing generated the renewals necessary to justify the expense involved. There was also some discussion for future consideration to include an incentive to join before a specific date.

·         Lynn moved to have the Jan/Feb. issue of the Update be a combination of awards information and convention preview, and that it be sent to all 300 license holders in the state.  Mari Sue seconded the motion.  Tom made a friendly amendment to seek financial support for the mailing from the Pooley Foundation. Lynn accepted the friendly amendment, and the motion carried.  Scott will speak to Marty Woods, a Pooley trustee about the possibility.

·         We will discuss the need for a spring Update at the February Executive Board meeting.

 

 

 

2.       Wisconsin English Journal

·         Ruth Wood will continue as editor for the remainder of this year, but we need to find a replacement for her.  David Beard, Ruth’s colleague is still willing to do some layout work.

·         The person who committed to doing the Bilingual issue planned for this fall backed out, so we need to get an issue together rather quickly.  Tom suggested using abstracts or summaries of action research projects involving English Language Arts. Tom, Carol, Penny, John and Jacki will be contacting a variety of sources, and they will send the material to Ruth Woods by Oct.30.   If the deadline date changes, Jacki will inform those involved.

·         The spring issue will again showcase a particular school. Scott  recommended a middle school in Eau Claire, and Jacki suggested Lodi High School.  These ideas will be shared with Ruth. If you have other schools you’d like to nominate, you should contact Ruth.

·         Mari Sue suggested putting the journal online as a cost saving measure.  After lengthy discussion, an ad hoc committee was appointed by Jacki to do the following: prepare a cost analysis for the traditional and online methods of delivery, and investigate the logistics of an on-line journal.  The committee will consist of Scott, John, and any other member that would be interested.  The information gathered will be presented at the February board meeting.  If necessary, the membership could then be surveyed during the spring convention as to how they would like the journal sent.  The data will be considered at the summer meeting, where a decision should be made.

 

E.       Professional Issues-(as provided by Gerhard Fischer at Friday night’s discussion)

1.        Writing Assessment

·         WI considered several options for the statewide writing assessment.  We could eliminate it, as Illinois has recently done; do a local assessment process (similar to what was done a few years ago for oral language); or continue with the assessment we currently have.  DPI decided to stay with the current system. 

·         There will be an effort made to involve four or five Wisconsin people in the scoring process.  They will be sent to Sacramento for a week in January to participate in the scoring process.

·         There has been some discussion on changing the nine point rubric currently being used to the four proficiency levels.  This decision has not been made yet.

2.        Writing Across the Curriculum

Gerhard is interested in finding current writing programs around the state that are successful with writing across curriculums.  It is hoped that such schools will provide insights into best practice that can be shared with others.

3.        Surveys of Enacted Curriculum

Gerhard explained how this process can be used to create a concrete connection between curriculum, assessment, and individual classroom instruction; and the results can be used to guide future decisions.

 

F. Censorship/Intellectual Freedom-No report

 

G. Conference on English Leadership-Tom Scott

Tom reported that the WCEL list serv may not be operating.  The site was previously hosted by NCTE, and that may no longer be true.  Tom will check with NCTE and look for another host site if necessary.  Tom also reported on the upcoming CEL Convention, which takes place immediately after the NCTE Convention (Nov. 22-24). Tom is the program chair for this event, and he encouraged people to attend.

 

 

H. Conference on English Education-No report

V.            Liaison Report

A.       Awards-Carol Conway-Gerhardt

            Carol is updating the list of contact people for the various awards.  A promotional piece will be prepared for the Jan/Feb. Update.

             

B.      Election/Nominations

A slate of officers and directors is needed prior to the spring convention.  Tom, Mary, and Jacki will work on getting a slate of candidates for approval at the February board meeting.

 

C.      Foundations-No report

 

D.      Wisconsin Communications Association

Bill’s contact at WCA is Jim Pratt, from UW-River Falls.

 

VI.         Officer Reports

A.      1st Vice President-Bill Schang

Bill reported the following: Kylene Beers will be the keynote speaker at the convention, he is looking for proposals and asking everyone to encourage participation, the planning committee will decide when to have the annual meeting, and the luncheon speaker will be from the ACLU.

 

B.      2nd Vice President-Lynn Aprill

Lynn recommended switching to a fall convention.  After discussion, Tom made a motion to have a fall convention in October, 2005, with the exact date to be determined by hotel availability. Mari Sue seconded the motion, and the motion carried. The theme for the fall 2005 convention will be Literacy.com:Teaching English in a .com world.

 

VII.         Old Business

                A.  Discussion of Ideas from Friday Night

                        All of the issues discussed Friday night have been addressed above.

 

B.   Moving /Changing the Time and Place of Convention

See the 2nd Vice-President’s report above.

 

C.      Replacement Editor of the Journal and Membership Secretary

Making personal contact seems to be the most effective way to recruit an editor, so Jacki will personally contact Carmen Manning from UW-Eau Claire about being an editor. It was suggested that we look at the possibility of hiring an external source to manage membership. John will make a list of needs (like a job description), and John and Gerhard will provide Jacki with information from various companies such as Svinicki Association Services (which does the membership for Milwaukee Press Club) and Chase/Pheifer & Associates.   Another possibility is a faculty member at Cardinal Stritch who does membership for WASCD.

 

VIII.      New Business

A.      Memorial to Jack Kean

Jacki will talk to Ellen Last about some memorial possibilities.

 

B.      February Board Meeting

The next meeting will be on February 11-12, 2005, at Howard Johnson Hotel in WI Dells.

 

IX.          Adjournment

Tom moved to adjourn, and Penny seconded the motion.  The meeting adjourned at

11:57 a.m.