Illinois
Section
American Association of Physics Teachers
Minutes of the Fall Council
Meeting
Rock Island High School, Room 117
October 14, 2006
President Bill Hogan called the
meeting to order at 7:05 a.m. In attendance were the following Council
members: Kenneth Mellendorf, Douglas Brandt, Carl Wenning, Troy Gobble,
Zak Knott, Bill Hogan, Rob Mason, Brian Davies, Cliff Parker, Dominic
Sarsah, Kimberly Shaw, Ann Brandon, Debby Lojkutz, Dave Renneke, Raydo
Bugayong, Chris LaRoche, Curtis Shoaf, and Elisabeth Langford. The
following items were addressed and decisions made:
Secretary-Treasurer Report:
Carl Wenning provided a hard copy of an electronic version that had been
sent via listserv in the days prior to the meeting. Both reports were
approved without question or correction.
Publicity Chair, Section Editor, and Webmaster
Report: Dave Renneke complimented Ben Brown for having suggested a
pre-submission deadline for talk titles with the note that, “we should
have done this a long time ago.” We had to move the initial deadline
back one week to get additional title submissions, but the process
worked extremely well. Dave noted that having a two-column format for
listing talks in parallel sections seemed to be well received. The
Council was unanimous in its praise of Dave for doing such an excellent
job with the ISAAPT web page. It was recommended that the submitted
paper listings be made more prominent on the web page so that
prospective attendees could more easily determine whether or not to
attend a given meeting. It was also requested to make the date of the
meeting more prominent, as well as providing a clear hyperlink to
information about the meeting – perhaps including the word “Details….”
and making the whole “icon” for the meeting a hyperlink and not just the
meeting title. Dave noted that the Announcer did not publish the picture
he had sent to the national office.
Section Representative Report:
Ann Brandon gave a detailed report on behalf of Carl who was not
able to attend the Section Rep meeting at Syracuse, NY. She
indicated that there is substantial support from the national office
for the sections to hold their meetings, including small grants,
“goodies,” and a speakers bureau. She reiterated that Toufic Hakim
had replaced Bernard Khoury as executive officer, but that Bernie
will stay on to work on generating $50,000 per year to support
Association activities and to continue working with Physics for All
(Physics First). She noted that the national Physics First website
maintained by the New York section will be updated. The US team came
back with five medals and second place overall in the International
Physics Olympiad. She noted that the national office will host
section listservs if desired, and that state sections can take
advantage of the national office’s 501(c)3 non-profit status under
certain circumstances. She summarized that the national office will
provide some travel support Section Reps attending the winter
meeting. High School Teaching Grants are being underutilized; only 1
or 2 requests are made each year. A joint High School/Teacher Prep
subcommittee is now working on entirely rewriting the booklet Role,
Qualifications, and Education of High School Physics Teachers, and
that volunteers to assist with this work are being solicited. The
High School Photo Contest had 600 entries this summer, and prizes
were provided by LeXmark. The video contest rules are being
rewritten. At the conclusion of Ann’s report Carl showed the new
Section Rep’s Handbook just created by the national office and
distributed at the Syracuse meeting. It will be turned over to his
replacement in office as soon as he completes reports from the
autumn Section meeting.
Newsletter Report:
Brian Davies noted that all goes well with publication and distribution
of the Illinois Physics Teacher. He printed 140 copies of the
fall issue, and sent out 120 – some in bundles to departments as a
cost-saving measure. Current issue cost for printing and sending was
about $240. Brian gladly consented to continue serving as newsletter
editor through spring 2007 “for sure”.
Outstanding High School Physics Teacher Award:
Cliff Parker noted that three viable candidates remain from last year’s
pool, and that a call for nominations will soon take place through the
Illinois Regional Offices of Education. He suggested that he will do
what he can to expand the network of notifications.
Committee for the Distinguished
Service Citation Report: Carl indicated that the plaque to accompany
Kim Shaw’s recognition this year surprisingly had not arrived at the
conference. He noted that he was as dismayed as anyone else, and had
fully expected to see the plaque at the meeting following online
discussion of the procedure for obtaining the plaque. He said he would
attempt to find out what happened in light of the fact that arrangements
had been made to have the plaque prepared and brought to the meeting.
Bylaw Revisions: Bill Hogan
noted that nothing had been done to date. Only a few recommendations for
amendments have been submitted. A show of hands indicated that only 6 of
the assembled Council members had even read the bylaws.
Current Meeting
Update: Meeting host Gary Wolber was unable to be present to provide
input, but it was noted that approximately 65 had pre-registered for the
meeting, and that there probably were several on-site registrations. It
was broadly agreed that everything was going extremely well. Everyone
felt that the recommendations derived from the summer retreat of the
Council had been fully implemented, and that this had helped make for a
high turnout, great invited speakers, contributed talks with a strong
focus on pedagogy, and an increased number of high school physics
teachers in attendance.
Future Meetings: Brian said
that arrangements were going well for the spring meeting, and noted that
he can easily handle parallel sessions. Suggestions for possible guest
speakers included Richard Hake, John Rigden from Washington University
in St. Louis, and José Mestre from UIUC. There will be a buffet with
cash bar. It was noted that the Council’s standing subcommittee for
planning would meet at 1 p.m. to continue the discussion.
Carl noted that he had
attended the board meeting of the Illinois Association of Chemistry
Teachers (IACT) on October 8, and that they were genuinely
interested in the joint meeting. A committee of four will gather to
organize the meeting – Carl and Troy (representing ISAAPT) and Tom
Holbrook and William Hunter (representing IACT). The Columbus Day
weekend in 2008 was approved.
The following meetings are now
formally in the schedule:
• Spring 2007 –
Western Illinois University, Macomb, March 30-31
• Fall 2007 – Lincoln Land Community College, Springfield
• Spring 2008 – University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign
• Fall 2008 – Illinois State University, Normal, October 10-11
(joint meeting with IACT) .
Nominations:
Past-president Kim Shaw detailed the list of nominees for this
year’s election:
-
President Elect – Debbie Lojkutz
-
Secretary/Treasurer – David Sykes
-
High School Rep – Zak Knott
-
Community College Rep – Tom Snyder
-
4-year College Rep – Tom Foster
-
Section Rep – Kim Shaw
Recruitment
Brochure and Guidelines:
Carl provided revised versions of the tri-fold recruitment brochure
for students and the 8-page recruitment guidelines booklet for
teachers. He indicated that IACT had agreed, pending actual costs,
to co-publish the guidelines booklet, and produce a chemistry
variant of the tri-fold brochure. It was agreed to go with a
professionally produced brochure (similar in quality to the brochure
from the ISU Physics Department that he displayed) and to keep with
a less expensive guidelines booklet (8-pages only, no card stock
cover). Carl will pursue discussions with IACT and the ISTA, and
will work with production specialists to come up with a finalized
quote that he will bring back to the groups for final approval.
Adjournment:
No other business was brought before the Executive Council; the
meeting was adjourned at 8:03 a.m.
Note:
The annual business meeting was held over lunch with Iowa Section
members in attendance. The ISAAPT membership decided to
invite the Iowa section to join Illinois for our Spring 2007 section meeting. The slate of ISAAPT nominees for the various offices was
set forth, and approved unanimously.
Carl J. Wenning
Secretary-Treasurer
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