The meeting was called to order by President Dave Sykes at 7:10 am. Those attending were Carl Wenning, Eric Peterson, Steve Weber, Jack Mochel, Dave Cornell, Howard Balfour, Tom Snyder, Dave Sykes, Roger Reeves, Roger Malcolm, Kathy Qin, Yan Lwin, Chuck Schulz, Tim Wagner, Fred Zurheide, and David Renneke.

The minutes of the Spring 1997 council meeting were presented and approved. The treasurer's report showed a balance of $3,498.17 and was approved as presented.

There was no report from the section representative, Conley Stutz. His report was received by e-mail about a week later. Click here to read it.

A motion was made, seconded and carried (MSC) that Roger Malcolm continue to serve as our Publicity Chair and Section Editor.

Roger Reeves reported that the ISAAPT newsletter costs about $200 for each one. He will try to get future issues out about four weeks before each section meeting.

Fred Zurheide reported that as of this morning, 46 people are registered for this meeting.

Concerning the High School Teacher Award, Tim Wagner reported that five nominations have been received so far. All materials are due by January 15. To save paper and postage, he will try to distribute the information to the Council members via our website.

Dave Sykes appointed an ad hoc committee (Roger Reeves, Roger Malcolm and Tim Wagner) to establish a policy about the High School Teacher Award concerning the roll-over of nominations.

The dates for the Spring Section meeting at Western Illinois University have been changed to April 24-25, 1998.

Additional invitations to host future section meetings were received. The current schedule is as follows:

Fall 1998 - Highland Community College, Freeport (Oct. 23-24, 1998)
Spring 1999 - Knox College, Galesburg
Fall 1999 - Open
Spring 2000 - University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
Fall 2000 - Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville
Spring 2001 - Open
Fall 2001 - Joliet Junior College, Joliet

The next item concerned the certification of high school teachers. Carl Wenning will be drafting a "letter of intent" on behalf of ISAAPT to be sent to the Illinois State Board of Education stating our willingness to participate in the evaluation of high school physics teacher portfolios that eventually may be required as part of a licensure program that has been proposed by the ISBE to replace the current certification system. The communication will indicate that this is not a letter of support for the proposed changes but, rather, a letter of willingness to participate in the portfolio review process should the new program become law. An ad hoc committee (Carl Wenning, Steve Wagner, and Dave Sykes) was created to work on this. Before sending the letter, it will be e-mailed to the Council for them to look at.

Carl Wenning distributed copies of a proposal to establish a "Guidebook Program for Physics Teacher Education Majors". MSC that we approve this proposal.

The matter of how much to pay the section representative for attending the summer AAPT meeting was discussed. We currently have a policy of paying $200. No decision was made about changing the amount for the future. However, because Conley Stutz's expenses for attending the AAPT meeting at Denver came to about $1100 and his school (Bradley University) covered only $600 of this amount, it was MSC that we pay him an additional $200.

Roger Reeves of the Nominating Committee presented the following list of names, scheduled for action during the business meeting of the section later today:

Eric Peterson - President-Elect
David Renneke - Secretary-Treasurer (term expires in 2000)
Conley Stutz - Section Representative (term expires in 1998)
Gary Wolber - for Council, four-year term, high school, class of 2001
Howard Balfour - for Council, three-year term, 2-year college, class of 2000
Curtis Hieggelke - for Council, four-year term, 2-year college, class of 2001
Gary Gladding - for Council, four-year term, 4-year college, class of 2001

Dave Cornell proposed that in the future, the SPS Zone Meeting (for Zone 8 or 9) be combined with the ISAAPT meeting. He will contact the Zone 9 Councilor George Rutherford. (Note: E-mail communication from Dave Cornell to the Council on October 30, 1997, indicated that Mr. Rutherford added his support to this proposal.)

MSC that we create an ISAAPT brochure for publicizing our organization, its activities, and its future meetings. An ad hoc committee (Kathy Qin, Yan Lwin, Carl Wenning, and Eric Peterson) was appointed to work on this. The meeting was adjourned at 8:37 am.

David R. Renneke
Secretary-Treasurer