lllinois Section
American Association of Physics Teachers

Minutes of the Spring Council Meeting
Knox College
Umbeck Science and Mathematics Center
April 25, 1998

The meeting was called to order by President Carl Wenning at 7:33 am. Those attending were Carl Wenning, Eric Peterson, Tom Snyder, Dave Sykes, Roger Malcolm, Kathy Qin, Chuck Schulz, Tim Wagner, Ann Brandon, Conley Stutz, Gary Wolber, Jon Thaler, and David Renneke.

The minutes of the Fall 1997 council meeting were presented and approved. The treasurer's report showed a balance of $3,167.33 as of April 20, 1998.

Our section representative, Conley Stutz reported that he was unable to attend the winter meeting in New Orleans. Ann Brandon who did attend that meeting reported that the national AAPT had a $50,000 deficit last year. Meetings are becoming quite expensive. There will probably be an increase in dues.

In an e-mail message from Roger Reeves, he asked whether we should include the abstracts from our meetings in future issues of the Illinois Physics Teacher. The consensus was that we should list the titles and authors but not the abstracts. It was suggested that we look into the idea of paid advertising in this publication.

MSC that Ann Brandon be the recipient of the 1998 Distinguished Service Citation to be presented at the fall meeting.

An ad hoc committee (Roger Reeves, Roger Malcolm, and Tim Wagner) was appointed at the last meeting to establish a policy about the High School Teacher Award concerning the roll-over of nominations. Here are their recommendations. MSC that we approve them.

• Non-award winning nominees should be notified concerning the results of the award process and be invited to the meeting. However, they will not be presented with any certificate or other acknowledgement.

• Non-award winning nominees will be allowed to maintain their nominations, if desired, and submit updated information on a yearly basis (if they remain in physics teaching). We will also check with their nominators to see if they still wish to recommend the nominee for the award.

• A follow-up letter will be sent once to nominees from the previous year who did not submit information to see if they are interested in submitting this year. If they do not respond to this second request for information, they will not be contacted again.

Tim Wagner distributed a detailed timeline that he will be following during the next year in the process of selecting next year's high school teacher award recipient.

Dave Sykes reported that the Nominations Committee which will be presenting their nominations at the fall meeting, has already secured the approval of three people for positions on the Council.

Since the meeting last fall, Carl Wenning prepared and distributed by mail a new ISAAPT Brochure designed to promote membership and advertise upcoming meetings. Dave Renneke reported that since the fall meeting he has received by mail membership applications and a check for dues from 15 people. Carl indicated that he will continue to update and distribute the brochure.

Dave Renneke and Carl Wenning reported on the success of the "Guidebook Program for Physics Teacher Education Majors" that was approved at last fall's Council meeting. The following 13 students received a welcome letter from Carl Wenning. Dave Renneke included a cover letter and sent each of them one of three guidebooks: 1. String and Sticky Tape Experiments, 2. A Potpourri of Physics Teaching Ideas, 3. A Demonstration Handbook for Physics. The cost of each book was $26.

Chuck Schulz stated that, as of this morning, 46 people were registered for this meeting. Note: The final number turned out to be 54. As a result of the online registration before and after the meeting, you may review the list in any of the following forms: name tags | name/address/e-mail | fees.

Dave Renneke extended an invitation for Augustana College to host the fall 1999 meeting of ISAAPT. He indicated that they were planning to invite the Iowa section of AAPT and hold a joint meeting. In subsequent action, communication with Laurent Hodges of Iowa State University revealed that they have the date open at this point and will consider our invitation no later than this fall (their next regular meeting).

Ann Brandon offered a tentative invitation for Joliet West High School to host the spring 1999 meeting of ISAAPT. She will be able to confirm the invitation and select dates by August, 1998.

Millikin University has tentatively offered to host the spring 2001 meeting of ISAAPT. Click here to see the current list of hosts of our meetings, both past and future.

Carl Wenning reported that SPS Zone 9 is planning to meet with us at our meeting this fall at Highland Community College in Freeport.

Several years ago, Conley Stutz published a "Meeting Handbook" designed to help anyone who was planning to host an ISAAPT meeting. Carl Wenning volunteered to work with Conley to create an online verstion of this handbook.

The following people volunteered to serve on the Program Committee for the fall 1998 meeting at Highland Community College: Eric Peterson (chair), Chuck Schulz, Ann Brandon, Carl Wenning, and Dave Renneke. (Note: This committee met at 1:00 pm on April 25 and discussed ideas for the program.) It was suggested that, in the future, the Program Committee for the next meeting have a scheduled time to get together and discuss plans.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:53 am.

David R. Renneke
Secretary-Treasurer