Illinois Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers

Minutes of the Summer Council Retreat Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois Room 401A - Stevenson Hall July 18, 2006

Enlargement with captions

The meeting was called to order by President Bill Hogan at 10:15 a.m. In attendance were the following Council members and visitors: Kenneth Mellendorf, Carl Wenning, Troy Gobble, Bill Hogan, Rob Mason, Ben Brown, Brian Davies, Diana Roth, Ann Brandon, Debby Lojkutz, Dave Renneke, Raydo Bugayong, Chris LaRoche, and Elisabeth Langford. The following items were addressed and decisions made:

Expenses: It was agreed that the Council members would absorb their own travel costs for this meeting.

Distinguished Service Award: Speaking on behalf of the DSA Committee, Carl noted that one nomination had been received to date, and that this and any other names members would care to submit would be brought before the Council electronically for a formal decision.

Secretary-Treasurer Report: The minutes of the Spring 2006 Council meeting were read and approved without correction. Carl noted a balance of $5,250.59. The Treasurer's report was likewise approved without question or amendment.

Nominations: Carl noted that Kim Shaw would appreciate assistance in finding nominations for the officer and council positions that need to be filled at the fall meeting. Several names were put forward. Both Bill and Troy will contact these individuals to see if they are interesting in assuming new duties. Bill will communicate results to Kim.

Ad Hoc Committee: The Ad Hoc Committee for High School Physics Teacher Recruitment, Preparation, and Retention has produced two brochures, “Become a High School Physics Teacher” and “Recruiting the Next Generation of High School Science Teachers.” Carl solicited comments for improvement in the latter, the former having been reviewed by attendees at the recent joint meeting of the ISAAPT and the CS-AAPT. Following revisions in “Next Generation,” Carl will forward the final copy to the Council for review. Pending approval, Carl will print informal copies in large enough quantities for distribution at the Fall Section meeting using remaining money from the earlier $500 AAPT allocation. Decisions will be made later as to professional production using Section funds. Carl also briefly reported on his participation in a meeting at Cornell University to which he had been invited to talk about the ISAAPT Pipeline Project. He noted the great enthusiasm that was shown for the two draft brochures, and noted that Ted Hodapp has asked the ISAAPT to consider sending representatives to section meetings nationwide to disseminate information about the Pipeline Project. He asked that the ISAAPT Section Rep provide information to other section reps at the Syracuse meeting.

Guidebook Program: The ISAAPT Guidebook Program was approved for another three years. It was formally agreed that the Guidebook Program should extend to all Illinois teacher education programs and their physics education majors, despite the fact that some programs are located within the boundaries of CS-AAPT. CS-AAPT will be alerted about this program by Carl.

Section Representative: Carl indicated that he has been asked to join the AAPT’s Teacher Preparation Committee. He also noted that the Section Rep meeting at Syracuse is concurrently scheduled with the Teacher Prep Committee. He has asked for someone to substitute for him as Section Rep for this meeting, and indicated that a new Section Rep needs to be elected at the Fall ISAAPT meeting due to the prospects of ongoing schedule conflicts. Carl will see if Kim Shaw can substitute for him at the Section Rep meeting in Syracuse to disseminate information about the ISAAPT’s Pipeline Project.

Future Direction of ISAAPT: Bill asked everyone to comment briefly on the future direction of the Section. Following these comments, Bill stated that there appears to be four major preferences for future directions: (1) Section meetings should be more friendly to high school teachers, (2) the Section should have a greater outreach and try to get more people involved with its activities, (3) the Section must find ways to provide for activity between the semi-annual meetings, and (4) the Section needs to continue working on the Pipeline Project. Carl will continue to Chair the Ad Hoc Committee as well as continue to manage the Guidebook Program into the foreseeable future.

Meetings: A number of ideas were mentioned for improving Section meetings:

• Meetings Committee – The Council needs to reinstate the Meetings Committee that Troy as president-elect will chair. Troy, Chris, Bill, and Gary Wolber will be the members of this standing committee.

• Type of Papers – Additional themes could be incorporated in Section meetings to call for specific types of papers: teaching methods, demonstrations, active learning, antiques road show, etc., to provide the desired emphases.

• Workshops – Workshops geared toward high school physics teachers especially should be offered at a variety of times, including Friday mornings, Saturday afternoons, and even as concurrent sessions when the subject matter is research-based physics (e.g., Student Research Symposium during spring meetings).

• New types of sessions and open Take Fives – Sessions should exist from time to time that deal solely with demonstrations; an "open" Take 5 should be possible; a WITHIT (what in the heck is it?) session should be held from time to time where people can bring in items from their store rooms to see if others can help them know what various mystery items are used for. Troy will attempt to coordinate such a program for the Fall 2006 meeting.

• Early title deadline for papers – An early presentation title deadline (3 weeks prior to the meeting) should be required so that the program can be fleshed out online to give those who might want to attend a better basis for deciding using web-based information. A later deadline (1 week prior to the meeting) should be imposed for submitting the description of the talk.

• Scheduling Take Fives – Take 5 talks might be interspersed between the regular 15-minute talks to take advantage of the time between talks so often spent setting up speakers' AV equipment. This would require 3 regular 15-minute presentations and 3 Take 5 presentations each hour. This should NOT be done during concurrent sessions to ensure that everyone will have a chance to see each Take 5.

• Time limit – Take 5 presentations must remain at 5 minutes duration, maximum.

• Followup suggestion – An "open" time for additional Take 5 talks should be provided at the end of the day.

• General comments – Improved meetings must occur in order for outreach to be effective – so new members don’t show up once and then never again. Something must be done to make newcomers feel welcome.

Outreach and Activity: The following activities were suggested for getting more people involved in the Section:

• Publicity to reach high school teachers – Develop a method for getting information about the Section out to all high school physics teachers.

• Please come and have fun – Council members (and indeed the entire membership) is encouraged to promote attendance at Section meetings among their friends and acquaintances who might well have an interest.

• New favorite hyperlinks for the Web – Council members are urged to send Dave their favorite hyperlinks that can be added to the ISAAPT Web page.

• Quicktime on the Web page – Troy and Chris will attempt to videotape Take 5 talks this year in the hope of developing an online repository for the ISAAPT Web page.

• Membership listserv – Carl will set up an ISAAPT-L listserv to be used by the entire membership throughout the year. It will be piloted over the next few weeks by the Council, and then opened up to the membership for subscription.

• Regional newsletter items – Regional offices of Education need to be contacted with information about Section meetings. This probably needs to be done several months in advance of each meeting.

Bill noted that only if Council members take the lead to become actively involved in the above efforts will things change for the better. He strongly urged everyone to do what they can starting today.

Constitution & Bylaws: Due to shortness of time, these were quickly summarized. Bill asked the Council to read the Constitution and Bylaws, and submit to him recommendations for improvement. He stated that an Ad Hoc Committee for Constitution and Bylaws Review made up of the president (Bill), president-elect (Troy), and past-president (Kim Shaw) currently exists, would collect recommendations for amendments, and address them in the future. Among the suggestions for revision at the time of the meeting were for statements regarding the definition of a quorum, installation date of officers, and use of Robert’s Rules of Order. There was a question about whether or not the Ad Hoc Committee for High School Physics Teacher Candidate Recruitment, Preparation, and Retention should become a standing committee. Council members were asked to send written proposals for amendments to Bill for further consideration.

Future Meetings: The three scheduled upcoming Section meetings were reviewed. Carl noted that he has not had any luck communicating with Gary Gladding at UIUC about a Spring 2008 meeting. It was suggested that Carl contact either Mats Selens or Tim Stelzer about the possibility. Carl will check back with the Illinois Association of Chemistry Teachers to see if they are willing to hold a joint conference with the ISAAPT during the Fall of 2008 at Illinois State University. (Carl noted that this does not constitute an offer by ISU to host the Fall 2008 meeting otherwise as he might well be retired from ISU at that time.)

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 4:08 pm.  The group posed for a picture (shown above).

Carl J. Wenning
Secretary-Treasurer

Last update:  July 21, 2006

Treasurer's Report

Total special pre-session budget: $500.00 (AAPT grant) + $70.00 (workshop registrations) = $570.00 (fall 2004).

Total special pre-session balance: $570.00 - $275.45 = $224.55

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