Spring 1997 ISAAPT Section Representative Report

Given at Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois, on April 12, 1997.

Curtis Hieggelke
ISAAPT Section Representative
Joliet Junior College

Section Representatives meet at the Winter and Summer national AAPT meetings. These involve (1) the Section Officer’s Exchange Meeting (along with any other section officers who are attending the national meeting), (2) the Section Representatives Meeting, and (3) the Council Meeting of AAPT which is only held at the Winter meeting.

The recent Section Officer’s Exchange was held as part of the 1997 Winter AAPT meeting at the Hyatt Hotel in January in Phoenix, Arizona. All section officers (including Council members) are encouraged to attend and share ideas. These are the most interesting “business” meetings held at the AAPT meetings.

Future Meetings:

 Spring 97 with APS	April 18-21    Washington, DC
 Summer 97        	August 11-16   Denver, Colorado
 Winter 98		Jan 3-8        New Orleans, Louisiana
 Spring 98 with APS	April          Columbus, Ohio
 Summer 98              August         U. of Neb. or  U. of N. Arizona
 Winter 99              January        Anaheim, California
 Spring 99 with APS     March          Atlanta, Georgia
   (APS Centennial)	
 Summer  99             August         Trinity Univ, San Antonio, TX 
 Winter 2001 with       January        San Diego, California
   Am. Astronomical Soc.
A review of the national meeting format has been undertaken by a committee led by John Hubisz.

Warren Hein will serve as Interim Associate Executive Officer during the leave of Jack Hehn at NSF.

R. Hilborn is leading an advisory group to oversee the work on a project entitled “The Revitalization of Undergraduate Physics.”

Alex Dickison reported an expected deficit in 1996 of about $118,000 as compared to a projected budget deficit of $486,000 for the year . The 1997 budget, which was approved, projects a $219,000 deficit; with total AAPT expenditures budgeted for 1997 approximately projected at $4.9 million.

Sandra Harpole was elected to a fourth term as Chair of the Section Representatives and member of the Executive Board. Steve Iona was elected Secretary of the Section representatives for a fourth term. Larry Badar and Mary Beth Monroe were chosen to be members of the next national AAPT Nominating Committee which will prepare for elections and committee appointments in 1998. Donald Hoff and Van Neie were selected to serve on the Membership and Benefits Committee for terms ending at the end of the Winter Meeting in 2000. J.D Mildrew, W. Ploughe, and W. Wehrbein were elected to the Section Reps nominating committee.

AAPT 1996 Election Results — Larry Kirkpatrick begins the presidential sequence as vice-president, Curt Hieggelke becomes the new at-large representative on the Executive Board, and Dick Peterson was re-elected Secretary.

There will be an APS/AAPT Department Chair Conference held in May of 1997. This conference will focus on reform in undergraduate physics education.

The Electronic Services Advisory Group (ESAG) has been established as a standing advisory body on electronic services for the Board and AAPT Staff. Charles Robertson was appointed as Board representative and the following Board appointments were made: Leonard E. Jossem ('98), Dan MacIsaac ('99), and Norman Chonacky ('00). Robertson has been chosen by the group as Chair for 1997.

The money raised by the APS/AAPT Campaign for Physics may exceed $4.5 million and is not far from target. Corporate solicitations ceased at the end of 1996. The AAPT money from this campaign is dedicated to help see through the establishment of an electronic Physical Science Resource Center (PSRC) and to assist with the continuing PTRA program.

There is an AAPT proposal to NSF which asks for several years of financial support for a new AAPT Journal for Physics Education Research devoted to physics education research. If support is obtained, the journal would initially be distributed without charge four times each year to the AJP subscriber list. During the 4th and 5th years of distribution, the AAPT would need to begin to assume financial responsibility and will evaluate both the content quality and subscriber commitment established by the new journal.

A new, full-time Staff Physicist position has been established. The Staff Physicist will be primarily charged with assisting the Executive Officer with AAPT programs which serve 4 year colleges and universities.

Abstracts may now be submitted electronically and program information is available on the AAPT home page http://www.aapt.org/text.html.

Always needed are nominations for national office, national area committees, and awards. All area committee meetings held at the national meetings are open to any member of AAPT. All attendees are generally encouraged to speak about any relevant issue. These meetings are generally held late in the afternoon or early evening.

Section members are encouraged to consider entering the 1997 AAPT Apparatus Competition. There are two categories of awards: low cost and unlimited cost.