Section Representative Report
Illinois Section of AAPT
March, 1999

Conley Stutz

Section Officers Exchange
January 10, 1999

It is customary for the Section Representatives and other officers of the sections to meet during each national meeting to exchange ideas on a topic which is generally selected by the chairperson of the Section Representatives who has been Sandra Harpole for the past three years. This year the discussion was centered on making recommendations of people to receive the various awards and to make nominations for officers and committee members. We met initially by region and then finally as a committee of the whole. A large number of recommendations and nominations were submitted by the Representatives.

Section Representatives Meeting
January 10, 1999

The Section Representatives meet at the Winter and Summer meetings of the Association. Because the Section Representatives form the majority of the Council these meetings prepare the Representatives for the Council meeting. The Council is the policy making body of the Association and is made up of the members of the Executive Board and at least twenty-five Section Representatives. The following is a summary of the actions and discussions that took place in the Section Representatives Meeting.

• We were notified that the Quebec section never really existed although the Associations publications assumed that it did.
• Officers of the Representatives were elected with Steve Iona being elected chair and George Spagna was elected secretary.
• Representatives were elected to serve on the AAPT Nominating Committee, the Section Representatives Nominating Committee, and the Membership & Benefits Committee.
• Travel reimbursement for the Representatives was discussed. Representatives receive partial payment for travel, food, and lodging for three days and two nights when attending the Winter Meeting if they attend the three meetings: Section Officers, Section Representatives, and Council. We were informed that the amount of money available for this purpose is being reduced from $20,000 to $15,000 in the next budget.
• Sandra Harpole, who represents the Section Representatives at meetings of the Executive Board reported on the following items that were discussed at the Board meetings:

  (a) A budget deficit of around $150,000 is projected for in the 2000 budget and that several suggestions had been made as to how to reduce this amount, such as, not publishing the abstracts for papers to be given at national meetings and reducing the Section news sections.

  (b) We were informed that the Sections may get sets of mailing labels of AAPT members in their sections twice a year. The Execufive Office agreed to supply the names of any new members joining the AAPT if the Sections would agree to send the names of the members of the Section. Several sections agreed to this arrangement and I recommend that Illinois do likewise.

  (c) There are two half priced one year memberships to the AAPT available: 1) Section members joining AAPT for the first time; 2) members of the AAPT who dropped their membership between 1992 and 1997 and want to be reinstated.

• PTRA representafive, Larry Badar, asked the Representatives to tell high school teachers in their areas that the PTRA is looking for teachers to participate in the summer program which is scheduled for July 26-August 2. They are also looking for local sights for local programs of 4 or 5 days to be held, probably, in June.

Council Meeting

1. President, Tom Okuma, reported on several of the projects sponsored by the AAPT during 1998, such as, the Revitalization Conference, New Faculty Conference, PTRA, and TYC21.
2. Treasurer, Alex Dickison, reported that the Association was in the 'black" for 1998, but a deficit of $200,000 is projected for 1999.
3. Executive Officer, Berny Kouri, reported on the activities of the executive office and placed the following meeting dates before the members: Summer 2001, July 21-25, Rochester, NY; Winter 2002, January 19-23, Philadelphia, PA. After considerable discussion about the Winter 2002 Philadelphia meeting the Council approved the dates and places as recommended.