Section Representative Report
Illinois Section of AAPT
January, 2003

Curt Hieggelke

The AAPT Section Representatives' meeting was held on January 11, 2003 at the Renaissance Austin Hotel in Austin, Texas. Called to order at 8:00 by Steve Iona. The minutes were read and accepted, Members of the Executive Board were introduced including the new President, Dick Peterson and new Two-Year College Representative.

The minutes of the Boise meeting were read and accepted. John Hubitz name had been omitted from the list of Executive Board members present at the summer meeting.

The first order of business was the election of officers to the following committees, conducted by Todd Leiff, Chairperson of the Section Representative Nominating Committee. With the retirement of Frank Peterson, who was to assume the position of Chairperson of the Section Representatives, we needed two elections: one for his position and one for a new Vice-chair of the committee. The following were nominated and the person elected is starred:

Vice Chair to immediately become chair:
  Curt Hieggelke IL
  Steve Iona (CO/WY)*

Vice Chair: to become chair in 2005
  *Randy Peterson
  Dave Donnelly
  Steve Shropshire

Secretary:
  Karen Bouffard (reelected)

Section Rep Nom. Committee (to 2004)
  James Mallman (WI)
  *Pat O'Keefe (OR)
  *Richard Summers (S. Atlantic)
  *Todd Leif (AOK)

Section Rep for National Nom. Committee
  Todd Leif AOK
  *Alan Gibson (MI)
  *John Fitzgibbons (NY)

Membership and Benefits:
  *William Plough (OH)
  *Alan Gibson (MI)

Jim Nelson gave the PTRA report: The new rural PTRA has 11 regions at the present time and needs another 10 for 2004. The program provides opportunities. for teachers in rural areas who teach physics as part of their assignment (but do not think of themselves as physics teachers) to increase their content and pedagogical background in week-long institutes provided by trained Physics Teaching Resource Agents. Site for Urban workshops will support a weeklong summer program and two "reunion" meetings during the year. The program is supported by the PTRA-NSF grant.

Bruce Mason: reported on the COMPADRE grant which is a component of the digital library system NSF has funded a joint project between the American Astronomical Association, AAPT and APS to develop resources on-line that will help teachers and students in physics and astronomy: Part of a natural science digital library, COMPADRE adds the pedagogical component and puts material into a user-friendly mode. He requested help to find, edit and suggestions on how to use the material that will be included. The level of instruction would be up to a 2-4 year college level

Valerie Evans was asked if she could send sections email addresses instead of mailing labels to sections that requested them. She agreed to do this. However, she asked Section reps to send section mailing list to her. Privacy issues were discussed. Do we need to ask members about sending their email addresses? National AAPT will not sell list of nonmembers but members have the option of having names sold. No conclusion to the privacy issue was reached. New section members can still join national at half-price for the first year.

Marie Elena Khoury reported that the US PHYSICS TEAM- deadline is this coming Tuesday, January 13, 2003. She also reminded us of the other AAPT competitions: -AAPT Physics Bowl.

The Executive Board outreach to APS: APS has forum on education and have education- sponsored sessions, which are open to AAPT members without cost. (April APS meeting in Philadelphia. There will be about 6 sessions sponsored by forum). The question was posed: "Why AAPT and APS meetings were split" Former joint meetings were held in January but APS interest waned. APS disengaged finally January meetings altogether. AAPT set up a third annual meeting for AAPT with APS in April to try to join with them again, but the experiment failed.

Curt Hieggelke proposed that AAPT schedule winter meeting so they occur on weekend of the Martin Luther King holiday (third Monday) to allow greater attendance. (Advantage is allowing local teachers to attend) Dr. Khoury reminded us that the staff tried to move the meeting dates around because there seemed to be disadvantages for each date. Minority community members approached the organization with the feeling that our meeting consistently on this weekend would be disrespectful. Also it gets more expensive to schedule meetings farther into the month. And, actually have the meeting on Sat, Sun and Mon, with workshops on Thurs and Fri. First motion did not pass. Problem- can't hold workshops on campuses on weekdays. Then Friday would have to be a travel day. Suggestion to combine workshops and meeting. Motion denied

Chuck Robertson reported that the association is in good financial condition, although it had sustained some losses in long-term reserves due to the instabilities of the financial market Robertson stated that allowing for the noise in the accounting procedure, the Board had approved a balanced budget for the next year.

Here is a list of the future meeting sites.

The Board has set aside money for teacher prep initiatives.  Send requests to Bernie Khoury. (Teachers being invited to section meeting for "physics for elementary school teachers.")  The executive board is interested in knowing about state initiatives to support local effort to effect teacher preparation. Texas section had conference on the role of physics depts. on teacher prep and assessment of end of year tests.

Travel reimbursement forms: if requests exceed funds, they are distributed proportionally. Follow guidelines on back. Can submit copies of receipts. Forms due by Jan. 30, 2003.