| Iowa
Science Teachers Section Iowa Academy of Science |
The mission of the Iowa
Science The mission of the Iowa Academy of Science is to further scientific research and its dissemination, education in the sciences, public understanding of science, and recognition of excellence in these endeavors. |
Iowa Science Teachers Section
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Executive Board Meeting Executive Board Meeting Executive Board Meeting Executive Board Meeting Executive Board Meeting Iowa Science Teachers' Section ISTS Leadership Conference Call I. Who's on board? Gale Vermeulen, Allison Donaldson, Danny Bergman, Jeanne Rogis, Jeff Weld, Rick Wells, Aaron Spurr, Craig Johnson, Barb Jacobson, Ernie Schiller, Traci Maxted, Kathy Lockard, Mike Clough, Tom Ervin II. Please read the Minutes from previous meeting Sept 9, 2006 (on the web site) No changes – approved. III. Treasurer’s report Income and expenses. $13,705.82 income (See treasurer’s report.) There was an expense for the Fall Convention Center for $4500 - motel 849. The question was asked if this was this year’s expense. Craig stated that yes it was. The Crowne Plaza total charge for room rental and food is $13,836.47. There are still bills out for $500 to Rick Wells, $500 to Barb Jacobson (She still has receipts to submit.), $150 meals/copies, and $1,000 to Crowne Plaza for meeting rooms waiting to be billed. It was stated that the room rental for the Monarch and the Executive room was $317.63 and $630.17. This amount was already included in the $13000 so may not be an outstanding bill. There is a bill from NSTA for books outstanding. There is also a bill for Allison to send in. That is already included in the amount above. How does the copy bill compare to last year? Spielmans’ bill is in as well. Tracey has approximately $100 outstanding from the president’s reception. Aaron stated there will be a couple of refunds to give. Family emergencies caused a couple to cancel their registration. A few of the exhibitors were disgruntled and one at least asked for a refund. In good faith, maybe we should refund a bit to each exhibitor. Follow-up note to each asking how satisfied they were and how we could make it better in the future. Tom and Ernie stated that we should leave well enough alone. The surveys from Barb have already asked how it went. A couple of the exhibitors talked to Gayle in Omaha and said they loved the conference. Rick will be submitting a bid for $300 honorarium plus expenses. Anyone know about the whereabouts of large plastic boxes? At one time there were four. No one knew about them. An extension cord and a power strip are missing after the conference. We’ll pay to replace them. IV. General Business A. Newsletter From Nadine, who cannot call in: Please remind everyone that the newsletter is scheduled for November 15th. She will need: Past president's letter President's letter President-elect's letter Conference news Any other newsbits people want to share Remember, it's your newsletter, so please forward whatever you think worthy. Get info to her by Monday, November 13th. There should be a short article recognizing the corporate sponsors. This will encourage others to be a customer of these companies. An article should be written about the award winners. Another article should be written about the election coming up. Gayle will send a reminder to these folks to send an article to Nadine by the 13th. B. Other? The name of our organization is officially ISTS. V. 2006 Fall Conference in retrospect...comments and suggestions on any of these for improvements next year.... A. Conference Program (Danny Bergman) Put presenter’s email addresses in the program. Danny suggested that we not give registrants an option of non-commercial or commercial next year. We will assume they are non-commercial. Aaron had already taken this option off. Commercial presenters should register with whoever does exhibits whether they are exhibiting or not. It was suggested that we make commercial presenters pay when they submit. That way we would have their money up front. Barb said the exhibitors were thrilled with the program. They had never seen such a good one. It is in a format so someone can do it easier next year. Danny will do next year if he is still in Iowa. It was stated that the addendum sheet was a good idea. Carolina biological may set up workshops for the night before the conference next fall. These would be paid sessions. The sessions would represent biology, earth science, and physical science. They would be presented at cost to members in an attempt to draw them in to the conference. Sergeant Welch & Flynn might also present workshops. 10 workshops were put on by exhibitors this year and almost all of the presenters came in the night before. Ernie volunteered to put a letter together to see who would be willing to do this. Barb will email contacts to Ernie. Congratulations from Craig for a great conference. Tom will send the compiled survey results to Craig. B. Awards (Tom) Tom will send comments and pictures to Nadine. He will also write an article for Barb. Rick will write his own article and send it to Nadine. He will cc it to Tom for pictures. Election next spring – We need two candidates for president elect. Jeff stated that Barb Jacobson, Sara Coleman, and Lyn Campbell had said they were not yet ready to be president elect, but they would be worth coming back to this year. C. Speakers (Mike) Jim Colbert enjoyed doing the session. He was well liked. Gayle will be making her selection of who to present next year. D. Facilities (Allison) Danny stated that we should have a check off list of equipment needed rather than just a blank space for them to write in. We could limit them to one thing. He will talk to Aaron about it. It was stated that the meal was good, people cared, the room was classy, and the food was good. E. Exhibitors (Barb) Thanks to all for helping out so Barb could leave early. It was better giving them their bag ahead of time. There were only 47 exhibitors there. The year before we were in the 60s. If we stay at the same facility next year, we would have to think hard about how to set up the rooms. We could possibly have the banquet at the Civic Center and then have the banquet area for the exhibitors. ½ of this room could also be used for additional meeting rooms. F. Corporate Sponsors (Rick) $6800 was taken in. 4 companies came and sat at the luncheon and really enjoyed it. There were eleven total sponsors. G. Registrations (Aaron) 13% of those who registered became new members of the academy at the same time. Numbers were down about 12% as a result of moving the conference location and the Omaha conflict. Very few came from the western part of the state. Total registered was 404 (about 50 lower than last year). That number includes speakers and award winners. About 20 registered but didn’t show. H. Finances/Budget (Jeanne) Nothing more to report. Refund from NSTA from a year ago. There are still bills to pay after some books are returned. I. Publicity/contacts/reminders (Jeff and Mike) Publicity went well with the same protocol as last year - emails, postcard to AEA consultants, and reminders. Someone needs to step up to do publicity next year. Jeff publicized it well this year. J. Decorations (Ernie) Ernie and his wife set things up but didn’t get a chance to attend the conference. Teachers enjoyed the plants from the tables. They will continue doing this next year. This year they used only fall colors – not the theme or colors of the conference. They only charge for the cost of materials. $400 K. Gale has the extra mugs and will bring those needed for awardees to the 2007 conference...with candy in them. L. Surveys (Tom) WHAT ARE THE MAIN CONCLUSIONS YOU CAN DRAW? Copies of the surveys were sent to members of the board. The conclusions are self-evident. Not a lot responded - only 110 surveys. Others felt this was a good representation. The vast majority were happy with the conference. The picture of the kids in lab coats couldn’t be put on line without parent permission. Traci will get the form out to the parents so we can put them on the web. Will send the permission to Marcy as well. M. President's Reception. Thanks to all. The reception went well. It was felt that we should continue the tradition. Traci purchased the liquid refreshments. If we have pre-conference sessions, we will need to have the reception later in the evening. N. Section Breakfasts (Lynn, Sara, Deanna and Ms. Schiller) All went well. 40 people attended. There was a charge of $10. Allison negotiated to get the breakfast cost down so that the cost was covered. They won’t be “section” breakfasts next year. They will be “topic” breakfasts. It was suggested that perhaps we could get some sponsors for next year to keep the cost down. O. Other/what have I forgotten (?) VI. The 2007 Conference A. Dissociation of conference planning from presidency—discussion It is difficult to get people to run for the presidency. Another reason – 3 presidents together have the responsibility of making sure teachers are attending conferences, etc. They should be doing other things than the conference. We need to weigh the pros and cons. There was discussion about what is happening in other states. All agree that there has to be someone who is the conference chair. This position carries a stipend. Someone who has done the conference several years in a row is more knowledgeable about how to do it. They have a much better grasp of what to do. Until you have done it, you don’t understand it. Perhaps we could submit a three year contract? From the academy aspect, there would need to be a job description and a hiring process if there were a contract. There would still be the exhibits, program, and corporate sponsor folks. We should have the past president responsibilities for the conference clearly written. They have two years to prepare for it. Marcie will help write a position description for all of the positions. B. Pros and cons of various locations—Barb had some vendors suggest locations. She’ll send the suggestions in. It was suggested that the facilities coordinator get an additional $200 ($1200) to scout out locations and make a presentation to the board. Some information has already been gathered this year by Tom and his wife. This would be a good place to start. Allison would be interested in doing this. She has a packet of information from other sites in Des Moines as well. Traci has been contacted about a new site in Iowa City. Allison could contact the Chamber of Commerce for each town. If possible she could line up next year’s conference and have a spot in mind for the next conference as well. That way we can tell teachers the site and date for the next conference at next year’s conference. It was suggested that we consider the Crowne Plaza for next year. C. Conference Program--who will do? Danny will do it if he’s here. VII. Other (which we may not get to) ISTJ – Three issues to discuss: 1) How are we going to pay for the journal. $5000 was funded by IAS this year. This went to the managing editor (Joe Taylor gets $1200 an issue – 4 per year). We could use the money made from this year’s conference to pay for a managing editor. 2) Should we keep the ISTJ open to anyone – as it is now – or, closed to members only? 3) ISTJ is a heavily edited journal. The IAS board had issues with this. Mike will send an explanation out as an email to the leadership team. There are not enough articles submitted to go back and forth between the authors and the editors and still get a journal out. A statement could be written for the board saying that this is the philosophy of this journal. The statement could make it clear that the editors will help in the writing process. The articles will not be published if the authors say no. The editors always show the authors the edited article. They make sure their original ideas get out there. This sometimes requires a heavy editorial hand. A. Certificates for outstanding science students (per Jeanne's email) (tabled again) Marcy will try to get a template together for the next meeting. She will email to see what Jeanne is wanting before she created the template. B. ESTA site to be improved (tabled from last meeting) Marcie has already done this. New instructions on how to nominate are on the web site. You can download files and the brochure. You can then print and mail the forms to the person you are nominating. Step by step instructions are on the website. Marcy is looking for past Iowa ESTA winners. If anyone has a list that is older than what is on the website, she would like them. What year were the ESTA awards started? C. An ISTS profile needs to be developed for IAS by next spring's annual meeting. This needs to be done by each of the sections. Each should create and approve a section profile. The profiles should contain: 1) An explanation of what the section is about for the general public. 2) What are we looking for in our presentations for the meetings. 3) What the activities are of the section? These will be used on the website. The profiles would explain to everyone what the academy is, how it works and how they can benefit from it. We need to form a committee to do this. Each would be a page or less of writing. D. Next meeting – We could have an email meeting perhaps. We need to set the next conference. Committee meetings could be done via phone. 6 or fewer on a phone call is even cheaper than what we are doing tonight. Phone call ended at 8:00. September 9, 2006 AGENDA: I. Introductions – Members present:
II. Minutes from previous meeting July 25, 2006 – no corrections III. Treasurer's report Handout – end of July report submitted. There have been more deposits than the $7410 reflected on the first page. IV. General Business A. ISTJ (Mike) (?) Mike was absent. There has been some discussion about who should decide if the journal is just for ISTS or open to the public. The ISTS board was asked to decide. They thought the section should make the decision since it is a section publication. We could ask for the board's opinion but it is ultimately the sections decision. We will discuss this at our next meeting. B. Newsletter (Nadine) Mike, Jeff and Nadine have talked about advertisement. Nadine handed out an advertising sheet from Michigan. The rates on the sheet are not what had been discussed so we would put in our own rates. The April discussion was: $200 for a whole page, $100 for ½ page, and $50 for ¼ page. This group should make the final decision. On the Michigan sheet there were no regulations about who will be charged. Nadine's suggestion is non-profit versus profit. Tom stated that NSTA charges are based on the number of copies made. Nadine would like all ads to be pdf rather than giving all the choices that Michigan gave. Although whatever they submit for the journal would be ok with her. Marcy volunteered to change some of the formats for Nadine. There is also still a question of how the money will be handled. Same ads could be placed in both the journal as well as the newsletter. They will need to pay for each. The suggestion was made to offer ½ off on one ad if they place the ad in both publications. The newsletter will come out at the end of next week. If anyone has any other news, send it this week. When each Science Teachers Journal is completed, Marcy will have a nice copy sent to each author. C. Other? (please let me know) – nothing noted V. 2006 Fall Conference A. Conference Program (Danny Bergman) Copies of the program were handed out. Danny would like to send it to the printer by October 1. Everyone needs to get all info to Danny by September 20. Danny's request was that we look for typos or changes and email him ASAP. The circles or question marks are things he doesn't have. We went through the conference brochure and pointed out what is still needed. Allison will make signs for the rooms. Marcy will bring arrows to put on the signs in the hallways. Breakfasts will be in the grand ballroom area (the front area). Next year we need to change the title to "special topics" rather than section breakfasts. We will keep the name this year since it says this on the registration forms. The elementary breakfast's speaker is Lynn Hockenberry. Her topic is science and literacy. The names of all speakers will be in the program. There was a question about when exhibits can get in. Mary will check on this and let Barb know. On page 6 Barb would like a box to be put around the exhibitor check-off information to make it stand out more sharply. Lynne Campbell, Rick Wells and Gale Vermeulen offered to present if Danny has any cancellations. Barb mentioned that there were a couple of sessions that were marked commercial which means they should pay the exhibitor fee. They in essence got around the $125 fee. Next year we need to "fix" this. There will be four Excellence in Science Teaching Awards and one Presidential Award finalist on p. 20. It was requested that we list all corporate sponsors on page 19. On page 22, there will be no new fellows this year. It was suggested that we put in an announcement to encourage people to nominate teachers next year. Also a change in the time must be made. It should read 1:30-2:15. Barb will send exhibitor information for page 31--- Mary – Crowne Plaza Hotel's Meeting Director came with questions and clarifications. The Presidents' Reception will be from 6:00-8:00. It will be announced on the events board under the title of our organization. It will be held in the Admiral Suite (Suite 1120) on the 11th floor. We will bring our own refreshments. Additional chairs will be brought in at no cost. They will be stacked in the back of the room until needed. Mary will add a table to put the refreshments on if needed. Gale will check out the room and let Mary know. Some exhibitors would like to set up around noon on Tuesday. Mary will let Barb know if this time would be acceptable. A floor plan will be provided. Coffee and rolls (variety of offerings) will be in the Exhibit Hall at 7:45. They will be available until 10:00. (Mary was asked not to refresh them after 9:30.) She will have her workers condense them around 10:30. There will be two double-sided refreshment tables in the room. Mary needs a guaranteed guest count 3 business days before the conference. Chuck Smidt is the banquet manager. He will let people in around 6:00-6:30 the day of the conference. The electrical hook-up cost for exhibitors is $25 per booth. Internet is $50. Wireless works in many of the meeting rooms but there would be a drop cord available if they want it for their booth. Exhibitor needs were written on their registration forms. Aaron needs 6 tables for registration and also needs a power source. Banners and alphabet signs are with the "sign person". Registration is from 7:30-11:00 on Wednesday. Mary will have the area ready by 6:30. Most of the tables can be taken away after 11:00 but she will leave a problem solving area. The exhibitor "lounge" will be set up in the Exhibit Hall. Drinks, pastries and fruit will be available in the morning. In the afternoon cookies, pop and more fruit will be available. A request was made for bottled water and cans of tea. Sodas and bottled water are charged by consumption: $1.50 per soda & $2.25 for water. Morning snacks will be out by 9:00. They will be redone by 2:15 in the afternoon. Mary will tear things down at 3:45. There was discussion about the breakfast costs. Registration charges were $10 but the hotel cost is $12.09 for plated (hot) breakfast. A continental breakfast is cheaper. It was felt that there needs to be a noticeable difference from what others are getting for free. Mike and Allison will make the final decision about what the section breakfast menu will be. There is one microphone provided (luncheon area). We will pay $28 for an additional microphone for the exhibit hall. The colors of the drapes will be hunter green and white. Danny had a question about the sessions set-up – classroom style versus rounds. Rounds (50) will seat more than classroom style (40). It was decided to go with rounds for hands on sessions and use classroom style for other sessions. Some may need to be theater style due to numbers. Danny will work with Mary to make decisions about the rooms. The Amabassador Room should be 1 and 2 (not A and B). Other map clarifications were made. Mary will make signs directing people to the stairs to avoid elevator congestion. Comp rooms will be determined by the number registered through the ISTS conference. It doesn't matter whose room is comp and who pays since all are ISTS paid. Parking will be $5 per night's stay per car. Guests will pay the parking fee. Check in time is 3:00. Check out time is noon. Billing will go to Craig Johnson. Nothing is to be added that costs unless it goes through Allison. She will have a "hot phone" to directly connect her to the main office. The coat room would be available for storage. There will be keys given to key people to lock this room. Presenters' materials, etc. could be placed in there. There will be a pre-conference meeting at 4:00 on Tuesday with ISTS representatives and the hotel staff. B. Awards (Tom) The awards are done and printed and are at Tom's house. A bill will come to IAS. Tom will fill out a green sheet for Marcy. Tom will also take pictures during the conference. C. Speakers (Mike) We have Mike's handout which lists what Mike has done for the conference. D. Facilities (Allison) (To include testing of the walkie talkies) This was taken care of during the discussion with Mary. Walkie Talkies will be tested at the end of the meeting. E. Exhibitors (Barb) So far there are 15 noncommercial and 18 commercial exhibitors. Barb has been paid $1260 for non-commercial and $3940 for commercial exhibitors. She has 18 lunch tickets at this point. Only 3-5 have indicated they could not come because of the new date. They asked to be kept on the list for next year. F. Corporate Sponsors (Rick) Rick gave a handout of all corporate sponsors. A total of $6700 has been pledged. $5000 has been deposited at this time. Rick has the DNA Technologies check for $500. Pioneer and Scope Shoppe has promised their amounts but have not sent the money yet. Rick will let Allison know which ones will come to the noon meal. G. Registrations (Aaron) Registrations are down about 20% from this date last year. There has been a cut off date for advance registration fees in the past. This has been hard to enforce. Aaron will let anyone who gets their registration turned in before the conference have the lower rate. H. Finances/Budget (Jeanne) No report. I. Publicity/contacts/reminders (Jeff and Mike) See handout section j from Mike. J. Decorations (Ernie) Ernie was not here. Mike should email him to make sure things are going well. K. 2 Huge boxes of mugs in storage at IAS office, Jeff also has one box--thought to be blue and green, who will take and use them? Bring them to the conference and maybe we can put kisses in, etc to give away. L. Surveys (Tom) Surveys were ready to go but new suggestions came from Gale. Her suggestions will be put in and copies will be made. Marcy can print them (send to Toni with # and color of paper) and will have students compile the results and send the results back to the committee. M. President's Reception? ( 6-8 PM (?) Tues. Oct 17---suggestions?) The reception will be 6:00—8:00 on Tuesday evening. Gale is supplying the food. Scope Shoppe supplies $200 for the reception. This money will be used for the drinks. Traci volunteered to buy drinks – beer, soft drinks, and wine. Marcy might have bottled water left over. Tracy will email her at the end of September to see. She will need coolers and ice. Perhaps the bathtub could be used to cool the drinks. N. Section Breakfasts (Lynn, Sara, Deanna) Taken care of. O. Rooms/roommates (taken care of?) Turned in
Conference call for post-conference?? Marcy will check into the cost of this and how we can do it. Gale is looking into early November. Tentatively: Thursday November 2 at 6:00. Gale will decide at the November call if a January meeting is needed. The rest of the agenda items were tabled until the next meeting. VI. The 2007 Conference (maybe wait until after this year's conference to make a decision about location, etc.)
VII. Other
ISTS July
25, 2006 Leadership Team Planning Meeting I. Introductions Members present: Gale Vermeulen, Michael Clough, Jeanne Rogis, Tom Ervin, Traci Maxted, Nadine Weirather, DeAnna Tibben, Jeff Weld, Tony Heiting, Barb Jacobsen, Aaron Spurr, Rick Wells, Daniel Bergman, Craig Johnson, Kathy Lockard II. Minutes from previous meeting (April 29, 2006) Nadine Weirather took the minutes and sent them to Kathy. She will forward them to Gayle III. State Science Initiative (Tony) First major science initiative in Iowa, Eli, will focus on PD. It will introduce inquiry based strategies to K-12 teachers. This is a 4 year initiative. 11 leadership teams have been formed with AEA science consultants and science teachers teaming. They will meet July 31 at Jester Park for 4 days. Harold Pratt - "pioneer of inquiry" - will present BSCS workshops for 2 days. There will be different areas of focus each of the 4 years. Participants will be trained intensively for 2 years. 4 case study schools have been selected to participate and implement strategies immediately next fall. They will collect base line data (ITBS, ITED and NAEP) and watch progress. Other teachers will be invited to join after this 2 year period. A model Core Curriculum is being developed. It gets to rigor and relevance. Legislature says that state of Iowa will have core curriculum in science - four months to do. Thus, the model core curriculum was developed. They took the nat'l science ed standards and transferred the areas sited into the model core curriculum. They made them more user friendly. Key concepts were identified. Activities were developed to show teachers how it could be implemented. These take what teachers are doing now and moves them to a higher level. It is not mandatory to use the model core curriculum. They are developing a web site so all teachers will have access to the curriculum. You can go to the DE website now and can get the version that the board passed. Full blown curriculum will be out in the next month or so. There will be an introductory presentation at the fall conference. ?? for Tony - Is there a plan for getting science teachers into Iowa? At the national level - they can receive loans. At state level - there are on-line web courses for physics and chemistry to enable them to be certified. Legislature has been talking about incentives for teachers going into math and science. Tony will be retiring August 24. His replacement is Kathy McKee for now. IV. General Business A. ISTJ (Mike) Manuscripts are in. They have enough to take them through the summer issue. It is supposed to come out in September. The fall issue will be in November. B. Newsletter (Nadine) Keep news coming to Nadine. Mike and Jeff have sent the most. Everyone else keep the news coming. --advertisements/$$ - came in pdf format last time - no complaints were received. They are waiting to see if they will work in this format before making decisions about future issues. For information - see the science journal or do a frames page with different ads. If we do this, we'll need to write guidelines. We need to decide - are we going to put ads in?? We should get money for advertising for someone. Committee to work on this - Jeff, Nadine, Marcie, Tracey. Mike wrote a request to Carver Trust to support the cost for the journal. Marcie suggested Mike contact them again since the request was denied for now. C. Other? V. 2006 Fall Conference A. Conference Program (Danny Bergman) According to his email a week ago - we have 69 submissions so far with 5 or so pending. This is about where we were last year. The space here at the hotel should be ok for this many sessions. We have 14 rooms at one time. Danny has information about the breakfast for Earth Science. What about the others? This should be sent out in the newsletter ahead of time. September 15 the newsletter will come out. Lyn Campbell for Elem. Sara Coleman for the Chemistry. Danny needs info about the breakfasts soon. Mike will send this list to Danny. The program cover is being drawn by Mike's brother for free. Should a membership form be placed in the booklet? The advance program will be on line early in September or whenever it is done. Would it be okay to add a session from 4:15-5:00 if too many presenters? Probably not. There is a drawing. Not wise to go that late. Just turn down presenters if there are too many. Have you taken into account different lengths of time? Yes. Danny hasn't told people that they are accepted or not. He could go back and do some weeding. Could begin with cuts from multiple presenters. Let them know as soon as possible that they are accepted since they have hoops to go through to be able to present. Notify them if they are to present by the last week of August. As quickly as possible let them know the times they will present. By the first week of September a preliminary program should be sent to AEA folks to send them to a link. It could contain just a quick listing of presenters and topics and main speakers. This would showcase the conference. B. Awards (Tom) Corporate Friend of Science - Individual Friend of Science - Distinguished Service Award. Need plaque made for the new president. Submit names to Tom ASAP. Need 10 days to 2 weeks before the conference to get plaques made. We will discuss this at our next meeting in September. C. Speakers (Mike) Jim Colbert will be the luncheon speaker for no fee. He may need a room for Tuesday evening but he also may just drive over to do the presentation. Section chairs will be contacted for breakfast. Earth Science has Siobahn Morgan as the speaker. She needs a room the night before. No one has been contacted for Biology. Michael will try to get someone to organize this one and get people to attend. He will get the info about any speakers to Nadine. Breakfast could be served in the luncheon room. Get AV needs to Allison for the breakfast. D. Facilities (Allison) (To include tour of The Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel) Tour at 1:30 today. She had surgery so is gone. Tour of the building: We get 1 room free for each 40 paid rooms. Hospitality rooms? checking on that. AV equipment is available. Gayle has a card of the contact. Audio visual price list was given out. CATCED@lodginn.com for a fee. Can bring in anything you want OR can use theirs. Each room has a whiteboard (split room has only 1), water station, internet access. Ballroom needs to be wired @ $25 a connection. Ballroom will also need a screen. In the past overhead and screens were provided in each room. Exhibitors may assume there is one. There are 16 rooms available x 5 sessions. When Danny emails presenters, he'll ask for specific needs and then put them into the same room so we don't have to rent so many overheads and other equipment. Walkie-talkies are needed. there is one hot phone for hotel staff and one of our folks will have one. Some problems are not hotel related. Rent walkie-talkies for the day. If anyone has walkie-talkies, bring them to the September meeting. E. Exhibitors (Barb) - There always seems to be a rush at the end. There are 15 commercial vendors now - 13 booths with 6 tables. There are 10 - 45 minute workshops. $4895 has been committed now. Of this Barb has $3940 turned in. Noncommercial - 13 so far @ $100 a table. $1575 committed - collected $1335. There has been only one that has said they are not coming. One company sent 2 entries. Usually there is a rush at the end for these. NSTA rep is free but Barb hasn't heard from them yet. Lab aid sent a check for $600. If we hear of anyone else we are to let Barb know. She'll send an electronic form to them. Several more have been contacted but no paperwork has been received from them yet. Barb will send a list of vendors to Nadine. Tracey will email contacts for local colleges to try to get them to submit. DE usually sends messages to the college and asks them to get the information to the science chair. Email Tony at the IA science to get more college contacts. Cost is $100 per table for them. We should write "10 reasons to let someone attend. Let my teachers go." We could list the topics for elementary, middle school, etc. We could also send this blurb through the AEAs and the newsletter. F. Corporate Sponsors (Rick) - Colin Rockwell $1000. Pioneer will come through. Whirlpool $500. Other contacts have been made. Iowa Space consortium will give $2000 and will fund a teacher to go to DC all expenses paid. G. Registrations (Aaron) - Nothing significant to report. H. Finances/Budget (Jeanne) - I. Publicity/contacts/reminders - Jeff will send out in early fall for distribution a promotional postcard. This will include a blurb about the luncheon speaker. It will highlight topics. A cardboard version will be out in August and/or Sept. An electronic attachment will be sent to AEA consultants and science teachers. Some AEAs did and some didn't distribute the postcards last year. We should send info to colleges telling them that this will help students meet Standard 8 (PD). Mike makes his students attend. It's a requirement. (If can't go, they must do go-fer work to meet the requirement.) Once they attend, they are more likely to return. Jeff did send to teacher/preparer contacts at colleges to encourage them to get students to attend. Tracey will hit the elementary teachers in this area. Conference attendance is good for portfolio artifacts. J. Decorations (Ernie) - Ernie and his wife will do this again this year. We need to give him sizes and color schemes. K. 2 Huge boxes of mugs are in storage at the IAS office--thought to be blue and green (Marcy) - Ernie had decided that award recipients would get them. Jeff has a box as well. We will rebirth that recipient process. These were at the bookstore as well. Mug doesn't sell well. This year we will put a sale price on them to get them out. Jeff also has shirts as well from last year. L. To do: -Surveys (Tom) - waiting for Mike or Gayle to give any revisions other than obvious date changes. Need to know # 450? Tom will resend the survey to Gayle. Possible questions: How does this conference in CR compare to the one in Des Moines? Preference of holding it in CR or central Iowa? -President's Reception - 16th floor room (Commerce Club) they will check if it is available. If not available, they will check the Monarch room. It will be held from 6:00-8:00. Exhibitors should be set up by then. There will be a tray table of snacks. Scope Shop donated a keg. The hotel has to serve and control the liquor. Hotel price for a keg $245 + 21% service charge and tax. Built in bar in the Commerce Club. Might be more efficient to just use that. If do in hospitality room - can bring in your own. Highlight something to get people here? Overview from DE of what's coming? How can we promote it to get more here. This is open to the president's discretion. Gayle will think about it. Science museum + reception? -Section Breakfasts (Lynn, Sara, Deanna) See above -Rooms/roommates A sheet was passed for those planning on staying to request a room. You must be working in order to get a free room. -IAS Bulletin (Aaron/Danny) Advertise the conference in the bulletin that goes out. Craig will see this is done. -Other/what have I forgotten (?) Colors? Green and white is ok with Gayle. VI. The 2007 Conference B. Conference Program--who will do? Danny will do if he is here. Danny is doing this year's program on software that will be easy for the next person to use if he is not available. C. Disassociating the conference from the past presidency - We will vote at the next meeting or the following one. We could get more to run for presidency if the conference was not attached to it. These folks would represent the organization well. They could also retain the things they do if they were not responsible for the whole conference. Think about this and we'll discuss it at the next meeting. We also need to be sure there are two candidates in the next election. This is required in the by-laws. VI. Other B. Certificates for outstanding science students (per Jeanne's email) It was suggested that each school submit one or two names and they would be given a certificate at the end of the year. It was felt that this might create interest in the junior academy. Iowa Academy already gives a limited number but this would be for every school to download and print for one or two students. We would need to make it special - allowing only a pretty limited # with very few given. Maybe it could be that we send out two certificates to each science teacher. This was tabled and we'll discuss it at our September meeting. C. ESTA site to be improved - Ernie is the director. This is in the process of being done. It was hard to nominate people. D. Next meeting (check your schedules...which Saturday in Sept. works best?) 9-9 at 9:00. There will be a charge for another meeting here if we don't purchase a meal. Someplace in Oskaloosa could be used at no charge. Coe College might let us use one of their rooms. Gayle is leaning toward Oskaloosa for convenience. E. Mileage reimbursements - forms were passed out. F. ISTS Name Change - Science Teacher's Section is the name now (not ISTS). According to the vote, Iowa Science Educators' came in first. ISTS came in second. At the fall conference, ballots could be included so members can vote to resolve the issue. Put the same choices again and clarify the issue that we are NOT ISTS. This has to be voted on by the membership. We can't do it here with this committee. Craig could come up with ballots that will be given out at registration. Discussion was held that not all members come to the conference. We can vote the way we want. We are a part of the Iowa Academy of Science. Marcy and Gayle will put the question on line. This will be done after school starts so everyone will have email access. We don't need a certain number of votes - it just needs to be voted on by membership. It was felt that this would be better than at the conference since many in attendance are not members. VII. Financial status of ISTS/IAS (Craig) Lyn Countryman will come in to the office to discuss the financial status. Craig passed out a list of assets. His feeling is that we need to straighten this out and trust the IAS office. A CPA was brought in to review all the information. Craig read a list of gains and losses since 1999. IAS & ISTS share a checking account. The credit card account has a special rate. The CPA took Aaron's records of what came in from ISTS conferences. Of the expenses - some are obviously ISTS. That is where the final year income and expense came from. Some of exhibitor fees came in another way as well. Corporate is also not confusing. Bookstore money was correct. Craig needs an inventory of what books are left over. Coffee mugs and shirts must be included as well. Jeanne will receive a statement each month telling where we are. If there are discrepancies, they will be resolved each month. "Liabilities & Equity" is generated n Quick Book. This isn't extra money. Our dues help run the IAS office. We are a part of IAS. Respectfully submitted, Kathy Lockard Minutes from the April ISTS Meeting April 29, 2006 Those present:
President Michael Clough called the meeting to order at 8:30 am. Preliminary General Business Mike reviewed the information for ISTS leadership from the website as requested by Aaron Spurr. There were no corrections and little discussion. Nadine asked if past presidents are taken off the leadership team. She suggested they stay on the leadership team as long as they are willing to serve to add continuity and support to the team. Mike said that currently there is no one listed as president-elect for next year. He has contacted Traci Maxted about this job and asked if there are any others who would be willing to serve. No one stepped forward from the group attending this meeting. Traci had previously indicated she was willing to serve as ISTS president, but she has not yet responded to requests for completing a biographical information form. Mike suggested that the group consider separating the president's job from the job of conference coordinator. He wondered if a $1000 stipend would be enough to entice someone to take the conference coordinator position. He asked that the team think about it and bring up this discussion again at the July meeting. ISTJ
Newsletter Nadine reported that articles are due for the May issue of the newsletter. Specifically, letters from the president, past president, president-elect (as soon as we have one), and anyone with Fall Conference announcements were requested. Dan said he would send one for requesting presenters at the conference. Nadine also said that any announcements about summer opportunities would be appreciated. Fall Conference Development Mike is working on a possible theme for the fall conference. He stated that his brother will do the artwork for the program cover at no charge. He has secured Jim Colbert from ISU as the featured luncheon speaker. Jim will provide an engaging presentation about Iowa rivers, prairies and the ecological interactions between the two. Regarding the fall conference program, Dan reported that he has thus far received seven proposals for the conference. That number is behind what has typically been submitted at this time. He asked about extending the deadline until June 30, which was met by agreement form the group. Gale asked if a text version of the program could be made available pre-conference to the teachers so they weren't scrambling on the day of the conference to find their most valuable sessions. Tom said that at the July meeting we will need to finalize the Corporate Friend of Science Award, the Individual Friend of Science Award, and the Distinguished Service Award. Jeff suggested that all nominations go directly through Tom starting now to eliminate a step of first going to the president, then to Tom. Allison Donaldson, the fall ISTS conference facilities coordinator, gave a report on the facilities at the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel in Cedar Rapids. Costs will be considerably less than what we have been paying for holding the meeting at the Polk County Convention Center. There is a ballroom that can be divided for the luncheon and the exhibitors. There are 16 possible rooms for presenters. Allison outlined the costs associated with AV equipment and internet use. She is going to clarify the internet cost before the next meeting. It was suggested that we use the white boards in the rooms for the presentations rather than renting screens. Water stations will be provided in all rooms. She will reserve the Commerce Club room for the President's Reception Tuesday night of the conference. Hotel room rates are in the contract at $79 per night. Allison gave us handouts and her email address. Barb said this year she tried emailing all of the vendors but only 6 out of 70 responded. So, she has now sent information through the mail to them and is awaiting responses. The new location and date is highlighted in the mailings. June 15 is the deadline. A few new vendors have contacted her this year. Rick reported that there are 22 confirmed corporate sponsors so far. Nadine asked if he was familiar with the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor Project. She will email him some information with possible contacts. Mike reminded the group of the fees that were charged last year for attending the conference and said he intended to keep them the same if there were no objections. There were none. The "under-the-plate" survey needs revision. Tom said he would take a look at it again before the next meeting. Gale asked for a copy of last year's survey results. De Anna said that she has many enticing activities and giveaways for teachers attending the Earth Science Breakfast meeting. The first 10 to sign up will get a free video. Siobahn Morgan (UNI) will speak at the meeting about astronomy. Among other things, De Anna has a packet to give all attendees and is working on getting a geologic history of Iowa book for each participant as well. Finances Mike read a report from Jeanne Rogis concerning ISTS finances. Jeanne reports that she is waiting for the latest financial report from the IAS. Jeff said that it should not be different from the report given in February. Other Business Lynn asked about the procedure for nominating someone for the ESTA awards. There was a breakdown this year in the process. Jeff Assured her that there are procedures in place. Lynn recommended an online nomination process. Gale will follow-up on this issue. Mike shared a letter from Marcy Seavey who was unable to attend the meeting. She cited the proposed section changes as an item for us to discuss. The changes include changing the name from the "Iowa Science Teachers Section" to "Iowa Science Education Section." Pros and cons of this name change were discussed by the group. Marcy suggested that it is a more inclusive name. The members of the ISTS leadership team attending this meeting expressed the opinion that there is a lot of history with the name "Iowa Science Teachers" of our section that include, in part, "brand loyalty" and reputation. Other professionals in education should consider themselves teachers and join our groups. Much discussion of the ISTS history ensued. Tom made a motion to respond to the proposal courteously saying that we are not interested in any kind if change in name or sections at this time. Rick seconded the motion. A unanimous vote in favor of the motion followed. Mike passed the gavel to Gale Vermeulen, our new president. The meeting concluded at 12:15. ISTS Leadership Winter 2006 Team Meeting Last year's conference. Jeff's figures were sent today. It was a brilliant 2005 conference. All feedback was reflective of a banner conference thanks to 14 key players that helped organize the conference. Craig Johnson: I want to congratulate everyone. Income: $30,758 from contributors, $3,300 from exhibitors, $14,000 registration. Total ISTS income: $49,155. Expenses: $38,499. Total usable income $10,656. There are still a few items not yet finalized such as the inventory from last year (books). There will also be some credit card transaction fees to pay. There may be a couple other minor things. They also need to go back to 2003 to clean up some accounts not in the right places. The exact amount in the account will be close to this figure. Last year we ended $4000 ahead. That money was spent before the conference this fall. We must remember there are expenses throughout the year. We have influenced science education in a profound way! This was also the first time in 5 or 6 years that there was an increase in attendance too. Thanks to Craig and the way he is running things.
This is a crucial decision for the financial stability of ISTS! Gayle: What was the response of exhibitors? That is where most of our money comes from. It was about a 50/50 split. Meaning? 50% thought would be here this fall and 50% at national. Ernie: If we have our conference at the regional, that would add one or two days onto teacher's leave. How many would come to us and how many would go to the regional? If we change the dates for the fall conference what would be the response of putting it with the IAS spring program in April? What would that do to our attendance? How do we get teachers to pay both? We would get one or the other. At this late date it would be hard to find space in Omaha. Space is cheaper in Des Moines than Omaha. No matter where we hold this, our attendance is going to be down. How many from the western half attend ours? Do we get participants from both the west and the east? Tom: One of the columns from the survey information was what town they were from. I recall there were not many from the west. Every year we conflict with the regional. This year there is a close distance and head to head date. We have been able to avoid this in the past. Therefore, this decision truly can be a one time decision. The next close regional is Detroit. When he talked to the NSTA man, Ken, in Tennessee, 13 months ago when the problem was discovered, it was already too late for us to get away from this problem. He gave the impression that NSTA would rather we didn't hold our meeting. It appears that only ½ the attendees would come to our conference. We can't turn a profit at this rate. We could hold our conference in eastern Iowa, find a facility that holds about half the number, and go ahead and hold it this one year. We should consider that Mr. Rosenbaum from NSTA said exhibitors schedule to attend regionals as well as nationals and this wouldn't affect those who are to come to Des Moines. Many have two different budgets – state and regional. This is not true for all companies however. Some said they will NOT be in Des Moines but will be in Omaha. We could move the conference to Newton or Marshalltown junior college. Someone stated that they had already had a vendor ask where it was going to be. Question: what is our biggest expense? Answer: Location and rental fees and food. Checking into those two things would be a good place to start. We should go ahead and contact the Convention center to pencil us in for 2007 . When should we schedule the conference? The week before or the week after? Exhibitors tend to pencil in weeks in advance. Would we disrupt them if we move the week? It was suggested to keep the same date for another reason: science teachers in the state plan to go to one or the other. Those going to both won't be very many – just a small percent. We would still have teachers doing one or the other. This solves the problem for the exhibitors because they could do both. 15-20 students from ISU come. They might choose to go to NSTA. If the conferences were held different weeks the students would probably do both. This is true of AEA consultants as well. How many are non-teachers attend? There were very few non science teachers on the under the plate surveys. Last year: 8 ½ % undergraduate, 2 % were graduate, 6% university or college faculty, 1% administrators. It was suggested to call Newton, Ames, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Cedar Falls (regional house for 267), etc. and find what's available. Polk county is too expensive if we have only half the people. It was suggested to delegate a variety of folks to do the calls with a 2 week deadline. Find a venue for 250 or so. (Ask: What if 400 could come?) There must be a hotel nearby with 10 rooms. There must be catering services available. We could then compare prices between the towns. We would reconvene two weeks from now and review the results. Tom volunteered to call and get the info on a summary sheet and get it done within a week. Tony said would it be reasonable to check Des Moines hotel for that number also but it was felt that drawing from northeast Iowa for a change might be fun. In this way we may hook them back into Des Moines for future conferences. Tom will check these dates: 12, 18, 26 and see if there is anything available. Past attendance: AEA 11 biggest, 267 second biggest with 60-65% of attendance. AEA 10 Cedar Rapids – very low. Western AEAs are extremely low as well as the eastern AEAs. It was stated that we outgrew Cedar Rapids facility several years ago. They accommodated us for several years. By using a community college we would save a lot of rental fee. It was questioned whether they would have facilities for lunch, conference and presentation rooms on the same day that kids are there. It was stated that 300 4th graders were housed at Hawkeye Community College (Cedar Falls/Waterloo area) – for free. Tom will check everything out and send his findings out to entire leadership team – Jeff, Mike and Gayle. Email Tom if you have further ideas for him to check.
Mike stated: I'm not trying to shirk responsibility but will need lots of help. (2) The Iowa Science Teachers Journal
I received a message from Craig Johnson that IAS will not fund the ISTJ managing editor position after the 4th issue of the current volume. Jeff Weld will attend the IAS meeting in February. I currently serve as ISTJ editor and receive no compensation. The role is very time-consuming, but I am pleased to continuing serving in this capacity if, and only if, we retain the services of a managing editor. Joe Taylor does a great deal of work that includes:
Feedback regarding prior issues of the journal. Two issues of the journal have already been posted on line . The third one will be submitted soon. It takes a great deal of time in editing. Mike would like to get the journals out sooner. The first two were out a month later than they wanted. It was stated that Mike and Joe did a stellar job on the journals. They would like to get input from membership around the state. Aaron reported on the # of hits to the journal. 25% of hits to our server are from "robots" google, etc. Hit is defined as a request for a page. The directory had 2700 requests in past month. Fall conference directory in the past year had 8700 hits. Articles downloaded: "A Penny Saved" 619 hits; "Color Blindness" 463 hits; "Lights, Camera, Inquiry" 352 hits – there were between 300-500 for many of the articles. The last issue had twice as many hits as the first issue. This shows that people are more aware of it. A lot of people become members on line. Google searches pop up our articles too. Future issues will be restricted to members. Abstracts would still be hit on google, etc. but they would have to be a member to read the entire article. It was stated that the journal is heavily edited. It takes Mike 5-6 hours of editing on each article. Joe, the managing editor, does the "professional look" part of the magazine. He also assigns manuscripts to reviewers. There is a lot of time and work put into the journal. Mike can't do the work that Joe does. What will we do at the end of the 4 issues? How much does it cost to have Joe? $1200 per issue. Craig stated we could take the expense from the budget from the fall conference. The board doesn't care where the $ comes from. The conference can help fund the journal. Other sources? Advertising? Marcie suggested the idea of writing a Carver grant. They will fund for 3 years. We would then have that time to build up the advertisers. Carver likes start up projects. They will be more apt to fund now than two years from now. How would we start the grant? Marcie will send the website that outlines the procedures. You write a letter first to the company with a description of the organization. Carver then decides if they want to fund the grant. They will then send an application. They fund 4 times each year so another grant opportunity would be coming soon. Another suggestion was to make a laundry list of corporate sponsors of the conference and send a brochure to them that would pitch our case . The journal was going to be sent to current members of ISTS because they have little to show for their membership. If the journal gets our membership up – how might this help pay for the managing editor? Membership money goes into IAS to pay expenses. It is not split out with ISTS getting a part of the membership fee. We will keep track and see if there is a significant increase in membership because of the journal. The organization as a whole does not operate in the black right now. A considerable amount is paid out to cover things that affect ISTS – insurance for example. The organization needs to dramatically increase its membership to cover expenses. All of the memberships right now do not pay for one full time individual. Other sources of funding have to be found to cover the operational costs. Membership is not a place to look for money for programming. Each program has to look for their own funding. Advertising in journal? Where would the money go? It would end up in the journal account.
Ernie: Nadine stated there were reports that the last newsletter took a long time to download pictures, etc. The pictures need to be put in rich text format. Some members have written and said please take my name off newsletter list because it plugs the system. 3 questions: • How should she proceed? Email the journal without photos? • Is there anyone in ISTS that would offer tech support? • The new newsletter will be out on Feb 15. Nadine would like articles from the president, the past president, the president elect and other officers. Tell who they are and where they teach. Also include a little about their activities or events. Aaron: Many email accounts won't handle pictures. Perhaps made PDFs of newsletter and post it on the website. Those files aren't that big. An email could be sent saying that the newsletter is ready – go to the url. Marcie: ISTS has a list now. If you went the newsletter for members only, you could use the bulletin board design. Nadine should mail Aaron when she is ready to publish the newsletter and he will help. Has anyone read the newsletter? Do you like what has been done? Yes, pass on the information that she's doing a great job. The only issue is downloading. Tom had sent pictures and no complaints about not being able to open them. Nadine has no problem opening, just when others try to open that is the problem.
Aaron: website. Every 2 years we have installed a digital id on the website to allow picture transactions to take place. This is due in about a month. All registrations are now made through UNI and they can be done without digital id. We are not collecting credit cards now – just names and addresses. Should he let the digital id expire? It costs $350 over two years. There were no objections so it is OK to let it go. Marcie: Encourage everyone in next three days to nominate someone for awards. The nomination is due the 31st of January. Only one or two have been submitted so far. There is a brochure on the site to nominate someone. You must contact the person who you are nominating. They have to fill out some questions. When you solicit funds from a corporate sponsor, one of the key things you can do is mention teacher names that have a connection with that sponsor. Lyn Campbell has a connection with Pioneer. Could regional directors get a list of all people in their area that are members? Regional directors need to figure a way to get in contact with them on a regular basis. We will explore ways to do that. It would be nice to find a way to target those science teachers in the area who aren't members and contact them in an attempt to increase the membership. On the member website you can search by AEA. Marcie will send instructions how to do this. There is no filter so you may get some back if they have no valid email address. It is vital to charge regional directors with this task! We need to do a better job of marketing ISTS. Mike, Gayle, Kathy need to pin down who is doing what in regard to planning and all the chores for the conference. Lyn Countryman may bail out on program design. We need to hand off publicity to someone who has an interest and a flair for writing blurbs for newspapers and to science teachers. Gayle – identify candidates for president elect. The last day of February is the time to have names submitted if we want them to go out in the ballot.
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