The mission of the Iowa Science Teaching Section of the Iowa Academy of Science is to advocate for excellence in science education by promoting professionalism, influencing policy, and enhancing learning.

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.

Executive Board Meeting
August 25

Executive Board Meeting
April 28

ISTS Fall Conference Planning Meeting

Agenda: August 25, 2007
 
1) Introductions

Traci Maxted, Chair, Regional Director
Gale Vermeulen, Conference Chair
Morgan Masters, Vice Chair
Jeff Weld, ex officio
Jeanne Rogis, Treasurer
Barb Jacobson, Exhibits Coordinator
Nadine Weirather, Regional Director, Publicity
Aaron Spurr, ISTS Webmaster, Registration Coordinator
Allison Donaldson, Facilities Coordinator
Craig Johnson, Iowa Academy of Science Executive Director
Marcy Seavey, Iowa Academy of Science Program Director
Rick Wells, corporate Sponsors Coordinator
Kathy Lockard, Secretary, Regional Director
Patrick Donovan, guest

2) Minutes of April meeting

Jeff Weld – Regents Universities Math/Science Education Initiative –  Since it was felt that the 3 state universities were not doing enough in science and math, they have been meeting and planning to see how they can be more responsible for math and science needs. Recruitment has been ramped up for math and science teachers. There is a clearinghouse center at UNI – think tank type stuff is being done (bring in speakers, coordinate summer camp, etc.). Business people and science teachers are talking. Visit the website at www.uni.ed/pres/math-science to learn more about the initiative. $6.2 million has been asked for from the Iowa taxpayers. UNI has been designated as the leader of the initiative but it is a collaborative effort between all three universities. ISTS could be a partner in the initiative if it all comes to be, Jeff is the leader in the initiative.  The money could possibly be in their budget permanently to help with the math and science initiative across the state. Jeff agreed to be a featured speaker at the conference about the initiative.

3) New Business - Conference  (Gale V.)

A) Facilities - Allison D – A copy of directions and ballroom information was passed out. We will try to avoid the 7th floor if possible. But will use the 4th and 5th floor. There will be part of the ballroom to set up for presentations – Ballroom III and IV. The Exhibit Hall will be in Ballroom I, II, V and VI. We need about 13 rooms per session. The negotiated lunch menu was presented. The cost is $11 per plate. Registration could be set up in the hallway outside of the conference center – just inside the first door. There will be a small room down the hall for presenters to store their equipment. The bookstore will be where the registration is this year. Book signing will be in the Exhibit Hall. This will be done right after his lecture from 1:30-2:30. He will then be a featured speaker in the next session. Gayle has a $2000 grant to help pay for his expenses since he is going to be with local schools on Wednesday and Friday. Jeanne will work with the publisher to see what they will furnish for the book signing. Rick would like directions about how to get to registration and then to the lunchroom so he can pass the information on to corporate sponsors. Allison will send this information to everyone.

B) Corporate Sponsors - Rick W. – Handout of who has given money this year. Rick has $2600 at this time. He is considering AE for the FOS award this year since they have given $100 per year for 10 years.

C) Finances/ Budget - Jeanne R. & Gale – Traci spent a day with Toni and Marcy figuring out the budget. Line items are available with the new program she is using. Income Feb-Dec was given. A budget is a request to spend the money. They took last year’s budget and increased by a bit (3%). The budget will be proposed before April 10. It will then be approved by the board and then we will have it for next year’s conference,

D) Exhibitors - Barb J – A few aren’t able to come this year. Around 30 are registered now. Some exhibitors are going to present (10-12 so far). They want a 45 minute session. They pay $125 to do this. This year Barb sent an email to every university, college and junior college. Registration materials were sent to their department chairs. They pay $100 table. Drake is not coming back this year because they had a too small table last year. Barb put out a bid for a decorator. Spielmans got the bid. She specified 8 foot tables. Green and white will be the colors.

E) Bookstore - Jeanne R. – If anyone has free time during the conference, it would be appreciated to help Jeanne out. Gale’s husband and Tom’s wife will be available to help. The conference committee gets a discount on conference registration with the understanding that they work. They receive $10 off what a member pays. Presenters pay the same $45.

F) Registration – Aaron S – Need a way to police the people who go to the breakfast. It was decided to have one room with the food and four others for the interest meetings. Someone will be at the serving room to police who has paid. Breakfast will be from 7:30-8:30. The first session is at 9:00. The serving room will not have a session at the  9:00 time. Tom moved that we get rid of the conference committee breakfast and encourage folks to go to the session breakfasts and pay for the breakfast like the other attendees. Seconded by  Jeff Weld. Marcy stated that it is reasonable for volunteers to get a free breakfast. They do get the break in conference price. Several will also get a free hotel room. The hot breakfast should go beyond what the folks get in the exhibitors hall since they are paying for it. Could be a buffet style egg casserole. Committee could eat in the room where the food is served. Tom withdrew his motion. The conference committee will be allowed to get the buffet breakfast and could then attend the interest area breakfast meeting if they want. An email will be sent by Allison to all (Regional directors, etc.) asking them to respond if they are going to work and want to eat breakfast. Tom then moved that everyone pay for breakfast. This motion died for lack of a second. Featured speakers will also eat free. Aaron would like to do all registrations – even for corporate presenters. He will do this next year since Barb already has some registrations for corporate presenters.

G) Publicity - Morgan M. – Morgan has been working on an electronic postcard. He sent an email to all AEAs asking for the number they would need. He has heard from several AEAs but not all. He will send 500 to each AEA that has not responded and the number that other AEAs have requested. They should then distribute the cards. The cost of printing is $300 for 6000 cards. Electronic cards will also go to colleges and universities, to AEAs, to past members (log in to members part of the website or Marcy will send out to all). Morgan will send cards to IAS and they will mail out to members. Morgan will tell the printers to direct bill IAS for copying. Allison will help Morgan with the font and layout and will send it back to him to print. IAS will contact the major newspapers to have them advertise the conference. We could also possibly put something on the local TV stations. If anyone is interested in taking over publicity in the future, please let Morgan know.

H) Awards- Tom E. – Friend of Science at Corporate Level. Tom made the motion to accept Rick’s recommendation for AE. This was seconded by Gale. Vote – accepted. Distinguished Service Award – Aaron Spurr will receive this award. Friend of Science Education at the Individual Level – Four nominees from email. Jeff Weld also spoke about a nominee – teacher at UNI that does the upward bound program - Litricia Hilton. It was suggested that she be nominated next year. Tom would nominate Cindy Dietz from the four applications. Rick seconded the motion. This is in her job position but she goes above and beyond what her job requirements are. Vote - Motion carried. Tom will write to each of the nominators and let them know of our decision and thank them for the nominations. Tom will get the information from each of the winners to get the awards made.

Marci asked for folks to nominate colleagues to be “fellows” of the academy. Could be an ESTA winner who has participated in the ISTS or a junior academy member.

I) Decorations - Ernie S. – Ernie will do this again this year.

J) Speakers – Traci has a list of all the speakers that she will email to anyone who wants them. There are four featured speakers. Session 1: 9:00-9:45, Session 2: 10:00-10:30, Session 3: 10:45-11:30, Lunch: 11:45-1:30, Exhibitors: 1:30-2:30, Session 4: 2:30-3:00, Session 5: 3:15-4:00 Mark Anderson requested a 45 minute time block. He will be presenting at 1:00.  He is from the State of Iowa and is an archeologist. Andrew Chaikin is also doing a session. John Dunkhase and Jeff Weld are the other two speakers. Jeff will speak in one of the 30 minute spots.

K) Wed Evening Sessions - Wednesday evening time frame: 6:00-9:00. President’s reception at 9:15. There are five workshops listed. Any will be canceled if lack of numbers registering. The number is up to the person presenting the workshop. Some have said a minimum of 10. Traci and Gale will take care of the Wednesday night meal and will do that in the Presidential reception suite. There are different prices for each session. Three are $15. And two are $20. Traci was asked to be sure the president’s reception doesn’t start until 9:15.

L) Featured Speakers – See above

M)  Breakfasts – Where are they going to be? See discussion above.
 
N) Program – Traci M. – The program is put together but Traci needs to sit down with Allison to get room assignments. The program is much the same as last year but things have been moved around some. Traci will email the final copy so we can proof them before she prints.

Student helpers – Traci will bring her AP students to help.

Lunch

4) Newsletter – Nadine – This will again be published four times a year. The first issue will come out September 15. Nadine needs letters from the 3 presidents and things about the fall conference. She needs blurbs from each of the interest area breakfasts as well as a formal introduction from Morgan. The deadline for submission of materials to Nadine is the 10th of September. If anyone has general news ideas or things going on in world of education, send them to Nadine and she’ll put them into the newsletter. Gale will write about the Wednesday evening, featured speakers, and book signing.

Advertising – Marcy – A handout was given of advertisement guidelines using information from Michigan. The amounts were based on a comparison with other organizations. The board decided the prices and approved them this week. They wanted the same price for all of their publications. If anyone contacts Nadine, she now has guidelines to work with them. Nonprofit will still be put in as blurbs for members. If the advertiser wants to sell something, then it goes through IAS and the fee may apply. Nadine will have a pdf version of the guidelines and will have them contact IAS for more information. Then Marcy will send Nadine a pdf of the advertisement.. Placement requests will be given to Nadine. Submission deadlines will be the 10th of each submission month. Nadine will put an example ad in the September newsletter for them to have a point of reference. A hard copy of their ad will be sent to them by Toni. This doesn’t completely eliminate the ability to provide “comps” if something should go into the newsletter for member information.

5) Treasurers report - Jeanne R. – submitted. Motion was made by Nadine to accept the treasurer’s report. It was seconded by Morgan. It was voted to approve the report.

6) ISTJ - Mike C & Joe T. –

A)  Status - email from Mike. Their term will be ending during the summer of 2008. They have completed editing the four articles for the next issue. They have enough submitted manuscripts for the next 3 issues. There were no expenses beyond stipend that Joe receives. The spring of 2008 is when Mike will be done. It was requested that we begin advertising for a new editor and managing editor. If the selection could be made by February or March, Mike could help train them. They will send details about job responsibilities.

B) Funding – When comparables were made with other organizations it was found that our pay is high since many are strictly volunteer. If we want a new editor, the newsletter is a good place to advertise.

7) Old business

A) Guidelines (aka bylaws)(pleaseproofbeforemeeting)

i)Updates – There was discussion about Regional Directors being voting members of the board as well as about Interest Area Committee members being voting members. It was decided to have Regional Directors continue being voted and Interest Area not voting. 15-16 will combine Regional Directors. Nadine will go to just newsletter and will be a non-voting member. She will still come and share in the discussion.

ii)Committees & other articles to check – Election Committee - This year Secretary and Vice-chair are to be elected.

Membership Committee – Jeff could be the chair of this committee with regional directors as members.

iii)Job descriptions – As folks go through the conference this year, they need to keep notes about the timelines, duties, etc. so that the job descriptions can be finalized. We cannot ask a contracted worker how much per hour. So only ask how much the job is worth. They individually keep track of hours and then can ask for more pay based on the number of hours they put in if it is warranted.

iv) Fall conference. Ideal person to write would be Tom Ervin.

v) Regional directors guide

B)Regional directors

i)Combine regions? – See above.

ii)Vacancies – Traci will send the final list that she has.

8)Other old business - none

9)Other new business (elections?)

Start beating the bushes for secretary and vice-chair.

10)Setting dates & paperwork

Do we need another meeting in September? We want to make sure everyone has a chance to proof the program. When we come to a meeting, we make sure that time is set to do the work. When email may not set aside the time to do it. It was decided to mail the completed copies of the program and the guidelines out. Traci will ask folks to read and proof both. Then she will set up a conference call to go over it the week of September 17. Traci will get the date emailed to us as soon as possible.

11)Adjourn

Iowa Science Teachers Section Meeting Agenda  4/28/07

A. Introductions (including new members of the leadership team)

B. General Business

• ISTJ (Joe/Mike) – no report
• Newsletter (Nadine) The last issue will be out by May 15. Nadine needs letters and/or news.
• Other? (Please let me know) There are 53 new ISTS members that joined at the fall conference. We need to continue doing what was done to continue to increase the membership. There are 463 total members.

The annual report was filled out.
 
C. 2007 Conference development:

• Publicity (Kathy Mainz) – Gale hasn’t heard from her (kmainz@aea16.k12.ia.us) She had contacted Jeff Weld with ideas to try and was asked to begin the work of publicity. Her name was added to the listserv.
• Registrations (Aaron) – There was nothing new to report. It is on the web for presenters to register through June 30 for presentations. Program person also sends out a request for presenters. IAS could send a postcard to all past presenters to say that the end of registration is nearing – go to website and register to present. Aaron will also send an email to them. Marcy could also send an email to all past attendees asking for them to present. This will be sent the first two weeks of May of each year.
• Theme and program cover (Gale) – The theme for the conference will be “Opportunities for Learning” based on our website goal statement. The cover will be done by Gale’s daughter who has an art minor and is graduating from college. She will do it at no cost to ISTS.
• Conference Program (Danny) – Danny has a job in Kansas so will not be doing our program. DeAnna might be interested. Traci might be as well. Formatting might be already in place. They will contact Danny to know for sure that a template is available. We could have co-program ladies if both Deanna and Traci decide to continue with this.
• Awards (Tom) – not present but will do the awards
• Speakers (Gale) – The luncheon speaker will be Andrew Chaikin – space historian. He has interviewed all the astronauts. He has a new book coming out and will do a book signing at the conference. He will be here for 3 days. The cost is $5000 plus expenses but some of this will be arranged through Peg Armstrong Gustafson. Gale will work on arranging the funding. Andrew’s favorite topic is Mars. He will talk about exploration there – perhaps human or robotic. Folks can use him in classrooms, etc. He will also do some sessions for us throughout the day.
• Facilities (Allison) – Allison is working on this. The contract has been sent to Gale and Traci. Luncheon might be in the Cellular Center so there will be more room for exhibits.
• Exhibitors (Barb) – Barb sent a letter to Ernie saying exhibitors would receive a reduced price if they presented a workshop the night before. Spielmans was used for tables last year. They provided 8 x 8 tables rather than 8 x 10. Fieldmans in Des Moines sent a bid this year as well. Barb will make a decision between the two companies. She needs the entire ballroom if possible. The Cellular Center is under separate management. Gale will email Allison to find out if it can be used for the luncheon. All exhibitors who are presenting need to pay $125 in addition to the cost of the table. Commercial presenters that do not have a table need to go through Barb as well and pay the $125. Barb will send their names to the program “person” to be sure they are in the program.
• Corporate Sponsors (Rick) – Rick was unable to come but it is assumed he will continue.
• Night before workshops (Ernie) – Ernie is working on funding for this but so far has no takers. He feels that some of the presenters might need some reimbursement and to pay for the room and materials. Sponsors would offset the cost.
• John Duncase talked about doing an inquiry workshop. DeAnna mentioned about doing one the night before as well. Marcie said they could do Project Wet, Globe, Aero Lab or the Lost Landscape curriculum. Rockwell has engineers that go out into the community and Traci will contact them to see if they will send engineers to do a workshop. The Cedar Rapids lead teachers are working on a GIS project for teachers. Ericka will contact them to see if they will present a workshop. Traci will contact the science station that is 3 blocks away from the hotel to see if they would be interested in presenting. The Nature Center is also very close. There could be an evening session on ELI as well. Kathy will think about this and get info to Gale. Email workshop ideas to Gale and she will compile them.
• The Exhibit Hall will not be open the night before. The exhibitors don’t feel there are enough coming to be ready to go the evening before.
• Some exhibitors might want to hold a workshop as well.
• The Iowa Limestone Producers might sponsor a field trip the night before.
• Meal at 6:00 (box lunch to eat while session was going on). Workshop from 6-9:00 (8:30). President’s reception then 9:00-10:30.
• A discussion about equipment needs and room set up was held. This is to be included on the registration forms for presenters.
• Decorations (Ernie) – Ernie and his wife will do this again.
• Finances/Budget (Jeanne) – Ill this morning.
• President's Reception (Traci) – If specific needs let Traci know. There will be no ribbon cutting to the exhibit hall.
• Interest Area Breakfasts (Lynn, Sara, DeAnna, Alicia) – It was suggested that there be a change of locations because it was hard to hear last year. Knowing what presenters need to set up before hand would be helpful. Gale will ask Allison where the breakfasts will be and what will be served.
• A discussion was held about whether to have the ISTS membership section annual meeting at this time as well. We could have the meeting first, then break out into breakfast OR have the general membership meeting after the breakfast OR do the ISTS meeting at the luncheon. This may encourage non-members to become members. It would make the luncheon longer. After much discussion, the decision was made to do the annual meeting at the luncheon. This will show that we’re part of a greater entity. Introductions and recognition will be a part of this meeting. We will have members stand and be recognized as well.
• Erica has someone to help with the elementary breakfast if we need her to. DeAnna asked if the Iowa Limestone producers could sponsor the breakfast. They would give $150-$200. They would put together packets for the participants. The participants could also pay for their breakfasts and then would receive a reimbursement from the Iowa Limestone Producers if this would make it less complicated. Not trying to sell anything – just want to get more teachers involved. Or, we could put the money into the general fund and it will say that they were a sponsor in the program.
• TO DO: Surveys, Presenters, & ???
• Surveys – Tom has done these in the past.
• Marci will look into getting bags to give to the participants at the exhibitors center. She could order one just for ISTS. She couldn’t remember the cost. She will check into it. The Iowa Limestone Producers have plastic bags that they could pass out at the registration table as well. It would be neat to have the canvas bags for those at the breakfasts.

D. Other

• ISTS Guidelines – A handout was given of the ISTS Guidelines. The things in gray are the questions that Marci had. Marci has been helping Gale update the guidelines so new members will always know what is expected of them. These will become an official Academy document which means they will be approved by the board. To change them in the future changes will have to be sent to the board.
• Since we are a nonprofit organization, we cannot pay members for anything. We can reimburse for expenses, pay registrations, etc. but cannot pay a stipend to be there because you are a member. We can create “contract” positions with a letter of agreement and a description of the position on file as well as making the positions known at a meeting. None of those contracted people can vote on stipends. They can be members of the leadership team but cannot vote.
• Edits were made in the first 2 sections. Marci will make these edits and send them out to all of us. The discussion will continue at the next meeting.
• Regional Directors Guide – tabled to a later meeting date.
• ISTS Description – tabled to a later meeting date.
• Location and date of the 2008 Fall Conference?
• Next Meetings… late July/early August, late September.
• Passing the Gavel from Gale to Traci. Traci had three concerns.
• Do we need a meeting to begin working on the guide? If we go to a fall whole day session, we can do this at the same time.

Feelings on when and where the next meeting should be– late August or Early September - whole day meeting

She would like to have the 2008 location set by the 2007 conference – Traci feels it should be someplace other than Cedar Rapids. Perhaps a college campus. Tom and Allison had researched extensively and there are not many places that will house the number of participants we have. UNI ought to feel strongly enough about this to cancel classes and give the whole building. Lab School could call school off if given a year in advance notice.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:00.