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.

ISTS Executive Board Meeting, September 11, 1999, Ox Yoke Interstate, Amana, Iowa

Agenda

Meeting was called to order at 9:30 AM by President Jeff Hepburn. Members present were: Lyn Countryman (past president and Fall Conference Chair), Jeff Hepburn (president), Karen Wignall - (ex officio), Erica Larson (president-elect), Beverly Iverson (treasurer), Ross Iverson (AEA 6 ), Aaron Spurr (Fall Conference Coordinator, Webmaster), Sharon Johnston (AEA 5), Vicki Boss (Elementary Chair), Vicki Oswald (Elementary chair elect), Mike Zeller (exhibit coordinator), Tom Ervin (corporate funding), Kathy Lockard (AEA 14), Rick Wells (AEA 9), Terry Coleman (AEA 10, Facilities Coordinator), Dick Ehlers (Chem Ed Co-Chair). Jeff Hepburn said that Dave McCalley was unable to attend due to personal and family commitments, Sara Coleman was unable to attend due to personal commitments and Tony Heiting was unable to attend but communicated with Jeff Hepburn.

I. Approval of Executive Board Meeting Minutes - Sara Coleman

Terry Coleman moved to approve the minutes, Rick Wells seconded. Lyn asked to correct the spelling of Gail Wortmann's name and under open discussion to correct the spelling of Jane Vander Linden. Motion passed with spelling corrections.

II. Treasurer's Report - Beverly Iverson. Bev passed out 3 handouts: ISTS Treasurer's report Sept. 1999, Category Summary Report 1/1/99 - 9/9/99, and Category Detail Report 1/1/99 - 9/9/99. She reported $45,966.20 as the total income for the year and total expenses of $14,636.43. She then proceed to explain the new IAS accounting system and IAS reports our balance as approximately $13,277 in one account. IAS is continuing to work on rectifying the system. Beverly created a financial history from 1994 to 1999, which indicated the patterns of ISTS Balance and Interest. Beverly assured us she would work carefully with IAS as they prepare for this audit. Karen Wignall commended Beverly for doing an excellent job and for working so hard at the treasurer's position. Dick asked for summarization, "we think we have $30,000 and they think we have $10,000". Beverly responded all of the numbers we have recorded had been reported to us from IAS and her financial history verifies that we can defend all of our accounts, what is in question is the interest apportionments from IAS. Beverly asked us to be patient. Mike suggested that IAS needs to look at ISTS Corporate funding donations, or exhibitors fees. Jeff said he would follow up on that lead. Ross moved to accept the treasurers report, Lyn seconded. Motion carried.

III. Old Business

A. Awards and Recognition - Karen Wignall. Six Friends of Science Award nominations, 2 individuals were chosen by the Awards and Recognition committee: Chris Williams, naturalist (nominated by Jodi Binz) and Ed Peterson, Des Moines School former Science Supervisor (Karen, Kathy McKee and Don Murphy nominated him). Distinguished Service Award recipients are Gail Wortmann, former ISTS Newsletter Editor and Tom Ervin (a past ISTS president and current Corporate Fund-raiser).

B. Fall Program Update

1. Program - Lyn Countryman. Lyn brought Advanced Programs, she sent out 14,600 and kept about 300 back. She pointed out the big Pre-Conference. Mike asked when final program goes to print. Lyn said next week, please get information to her immediately. Terry asked how many would be printed? Lyn asked for input. Tom requested 100 for his efforts in corporate funding. Mike asked for another 100 for exhibitors. Lyn announced that the 1998 program design won an award (Karen Wignall's daughter had designed the cover).

2. Pre-Conference. Lyn reported the information was available in the Advanced Program and that things were going well.

3. President's Reception - Jeff Hepburn. Will be in the Raccoon River Brewing Company, next to the Hotel Ft. Des Moines. There will be finger food and people can choose their homemade beverages. Cost will run around $700 - $800.

4. Facilities - Terry Coleman. Hotel Ft. Des Moines is the conference hotel, Pre-Conference will be held there for Wednesday evening. Conference day meetings mostly at the Convention Center with 5 additional rooms at the Savory Hotel. Dessert is chocolate raspberry torte. Overall cost this year will be 15% or more higher than last due to convention center increases, lunch increases and the fact that there is no opportunity to share with a preceding conference. Terry will propose to increase the budget amount for the Convention Center to $31,000 and the Hotel Ft. Des Moines to $5600 in new business. Jeff expressed appreciation for Terry's hard work.

5. Exhibitors - Mike Zeller reported 67 booths have been sold for $11,740 and 15 noncommercials for $1,125, total $12,865. Mike has sent confirmation letters and packets out to all exhibitors. Currently we are 4 booths ahead of last year, with more still coming in. Mailing costs are a little higher due to postal increases. Jeff expressed appreciation for Mike's efforts.

6. Registrations - Aaron Spurr reported 120 registrations as of yesterday. This year a postcard will be sent stating you are registered, please bring this postcard to collect your registration packet. Jane and Aaron have worked on the credit card processing, 47 registrations have been on-line with credit cards. IAS will use this system for the Annual Meeting. Aaron and Dave are looking into ways to make this system more efficient. On-line registrations could be removed from the web site the end of September. Mike recommended leaving the On-line registration for late registrants up but increase the fees. Tom said it has always been our policy that everyone who attends the conference registers and pays. Terry suggested closing the web site, stating preregistration is officially closed, register on-site. Ross suggested stating preregistration is now past, then state the new fees. Mike suggested having two computers that allow people to register on line at the conference registration. This may be a consideration for the future, especially if IAS gets the software that allows immediate credit checks.

7. Corporate Sponsors - Tom Ervin passed around a handout communicating he has added 16 new contacts and has generated $3,450 in donations. He handed the checks to Beverly Iverson. Members offered additional corporations for Tom to add to his list. Lyn asked Tom to send the updates to her to add to the Fall Conference program. Terry asked to receive any additional information also. Tom asked that the corporations that donated be mentioned at the luncheon. Aaron offered to put the information on the Web site. Terry asked if Tom asked groups to target portions of the conference, for example the luncheon speaker. Tom said yes, last year the technology room was financially supported by Maytag. Lyn said the luncheon speaker was partially funded by an ISU coalition, Mike asked that they be included as Conference sponsors. Jeff thanked Tom for his hard work in this adventure.

C. ISTS Web Site Update - Aaron Spurr reported about 1600 computers access our computer. He had a handout that gave all of the relevant statistics. He had shared this same report on the listserv. He has streamlined the forums page. Aaron gave us all an assignment to start a discussion on the forum. He also discussed power outages at the lab school are a concern, he suggested housing the web computer elsewhere. He then asked for ideas to generate incentives to encourage people to register on-line. It was proposed to give on-line registrants a discount in their registration fee. Aaron suggested if we plan to do that, we should announce this at this Fall Conference luncheon. Lyn moved we reduced registration fees by $5 from early conference registration for people who register on-line. Ross seconded. Discussion ensued. Concerns: will this impact our conference income if everyone would chose to register on-line? Terry recommend exhausting other incentive ideas. Ross called the question. Voice vote was uncertain, so Jeff called for a show of hands. A voting quorum was declared by the president. Motion carried. Discussion ensued about displaying the ISTS Web page on a computer at the membership booth. Aaron will ask Dave to load a software program to run a sample of our web page on IAS's computer. Aaron also recommended a RAM upgrade at a cost of approximately $175, Jeff said this could be discussed and decided in committee work. Future plans include putting the advance program on the web site, in addition to a printed one. There has also been talk to placing the newsletter on the web site.

D. Newsletter Report - Karen Couch Breitbach (Lyn shared Karen's report), Karen would like to move the newsletter to two additions instead of three and to have the newsletter have a theme. SPARKS has moved to this and she feels that has been very successful, she envisions the ISTS Newsletter copying this. Discussion ensued about the dates of the two issues. Lyn answered the fall issue would be before the conference and the spring would be around February. The winter issue would be eliminated. Karen wants to see the presenter information and the nomination forms for awards in the spring issue. Jeff read Karen's report which includes the plans for the layout of each issue, what would be included on each page and article responsibilities. Lyn moved we go to two ISTS newsletters a year, as per Karen's proposal. Vicki Boss seconded. Tom was concerned that the quality of the newsletters be maintained so members don't feel they are loosing services. Motion carried.

E. IAS Update Jeff shared copies of the IAS position statement on education and asked for us to review and send comments to him so he can pass these comments on to the IAS Board. This statement has been voted on by IAS but Jeff feels the Board would consider our input. Karen reported that IAS is doing a large fund-raiser with two components; life-time memberships and an endowment fund to support speakers. The question is, could ISTS tap into that fund for speakers? IAS wants to develop good communication lines to know who ISTS is soliciting for corporate funding to avoid conflicts. Tom is concerned and stated our conference supports itself and it would be nice if IAS's Annual Meeting could support itself. Terry asked if IAS had requested any information or assistance from ISTS in running a conference with the Convention Center and the Hotel Ft. Des Moines. Terry charged Karen with communicating to the IAS board ISTS's expertise and willingness to assist. Karen said she would Emil Dave. The other topic of IAS concern is the Kansas legislative vote on evolution. Karen will put a reference of a Time article on the listserv. The IAS position paper on this topic is under revision. There are two other state affiliated position papers. Karen will put these on the web site. IAS is planning to be proactive with our state legislation rather than reactive. Erica asked for input from this group about the IAS Annual Meeting for ISTS to hold a symposium on Evolution in Education.

F. Summer Retreat Update- Jeff used this opportunity to discuss committee work.

G. Committee Work

1. Web Site - Jeff has asked two people to help Aaron with this, Dick Ehlers and Don Murphy have agreed to help.

2. SOP- Lyn plans to continue her work on this using a template she has to create a rough draft of our standard operating procedures. She will put this on the listserv/web site to get input.

3. Clarification of various sections and specified membership- Lyn held an ICN meeting between the sections that involve teachers to get clarification of roles and responsibilities. This meeting was attended by the current chairs of the Chemistry Education Section, the Elementary Science Teacher Section, the Earth Science Teacher Section and the Q section/ Science Teaching Section.

4. Regional Directors - Jeff asked Jane to print lists of Q members by AEA and to have a chance to meet over the ICN to generate ideas and ways that they can have a larger impact in ISTS.

5. Elections - Kathy Lockhart has agreed to chair this. Jeff will appoint others to serve on this committee. Offices that need to be filled are: president-elect and treasurer.

6. Other- Rick asked how we apprentice new people into the various conference roles, facilities, fund-raising, exhibitors and registration. Terry offered that this section may need to look at an Executive Director to handle day to day operations, leaving the president to generate the big ideas. Rick offered that this may help in the consistency of the operation of the section, freeing up the board to do other things. Karen stated that we may want to consider developing an appointed conference committee which is separate from the officers. This could offer more time and opportunity for the executive officers to mentor leaders and increase our volunteer base and involve more of our section members. Tom calculated he spent 18 months working on his fall conference which took away from his time as president. Mike wants this as a matter of record that this group should seriously look at these issues and consider taking action on these ideas within this year. Jeff wants to have more involvement from the Regional Directors, to call them and ask what can we do to help them take more of an active role. Rick feels his ICN meeting would help. Erica feels have the list of AEA members for each Regional Director. Having the IAS/ISTS letterhead on disk, mailing labels were suggested. Sharon Johnston is serving as the Membership committee chair and Jeff plans to involve her in using the Regional Directors more.

IV. New Business

A. Terry moved to amend the 1999 budget line items to a $5000 line for AV equipment, $7500 for the Polk County Convention, $13,000 for Fine Host Catering, $4500 for the decorator and $1000 for Savory Hotel, which changes the Convention Center budget item to $31,000 and in addition he proposed changing the Hotel Line Item to $5600. Mike seconded. Beverly suggested we just go over, she does not feel there is a need to amend the budget. Motion failed. Terry asked if he has the authority to spend more than budgeted for the aforementioned items. Lyn so moved. Erica seconded. Tom asked will any limits be imposed? Ross said that is the nature of trusting our leaders in these roles. Motion carried.

B. Erica shared that postcards were made up to send out to Regional Director's that offer an introduction and a reminder to get your substitutes for the Fall Conference. Sharon will get mailing labels from Jeff Hepburn and see that the Regional Directors get those postcards.

C. Future Meeting Dates:

The Fall Conference is October 13 and 14th, 1999.

The Winter Board Meeting is January 15th at Jeff Hepburn's house.

IAS Annual Meeting is April 20 and 21st at the Hotel Ft. Des Moines.

Meeting was adjourned at 2:40 PM with thanks from Jeff for everyone's involvement and participation.

Respectfully submitted,
Erica Larson
Secretary in Sara Coleman's absence.

ISTS SUMMER PLANNING MEETING, August 16, 1999, Dowling High School, West Des Moines, Iowa

Members Present -- Jeff Hepburn, Erica Larson, Sara Coleman, Don Murphy, Sharon Johnston, Tony Heiting, Dave McCalley, Kären Wignall

Meeting called to order at 9:14 am

Jeff Declares a Quorum

Executive Board Meeting Minutes -- Read and approved by Sara Coleman. Erica motioned to accept the minutes, Sharon seconded, motion approved

Treasurer's report Bev Iverson Presented by Jeff. Funds are beginning to come in from registrations, coporations, and exhibitors.

Web Site -- Jeff Hepburn and Ross Iverson -- Registrations are online, credit card usage is straightened out, but the digital telephone at the academy office is a little problem. Aaron wants to survey users as to the use of the web site in order to do continual improvement of the site. Jeff will bring up funding the site at the next meeting. Need to continue to push proposals and registration online from our members.

Comments from others has been positive. Erica suggests the preconference info on the site, even if it is just titles and names.

Newsletter Editor's Report -- Presented by Jeff. Karen Couch Brietbach wants articles from officers and section chairs by the September meeting. Erica asked if a list serve could be used to provide reminders and to tell people new to their positions what content would be good for the articles.

Status of Previous year's committee work. Before we were focused on the conference, now we have a mission!

Election -- Bob DeLoss and Beverly Iverson -- Presented by Jeff. Bob has left teaching. President and Treasurer is up for this year. The ballot was sent out separate from other academy mailings so the return was better. All teaching sections got the ballot mailing. Erica: are other sections automatically made a Q member? Jeff, Not at this point.

Still talking about possible online voting. Dave, what we are doing seems to work okay at this point. Kären has had people say they want to get involved. Erica suggested maybe piggyback on the ballot for people to get more involved. Election of directors? Erica mentioned that the bylaws states the makeup of the election committee. Chair is regional director, past president and two other members.

Bylaws changes were approved by the membership. New booklets need to be printed.

Membership -- Jane Haugen Presented by Jeff. Jane sent flyers to 1/3 of the AEAs. Dave said that in the increases in membership was 20%. He did not see that mailing had a significant effect. Kären thinks that the regional directors should have a stronger role in gaining membership. Their handbook states that is part of their role. Jeff says that a director's training over the ICN would be useful. Hot link ISTS to AEA pages possibility? Kären: need to target conference attendees that are not members. We are not going to continue the AEA mailing direction. The new IAS directory is being printed now.

Web Site -- presented by Jeff. Kären states using conference fees as a funding source for the web site is a good idea because the benefits of the site directly relate to the conference. Erica like the report sheet so that we can see how the web site is being used. Advanced program information needs to be added. Dave asked the group; how much do you sense the average teacher use the sites. Erica's student teacher used it for everything. Karen thinks 50-50. The training is coming for the ??? dogs. Erica, get the address on a magnet or something to spread the word during the conference? Dave, the url is too complex. Need to address that issue. Everyone needs to spread out the address to others.

Use webwacker at the ISTS booth for people to see what we have to offer, this should be a draw for membership as well as raising visibly of the web site.

Kären checked about T1 lines or phone lines for the conference. $50 per computer for phone lines, $150 for each line if 4 exhibitors were to use the T1 line.

Standard Operating Procedures -- Lyn Countryman presented by Jeff Lyn has been working on this SOP

Chem Ed, Earth Science, and Elementary Membership -- Lyn Countryman, Jeff Hepburn, David McCalley, Richard Ehlers, Don Murphy, Suzette Smedes, Vicki Boss -- presented by Jeff. April, ICN meeting discussed the confusion between sections. Try to give people the opportunity to belong to the Science section. Consensus but no decision.

Position Papers -- presented by Jeff. Dave stated that the IAS committee did not have the involvement expected. Dave said the IAS board response was very positive. These papers generate good discussion. How do we get these out so they will be effective? Web page, newsletter would be good places to start. Academy is discussing starting a newsletter where this type of information is available. The protocol should be that if ISTS generates a position, then pass it to the education committee of the IAS and then they would present to the Academy board

Adjournment for Lunch 11:30 am

Back in session 1:10 pm

Conference Structure -- Kären Wignall Need to look at changing the conference leadership structure. Look at committee structure and look away from the presidential leadership of the conference.

Officer Duty Books -- Kären Wignall and Sharon Johnston Kären, The SOP and the officer duty books need to be one document. Jeff is willing to take it over from Lyn. He will talk to her. Erica, housing this stuff and passing it on. Kären, nothing exists for earth science. Jeff, we need something to pass down to new people as well as do officer training. The officer duty books committee will dissolve into the SOP committee. They will hold the officers accountable to the descriptions.

Awards -- Kären Distinguished Service Award Tom Ervin for cooperate sponsorship Gayle Wortmann for establishment of the newsletter Friends of Science Ed Peterson, Chris Williams for service to science education.

Suggest that time at the September meeting be made for awards and elections. In the web site there was no address for the nominee in the nomination form. This needs to be changed.

Other Business

Erica, Is the web site contingent to having Aaron as the web master? Jeff, yes. We need to start to look to gaining dollars to get the computer and server in the academy office in order to protect the web site from personnel changes at UNI.

Dave would like a discussion about the evolution/creation debate at our Sept meeting.

Fall Planning Meeting -- Jeff Hepburn - September 11, 1999 Colony Haus, Iowa City

Winter Meeting -- Jeff Hepburn - January 15, 2000 at Jeff's house

Questionnaire for Fall Conference -- All Membership - be more definitive about what they would be interested in. Have you visited our web site. How many times? Positive comments, things to improve Member of IAS? Why not? Have you attended the Spring IAS annual meeting? Hot topics that we could be a resource for position papers. What resource people do you rely on outside of your classroom? Coworker, curriculum people, AEA, administrative, Role of school-to-work in your curriculum. Evolution as a hot topic. Class Fees as a hot topic. Committee Discussion -- All What committees need to meet soon.

SOP after the conference in January

Membership -- Sharon Johnston regional directors, ICN training, database

Web page -- Don Murphy, Dick Ehlers

Elections -- Jeff will approach Kathy Lockard and Ernie Schiller, Vicki Oswald, John Dunkase

Fall program committee -- Lyn has that set up

Spring Program Committee -- Erica

Awards and Recognition Committee -- later

Newsletter Committee -- Karen Couch Brietbach

Section Committee -- later

Open Discussion

Dave had some general comments: Jan Vandelin is the new office manager for IAS and there has been a general accounting restructuring that should be completed by the end of this month. Funds for IAS will be limited due to the farm income. IAS is looking at a large fund raiser. Further discussion on the definition of a model farm. Currently having 12% of the gross goes towards farm management. Memberships: looking at an endowment, college/university membership of $125/yr as well as a corporate membership. Karen and Jeff mentioned the board relationship is very encouraging. Dave informed us about an environmental education grant in connection with Globe Learning to Benefit the Environment. This program is to train teachers to gather data through satellite technology. Currently 80 countries involved and the scientists available from NASA and NOAA.

$173,000 for one year for IAS to run the Globe program. The academy needs to show success. This is good to increase the visibility for academy.

April 22,23 is the tentative date for the Iowa Academy Spring Meeting

Motion to adjourn by Sara Coleman Don Murphy seconded Motion Carried

Adjournment - 3:25 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted, Sara Coleman, Secretary

ISTS Executive Board Meeting
Saturday, April 24, 1999
Iowa State University

Members Present -- Jeff Hepburn, Sara Coleman, Bev Iverson, Peg Steffen, Erica Larson, Dave Hayes, Ross Iverson, Karen Wignall, Cherin Lee, Kathy Lockard, John W. McCurty, W. Tony Heiting, Jody Bintz, Jennifer Williams, Don Murphy, Dick Ehlers, Aaron Spurr, Rick Wells

Executive Board Meeting Minutes -- Read and approved by Erica Larson. Ross motioned to accept submitted electronically Karen second, motion approved

Treasurer's report Bev Iverson Overhead and report presented Conference Projections are higher as the Convention Center fees have been raised as well as higher expenses for speakers and printing. We are doing well. Peg asked if the figures agree with the Academy. Bev uses their figures but they are on a different fiscal system. Karen asked where is our working capital for the conference? Is there a way to reconcile this with the academy and make sure that dollars are available. Karen said she has received a non answer since the academy has not reconciled their books. Jeff will find out what the conference dollars are and how are they accessible. Lyn said that Dave McCalley said the money from the conferences is our money. The question is the amount we say is our money. Karen is concerned that the academy is having a negative balance. Cherin, as a board member, said the money are there, the fiscal system shows the negative balance. By November most of the conference bills are paid. Ross commented year before last the preregistration the contributors exhibitors all the precollection was not showing on the balance. We went a whole fiscal year without showing an influx. Cherin remarked that it took over a year to straighten out a whole bunch of problems. Thinks the situation will be smoother. Book keeping is the major issue. Ross commented that David gave a one page summary, progress. Karen If we establish the communication the situation will improve. Jeff wants to look towards a forward direction and for work to continue Bev has the balance and she is not worried.

Adjourned for Lunch at 12:00 pm

Meeting continued at 12:45 pm

Old Business -- By laws/ standard operating procedure -- Lyn

Lyn thinks both copies of bylaws should be approved, and separated some of the items from bylaws or standard operating procedure. Feedback on things to have on an standard opereating procedure. All the officers would have a history of their office. Peg can we do a perdiem? Lyn the money is being micro managed from the academy office. Lyn reported that the meal after the conference was a problem with the academy. Having a standard operating procedure should help these of the types of issues so the next president would not need to renegotiate these types of items. There is a record.

Credit Card - Lyn Aaron credit card status for the fall conference.

He is currently working on what entity to process the charges. This could go to UNI. At this time which types of cards will be taken needs to be worked out. Aaron figured out how to get the site to reject non 16 digit numbers. Lyn people will not be getting registration materials in the mail. This will help with lunch numbers. Aaron informed everyone that encryption software for the server is available so that no one can lose their credit number in our server. Jeff asked if only 16 digit numbers can be used? Aaron is not sure, but will find out.

Committee Reports -- Elections -- Lyn
100 votes out of 653 ballots sent
Erica Larson President Elect
Sara Coleman Secretary

There has been no negative vote sent in on the bylaws as of yet. Ross asked if the election could this be a part of fall registration for the conference? Karen questioned that if only some of the academy members come to the conference how could we send out ballots to non attendees? Jeff suggested the use of the web page. Ross liked that idea. Jennifer do we have a member number? Peg remarked that the fall conferences is complicated enough. Suggested to use a postcard with the membership number and vote online Lyn we have the emails of all the IAS members and we sent out notices to be a part of ISTS. Aaron entered all the addresses and many were not correct. Discussion on how to implement a voting system with membership numbers.

Membership -- Jeff Jane Haugen sent a mailing to the AEAs to get new members. This is an IAS push as well. Cherin stated that membership lists are updated and people with dues in arrears are being dropped. Jeff we had ten papers presented with phenomenal attendance. Membership will continue and Jeff planns to put together another adhoc committee on this.

Web Site -- Aaron Spurr

Jeff has been publicizing the site address. Working on getting more people active and involved. Aaron -- There have been 642 distinct hosts served and 2563 total successful request for pages since January 1, 1999. There are currently 30 expert volunteers in our Ask and Expert section. Nine questions have been submitted via the Ask an Expert page. There have been 6 Fall Conference presentation forms processes by the server. ISTS has a Power Macintosh 7100/80 for use as its server. The Computer and its network connection are being provided courtesy of Malcolm Price Laboratory School, UNI. New web server program was purchased. Web STAR ver 3.0. IAS digital ID has been processed by Verisign. This gives encryption possibilities. Conferences presentation and registration forms are now handled by a new form processing program.The ISTS home page has been redesigned. Email server and list server have been added. Future developments: Survey question suggestions, list serve application ideas, upgrade server RAM.

Lyn would like to see where you can call up for information about what is going on in the state in the classroom. This could give ammunition for concerns in the classroom. Jeff said the web site is there for our members.

Officer Duty Books -- Karen Has not done much. Need to reform the group. Karen is willing to following through with it. To do lists and duty lists are done and we need to get something from secretary and treasurer and something from the regional directors. Asked for volunteers for the group.

Other Business

Recognition of Lyn Countryman at NSTA

Lyn ICN meeting talked about getting the mailings to the right people within the sections of the academy. She proposed a different membership form that would say if your sign up for elementary, chem ed, and/or earth sci you will automatically become the a part of ISTS unless you chose not to.

Awards committee -- Karen Karen needs nominations for Friends of Science The other award has been taken care of.

Adhoc committee -- Peg This committee responded to the changes in state licensing and wrote a position paper and the state board has accepted our proposal for consideration at an open board meeting next week. Dr Ann Kruse appreciated our efforts.

New Business -- Report for IAS Board Meetings -- Lyn Lyn was invited for the IAS board meeting. Very complimentary of the Fall conference and says that ISTS keeps them afloat. Pioneer paid 1/3 of their funds. They approved a science education position statement. Jeff ISTS has a committee to draft a position statement on science classrooms. IAS has a position committee. Cherin said every board member had to come up with a position statement. Committee met at the Fall conference and after the meeting a position was drafted. Karen like to see that we lay out the specifics of our need. Jennifer How would I use this? Cherin This is public information. Karen the committees have different purposes and should continue separately. Discussion on specifics of classroom size. Jeff, the academy is trying to extend a hand toward ISTS, and we should continue the ISTS position committee.

Strategic Planning -- Jeff Wanted to try to put together a summer retreat. In Planning next summer1s retreat some of the things Jeff proposes are a position committee, web site, membership, more elementary ed folks, and the informing of new members, Karen the goals of the strategic plan arenot static and needs t o be looked at again. Emphasis should shift to other forms of communication. Hope to see us put together a time line for what we want to do in the future. Jeff said they are planning another leadership retreat though the CAG. Jennifer we need to continue a method of talking beyond the retreat

Building a Presence -- Jeff Jody - a group of Nebraska science supervisors are very interested in the Building a Presence Program. This is to established a key leader as a point of contact in each building and be an information highway for information, articles, current issues, make it a two way dialogue. Professional opportunities could be presented. Implementation of standards. Jeff there are teachers who don't know anything. We need to try to contact them within schools. He is asking for people to look at this. The meeting in Omaha contained all facets of the education community. NSTA is not funding this mandate. They are in 13 states with grant money. This is intended to establish a network to improve membership and communication. Peg -- We have the expertise to do this type of mentoring. I don't want to do this for NSTA but for the academy. Cherin remarked that points of contact are partially in place. Have not been using our people for professional development. Jeff we could do this ourselves, the science center, math science supervisors, we have some structure to do this already. Iowa State is pushing as well. Peg -- We need to get all the players together and talk. That could be very valuable. Karen This would support one of our goals and could make a large impact.

Discussion on NSTA program.

Jeff will form an adhoc committee to study this program. Ross What are we doing to keep teachers.

Newsletter -- Lyn Karen Couch-Brietbach is going to retain the position for one more year and mentor Lyn through the next year. Working to build a template for the newsletter and incorporate the regional directors more. Doing features so it will be easier to carry on. ICN meeting with section chairs to incorporate the information from chem ed.

Summer Retreat -- Jeff July 13 and 14, 1999

Jeff sent out a preliminary note to get a date. Tues and Wed in Des Moines.

Fall Planning Meeting -- Jeff September 11, 1999

Winter Meeting -- Jeff January 15, 2000 at Jeff's house

Open Discussion Motion to adjourn by Sara Coleman, seconded by Lyn Countryman Motiion Carried

Adjournment - 2:13 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted, Sara Coleman, Secretary

ISTS Executive Board Meeting
Jan. 9, 1999
Lyn Countryman's House, Cedar Falls

Agenda

President Lyn Countryman called the meeting to order at 9:40 AM .

Members Present: Lyn Countryman (President), Sue Ervin (member), Tom Ervin (Corporate Sponsor Fund-Raiser Chair), Dave McCalley (IAS Executive Director), Mike Zeller (Ex-Officio), Ernie Schiller (Regional Director), Ross Iverson (Regional Director), Vicki Boss (Elementary Section chair), Aaron Spurr (member), Jeff Hepburn (President -Elect), Terry Coleman (Regional Director), Jane Haugen (member), Beverly Iverson (Treasurer), Karen Couch Breitbach (Regional Director, ISTS Newsletter editor), Margaret Sadeghpour Kramer (Sparks Editor), Erica Larson (Secretary), Dick Ehlers (Co-chair Chem. Ed. Section), Don Murphy (Co-chair Chem. Ed. Section), Rick Wells (Regional Director), Sue Smith (member), and Sharon Johnston (Regional Director).

I. Old Business

A. Approval of the 11/14/98 Minutes by Erica Larson. Erica distributed copies of the updated Officer and Regional Director Address List. She asked everyone to correct Brenda Jordan1s title to IAS Business Manager and asked for any other corrections or additions. The Earth Science Chair should be corrected from Bob DeLoss to Suzette Smedes. Jane Haugen submitted a Membership report which will be added as an amendment to the 11/14/98 minutes. Jane was commended for her hard work on this project and thanked by President Lyn Countryman for bringing this report to the Board and for all her efforts. The following corrections to the minutes were made: under Membership (IV. B. 6) correct it to read "Many board members took exception with the membership letter prepared by the IAS Executive Director because they were unaware that repeated attempts had been made to get a combined letter from ISTS and IAS. In the future, ISTS and IAS will need to provide this combined letter to the membership committee promptly in order to avoid difficulties." The group then addressed the suggested changes provided by Brenda Jordan. Under the Treasurer's Report (II) Terry asked that the minutes be changed to say the Academy would pay up to $1000 for the ISTS Retreat. Concerning the section (III. A.5) on Corporate Funding it was clarified that Dave McCalley will provide all financial and organizational information to Tom Ervin for Corporate Funding efforts. Margaret moved and Vicki seconded that the minutes be approved as corrected. Motion carried.

B. Treasurer's Report by Bev Iverson. Bev provided 3 handouts and used 4 overheads. The first overhead called Category Summary Report showed our inflow and outflow for the year. Registration was up from the projection, Exhibitors were up thanks to Mike Zellers work, Corporate Funding $10,750.00 thanks to Tom Ervin's efforts. Conference Income totaled $68,800.00. Interest income of $869.12 gives a total of $69,669.12. The second overhead titled 1998 Projected Expenses and Actual showed how actual expenses compared to budgeted expenses. The final result was budgeted $68,950 and actual $58,126.73. Terry asked Bev to separate travel from honoraria, Bev said she would go back and do that. Terry asked for a copy of the detailed report. The third overhead was the proposed budget for 1999. Registration projections $34,000.00 (850 participants), Exhibitors $12,000.00, Corporate $5,000, Sales Items $2,000, Conference Income total $53,000.00, Interest $750, for a Total of $54,750.00 plus our $2,347.15 CD. Overhead #4 was titled 1999 Projected Expenses: Convention Center, $29,200.00 (which is low because the bid for the Convention Center is higher than $5800, Terry says this bid approximately $6900), Freeman depends on number of exhibitors and the Value Cinema may not be sold. Hotel $5100.00 to include more pre-conference activity for Lyn's conference. Lyn proposed a Wed. pre-conference all day Wednesday and the traditional pre-conference Wed. evening and the all day Conference Thursday. Printing $8,500, Postage $2,300, Telephone $600, Local Travel $1500, Professional Travel $4050, Honoraria $6000 and Speaker Travel $3000, Programing $6000, Promo Items $2,000, Supplies $3,500, Awards $1,200 for a total Projected expenses of $72,950.00. Discussion ensued about the amount budgeted for Honoraria (4 coordinators at $500). Terry wondered why the budget expressly stated 4 rather than the traditional 3, he questioned the 4th position's function. Lyn said since professional time demands have increased there is less time to serve in leadership positions that are time and labor intensive, so we should provide for flexibility to the leadership to provide Honorarium's as the President sees fit. Ross suggested that we not micro manage the budget. Kären asked to separate the Conference Budget from the Section budget. Lyn shared a discussion she had with Dave McCalley about what benefits we get for IAS dues. IAS pays for travel to spring meeting and Winter Retreat, ISTS pays for the other two Executive meetings, our IAS dues are not reflected in the ISTS budget. Ross shared that the Fall Conference is a Service budget and that our future indicates that the conference is not the only service we will provide. Tom suggested if Lyn is not going to use the 4th position it should not be in her budget. Terry agreed. Terry questioned whether we refunded participants after the conference. Lyn said no, refunds were for double pays, or changes which resulted from cancellations. The fourth overhead was 1998 Actual Budget and the 1999 Proposed Budget. The 1999 Proposed Income was Registration $34,000, Exhibitors $12,000, Corporate $5,000, Sales Items $2,000, Interest $750, Balance Carry over $32,160.64, Total Income $85,910.64. The one amended change was that the Budgeted cost for the Convention Center needs to be increased by $1300 increase, reflected a Total Budgeted expense of $85,910.64. Ross moved, Vicki seconded approval of the budget as amended. Motion carried unanimously.

C. Examination of the Second Draft of the By-Laws Revisions by Lyn Countryman. Lyn provided a pink sheet handout with the additions and deletions to the By-Laws. These will be published in the next ISTS Newsletter for review by the membership. The membership will vote on these proposed By-Laws changes during the spring elections. The Executive Board went through the by-laws article by article. Discussion ensued about deletion of the phrase "The Iowa Science Teacher's Journal" in Article I, Section 2. It was decided to leave the change as written. Article III, Section 5, Lyn clarified the addition about board approval of remuneration. It was decided to Add The Executive Board approves the budget of the section at the first meeting of the calendar year and remove the italicized section. Discussion ensued about the portion in brackets. It was decided to incorporate concerns about this in the Standard Operating Procedure. Each Article and Section change was reviewed and discussed by the Board.

D. Committee Reports

1. Elections by Lyn for Bob DeLoss, President-elect candidates are Ernie Schiller and Erica Larson. Secretary candidates are Susan Smith and Sara Coleman. Discussion ensued about how to run the election. Proposals were to include the election ballot in the newsletter, to do a separate mailing from the ISTS, or to include the ballot in the IAS bulk mailing. Biographies will be placed in the Newsletter. Ballots will be sent to all Q members by first class mailing. Concern was expressed that members of the S,R and E sections often assume they are also members of the Q section, automatically. Lyn recommended to have all the Q, R,S and E section chairs meet and decide if they want to have membership in each separate section automatically become members of the Q section. If this passes we would approach the IAS Executive Board and ask for this to be an automatic membership service. Ernie moved to charge Lyn to call a meeting, in February or March, of the section chairs to propose a working agreement for Q, R, S and E section membership, Ross seconded. Ross called for the question. Motion carried. Discussion ensued about the timeliness of this meeting for this election. Erica moved to send ballots to Q,S,R and E section members for this election during this transition. Ernie seconded. Discussion ensued. Ernie called the question. Motion carried.

II. New Business

A. Terry made a request to pay for 50% for the cost of the flowers in the luncheon area shared with the Diversity Conference that was held just before our conference. The full cost was around $100, so our share would be around $50. Ross moved we pay 50% of the cost of the floral arrangements shared with the Diversity Conference, Ernie seconded. Motion carried.

B. Aaron reported on the Web site. Aaron had a goldenrod report sheet to communicate how many computers had accessed the ISTS Web site. Aaron reported in would be possible to link to this data in the secure server section of the ISTS for us to check the use. Lyn read email's from members of the ISTS Board that could not attend, they were overwhelmingly favorable. Lyn shared her research on cost analysis to maintain a Web site. Price Lab pays $10 an hour to a graduate student to maintain a Web site. Ross replied that is not paying for "expertise". Lyn outlined the requirements of the Web master, which included communicating with the other sections (Elementary, Chemistry, and Earth Science) to ask what they want included, attend all Executive Board Meetings to keep current, continually update the site, and maintain a professional relationship with science teachers and other IAS professionals. Lyn proposed to pay Aaron $3000 this first year for the hours he has already spent and the hours he would need to spend this year. Aaron would then be expected to keep a log of his Web site efforts and creations to allow the Board to select the features we wish to keep and the future fees that will be paid for Web master services. Terry moved to target $3000 of the programing budget to pay Aaron Spurr a stipend to be ISTS Web master for the 1999 calendar year. Ernie seconded. Discussion ensued. Mike asked where do we go after this year? Lyn said that would depend on whether the site serves the mission of the ISTS. Dave commented that you will need to publicize the site to encourage people to access the site. Ernie called the question. Motion carried. Terry recommended we not have on-line registration for the conference unless we had the ability to pay on-line. Lyn shared that cost would be a base about $300, with every transaction adding to that cost. There is a possibility that we could share with IAS on membership, Annual Spring meeting and ISTS Fall Conference. Lyn and David McCalley will discuss this option. Ernie moved to charge Aaron and Lyn to add an on-line charge feature to the Web site registration. Ross seconded. Motion carried.

C. IAS Spring Annual meeting by Jeff Hepburn. For the IAS Annual Meeting the Science Teacher Section symposium is on Multiple Assessments and the New Legislation for Science Teaching.

Ross moved to adjourn at 2:53 PM. Mike seconded. Meeting adjourned.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Erica Larson