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The Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers was founded in 1958. Today it is the largest Wisconsin organization of individuals
interested in the advancement of science education.
Spring Board Meeting 2010 Reports
District Directors and Committee Chairs
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I am hoping to get an updated email list of the District 6 members. I would like to redo my address book and have the correct info.
I-A.1 Was present for discussions of integration at spring board meeting. Recruited elementary science teachers to join WSST at Science futures 2.
I-A.2 Emailed all colleges and universities in my district to offer to come speak to their preservice teachers.
I-A.3 Gave away 8 free memberships at the NSTA student chapter at UW-Oshkosh and to a new teacher upon request from WSST member.
I-A.6b Spoke at UW-Oshkosh’s student NSTA chapter about WSST
I-B.4 Attended the Town Hall meeting held at the LaCrosse conference
I-B.5 Learned my new district director position this year
II-A.1b Brought along a probationary teacher to present a workshop at WSST spring conference and sent out calls for presenters via emails and eblasts
II-A.2b Composed and sent out the November eBlast. Added local news and info. to eblasts from other district directors and sent promptly to the Dist 6 members
II-A.4a N/A
II-A.4b N/A
II-B.1 Was on planning team and helped staff Science futures in both ’09 and ‘10
II-D.1 Did not do any forums.
III-B.3 Provided information through email, eblasts and newsletters.
Expenses: NONE
I-A.1 Attended the Spring WSST board meeting where intergration issues were discussed
I-A.2 Contacted Edgewood College in Fall 2009 for WSST promotional visit
I-A.3 Gave away 6 free memberships: 3 to preservice teachers at Edgewood and 3 to Madison area teachers
I-A.6b Visited Edgewood College Fall 2009 to promote WSST to pre-service teachers
I-B.4 Attended the Town Hall meeting held at the LaCrosse conference
I-B.5 Worked with the rest of the directors to complete the district director job description
II-A.1b Included call for presenters info in monthly eBlasts to district members, as well as encouraged the pre-service teachers I met with to consider presenting
II-A.2b Composed and sent out the October and April eBlast
II-A.4a Did not post anything to the blog
II-A.4b Did not contribute any lesson plans, resources, or activities to the blog
II-B.1 Promoted Science Futures through the monthlly eBlasts
II-D.1 Did not provide any forum-type activities for District 5
III-B.3 Sent out monthly eBlasts and contributed articles to each of the newletters
Expenses: NONE
Public Relations Committee Board of Directors Report
August 11, 2010
2010 Action Taken to Date :
March 13th
1. Reviewed strategic plan duties and determined Standard Operating Procedure
2. Prepared and updated WSST booth for 2010 Convention including ordering clothes
July 22nd
1. Reviewed operation and preparation of booth and determined suggestions for improvement and needs for annual updates on booth:
Pictures and info of 2010 Award Winners needed for 2011 booth
Excellence in Science Teaching Award
Friends of Science Education Award
Ron Gibbs Award
Suggestions for Improvement:
Pictures and names of newly certified and re-certified Nationally Board Certified Teachers
Picture and Quote from Ed
A list of contact information for members of WSST willing to work would be very helpful to seek members to work the booth.
2. As per strategic plan Action Step I-A.6b the former public relations kit was reviewed and suggestions were made for items to be placed in updated membership kit. A goal for distribution of the public relations kit at the December Board Meeting. This will depend on District Director contact as well as membership committee contact.
3. WEAC Convention Booth: It was determined to pursue obtaining a booth at the upcoming 2010 convention in October. This booth would focus on elementary school recruitment. The booth would also depend on support from the Board as well as support from the WEST committee.
Suggestions for Improvement
As a new committee chair it was thought it would be nice to have a meeting time for all committee chairs to connect as many of the duties between committees connect.
Kelley Hoffman
WSST Newsletter Report, Summer 2010
Newsletter Checking Account:
August, 2009 Balance (After $500 deposit to Ed): $181.67
+Ad Revenue: $825.00
LibSyn Payments (+$70 for upcoming year): $130.00
August, 2010: $876.67
WSST Advertising Rates (No Change):
(10% discount on 2 or more of identical ad in current volume)
Recommended 2010-2011 Newsletter Deadlines:
Web Report: Julie Fitzpatrick/Dale Basler
There has a been a fair amount of spam posted to the blog area of our website. When anyone makes changes to the website I am notified, so most of the time the posts are removed before any one sees them. If any one notices something that should not be in the blog area please let me know. Both Kathy and Ed have done this. The forum had to be taken down because of a hacker.
Question for the board. Should we find an alternative way to have a forum or just discontinue?
An archive link of our past performance has been started.
The 2010 convention website has been completely saved. The 2011 convention committee will be able to use this as a reference.
The right column of the home page will be changed seasonally. Please check the website monthly for these changes.
A web form will be created for committee chairs and new board members. Committee chairs should fill out the forms each year prior to July 1st. When a new board member is elected they should also fill out the form. The form will be placed under the file cabinet link on WSST home page.
The website has tools that can be used by directors and committee chairs. Dale suggested that I have some training sessions. If there is interest a training session could be offered this fall.
Since our April meeting, I have been busy keeping the database up-to-date, writing the checks, gathering information for the Summer Board meeting, responding to email requests, meeting with the NSTA student chapter at UW-Oshkosh, and attending the NSTA/CAG meeting in Las Vegas.
Our membership lists 1545 members with 264 with past due memberships. This is pretty much in line with the last several years. Our financial picture indicates a dip in income but overall a slightly better performance that last year. There are several areas of concern in the budget that we will need to look at.
The meeting in Las Vegas, although sounding like a fun time, was really well organized and covered a lot of ground. It also gave me the chance to talk to other people like ourselves who are having some of the same issues we do. One in particular that brings our Conference into focus, was the discussion among Executive Secretaries about what a Regional or National NSTA meeting does to neighboring states. The consensus was that at minimum, a state looses 100 - 150 members to a neighboring state where a NSTA conference is being held. This year, NSTA was in Minneapolis/StPaul which probably bled off a goodly number of our members from central and western Wisconsin. This is an issue that NSTA is looking at.
Other information I picked up included a website program that we might want to consider, and some ideas on conferences and other meetings. However, I think our State, is one that others look to for leadership in this area.
I will share membership stats, financials for the year, and the budget comparisons.
Ed Mueller
Rod and I have been busy working on the 2011 WSST Conference. We have an outstanding committee of 19 people… We will have a detailed report at the Summer Board Meeting…
District 2 Report
Summer 2010
- Attended the 6th Annual WSST Baseball Outing on July 11th at Miller Park…Thanks Ray for organizing this event – My family and I enjoyed the game and visiting with other members!!
- Attended the 2010 Summer Workshop for Life Science Teachers at the Wild Animal Park – San Diego Zoo…Slept in tents and woke up every morning to the roar of lions…This was an awesome experience – researched and learned about the world’s endangered animals – highly recommend this field experience!!!!
- Will be attending the 2010 STEM Summit at the Kalahari Resort August 15-17…I am a member of the CESA 10 STEM Advisory Group…
1.A.1 na
1.A.2 no assigned college
1.A.3 no free memberships
1.A.6B no
2.A.2a na
2.A.4a na.
2.A.4b na
2.B.1 I distributed science futures with members of my district….
2.D.1 na
3.b.3 I continue to post monthly e-blasts and share info with District 2 members
Expenses: none
Respectfully Submitted,
Tracy Swedlund
District 2 Director
No new business from Documents Review.
The Strategic Plan was reviewed for the Winter Board meeting. The Constitution, By-Laws and Policies were also reviewed and proposed changes presented at the Winter Board meeting and subsequently to the Annual Conference for action.
Denise and I submitted a contract with Monona Terrace Hilton Hotel to Ed to sign on behalf of WSST for room reservations for the 2012 conference. We significantly reduced the number of rooms (details will be shared at the board meeting). Denise and I are assembling a dynamite planning committee for 2012 with many volunteers breaking down doors to join the committee. Many recruits committed to the 2012 conference committee during the outstanding 2010 conference in LaCrosse.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the 2012 WSST Conference Committee,
Kevin Niemi
No new business with the strategic plan. You all will have the opportunity to dive into the document at our summer 2010 board meeting and assess progress on meeting each action item.
Respectfully submitted,
Kevin Niemi, Strategic Planning chair
District 3 Report
Summer 2010
1.A.1 na
1.A.2 I made contact with Silver Lake Colleges
1.A.3 I gave 6 free memberships
Nicole Braun
nicolebraun@charter.net
Abby Garcia
Abby_vogel@hotmail
Anna Kim
Anna16_k@hotmail.com
Dan Niquette
Aquasol@charter.net
Keith Chipman
keithgchimpman@aol.com
Sue Hepp
sahepp@sheboyganfalls.k12.wi.us
1.A.6B I visited Silver Lake College this past spring to talk about WSST. My contact at Silver Lake is S. Lorita Gaffney lorita@silver.sl.edu. There were five students in the class. 1.B.4 I attended the “Town Hall” listening session at the annual conference.
2.A.2a na
2.A.4a I added materials to the website including professional development opportunities.
2.A.4b I have added materials to the website for other members
2.B.1 I shared the materials on Science Futures with my district members.
2.D.1 I offered a snowshoe and natural forum to my district members to be held at Maywood. Due to lack of interest the event had to be cancelled.
3.b.3 I sent out e-mail messages including but not limited to the monthly e-blasts
Expenses: none
Respectfully Submitted,
Tammy Gerend
District 3 Director
1. Need to discuss future sites for Conference. Looking for 2013 and Beyond
2. Unable to make personnel trip to Stone harbor in Door County to check out facility. Contacted personnel and inform them of our needs. i will report their reply at meeting
3. Bringing proposed Conference planning Guide that was passed out last year. Strongly feel we need to make a decision on the use of this booklet as well as a few of the appendixes to become regular fixtures.
4. Bringing updates from Conferences in 2005 through 2009. Will add 2010 info base on their report at summer Board.
5. Feel the need to discuss role and duty for Conference Coordinator.
Respectfully submitted,
Dick seng
The committee met the last week in July to complete our work on rewriting the bylaws. The purpose was to bring them up to date and streamline the content.
As part of the process we will update the grants, post the applications online, and placing all members of the Foundation committee as recipients of completed applications. Our goal is to move the Foundation into a more prominent role. We also discussed new ways to solicit funds to better meet the needs of WSST and its members while being cognoscente of 21st century corporate philosophy.
REPORTS AHEAD OF THIS MESSAGE ARE NEW FOR THE 2010 SUMMER BOARD MEETING AUGUST 11-12
ED
1. Continued to send out monthly eblasts
2. Composed and sent out the April eblast (I switched with Toni, as she thought she might be a bit busy!)
3. Ran a middle school regional Science Olympiad competition in Madison in March.
4. Will be at the WSST spring conference
Respectfully submitted,
Denise McCulley
No new business for the SP committee. The final five year plan after review by the document review committee was passed at the December 2009 board meeting. The accepted revisions were corrected in the document and the working version of the WSST strategic plan was submitted to Julie for posting on the WSST website.
Respectfully submitted,
Kevin Niemi, Strategic Planning Chair
1. I continue to communicate and share information with my district members. I will be forwarding the April e-blast from Denise shortly.
2. I gave 2 free memberships out at the Winter Milwaukee Area Physics Sharing meeting. I have been encouraging people to attend this group through my messages.
3. I plan to discuss some future get togethers for District 7 members at the town hall meeting during the conference.
4. I served as a judge at the Badger State Science and Engineering Fair in Milwaukee on March 27.
5. I helped Ray Scolavino with his Practice Interview program fro pre service teachers in the UWM MACSTEP program.
6. I still have DIstrict 6 Cards! Help me out Ed !
See you all in LaCrosse-
Karyl
District 3- Tammy Gerend
1. I continue to forward information to District 3 members including the monthly e-mail. I still get many e-mail messages that bounce back.
3. I have not given out any more free memberships since fall/winter meeting.
4. I had to cancel the snowshoe and natural history hike at Maywood due to lack of interest. I was the only WSST member that was going to go. I did have a high school junior that was interested in going. I work with in the Workbound program.
5. I created and sent out the March e-blast. I am a little behind since I have been sick with bronchitis for the past seven weeks and I am finally starting to get back to normal
Expenses: none
Respectfully submitted,
Tammy Gerend
There are currently no document reviews in progress. All official documents of WSST were reviewed and revisions submitted at the Winter Board meeting for action.
This page, on the WSST website, will be a great way to get our reports to each other and to the Board Meetings. What I like best, is the formats will be similar and therefore less time need to massage the messages. Hopefully, we can get use to posting here quickly so the LaCrosse Board can read the info ahead of time.
Thanks Julie for setting this up for us.
ed
Web Report Spring 2010
Submitted by Julie Fitzpatrick
Foundation requested a space on the home page for their front and center grant.
Members will be able to apply on-line at the convention for a $150 grant.
A Lab out loud link has been added to the home page, thank you Dale and Brian for making this possible.
Updated the committee members on the web, and posted revised WSST documents.
Added awards link for awards and recommendation. A list of Nationally Board Certified teachers is posted to our web site.
Current news continues to be posted to the center column of the web page.
Using the WSST web site as a porthole to conference links has worked well.
Justin & Toni did an outstanding job with the conference web links. Justin had a nice system for using the web to keep our members current on the up coming convention.
The web is being used, the conference home page has over 9000 hits, the link page has over 4000. Last year blogs received 700-1000 hits. The News Letter link has been viewed over 4000 times.
A members only block for posting reports has been added to the home page of WSST. Directors and Committee chairs will be asked to post their reports under comments. Users will only be able to access the board meeting block if they are logged in. The reports will have to be approve before they can be viewed by the directors. This method is a trial run and will be evaluated as to the efficiency of the method. If it works reports will be archived.
The minutes from 2002-2009 are in the process of being posted under the board meeting block. The newsletter format is being used. A link to WSST documents has also been placed under the board meeting block.
Dale has been very helpful with any questions that I have. I would not want go solo with the website. Dale is really a web guru.
Note: All committees need to add to their list to make sure to update Julie with current e-mail contact for their group. We need to figure out a way to facilitate this.
Public Relations Report Meeting March 13th 9:00 – 12:00
Spring Board Meeting
Goal: Make this group functional with a procedural operating manual. Strategic plan action step I B3.
Present: Julie Fitzpatrick, Kelley Hoffman, Deb Wearne-Neurohr, Kara Pezzi, Susan Harrington, Becky Peppler
A brief history of the PR Committee and introduction where made.
Reviewed with the new to WSST members the structure of WSST.
It really helped having Kara, Sue and Deb present. All three have been very involved in WSST.
The WSST veterans Kara, & Sue felt it was important to have a committee person present at the board meeting.Committee members could be future officers. There needs to be better communication between the directors and the committees.
Divided into two groups: booth design and review of strategic plan.
New pictures are in the process of being made for the booth. The task of gathering photos will be a joint venture.
Entire group discussed, what we need to do as group as outlined in the strategic plan and what we would like to do as a group.
A list of teacher education institutions is to be maintained: Action step 1-A.6a. Sue had the old list in hard copy. Kelley will be putting this list back into a digital form. PR will keep this list updated.
Request: We are asking District Reps to gather names and contact information of all colleges in their district. List is started.
The Public Relations committee needs of a new committee chair. Kelley Hoffman expressed interest. Will be getting back to us on her decision.
The group selected new clothes for the booth.
Started a rough outline of a procedural manual
New ideas to be finalized at the summer meeting:
Recruit WSST members to present at WEAC.The presentation will be a dynamic science lesson with an invitation to the WSST convention. Will check with WEAC about stipend and request funding from WSST.
Help the president review forms from the convention registration looking for people who checked that they want to be involved. Three of the group had in the past checked want to serve on a committee in the conference registration but was never contacted.
Future ideas to be discussed at the June meeting:
Try using Haiku as a communication tool for PR group.
Explore the possibilities of using face book as a social network for WSST.
Explore the possibility of using CESA as a contact for WSST.
Connect with NSTA to find new members maybe even advertise in their publications.
First time at the convention, stop by the booth for a free gift.