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Minutes February 2014

Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English

February Board Meeting

Friday, February 7 and Saturday, February 8, 2014

Holiday Inn, Stevens Point, WI

Present: Tom Scott, John Zbikowski, Lynn Frick, John Pruitt, Denise Meyer, Mary Ann Potter, John Schad, Marty Matyska, Lynn Aprill, Karen Rigoni, Marti Matyska

 

Friday:

Dinner and Welcome, 6:00 p.m.

Convention Focus

  1. Schedule
    1. Thursday, October 23, 2014
      1. Board work session             10:00-11:30, no lunch
      2. Pre-convention Workshop 1:00-4:00
        1. Sara Kajder (btw…also the keynote on Friday)
  • Board Meeting
  1. Local Committee to organize “facilitated dinner” for people who came on their own and decorate convention lunch.
  1. Friday, October 24, 2014   Convention
    1. The conference will be promoted using social media: #wcte14, on Facebook Wcte14.
    2. We will raise cost of convention.  Decision to be made on Saturday.

 

Saturday:

Present: Tom Scott, John Zbikowski, John Schad, Jackie Mabon, Marianne Potter, Denise Meyer, Lynn Frick, Lynn Aprill, John Pruitt, Karen Rigoni, Jack Van Treese

 

Breakfast and Welcome, 8:00

 

  1. Committee Meetings—9:00-10:00 a.m. The committees each met in individual sessions.
    1. Membership—Tom Scott
    2. Intellectual Freedom—John Pruitt
    3. Publications—no representatives
    4. District Directors—Lynn Aprill

 

  1. Regularly Scheduled Board Meeting
    1. Welcome and Introductions
    2. Approval of Agenda: Lynn Frick added 3 items. Motion to approve revised agenda: Lynn Frick, Jackie Mabon. Motion passed.
    3. Approval of October’s Board Meeting Minutes. Motion to approve as amended with the change in spelling of “Marianne Potter”: John Pruitt, Marianne Potter. Motion passed.
    4. Treasurer’s Report—Tom Scott. Overall funds are still okay, but the overall trend in our finances is that our checking balance is declining. All money is in from the conference. The conference came in just about on budget, but the mailing for the conference put things out of balance.
    5. DPI Report—Tamara Maxwell
      1. College and Career Readiness Partnership Summit on 2/19/14. Designed for anyone who is interested in better defining college readiness in light of new standards. Denise Meyer, WCTE second vice president, is participating in this event and will report back anything at the Boards next meeting.
      2. WCTE members expressed some confusion about the state of CCSS right now. Tamara Maxwell confirmed that the CCSS are indeed the standards of the state. Standards will be reviewed: mathematics in 2016: ELA in 2017. Until that time CCSS should guide our work.
  • Google Community – a place to bridge the system.  Placements and relationships through student teacher placements. Transfers. A space for a bigger dialogue between research and reflection piece.  Context for implementing Common Core. WI DPI English Language Arts PLC through Google Hangout.

 

  • Committee Reports
    1. Tom Scott
      1. 103 members who are up-to-date. If you add those that expired in 2013, we are up to 186. This is probably due to those who did not come to the 2013 convention. Strategies to increase membership:
        1. Craft and send an e-mail inviting to join/renew WCTE. Will state that we have a goal to increase membership by 30%.
        2. What are the benefits of membership? Journal-Investigate the logistics of making the journal available in its first year to only membership. After the first year it would be openly available. Lynn Frick will approach Journal editors to determine the possibilities.
        3. Link from Facebook to our website.
      2. Intellectual Freedom. John Pruitt
        1. Next week an invitation will be sent to membership to get nominations Lee Burress Intellectual Freedom Award. Deadline May 1, 2014. The NCTE Standing Committee on Censorship:
        2. Currently revising the Students Right to Write document.
  • Working to create anti-censorship coalitions.
  1. NCTE One Read for the 2014 NCTE will hopefully be Diane Ravitche’s Reign of Error.
  1. Reports submitted:
    1. WEJ. Written report submitted by
      1. Do they send out notices when new editions are published? Is it indexed in Eric? Can we contact other NCTE affiliates to find out what they do?
      2. Journal next edition is an open themed journal.
      3. What are editors doing to increase submissions? David Roloff has contact information of English Education professors. This could be a way to get the word out.
      4. “The Wisconsin English Journal (WEJ) welcomes articles on all subjects related to teaching English in middle and high schools. The theme for spring 2014 is censorship. We welcome articles about fresh methods and teaching practices in English Language Arts. We welcome book reviews of recently published books about censorship, descriptions of teaching ideas, opinion pieces, and research articles related to English language arts and teaching. The deadline for the spring issue is February 1, 2014. The fall 2014 issue will have an open theme, welcoming any and all new ideas. The deadline is August 1, 2014.

 

We believe that the juried journal process that we have organized is vital to developing

excellent articles for readers. We hope that all of you will be willing to be journal reviewers and help us support authors. Because we are a juried journal with each article receiving at least two anonymous reviews, the journal may hold more power for those concerned about the publication’s impact on their careers. To become a reviewer for Wisconsin English Journal, visit http:// journals.library.wisc. edu/index.php/wej and

 

click on “Register.” Please consider submitting an article to the Wisconsin English Journal. We look forward to receiving and reviewing your texts. Wisconsin English Journal publishes in October and April.”

 

  1. Update. Written report submitted by Linda Barrington
    1. Fall edition will feature message from the president, NCTE PRESLM, English teachers who’ve been recognized, WI Educational Leadership Alliance update, meet this district director, WEJ report, DPI news, “Women at Play,” calendar, for class (PBS learning media)
    2. Recommend something about membership initiative: WCTE is in the midst of a membership drive to increase membership by 30%, and publicize our Facebook (member page and conference page) and Twitter (#wcte14). Make sure that the full CFP is in the Update.
    3. Note: The Update continues to be spectacular.

 

  1. John Pruitt.
    1. Thursday, October 23, 2014
      1. Board work session 10:00-11:30, no lunch
      2. Pre-convention Workshop 1:00-4:00
        1. Sara Kajder (btw…also the keynote on Friday)
      3. Board Meeting
      4. Local Committee to organize “facilitated dinner” for people who came on their own and decorate convention lunch.
    2. Friday, October 24, 2014   Convention
      1. The conference will be promoted using social media: #wcte14, on Facebook Wcte14.
      2. We will raise cost of convention.   Decision to be made on Saturday.
      3. District Directors will meet at the same time as the Board worktime.
  • Social media:
    1. #wcte14 and Wcte14
    2. Ask people to provide Facebook and Twitter on registration.
  1. Postcards will go out
  1. Send out in February. Save the date card sent to English Departments. Budget for mailing will be $1000.
  2. Denise Meyer will have the card made and send to Lynn Aprill to be mailed out.
  3. John Pruitt will have post cards prepared and mailed by English honors students. Do a second mailing of in September.
    1. Registration Fee
      1. Motion: Increase registration fee as follows: members-$100 pre-conference fee; $100 conference fee; both-$175. Non-members-$150 pre-conference fee; $150 conference fee; both $280. Student and retiree fee- pre-conference fee $40; conference fee $40; both $75. Motion by Denise Meyer. Second by Jackie Mabon. Motion passed.
      2. Revisit including membership in conference registration at summer meeting.
    2. District Directors. Lynn Aprill.
      1. District Directors will be very involved in PR for conference.

 

  1. Officer Reports
    1. Director at Large—Kathy Nelson. No report.
    2. Second Vice-president—Denise Meyer. NCTE will be in Minneapolis, however we will still have conference.
    3. First Vice-president—John Pruitt. Report above in conference notes.
    4. President—Lynn Frick. All is well.

 

  1. Old Business
    1. We are going to proceed with the use of RegOnline for this conference cycle.
    2. Supporting those who travel to represent WCTE. Current budget allocates $1000 for travel. Discussion in summer was to increase the budget to $4000. How do we support those representatives who represent on behalf of the organization? Who should we be supporting? At one time we supported the second vice president to attend.
      1. Motion: WCTE will support the second vice-president to attend NCTE and represent the organization at all voting events up to $750 annually. Motion: Marianne Potter, Jack Van Trese. Motion passed.
      2. Motion: WCTE will support a CEL state liaison to attend CEL Convention and represent the organization at all voting events up to $750 annually. Motion: Lynn Frick, Marianne Potter. Motion passed.
  • Motion: WCTE will support two representatives to attend standing committee on affiliates meeting occurring every other summer up to $500 summer. Motion: John Pruitt, Lynn Frick. Motion passed.
  1. Establishing a convention committee. Discussion supported the formation of a conference committee each year. The committee could include the first vice-president, the president (having just planned a conference), local representatives and any other interested members.
  2. Comments concerning WCTE statement on CCSS
    1. Edit suggestion: first bullet: WCTE recognizes the importance of and need for standards.
  3. Pooley Award. Marty Wood is still involved with the finances. We will continue with Pooley as is until we get a more solid plan for moving forward. We will address this again in Summer. The deadline for this year is approaching and won’t have changes in time for this cycle.

 

  1. New Business
    1. Assembly Bill 617. This bill challenges that DPI did not fulfill their mission to review standards in adoption and implementation of CCSS. The governor should put together a review team at regular intervals. Lynn Frick spoke to staffers for Representative Knudson about this issue.
    2. Professional Issues. Person in this position is no longer around. Tom Scott will contact Donna Pasternak.
    3. Summer Dates: Thursday, July 31 & August 1, 2014.
    4. Spring Dates: We will consider shifting the dates to the beginning of March for 2015.
    5. Approval of new CESA Directors. After elections in October, we added
      1. John Schad, district 7
      2. Shelley Moore, district 11
      3. Motion: Lynn Aprill, Marianne Potter. Motion passed.
    6. Other Awards
    7. Other?
      1. Lynn Frick and John Pruitt will represent WCTE at the 2014 Summer Affiliates meeting.
      2. Educators’ Network for Social Justice request for co-sponsorship of the annual Conference for $250. Motion: Jackie Mabon, Marianne Potter. Motion passed.
    8. Motion to adjourn at 12:53 p.m. John Schadd, John Pruitt. Motion passed.