Pennsylvania Association for Adult and Continuing Education
Board Meeting
March 11, 2003
Attending:
Tana Reiff, Susan Mansuetti, JoAnn Weinberger, Ruth Love-Schooley, Linda Herr, Cathy Forsythe, Mary Kay Peterson, Dehra Shafer, Carol Shefrin, Barb VanHorn, Mary Jendrey, Amy Wilson, Chuck Klinger, Bob McNeill, Mary Anne Varacalli, Mary Hohensee, Briton Orndorf, Joan Leopold, Dave Manzo, Karen Warner
Minutes:
Minutes of the Board Meeting held on February 13, 2003 were accepted as changed with a motion made by Cathy Forsythe.
Dave Manzo reminded the group that only elected officers can vote at Board meetings.
Treasurer’s Report:
Mary presented Profit and Loss sheets; directing our attention especially to the Mid-Winter Conference expenses. One item of particular interest was the cost of insurance to cover transporation of computers to the conference.
Discussion took place concerning insurance for the Board of Directors.
Mary was concerned about the high shipping cost for the bags that were order for the conference. The bags themselves were approximately $6000 and a shipping cost of $856 was added to that. This might have been a percent of the cost of the bags, but Mary wasn’t sure. Mary is willing to call the vendor (Bagmasters) and ask about the shipping cost being so high.
Mary reported that a box of conference registration material was received from Ginny Sorgen, who was handling this year’s registration. Ginny stated that she could no longer process the remaining information from Peopleware for the conference. This included items such as membership, conference registration checks, and conference registration invoices. Mary Kay and Mary will meet and go through the material and straighten things out.
Mary Kay presented a motion which was passed to pay the bills that have already come in for the Mid-Winter Conference. It was suggested that next year’s Conference Planning Committee should build a budget ahead of time and spending parameters should be set. A motion was also passed to pay for additional bills to be paid for the Conference.
Mary voiced concern regarding a $6000 bill submitted by Deb Burrows to West Branch Technology Center for copies made “in-house” for the Mid-Winter Conference. Deb, a Board member, thus became a vendor. Written job descriptions should help in the future.
Motion was made and accepted to approve the Treasurer’s report.
Executive Director Report:
Joan will do some research on insurance for the Board. Carol Shefrin will also check with COABE Board about the insurance they have. This will be discussed at the April Board meeting.
Joan reported that it would cost $65/year to join PANO (Pennsylvania Association for Non-profit Organizations). PANO would offer free legal advice; they also might have insurance information. A motion was made and passed to join PANO.
Joan would like to have a new membership directory printed. However, since the Membership Chair is empty, Joan is not sure she has current information. A membership list was given to each of area representatives to check for up-to-date membership information.
A motion was made and passed to accept the Executive Director’s report.
The PAACE listserve was discussed. All members go on immediately. If they do not wish to remain on the list, they must unsubscribe. Brit Orndorff encouraged us to set up profiles for the listserve so that we can take full advantage of everything the listserve has to offer.
Officers Reports:
President:
Dave presented a thank you note from Joan for the Board’s passing her yearly stipend. The Board thanked Joan for work well done.
Dave received a letter of resignation from Deb Burrows from her position as PAACE Board President. The Board accepted her resignation. As per the by-laws, when the position of president is vacated, the 1st Vice President moves up to fill the President position and the 2nd Vice President moves up to 1st Vice President. The Board then appoints a person to serve as 2nd Vice President. Two people voiced their interest in becoming 2nd Vice President; Laura Beach and Ruth Love-Schooley.
A letter will be drafted to the PAACE membership announcing the resignation of Deb Burrows and the subsequent appointment of Dave Manzo to the position of President and Mary Kay Peterson to the position of 1st Vice President.
Dave announced that the theme for the 2004 Mid-Winter Conference will be “Adult Education in a Changing World”. Galen Godbey will be the keynote speaker.
1st Vice President:
Mary Kay reminded us that the April Board meeting will be held in Elizabethtown (directions will be made available) in the form of a Board retreat. We will be reviewing the by-laws, operations manual, and job descriptions. Bill McNeill suggested that the by-laws be divvied up by groups of people to review beforehand and present at the meeting. Mary Kay will assign as such. The by-laws are not in a good electronic format. Brit said he can work on getting it into a better format and placed on the listserve.
Division Reports:
ESL:
AB/SE:
Chuck reported that at the Conference lunch, part-time instructors were asking for support/counseling regarding retirement. Carol will explore what COABE has to offer on this subject.
CHE:
Mary Anne reported that some colleges are receiving grants for emergency planning with a homeland security focus. The higher ed organization has looked at their by-laws and made some changes so that the president would remain in office for two years.
TLC:
The adult learner conference will be held on March 22 & 23. Barb VanHorn will be the keynote speaker. First Lady Rendell could not attend but will send a proclamation. She wants to kept informed about adult ed. issues.
Family Literacy:
Workforce:
Regional Representatives Reports:
East:
Bill McNeill needed a county breakdown for the different regions. Joan has a regional map and will share it with the Board. Bill would like to have three meetings in his Eastern Region during the year. He would like to have the email addresses for the membership in his region to facilitate easier communication.
Central:
Cathy Forsythe would like other Regional Representatives to share information of what they are doing in their region.
West:
Mary Jendrey’s goal is to educate the legislators concerning adult education as well as to educate her regional membership about legislators and legislation. She also wants to hold group meetings.
Committee Reports:
Awards:
Commonwealth Libraries:
Higher Education:
Legislative:
JoAnne said she received rave reviews from the Legislative Session at Mid-Winter Conference. Census will soon be completed at the Federal level; we should soon be hearing how this will affect us in Pennsylvania. JoAnne encouraged us to send thank you letters to state legislators for listening to our letters and concerns regarding adult education. On the Federal level, as soon as the results of the census comes in, we should know what our Federal allocations will be. On the State level, Gov. Rendell has recommended a 6% decrease in funding. She would really like to be able to use a good listserve to get information out to the PAACE membership about legislation.
Membership:
Membership Chair is empty. President needs to appoint someone and have Board approve selection.
Nominations and Elections:
PDE:
Public Relations:
Publications:
Tana reported that the deadline for the spring issue of the newsletter of Monday, March 17th will be stretched for late-breaking news. Perhaps it would be better to hold the news letter until after the letter goes announcing Deb’s resignation. It was suggested that in the president’s message, Dave do a visionary message and focus on the future.
Strategic Decision Making:
By-laws and operations manual will be discussed at April’s Board Meeting/Retreat
New Business:
Empty Committee Chairs:
Dave asked for any nominations for committee chairs that need to be filled to be given to him: need a Membership chair and possibly a Public Relations chair.
Technology chair needs to be filled. No one is any longer filling the technology committee. Brit Orndorff was presented as a candidate for the Technology chair. Motion was approved to appoint Brit to the Technology chair. Brit will gather together a technology committee.
Peopleware Software:
Discussion was held concerning the Peopleware software. Amy Wilson reported that Verizon cannot house Peopleware. Carol Shefrin will explore the possibility of her agency housing Peopleware. Joan read a letter from Peopleware concerning licensing and procedures for transferring software.
Options for hosting the PAACE website were discussed. TIU may be able to do it; Brit suggested an outside host. Brit will explore an independent server for the PAACE website. He feels he will be able to manage the website himself. We will try to act quickly on this matter because of the PAACE site being down.
Peopleware would come in for a training of up to 12 people for $3750. Brit is willing to be trained and then return to train more people. Brit will do research on Peopleware and get a handle on the whole deal. Decision will then be made on who will be trained and make it as user friendly as possible for everyone. There is a $1400 annual fee for software support agreement. Motion was approved to pay. Discussion concerning having an hourly wage person manage Peopleware was tabled until later.
Future Board Meetings:
April Elizabethtown
May Harrisburg
June Wilkes Barre
July none
August State College
September Harrisburg
October Pittsburgh
November Williamsport
December Harrisburg
January Joan’s house
New Board Members Introduction:
Tana will do an introduction of new Board members through the newsletter.
Tana feels that the membership should be notified about the PAACE web site being down. Brit will announce it on the PAACE listserve and Tana will announce it on the ABLE site.
April Retreat:
Someone from PANO will attend and possibly make recommendations on how to write by-laws and look at the legal aspects of the by-laws. There will be a brief Board meeting before the retreat.
Corrections Ed. Division:
There may be enough interest to have a Corrections Education Division. Rob Bender would chair this division.
Amy asked about a member belonging to more than one division. We will look at revising membership form to reflect that a member could join more than one division for a fee of $5 extra.
Carol reflected that since funds are being cut this coming year we should expect that our Mid-Winter Conference attendance may be fewer. COABE money may be used for scholarships.
Motion was made to adjourn meeting.
Minutes submitted by:
Karen Warner, PAACE Board Secretary