Pennsylvania Association for Adult and Continuing Education

Board Meeting

August 12, 2003

 

 

Attending:

Mary Kay Peterson; Mary Hohensee; Mary Anne Varacalli; Karen Mundie; Bob McNeill; Ruth Love Schooley; Susan Mansuetti; Cathy Forsythe; Linda Herr; Sonny Sloan; Barbara Van Horn; Dave Manzo; Amy Wilson; Chris Coro; Chuck Klinger; Dehra Shafer; Joan Leopold; Carol Shefrin

 

President Dave Manzo called the meeting to order.

Carol Shefrin volunteered to take minutes in Karen Warner’s absence.

The minutes were approved (Mary Kay Peterson motion; Mary Hohensee 2nd)

With the correction (by Barb Van Horn) of the spelling of Tom Stitcht’s name.

 

Officers’ Reports:

 

President:

Dave reported on the conference call he had on Midwinter. Although no minutes were taken there are notes for future reference. There was a discussion of PeopleWare and other Mid Winter issues.

 

Dave thanked Sonny Sloan for attending as a representative of the Bureau of ABLE.

 

Dave talked to Ed Green about his proposal concerning alternatives to the PeopleWare software for registration. Ed has submitted another proposal for the Board’s approval. There is no cost associated with the proposal. The proposal suggests having Ed’s students analyze various registration software options. Dave asked the Board to review the proposal and give him feedback by 8/29.

 

1st Vice President:

Mary Kay went over various Midwinter issues: raising meal prices to cover the actual costs (no PAACE subsidy); how to handle submission of call for papers on line; on line registration (getting the forms on line or Peopleware); paying on line. Pay Pal is the proposed payment system. Costs are $.30 per charge plus a percentage of the total. A conference call was posed to resolve the remaining technological issues associated with the conference. Those to participate are: Dave; Chris; Bob; Brit Orndorf, technology chair; and Mary Kay.

 

There was discussion and consensus on doing a fall mailing to all membership to include the call for papers and registration forms. This would serve two purposes: making these forms accessible to those without easy computer access and to serve as general awareness and promotion of the conference. Dave will do a cover letter for this mailing and it will also give an explanation of the rise in meal costs.

 

After a discussion consensus was that individual’s accessing the pay on line option should pay for the associated expenses themselves. This will then be a service and an option for members but not cost PAACE anything. There was a motion (Mary Kay; Cathy) to make the online payment option available to members.

 

New meal prices will be: Legislative luncheon $20; Annual meeting luncheon  $20; Banquet $30. Other cost savers include: limiting free drinks at the Marketplace opening to: soda, wine(no mixed drinks); charging $25 for Market Place space; having cash continental breakfasts on Thursday and Friday; eliminating the beef at the marketplace opening. There was a discussion about who should be charged, and not, for the Market Place space. It was decided that agencies should be charged but no group (Divisions) associated with PAACE.

 

There was a discussion on when/how Divisions should meet. Options: eliminating the Division lunches; holding Division meetings at 11:30 on Friday (with no competing sessions); having breakfast meetings; having meetings at various times throughout the conference. Mary Kay asked Division chairs to contact her with their input. Divisions do not all need to have the same plan for meetings.

 

There was a discussion on Peopleware software. We have already paid $1400 for the use of the software this year. The expense of training people is an issue. Karen Warner has volunteered to go to training in NY in September (9/16-9/19). Chris will house the software at NHCC. It was decided that NHCC staff need to look at the software and decide what training needs they have. The final decisions were: PAACE will continue to use Peopleware as our registration software; all the Peopleware software and information needs to go to Chris; James Yeager will be available for questions (according to Chuck); Chris will decide on who needs to be trained; paying on line will be added to the registration process.

 

Myron Hallock will be the Honorary Chair.

 

Carol asked Sonny what the Bureau’s ideas are for an Administrator strand with the absence of an administrator pre-conference. Sonny’s content ideas at this point are: description of the policy book the Bureau is issuing; the Bureau’s new approach to program improvement; the Bureau’s process of  combining three sets of IPQ’s (adult education, family literacy, ESL); the combination of all standards; WIA re-authorization and the rules of competition and also how to write grant applications. Carol suggested that she continue to communicate with Bureau staff on the structure the Bureau wants to use at the conference (special sessions, strand, etc). She will also contact those in the state’s administrator group for input on strand content.

 

2nd Vice President:

Bob’s report brought up a new business item: Corrections wants to create a PAACE division with Rob Bender as the chair. A new division was established by motion (Bob; Mary) and approval. 

 

It was suggested that Rob Bender do outreach to all Corrections personnel lists to notify them of this new Division and promote conference presentation submissions. There was additional discussion of the history of corrections as a special interest group in PAACE. Everyone agreed that the conference needs more content specific to the needs of this group particularly concerning teaching and learning in the correctional setting (more regulatory information for corrections personnel is covered in their Millersville conference).

 

A group was formed to update the operations manual based on the updated by-laws: Joan, Bob, Linda, Mary Ann, Barb.

 

Barb will also review the updated by-laws and is assuming the position of chair of this committee. The new by-laws need to be approved by the membership. It was not clear how the membership will vote: a ballot sent out with instructions to download the by-law document from the web site? Approval at mid winter?

 

Treasurer’s report: (attached)

Dave will request a monthly activity report from John Weidman via Joanne Weinberger.  We’re going to have a deficit in 2003 because of last year’s conference expenses. The factors causing this deficit are: meal costs; exhibitor space expenses; break costs; contract with legislative liaison; technology at conference; extra expenses charged t PAACE that were unexpected and previously covered by agencies of staff who were on conference committee; Peopleware license of $12,000.

 

Dave suggested a continuing examination of conference expense.

Mary explained our current situation: even when we get to a break-even position with the conference we still won’t be covering our regular expenses. This is a concern that needs to be addressed. For several years, COABE reserve has been covering the continuing deficit; this needs to be stopped.

 

We also need suggestions for a new Treasurer who will be able to address both the bookkeeping responsibilities and the strategic financial planning. Mary suggested splitting the position but there seemed to be limitations in this possibility (finding appropriate people and costs).

 

In the discussion of cost saving measures and the budget it was suggested to cancel plans to transport conference attendees for a legislative visit. Amy suggested exploring other funding sources for this and will pursue this possibility on our behalf (Donnelly Foundation). This will also impact conference scheduling so action needs to be taken quickly on this. Amy is to contact Mary Kay.

 

The Treasurer’s report was accepted (Mary Kay; Bob).

 

 Past President report:

Linda did some research on what other state and national conferences were charging for registration. PAACE is far below others. The average registration cost for a conference about our size is about $300.

 

Executive Director’s report:

Joan is receiving and reviewing the MidAtlantic Events magazine. She referred to various correspondences. Joan discussed our database having bad addresses; she follows up on returned mail as much as possible.

 

Regional representative reports:

Eastern Rep:

Chris had a request from an attendee of the 2002 conference about Act 48 credit not being awarded. Chris will contact Ablenet for possible help to this person.

How to handle Act 48 for 2004 conference needs to be addressed by the conference committee.

 

TLC report:

Amy reported she has developed an in-service on health literacy for tutors.

 

Technology report:

Barb asked on behalf of Peggy Grumm that anyone asking for changes to the Board list on the website ask for Joan’s approval. Joan will get changes to Peggy.

 

Nominations and Elections:

Karen needs nominees for 2nd VP; Central representative; Secretary; and Treasurer. The nomination committee is: Debby Hrach; Diane Inverso; Karen Mundie (chair); Linda Herr; Chuck Klinger.

 

Strategic Planning:

Bob will review the current strategic plan and make recommendations in September on how to proceed.

 

ABE division:

Chuck reported on a discussion he had with the President of the VA organization. They are interested in collaborating with PAACE on a future regional conference.

Karen reported that the 2004 COABE Conference is in Columbus Ohio and that their conference group wants a table at PAACE’s Marketplace to promote the conference.

Carol was asked to ask Helen Guisler if she would continue to chair the Marketplace for 2004.

 

Mary Kay is still in charge of vendors along with her conference chair responsibilities.

 

Constitution and By-Laws:

Barb will work with Bob on this.

Joan is in touch with PANO and they will be reviewing our by-laws.

 

Continuing Higher Ed:

Mary Ann announced a Project Management Conference in November.

 

There were no other reports.

 

The next meeting is:

SEPTEMBER 9 at PSU Harrisburg – 234 N 3rd St.

 

There was a discussion of moving the October meeting from Pittsburgh to a more central location because of travel costs. There was consensus to have the meeting in State College with Barb finding a place for the meeting. 

 

The meeting was then adjourned (Mary Kay; Bob).

 

Respectfully submitted,

Carol Shefrin

Past President