OK-AHEAD Board Meeting
July 1, 2010, 10:30-12:30 p.m.
At OSU-Health Services Building
Present: Kaye Ellis, Suzette Dyer, Sharla Weathers, Chimene Long, Mike Shuttic, Kim Eason, Jane Sarber, Christina Perry, and Janet Griffith.
Not Present: Yolanda Williams, Erich Hayes
Minutes: Were sent to the Board ahead of time via email. Our past meeting was via Wimba on May 26, 2010. Chimene asked that the account amount previously stated be replaced with $6,262.47 as it was only an approximate at that time. Suzette moved to accept the minutes as corrected. Board accepted.
Treasurer’s Report: Account is $6,262.47. There are still a couple of outstanding expenses for the past fiscal year: $500 for Kaye Ellis to use in conjunction while in attendance at the upcoming National AHEAD conference and $1500 for scholarships. OKAHEAD did recently renew their certificate. The Board may want to wait till March and pull out some money if needed. Often there are better interest rates for one year renewal times. Certificate is around $12,000 which is scheduled to renew in March. Janet proposed that the Board will need to discuss in January if we want to change that. Kaye said as projecting what we doing for Spring, we may take out some to subsidize some funds. The Board has just been letting the interest accrue. We originally started with $10,000.00.
President’s Report – Affiliate Updates: Kaye stated recently had a phone call. A lot of affiliates are dealing with how to reach members cause of limited travel. They come up with topics to discuss at National AHEAD Conf. There will be representatives from the AHEAD Board present. Kaye will ask the status of requesting money from AHEAD, possibly by writing a proposal. With regard to Tuesday, prior to the start of the AHEAD Conference, and then another day for an affiliate lunch Kaye asked those attending from Oklahoma to attend as she will need to be in attendance at a PEP-Net Special Interest group meeting as an outgoing chair.
Silent Auction Items for National Conference: Kaye has decided to use part of her stipend to purchase an Oklahoma item to donate. AHEAD welcomes all silent auction item donations. Any money raised at the Silent Auction goes towards a scholarship fund that AHEAD has setup.
OK-AHEAD Silent Auction item possible purchase: Currently, the affiliate representative is to check with other members present before bidding. The OK-AHEAD representative could bid on a national speaker up to $1500, but have to make sure we do not make our budget go under $5000. There was discussion on this issue. Mike motioned to utilize up to $500 even if going below $5000 for this year due to budget restraints. Suzette seconded. Board passed. If purchased, the speaker will be sponsored by OK-AHEAD, but other expenses could be paid by other institutions if agreed upon.
Scholarship Committee: needing a chair since Kim Fields is not on Board any longer. Mike stated that person also should be active in marketing the scholarships. Chimene advised that the OK-AHEAD scholarship is not on anybody’s website. Suzette and Sharla said the information was on OU and UCO’s website. There are three (3) scholarships: must be a student with a disability. The Board does try to give one for each – career, 2 yr, and 4 yr. The scholarship is $500 each and the money is sent directly to the institution (most often the bursar). If the student(s) drop or already have enough funding, it is the institutions decision as what to do with the money.
· Suzette asked about reducing scholarship amount. Mike state $10 from each registration is put towards that. Kaye said should be fine for this year. Kaye did send letters out for those who received awards to those winner’s supervisors.
· Suzette proposed asking Lonnie Williams to be on chair. Kim Eason and Christina Perry volunteered to be on the committee to assist in judging essays.
Bylaws Amendments: Suzette gave a summary of the changes to the Board Members. Discussion followed. Mike mentioned that the election of officers sounded like voting indicates that it’s happening at conference? Mike proposes that it be in this piece. Kaye said is stated in Constitution not Bylaws. Suzette confirmed it is in the Constitution, not Bylaws and is addressed. Kaye entertained a motion that the Board approved these articles as presented to membership at Spring Conference and to the Board today. Janet moved that we accept these changes and move corrections onto membership. Chimene seconded. Board accepted changes.
Constitutional Amendments: Suzette provided a summary of the changes to the Board Members. With regard to Article 6 Section 1: Nominations, elections and amendments - occur in this way; however via distribution to membership. It is proposed to leave out - at the business meeting and at the conference. Chimene to pull off the website Article 6 Elections in both the Bylaws and Constitution and Suzette will take a look at them again and get back with the Board. Kim Eason accepted the amendments except those pertaining to elections. Janet seconded. Board passed. Elections and nominations will be untied to the upcoming business meeting and conference. There are a total of 7 Bylaws and 4 Constitutional Amendments. The amendments must be posted 30 days prior to the conference for a vote.
Website: special thanks to Chimene for her skills as webmaster. If the Board can think of anything that needs to be put on the website, let Chimene know. Renewal for website is to occur August 29th for $130.00. It will come out of the account in August. Chimene asked for ideas regarding getting institutions/individuals to renew membership. Discussion happened. Chimene is to mail applications for renewal and benefits for being a member which is on the brochure and a little card asking for renewal and time to update info on website. Mike suggested getting an “It’s Time” stamp or stickers to put on the outside of the envelope to draw one’s attention to. Chimene has a separate site for the Board and will disseminate that information to the Board as soon as possible.
Fall Conference: Nov 4 or 5, or Nov 11-12 are potential dates.
Possible site – OBU. Christina Perry to check on availability. Nov 11th is Veteran’s Day so not an option. Possibly Oct 28-29th. Kaye to put dates on Doodle. Probably not look at Nov 12th since some will take that day off if off the day previous due to the holiday. Kaye suggested staying with a one day conference and start a little later for drive time and finish by 3:30. Kim suggested Career Tech maybe an option should OBU not be available. Suzette gave the future topic possibilities from the Spring conference to the Board members: one was the Higher Education Act (which could be all day discussion topic) and round tables like before.
Future meeting dates: sometime during the week of August 9th. Kaye to propose dates on Doodle. Maybe a phone conference and then possibly meet in September with a face-to-face.
Other Discussion:
1. Mike asked that as people are in attendance at the AHEAD Conference, begin thinking of topics on a higher level to bring back and share with other Oklahomans in decision making (i.e. Ipad, Kindle Readers). Essentially, what are others doing?
2. Janet mentioned the OCR letter contained in Salone Hayward’s email yesterday. OCR sent a dear colleague letter to AHEAD. It was kind of an FYI to make sure you are in compliance with emerging technology which focused on e-readers. Part of this spurred from the Kindle Project.
3. Renting books – Janet said students must purchase books, not rent to get accessible format. Some math classes use My Math Lab – it is not accessible currently. This issue was addressed in an OCR letter. Many just do not understand the impact of such decisions and the vitality to students with disabilities.
4. Mike stated many just run when approached by this issue (renting vs. buying textbooks) instead of stopping and using one’s critical thinking skills to get the information gathered and disbursed. OK-AHEAD Board members need to gather the information and then propose suggestions. Chimene asked if Purchasing is made aware of the legal issues.
5. Suzette mentioned Tegrity for Lecture Capture says they are 508 compliant when captioning is done after the fact.
6. Kaye stated TCC uses DocSoft. Still not usable because the college does not have a server dedicated for that purpose. Kim asked what about Teacher Tube. Suzette wanted to expand captioning where another department converts so as to put on YouTube, but with Teacher Tube, you cannot use to caption a private channel.
7. Mike said there’s a lot of intricacy, but OK-AHEAD should provide a blue print for others to discover the process and be able to illicit information from others. There are many that just don’t know the questions to ask.
8. Kaye asked what our focus needs to be this next year (i.e. OK-AHEAD presentation kit). Maybe look at the current issues and prepare information to be able to get into others hands. Kim said the “Did You Know” piece would be very helpful. Where would one present? Kim stated definitely at Career Techs, they always need someone to present. Kaye said our audience is not always our own membership. We may need to expand our membership to other areas or possibly have a booth at some of their conferences (i.e. IT, Academic Advisement). Even possibly providing a break out session. Suzette said we need to redevelop our relationship with the Regents, expand our ability to reach institution Vice Presidents, which need to be present. Suzette mentioned calling Kermit McMurry to get put on the list as a speaker. Mike said credibility goes a long way. Maybe utilize email or website then once relationship and credibility are established then progressing is easier. Suzette said we do need to reconnect, as the Board agreed. Other connections possibly: Ok State Dept of Ed. LDEO, Academic Advisement, IT, NASPA, etc. Kaye will put as a project and send an email in order to create a list of organizations that each Board member is aware of in addition to what other state organizations do we want to foster a relationship with? More than likely those officers of the state organizations are affiliated with specific institutional people.
9. Membership: how do we build our membership? Dues are not very much currently, but the Board will need to show what one would receive for being a member in order to build our membership and keep growing. Janet Griffith stated in 2 year institutions a lot of disability providers wear more than one hat. Kaye stated maybe we can promote OK-AHEAD members as a resource to call upon since those in 2 year institutions may not be fully involved in the disability world.
10. Future Meetings via conference calls: Kim Eason is open to finding out how to setup a conference call through the Career Tech as we did before when Kahle Goff was on the Board. Kaye suggested that sometimes we can have a conference call versus face-to-face meeting. Chimene informed the Board that Kahle use to absorb the cost of the conference call. Kim Eason will check on any cost.
11. Open records meetings: Mike Shuttic asked regarding the open records meeting. All meeting times and locations are posted in advance on the website with an individual to contact for further information as well as the Board Meeting Minutes once accepted by the Board.
12. AHEAD Affiliate assistance: Mike asked how consistent requests to AHEAD for affiliates are. The Board replied that sometimes they do assist. Mike informed the Board there is a fund of money available on a first come basis for affiliate purposes. The only requirement is that you have to justify, so if needing a keynote/national speaker the Board could ask for assistance with payment from AHEAD.
13. INVEST Ed – Kim received an email for people wanting to come and give presentations. Not sure their focus though. Will look into it and let the Board know.
14. Kaye mentioned just adding a page of OK-AHEAD to personal presentations given. Kim mentioned creating a generic spill about OK-AHEAD. Kaye said material can be made available. Mike suggested providing OK-AHEAD brochures at next face-to-face. Suzette asked for Chimene to put brochure back on web as printable.
Adjourned 1:20
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