MICHIGAN READING ASSOCIATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
MINUTES
October 24, 2015
Treetops Resort
Gaylord, Michigan
8:45 am- 12:00 pm
Board of Directors Present:
Lisa Rivard Sean Kottke Elizabeth Gates Nancy Jaskiw Lynnette Suckow
Sandra White Elenore Glass Andrea Kleinpaste Barb Hammond Amelia Bean Cortney Brendel Mary Cooper Bena Hartman Beth Billie Bridget Rise
Board Members Absent:
Dee Halstead Lori Ulewicz Tamara Campbell
Committee Members Present:
Trish Sippola Carol Paul Pam Rickli Karen Allmen Alicia Kubacki
Michael Curtis Marcia Klemp
Committee Members Absent:
Celeste Shelton-Harris Brandy Archer Sue Sharma Grace Velchansky
Rita Reimbold Tanya Wright Patricia Edwards
1. Call to Order
Meeting called to order at 8:45 AM
2. Call for Additional Agenda Items
Lisa: add as item i, 2017 conference co-chairs.
correction to item 7a to read Audit Reflections/Approval of Internal Controls
Motion: Elizabeth Gates to approve agenda with additions. Seconded by Trish Sippola. Motion Carried.
3. Approval of August 2015 MRA Board Minutes
Lisa: Please review board minutes. Will be sending out all of the items about a week in
advance…will still give everybody a few minutes to review.
Motion: Mary Cooper to accept the August 2015 Board Minutes. Seconded by Elizabeth Gates. Motion Carried.
4. Officers Report
· President
Appreciation given to the MRA office for the quick turn-around, and the extensive work
completed on a daily basis.
Grace & Lisa have been working closely over the last several months to inform the
legislators regarding House Bill 4822. Communications, including a letter from MRA,
are on the MRA web site.
Alicia - reminder that this is in the senate, right now, and we need to contact our
senators about this.
· President Elect
Main information in board report – mainly conference
Conference-at-a-glance is up on web site – now you are able to see everything.
A BIG Thank you to the office staff for all of the hard work, and tremendous patience in working with all of the wrinkle and glitches in the many facets of conference planning.
Steady stream of registrations, already. Conference planning commission will be meeting to review submitted proposals
· Vice President
Most everything in report
Award of Excellence usually completed in November, but have changed deadline to
January, and wanted to make you aware of that.
For those who are new, this is a ILA award that goes to state organizations that show we
have met all of the criteria. Information is on web site.
Working on conference 2016 and 2017
· Secretary
Information is in the board report
Reminder to turn in board reports timely.
· Treasurer
Attended the UPRA conference in Marquette, MI in October, and represented MRA with Lisa, Sean, Trish, and Andrea. We had a great day meeting everyone that came through. We passed out promotional items for the conference, and GLGB
Finance Committee met last night; Lisa will cover in more detail later. A lot of work with policy has been done to be able to move it forward.
· ILA Coordinator
Celeste met this morning with the group, and asked them to fill out a survey.
· Director of Membership Development
Most of information is in the board report.
Focus has been trying to promote membership, including a possible promotional video,
among other ideas. Have been working with Laura and Jessie in the office.
4. Administrative Coordinator Report
Website:
We have a new website, that offers a forum, as well as a receipt system. This was not
without a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. When we launched the test website, everything
worked; when we moved it to the new website, it no longer worked. The company we
had worked with negotiated a price reduction from 2,443.00 to 1,000.00 as payment-in-
full.
We are currently scheduling interviews for a new web company. The new site has a 90-
day guarantee; by December 1st, we will have a new company to host our website.
If you go to the website, and see something that isn’t right, please let the office know
Cobo:
We have revised contract several times. They’ve been doing as much as they can, but
costs will be more than in the past. There is a whole new “vibe” in the area – business is
growing back, and the environment was wonderful.
We’re going to have two shuttles every half-hour between Comerica Park and the hotel;
was just a little more than at we’d budgeted
Summer Lit is farther ahead than we’ve ever been
Office Personnel Handbook – have been working with Michael
The Audit is done – Deb is the best thing to happen to us since Jessie.
We truly appreciate Lisa as a President; she makes sure that things happen in between
board meetings.
Michigan Reading Journal is on schedule, and is at the printers. It will be mailed the first
week of November, and available electronically, the following week. We’re taking one
article from each journal that people can see/comment.
This year’s summer lit registration will be up much earlier than in the past. If, in the
process of going through the registration, please let us know if you see anything we
could do to improve.
We are asking for conference attendees to bring in one book for donation. Those who
donate will have their names entered into a drawing for free 2017 conference attendance.
6. Regional Representatives/Committee Chair Reports
Marcia Klemp – Gwen Frostic award. I did attend a function, “Read Muskegon,” with adult learners…an adult education group of people.
Michael Curtis – OPC Committee. Laura covered a lot of the things I’ve been involved with, lately – Employee Handbook; Policiies and Procedures handbook. You’ve done a tremendous job. PDF book marks going to be along the left-hand side, and have hyperlinks that get you directly to the documents. We just purchased, and are in process of creating the bookmarks to those.
Beth Billie – Region 9. I’ve been busy getting to know our council – the only one in the region. I’ve been going back & forth with Rosemary, have an author dinner coming up, and am excited to attend that on Wednesday.
Andrea Kleinpaste – Region 1. Part of Marquette-Alger Reading council, we had a member kick-off last night. We gave away one MRA conference ticket so one of the teachers will be able to go.
Barb Hammond – Region 2. We’re continuing to support existence and sustainability of NMRC, focusing on seeking support from contacts within the six Intermediate School Districts. We have 16 counties, and our ISD sites allow us to connect with key persons within the region to keep the council going. We have some new members, and folks interested in helping.
Bridget Rise – Region 10. We have struggled, over the years, to stay together. We will host a meet-and-greet in November, and will be passing out flyers to local district to get feedback. We are looking to move ahead in the right direction.
Pam Rickli: News & Views. News & Views is out for back-to-school, and we are recruiting for the December issue. If you have articles or offerings from people in your area, please submit those to me. As an example, there are digital writings through Oakland and Wayne, with free resources for people; we have some colleagues on the west side of the state writing on blogging; things that you are doing that are unique or exciting.
Amelia Bean - Region 3 (Kent & Western Dunes Reading Council). KRC is going like gangbusters. The Book Club is reading the new Donnelyn Miller book. What is exciting is that the Western Dunes Reading Council is coming back, and we have had these cool meetings, and planning sessions. They are picking up momentum, and I’m very excited…Nancy, Marcia, myself – Erin Brown. We’re putting together an agenda, and getting additional involvement and membership.
Mary Cooper - Region 5. The Southwest Michigan Reading Council in having their Kick-Off on Wednesday, November 4th. Tri County: Learn Like a Pirate – PD basis. We have connected with the ELA person at RESA.
Cortney Bendel - Region 4 . We held a membership event last week; we’re looking for ways to revitalize the council. Mary Howell and I have been contact, and had a few people come. We met at-length afterwards, regarding some things we can do to build membership, such as turning over board members, etc. Karen & I are moving into those positions. Mary also has connections with U of M/Flint, and we’ve had discussions on how to appeal to college age students.
Karen Allman (Kaleidoscope). Dec 18th or 19th deadline. This makes SUCH an impact on the students who participate in the Kaleidoscope event. In terms of family involvement, I am interested in talking about that. There is going to be a podcast author who is very popular on east side of state, who will attend the Kaleidoscope lunch, and will make the kids her podcast (we will have the parents there for permission). Encourage, and promote – so few know about Kaleidoscope – it goes through high school!
Sandra White – Member-at-Large. We need to generate some excitement. It’s been a constant topic at staff & council meetings – getting them to know what MRA is. We have many early childhood people at Jackson ISD. So many children come to school without books, or even how to hold a book.
Bena Hartman - Region 6. I know there are people out there, but it is difficult to get anyone to be interested in the Lansing area.
Lynette – Great Lakes Great Books. Posters are available for teachers at buildings - you can get packets online. Just like Karen & Courtney, I have teamed up to do GLGB with Trish, as there is so much to do with it. We will be meeting in January – encourage teachers to finish off the year with these books, and put in their votes…I need a bit of help with encouraging them. Deadline to vote is January 27th.
Sean for Brandy Archer – MDE Liaison. There are several activities in the board report…next phase of African American series of Young men of promise. I would like to add one piece – we sent out a solicitation to all on the MRA Board: Reading Specialist, Reading Teacher, and Elementary Teacher standards were approved in 2000. The standards and the tests to become a teacher are based on outdated standards. We have had 2 attempts to review and rewrite, and are trying a third time. I sent a solicitation from MDE – Pearson is leading the effort. This is not just teacher-prep people involved. They want more classroom teachers than university professors - those who have reading specialist endorsement, please enter your information.
Reading Specialist Standards… what everyone should know…the gold standard.
7. New Business (items for discussion with possible action taken)
a. Audit Reflections/Approval of Internal Controls…………...L. Rivard/ D. Woodard
Lisa – Deb has been working hard with the Auditors, Laura, and Jessie to be sure that things we are very transparent, and that everything aligns to protect the board. She was with us late last night, from 9 to 10 PM.
We had a board audit review last night, with time to reflect, and ask questions with Jennifer Martin. We also went over internal office controls. We’ve met several times to put a plan in place that included all of suggestions that came from the auditors (such as incoming checks and cash).
Lisa - Were there any reflections from the audit?
Deb – just putting the extra steps in place to protect ourselves financially, with multiple people is strengthening where we’re at, so we have a more solid foundation.
Lisa –See handout for details of proposed Internal Controls.
Deb – The safeguards that are in place are pretty standard procedures that should have already been in place.
Lynette – we already had some internal controls, but the auditors and Deb added some changes, as well. So, this is a very good modification.
Motion: Elizabeth Gates to approve the internal controls as suggested by our auditors, and outlined in the Business Manger’s Report. Seconded by Mary Cooper. Motion Carried.
b. Elections………………………………………………L. Rivard for D. Halstead
Be aware of the MRA Regions. Go out, and seek people that may be interested in filling
these positions. Encourage those people to run again – see if there are members in local
councils who would like to take on other positions. This is important to the health of
the organization. Due December 11th, this is coming quickly. We cannot solicit,
promote, advertise, or campaign. Our turn-out for voting last year was very low; we
need to get our members to become engaged, and to take ownership
Member-at-Large is open: Sandy is replacement for Celeste; she has to re-run.
Again, look at the regions – encourage those people to run again – see if there are those
in local councils who would like to take on other positions…will be leaving after past-
president, and helping in another capacity…important to the health of the organization.