NARENWICH Board of Directors Meeting

September 30, 2011

9:30 AM – 2:00

Stevens Point Convention Center, Stevens Point, WI

Meeting Minutes

Members present: Kim Hoffmann, Betsy Haltinner, Michelle Bahr, Melissa Rogge, Pam Bracewell, John Kopacz, Beth Lewis, Becky Gross, Marty Gholston, Anthony Pizzo, Deb Newbauer, and Randy Hughes.

Meeting was called to order at 9:30 AM

Reports

Secretary–Anthony read the minutes from May 2011 meeting. Meeting minutes were accepted with no changes.

Treasurer– Debbie presented the treasurers report. Checking is currently at $11,254.71 savings is $10,252.07 with a total of $21,506.78. Treasurer’s report was approved with no changes.

Past President– No report at this time.

President – Thanks for coming. Exciting year up ahead and more information will be presented in New Business and Old Business.

President-Elect – Willing to help with conference in anyway.

Beth Lewis –

  • There is a representative from Black River Falls that has proposed a vocational diploma that is currently in the Jobs Bill.
  • Shared some comments and insights into the budget situation in Wisconsin.
  • There was a motion (Motion #362) made to reinstate at-risk programming language in Wisconsin.
  • Beth commented on a conference on the indulged child. This might be a great conference topic.
  • New bill 2011 Act 32 which allows juvenile intake to sentence up to 180 days.

Committee Reports

Membership Committee

Three new members were added today. Melissa shared that there are so many educators are out there that have no idea who we are. She shared that people would like to be able to attend the conference for just one day. There are concerns that we may need to find a way to reach at-risk educators. We may need to conduct a membership drive of some kind. It was suggested to possibly discount the conference or offer sub pay to first time attendees. Beth and Becky will mention NARENWICH at the GEDO 2 Conference on October 18th. Kim will make a “Save the Date” handout to distribute.

Kim asked “What do we do for members?”

  • Ability to network with other at-risk educators
  • Conference
  • Add webinars or blogs
  • Look at blogging and social networking options

There was discussion on hosting a Webinar in January for members. Marty will work on this first one with a possible one following the conference in end of April early May.

Scholarship deadline was extended and we have one applicant. It was decided to go back to the April deadline. The membership committee will look at the applicant and decide if we should award it to them. Between now and next meeting we need to decide how to boost efforts to promote the student scholarship.

Conference Committee

There was a discussion about the room rate charges. State employees need to show proof that they work for the state to get the $70.00 room rates. Michelle shared some concerns for the schedules. She presented three options. There was a discussion about the options.

A new schedule was proposed:

Thursday – 8-9:15 Registration, 9:15 Keynote, 10:45 – 11:45 Break out #1, 12:00 – 1:15 Lunch, 1:30 – 2:30 Break out #2, 2:45 – 3:45 Break out #3, 4:00 -5:00 Annual Meeting, and 5:00 Hospitality

Friday – 8:30 – 9:00 Regional Breakfast, 9:15 – 10:15 Beth, 10:30 – 11:30 Break out, and 12:00 Brunch

A suggestion was made to secure some sponsorship for the conference (ie: hospitality, printing)

Possible Keynotes: A discussion occurred about the possible keynotes Rachel’s Challenge, Carl Olson, Dr. Jane Bluestein, Ph. D., Stacey Bess, and Harvey Alston. The group decided to go with Dr. Jane Bluestein, Ph. D and Harvey Alston. Carl will be invited to provide a breakout and Keynote for 2013.

Michelle share additional breakout ideas. We are looking for presentations. Board members shared ideas and suggestions. Beth offered some great ideas through DPI.

Michelle asked about vendor fees. Group decided to leave vendor fees as is. Since we up dated schedule it was decided to drop vendor bingo. It was decided to go ahead with inviting special representatives. Conference brochure needs to be created – we will ask Heidi. Marty suggested t-shirts. The board agreed. Remind Heidi to add space for t-shirt size.

Randy shared concerns about getting award recipients planned by January. Region reps need nominate if we don’t receive a nomination.

We looked at dates for the 2013 conference March 7 and 8th in Stevens Point.

Political Action Committee

A discussion occurred about where we might send our position letter.It was suggested to send it out federally. Melissa thought we should send it to national networks. Any ideas of what we can do politically to help the organization let Randy know.

Regional Reports–

Region 1 – John is working on establishing a way to meet and contact at-risk educators.

Region 2 – Oct. 5th the region will be meeting.

Region 3 – No report at this time.

Region 4 –Melissa shared her updates.

Region 5 – YAR continues to meet and thrive. October 11th is the next meeting.

Region 6 – Becky is working on putting a meeting together with Debby Patz in Elmbrook. Last spring in Madison Becky had a meeting with Aero program. It was very worthwhile.

Old Business

New idea grant projects – Randy will resend the form. We will add this item to the November agenda.

Teaching Today is out with our conference ad.

New Business

Marty suggested that we establish a new committee that addresses the Marketing and Media of NARENWICH. Anthony is willing to serve as the lead for this venture. Marty will be writing the proposal for the bylaws. It will be added to next meeting agenda for discussion and voting. The change will need to be voted on at the general membership meeting in March.

Other

Randy wanted to know when region representative are up for election. Region representatives should begin deciding on whether or not they want to run or find another that may be interested.

Meeting Adjourned at 12:18 PM

Next Meeting: Friday, November 19th at MooseJaw in the Dells.

Meeting submitted by Betsy Haltinner, Secretary