The fall meeting of the SDCTE Executive Board was held in Mitchell, Oct. 20, with President Nancy Kampfe calling the meeting to order. Other board members in attendance included Deana Brodkorb, Karen Harrington, Sharon Olbertson, Deb Knutson, and Dodie Bemis.
The minutes were approved as read, and the treasury had a balance of $1195.41 with 46 paid
memberships. Dodie will send out second notices with a conference flyer and call for presenters
form devised from the meeting.
The board will take a closer look at updating and weeding out
the membership list after taking a look at the response of this mailing.
Discussion then centered on planning the spring conference.
Nancy distributed a responsibilities chart that outlined the workload. The board decided on
"Revitalizing Ourselves, Motivating Our Students" as the conference theme.
With the help of brainstorming and a laptop computer, Deana drafted a flyer with possible topic areas
for presentations. The topics came from suggestions on last spring's evaluation forms.
She'll e-mail the final version to Dodie at the beginning of the week.
The group then updated the Call for Presenters form stating
that only an overhead projector and television/VCR would be provided. Any other equipment
needs are the responsibility of the presenter(s). In addition, only one complimentary conference
registration per presentation will be provided this year. The board felt too many individuals were
receiving free registrations and it was getting to the point that the
conference was not breaking even.
Dodie will mail both the flyer and presenter forms to the entire
membership no later than Oct. 24 with the hope that the completed proposals will be returned before
Thanksgiving. She is also to keep the board updated as to the number of proposals received.
The board decided to extend the length of the conference.
Dodie is to draft a tentative
agenda that includes a midmorning start with possible round table discussions plus a
lunch on Friday by the next meeting. Nancy will check into meal and break costs to help
determine a registration fee by the next meeting as well. Deana is to secure a speaker for the
Friday lunch and Karen is to contact Dan O'Brien as to his availability for the Friday evening
banquet.
Depending on who Deana gets to speak, this could aid NCTE's concern about a "People of Color Strand." Dodie said she would also put a special request for David Sandoz to present in his membership mailing.
The group then went on to brainstorm other presenter possibilities.
All the board members are encouraged to find at least one presenter, other than
themselves. Because there are several responsibilities in putting on a successful conference, it
was suggested the Executive Board remain free to handle the execution of these duties.
Instead of having formal presenters to begin the
conference, Dodie suggested having organized focus groups to encourage informal discussion,
networking, and possible problem solving for the attendees. The board proposed several topics
including block scheduling, writing test results, 6 writing traits, post secondary readiness,
something for those who teach speech, balancing the extra curricular load, trouble shooting
in the first five years, incorporating poetry, and reading strategies. The list will be fine tuned at
the next meeting.
Nancy reported two publishers have agreed to send materials for display and give-
away, and one vendor (of Heinemann and Stenhouse titles) has agreed to come to the
conference as well. Are there any other suggestions for exhibitors? We also need to
decide on the parameters for the Idea Exchange: when, where, number, what's the
carrot . . .
Deb then advised the board as to the status of the website.
There has not been that much activity to date, which she found disappointing.
She hopes to energize the list serve through her post secondary contacts. Deb also volunteered to post
handouts from the spring conference presentations on the SDCTE website after the
conference.
Deana has already started on the December newsletter and asked for suggestions as to what
to include. Obviously, the spring conference will take center stage.
A registration form needs to be included as well as nomination forms for SD English
Teacher of the Year and SD Author of the Year. Jim Swanson also requested to have
space for information on the Young Writers Contest. Board members are to either e-mail Deana with ideas
that may come up in the meantime or bring them to the next meeting.
The next meeting will be held Dec. 8 at 11 :30 a.m. at the
Twin Dragon in Mitchell.