CTAM Board of Governors Meeting Minutes

Sunday, January 15, 2006, Ground Round, St. Cloud, MN

Present: Dan Cronn-Mills (President), Sandy Nieland (President Elect), Larry Schnoor (Treasurer), Shelly Freese (Newsletter Editor), Karen P. Wilson (Secretary), Michele Neaton (Community College Rep.), Cheryl Niedt (High School Classroom Rep.), Gregg Sawyer (MN Education Theater Assoc. Rep), Mark Quinlan (MN Speech Coaches Assoc. Rep.), Mark Grant (Technical College Rep.), Cliff Janke (SW Geographic Rep.), Tom Fish, (K-8 Classroom Rep.),Scott Durocher (Metro Geographic Rep.), Jody Saxton West (SE Geographic Rep.)

Meeting was called to order at 11:55 a.m. Minutes from September 15, 2005 were approved with two friendly corrections: Larry had no sessions by the pool and Michele is now spelled correctly. The meeting began with a welcome from Dan and introductions.

President’s Report: Things have been moving smoothly since the conference in Sept. No information from Jill yet about the arts consortium. Dan will follow up.

President-Elect’s Report: Convention 2006, September 14 (Exec Board and BOG meetings), 15, 16, 2006, Crowne Plaza. Sandy and Larry reported on their trip to the Crowne Plaza off Freeway Blvd, next to the District Office. Convenient location. Eight session rooms are available at a time. The nightclub has been made into a large meeting room and there is a free hors d’oeuvres bar on Friday. Wooden floors will be available for theater groups. They are very pleased to host the CTAM group. Debate and theater sessions are still needed. Fourteen submissions so far for the upcoming conference. Board members are reminded to host a session or encourage sessions from your contingencies. David Mann or Kevin Kling are possible presenters. Scott and Gregg will follow up on this (and will run it by Larry to check on costs). Previously $100 has been available by CTAM for honorariums but be sure to go through proper channels before offering this. Suggestion was made to contact Myles Wagner about possible debate sessions. Gregg mentioned that Sally Wingert is a possible presenter for Friday evening- 4:30 to 6:00. Are there other topic sessions that have been requested but not yet filled? Just one debate session was mentioned. Sandy will send out information as she receives it. Gregg suggested that the theater group presents one session and offers it twice because there are so many timing conflicts at the conference. Send other ideas for sessions to Sandy by June!

Treasurer’s Report: Conference 2006 Room Rates: CTAM group rate for King Rooms will be $89 and double rooms will be $104 (be sure to include 12.5% tax rate). No charge for the meeting rooms as long as CTAM spends $9000 for rooms and food, otherwise meeting rooms will be prorated. Cut off date is three weeks prior to meeting date. There are other options for accommodations in the area.

Convention site: A normal rotation schedule for convention sites is becoming difficult. The metro session is difficult because of the cost. All BOG members are asked to check out possible convention sites in their areas. Rochester has been requesting to host the CTAM conference. Discussion followed. It is effective for the same person(s) to be checking out site availability.

Mankato conference went well. Larry sent out a follow up letter reminding people to become CTAM members resulting in the highest membership ever with 350 paid members. $7,500 balance (newsletter and journal have not yet gone out). CTAM Foundation donations were $1520 last year with a current amount of $85 available for use. Unsure if there will be enough funds to cover students at next Fall’s conference but Larry will get back to us as he receives further information.

Historian’s Report: In absentia. Dan reported that the records are carefully ensconced in the corner of Cynthia’s office. Looking forward to an update on her project. Sandy was encouraged to check on the possibility of a CTAM conference session on this history.

Journal Editor’s Report: In absentia. Dan presented a summary of Nanette’s submitted written report. 05-06 call for manuscripts has been sent to SPECTRA, CRTNET, CTAM Newsletter, Intl. Listening Assoc., MSUM Speech Dept. Alumni listserv, CTAM website, CTAM listserv, and all successful authors from last year. Nanette will ask past Associate Editors if they choose to continue and will send a notice to the CTAM listserv to recruit more Assoc. Editors. Three submissions at present and one book review. Will continue soliciting manuscripts, will update list of editor’s duties, will clarify/update associate editor’s duties. Please send in articles- either activity/assignment based or research based. Action: If other colleges/universities have listervs of alumni please let Nanette know. Larry reminded everyone that our CTAM Journal has won many awards and is highly recognized.

Newsletter Editor’s Report: Shelly reported that the newsletter is going great with lots of great material being sent in and all in a timely fashion. Discussion followed about advertising in the CTAM newsletter (such as information from colleges about conventions/seminars but concerns about the large size of these). In the past these have been condensed as bulleted items. Paid advertisements might be an option but need to determine a cost and consider the cost of extra mailing. This should be more than just a free way for people to advertise. Motion: The CTAM newsletter should focus on CTAM information and, upon discretion of the editor, that advertisements be directed to the listerv. Seconded and passed. Discussion followed. Care must be taken to avoid hidden agendas in newsletter articles. Consensus was that the President should be contacted and the Exec Council should discuss when such problems arise. A reminder from Larry that the obituary section is important and, since CTAM makes a donation to the Foundation when this happens, people are encouraged to send this information to the newsletter.

Central States/NCA Liaison: In absentia. Dan described this position. The executive board decides on two representative panels from the CTAM conference and Don makes a pitch for these to be included at Central States (April in Indianapolis in 2006). Both panels that were recommended last year were accepted to present at Central States.

BOG Members Reports:

Mark Q. asked about the on-line test for judging certification- has this affected the number of college judges? Dan has not heard if there has been a change. State tournaments are required to use certified judges. Is this strictly adhered to at all contests? Is there a problem with the test that it makes everyone test out of every category? Gregg mentioned that he did not take the speech test for this reason. Perhaps this causes some self-selection and is easier for record keeping.

Mark G. discussed the redistricting of sections. Looking at data to follow up on this. Also looking at data on state tournaments. MN State High School Hall of Fame might recognize fine arts students. New tv contract with channel 45 will offer a gala program in the Spring about this recognition. Might be held at the Fitzgerald Theater. Would be popular with the public. Raised a personal issue of a recent student teacher who was woefully ill-prepared to teach speech under the new Comm Arts Lit licensure program. She was not prepared to teach the basic skills of oral communication. Discussion followed. CTAM should work on a survey of what schools require and then respond to this. Prospective teachers are not being well served under the present system as universities and colleges do not seem to be adequately preparing these students. Be sure to send this information back to the specific colleges and universities.

Gregg announced the second annual Theater Forum at the Perpich Center for theater educators. 40 people attended last year and hoping for 80 this year. More practical sessions will be offered including possible technical theater sessions. Keynote speaker is David Mann. Sally Wingert was the speaker last year and it was a wonderful affirmation of arts education. The Perpich center is a great advocate for arts education. Special acknowledgement of Ginger McFerran’s work. Thanks for the article in the CTAM newsletter about this Forum. One act play people may meet at the State CTAM conference and META members may meet separately at the Forum.

Jody mentioned the new speech coaches’ workshop is important but raised the challenge of timing since people may not know they are going to be the new speech coach until after the conference. Could there be a workshop in October or November? Cliff mentioned that the High School League would have a list of head coaches in early Fall and then CTAM on the Road may be able to get these people together. Basic information such as ‘how to cut a piece’ and ‘what is a teaser’ may be obvious to experienced coaches but not always evident to a new coach or assistant coaches. Great suggestion for CTAM on the Road.

Michele announced a a speech discipline workshop through Ctr for Teaching and Learning on Feb. 24 for those in colleges and universities, Michele will print CTAM membership forms and bring these along. Great way to encourage more college/university participation in CTAM. February will be too early to have detailed costs but general information about the upcoming CTAM conference will be available. Larry will send out an updated membership list to Shelly. CTAM membership cannot be made with a credit card at this point. Remind people about joining the listserv as well.

Reminder was made about the new MN Scholars of Distinction in Theater program- watch for more information.

President-Elect Nominees:

Michele Neaton was nominated and seconded.

Treasurer Nominees:

Lary Schnoor was nominated and seconded. Suggestion was made to train an Asst Treasurer when Larry starts getting close to retiring from this position.

Presidential Appointments to Board of Governors vacancies:

No current vacancies.

Outstanding Individual Award Nominees:

This will be announced in the newsletter and the exec committee will follow up at the May/June meeting. Discussion followed. Motion: Larry moved that we recognize Kathy Steiner for her significant contribution to CTAM organization with a Distinguished Service Award. Seconded and passed. Motion: Gregg moved that CTAM provide a $100 gift certificate to a local nursery in recognition of this specific person/award. Recognition will be made at the conference and include a plaque. Seconded and passed. Be sure to formally contact Dan with nominations for outstanding individual awards.

Convention 2007:

Larry mentioned that all ideas for 2007 should be sent to Sandy and Larry asap.

Other: Dan received a letter from Education MN- they are starting a program called School First with a new website www.schoolfirst.org. CTAM with be linked to this site. Motion: It was moved to provide Outstanding Individuals bios to this website. Seconded and passed.

Meeting was adjourned at 1:50 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Karen P. Wilson, Secretary