Finalized LogoThe regular meeting of the Washington Geographic Alliance (WGA) Board of Directors was called to order at 6:43 p.m. by Tim Schultz in the home of Richard Kennedy and Heidi Morgan, 18825 6th Avenue SW, Normandy Park, Washington.
Present: President Tim Schultz of Green River Community College (GRCC), Vice-President Meghan Hoyer of St. Philomena School, Treasurer Heidi Morgan of the National Geographic Society's (NGS) Grosvenor Council, Secretary Richard Kennedy of the NGS's Grosvenor Council, and Director Pat LeRoy of St. Francis of Assisi School.
A motion to approve the draft minutes of the Board of Directors meeting of April 28, 2008 was made by Tim and seconded by Meghan. The motion passed unanimously.
Tim is still developing a list of schools offering Advanced Placement in Geography. He has also placed the development of an Assessment of Geographic Knowledge for 5th, 8th, and 12th grade students on hold. He is having trouble with the Boeing grant application and requested Richard's help. Summer Institute attendees were notified about the NGS Summer Professional Development Institute. Meghan Hoyer was nominated to be our NGS Geography Action! Representative. No application was submitted for the NCGE Distinguished Teacher Award. All of Tim's action items concerning the reception at Benaroya Hall were successfully completed with the exception of inviting Judy Hartmann, Executive Policy Advisor for K-12 Education to the reception. Tim is still working on his input to the 5-year plan. Tim approved the 2008 Summer Institute application.
Heidi and Richard have completed the legislative strategy and it is being reviewed by Rep. Shay Schual-Berke. Thanks to Heidi for packing the materials for the WGA reception at Benaroya Hall. The pencil order is on tonight's agenda. Heidi is still trying to obtain a copy of the International Baccalaureate reading list.
Meghan has yet to contact Sen. Murray. She gave Richard a CD-ROM containing the lesson plans developed at the 2007 Summer Institute. While Meghan has had trouble getting a reply from Newspapers in Education, she will keep trying. Meghan approved the 2008 Summer Institute application and it is circulating to Seattle area Catholic schools and the Study Canada mailing list.
Richard received the NGS travel policy and is reviewing it. Diana Morelli is unable to supply any names for possible WGA board candidates. The "Application to Register as a Charitable Organization" form was completed and given to Tim for mailing. The WGA logo has been finalized and will be used on the pencil order. Richard and Heidi have completed the legislative strategy and it is being reviewed by Rep. Shay Schual-Berke. OneCause's non-credit card program is on tonight's agenda as is the 5-year plan and the pencil order. Richard will continue to work with Tim to get him access to the Boeing grant application. The Summer Institute application is online.
Finalized Logo
Pat gave Tim contact information for the two Global Positioning System (GPS) teachers for our Summer Institute. She is still planning to give a half-day "Geography in Literature" class at our Summer Institute. Seattle University is unable to give College level credit for our Summer Institute. Pat gave Tim contact information for local teacher Richard Glick who used a Webcam to connect a teacher located in Costa Rica to students the local area. Finally, St. Francis School is still looking for a suitable location to have a giant world map painted on their campus.
The checking account balance as of May 31, 2008 is $460.65. There was a deposit of $111.33 from the Employee's Community Fund of the Boeing Company since the last report.
By a letter dated December 23, 2007, the WGA was notified by the Boeing Company Gift Matching Office that our organization does not appear to quality in accordance with their program guidelines. At our request Chris Shearer, Director of Grantmaking, at the National Geographic Education Foundation and the NGS legal department sent a letter dated March 4, 2008 requesting reconsideration. To date no reply has been received. Richard contacted Chris and asked him to call the Boeing Company Gift Matching Office. We are awaiting Chris' reply.
The redesigned web site on the social networking system NING is working well. As of May 31, 31 persons have signed up for membership. Encourage teachers to sign up. The web site has been updated with:
Richard and Heidi met with Rep. Shay Schual-Berke on April 15. As she is retiring from the legislature, she discussed a strategy for us to use during the 2009 legislative session. Richard and Heidi have documented this strategy and sent it to Shay for her review and comment.
A meeting needs to be scheduled with Judy Hartmann, Executive Policy Advisor for K-12 Education, in the Governor's office to discuss placing the endowment funding in the Governor's budget. Tim will work with Richard to set up such a meeting.
The NGS Summer Geography Institute is scheduled for July 12-19 in Washington, DC. WGA's nomination was due by May 12. As board members were available to attend, Tim checked with last year's Summer Institute attendees who quality. As a result, Kyle Dye, a seventh-grade teacher from Marcus Whitman Junior High (Port Orchard) has been selected as the WGA representative and his attendance has been confirmed. Kyle completed the 2007 summer geography institute in Enumclaw. Tim will ask Kyle for a written report on the institute.
The NGS Summer Geography Institute is scheduled for July 21-24 in Washington, DC. WGA's nomination was due by May 19. Tim nominated Meghan Hoyer and her attendance has been confirmed.
Nominations for the NCGE Distinguished Teacher Award were due May 19. Due to the birth on May 25 of his new son, Ian Frank Scharks at 2 lbs. 12 oz and a length of 14.5 inches, Tim was unable to submit the forms.
Current members of the board of directors and officers were given the annual reaffirmation statement that they all signed.
The reception was held in the Founder's Room in Benaroya Hall on Monday May 12 from 6:15 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. Heidi served as our greeter and also took attendance, distributed nametags, lecture tickets where appropriate, and a bag of materials containing:
In attendance were:
We were required to use Wolfgang Puck for catering. The following hors d'oeuvres were served: Fresh Seasonal Fruit, Imported and Domestic Cheese, and Antipasti Platter. The WGA hosted a non-alcoholic bar including soft drinks, flat and sparkling water, juices, Starbucks® regular and decaf coffee, and herbal and black tea. The food and its presentation were excellent.
Lessons learned:
A flyer and application for our Summer Institute have been placed on the web site. Tim will present an outline for the Summer Institute containing subjects to be taught, dates/times and their instructor.
Thus far, we have three applications to our Summer Institute, which compares very favorably to the registration numbers we had at this time last year; Tim would like to have about 20 participants this year.
Invitations have been sent to everyone requesting maps from the WGA for the last three months (Tim has mailed approximately 1,000 maps) and the remainder of the WGA email list. Additionally, Tim asked Meghan Hoyer to spread the word through her extensive network. Tina Storer of K-12 Study Canada has also added our institute to her newsletter (800+ teachers). Tim also distributed the announcement via the WSCSS list serve. Board members who plan on attending need to submit applications.
The National Geographic Educational Foundation staff is being asked to observe as many summer institutes as possible so NGEF will get a better understanding of all the great work going on in the field. NGEF staff will all use the same form to record our experience of the institute, which will be shared us (we are NOT "evaluating" you). Our institute will be visited by Catherine and John Ballay.
Heidi has some ideas for a carrying bag to be given to all Summer Institute participants. She can get they from various grocery stores for about $1 each and we can use a transfer kit to add our logo to the bags.
In addition to the OneCause Platinum no-annual fee VISA credit card that gives the WGA 1% of a person's total spending on their OneCause card, there are on-line and coupons offers that also benefit the WGA. For example, Richard just made a NGS purchase for which WGA will receive 3.5% of the total. Richard asked all board members to register cost-free:
On June 17, Richard will be meeting with Dan Beaupre and Chief Cartographer Allen Carroll to finalize the giant Washington state map.
Tim attended the Association of Washington Geographers spring meeting in Ellensburg at Central Washington University on May 16-17. AWG have discussed inviting K-12 teachers to this event. Tim gave a brief (~15 minute) presentation at the Spring Meeting of the AWG. Attendance was light, likely because the event was held on a beautiful weekend in central Washington and the majority of members have traditionally come from the I-5 corridor. However, a number of good contacts were made, including with two educators (one geographer, one education professor) who are working in geography education in Ellensburg schools as well as collaborating with the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma.
Heidi has transmitted the order to Tim for him to place with the GRCC business office. Tim transmitted the order to the business office. They replied that we must use Office Depot unless they do not carry the item. Their item # 833360 would be appropriate and the cost would be $950 plus tax and shipping. A revised logo has been transmitted to Tim for use with this new order.
The 2008 conference is in Dearborn, MI from October 9-12. Early registration for the conference ends June 30 with members paying $210 and non-members paying $270. The special hotel rate is $136 per night plus tax. To save money, attendees should be identified and registered by June 30. It was the board's consensus that Tim and Meghan represent the WGA. Tim will attend the My Wonderful World meetings on behalf of Richard. Tim will also handle registration, travel, and lodging.
The UW offers a one-year certificate program in fundraising management starting this September. The cost of the entire program is approximately $2,500 excluding textbooks. The Boeing Company will reimburse Richard for the program costs and textbooks. A motion to fund Richard's mileage at the IRS business rate and parking was made by Tim and seconded by Meghan. The motion passed unanimously with Richard and Heidi abstaining from the vote.
On June 18, Richard will be meeting with Senator Murray to request her co-sponsorship of S.727 (Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act).
The five-year plan needs to be completed before writing the grant for a two or three-year period based on this plan. The NGEF is likely to fund a longer grant if we have clear objectives established.
Tim has started working on our next grant application that is due July 1.
Tim will complete and mail the application to get a booth at this year's Puyallup Fair. Tim will also ask about giving away door prizes in exchange for contact information. Meghan will contact NGS to see determine what materials we could distribute and their quantity. The preliminary staffing schedule is:
The importance of a 5-year plan was discussed by Tim. Such a plan gives us a long-range strategy and helps to free us from the tyranny of the immediate.
Board members are requested to email Richard with their ideas for plan elements before Saturday, June 21. Richard will consolidate all of the input received.
A general outline follows to stimulate discussion. Plan elements are listed in no particular order. Goals are listed together with a metric to determine if the goal is met. If funding is required, give an estimate together with a potential funding source.
Tim mentioned a project of the Geological Society of America called EarthCache™ a special place that people can visit to learn about a unique geoscience feature or aspect of our Earth. However, the program is restricted to sites demonstrating Earth science. Tim thought it would be very useful to create a web site for Cultural sites.
Meghan has had problems connecting her computer's email client with her new email account. Richard will change her email account so that it automatically forwards emails to her private account.
Tim said that most of his students do not know about the Soviet Union. He suggested that a world political map be printed with one side showing 1990 and the other side showing 2008. Tim thought that Eric Riback of NGS offered very favorable printing costs for such custom maps.
Meghan said that the giant North American map will be here the month of March 2009.
Tim spoke about a franchise from Teacher's College dealing with teacher retention. The program is for graduates of Teacher's College only so Genya would qualify. With her recent baby and next year's teaching schedule, she will be unavailable to help.
The next meeting regular meeting of the WGA Board of Directors will be held on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 at 5:00 p.m. in the home of Richard Kennedy and Heidi Morgan, 18825 6th Avenue SW, Normandy Park, Washington.
Respectfully submitted,
/ss/ Richard T. Kennedy
Richard T. Kennedy
Secretary
Approved July 3, 2008