The regular meeting of the Washington Geographic Alliance (WGA) Board of Directors was called to order at 5:34 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 June 3, 2008 was made by Meghan and seconded by Tim. The motion passed unanimously.
Tim has obtained payment for and submitted our registration to the state as a charitable organization. His semi-annual Public Engagement Coordinator (PEC) Activity Report is pending. The Puyallup Fair booth application has been submitted. Richard will be contacting Stan Cross about "door prizes." During the Summer Institute, Tim will ask for volunteers to staff the WGA exhibit at the Puyallup Fair. GRCC has placed the order for our 5,000 branded pencils. The grant application to the National Geographic Educational Foundation has been submitted. The meeting with Judy Hartmann, the Boeing grant application, and the OneCause web site registration are pending. The 5-year plan is on tonight's agenda. During the Sumner Institute Tim will ask Kyle Dye to submit a report on his attendance at the NGS Summer Professional Development Institute. The list of schools offering Advanced Placement in Geography and the Assessment of Geographic knowledge are both still pending.
Heidi has registered on the OneCause web site. She is still trying to obtain a copy of the International Baccalaureate reading list. Heidi gave Richard her input on the 5-year plan.
Meghan said that we should have no problems getting materials from NGS to distribute at the Puyallup Fair. Her semi-annual Public Engagement Coordinator (PEC) Activity Report and Summer Institute application have been submitted. Meghan is still having trouble getting a reply from Newspapers in Education. Meghan has registered on the OneCause web site. Meghan gave Richard her input on the 5-year plan. During the Summer Institute, Meghan will ask for volunteers to staff the WGA exhibit at the Puyallup Fair.
Pat sent Tim her draft of the half-day "Geography in Literature" class for our Summer Institute. She will be sending Tim the final version before July 7. St. Francis School is still looking for a suitable location to have a giant world map painted on their campus. During the summer, it will be difficult to get an answer. Pat's registration on the OneCause web site is pending. As the newest member of the board, she had no input to the 5-year plan. Finally, her Summer Institute application was submitted.
Richard is working on a revision to our travel policy. NGS requested changes to our planning process and this was discussed later during the meeting. Richard will help Tim access the Boeing grant application web site. Meghan will bring her computer to Richard so that he can correct the issues with her email account. Richard is drafting his application to the UW Certificate Program in Fundraising Management and will be sending it to the board for their review and comment. Copies of Strategic Planning Guide by Jon Roush and Joyce Chinn have been distributed to the board.
The checking account balance as of June 30, 2008 is $460.65. There was no account activity since the last report.
GRCC rules prevent us from using grant monies to purchase food outside of their facilities. It was the consensus of the board to approve Tim's request for use of our funds to supply the Summer Institute attendees with snacks such as ice cream.
Our fiscal year ended on June 30.
While returning to Seattle from Washington DC on June 20, Richard met and spoke with Mary K. Armstrong, a Vice President of The Boeing Company. She was in town as Boeing's representative to The Nature Conservancy. Richard mentioned his work with the WGA and how the Boeing Company Gift Matching Office has ruled our organization ineligible for matching funds. Based on our educational focus, Ms. Armstrong offered to intervene on our behalf. Richard and Chris Shearer, Director of Grantmaking, at the National Geographic Education Foundation, sent Ms. Armstrong additional materials on the goals and objectives of the WGA. Ms. Armstrong assigned her strategy leader Terry M. Mutter to work with Boeing's Global Corporate Citizenship Group on fitting the WGA within Boeing's gift matching process.
Megan stated that the photographs of St. Philomena students working with National Geographic's Giant Asia Map can be posted to our web site as she has received prior permission from the student's parents.
Richard has posted the lesson plans from last year's summer institute on our web site. He commented that the quality of some of this lesson plans did not meet our expectations.
After our Summer Institute, 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.
In addition, a meeting with the Speaker of the House, Frank Chopp, or his chief of staff needs to be scheduled. His 43rd Legislative District includes the University of Washington. We should probably enlist the support of Professor James Harrington, Jr. of the University of Washington who gave supportive testimony for us in Olympia.
We received over thirty applications to our Summer Institute. Several were rejected as they were postmarked after the deadline. After examining the applications, Tim has extended invitations to:
The Summer Institute will offer 45 clock hours of which 5 hours will be the preparation of lesson plans after the end of the Summer Institute.
Heidi has ordered cloth-carrying bags to be given to all Summer Institute participants that she and Richard will customize with our logo. They will be a donation from her and Richard. The bags will be available on or about July 9. Richard supplied insurance release forms and completed diplomas for use at the Summer Institute.
Meghan suggested that short, daily evaluations be done rather than one evaluation at the end of class. She is also ready to give her presentation at the Summer Institute on Monday afternoon covering the My Wonderful World program.
Pat suggested a "parking lot" bulletin board for students to place suggestions, questions, or complains. Her experience with this method has proven successful. Pat is also ready for her Wednesday half-day class on the "Geography in Literature."
Geography Essential Academic Learning Requirements (EALRs) are available on pages 33 - 44 of the Superintendent of Public Instruction's K-12 Social Studies Grade Level Expectations at http://www.k12.wa.us/CurriculumInstruct/SocStudies/pubdocs/SocialStudiesGLEs.pdf.
WGA Board members had a favorable experience in registering with OneCause. The following instructions will be distributed to the Summer Institute students.
Due to the death of his father-in-law, Dan Beaupre was unable to meet with Richard on June 17 to finalize the giant Washington state map. The board signed a sympathy card for Dan. Richard instead met with NGS Maps Vice President of Operations Kevin P. Allen and Dierdre Bevington-Attardi.
The digital database for the 8th Edition of the World Atlas is at a scale of about 1:2,500,000. If the giant Washington State Map were based on this data, it would look terrible due to the lack of detail. Creation of a Washington State map from scratch would take 1,000 to 1,250 hours at $75 per hour.
An alternative solution would to use the Mapquest.com Washington State base map used in the NGS GuideMap™ series. Mr. Allen is having a quotation put together for this option. However, with the limited amount of time available, this may not be ready by September.
After this meeting, Richard met with Andrew Pudvah, Manager of Educational Programs. Andrew mentioned that NGS might produce a third giant map of North America. Andrew emailed Richard on June 30 that there are now no plans to produce a third giant map. Andrew contacted Dr. Ellen Foster of the Mississippi Geographic Alliance. She was able to make one of the giant maps of North America available for us. We will be displaying the giant North America map at the Puyallup Fair from September 18-21. We will not have to return the map until Monday, September 29.
Tim has asked GRCC to place the order for 5,000 pencils customized with our logo, name, and web address with Office Depot (their item #833360). The cost will be $950 plus tax and shipping. They will be available well in advance of the Puyallup Fair.
On June 18, Richard met with Senator Murray during her constituent coffee hour. During the question and answer session, he again requested her support for S.727 (Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act) and an audience with her Legislative Director Evan T. Schatz and Legislative Assistant Kathryn H. Young.
He met with them immediately after the constituent coffee. Kathryn said Senator Murray liked the Act's objectives and use of funds but she did not like its testing requirements. She did not want to burden Washington state teachers with additional testing requirements. Richard mentioned this was the first time they communicated their concerns to us. Evan had to leave for another appointment and Kathryn left to get a copy of the bill.
Upon her return, Richard and her when through the Act page by page. When no testing requirement was found, she mentioned that her concerns must be from the negotiations for incorporating the Act into No Child Left Behind. These testing requirements appear to come from Senator Cochran and other Senate Republicans. In that the S.727 did not contain any testing requirements, Kathryn said that she would recommend that Senator Murray become a cosponsor for the Act. On July 2 Richard emailed Katheryn Young to ask "Has your recommendation been made and when might I expect a decision by Senator Murray to cosponsor S. 727?" Richard received the following reply on July 3. "Yes, I sent a request to Senator Cochran's office that day. Sometimes it takes time for the online version of the bill to be updated... I'll check to see if it's showing up in the senate version."
Richard has kept Chris Shearer of NGS updated on these developments.
Once notice of Senator Murray's cosponsorship appears online, thank you notes will be sent to Senator Murray, Legislative Director Evan T. Schatz, and Legislative Assistant Kathryn H. Young.
Tim filed the grant application electronically on July 1.
Tim completed and mailed the application to get a booth at this year's Puyallup Fair. Meghan contacted NGS and various materials are available for distribution. The preliminary staffing schedule is:
The WGA received a letter from the Secretary of State's office dated June 25 accepting our application for registration as a charitable organization in Washington State. Our registration number is 25264. We may now solicit contributions within Washington State.
Little input was received from board members. However, Richard was in contact with Jon Roush and Joyce Chinn and their comments on the planning process follow.
"I have attached the Alliance Planning Handbook. You are a little ahead of schedule. We had not planned to distribute it to alliances until we had a chance to train National Geographic alliance liaisons so that they can help facilitate the process with alliances. That training will take place September, after which liaisons will begin working with selected alliances.
We're delighted that you want to get started, especially since planning is timely for Washington at this point. Plus you're already an insider, having been to the Portland meeting.
Still you should avoid making large irrevocable decisions before you have a chance to work with a liaison. That should strengthen the process and also assure that your plans are in synch with the rest of the alliance network.
We recommend that this summer you focus on the Handbook's Section 1, 'Organizing to Plan.' If you feel confident to go a little beyond that without a liaison, you could hold the first meeting described in Section 2.
Good luck, and please keep us informed. We'd like to learn from you experience. Meanwhile, we'd be happy discuss this with you."
Based on their request, we are going to put our planning efforts on hold until we are assigned a National Geographic alliance liaison. Copies of the Alliance Planning Handbook have been distributed to board members. They have been asked to read Part 1 and Part 2 Section 1 of the Alliance Planning Handbook.
On October 28 from 5 - 7 p.m., Meghan will be speaking to preservice teachers at South Seattle Community College about the WGA and My Wonderful World.
Pat invited the board to participate in the "Fireside Quiz Night" at Mick Kelley's Irish Pub at 435 SW 152nd Street in Burien, WA on Monday evenings at 7:30 p.m.
Tim mentioned that Western Washington University offers a two-credit class Geographic Information Systems Survey (EGEO-250). The university catalog describes the class as "Introduction to computer-based tools for describing, analyzing, and providing decision-making on geographical issues. Provides a survey of computer- and Web-based tools such as GIS, electronic atlases, thematic mapping systems, computer cartography and remote sensing through lectures and hands-on activities." Tim said that we might be able to get this class offered in the Seattle-Tacoma area on two consecutive Saturdays.
Meghan is having problems with her computer's email client. After the Summer Institute, she will bring her computer to Richard to have the problem corrected. Richard will also show Meghan how to edit our web site.
At last month's board meeting, Tim said that most of his students do not know about the Soviet Union. Heidi and Richard gave Tim a copy of the September 1959 issue of National Geographic Magazine that contained a large article on the Soviet Union.
The next meeting regular meeting of the WGA Board of Directors will be held on Tuesday, August 5, 2008 at 6:30 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 August 5, 2008