The regular meeting of the Washington Geographic Alliance (WGA) Board of Directors was called to order at 1:18 p.m. by Tim Scharks at Bellevue College, Room D273, 3000 Landerholm Circle SE, Bellevue, WA 98007-6484. This meeting followed the fall meeting of the Association of Washington Geographers.
Present: President Tim Scharks 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.
Also present were Chris Kent of Spokane Community College, Elizabeth Reyes of St. Vincent School, Pat Buckley of Western Washington University, and Tom Terrich of Western Washington University.
Tim Scharks welcomed everyone and mentioned the expectations he had for the meeting.
The reasons for founding the WGA, it infrastructure, and history were given by Richard Kennedy. Tim Scharks gave a history of our Summer Institutes. Meghan Hoyer discussed he use of giant maps in geography education. Pat LeRoy described our involvement with the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) and the Washington State Council for the Social Studies (WSCSS). Richard Kennedy detailed our lobbying efforts for geography education at both the state and national level. Tim Scharks closed this section with a discussion on our upcoming efforts.
To stimulate discussion, Tim Scharks asked the following questions:
Chris Kent talked about tapping into the state's education schools.
Public schools could be contacted through the Education Service Districts (ESD). A contact in the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is Kelly Martin 360-725-6351 or Kelly.Martin@k12.wa.us.
Mike Medler at Western Washington University teaches GIS classes and might be interested in developing a Washington State Atlas. Funding might come from the Bill Gates Foundation.
The Professional Certificate (ProCert) is designed to help teachers demonstrate they have a positive impact on student learning. What are the requirements for this certificate?
What are the teacher certification requirements in Washington State?
The WGA should develop a GIS kit that can be sent to schools around the state.
Tim Scharks offered the guests to participate in our surveys, focus groups, strategic planning process, and to participate in WGA leadership. The opportunity to participate in the National Geographic training in June was mentioned.
A motion to approve the draft minutes of the Board of Directors meeting of October 6, 2009 was made by Tim and seconded by Pat. The motion passed unanimously.
The checking account balance as of October 30, 2009 is $24,117.35. There were two deposits during October:
There was one withdrawal during October:
The setting up of our books on QuickBooks is a more complicated task than originally estimated. A motion to authorize Heidi to locate someone to cleanup and establish our accounts in QuickBooks was made by Tim and seconded by Meghan. The motion passed unanimously.
Richard and Heidi donated the Starbuck's coffee service for today's meeting. The cost was $26.40.
Meghan asked for 50 copies of our WGA 3-fold brochure in color. Heidi offered to supply them.
Pat Buckley asked for a copy of our WGA 3-fold brochure in color. Richard offered to email him a copy.
Heidi offered to look for an independent bookkeeper.
The next regular meeting of the WGA Board of Directors will be held on Tuesday, December 1, 2009 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 December 1, 2009