Washington Geographic Alliance
Minutes of Board of Directors Meeting of
April 27, 2010

Call to Order

The regular meeting of the Washington Geographic Alliance (WGA) Board of Directors was called to order at 6:50 p.m. by Tim Scharks in the home of Richard Kennedy and Heidi Morgan, 18825 6th Avenue SW, Normandy Park, Washington.

Roll Call

Present: President Tim Scharks of Green River Community College (GRCC), 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.

Absent: Vice-President Meghan Hoyer of St. Philomena School due to personal illness.

Approval of Minutes for March 9, 2010

A motion to approve the draft minutes of the Board of Directors meeting of March 9, 2010 was made by Richard and seconded by Pat. Without objection, Tim corrected the spelling of some names. The motion passed unanimously.

Treasurer's Report

The total of our funds held at Pacific Continental Bank as of April 26, 2010 is $51,946.05.

The Pacific Continental Bank savings account balance as of April 26, 2010 is $41,006.34. There were two deposits from March 9, 2010 to April 26, 2010:

• On March 15, $20,000.00 from our Pacific Continental Bank checking account.
• On March 31, $17.39 interest.

There were no withdrawals from the savings account.

The Pacific Continental Bank checking account balance as of April 26, 2010 is $10,939.71. There were two deposits from March 9, 2010 to April 26, 2010:

• On April 1, $35.00 from our ACH automatic donation program.
• On April 14, $118.60 from the Boeing Employees Community Fund.

There were three withdrawals from March 9, 2010 to April 26, 2010:

• On March 12, check #1018 for $1,486.49 to Richard T. Kennedy for the reimbursement of hotel and meal expenses incurred at the Annual Alliance Meeting for himself and Tim.
• On March 15, $20,000 was transferred to our Pacific Continental Bank savings account.
• On March 29, check #1016 for $61.52 to Tim Scharks for the reimbursement of meal and miscellaneous expenses incurred at the Annual Alliance Meeting for himself.

On April 26, we received a penalty letter from the IRS for filing our information return late. Heidi is checking with the firm Franco & Pangallo, CPA for our best course of action to reduce the penalty.

Giant Traveling Washington State Map

Pat requested the map for the St. Francis School Field Day on May 14. It will be exposed to 476 students from grades K-8. Tim will make arrangements to deliver the map to Pat.

Tim will ask David Blacketer of Southridge High School in Kennewick if he is willing to be the local distributor of the giant map currently in his possession. If so, the case of map activities needs to be set to him.

Meghan needs to email Tim all of the forms we utilize when dealing with the map. Tim will look at the UW's Catalyst and Google to see how we can automate map reservations and evaluations. Richard will look at PDF Forms for the same reason.

Strategic Board Development & Planning Process Strategy

As we are currently without a host institution, National Geographic has asked us to delay participating in the Capacity Building Course until 2011.

The board's consensus was to continue our work with Susan Howlett on board development.

Puyallup Fair

Richard received a call from Stan Cross, Educational Building Superintendent at the Puyallup Fair. He offered us space for the first five days of the Fair (Friday, September 10 - Tuesday, September 14). Richard accepted those dates for the WGA. Pam Love and her friend Janine Kowack have already volunteered for either September 10 or 12.

The booth must be staffed from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. (11 p.m. Friday and Saturday). Tim volunteered to help with setup on Friday morning and teardown on Tuesday evening. Richard will create events on our web site to allow persons to volunteer.

Our order of 1,000 beach ball world globes has arrived. We have yet to be invoiced for their $400 cost. Morpac Industries, Inc. donated the shipping. We also have about 800 "World Heritage 2009-2010" maps to distribute given to us by UNESCO.

Richard will prepare invitations to state and federal representatives and to the governor's office. Pat will prepare invitations to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

It was the consensus of the board to have 500 copies of the WGA 3-fold brochure printed for distribution at the fair.

State Atlas

National Geographic is allowing all Alliances to apply for a $20,000 operational support grant. It was the consensus of the board to submit a grant proposal before the July 1 deadline to produce a Washington State Atlas modeled after the Oregon and South Carolina ones. Tim mentioned several faculty members from Western Washington University who might be able to help: Mike Medler (Geographic Information Systems), Stefan Feelan (Cartography), and Andy Back (Environmental Geography).

Student Atlas of Oregon

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Reference Map of Oregon
• What Is a Map?
• Types of Maps
• Types of Thematic Maps
• How Geographers Use Maps
• How Cartographers Use Symbols
• Latitude & Longitude Lines
• Making a Globe Become a Map
• Map Distortions
• Map Scale
• Using Scale Bars
• Pacific NW Physical Regions
• Ecoregions
• Topography
• Elevation Cross Sections
• Pacific NW Plate Tectonics
• Natural Hazards: Earthquakes
• Avg. Jan. Temperature
• Avg. July Temperature
• Avg. Annual Precipitation
• Climographs
• Vegetation Zones
• Forests
• Timber Harvest Over Time
• Forest Fire Risk
• Land Ownership
• Wildlife Distribution
• Pacific Coast Salmon
• Rivers and Lakes
• Pacific NW Watersheds
• Dams of the Pacific NW
• Oregon Dams
• Renewable Energy Potential
• Lewis & Clark Expedition
• Oregon Trail
• 1780 Native Population
• Population
• Ancestry & Race in Oregon
• Population Pyramids of Three Counties
• Farm & Ranch Lands
• Major Crops
• Farm products
• Fruit Crops
• Transportation
• Ports
• Counties & County Seats
• Acknowledgements

South Carolina: An Atlas

• Title, Acknowledgements, Copyright

1. Location
   • Location of South Carolina
   • Counties & County Seats
2. Physical Landscape
   • Elevation
   • Rivers and Lakes
   • U.S. Landform Regions
   • S.C. Landform Regions
   • U.S. Climate Regions
   • Weather Extremes
   • Temperature & Precipitation
   • Climographs
3. Indigenous Landscape
   • Native Americans at Contact
   • Land Bridge & Diffusion Routes
4. Colonial Landscapes
   • Patterns of Colonial Agriculture
   • Townships
   • Colonial Roads
   • Revolutionary War Engagements
5. Antebellum Landscape
   • Population Change
   • White Outmigration
   • Commercial Agriculture
   • Slave Population
   • Canals and Railroads
   • Sherman's March
6. Postbellum Landscape
   • Population 1900
   • Population 1950
   • Farm Tenancy & Black Outmigration
   • Textile Mills & Railroads
7. Contemporary Landscape
   • Population Change
   • Population 2000
   • Non-white & Urban Pop.
   • Metro. Statistical Areas
   • Railroads & Interstates Hwys
   • Manufacturing
   • Contemporary Agriculture
   • Cotton
   • Tourist Attractions
   • Barbecue Regions
   • Land Surface Cover
   • Geographic Regions

• Tables
  • S.C. Population
  • Population of Cities

• Alliance Materials

Board members need to review at a minimum the Oregon and South Carolina atlases and create a table of contents for our atlas. They also need to think about the format of our atlas.

A copy of the lesson plans for the Oregon and South Carolina atlases need to be obtained.

Tim will distribute to all board members a copy of the relevant Washington State's Essential Academic Learning Requirements.

Roundtable

Due to budget and time constraints, our 2010 Summer Institute will need to be scaled back. It was suggested that we offer a one-day seminar covering the use of our giant map and Meghan's presentation on geography tools. We can advertise our Summer Institute for no charge at http://www.teacherclockhours.com/. Tim will contact Katie Remine at the Woodland Park Zoo to see if they would host, help publicize, and grant clock hours for our Summer Institute. Pat will also check with St. Francis to see if they can grant clock hours for us.

Tim will be presiding at a meeting of the Association of Washington Geographers on May 15 at Western Washington University.

Next Meeting

The next regular meeting of the WGA Board of Directors will be held on Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. in the home of Richard Kennedy and Heidi Morgan, 18825 6th Avenue SW, Normandy Park, Washington.

Action Items

Tim

1. Will deliver giant Washington State map to Pat before May 14.
2. Will prepare a draft table of contents for our state atlas.
3. Will ask David Blacketer of Southridge High School to be a Geography Awareness Coordinator.
4. Will notify NGS of our Geography Awareness Coordinator selections.
5. Will email Washington State geography ELARs to the board.
6. Will ask Katie Remine at the Woodland Park Zoo if they are interested in hosting our Summer Institute.
7. Will ask Patricia K. Bosh the WGA roles she would like to have.
8. Will work with Richard to categorize all expenditures from our GRCC account by grant.
9. Will investigate the use of the University of Washington's Catalyst system or Survey Monkey as the mechanism for obtaining giant map use data.
10. Will create an online tracking mechanism, perhaps using Google Calendar Widgets, for our Giant Traveling Washington State Maps.
11. Will add a blog for our Giant Traveling Washington State Maps on our website.
12. Will survey 2008 Summer Institute attendees on how they applied the lessons learned in class and prepare a report for the board.
13. Will print the names of each giant map on their reverse.
14. Will invite attendees of our NGS Live! reception to join the WGA.
15. Will write institutions that do not grant credit for AP Geography asking them to do so.
16. Will contact George Scarola of the League of Education Voters to request their support for the WGA endowment.
17. Will work to schedule meetings to discuss endowment funding with Judy Hartmann, Executive Policy Advisor for K-12 Education.

Pat

1. Will prepare a draft table of contents for our state atlas.
2. Will continue working with Meghan to create activities for our Giant Traveling Washington State Maps.
3. Will prepare invitations to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to visit the giant map at The Puyallup Fair.
4. Will also check with St. Francis to see if they can grant clock hours for our Summer Institute.

Meghan

1. Will prepare a draft table of contents for our state atlas.
2. Will email Tim the type of data to be collected from users (forms) of our Giant Traveling Washington State Maps.
3. Will continue working with Pat to create activities for the Giant Traveling Washington State Map.
4. Will contact the Seattle and Spokane Archdiocese requesting the mailing addresses of all state Catholic schools in electronic format.
5. Will email her giant map documents to Richard for conversion into Adobe PDF format.
6. Will compile a list of email addresses for district curriculum developers statewide by the next board meeting.
7. Will make a list of the maps for sale at http://www.natgeomaps.com/ that are suitable for our purposes.
8. Will keep in contact with Dana C. Twight of the Newspapers In Education Program regarding our interest in a one-time article.

Heidi

1. Will prepare and email an appeal letter to the IRS.
2. Will establish a WGA account with United Parcel Service.
3. Will contact Sandi Krenkel about importing ourfinancial records into QuickBooks.

Richard

1. Will email the board members a copy of their action items.
2. Will prepare a draft table of contents for our state atlas.
3. Will work with Tim to categorize all expenditures from our GRCC account by grant.
4. Will create a signup list on our web site for hosting the giant map at The Puyallup Fair.
5. Will prepare invitations to state and federal representatives and to the governor's office to visit the giant map at The Puyallup Fair.
6. Will investigate the use of PDF forms.
7. Will, when received, convert Meghan's giant map documents to Adobe PDF format.
8. Will get the status of our request from The Boeing Company about getting a company executive to serve on our board.
9. Will write Richard M. McWalters, Director of Exhibits, National Geographic Museum to inform him that we are no longer interested in the Earth Station One globe and equipment.
10. Will inform the Burke Museum about our Giant Traveling Washington State Map.
11. Will propose revisions to the Travel and Expense Policy further defining reasonable expenses and incorporating relevant portions of the GSA payment schedule and the GRCC travel policy.

Respectfully submitted,

/ss/ Richard T. Kennedy
Richard T. Kennedy
Secretary

Approved June 1, 2010

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