WAPT - Minutes(2003 Annual Business Meeting)

Wisconsin Section, American Association of Physics Teachers

Minutes of the Annual Business Meeting

November 1, 2003, at UW - La Crosse, La Crosse, WI

The book publishers gave us a bunch of books to give away. Congrats to all of the winners of the random drawings!!

After a couple of group mug shots (appropriate) outside in the cold, Mike and Matt (better known as M&M?) herded us back into the Great Hall for lunch. After an excellent meal (that included a plethora of delicious dessert options!), we had to bus our own tables, then we began addressing the following agenda items...

Meeting Start Time: 1:08 pm (a little late)

1. Minutes of the last meeting (October 26 th , 2002) - Erik Hendrickson

Motion to accept the minutes as distributed made by Theo Koupelis, seconded by Bob Foley. Motion passed by a voice vote.

2. Treasurer's Report for 2002-3 - Erik Hendrickson

Motion to accept the printed treasurer's report as distributed made by Theo Koupelis, seconded by Earl Blodgett. Motion passed by a voice vote.
Erik mentioned that we still have a small pot of money to possibly do something with. What could those things be? Discussion ensued: Buy a CD (short-term), fund a scholarship (could be for one or more of many different categories: women, minorities, high school, teaching, research, travel expenses/grant for presenters or to attract new members), start an endowment, get ideas from local foundations. Many thought that whatever we do with the money, it should support physics teaching.
Motion to have the Treasurer do a survey of the membership to determine the priorities for using this money was made by Joe Zoller, seconded by Earl Blodgett. Motion passed by a voice vote.
Motion to have the Treasurer place $4000 into a 1-yr CD (while we decide what to do during the next year) made by Nathan Miller, seconded by David Whiteley. Motion passed by a voice vote.
This topic should be brought up next year under Old Business.

3. Section Representative's Report - Jim Mallmann

Please see the full text of Jim's Report, but he highlighted a few items...
There are 46 local sections in AAPT. We, of course, are one of these. Even though individual members from Wisconsin only comprise 2.2% of the total membership of AAPT, currently 3.7% of all national committee members are from Wisconsin. Very nice! There are still openings on 16 different national committees (see handout for entire list). Please contact Jim if you are interested in serving. He will provide you with a Nomination and Volunteer Form . More info on the different committees can also be found on the AAPT website and in the Announcer. You can also contact the chair of the national nominating committee to get you name of the list. Please realize that you can contribute and participate as a "friend" of the committee in an unofficial capacity. This may help you decide it you want to fully participate at the national level in the future.
After the national office caught some flak over having the winter meeting be as far north as Philadelphia recently, they have now voted to have the winter 2006 meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. Don't ask.
Report was accepted as distributed.

4. High School Representative's Report - Judy Schmidt

She mentioned that she needed to come to the meeting this year to keep her name clear. She highlighted a few of the items from her written report...
Based upon the success of other PTRA programs, a Rural PTRA program has been started. They are going to try reaching out to smaller schools.
The "teacher in residence" aspect of PhysTEC was discussed. They are still working out the bugs in the system.
The High School Committee's main topic of discussion was "Physics First." The discussions lasted long into the evening. More in the future...
Report was accepted as distributed.

5. Two-Year College Representative's Report - Theo Koupelis

Again, please see Theo's full written report, what follows are his highlights...

Physics Workshops for the 21 st -Century Project. A series of 4 workshops are to be held around the country. They have money to support people to go and participate!
AAPT organized an Introductory Calculus-Based Physics Course Conference, but they seemed to make it very difficult for two-year campus members to attend (timing, priority given to departments sending two or more members, large registration fees). They would like more representation in the leadership, presenters, and participants of these introductory courses, since a national survey says that 20-30% of all introductory physics students take their courses at two-year colleges.
They would like to see more joint national meetings in the future. The January 2001 meeting was a joint meeting with AAPT and American Astronomical Society. Future possibilities include the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, and the Mathematical Association of America.
Report was accepted as distributed.

6. Committee Reports

Awards Committee - David Tamres

No nominations during the past year. He reminded all of us that there are four different categories for nominations and that you can nominate people at any time. Please see the WAPT website for more information. Matt will be the Chair of this committee next year, so contact him with questions or nominations.

Publications Committee

No report.

Workshops Committee

No report.

7. Old Business

Web Site Promotion

Floor was opened up to what we would like to see on the web site so that people will use it. Discussion ensued: Maybe it could be a place where high school seniors go to research possible colleges/universities to attend? Possibly have the chairs from each department provide info on strengths/options of program? Maybe do a survey to get the same info on each department (for comparison purposes)? In the end, it was suggested that just having the links to all of the different physics department web pages was sufficient.

What about placing an ad in the WSST Newsletter? Cost? This would then reach most high school teachers. Erik will look into this, but if others have suggestions, he welcomes them.

Get new ideas to Theo about what to have on the web site! Include cool links to physics-related stuff, reports from AAPT, etc...

8. Future Meeting Sites

2004: UW - Oshkosh

Congrats and Hooray!! Lot's of clapping and back-slapping! They will soon be asking for your help to make sure it runs smoothly. Start planning today!

2005: A joint Wisconsin/Iowa/Minnesota meeting?

Matt asked several questions: Should we try to do this? Where should it be held? When should it be held? Discussion ensued. The following motion was made by Earl Blodgett and seconded by Gubbi Sudhakaran:

Should we do this? Yes.

When should it be held? Late October (same as our "normal" weekend).

Where should it be held? In order of preference:

Luther College, Decorah, Iowa
Edgewood College, Madison, Wisconsin
Winona State University, Winona, Minnesota

Who should do this? Matt Evans should continue these discussions.

The motion passed by a voice vote.

9. New Business

New WAPT Listserv?

Matt started us off discussing some of the options: Create a new one (use Yahoo!Groups!, for example) or continue to use the Whitewater list? It was discussed that we could set up a virtual group of physics teachers who would be able to chat about teaching, since many teachers feel a little isolated from the group during the rest of the year (especially if they can't make it to the meetings).

Joe Zoller made a motion to have Joe Zoller set up a "discussion" group via Yahoo! and to make it completely voluntary to join and to link the group to the WAPT web site. Nathan Miller seconded the motion. The motion passed by a voice vote.

High School Involvement

Matt started us off discussing whether or not WAPT could be a "professional development" vehicle for high school teachers. There are many new certification rules coming out from DPI. There will be portfolios to update and maintain. Can we help? Discussion ensued. The one cohesive idea that seemed to come out of the discussion was that WAPT could provide a Saturday morning (so more high school teachers could attend) series of workshops or talks with the theme of High School Professional Development. Possible themes/ideas for workshops or talks: Physics of Toys, Portfolio Building, Best of... Demos. Please provide more ideas to Matt Evans.

Membership/Promotion Position?

Matt started the discussion of whether or not WAPT should add another officer position that would be responsible for updating and maintaining our membership roster and for promoting future meetings. Discussion ensued. The one cohesive idea that seemed to come out of the discussion was that we should just keep building on the current list of members that is currently being handled by Mark Lattery at UW - Oshkosh.

10. Elections

Workshops Committee - High School Representative: Betsy Barnard

She was elected by a voice vote after being nominated by Earl Feltyberger and seconded by Judy Schmidt.

Workshops Committee - College Representative: Greg Taft

He was elected by a voice vote after being nominated by Joe Zoller and seconded by Gubbi Sudhakaran.

Publications Committee - UW-River Falls Representative: Earl Blodgett

He was elected by a voice vote after being nominated by Roy Knispel and seconded by David Tamres.

Publications Committee - High School Representative: Joe Zoller

He was elected by a voice vote after being nominated by Earl Blodgett and seconded by David Tamres.

Publications Committee - College Representative: David Tamres

He was elected by a voice vote after being nominated by Earl Blodgett and seconded by Roy Knispel.

[An aside conversation took place here. The idea is that the WIS-PHYS publication could move to a web-only version. The newly elected members of the committee will discuss the options and get back to WAPT next year.]

Awards Committee - College Representative: Nathan Miller

He was elected by a voice vote after being nominated by Nathan Miller and seconded by Earl Blodgett.

Awards Committee - High School Representative: Judy Schmidt

She was elected by a voice vote after being nominated by Roy Knispel and seconded by Earl Blodgett.

Vice President, Program Chair for 2004: Mark Lattery

He was elected by a voice vote after being nominated by Nathan Miller and seconded by Earl Blodgett.

President: Gubbi Sudhakaran

He was elected by a voice vote after being nominated by Jim Mallmann and seconded by Theo Koupelis. (Earl must have stopped to breathe at this point.)

Secretary/Treasurer: Erik Hendrickson

He was elected by a voice vote after being nominated by David Tamres and seconded by Judy Schmidt.

High School Representative: Judy Schmidt

She was elected by a voice vote after being nominated by Earl Blodgett and seconded by Gubbi Sudhakaran.

Two-Year College Representative: Theo Koupelis

He was elected by a voice vote after being nominated by David Tamres and seconded by Jim Mallmann.

Section Representative: Jim Mallmann

He will continue in this position for one more year, the second year of his two-year term.

11. Closing Remarks & Adjournment

The following motion was made by Roy Knispel and seconded by Earl Blodgett:

A big

THANK YOU

Gubbi Sudhakaran and Mike Jackson

for an absolutely

GREAT MEETING !!!

The motion unanimously passed, as I could attest from the thunderously loud clapping.

!!!See everyone in Oshkosh next year!!!

The meeting ended at 3:29 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Erik Hendrickson

Secretary/Treasurer

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