Minutes of the Annual Business Meeting
November 4, 2023, at Marquette University
After many wonderful morning talks and excellent workshops, we gathered in Wehr Physics Room 153 to start the business lunch meeting. The food was delicious, and the conversations were great (always good to see everyone again, and to meet new people!)!
Meeting Start Time: 12:09 pm (which was nearly on time, but herding cats is difficult). The first order of business was to thank this year’s organizer (Melissa Vigil) and the Marquette folks for a job well-done in bringing WAPT to Milwaukee. These thanks, of course, go to all of the people working behind the scenes, as well.
1. Minutes of the last meeting: November 5, 2022 (UW – Stevens Point) – Erik Hendrickson
See the blue sheet. Minutes were accepted.
2. Treasurer’s Report for 2022-23 – Erik Hendrickson
A. See green sheet. Still have approximately $1800 for WAPT Business (supporting future meetings, etc.).
B. Everyone was reminded that officers can ask for up to $200 for traveling to AAPT Meetings.
C. The treasurer’s report was accepted.
3. Section Representative’s Report – Steven Sahyun (Winter) & Melissa Vigil (Summer)
At the summer meeting: the national office is trying to determine which local sections are still active. The Section Reps were asked about what their local sections were doing to keep things running. It was pointed out that we need to keep our website more updated.
4. High School Representative’s Report – Gary Baier
Please see the full text of Gary’s Report (which was distributed on green paper, as well), but he highlighted a few items…
A. Discussed the January 2023 Wis DPI Report. Lots of interesting information: pass rates for Praxis, educator preparation program, work force analysis report, etc.
B. The AAPT K-12 portal, ComPADRE digital library, and Virtual Coffee Hour are all useful resources.
C. We should be encouraging the student teachers at each of our schools to spend at least one class period each day in a physics class, regardless of their emphasis (new Science teaching license).
D. Encourage and invite new teachers to participate in share groups.
E. We are now looking for a new WAPT High School Representative. Please encourage the high school teachers that you interact with to consider.
5. Two-Year College Representative’s Report – ?
No one was present to give this report.
6. Committee Reports
a) Awards Committee
If you think there’s someone deserving of a WAPT award, make sure to share this information with any member of the Awards Committee at any time throughout the year. We continue to look for and recognize excellence in the Wisconsin physics education community.
Remember, there are also national AAPT awards out there. Think about nominating WAPT members for these, as well.
b) Publications/Promotions Committee
Looking for someone to lead this effort. In the past, Matt Evans has sent out interesting stuff via email to the whole group occasionally. Jim Madsen suggested a few years ago that a Pub/Promo Committee could meet occasionally in an online format to chat about ideas. One idea was to give the folks on the Pub/Promo Committee permissions to post things on the WAPT FaceBook page. These items can then be collected and sent out occasionally to all.
c) Workshops Committee
Melissa thanked all of the Workshop folks for their hard work. She said there were many very cool Workshops! If you have any feedback regarding the workshops, please let Melissa know. Start thinking of workshop ideas for next year! Another thing to think about for future meetings: Should we compensate workshop leaders and invited speakers? Maybe something for next year’s New Business…
7. Old Business
a) None.
8. Future Meeting Sites
2024: Joint Wisconsin/Illinois Meeting in Rockford (2nd or 3rd week of October) – Deepshikha Shukla
2025: UW – La Crosse – Jennifer Docktor
2026: Open
2027: UW – Eau Claire – Erik Hendrickson
2028: UW – Whitewater – Steven Sahyun
Start thinking of the possibility of hosting at your school…
9. New Business
A. Shrinking attendance at WAPT Meetings
There is concern regarding the overall health of the discipline, especially when looking at the attendance of our Meetings. There are very few new folks attending each year (even when offering to eliminate all registration fees). How can we reach more people and how can we stay connected during the year? Can we have presentations Zoomed in (virtual)? Each of us should be working with our Education programs, getting the future teachers informed about WAPT. What about working with WSST? Should we have a booth or provide fliers for participants? WSST is at UW – La Crosse this year, so Jennifer is going to see what connections she can make. Is there any way to get a list of physics teachers in the state from DPI? What about a Rocket Rendezvous? Could we line up a Zoom session with the Captain of the Space Force? Should we start a Physics Blog? Include a link on our website. Post our best cool demo videos! What about a Demo Showcase at future meetings? Or maybe the local high school teachers would be more apt to come if there were more Make & Take workshops? What if we provided a database for substitute teacher lesson plans? If you have other ideas, please pass them along!
10. Elections (With so few in attendance, these weren’t really elections, but rather people volunteering or being assigned.)
Awards Committee:
(Usually: Past President – one-year term; High School Rep. – two-year term; College Rep. – two-year term)
Melissa Vigil, Erik Hendrickson
Workshops Committee:
(Usually: Chair/Vice President – one-year term; High School Rep. – three-year term; College Rep. – three-year term)
Jennifer Docktor
Publications/Promotions Committee:
(Usually: Chair – three-year term; High School Rep. – three-year term; College Rep. three-year term)
Melissa Vigil
Officers (the terms are “usual”, but for now let’s just go with annual):
Secretary/Treasurer (3-year term): Erik Hendrickson
Two-Year College Representative(2-year term): Aaron Steffen?
High School Representative (2-year term): ?
Section Representative (3-year term): Steve Sahyun & Melissa Vigil
Vice President, Program Chair, Workshops Committee Chair (1-year term): Daniel Sinkovits
See you next year at Marquette!!
President (1-year term): Melissa Vigil
11. Closing Remarks & Adjournment
Thanks to all attendees for helping to make this a wonderful meeting!
A big THANK YOU toMelissa Vigil & Marquette University
for an absolutely FANTASTIC MEETING!!!
!!!See everyone at Rockford next year!!!
The meeting ended at 1:01 pm. Everyone started chatting (the best part of a meeting of teachers!) or heading to the poster session and then more great talks…
Respectfully submitted,
Erik Hendrickson
Secretary/Treasurer