MassCUE Board Meeting

April 1990

Board Members present: Martin Huntley, John Marion, Mac McCassey, Earle Hancock, Laurene Belisle, Algot Runeman, Peg Bondorew

Martin called the meeting to order at 4:13 PM.

Announcements

• Kids and Computers '90 at the Massachusetts Statehouse has 56 schools attending. That is as many as the space could accomodate. There were 75 applicant schools.
• Welcome to Everett "Mac" McCassey (breathing heavily from his recent, successful race to join the board. Chuck Hitchcock has formally resigned from the board. New job responsibilities prevent him from fulfilling his board responsibilities. We will miss his talent and humor as well as his effective participation.
• Chuck Drayton who did not run for re-election will be missed. His dynamic leadership role with the SIG groups has set the SIGs well in place as an active part of MassCUE.
• John Marion accepts the role of SIG Coordinator.
• Mac McCassey tentatively accepts role of Special Events Coordinator.
• New appointments to the board are needed at this time. Martin asks the board to think about the appointment of Laura Nash as Publicity Director. We need to be better known (even within Massachusetts). The issue of her appointment is that she is presently a vendor representative for Broderbund. We should recognize that some board members are currently affiliated (with pay) with vendors (Martin, Gail, John, Alan). There is no Bylaw restriction, and Martin feels that the priority for selection should be on the person and positive role that the person can play for MassCUE.

Moved to appoint Laura Nash to MassCUE board as Publicity Director. Second John Marion. John expressed support for Laura's nomination with note that she would not serve on the board as a vendor participant, but would serve MassCUE's goals. John did not want to have the board seen by our members as "vendor run". Algot pointed out that the current board is not primarily classroom teachers, anyway, but that the board is clearly composed of educators. Martin - classroom teachers are proportionally underrepresented. It is the "administrative" types who have the time and inclination to attend board meetings. Passed 6/0

• Martin stated that the position of Outreach Coordinator is open since it has been vacated by John Marion as he assumes the SIG Coordinator job. Martin has no recommendation at this time. The next ETAC meeting is May 7 in Waltham. John LeBaron serves as our official ETAC participant as he serves on both the ETAC and MassCUE boards.
• Laurene began her report about the Apponequet conference with a request that the board approve sending the presentation evaluation forms along to the presenters. The presentations were generally judged to be of good quality.There were some presentations that Laurene felt should be skipped in future. She will hold that information for future conference committee use. (consensus approval). The forms worked out well. The information will help us design future conferences. (Peg Bondorew arrived) Laurene stated that she has received some letters praising the conference.
• Martin asked that Peg give the treasurer's report at this point to insert the financial information into the context of Laurene's conference report (see attached pages).
• If Orchard makes good (expected) on it's pledge of $1500 then the conference made money. There was no official notice to Peg that Orchard was actually giving the money, but while Laura Elliott-Smith was vague about when and how the money would come (don't send invoice yet), Peg feels it is coming.
• MassCUE's overall finances are on a par with the figures from this point last year.
• Martin expressed mild concern that we had to spend $500 for a phone line installation. Presenters should come ready to simulate telecommunications activities in case of technical problems. There are always complications--always prepare for them.
• Laurene pointed out that the problem was an external line problem that NYNEX people fixed using 48 man-hours of which we had to pay only 8 man-hours.
• Martin points out that the phone expense was the only unexpected major cost and we should not worry too much.
• Peg asks that attendance list of the pre-conference workshops be sent back to us so we can cross-check with the list of paid participants.
• We need to find ways to cut costs.
• Laurene mentioned possibility of lighter weight paper and smaller print for publications (CUE brochure used as example).
• Conference flier to go out July 30.
• When vendors contacted about conference ads, the vendor knows the amount, but who was billed and who wasn't billed is not always clear. Earle sets the ad rate. Peg, Lelia, and Earle set up a mutually agreeable billing procedure. Peg is the only bill sender now. Moved to accept the treasurer's report (seconded) Approved 7/08
• The number of attendees at Apponequet was around 152.
• The issue of raising membership dues should be on the next meeting's agenda.
• Laurene's report continues:
• Earle Moves eliminating Sat. AM workshops (Peg seconds)
• they present a conflict with "free" sessions.
• conflict with the fact they are not free (an extra cost to the people who will miss some of their conference for which they have paid)
• Consider $80 for Friday and $60 for Saturday.
• Attendees would be too torn.
• Benefits further reduced to person who loses travel time if workshop is off site.
• Vendors leave at noon on Sat.
• Elimination approved 7/0>
• Linda wants MassCUE to get new electric power distribution cable to add to or replace one of our set of four.
• Jean Dean (at Martin's Collaborative) will coordinate donations for MassCUE. We are cash poor for Statehouse day and Martin can easily work with the effort with Jean. This is not a board member position.
• **Move to make vendor membership stay at $150.00 (seconded)
• Approved 7/0**
• Consider another raffle (OK)
• Vendor dinner? -invite them to our existing dinner.
• Vendors want an annual donation request rather than the piece-by-piece/as-we-need-it requests we have given them. Prefer annual over quarterly requests, too.
• Might be a budget problem for us, now.
• Delay resolution of this issue for now.
• Co-sponsorships: MassCUE conferences
• Keep them ours.
• Issues include: Co-sponsorships of publications
• improved enthusiasm, each organization feels some ownership and has a stake in the event
• there are attendance payoffs.
• Finances are an issue
• we would have to deal with sharing income.
• OK one workshop per session for a sponsor-vendor
• Keynote would remain a board approved person.
• Mac is concerned that there may be a profit/non-profit issue here with a vendor-sponsor getting in the act. We should get legal opinion.
• Moved to get legal opinion about our accepting cosponsorship with a for profit vendor. (seconded) - Approved 7/0
• Moved to form a subcommittee of Martin Huntley, Alan November, and Earle Hancock to examine Co-sponsorship issues. (second) -Approved 7/0
• Earle introduced a suggestion for a new MassCUE logo for consideration at the next meeting. (Earle left at 5:45 - note in later vote numbers)
• John Marion introduced an item for formal consideration at the next board meeting - What should our position be about the ICCE(ISTE) copyright policy statement?
• Martin is going to Atlanta to attend IBM conference (to expand our awareness and linkage to IBM and shake the "Apple-only" image). Martin was asked to submit expense reimbursement requests.
• Peg raised the issue of reimbursement of board hotel expenses for Apponequet conference (Algot read the 6/29/89 vote which approved reimbursements for appropriate events)
• We must avoid appearance of undo "perks".
• We should trust the board members to request reimbursement only when they feel it is important. It remains a board decision whether to move that an event is reimbursable.
• Move to reimburse 100% of the costs for board member attendance at the Apponequet Conference. -Reword "Move to reimburse expenses of eligible board members attending the Apponequet Conference upon request." (second) Approved 5/0/1(abstain)
• Next Calendar (June) needs statement about the retreat not happening this year in light of fiscal constraints.
• Algot will confirm the date, location and time of the next (June) meeting.

Adjourned 6:15 PM

Web page version posted: 2016-08-29