MassCUE Board Meeting Worcester, Holiday Inn September 18, 1998 Members present: Pat Trotman, Ron Koehler, Laurie Keating, Marcy Reed, Lelia Richardson, Algot Runeman, Linda Colvin, Kathy Peloquin, Nancy Vose, Buzzy Esempio, Sharon Esempio, Jim Modena, Priscilla Kotyk, Guests: Marcy's In-Laws joined us briefly. We probably scared them away! Call to order 4:52 Nancy;s comments: The agenda is a "whirlwind" What's new at MCET - John Flores resigned Nancy visiting schools around the state using the CEO forum CEO.ORG Ron has organized survey and will give us a copy if we email him (ClariWorks slide show.) Minutes: Move to accept (RON, Marcy) Misspelled MassCUE on page 1. Gavel is present again "I bought it," (Eileen Kelly) Treas White is from summer. Sam Pappas has our paperwork. Remember that closing the books may be confusing for events which cross over to next year. Did we vote to expend the money from Bell Atlantic for the SIG retreat Steve believes that we will have enough money in hand to pay for our Conference costs. Market the conference. October 2 Apple update - distribute conference booklets Lighthouse presenters get free registration to the conference - defer to subcommittee Move to accept (Priscilla, Sharon) Passed unan Other from Steve: Comparing past two years. To come up with a budget - compare to budget not just past reports. NPO attorney - ethically? (consultant fee to Nancy) Document separating job of volunteer president vs. consultant. As long as the board aware of what we do with our money. We need to be sure that the members at large know where our money goes. Be careful of our ties to commercial organizations (see Steve's cartoon sheet - reverse. Legal issue - no. Should we do more to make our members aware of what we do. The board determines the direction of the organization. Vendors want to know how to move up on the waiting list - "What can I donate?" Want more than mention in our program. Conf committee expect to discuss this in detail at the nest meeting. Give suggestions, thoughts, Ideas for our parameters as we prepare to move to the new facility. Foresee the problems to be solved ahead of time. Make it clear what the vendor can expect for their dollars. Forward to Marcy for the committee consideration. Endorsements - big issue Campbell soup labels, etc. Free materials. We must not tell people to buy soup. MediaOne people are telling people that we are co-sponsoring our conference. Must make it clear to vendors that they are participants. Need to set clear parameters about what a vendor can print in their materials. Difficult to anticipate problems - moving to new venue...set ground rules for our new era. Co-sponsorship is not There are few guidelines for ethics issues in non-profits. Board guidelines in planning. Organization By-Laws are our governing rules. Beyond that, we can do what we think is right and what our membership will approve of. There is no consistency from one organization about pay for service membership. 5100 is all we got from Steve miller out of an expected $10,000. Based on our involvement. Next year is "UP to $25,000" There were apparently no established criteria beyond the board. DOE expects justification for expenditures - between Nancy and Steve the verification Bills for attendance at Mass Networks $10,000 for this year - 20 statewide meetings at SIGs $500 for SIG which sponsors. Need to track down the details before we have the SIGs do these meetings. For this year's donation 5 of MassCUE board went and we were reimbursed $500 for the attendance. Nancy needs to come back to the board to review the costs before agreeing with Steve. Is it a closed issue for last years $$. Main concern is that money we take in must have clear description of what we must do to itemize the disbursement of the income. Match criteria which are stated up front. Come up with Tax exempt purchases at stores must be done by credit card or business check - not cash. What do you (vendor) get for your money? Here's our agreement with you. This discussion indicates the wisdom of moving to a line item budget. Committee Conference - moving issues to be discussed at Oct preconference meeting - wrap up preparations and begin ground work for the conference at the new site. SIGs Lists and map with more dots on it. SIGs may in part be "on paper" with fewer meetings in the calendar than would be expected. Need high touch from the SIG committee. SIG dinner meeting to get SIGs to get involved date to be announced. (Oct 9 part of Columbus day weekend) Very healthy workshop planned for SIGs by Steve May Email The details of the SIG meetings are being planned. Nancy trying to get out to meetings especially in the west end of the state. 5:47 Need to bring more of Western Mass. Only one main agenda item Apple's proposal Kathy, Jim, Nancy with many other organizations, DOE, Lesley College Curriculum database (Kim Rice ) Her district hired her to do the database for North Andover and DOE will buy it from her and school. Worked on database fields, etc. Jim, Kathy, Priscilla, Sharon subcommittee. listing pros and cons add selling our reputation to the cons. Kim has given MassCUE the database (willing to) She has the MassCUE spirit. Give it to districts. School and DOE will perhaps pay for the work that she does. Sell the labor she does. DOE not ready to do a database because they are revising again. If we do ALI, Many groups springing up to do Frameworks links Apple is offering us a vehicle for our idea. This gives a national/global link Gives us national attention. Common template for presentation allowing valid comparisons between units. Teachers need to be involved in preparing units. Quality checking. Should be vetted in actual classrooms as well as the job done by the apple vetters. Apple and MassCUE both "get something" commensally working in each others favor. Curriculum Orchestrator from Edustar does this Should Mass DOE be doing this? This is web based, not linked to software Links to Units of practice may actually be more "lesson plans." Variable in quality and detail. Sometimes a site will be "the same old thing." Should ask the criteria for judging the level of quality. Apple's evaluation needs to be flexible so that a teacher Want to look at actual products of children Lessons with showcased work from children a component goal Limits? Encourage Lighthouse Must require not People get to see their work Can start slowly - don't need to do everything before the release as was true for the CD-ROM. Apple Service contract valid for servers. Initial volunteer hours? Technical training is small commitment Server cost MassCUE learning interchange Apple Logo in the navigation bar. Committee and Kathy prepared to do the setup Apple's training free. Trying to merge Kim Rice's database with ALI database. Kim anxious to work with us. Trikakis will work with us. Steve Miller wants to take his summer institute tie lessons to a central database. If we do ALI with our own server. ALI belly up we have Far cheaper to rent space on a UNIX box Cannot have web page on the same server as the Filemaker Pro database for efficiency. Filemaker pro database server. Calls from Apple Steve Johnson will offer us a server for free (staying in Massachusetts not going to Minnesota) Greg Nadeau and DOE Hiring 29 more people for database work - fully intend to get a curriculum database up and running this year. Goal - Miller - Use Rice's material and making working with up to 50 teams to build curriculum plan and units of practice and database All being revised except social studies. Miller and Nadeau Not too interested in the apple project Collecting teacher units envision and planning Units of practice purchased from teachers to post on the DOE database and then teachers can take the units from the database. DOE got $1,000,000 to do this project Teacher's guide came with textbook. Web based project list. teacher takes it and uses it - maybe. If there are enough good UOPs on the site that will inspire others Novelty will wear off - How unique can we be? Transform the paradigm Who builds the culture of sharing and collaboration. Competition - Don't share MCAS Feel that state is encouraging Teacher voices, resources for teachers, get out there to post. Difficult to get articles for onCUE etc. Culture of sharing Teacher voices in trouble No matter how long it takes for DOE and Lib/Media for searching strategies for us. Need to bring Lib/media specialists into this project. 1-2 lessons a year DOE will tie performance to grant money Confusion - What is the proposal Does DOE project and Miller conflict. Are we in conflict with their projects. Rice framework database Apple database of UOPs DOE database with lesson plans tied to frameworks. What is available in writing about these conflicting plans? DOE and Miller not yet that far along. Apple is national/international Our component Massachusetts only Massachusetts is being used as a national template in frameworks, technology, etc. Bite off another project Lighthouse wonderful things, yes. Is it in isolation in classroom or does it tie into the building and district curriculum. Spotlight flash and dazzle vs. institute consistent plan for the district curriculum. Teachers voices modeling professional sharing. I love my lesson, I want to have it visible to others. Struggling with ALI issue (Jim) confusing our own excitement to learn the technology system State is going to move ahead with their plan. Teachers love to get things but it may be reluctant to do the work to give. If there will be a statewide database ALI is really basically lightweight, but a good start. Teacher must be on line Fill out a web form is difficult. Recommend writing ahead on Lessons are generally not written up in a form that would be suitable to submit. Teachers are currently wiped out. How often do we take someone else's lesson plan? Teachers must feel that it is personally relevant. Watched it done, helped develop it. Will this have relevance to teaching and learning in classrooms as we want to see it. Most attractive is MassCUE web presence nationally. Not limited to technology integration into a curriculum. Majority of plans would probably be plain old lesson plans. Need to promote Gain more that a good web presence. People want to see what teachers have done. Database will provide a way to g It would be nice if MassCUE and MLI were able to be a "site" portal like Cathy Schrock which many of us use in teacher training. Know me. I don't really care how you know me. Know me. National exposure. Counter culture underground alternative to the DOE effort. Many can be involved in the template. CD-ROM 12 lessons How many teacher proposals per conference (70) require Unit of Practice Publish or perish???? If we don't go with ALI, but look at web site development - link to ISTE a broader organization. Would money be better spent to upgrade our website. Not certain that teachers are going to want to post things. Don't want to turn teachers away. Lesson not much unless it is part of a larger unit. Someone will get paid to do this and the volunteer groups wont have a role. Big picture is that volunteer work takes too long Busy people have to prioritize. "Going to write an article for onCUE" but was it too simplistic, but edit by others risky - bottom of list is risk. Share out but seldom get back Getters more common than givers. Can we not modify what the state does? Would it be more valuable to influence Steve and the DOE. Influence with a product? Fence - one side or the other - neither side is comfortable. Expense worth the potential result? Roll out at conference? Energy should be focused on influencing the state. SIG building opportunity Nascent SIG needs mobilizing effort. S. Miller project is a host only by SIG? Call together SIG leaders (half show) Consensus??? Motion??? Will we get enough? What is enough Enough is to make it useful to have a teacher return more than once Prestige - Move - (Marcy,Algot) we accept Apple's proposal for MassCUE's ALI, subject to Apple agreeing that our numbers of UOPs are not fixed, that Apple provide training, support and the server; clarification of "software" ownership at possible termination; and subject to approval by an attorney selected by MassCUE. "You do something valuable." is the message we must give to members and teachers. Good chance of success if we have school administrators. Request building release days for this project at the administrators. Focus of frameworks - talk about units of practice at a SIG meeting for a particular framework. Sharing Template to pilot with the lighthouse presenters at the conference. Post conference invitation to presenters who had outstanding evaluations to provide a unit of practice with MassCUE recognition "Bring back the CUE buck." "Be part of the core of this project." First 100 get a prize. "Bring your thing - post today. Look for it on the web 'tomorrow'." Steve Miller is separate issue. prep work for eventual DOE database. Get copy of Steve Miller grant. Dot the "I"s and cross the "T"s All Tired 8/2/1 Jim's first negative vote in all his time on the board. Conference call with 3 worked very nicely for collaboration about an idea. Email didn't always work. Chat. Bell Atlantic might help fund it as a business partner. Next meeting November 20, 1998 4:30 Holiday Inn, Worcester Apple Update is Oct 2 Conference committee meeting October 5th, 1998 Worcester Holiday Inn. adjourn (Ron, Linda) 7:56