International Association for Language Learning Technology

IALLT Board Meeting June 3, 2003 Call to Order 12:32pm CDT Present: Crandall, Hendricks, Liddell, Pankratz, Rosen Guests: Gilgen, Ross Routine Business Agenda Check Acknowledgment of Email Motions and Other Decisions § On May 19, 2003 Lauren moved IALLT raise the price of the Journal back issues to $12.50 for members and $17.50 for non-members, beginning with volume 34. Harold seconded the Motion. The Motion passed unanimously. Approval of Minutes § The Minutes of May 13, 2003 were not available for review. Treasurer's Report § Financial report o Lauren presented the preliminary annual and budget reports submitted for Board review via email on June 2. Lauren pointed out that the second worksheet in the Excel spreadsheet, titled narrative, provides the detail. She intends to provide the narrative to the Council to assist in comprehension of the reports. o David observed that overall we have done better financially than projected. o As the official end of the fiscal year is not until July, Ron will actually be the Treasurer of record when the FY2003 report is submitted. Lauren will present the FY2004 budget to the Council at the June 18 meeting. § Peter informed the Board that due to flight changes he cannot make the 5:00pm June 16 meeting time and asked for it to be delayed. The meeting time will be moved to 5:45 on June 16, 2003. § Account review o Lauren reported that although she has not yet received official documentation from Smith & Gesteland, her conversations with the reviewer indicate our account review checked out fine. § Lauren was able to provide documentation for all random items selected for review. § The review will recommend that each month the Treasurer email or print out a list of monthly disbursements for approval by the Board. Lauren does not believe this will be difficult. She asserted that with the new version of QuickBooks Ron will be able to easily create pdf documents to list transactions. The President should sign off on the disbursements (could be handled via electronic signature) and the list should be stapled to the monthly statements. Another option is that the disbursement list be part of the Treasurer's monthly report and become part of the minutes. The Board affirmed the latter option would be easiest to implement. § Lauren noted that the reviewer initially expressed concern about the Membership Coordinator sending the checks to the Treasurer for processing rather than depositing them directly to the bank. Lauren informed the reviewer that the practice affords an important check and balance system between the Membership Coordinator and the Treasurer for reviewing data entry. Given that information, the reviewer rescinded the recommendation. § Lauren inquired whether copies of the review should be attached to the annual financial report. David requested this be done. § Transition process for new Treasurer o Lauren directed Ron Balko, incoming Treasurer, to select a bank and open an account to ensure a smooth transition of office. Ron has opened an account with the State Bank of Moorhead. David informed the Board he provided a letter of direction to the bank to enable the account establishment. Lynne notified the Board that Ron has mailed bank documents for her to sign; she will execute these on arrival. o Lauren noted Ron still needs to work out the credit card transactions, but foresees no problems. o Regarding transition of database activities, as the University of Minnesota is changing user access, the way we handle the membership database will no longer possible. In response to U-Minnesota's new practice, Bruno Browning has prioritized moving the database to the IALLT server. § Lauren is working with Ron on ways to handle the database entry and queries. § Lauren and Bruno are working on feature needs and hope to have the database ready soon after the conference. § David asked Lynne if the database committee was still active and playing a role. Lynne responded that the committee was not active, noting that the impetus last year was to set up the conference database and resolve the conference and membership database interactions. She suggested that the work of that committee continue after IALLT 2003 to examine the FileMakerPro database used for the conference and determine next steps in light of the membership database being housed on the IALLT server. o Lauren has been in contact with the new bulk mailer so we will need to find a way to extract the desired member data for submission to the bulk mailer for label printing. Lauren has volunteered to work with Ron to see this through to completion. o Read commented that Lauren is preparing a smooth transition and complimented her on her preparation. The Board heartily agreed. o David wondered if the change of officers and location of the business office pose any ramifications for our legal status. David will send Quarles & Brady a letter informing them of date to change Board contacts and contact information. § Future conference phone calls o Judi Franz will be able to initiate conference calls at a cost of $94.95/hour. Ron and David both received higher quotes. o Lauren stated she will recalculate the budget with those higher figures in mind. Journal Report § Journal o Based on questions from the Board on the proposed publisher contract for the Journal, Andrew happily reported that the over-run-under-run now guarantees us 600 copies and in the event of an overrun any extras will be at no extra charge. The quote from Lee Bradley is $3840 per issue of 96 pages plus a $200 publisher's fee. Additional pages in 8-page sets will cost $342 per set. o Gamin is investigating the mailing label concern raised by Lauren. To reiterate that discussion, the last issue did not use the labels Lauren prepared, thus raising doubt that the Journals were sent to all target recipients. David suggested Lauren spot check the membership for delivery. Lynne suggested Andrew in fact undertake this with a neutral request for information and feedback on the Journal. Andrew agreed this would be a sound and useful method. § Andrew received feedback from Gamin during the meeting and reported the bulk mailer in Alabama responded that it was easier for them to put the addresses in their database rather than use our labels. Lauren wondered how they would know whether members were current? Andrew posed the question to Gamin but that information was not provided to her. o Andrew informed the Board he has received a contract from Lee Bradley. A six-week turnaround for publication is required, thus Andrew asked the Board to execute a memorandum of understanding accepting the contract soon.. The memorandum of understanding will be executed at the June 16 Board meeting. Andrew will send the updated proposal to the Board. o Andrew noted there are also options at no extra cost that we should consider. § Special Journal issue o Andrew reported that Jack Burston offered to do a comparative study of commercial language lab systems currently available as a special issue of the Journal. o Andrew asserted this might be more appropriate as a monograph feature rather than a special Journal issue. Peter suggested it might be useful as an online publication. Read noted it could be both. On query, Andrew affirmed Jack intended the study to be a comprehensive comparative evaluation. o David stressed that we must take care to be fair to each vendor. Lynne suggested this might be just what people need to help define selection criteria. § Jack will announce the survey project on the use of foreign language software at the conference. Peter suggested a teaser also be published in the Journal and Andrew agreed this would be useful. President's Notes § David thanked the Board for participating in these conference calls over the past two years. Specifically, he thanked Read Gilgen for initiating these calls, something that was never expected of the Past President but something he did cheerfully. He acknowledged that the meetings are time-consuming, and sometimes lasted a little too long. He observed it was a learning curve for him in terms of making the meetings as efficient as possible, and now that Read will no longer be initiating the calls and they will presumably be much more expensive, there will be added incentive for Peter to make the meetings as short as possible! David's overall point was to thank each member of the Board for their contributions and patience. § David's sense was that preparations for the IALLT 2003 conference are coming along nicely. However, since this time is a bit overwhelming for those involved most with conference planning, he encouraged the Board not to hesitate to remind him or Lynne, of items they may be neglecting. Old Business 1. Affiliations/Conferences § IALLT 2007 o In email received by the Board on June 2 Georgia Schlau expressed her disappointment that she was not able to submit a proposal for IALLT 2007, but hopes to consider hosting a future conference at a later date. o The Board discussed some possibilities, including favoring a return to the northeast as it has been some years since we met there. A call to host IALLT 2007 will need to be prepared. The Board agreed to approach IALLT members in the northeastern area before posting a general call Andrew left the meeting 2:26. § CALICO o Harold reported that the IALLT interest session at CALICO filled the room. He noted that Jacque did an excellent job at hosting the session. Although no memberships were signed up at the booth, Harold expects to see some membership results from the conference. o Harold spoke with Bob and Esther about IALLT's inability to offer a reciprocal conference reduced registration fee arrangement at this time. He noted that Bob and Esther were fully understanding, and projected that CALICO plans to continue to offer the member discount to IALLT members whether IALTT is able to reciprocate that as an option or not. 2. Publications Update § Management Manual o David reported the Management Manual 2nd edition has shipped. Lynne confirmed she received the shipment to Ann Arbor, and professed her pleasure in their appearance and content. Ron reported receiving his shipment as well. § David affirmed that Lynne is coordinating conference distribution to IALLT '01 and IALLT 2003 workshop participants, as well as to authors and editors. Lynne indicated they would be distributed with registration materials at check-in. o Peter is in the process of securing an agreement from Cercles and EuroCALL to review the Management Manual and the Language Center Design Kit and advised that he would need complimentary copies for the reviewers. Jan Stewart should be asked to secure a reviewer from LET. There was discussion of the fit of these publications for different international perspectives. Peter noted the organization could approach Sandy Fotos to review the publications for their suitability from an Asian perspective. § Charges for future conference workshops o David suggested that since the cost is now higher for production of the LCDK and ManMan that the actual cost of the publications distributed during workshops should be passed on to the host institution. Read suggested that historically we have subsidized the distribution of these publications at the associated workshops. Lynne added that this was considered to be one of the benefits of membership at the conference. o Peter requested the issue be left to the next Board for resolution. David agreed with this suggestion and said he is comfortable with the idea of subsidizing the workshops. He explained that his recommendation was based on our ongoing close attention to our operating costs. § Monograph o Andrew and Peter are discussing the Schwartz monograph for online publication. 3. IALLT 2003 § David asked for an update on conference registration and Lynne reported that IALLT 2003 had broken the 300-person registration ceiling that week. She reported that the advance registration form will be disabled on June 11; people wishing to register after that time will have to do so in person at the conference. § Summary of major events o Monday, June 16th, 5:45pm, Board meeting, Language Resource Center Video Viewing Room including some incoming board members. § Dinner to follow at Lynne's house. Invitations have also been extended to the conference host and program chair. o Wednesday, 12:30-4:30pm, full Board and Council meeting, box lunch included, Meeting Room D, 3rd Floor Michigan League. § Binders for participants to include Policy and Procedures Manual, financial reports and account review, Council reports, and agendas from David and Peter. Lynne must receive final versions of all documents electronically by June 12 for binder placement except the financial reports, which will be copied in Ann Arbor after the 6/16 Board review and distributed at the meeting. § Meeting structure will include full group, small group work, and full group reporting (same as at IALL 2001). § David asked the Board to submit agenda item requests. Lynne suggested vendor relations and database development should be discussed. § David will send an announcement of our annual meeting to the members, to begin at 1:00pm. o Thursday, 12:00-1:15pm. Welcome Luncheon. § All current and incoming Board and Council members will spread out, each at a different table. Exceptions to this are David, Peter and Ursula who will mingle from table to table. We introduce ourselves, talk about our role in the governance structure, summarize structure, and answer questions. David will send information to Board and Council members. § David suggested that we give away one each of our new publications as door prizes during our luncheon, the cost to be borne by the organization. Lauren raised concerns about the impact of giveaways on our financial health. The Board determined that in a show of organizational support, Board members would individually donate the funds to cover the costs of the manuals. Peter will approach the incoming Board for the same. Lynne urged that any door prize giveaways be coordinated with Moni. o Thursday, 5:30-9:30pm. Formal banquet and Membership Meeting. § Conduct will be similar to last year: pre-dinner cocktails and mixing, move to banquet room, opening remarks, intros and State of IALLT talk during salad, main course. Formal activities (awards, transfer to new board) will occur during dessert. § Recipients of the Graduate Student Conference Grant will be acknowledged during the meeting. This will also provide an excellent opportunity to review what the grant is for and how supporting funds are provided. o Saturday, 8:30-9:40am. Plenary Session § The session slot will include announcement and invitation to FLEAT V at Brigham Young University. o Saturday evening, Closing Party. § The Talking Stick will be transferred during the party. o Sunday, June 22nd, 8:30-10:30am, Board and Council meeting. Lynne will inform the Board of the location. § Council attendance and reporting o Lynne noted some of the reports are a little light on process detail and wondered if we should request expansions. There was brief discussion of the long-term desire to draft procedural documents per Board and Council position to aid in position transition. o Lynne will forward the list of missing Council reports to the Board for action. 4. Awards § Certificates are being produced and shipped to Lynne. § Checks for Henderson Plenary ($500) and Henderson and Sheppard awards ($100 each) will need to be prepared and distributed. 5. Updating Policy and Procedures Manual § Lynne affirmed her plan to complete the Policy and Procedures Manual update prior to the conference. She observed that we will need to finalize the documents and approve them prior to the meeting so they can be incorporated into the binders for the Board and Council meeting on Wednesday. 6. Tickler list/Issues for B&C and for the future § Lynne asserted that she plans to update the tickler list and pass all documents on to Ute Lahaie in updated order. § David asked the Board to send issues for future consideration to Peter. 7. Other § David again thanked the Board for their cooperation and work. § Peter thanked David for his assistance and preparation in helping him through the learning curve. § The next meeting will be June 16, 2003 at 5:45pm at the University of Michigan Language Resource Center. Meeting adjourned 2:12pm CDT Respectfully Submitted, Lynne A. Crandall