EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING
President's Welcome /
Introductions
The fall 06 PSMLA Executive Council
meeting began at
The following members were absent
on Saturday: T. Fall and the PaCIE rep.
On
The following members were absent
on Sunday: T. Fall, D. Kinman, P. Kolega,
and the PaCIE rep.
Approval of Minutes
The minutes were approved via
e-mail after the meeting in April, 2006.
Ellen Irish has volunteered to take
minutes at the fall 06 Conference since Phyllis will be busy with conference
details. She will also type them up and send them out to council.
Treasurer's Report (D. Wills)
Deb Wills gave Council a thorough
explanation of her Treasurer's Report. Upon examination of the report, Council
discussed the idea of a dues increase and considered other ways in which PSMLA
could make money. These ideas will be explored later in the minutes. Ex. Co.
was reminded that an internal review of the PSMLA books need
to be done in the spring to be in compliance with By-law B-12. President Youngs
will appoint a committee to conduct this internal review. P. Rzodkiewicz moved and T. White seconded that Council accept
the Treasurer's Report. Motion carried.
Business Manager's Report (K.
Boykin)
There are presently 625 members.
Council looked at the breakdown of individual vs
institutional memberships. Kathleen informed Council that PSMLA is now ready to
accept payment via credit card. The web link is not yet ready. Kathleen gave Phyllis the forms she would need to accept credit
card payment for membership, conference registration, etc. for the fall
conference in
The Advertising Manager's Report
(D. Hall and R. Hall)
Bob Hall distributed to council a
detailed report which explained the number of ads for the Forum and the
conference brochure, the number of tables which have been reserved for the
conference, etc. He explained why some of the exhibitors are receiving a free
conference ad and/or a free ad in the Forum. Council was very pleased with the
number of tables and ads which Bob and Denise have secured for the conference.
Pam explained to Bob and to Council that she has access to a data base with all
the international companies with offices in
Organizational Representative
Reports
ACTFL (F. Mulhern)
Frank informed Council that the ACTFL conference
will be held in
Cultural Communications
Deb Wills reported that it is very early in the
school year and that the CCA program is not yet up and running this fall. Deb
informed Council that she has made all the arrangements to allow her students
to share their outstanding presentation which they did last year in Pittsburgh
when they sold ketchup in the upside down bottle in Italy. It will be great to
have the students present in
JNCL-NCLIS (B. Youngs)
Bonnie Youngs attended the JNCL meeting in
NECTFL (E. Irish)
Ellen Irish reported that the
information on the Mead Fellowship offered by NECTFL will be going out soon.
Ellen also reminded the 06 conference committee that we needed to check the
evaluation forms from the conference and select the Best of PA for NECTFL. This
will be done after the
PaCIE
Sister Mary Helen Kashuba will serve as PSMLA's rep
to PaCIE and will attend their conference at the end
of September. A new rep from PaCIE will be assigned
to the PSMLA council. Pam informed us that Judy Pehrson
is the current President of PaCIE. Karen informed
Council that Alice Edwards, from Mercyhurst College , will be recognized at the PaCIE
conference for her work in international education. .
PDE (P. Kolega)
Pam informed us that on September
14, M. Zilli will be meeting with several leaders
from Labor and Industry and from Economic Development. They will discuss the
World Language Standards and having them put back in. Getting the industry
people involved will be a new approach.
Pam also informed us that the Sign
Language Standards will be an addendum to the World Language Standards. This
may help to get our standards pushed through.
Pam also informed us that the
Chinese community has been advocating to have more
Chinese instruction offered in US schools. There were 30,000 applications in
The PA Governor's Institute for
World Languages went very well again. The presenters were very pleased and
Sister Mary Helen Kashuba will present her final
report to PDE at the end of September.
The Organizational Rep Reports were
approved on a motion by Rzodkiewicz / Wlills.
Standing Committee Reports
Advocacy/Business-Outreach (T.
White)
High School Reform 720 recommends
two years of world language study for graduation. Previously, it was required.
When was this changed? The reason was the lack of teachers but this is no
longer an issue due to on-line schools, blended schools, cyber schools, etc.
There was discussion about having other states that have adopted standards
help. Becky Kline has already testified in the past. June Phillips and Christie
Brown have both agreed to come in and help and provide their support in any way
they can. Council members also discussed the influence of world languages on
PSSA and how standards have impacted scores in other states. This data is of
great importance and is available for our use.
Awards (P. Rzodkiewicz)
Phyllis Rzodkiewicz
explained that the awards committee had been reconfigured with all of the
following now under the Awards Committee:
Kathleen will put together a flyer
for the conference that will contain information on Who's Who. The other reps
will bring information on the Mead Fellowship, the Outstanding Senior Award,
the Cemanahuac Scholarship, etc. This information
will be displayed on easels at the conference.
2006 PSMLA Conference (B. Hall, P. Rzodkiewicz, and K. Williams)
The 2006 PSMLA Conference will be
held in
The sessions will be of interest to
teachers from elementary through the university level. Registration forms have
been mailed to all members of PSMLA. This year for the first time, a
Pre-conference Workshop will be held on Thursday (the day prior to the actual
conference). Participants of this workshop will be presented with an overview
of he ACTFL Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) at the Novice and Intermediate
Levels. Bonnie Adair-Hauck, presenter of the pre-conference workshop, will
instruct participants in how to actualize the Connections Standard by
developing IPA tasks grounded in authentic texts.
There will be a wine and cheese
reception following the conference on Friday. Local college and universities
are sponsoring the event:
Denise Hall will sit at the PSMLA
table and will be available to sell and take orders for PSMLA t-shirts and note
cards.
2007 PSMLA Conference (E. Irish)
The 2007 PSMLA Conference will be
held at the
Conference 2008 (D. Wills and B,
Youngs)
The 2008 PSMLA Conference will be
held in
Conference 2009
President Youngs is contacting
Virginia Burke to see if she would work with Millersville again and host the
conference in 09. There was discussion about moving to another part of the
state to increase membership. Council reminded one another of the need for
strong leadership in order for there to be a successful conference. Bonnie will
wait to hear from
Finance Committee Report (P. Rzodkiewicz)
Kathleen Boykin explained to
Council that PSMLA is now ready to accept payment via credit card. Kathleen has
everything set up through Card Accept. They will accept Visa and MasterCard
right now.
The Finance Committee and Council
had allowed Denise Hall, co-Ad Manager, to purchase t-shirts. She has put
designs on different languages on the shirts. These will be sold for the first
time at the fall conference this year. (A few Council members did purchase a
few at the Ex. Co, meeting in September.) The shirts will be sold at a cost of
$12 for a children's shirt and $15 for an adult's shirt.
PSMLA will also be selling note
cards at the fall conference. President Youngs showed a sample of the note
cards. These will be printed, packaged and sold 8 for $5.00 at the fall
conference.
The Finance Committee also decided
it was necessary for PSMLA Ex. Co. to create a policy regarding price of registration
for those presenting at the conference. The Finance Committee recommended The presenters will pay 50% of whatever they would have paid
if they were not presenting (50% of the one-day fee or 50% of the two-day fee.
The non-member presenter will pay the 50% of the member fee as above, plus the
differential between the member and non-member rate. This will begin with the
‘07 conference. This Sister Kashuba / Richards motion
passed unanimously.
Membership Committee Report (J.
Stewart)
The membership committee met and
Cindy Dotto volunteered to take the information in
the membership brochure and make the necessary changes. She will have a new
brochure ready to share with Ex, Co, at the spring meeting. Council discussed
how
Nominations / Elections Report (M. Boettjer)
Council felt that the elections ran
very well last year and that it was great to have the new members invited to
and introduced at the council breakfast, which is held during the fall
conference. Therefore, the elections for executive council positions will be
held at the beginning of the school year as they were last year.
There was much discussion regarding
having paper elections vs. electronic elections. It was decided that this year
we would try a modified-version of electronic ballots. Many other organizations
are now doing this and Ex. Co. decided it was time for PSMLA to give it a try.
Maryanne will report back in the spring regarding how this worked.
Information on candidates and bios
will be available on the web. Information will also be sent out via the list serv. Paper ballots will be mailed to those PSMLA members
who did not supply us with a e-mail address. On a
motion by Rzodkiewicz/ Wills, council voted to
suspend the election by-law process for this year and hold elections prior to
the conference (which was decided in the spring).
Professional Development (F. Mulhern and P, Rzodkiewicz)
Kathleen and Phyllis created a
guide for setting up a workshop which is now available on the web site. Frank
had sent a memo to PSMLA Ex. Co, members asking for them to submit a workshop
proposal form to Frank or to Phyllis. These workshops will be posted on the web
and members can contact PSMLA to have these workshops presented in their
districts.
Frank will contact others in the
future about adding other possible workshops to the web site. There are other
people in the state who are recognized presenters and could present outstanding
workshops as well. By offering these workshops in various parts of the state,
we can continue to build our membership.
Council members were reminded that
a specific form has been developed and all future workshop presenters will be
required to submit the necessary paperwork to the PSMLA Treasurer and the
competed evaluation forms to the Co-Chairs of the Professional Development
Committee prior to being paid for conducting the workshop.
Publications Report (K. Williams)
Elisabeth Donato
is stepping down as co-editor of the Forum. Karen Williams will continue to
work on the Forum for the '07 spring edition only. The Publications Committee
will need to find someone else to take over the publication of the Forum. Karen
expressed her concern for the need for a k-12 person to work on the Forum. We
really do not have a Publications Committee at this time. President Youngs and
council will need to find people for this committee.
As for materials for the spring
edition of the Forum, Sister Kashuba will share
materials from the Governor's Institute. Dan and Cindy also volunteered to help
with this. The deadline for submission of articles for the spring Forum is
The Standing Committee Reports were
approved on a motion by Stewart / Irish.
Service Position Reports:
Parliamentarian Report (F, Mulhern)
Frank distributed a copy of the
by-laws to all council members. Council examined all the laws to make sure they
are consistent with current PSMLA policy, and vice versa. Kathleen, Phyllis,
and Frank had been working on some necessary changes. Council made a list of
the changes that were needed. Frank will present these at the PSMLA Business
meeting at the Fall Conference in
Website Manager (K. Williams)
Karen asked that she be involved if
any major proposals are made to overhaul the web site so the site looks
appropriate and is consistent with the other changes being made. Karen told
Council that she now has a program that will change between word and pdf. Karen informed Council that it is still easier if
things are sent to her in pdf format.
Kathleen is working on setting up
the shopping cart for the web site and will share this with Karen when it is
ready for use.
Project Manager Reports
ACE / PDE Certification (T. Fall)
No report was sent. There is a
session planned on ACE for Saturday at the fall conference. This session will
be presented by Bonnie Adair-Hauck and Thekla Fall.
Act 48 (B. Youngs)
Phyllis and Bonnie reported to
Council the problems they have encountered in trying to upload rosters and Act
48 hours for PSMLA members. The PDE site for inputting hours was down most of
the summer. This information needs to be shared with PSMLA members at the fall
conference so they know why their hours have not been input. Conference
attendees will also be reminded of the need for them con know their personal ID
number which will be required by PDE in the future when Act 48 hours are input.
E-Flash
Karen Williams will continue as
Project Manager of E-Flash. Bonnie Youngs contacted some of the people on the
list of volunteers to see if they would be willing to help with various
committees, but no one offered to get involved.
New Business
Discussion focused on two topics:
A. The Finance Committee reported
that at this time, Ex. Co. members will not have any part of their conference
expenses paid for.
B. Bonnie will continue to look for
someone to serve as PSMLA Historian.
As per they bylaws, the Historian
will collect a copy of all reports and a copy of the Forum and send these to
IUP to be archived. It would be great to have a list of all past PSMLA Award
winners. Also, we need to know if any back issues of the forum are missing from
the archives, etc.
Council set the date for the spring
Executive Council meeting: April 28-29 at the Ramada Inn in
Phyllis Rzodkiewicz,
PSMLA Secretary, respectfully submits the PSMLA Minutes.