NNER Governing Council Meeting Agenda
Annual Meeting
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Thursday, October 27, 2005
12:00 - 3:00 p.m.

In attendance: Ed Scantling, Anne Madsen, Deborah Curtis, JoNancy Warren, George Johnson, Elizabeth Parmelee, Ruth Davis, DeBorah Zackery, Josie Tinajero, Vernon Henshaw, Randy Hitz, Les Sternberg, Dick Clark, Cindi Chance, Ken Jones, Greg Bernhardt, Marijke Kehrhahn, John Anderson, Mary Ellen Finch, Mike Moody, Jim Lowham, Richard Young, Van Dempsey, Carol Wilson, Sally Lloyd, Nick Michelli, Ada Beth Cutler, and Ann Foster. Guests: Tom Clark, Cindy Onore, Bruce Field, and Bryan Burgin.

1. Executive Director Report — year-end overview for the NNER (PowerPoint will be available on the NNER web site)
   
   
2. Special report on the conference provided by Bruce Field and Bryan Burgin. They reviewed materials in the registration packet, including the program and proceedings. They also provided statistics on the conference attendance:
   • 298 participants—a few last minute cancellations;
   • They distributed a breakout of registrations by group and complimentary registrations
   • Bryan Burgin, conference planner, reported on the budget and announced that the setting won’t need to request funding from the NNER. The conference operated at a profit. He indicated that the NNER will receive $23,683.72 from conference proceeds to be used by the governing council to advance NNER initiatives. Les Sternberg indicated that one possible area that these funds could support is the research work being initiated by the NNER. The governing council expressed gratitude and appreciation to the conference planners for these unexpected additional funds that are so needed.
     
     
3. Advance information on next two conferences: Greg Bernhardt and Sally Lloyd provided an overview on the 2006 Ohio session—Joint Miami and Wright State. Highlights of the overview included:
   • Sunday morning there will be a video;
   • The conference will be held at the Marriott Hotel—conference room at $99;
   • Air travel to either Dayton or Cincinnati—30 miles;
   • Conference title, “Leadership for Simultaneous Renewal: Changing Roles and Changing Times”;
   • John Goodlad will address the group on Saturday afternoon—opening keynote will be given by Nancy Zimpher;
   • The planning committee is working on strands for Arts & Sciences and K-12, a reception and a tour of the new Underground Railway exhibit.

Van Dempsey--West Virginia will host the 2007 Annual Conference. The committee is working on a location. They are not sure whether it will be in Morgantown or Charleston. They are working on entertainment as well as funding support.

4. Budget:
   • Greg Bernhardt presented information that had been shared earlier via email that included the 2004-2005 budget expenditures with a narrative. There was a motion, second, vote, and the budget expenditures information was accepted unanimously.
   • The 2005-2006 fiscal year budget was presented. There was a motion, second, vote, and it passed unanimously. It was noted that there are updates from the time the document was developed. There is currently $120,000 in the operating budget for the fiscal year, and $2,500 has been paid by one setting to be used for next year’s dues. The Arts & Sciences meeting expenses have come in for a total of $11,404.93. Of that, $5,436.83 was paid by the IEI from the carryover from the Hybrid Educator funds and $5,968.10 from the NNER potential work funds allocated by the governing council. Through discussion it was proposed that there should be more of an increase for executive director. It was suggested that the executive board discuss this in December. The budget was approved with the understanding that the executive board would bring a proposal to the governing council in January for an addendum.
     
     
5. Governance Document Update Action Item:
   • Carol Wilson noted that the NNER does not have an official by-law document but rather we have a document that describes the governance procedures for the NNER. This was developed three years ago with the addition of the tripartite council. With three years of experience, it was noted that the document required adjustments to reflect the actual practice and include details on term lengths for the various roles with the expansion of the governing council and the tripartite council. Greg Bernhardt reviewed the document and recommended changes.
   • Les Sternberg noted that on page 5, under membership, the word “chose” needed to be changed to “choose.” It was also suggested that at the top of page 5 the wording should change to “Issues that impact the Agenda and the NNER.”
   • There was a motion to change the document, it was seconded and passed unanimously including the two changes noted above.
     
     
6. .Executive Board Report from Setting Conversations — The governing council was given a report from calls made by executive board members to settings. As an example of work in the settings, Cindy Chance shared information about communications occurring at Georgia Southern University with support and leadership from the Provost and the new Science and Technology Dean; Cindy also noted progress on broadening tenure-related decisions for schoolwork.
   
   
7. Tripartite Council—Tripartite Council Chairs

John Anderson noted that the group was probably an hour short on time for future reference. The general plan was to do what we had done last year, share annual reports, and discuss progress and challenges. Feedback indicated that it was a valuable activity. During the Tripartite Council meeting John Goodlad offered reflections on accomplishments and challenges to the group. The group then created lists of things they want the Governing Council to think about. These items included:

• How to build an infrastructure that will build local sites-educate and communicate the agenda;
• Core issue—equity and access;
• Address equal access to high quality education;
• Revisit statement of equity and take action at the national and local levels – to ensure we are making progress;
• NNER needs to reassert equity as the central issue;
• Need to build capacity through leadership development at existing sites—partially related to problems of ongoing turnover—also need to have support for people once they have participated in initial leadership training;
• Advocate for emphasis on moral responsibility and social democracy;
• From the settings emphasis needed on the continue leadership development work;
• It was suggested that we should revisit the list of actions identified by the equity committee in Salt Lake City—this came from SCDE job alike group;
• The SCDE group also focused on sustainability and the need to develop SIG’s.
• Elections to the tripartite council:
  • JoNancy Warren was elected as an at-large member from the school group,
  • Leroy Kemp was elected chair of the COE group.

8. IEI Updates:
   • League of Small Democratic Schools—Dick Clark urged people to be alert to opportunity with the new eastern region;
   • Wisniewski Award (see the NNER newsletter and web site for details);
   • Other:
   • Dick Clark reminded people of the RFP and invited people to talk with him about it;
     • John Goodlad discussed the Forum and the need to develop an approach that will address the local level. There will be a meeting of the Forum leaders at the IEI in December 2005. John Goodlad is proposing to form collaboration with the various existing networks. He also noted that all NNER and IEI letterhead should have the AED on it. The issue of putting the AED on local setting letterheads was raised. We need to look at licensing if we are going to put logos on things; settings need to work with the institutional guidelines. In response to a question on whether the NNER has a logo, Ann Foster replied that we use the logo developed for the In Praise of Education Conference;
     • Les Sternberg noted that politics are local. NCLB is being adjusted (rubber band approach) because of local level work, but we still have to do work at the national level;
     • Nick Michelli reminded the group of what we have experienced with very serious backlashes, as an example, the accusation that CUNY teaches impractical things illustrated in the attack on including teaching dispositions;
     • John Goodlad reminded the group that we need to examine our work in relation to the Agenda for Education in a Democracy and the NNER mission statement.
9. Initiative Updates:
   • Partner school leaders’ grant. Activities are underway for the $2,000,000 three-year grant. Settings have been given information on the qualifications for participation and encouraged to nominate principals and teacher leaders for the program — Ann Foster Research committee — Cindy Onore shared written statement — dated October 27, 2005. The co-chairs recommend creating a small research team rather than having a large committee try to devise a research agenda. Hiring a grant writer was also recommended to search funding sources and write proposals from the group’s work to ensure funds for continuing the work. Cindy, and co-chair Van Dempsey, plan to distribute a larger summary of analysis of issues during the research committee meeting on Friday. The question was raised about the connection of this series of activities and the decisions at the AACTE meeting in December 2004. The response was that the subcommittees were identified at that meeting and this is the follow-up. However, there was confusion regarding the proposed meeting time for this conference and the actual meeting.
   • Other discussion included the suggestion that since there are people throughout the NNER interested in the research, the small research team could draft RFPs to give out to people across the Network who become the grant writers vs. hiring grant writers.
   • Arts and Sciences Inquiry Session — John Anderson reported on the group meeting and summary statement. One proposal was to have institutions adopt a statement regarding the Agenda for Education in a Democracy, centered on the four principles. Other suggestions from the groups included the initiation of a tripartite journal organized around an arts and sciences theme, e.g. the work of an historian commented on by the tripartite. Another proposal from the session included strands or panels that relate more directly to A&S during the annual conference, a strand around notion described in the proposed journal could be early versions of what may become papers for the journal.
   • The summery from the session was distributed and requested to be added to the web site. Ann Foster indicated that it would be added after the conference.
   • McGraw Hill proposal — Nick Michelli noted there will be 30 texts in the series and all will have the AED and democracy themes.
     
     
10. Not-for-profit status and the NNER considerations SWOT information collected in small groups led by executive board members. As time did not permit this activity, Carol Wilson urged people to look at the information in the packets and get feedback to the Executive Board in preparation for discussion in January 2006.
    
    
11. Election of Governing Council Chair:

Statements from the two candidates, Greg Bernhardt and Van Dempsey were delivered and the governing council conducted the election by ballot.

Greg was elected Governing Council Chair.

Van Dempsey was elected as member at-large to the Executive Board, replacing Greg.

REMINDER: The date for the AACTE governing council meeting is Sunday, January 29, 2006 (1:00 - 4:00 p.m.), and the NNER open session is Tuesday, January 31, 2006 (3:30 p.m.). AACTE is in San Diego, California.

Revised and approved by the NNER governing council 10/27/2005

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