2005 Summer Meeting
Aug. 6, 7, and 10, 2005
Salt Lake City, UT

Meeting I, August 6, 2005

Members Present:  Dick Peterson, President; Ken Heller, President Elect; Harvey Leff, Vice President; Jim Nelson, Past President; Chuck Robertson, Treasurer; Randy Peterson, Chair of Section Representatives; Alan Gibson, Vice-Chair of Section Representatives; Chuck Stone, At-Large Member for Two-Year Colleges; Ruth Chabay, At-Large Member for Four-Year Colleges; Karl Mamola, Editor of The Physics Teacher (TPT); Jan Tobochnik, Editor for the American Journal of Physics (AJP). 

Members Absent:  Mary Beth Monroe, Secretary; Bernard V. Khoury, Executive Officer; John Roeder, At-Large Member for High Schools 

Guests:  Roger Stuewer, Warren Hein, Jack Hehn:  Joined later by Carol Heimpel and Valerie Evans.

I.  Opening

A.  Welcome and Call to Order.  Dick Peterson called the meeting to order and welcomed all those attending the meeting. 

B.  Introduction of Guests.  Dick Peterson welcomed all the guests. 

C.  Approval of Agenda.  

Dick Peterson moved that the Board allow Tom O’Kuma to serve as recording secretary for the open and executive sessions of the Executive Board.  Karl Mamola seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.  (M.B. Monroe was unable to attend the meeting due to medical reasons.) 

Chuck Stone proposed that the Board should have a discussion regarding how it might increase its interactions with government officials (U.S. Congress, senators, and others), the National Science Foundation, and other professional societies with headquarters in the Washington D.C. area.   

Dick Peterson moved that the Board approve the agenda.  The motion was seconded by Jim Nelson.  The motion passed unanimously. 

D.  Approval of Minutes – April 23-24, 2005.  D. Peterson asked members for substantive corrections to the April 2005 Minutes, adding that members should give typo errors to Monroe outside the meeting, if they had not already done so. 

Stone moved that the Board accept the April 2005 Minutes as corrected and C. Robertson seconded the motion.  The motion passed unanimously. 

Executive Session I. D. Peterson called the Board into Executive Session I (with Khoury and Hein). R. Stuewer, Editor, responded to the report of the Five-Year Review of Resource Letters.  In addition the Board discussed the hiring of a Senior Staff Physicist.  Subsequently D. Peterson closed the executive session and reconvened the Board in open session.   

E.  Reports from Board Leaders.

Report from the President. D. Peterson reported that the Executive Board functions differently now than it did 5 to 10 years ago.  Many of these “new” functions are a result of electronic services such as conference calls and email updates.  He believes that this allows better communications and gives him the feeling that he is in touch with the Board members and has a better feeling of what is happening in AAPT between their meetings. 

Report from the President-Elect.  K. Heller reported briefly on the program at Salt Lake City.  (C. Heimpel later reported that there were 1,050 people registered for the SLC meeting before on-site registration started.  This number included about 600 member registrations.)  Heller predicted that future meetings might have fewer papers and more posters.  Paper sorting is going well with 3 representatives from Area Chairs aiding in the sorting.  This expanded group better informs the Area Chairs of the complexities of the meetings.  The APS session is going well and has been elevated to essentially a plenary session.  Some committee meetings have been moved to mornings. Heller anticipates that comments from participants at these meetings will help Programs determine if this change will produce problems.    

The meeting of Programs I was not held due to increased communications between the President-Elect and the Area Chairs.  There were some discussions among the Board members regarding how the Area Chairs could be more involved in the national meeting as well as preparing their committees for the meeting.  R. Peterson suggested involving the Area Chairs with the Section Representatives during the Section Officers’ Exchange. 

Report from the Vice-President.  H. Leff handed out copies of his report.  The three plenary sessions speakers have been confirmed for the Anchorage Meeting.  He discussed future plenary sessions speakers, adding that some tentative agreements have been made. The “Physics in Alaska” session is not confirmed at this point, but will probably happen.  His last item for discussion addressed how the contributed paper sessions could promote the 75^th Anniversary of AAPT.  Some Board members proposed a photo display of AAPT activities and its members over the years.  Another proposed a session with special talks on what has influenced a person’s decision to become a physics teacher or physicist. 

Report from the Past President.  J. Nelson reported on the status of the Rural PTRA.  RPTRA ran 35 sites this Summer.  With the help of Karen Jo Matsler and Richard Olenick, the PTRAs submitted a $500,000 proposal to the Texas Education Agency to run 3 RPTRA sites for an additional two-year cycle.  Funding will be known in two weeks.  If this is funded, the PTRA program will use it as a model for other states to use in seeking funding for their states from state agencies. 

Report from the Secretary.  There was no report from the Secretary. 

Report from the Treasurer.  C. Robertson had no report other than later agenda items. 

Report from the Section Representatives.  R. Peterson reported that the Louisiana section has re-organized.  They have submitted a new constitution and should be about 4 months away from being formally activated.  Kentucky is working on its reactivation.  The Puerto Rico Section remains inactive and still needs the attention of the Section Representatives.  The Alabama section is up and running and has had 4 meetings over the last year. 

Report from the Executive Officer.  W. Hein highlighted Item 12 from B. Khoury’s report to the Board (August 2005). Another $50,000 has been donated to the Barbara Lotze Scholarship Fund, which and will be moved in long-term reserves. 

C. Robertson moved, and C. Stone seconded, that the Board authorize the movement of the Barbara Lotze Fund into the long-term reserve investments. The motion passed unanimously. 

Hein stated that the office needed to start working on the Department Chairs’ Conference.  He also reported on the status of Khoury’s surgery and recovery.

II.  Action Items

A.  Board Member Committee Meeting Assignments.  D. Peterson passed around the Committee Meeting list and asked that Board members sign up to attend the committee meetings.  He asked Board members to use the forms he had prepared for their reports of the meetings that they attended. 

B.  75^th Anniversary Planning.  W. Hein reported that the staff (now chaired by Carol Heimpel) has been working on this for 6 months.  C. Heimpel reported on several activities, including some that would be kicked off in Anchorage. 

1. The staff will initiate trivia contests this Fall.  The contest will begin on November 7 and run for 60 weeks through December 2006.  The questions will consist of physics and AAPT trivia.  Weekly winners will be entered into a monthly drawing for $75. Cash prizes are available only for AAPT members
2. The committee created an AAPT timeline that will be on T-shirts and mugs.  The committee considered preparing  a 75 cm ruler but was not successful.
3. The committee is creating a booklet celebrating 75 years.  They have solicited names for 75 outstanding physicists and 231 names were received.  The physicists could be researchers or educators.  Most of them have responded.
4. The SPS Intern researched the possibility of having a time capsule that could be opened on AAPT’s 100^th anniversary.

During discussion of the report, Board members suggested that AAPT prepare stickers with the 75^th anniversary logo for general distribution. 

D. Peterson pointed out that in contrast to the work of Melba Phillips and other AAPT leaders in the planning for the 50^th Anniversary, the Executive Board did not have an active role in the current planning for the 75^th Anniversary. Most of the planning had been made by AAPT staff. He expressed to the AAPT staff present that the Executive Board would like to be more involved in the preparations for this special commemoration.   

C.  2005 Budget Update.  Robertson reported that one paragraph in his report (II.C.) is incorrect.  Hein explained that there was an error in the reported AAPT Designated Fund Balance for 6/30/2005.  The correct value should be $1,253,840. 

D.  2006 Strategic Planning Retreat.  D. Peterson explained that the Board needed to consider three items regarding the 2006 Retreat: the retreat site, the selection of a facilitator, and the identification of people to be invited.  

1. Following a discussion of the report from B. Khoury and AAPT staff regarding retreat site options, Robertson moved that the Board designate the Westfields Conference Center as the site for the 2006 Strategic Planning Retreat. Jim Nelson seconded the motion.  The motion passed unanimously.

 

2. B. Khoury suggested four individuals to serve as retreat facilitator.   Considerable discussion followed. Some of the discussion concerned what background the facilitator should have. Some Board members thought the facilitator should be an outsider who had a background for handling this kind of activity.  Others members felt that the facilitator should be someone who had a physics background and had some knowledge of AAPT and its history.  D. Peterson suggested that the Board first decide if they wanted an outsider or a person with the physics background to serve as facilitator.  Subsequently the Board could specify the person they preferred to serve as facilitator.  

 

3. D. Peterson proposed that the Board appoint a small group to prepare, for the Board’s consideration in October, a procedure for choosing who should attend the Retreat and a recommendation of four or five focus issues for the Retreat. The seven bullets in D. Peterson’s Wingspread proposal could serve as a basis for these 4 or 5 focus issues.  There was consensus among the Board members that D. Peterson should appoint such a group.

 

(D. Peterson adjourned Executive Board I.)

Meeting II, August 7, 2005

Members Present:  Dick Peterson, President; Ken Heller, President Elect; Harvey Leff, Vice President; Jim Nelson, Past President; Chuck Robertson, Treasurer; Randy Peterson, Chair of Section Representatives; Alan Gibson, Vice-Chair of Section Representatives; Chuck Stone, At-Large Member for Two-Year Colleges; Ruth Chabay, At-Large Member for Four-Year Colleges; Karl Mamola, Editor of The Physics Teacher (TPT); Jan Tobochnik, Editor for the American Journal of Physics (AJP). Mary Beth Monroe joined the meeting by cell phone. 

Members Absent: Bernard V. Khoury, Executive Officer; John Roeder, At-Large Member for High Schools 

Guests:  Warren Hein; Jack Hehn and John Layman joined us after 15 minutes.  Joined later by Carol Heimpel, Valerie Evans, and Bob Beichner (after 15 minutes).  Len Jossem also joined us after 35 minutes.  Bruce Mason, Jim Stith, Ted Hodapp, Charlie Holbrow and Tom Rossing dropped by at various times during the meeting. 

II.   Action Items (continued)

I.  Proposed Task Force on Advanced Laboratories.  H. Leff reported on the status on this proposed task force and briefly summarized his discussion with Jonathan Reichert at a recent APS meeting.  Leff reviewed the eight items presented in his report (item II.I and the three items of his proposal).  Chabay expressed her desire that the task force actually set clear goals.  J. Tobochnik mentioned what’s available in AJP and questioned what was new about the proposed advanced laboratories conference.  He commented that this would fit into the Winter Meeting conference model.  T. O’Kuma mentioned that the Laboratory Committee was considering such a meeting, but he did not know the committee’s current status regarding such a conference.  In additional discussion, Tobochnik said he would support a special issue of AJP on advanced lab topics.  Chabay expressed that this proposal should first be considered by the Laboratory Committee.  It was agreed that R. Peterson and Mamola would take this information to both the Lab Committee and Apparatus Committee during their regularly scheduled meetings and report the committees’ reactions to the Board during its Wednesday session. 

K.  Purpose of Homer L. Dodge Fund.  W. Hein reported (see Item II.K in the Board packet) on Khoury’s letter to the Homer Dodge’s family. 

L.  Update on Physical Review Special Topics:  PER - Bob Beichner.  B. Beichner discussed the status of the PER journal.  He acknowledged that the brochure about the journal has APS in big letters, but AAPT is in small letters.  Beichner would like this publication to be a joint journal of AAPT/APS.  Beichner expressed his heartfelt thanks to AAPT for supporting the journal. He explained that he is not privy to who receives page charge support for the journal.  They have received 25 articles to date with 9 articles rejected and 3 articles already accepted.  The remaining articles are in the pipeline.  They have an excellent editorial board.  An editorial board was proposed by Beichner and the Forum on Education also provided input to Marty Blume, Editor of APS Publications.  Final selection of an editorial board was made by Blume. David Maloney is the Associate Editor.  The third year of funding from NSF has been approved.  Stone asked how an author could ask for and get support.  Beichner explained that there is an independent committee that has been appointed to determine this and Ruth Chabay is AAPT’s representative on that committee.   

D. Peterson mentioned that the Publication Committee would probably recommend later in the Board meeting that Bob Beichner be added as a member of the AAPT Publication Committee.

III.  Discussion Items

A.  PhysTEC Report.  John Layman, CoPI for PhysTEC representing AAPT, referred to item III.a. in the Board packet.  Layman stated that the project was having some difficulties associated with the Leadership Council.  PhysTEC has just finished a 3-day conference of Teachers In Residents (TIRs), past and present, mentors, and the PPIs.  The four leaders were John Layman, Paul Hickman, Mike Wolter, and Marcia Fetters (representing the education community).  Hein and Layman had hoped that Karen Johnston would be retained as a Project Consultant and therefore play a larger role in the project, but this has not occurred.  Layman reported that AAPT is not considered an equal partner with APS.  According to Layman, Hodapp stated that AAPT did not have a final decision on most matters – that APS would make these final decisions.  According to Layman, it is not clear that AAPT is a collaborative partner with APS on this.   

Hein agreed with Layman’s assessment.  He added that although in the past AAPT had not had a part in the PPI Memorandum of Understanding negotiations the Association did have input for the 2005-2006 project year.  

Hodapp stated (Hodapp has been APS Education Manager for 10 months) that he now has a feeling for how the project is going.  He expressed that as PI he has to make the final decision and has done so after listening to input from the Co-PIs.  Hodapp also stated that there have been some conflicts between his boss and the recommendations of the Co-PIs.  Hodapp disagreed with Layman’s statement concerning the lack of collaboration between AAPT and APS. Hodapp also stated that APS has raised money to expand the number of participating institutions and that the society should do so.  With regard to the loss of Karen Johnston as project evaluator, Hodapp explained that Johnston told him she did not want to stay with the project.  Hodapp also stated that the Leadership Council supports his view.   

Jack Hehn (CoPI for PhysTEC representing AIP) stated that the concerns about managing the project and working as a team were valid.  Hehn expressed concern that Hodapp’s boss can dictate what he must do.  Hehn described what he hoped would occur as the next steps for PhysTEC.  Hehn also expressed a need for the management team to bring a solution forward to address the present concerns.   

Len Jossem (as a member of the Advisory Committee for PhysTEC) stated that the project took on an extremely difficult task and that this would be a long-term task.  He stated that only 1/3 of the physics departments replied to a letter about teacher preparation concerns when all physics departments at four-year colleges and universities were polled.  Jossem also stated that no explicit agreement was made in the beginning among the participating groups (probably due to good relations at that time).  Jossem expressed that this explicit agreement now needs to be done at the executive officer level or presidential levels of the participating organizations.    Jossem added that there were some problems in the scaling up of the project.

 

Heller expressed his view that someone has to have the final say.  When there is a problem, the management team has to try to find a consensus.  It is not reasonable for a “boss” to micro-manage the project.  Hodapp feels that J. Franz really feels that APS has the final say and that Franz does not micro-manage.  Layman opined that all three participating organizations have a “vote” and two should outvote the one.  Nelson expressed that there is one PI, but that the three organizations’ executive officers should discuss this and then determine who decides.  Tobochnik commented that he did not find the disagreement among the PI’s to be unusual.

Stith expressed his point of view saying that usually the three executive officers get together and try to resolve the problem.  Stith stated that the three organizations before and after PhysTEC have conducted successful projects.  He anticipated that the executive officers would do just that in the next few weeks. They try to do this at a community level and not at an individual level. 

T. Hodapp commented that the project is going forward and acknowledged that in order for PhysTEC to get beyond these current problems, it might be necessary for the three executive officers to meet to discuss these and other project concerns.  He explained that a letter has gone out to the Leadership Team about staffing and other issues. 

C. Robertson asked to see in the Fall Board packet a report describing how teachers are affected by the PhysTEC project.  

Hodapp requested that he be given a copy of this portion of the Executive Board Minutes. 

B.    SPIN-UP/TYC Report.  T. O’Kuma reported that the SPIN-UP/TYC project is practically finished.  He handed out the 2 tri-fold brochures showing the “site visits” and the “accomplishments” of the project.  He then handed out the book “SPIN-UP/TYC:  Best Practices of Physics Programs”.  C. Stone recommended that the project directors include a cover letter with the mailing of the books.  A. Gibson recommended that copies of the book be sent to all PTRAs.  J. Nelson volunteered to help write a cover letter for this group.   

C.  ComPADRE Report.  Bruce Mason reported that they are currently in negotiations with NSF for the second round of funding for ComPADRE.  They plan to expand their coverage on the Web. W. Hein mentioned that the remaining money on the current grant would be spent over the next few months. 

H.  Visit by AIP Vice-President for Physics Resources.  Jim Stith highlighted some of the activities of the AIP Physics Resources. 

• Stith reported that Physics Today (PT) is trying a new experiment.  Some countries were selected randomly to receive PT only electronically.  At this time, AIP had not received any real negative feedback about this issue of electronic issues for the test group (about 15%).  Non-US members represent 1/3 of the members who receive PT, but they represent 2/3 of the mailing budget for PT.  AIP is concerned about how to handle the non-US member cost and how to best serve these members.  Starting January 2006, any new non-US member will not receive the print version of the PT unless they pay for the additional costs.

 

• Corporate Associates is being looked at seriously.  The Industrial Physicist has been cancelled and AIP must decide how to address this group of physicists.  Two actions will be taken on this issue.  AIP will bring in corporate associates for a 1/2 day meeting in the Spring.  They will also bring in the Corporate Associates with the AVS meeting.  J. Hehn gave a short report regarding the Corporate Associate meeting scheduled for this coming Fall (which might be its last full meeting).

 

• AIP lost many television station subscriptions to its Discoveries and Breakthroughs in Science (DBIS). Consequently the AIP has moved to a new production/distribution company in an effort to rebuild its base.  AIP is having discussions with NSF concerning how to improve DBIS distribution. .

 
 

Executive Session I. (D. Peterson called the Board into Executive Session I to discuss Layman’s report regarding PhysTEC, R. Stuewer’s response to the Review of Resource Letters.  At this time the Board continued its discussion regarding the Senior Staff Physicist.  

(During this time, D. Peterson presented to the Board a request to be excused from the meeting of the Executive Board on Wednesday August 10, due to a death in his immediate family. The Board accepted his request. D. Peterson thanked President-Elect K. Heller for stepping in on short notice.)  

Executive Session II.  At the conclusion of Executive Session I, D. Peterson moved the Board into Executive Session II (without Khoury and Hein) to review the Minutes of the Executive Sessions of the Board during its April 2005 meeting. 

(At the conclusion of Executive Session II, D. Peterson adjourned Meeting II of the Executive Board.)

Meeting III, Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Members Present: Ken Heller, President Elect; Harvey Leff, Vice President; Jim Nelson, Past President; Chuck Robertson, Treasurer; Randy Peterson, Chair of Section Representatives; Alan Gibson, Vice-Chair of Section Representatives; Ruth Chabay, At-Large Member for Four-Year Colleges; Karl Mamola, Editor of The Physics Teacher (TPT); Jan Tobochnik, Editor for the American Journal of Physics (AJP). Chuck Stone, At-Large Member for Two-Year Colleges arrived later. M.B. Monroe joined the first half of the meeting by phone.  

Members Absent:  Bernard V. Khoury, Executive Officer; John Roeder, At-Large Member for High Schools; Dick Peterson, President. 

Guests:  Gordon Aubrecht, Patsy Ann Johnson, Warren Hein.  Joined later by Carol Heimpel and Valerie Evans

II.  Action Items (continued)

S.  Gordon Aubrecht.  Aubrecht reported that the AAPT SI/Metric Committee (SE 14 joint with IEEE) committee is in disagreement with the IEEE draft P270/D10b Report, April 2005.  The report concerns the standard definitions for selected quantities, units and related terms. His issues with the Draft Standard Definitions are the following:

 

Following Board discussion, Ken Heller moved that the Executive Board support the concern of our chair of the SI Committee about these issues.  R. Peterson seconded the motion.  The motion passed. 

Executive Session I.  K. Heller called the Board into Executive Session I to hear the preliminary report from the PSRC Five-Year Review, presented by Patsy Ann Johnson, and the report from the Executive Officer Search Committee.   

(At the close of Executive Session I, Heller reconvened the Board into open session.) 

E.  Publications Committee Report. Alan Gibson reported the following recommendations from the Publications Committee: 

• The Committee recommends that the Board approve the following appointments to the AJP Editorial Board: Bruce Thomas at Carlton College (Experimental Physics), Andrew Sangwell at Georgia Tech (E & M), Art Poisson at Guelph (on Relativity and General Relativity).

 

• The Publications Committee recommended that the Board appoint Joe Hamilton at Vanderbilt University and Amy J. Kolin, St. Olaf College, to the Resource Letters Editorial Board. .

 

Tobochnik added that the Publications Committee expressed its support for adding Bob Beichner, the new editor of ST-PER, as a member of the committee.  W. Hein suggested that the Board delay this consideration until the October Board meeting so that Khoury could add his perceptions. One Board member pointed out that one matter that would have to be addressed would be if ST-PER would be part of the five-year review of AAPT publications. 

Following a short discussion, Karl Mamola moved that the Board appoint Bob Beichner, as ST-PER Editor, to the Publications Committee.  Jim Nelson seconded the motion.  The motion passed. 

F.  Bauder Fund Committee Report.  C. Robertson reported that the committee met.  They awarded $5,221 to five proposals and rejected one proposal.  

G.  Venture Fund Committee Report.  The committee had no report. 

G1.  Investment Advisory Committee.  C. Robertson reported that the committee was notified that TIAA-CREF is going to increase their fees from 3% to 4% up to 6%. The AAPT would realize an increase from $11 K to $ 19 K.  Therefore the Investment Advisory Committee will look into other options.   

H.  Membership and Benefits Committee Report. R. Peterson reported the following:

 

K. Heller asked if the AJP could publish the names of graduating students.  The intent would be to put all graduating physics PhD names in AJP.  It is preferable to list them by institution.  Tobochnik agreed to do this.  Valerie Evans will research if the AAPT could financially afford to send AJP to all new PhDs.    

II. Action Items (continued)

J.  Task Force on Graduate Education.  K. Heller reported Committee on Graduate Education felt that the Task Force document was too conservative and concentrated too much on items like books. The committee wants to reconstitute the Task Force and ask them to prepare a new document. Heller said the Board should have received a pdf file of the draft report.  Many members reported that they had not. Heller advised that the Board may receive the final report from the Task Force by its October meeting.  

L.  Funding Proposal for the 2006 Gordon Research Conference (GRC).  Stamatis Vokos submitted a proposal to the AAPT requesting funding support for the 2006 Gordon Research Conference. A similar request was sent to APS, AIP and other professional organizations.  

Tobochnik moved that the Executive Board award the GRC committee $4,000 from Klopsteg Funds for the 2006 Gordon Conference. The $4,000 cannot be used for undergraduate students.  C. Robertson seconded the motion.  The motion passed unanimously. 

The Board suggested that this kind of proposals should go through the Undergraduate Education Committee in the future before they are brought to the Board. 

III.  Discussion Items (continued)

D.  Rural PTRA Report.  J. Nelson reported on the membership packet that the AAPT staff provided for every RPTRA participant.  PASCO and Prentice Hall has donated reduced equipment or books.  Karen Jo Matsler and Jim Nelson submitted a $500,000 proposal to the Texas Education Agency with R. Olenick at the University of Dallas as the potential receiving institution.  Nelson will hear whether the proposal is successful within two weeks. 

E.  AAPT Book Editor Search.  W. Hein reported that an ad has been prepared for the Editor Search.  The search committee (Alex Dickison, Karl Mamola, and Marsha Hobbs) hopes to have a recommendation by January. 

F.  TPT Five-Year Review.  W. Hein reported that the Review Committee (Ed. Neuenschwander, Marv Nelson, and Diane Riendeau) is moving forward.  They expect to send out surveys to successful authors, rejected authors, and others during the Fall. 

G.  World Year of Physics.  C. Stone reported on various WYP activities, such as Physics Quest, and the people involved. W. Hein described other activities including “Vomit Comet”, a project with NASA in Houston, and an email exchange program for students with engineers and scientists.  The AAPT Science Education Committee will sponsor some WYP activities at the Syracuse meeting.  

I.  Reports from Area Committee Meetings.   K. Heller asked members to give only reports requiring Board action or consideration. Members were asked to give their written reports to the Secretary.

1. Chabay reported that the Undergraduate Education Committee has published the guidelines for undergraduate physics departments (the “red book”).  There will be a follow-up report from APS on the data gathered. 
2. Tobochnik reported that the Pre-HS Committee is trying to organize another session for pre-HS teachers.  They may request the Board for some support in doing this effort.
3. Leff reported that the Women in Physics Committee is celebrating its 25^th anniversary.  They will have a special program at Syracuse.
4. Stone gave a status report of the NSF initiative sponsored by the Two-Year College Committee. The CPTYC Task Force met with Duncan McBride during the Salt Lake City meeting.  He encouraged the task force to visit NSF and is trying to find a date for their visit with the appropriate program officers at NSF, probably in late October.
5. Nelson reported that the Teacher Preparation Committee would like to change its status from “temporary committee” to a permanent area committee.
6. Stone submitted, on behalf of the Science Education for the Public Committee, a written request to the Board asking for $5,000. The money will support the travel of five physics outreach experts to a meeting in the Spring 2006 for the purpose of drafting a resource guide for developing and conducting science outreach programs. W. Hein will respond to this proposal.
7. Robertson reported that the International Committee wants to increase the number of memberships given to people overseas using Fuller Funds.  They thought this could be done by electronic means. 
8. Gibson reported that the High School Committee sponsored two sessions on Physics First.  He also noted that Jan Madar and Mary Winn presented CDs of their Physics Resource Book.

 

J.  Boston Area Undergraduate Physics Competition.  W. Hein reported that R. Olenick needs to come forward with a proposal of what he wants support for in order for this competition to move forward under AAPT’s sponsorship.  On a related item, the International Young Physicists Tournament (IYPT) is seeking some publicity.  Karl Mamola is willing to publicize this in the TPT and has done some things already. 

K.  Update on PER Topical Group.  W. Hein reported that the PER Special Interest Group has exceeded 100 members. 

M.  Interactions with APS Forum on Education.  K. Heller reported that he attended the meeting of the APS Forum, but did not have a particular report to present.  The Forum was pleased with their session during the Utah meeting.  The Board expressed its desire for the Forum to organize a session for the AAPT meeting in Syracuse.   

N.  Planning Initiatives.  W. Hein reported that Khoury wants to continue to do some funding for Sections to consider the Science Education Standards similar to the support offered for sessions at Section meetings on teacher preparation.  Sections should address this issue at a local level  and the AAPT can provide a $500 incentive to the Sections.  There was some discussion of how the AAPT should handle this.  R. Peterson reported that W. Hein did a wonderful job on presenting this information to the Section Representatives. 

II. Action Items (continued)

I.  Proposal for an AAPT Advanced Labs Task Force (continuation of the Board discussion during Session II on Sunday). 

 

Robertson moved that the Board establish a Task Force on Advanced Labs.  R. Chabay seconded the motion.   

Following discussion of the motion, the Board asked Leff to prepare a better proposal for Board consideration during its October meeting. The proposal should include a charge to the Task Force and a budget.  The Board tabled the motion until the October meeting.  

P.  Planning for National Meetings.  H. Leff reported that many members thought the suggested changes for the Winter meetings were a done deal.  However the AAPT is still looking for input.  He does not think at this point that the Board can move forward on suggested changes.   

Chabay said the Board should produce a clear statement of what they are trying to accomplish.  She said that John Rigden said the AAPT use to be a physics organization interested in education, but now it seems to be an association of educators who are interested in physics.  She further said that many members were interested in Winter meeting alternatives but there were still some negative reactions to meeting changes. Gibson mentioned that a large number of our members (high school and two-year colleges) are educators who are interested in physics.  He further said that members in these communities are concerned about changing the Winter meetings.  Leff thought the Programs Committee displayed a positive tone about the proposed changes for the Winter meeting, but Gibson disagreed.  R. Peterson said that the Section Reps were opposed to the changes, but thought they had not read the material.  

Robertson said many wanted to know why the Board wanted this change in its meetings. Tobochnik said that there were many reasons revealed at the October meeting for the change.  H. Leff said that AAPT is supposed to serve the membership for K-20.  The Board feels that AAPT should go to the 4U membership and provide them with meetings/conferences; otherwise, they are leaving us.  Tobochnik was passionate about making the change.  Gibson presented the alternative view.  Nelson supported writing an article of information that would be presented to the members.  There was a continuation of discussion on this issue.  Heller suggested that the Board re-constitute the Task Force on the Winter Meeting and present a white paper of the pros and cons on making the Winter Meeting change.  Mamola supported Heller’s idea.  The Board can make suggestions on what the AAPT needs to do in Winter 2009. 

J. Nelson moved that the National Office with the Task Force come back to the Executive Board with a specific plan for a joint meeting with another comparable society for Winter 2009.  Chabay and Leff will compose a document to explain the Board’s rationale in making a change.  Mamola seconded the motion. 

Tobochnik expressed that there were two options available to the Board.  One option was to get the Task Force to do something and the second was for the national office to seek a recommendation for a Winter meeting site.  Much more discussion ensued.   Nelson made two observations:  (1) the Section Reps do not have the obligation to produce a plan and (2) the Board should go to Anchorage with two options – business as usual or a plan to move the proposed meeting changes forward.  The concerns about current Winter meetings included:  Winter meetings are doing poorly; there is a need to address the four-year college/university appeal; and there is a desire to improve the national meetings.  Motivation for the proposed change in Winter Meetings was to do something significant.  The motion passed. 

Executive Session II (without Khoury and Hein). Heller called the Board into Executive Session II to continue the Board’s consideration of the report from the Executive Officer Search Committee.  

(At the conclusion of the Board’s discussion, Heller reconvened the Board into open session.)   

III.  Discussion Items (continued).

R.  Broader Board Activity in Washington Area.  The Board decided to ask the Executive Office to set up possibilities for Board members to visit with professional organizations and government agencies in the DC area in October and March. 

Adjournment.  Heller thanked the Board members and adjourned the meeting.

Secretary’s Addendum

The following electronic motions were passed by the Board in the period between its April 2005 meeting and its Summer 2005 meeting: 

Motion:  That the AAPT Executive Board provide funds totaling up to $1625 from the Klopsteg Fund for the completion of a "Physics First" booklet. One thousand dollars will

be allocated as an honorarium for the writer ($500 after the meeting in Salt Lake City and $500 after a final manuscript is transferred to the Chair of Publications), and up to $125 would be allocated to provide one day per diem for each of the members of the work group (totally up to $625.  

Motion:  That the AAPT Executive Board appoint to the Search Committee for the AAPT Book Editor the following AAPT members:

    Marsha Hobbs