Attending: Art Tanderup, John Stritt, Liz Hoffman, Shirley Schall, Randy Hiatt, Aimee Lempke, Pat Hoffman, Sarah Cunningham, Jan Schartz, Linda Wagner, Max Thacker (via distance learning from Omaha).

The meeting was called to order at 1:10 p.m. and introductions were made.

Max gave the Treasurer's report:

Total income through 08/04/03 ..$31,262.43

Total expenses through 08/04/03 $15,059.64

Balance (Checking and CD)...............$16,202.79

The 501(c)(3) status was then discussed. It was determined that the designation was never filed for. Sarah noted that the applicable form is available on the USDLA website. Art and Max will check into securing non-profit status with the State of Nebraska and the 501(c)(3) filing

The group spent a great deal of time discussing the NDLA constitution.

The first topics covered were Purpose and Mission. It was determined that the Recognition section would be revisited at a later date. Article I and Article II remain intact.

Rewording was proposed in Article III &endash; Membership. was modified to read as follows (sections removed contained in []):

Section 1. Qualifications for Membership. Individual and institutional members of all educational institutions and businesses or organizations involved in distance education may obtain membership in this Association by the payment of dues as set forth in the Bylaws.

Discussion determined that Section 2 would be reworded as indicated below:

Section 2. Categories. The membership categories shall be individual and corporate. Individual memberships shall have one voting right. Corporate memberships will include three individual memberships and one voting right. Corporate sponsorships are also available. Memberships will be on an annual basis.

It was determined that ESUs could become an institutional member and that the wording "Educational Consortium, non-profit groups, ESUs, which include three individual memberships and one voting right; University, state and community colleges, and private colleges, which includes three individual memberships and one voting right; and Individual which includes one vote." Would be removed.

Liz Hoffman made a motion that was seconded by Aimee Lempke that the changes discussed be made to Article I sections 1 and 2 of the NDLA Consitution. The motion carried unanimously.

Article IV, Board of Directors, was left intact.

No revisions were needed in Article V, Officers and Executive Committee.

Article V, Standing Committees was discussed. It was pointed out that all of the standing committees have not been utilized. The committees do not have to be standing committees, and others can be formed as needed.

Article VII, Meetings, was left as written. The Board of Directors does meet four times per year, and the annual meeting takes place in conjunction with the annual conference.

The group discussed Article VIII, Fiscal Year. Annual dues are paid with the conference registration. The conference will always be in May or June. It was determined that fiscal year will be changed to July 1 to June 30. This also coincides with most institutional fiscal years.

A motion was made by Pat Hoffman to amend the constitution to read "The fiscal year oif the Nebraska Distance Learning Association shall be July 1 through June 30." The motion received a second from Liz Hoffman. The motion carried unanimously.

The rest of the Constitution was left as is. The membership will need to vote on the changes to the Constitution. It was determined that Art would send out a blanket e-mail to the membership. The e-mail would invite the membership to the website to vote on the proposed constitutional and bylaws changes as well as explore everything offered on the website. He also intends to ask the membership to become involved in the organization.

The By-laws were then reviewed to determined if any changes were needed. It was pointed out that the change in the constitution will allow the membership year to coincide with the membership year stated in the By-laws. The group also noted that the a quorum of 5 percent of the membership would need to vote on the proposed constitutional changes and that a majority of 51 percent of those voting would carry the decision on the changes.

The group determined that it is important for appointees to know that the term of office coincides with the fiscal year.

In Article II, the group determined that the wording is essentially appropriate in most areas. Section 6 needed clarification.

Shirley Schall made a motion that Section 6 should be revised to read "The Board of Directors will appoint a director to fill a vacancy for the unexpired term of a director." A second was received from Aimee Lempke and received unanimous approval.

During the review of Article III, the group emphasized the importance of keeping the membership informed of the organization's activities. It was suggested that a link be established on the website to lead members to a discussion of the activities.

The group came up with three levels of communication:

1. Dealings of the people on the board.

2. Membership information &endash; Type of information that comes out on the listserve.

3. Topics that are of specific interest to a particular group of members.

Annual Budget Development &endash; Max will develop a budget before the next Board of Directors meeting. Shirley suggested four membership categories and line items within the budget along with a prioritization of each of the categories.

SIGS &endash; (Special Interest Groups)

The SIGs should be collaborative groups. It is a good way vitalize the organization and get individual members more active. The particular areas to address need to be identified. A chair selected should be selected that can be a good facilitator for the particular interest group. The SIGs will provide an opportunity to make NDLA more than an annual conference. It will be an opportunity to get together on a list serve with those that have a similar interests. The SIGs should operate with guidelines from the Board of Directors. The groups will have the opportunity to get together to meet face to face and report to the entire organization at the conference on the progress they have made with their particular topic. The group decided that it would be appropriate to start with three or four selected topics.

A list of topics and people who agreed to participate in a SIG on this topic was reviewed. People will attach themselves to their particular area of interest if there is a place for them for them to work together to be really productive. It is important to make sure that the chair is a good facilitator so that the participants will gravitate to one group or another.

The question then becomes what kind of guidelines need to be given to the groups. Should the group come up with the ideas to work on, or does the Board provide them to the group? A session at the conference should be provided for the groups to get together to discuss their topics. Providing a time and a place to meet during the conference will be very beneficial to the mission of the SIGs.

The list of SIGs was reviewed. It was determined that the Policy SIG would not be activated. Liz Hoffman will let the people on this committee know this. The Telehealth, Business and Industry SIG will be co-chaired by Sarah Cunningham and Max Thacker.

Shirley Schall and Liz Hoffman will co-chair the Certification SIG. Shirley reported that the procedure for certification had begun over a year ago. She would like to get together with this group and make it go. A certification process would be put in place, and teachers working in distance learning would be encouraged to apply for the certification. The applications would be reviewed and completion of the components would be verified. Then the teacher could be a certified distance learning instructor by the NDLA. The group felt that the completion of the certification process by this SIG would give the other SIGs a model for their group.

It was determined that it would be a good idea to combine the Knowledge Based Management and the E-Learning SIGs. Aimee Lempke and John Stritt would be co-chairs of the group.

An additional SIG &endash; Statewide Connectivity &endash; was created. This SIG will involve the Board of Directors. Amy Lempke and Shirley Schall will co-chair the group. This SIG should try to meet before the next Synchronous Workgroup Backbone Policy meeting. The work of this SIG should be open and include the NDLA membership.

The SIG chairs should come up with one or two workshop topics for the conference. It would be helpful if they would suggest possible presenters for these topics.

John Stritt reported that a P-16 group is already working on the e-learning component. This is a group of colleges and K-12 educators that are continually working on this topic. They are working on improving e-learning as well as other forms of distance learning.

The SIG groups for the coming year are:

Statewide Connectivity SIG

Telehealth SIG

Certification SIG

E-Learning and Knowledge Based Management SIG

The SIGs should become a place for the exchange of information and a place to build on the interests of the group. The SIGs should also come up with ideas for the conference including topics and possible presenters. They should define the role of NDLA in working on the information gathered. Progress on the SIG should be reported at the four quarterly meetings of the Board of Directors. Information should also be provided to the website.

Max will need a list of the members of each of the SIGs. He will then create a specific list serve for each of them.

Goals for the future

• Expand Membership &endash; The Directors indicated it would be beneficial to expand membership out into new groups. Business and community groups were identified as potential areas for this expansion. Another group that should be addressed is the classroom teachers. It will be important to be able to provide the teachers with some specific benefits that they would receive if they became NDLA members. Teachers currently do not realize who NDLA is and what the benefits to them would be. It was suggested a brochure be used to illustrate the benefits.
  
• Benefits of Membership -- It was suggested that the Membership Committee work on a way of increasing the awareness of membership benefits. Phyllis Brunken and Wanda Weekley were suggested for the Membership Committee. Art will ask Phyllis and Wanda to do this. On Wednesday, the group looked at the brochure and decided that it was time to redesign the brochure. Shirley volunteered to serve on this committee to help with the brochure. It was suggested that incentives be offered for membership.
  
• Legislative Issues and Agenda &endash; This goal includes both quality issues and funds issues. Because the Association is seeking 501(c)(3) status, it is important to avoid lobbying. There are, however, ways to talk to people and express your opinions without a formal lobbying effort. The NDLA does have a formal position on several issues &endash; budget, backbone. It is important to make the members aware of these important issues. Members should be encouraged to express their views to the lawmakers. Members should not sign petitions supporting an issue.

The Lieutenant Governor has shown a very strong interest in distance learning. It is suggested that he be approached when the NDLA is interested in a particular issue. It is also important to remember that three of Nebraska's representatives in Washington &endash; Osborne, Hagel, and Nelson &endash; have all expressed a special interest in distance learning here in Nebraska.

It was noted that the conference review was sent out to the Board of Directors.

Funding and grants were also discussed. It would be possible for NDLA to apply for an Eisenhower Grant for teacher training. NCLB also has some grant funds to provide professional development. Sarah reported that the USDLA website has information regarding grants. Corporate sponsorships were also discussed as a means of funding.

The meeting recessed at 5:35.

The meeting was reconvened at 9:05 a.m.by President Art Tanderup.

Attending: Art Tanderup, Liz Hoffman, Shirley Schall, Randy Hiatt, Aimee Lempke, Pat Hoffman, Jan Schartz, Linda Wagner, Max Thacker (via distance learning from Omaha)

A connection was made to Southeast Community College in Lincoln and the group was introduced to Jerry Magorian from SECC. He will be assisting with the conference planning for next year. The conference chairs will be Aimee Lempke and Jerry Margorian. Jerry informed the group that SECC is currently working on the former Gallup building at 66th and O. It is not certain what the facility will look like as yet. It will be known in September whether the SECC facility at 88th and O or the facility at 66th and O will be used for the conference. June 16, 17, and 18 were chosen as dates for the conference.

Liz reported that NCITE from UNL hosted a symposium last year and is trying to do another one this year. Liz suggested that some of the topics are similar and it might be possible to have one day of the seminars overlap in order to share resources and reduce some travel expenses. The Board would like more information on the NCITE program so they can determine if it fits with the NDLA program. Liz will make this contact.

The conference committee is separate from the board. It will be made up of Amy Lempke, Jerry Magorian, Pat Hoffman, Art Tanderup, Jan Schartz, Linda Wagner, Randy Hiatt, someone from NCITE if a joint day is proposed, someone from Peru State College, Max Thacker, Charles Doyle from the ESU, Liz Hoffman from the Department of Education, and someone from UNL. Randy Hiatt will contact those not in attendance to see if they would like to be involved.

Max will help on the money distribution for the conference. Peggy Duey will be contacted to find out how on-line registration worked. Max will send out a notice on the list serve about the dates for the conference. Local hotels in the area (Chase Suites, Hawthorne Suites, The Villager) will be contacted to see if a special rate can be established for the conference. Early contacts should be made with Tom Osborne, Doug Bereuter, Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson. Al Siegren, who was a distance learning pioneer at UNL, and Jan Poley from ADEC should be contacted as possible keynote speakers. It was also suggested that the distance learning associations in Iowa, Kansas and South Dakota should be contacted about the June conference. The conference committee should meet sometime in September.

Amy is working on a theme for the conference along with a logo. Her current working titles are "Staying in the Loop" and "Untying the Knot."

It was pointed out that the RFP should include a sentence that states conference presenters are required to pay the conference fee. This turned out to be a significant issue last year. This will be added as part of the RFP that will be sent out in December. The first vendor letter will be sent out in November. It was determined that the RFP and first vendor letter will be sent out by November 15, 2003. It was suggested that an e-mail be sent out to contact vendors. Pat has a list of potential vendors.

Goals for the Year

1) Get Constitution and Bylaw changes out to members. This will be done by holding an electronic meeting and getting the vote taken.

2) File for 501(c)(3) status. Art and Max will be working on this.

3) Establish SIGs and have chairs work on establishing topics for this year

4) Plan conference for next June.

5) Develop a budget for this fiscal year.

6) Increase membership in NDLA

7) Strengthen the e-learning component of the organization.

The group discussed reimbursement for expenses of Board members. It is important that the membership committee have this information available when looking for members to serve in NDLA capacities. Several members stated that their employers are willing to pay for the expenses involved as a part of the job. However, this is not the case with everyone, and a system of reimbursement needs to be investigated. Max, Art and Pat are the Finance Committee. They will work on some reimbursement guidelines.

The following meeting dates were established for the coming year:

09/26/03 - 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. CDT -- Chadron State College will pay for connection.

12/05/03 &endash; 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. CST &endash; NLDA will pay for connection.

03/10/04 &endash; 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. CST &endash; Mid Plains will pay for connection

05/19/04 &endash; 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. &endash; Southeast Community College will pay for connection.

The meetings will be held via NVCN. The following sites have been included in the meetings:

Chadron

Omaha UNMC

Kearney UNK

North Platte

Lincoln Executive

McCook

The group looked at the current brochure and decided that changes needed to be made in order to encourage new membership. Shirley volunteered to serve on the Membership Committee with Wanda and Phyllis to accomplish this task.

Liz Hoffman made a motion for the Membership Committee to update the brochure. Shirley Schall seconded the motion. The motion carried.

Goals to be accomplished by the first fall meeting:

1) Constitution voting completed &endash; Art's e-mail.

2) Work on 501(c)(3)

3) Budget

4) Report on Conference

5) Corporate sponsorship e-mail

6) Certfication SIG report.

7) Meeting with the Lt. Governor report

8) Membership Committee report

The meeting was adjourned at 11:25 a.m. by President Tanderup.