NEBRASKA DISTANCE LEARNING ASSOCIATION

October 21, 2004

 

 

Attending:     Shirley Schall, Liz Hoffman, Max Thacker, Linda Wagner, Jim King, Aimee Lempke, Carol Larsen, Tad Hunter

 

The meeting was called to order by President Ð Elect Schall. Minutes were provided to the board via e-mail. Jim King advanced a motion to accept the minutes as written. Max Thacker provided a second. The motion passed unanimously.

 

The new board member, Bob Hayes, was expected to be in attendance at this meeting. However, he was not able to attend. The Board will welcome him aboard at the next meeting.

 

Max reported that he visited with Lois Colburn a couple of weeks ago. She is the new continuing education director at UNMC with ties to several national organizations. Lois indicated that she would like to be involved with NDLA as part of the board or on a committee. Shirley feels that she would bring a good perspective to some things that NDLA needs to be involved in. Enlisting her services will be explored at a future date.

 

The board discussed what position was being filled with putting Lois on the board. Liz thought that the group had discussed adding Bob Hayes and Lois Colburn to the Board as that having that extra representation would be a positive addition to the diversity of the Board. Need to look at people who will strengthen the organization with people who will contribute. The group decided that a look at the by-laws should be made and then add Lois to the board if this is in compliance with the by-laws. Shirley stated that strengthening the group with people who are committed to distance learning in any form. Max remembered that there were two vacancies to fill. Telehealth and homeland security are two important parts of distance learning. Liz made a motion to add a new position to the Board and look at Lois Colburn to fill that position representing several areas of distance learning. Carol Larsen provided a second. No discussion followed, and the motion carried. May need to look at another revision in the by-laws, but the previous revision may allow for this change. Shirley asked the previous By-Laws committee to work on this issue. Shirley, Bob Hayes, and Liz Hoffman will look at it and decide what changes, if any, are needed. After the issue is resolved, Pat will be asked to write a formal letter of invitation. Max will provide address information to Pat for this purpose.

 

TreasurerÕs Report Current balance is $8255.84 of the CD as checked on-line on 10-20-04. The checking account balance is $7473.22 with an outstanding checks $2328.25 which makes the balance $5144.97. The total cash is $13,400.81. The outstanding check is for the bags ordered for the conference with a $1000.00 credit. There is no real anticipated income on membership so we may want to look at getting some corporate membership.

 

Aimee reported that the $1000.00 credit came about when the printing company printed the bags after the order had been cancelled. They offered a $1000.00 credit if NDLA would take the bags.

 

Aimee reported that she has not heard from anyone about the storage of the boxes. There are twelve of them. She thought she could store them, but will not be able to transport all twelve of them to North Platte at conference time. Shirley will pick some up when she comes to Lincoln in a few weeks, and she will look into space at Mid Plains for storage.

 

The group also discussed the small bags from two years ago. Carol reported that she took them to Southeast Community College and that Randy has them. Tad will contact Randy to see if they can be picked them up.

 

Aimee has a large quantity of letterhead. She will share some of it with Shirley when she is in Lincoln, and Shirley will check with Pat to see if she needs some of it.

 

Website Shirley has found a young gentleman in Trenton to help her with this task. Their schedules have not allowed them to get together yet, but they are looking at doing that sometime soon. The whole site is looking for a facelift, and Shirley is looking forward to having someone take over those duties for her. Shirley is open to suggestions and any ideas that might enhance the website.

 

Conference Discussion Jan Schartz will still help with the conference. A lot of the ground work for hotels and space on campus has been taken care of. John Horvath has also volunteered to help with the conference.

 

Need to work out a theme in order to put out that postcard in January. Shirley is open to any ideas that people might have. The cowboy and Buffalo Bill themes were discussed as was the Union Pacific presence in North Platte.

 

Carol provided a report on the conference in Omaha in September. She provided detailed information on their format and how the strands flowed from the general sessions. The topics were nicely diverse, and the grouping was well done. The 30 minute sessions were 20 minutes of presentation and 10 minutes for questions. Multiple presenters on a similar topic was good organizational strategy. The vendors for this conference were there for the first day only. She felt that more time could have been allowed to visit them, maybe by reducing the number of general sessions.

 

Liz reported that she worked on a conference with a similar format. The RFP asked that the presenters had to find each other so that they had a common theme as they put their session together. Gives continuity to the conference. Liz also wanted to suggest that the conference be two full days long with a really full program. It should help that the conference is set up for a Wednesday and Thursday. Aimee also suggested that the general meeting not be at the end of conference. Shirley proposed that the meeting be a breakfast meeting on the second day. Liz reminded the group that we talked about focus groups to get people involved in the organization and get their input.

 

Jim invited the Board to a UNL event on 1/04/05 called ÒThe New Millennium Student.Ó The interest is in how do you teach to this new type of student. It will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. that day. Jim will forward information on the conference.

 

Aimee suggested using technology as a way to bring in a speaker. This might be a way to reduce costs or even have more than one speaker. Max emphasized that it is important to get a speaker identified and arrangements underway as soon as possible.

 

Jim stated that it is important to get the call for papers out in early December and have them come in mid-January. Last yearÕs format caused a lot of late papers, making it difficult to get it done. He also suggested round table sessions. There are several tables going on at once, with presentations that are contained at the table. People can move from table to table and gather a lot of information in a short time. He suggested doing it as an evening event during the conference. Might allow for more sessions, allow those who need to present in order to attend an opportunity to do so, and be less threatening to those who are uncomfortable as a presenter.

 

Shirley stated that we will need to take a close look at the vendors in North Platte. Since they are coming all the way to North Platte rather than just flying into Omaha, adequate time needs to be allowed for the conference attendees to interface with them. Carol suggesting providing a two hour lunch break to accomplish this. This gives people time to eat, interact with vendors, and collaborate with other attendees.

 

The RFP form did come in last year; the only problem is that they did not receive an immediate response that it was received. So it can be put up by the first of December. Ask members to pass it along to anyone they know who might want to present.

 

Shirley also stated that NDLA is welcome to have a track at NETA at the end of April. This is an important opportunity that should be taken advantage of. There will be ten slots to fill for this conference.

 

Aimee looked at last yearÕs RFP and suggested several changes that will need to be made to modify the format.

 

Max asked Carol about the possibility of making the NDLA confererence a joint conference with the one that she just attended. Carol stated that the focus of the conference was strictly healthcare and that it looked at it on a national and international level. It is also held every other year. She emphasized that NDLAÕs focus lies in Nebraska and gives the attendees opportunities to explore distance learning in the state from many vantage points. Shirley stated that she thinks the conference in North Platte will gather healthcare professionals from the central and western part of the state but not have as many from the eastern part. It is a good opportunity for those in the western part of the state to attend an event like this. She also feels that the homeland security is an important topic to include and provide information on. Homeland security might be a good keynote topic for the conference.

 

By November 16^th a theme needs to be determined for the postacard in January and the RFP in December. An idea of the tracks needs to be in hand by that time also. Shirley would like to use everyone on the Board for these ideas. Liz suggested a timeline be established for conference deadlines. Linda and Max volunteered to help with this.

 

Max reported that on 10/27/04 at 9:00 a.m. a press conference will be held by the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, and the University President will announce the telehealth network including the Nebraska National Guard and many of the hospitals across the state.

 

Linda reported that Peggy Duey will be happy to help with the NDLA conference registration this year. Linda will check with the engineers to see what involvement NET can help with for the conference.

 

Aimee suggested that the flyer contain the theme, the keynote, and the roundtable sessions to provide more information to attendees.

 

The group needs to think about the contacts they have that are outside of NDLA and make sure they are aware of the conference and encourage their participation and attendance. Try to keep members update on the list serve to keep them involved in the conference planning. Liz will help put together a list of people who would be interested in the conference that are not current members. Jim volunteered to help.

 

USDLA PatÕs report stated that they are working to rejuvenate their advisory board and seeking support from business and industry. The vice president is looking for former state presidents to consider serving on their advisory board. There will be a spring conference in Washington, DC. This is an international conference with more information to follow.

First vendor letter needs to go out in December. Shirley asked Aimee to send them an e-mail to ask them to save the dates. Aimee will do this before the next meeting.

 

NDE NDE and others put together a $10 million proposal to try to get federal money to update the distance learning system. The request did not go through because the Nebraskans were told all the other states would be rushing to Washington for funding. Another approach for the funding will be considered. The transition to IP will continue; however the approach will be a little bit different. The e-learning workshops are going on across the state. They are very interesting. Many of the statements were rewritten. One of the concerns of the Lincoln group was that the list was not generated by the attendees and that people are looking for flexibility. The sessions involved a lot of good discussion and an outlook from a different perspective. ShirleyÕs group was concerned that there was no human element in their model. The NITC is trying to get $20 million dollars out of $71 million education budget to change the JPEG sites to IP.

 

The group was instructed to think about the theme, think about the structure of the sessions, and to come back on November 16, 2004, ready to move forward.

 

The meeting was adjourned.