Call to Order:  9:00

 

OCTM Members Present:  Winnie Miller, Giny Christensen, Patty Sandoz, Molly Smith, Ross Eells, Cathy Bernhard, Lynn Bonser, Kathi Eisenbeis, Mike Gould, Brent Freeman, Deanna Reisman, Cathy Brown, Janet Echanis, Nancy Swarat, Diane Kinney, Betsy Shane, Kristin Lavy, Nancy Anderson, Linda Parker, Jennifer Bell, Jackie Nissen, Inga Perham, DJ Muller, Nancy Rogers, Marna Knoer, Leslie Graham, Jill Sumerlin, Trudy Mitchell, Ann McMahon, Martha VanCleave, Marla Baber, Ralph Schubothe, Lois Costine, Shawna Dehler, Charlotte Ogle, Kathi Kennedy, Cheri Clausen, Debbie Lindow, Judy Johnson, Jolene Latz, Kathi Kennedy.  Tari Querin arrived later.

 

Guests:  Francie Bostwick, Marge Burak, Barbara Blanke from San Luis Obispo, Cherie Haynes, Jolene Latz (former Area Rep, now Oregon Math Leaders [OML] registration)

 

¥  Welcome and Introductions

 

Thank you to Stephanie Legard for getting the Board meeting into the Columbus Elementary building and getting it for such low rent (free)!  Molly Smith will be the time keeper and keeper-of-on-task-ness.

 

Introductions:  Our introductions used an elevator activity: The questions we were to answer:  Why/how did you join Oregon Council of Teachers of Mathematics (OCTM)?  Each person only has the time that it would take the elevator to go from the fourth floor till it lands on the first floor to answer the question. One of the reasons we did this was for DJ Muller's benefit because DJ is going to put together a brochure of what OCTM does.  It was suggested that the brochure be something catchy, maybe along the lines of Letterman's 10 Ten Reasons.

 

¥  Approval of Minutes

            -  Corrections to the minutes were made which included adding Jackie Cooke's name to the Webmaster Information and correcting the spelling of two names. 

 

            -  A motion to accept the minutes of the April 23, 2005 Board Meeting as corrected was made by Cathy Bernhard with a second by Nancy Rogers.  The motion passed.

 

¥ Proposed Additions to Agenda

            - Move the OML report up because the organizers need to leave early.

            -  The Oregon Math Leadership Institute (OMLI) folks would like to give a report during New  Business.

            -  Scholarship Committee needs a noon meeting with Brent Freeman.

            -  Add Grants to Board Member Reports.

            -  A noon meeting with Molly is needed to talk about President-elect and Treasurer-elect.

            -  It was suggested that Area Reps get together at noon to discuss action plans.

            -  A noon meeting is needed for establishing/discussing Area Rep policies with Mike Gould.

 

¥  Area Rep Reports                                                              Winnie Miller

            -  Please send area reports electronically to the Recording Secretary.

            -  Some of the Area Reports might be selected to be printed in The Oregon Mathematics    Teacher (TOMT).

            -  During Area Rep report time, each Rep was asked to share how the two Reps communicate   with each other.  Each area was also asked to report the number of schools in their area and the number of OCTM members in their area.  The following is a summary of some of the communication methods

                        ^ contact across the room at meetings

                        ^ at ESD events because they share the same ESD

                        ^ through email

                        ^ phone

                        ^ split the region geographically

                        ^ common meetings

                        ^ good discussions during carpooling times

                        ^ used to have breakfast meetings but this tapered off

                        ^ divided the region

                        ^ in contact throughout the year with VTEL

                        ^ everyone at OML last year got an email from the Reps after each board meeting

                        ^ worked to get a contact in each school

                        ^ It was suggested contacting the local ESD to get the directory for that area.  The ESD Directory might not be published till September or October of the current school year. Check with the secretary at your local ESD.  Then introductions to schools in the area       can be made.

            -  The Procedures Manual is on Martha VanCleave's website,www.linfield.edu/~mvcleave so maybe notebooks are no longer the way to go.  Maybe hard copies of most things will be done  away with, utilizing the Procedures Manual.

                        ^  It was stated that Area Reps do need support and they do need training!

                        ^  Reps A and B each serve two years.  A rotates off one year then B rotates off with one year of overlap so that there's always an experienced person.  More discussion will take place at noon today.

 

 

Discussion Items

 

¥  Increasing Membership Dues                                          Molly Smith

            -  Current membership is $20.  If we raised this by $10 so dues would be $30 and if we had 1000 members, this would provide $30,000.

            -  Molly proposes an increase of $10.

            -  Keep in mind that folks also purchase membership in NCTM and other organizations

            -  Secondary folks usually are single subject teachers so that amount of increase would be affordable.  For elementary teachers could the membership cost be less?

            - Trudy said NCTM is offering an NCTM K-8 institutional membership. 

            - It was suggested that we have only a $5 increase.

            -  Could there be an institutional membership of some larger amount with $5 for each     individual?

            -  Our membership is declining.  Currently we have 790 members.  Would we lose more    members if we raised membership dues?

            - Many schools are adopting new curricula that are so set there's less need for the             journal with its ideas.

            -  Could we raise the dues and work to increase the offerings to membership, such as the Math Professional Development Cadre, to offset the increase?

            -  Rather than raise the dues, could we reduce the number of TOMTs but add pages to each issue?  TOMT is the one item that OCTM supplements the most.  Or we could reduce the number of issues to five.

            -  Do we need to reduce the number of copies printed?

            -  Thinking outside the box, could the journal go online with e-membership?

            - When we reduced our OCTM meetings last year it had a real ripple effect.  We need to think through the effects of reducing the number of TOMTs.

            - We need an outside consultant to come in to help us revamp.

            -  A noon meeting will take place with Ralph heading it up to synthesize the information. They will be asked to report back this afternoon with recommendations on membership issues.

            -  Chuck Peterson, past Treasurer, was always worried about money.  OCTM is not bringing in any more money.

            -  The Board, as a whole, is not the forum for solving this issue.

 

Break:            10:00 to 10:10

 

¥  OCTM Foundation                                                           Lois Costine

            -  There are lots of grants out there but we don't fit the criteria.

            -  Winnie asked Lois to explore getting Educational Foundation status so that we could be eligible to apply for funds.

                        ^ Must get Tax ID

                        ^  Must change our bylaws to include scholarship

                        ^  Must have bylaws, a separate board, mission statement

                        ^  It would cost about $2500 for an attorney to set this up.

                        ^  There are advantages for giving to an Educational Foundation-we could advertise differently than what we are accustomed to, such as being named in wills or donations

                        ^  OML is a project of OCTM with its own checking account.

            - There are 1300 mathematics grants available but none of those matched the NCTM Affiliates list.  If we were a Foundation, we could apply for those but as OCTM we could not because our Mission Statement is too broad.

            -  Maybe it would be more lucrative for us to work through a university as they already have the infrastructure set up?

            -  Could Oregon Education Association provide some resources, possibly a lawyer?

            -  At this time, we will take no action on this topic.

 

¥  Pentagames                                                                        Jackie Nissen

            -  Money from OCTM budget that buys ribbons, trophies, etc. goes into students' hands.  The kids come out of the contests pumped.

            -  Pentagames is once again requesting $1000 to supplement the activity.

            -  Any money leftover at the conclusion of the run of Pentagames will go back to OCTM.  Every school gets a brochure.  The entire state is covered.

            -  This activity is covered by one of the bullets of our mission statement.

            -  The proper paperwork has been filled out and filed with Ross.

            A motion to support Pentagames with a $1000 donation was made by Cathy Bernhard, with a second by Ann McMahon.  The motion passed.

           

            -  Where is information about Pentagames posted on the website?  We'll look at the OCTM  website during our Board meeting.

            - If you come to Awards tonight, you'll hear the history of Pentagames.

 

Old Business

 

¥  Scholarship Revitalization                                              DJ Muller

            - Joe Spooner needs the guts of the OCTM brochure prior to revamping it.

            -  We'll see their draft at the next Board meeting.

 

¥  Writers' Retreat                                                                 Cathy Bernhard

            -  Only seven people will be attending.

            -  The costs for the Writers' Retreat come out of Oregon Collaborative for the Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers (OCEPT) monies.

 

¥  Math Professional Development Cadre                          Mike Gould

            -  History:  We were given the charge to come up with a revamping of our workshops by Jackie   Nissen.

            -  We did training with Critical Friends yesterday during our meeting. We have a flyer     prototype to share.  Joe Spooner will fix this up. 

                        ^  Distribution of our information will go through a mailing.

                        ^  A notebook group was established.

                        ^  We have three different geographic areas represented by Molly Smith with the eastern region, Lynn Bonser with the metro area, and Giny Christensen with

the southern region.

                        ^  We are developing long term and short term professional development opportunities.

            -  Some future topics:  We need more communication with OML, NW Math Conference, etc.

                        ^  OML may be the place to do advanced trainings.

                        ^  Training of the Area Reps could also be done.

            - We have a budget.

                        ^  The initial contact will be free to the school or district.  It was suggested that the expense of mileage and meals would be billed to OCTM.  This particular item was not put to the Board for discussion or action.  Giny and Nancy are looking at grants to fund                these initial contacts.

            -  Do we want to be remembered for having a great magazine or do we want to be remembered  for going out there changing the ways kids learn math?

            -  It is important that we track our services as this will help us get grants and which will allow us to continue to grow and to continue to serve.

            -  It would be nice to have an article in TOMT (Giny was volunteered to do this by Mike) as the brochure will be going out soon.

            -  Oregon Department of Education (ODE) person, Math Learning Center person, Teachers Development Group (TDG) person --Mike has been charged with finding a date and getting the previously mentioned people together to discuss how we can work together.  A possible meeting time is Thursday morning of the upcoming Northwest Math Conference.  Jackie Nissen can locate a room for this meeting

¥  Future Board Meetings                                                     Winnie Miller

            -  The Constitution says that we will have four board meetings.  They are set for

                        ^  October 15, 2005 at the Janzen Beach Red Lion, Portland, from 2 to 6 pm

                                    ~  What kind of food is desired for this odd time?

                        ^  January 28, 2006 at the Sheet Metal Training Center in Fairview

                        ^  May 6, 2006 at the Redmond ESD

                        ^  August 6, 2006 at Linfield College in McMinnville

            -  The August date is set because of a contract with Linfield College.  There is very little     conflict with OMLI.  We'll just have to do the best we can.

           

 

New Business

 

¥  Saving Money                                                                    Winnie Miller

            -  Winnie wants to know how much each site cost last year.  Chuck Peterson compiled the cost of each Board meeting for the 2003-2004 year.  It may be that Winnie will ask that not everyone show up at the January meeting in an effort to save money.  No offense to anyone is    intended. 

                       

¥  OML Registration                                                             Jolene Latz

            -  You can use a credit card instead of the $30 check as deposit.

            -  The Board members can do our OML check in now.

 

¥  OML Report                                                                      Leslie Graham, Marge Burak, Jill Sumerlin

            -  Becky Reed met with Spence of Linfield about the date and conflicts at the dining center  with basketball camp.  Our meal times are offset now so there should be no conflict.

            -  Hopefully the book study will go well.  Please let the organizers know how the book study went on the evaluation.  Evaluation will be handled differently and there will be prizes.

            -  We're thinking already about next year so please let the organizers know about any ideas  such as Pentagames, etc.

 

¥  Grants                                                                                 Giny Christensen

            -  We did accomplish getting the $5000 that Ginger had us apply for through ODE.  The money goes towards offsetting OML for two years in a row.  Giny will apply again next year.

            -  We are in the throes of applying for $4000 for PAEMST State Mathematics Coordinators.  Winnie, Ann and Giny will be working on it during the next couple days as it's due August 15.

                        ^  PAEMST State Math Coordinators recruit applicants, distribute brochures to key math organizations, recommend submission of applications.  They also use funds to organize a mentoring/coaching committee to nominate, recruit, and mentor individuals to apply for the PAEMST program.  The state coordinator also organizes the selection                 committee, train the selection committee, keep records, record and report for NSF                 records.  The coordinator also organizes recognition opportunities, and keeps an accurate record.  The money can be used for purchasing items such as frames for certificates or holding a recognition event.

            -  Nancy Rogers and Giny will be working on grants the whole year.  They'll put together a grant form.  They now have a better idea about Math PDC so that will help in finding grants.

 

 

¥  Oregon Mathematics Leadership Institute                    Mike Gould

            -  Content people and participants will provide two different perspectives.

            -  $5 million from NSF and $2 million from the state, 5 year, three week, 10 school districts,  180 teachers.

            -  Participants participate in both content and leadership classes with copious amounts of      homework.  They are paid $3000 and earn 9 credits.   Number and Operations and            Geometry are the strands focused on this year.  Each participant will create an action plan and          each school will create an action plan to be carried out next year.  The focus is on enriching the math background of all teachers because the more they know, the more they will help the students. The content classes are real math classes so that topics that middle and high school teachers have studied for years is new to the elementary teachers.  Classes are set up with K-12 teachers. The goal is on increasing student discourse in mathematics.

            - Martha VanCleave is one of the content instructors.  She said the college faculty is not always comfortable teaching in a setting that is focused on increasing student discourse that also employs student discourse.

            -  There is concern that many participants are totally lacking of knowledge in mathematics.

            -  The administrators will be limited in the math classes they take but will do protocol training, evaluation training, and work with the action plans of their teachers.

 

Lunch:           12:35 to 1:10

 

Name tags were drawn to win prizes for those seated and ready.

 

¥  Good To Great                                                                   Trudy Mitchell and Giny Christensen

            -  The Good to Great  book by Jim Collins is about why some companies make the leap and others don't, into good management.

            -  Trudy gave a slide presentation about what they did, saw and felt at the Affiliates             Conference.

            -  We are now charged with reading part of this book prior to the next Board meeting.

 

 

Board Member Reports

 

¥  President's Report                                                             Winnie Miller

            -  Area Rep draft introduction letter, timeline, and responsibilities were briefly discussed.

            -  The Advocacy Toolkit

                        ^  Advocacy letters can be accessed on the Net's webpage--all you need to do is sign your name and send.

            -  Winnie is concerned about printing costs. She would like to recommend to all that we try to use technology whenever possible to defray the cost of printing.  For example, opt to receive an electronic version of the OML address book and possibly even the TOMT.

                        ^  Can the OML address book be done more digitally (put on CD) rather than                             fussing with printing costs?

                        ^  This was originally created in FileMaker but there's an option to change it to Excel.

                        ^  Baby steps:  We could offer a digital CD format or paper option.  It was suggested that we could do this the first year and ask how it went at the beginning of the next year.

 

 

"The President's Written Report

 

One of the things we did at the Leadership Conference in Denver was to read,  ÒGood to GreatÓ by Jim Collins.  IÕd like to propose that we do something similar in the way this book study was Òjig sawedÓ.   In other words, this will be our own book study.

 

Everyone reads chapter 1

Executive Board reads chapter 2

Area Reps 1-4 read chapter 3

Area Reps 5-8 read chapter 4

Area Reps 9- 11   read chapter 5

Area Reps 12-14 read chapter 8

 

Since we only have three copies, my copy can get passed around to Executive Board members, Giny's to Area Reps 1-6 and Trudy's to 7-14.  Let's shoot to get the reading done by the October Board meeting.  At the beginning of the October meeting, we'll do a share alike.  At the beginning of the January meeting, we'll do a mixed sharing. 

 

One of the challenges we face is getting the word out about OCTM and what services we can provide.  In response to that, Patty and I have put together an electronic version of a directory of schools and email addresses.  These have been shared with Area Reps so that they can be updated at the Area Meetings at OML by determining a building contact whenever possible.  In addition, Cathy Brown has provided us with an electronic version of the 2005-2006-school directory.  The end goal is to be able to communicate more efficiently and effectively by using email.

 

Another task that would be worth putting together is an email directory of OCTM members.  This could be used to remind members to vote, to renew their subscriptions, to advertise NWMC, send out information about PDC, etc.

 

Patty also provided the Area Reps with a letter of introduction that could be emailed to all the schools in their areas.  A TOMT article/activity could also be attached; choose one of the ones posted on the OCTM web page or one of your favorites.  Area Reps have also been provided with a timeline and electronic versions of forms.

 

Take advantage of the online Advocacy Toolkit on the NCTM web page to communicate with legislators.  ItÕs too bad we didnÕt have this when we were writing letters to Susan Castillo about the Math Problem Solving assessment.  Perhaps, itÕs still not too late to do that."

 

 

¥  Vice President                                                                    Molly Smith

            -  Area Reps will be meeting at noon to discuss membership.

            -  Turn out at the last election was not good.  This will be a goal of Molly's to improve voter   turnout.

            -  Can the Agenda be put on the listserv?

            -  Can the minutes be summarized and posted on the listserv soon after each Board meeting?

            -  Molly will send a sign up sheet around for folks to volunteer to man the OCTM table.  Please    sign up.

 

 

¥  Past President                                                                    Giny Christensen

            - Giny summarized the efforts of the student who received the $25 award.

            - Nancy Rogers was in attendance at the science competition.  All the donating organizations had a member of their organization to present the award but OCTM did not.

            -  Nancy and Giny will be working on grants.

            - Winnie is shorter than Giny but they can match each other in energy!  OCTM is in great hands with Winnie.

 

 

¥  Treasurer                                                                            Ross Eells

"TreasurerÕs report as of July 1, 2005

 

I will begin my report by telling you that the treasurerÕs file cabinet was unceremoniously passed from one truck to another at a yard sale in Aloha on June 25 when ChuckÕs son delivered the relic, after Molly had transported it from Halfway.  IÕm sure that the file left a shape in ChuckÕs carpet that will remain for a long time, as I myself cleared a corner in my computer room for OCTM furniture and books.  I spoke with Chuck several times last week as I was preparing this document, and instead of balancing numbers, Chuck was in his air conditioned tractor cutting hay.  With the transfer of the file cabinet back in June came an almost vertical learning curve for me that involved two large chunks of information:  #1 how to be an OCTM Treasurer and #2 history of OCTM.  I have never served on this Board, so I had some catching up to do, and still am.  Some of you may not know what S.C.A.M. means on the budget sheet.  I now do.  Since the yard sale, I have learned about two important books.  This book keeps track of OCTM income, and this book is like your check book where mostly you record expenditures.  Notice that the income book is smaller than the spending book.  Visuals aid in learning.

 

If you will look at the proposed 05-06 column and find General Administration, you will see that the Bookkeeping proposed budget is increasing from $300 to $1500.  That is because I need to have an accountant review the books every two years.  I have an accountant in mind.  She has kids at one of our elementary schools.  Under Conferences, Contests and Workshops, the Oregon Math Leaders budget includes the $5000 recently received from ODE.  No money is budgeted for State Conference Coordinator because that position has been eliminated.  If you will find Income towards the bottom of the page, locate the money proposed for Grants and how different that figure is from last year.  That discrepancy accounts for most of the difference between the figures in red in the first two columns.  Some history taught to me by Chuck is that there are no more grants and that all grant money has run out.  OCTM can probably count on one more year of grant money and then OCTM pays the bill.  Some good news was the arrival of a check for $4800 from Portland State last week.

 

The Balance on Hand includes all money in the Marion and Polk Credit Union.  When I need money in the checking account I transfer from one of the savings accounts.  Chuck tells me that I may need to tap into the CD on occasion.  When I make transfers, itÕs usually a $5000 transfer. 

 

Chuck and I agreed that I probably should have been preparing these statements last year with Chuck by my side, but you know how hard that is during the school year.  So, I spent many late nights last week in front of the computer and on the phone to Halfway.  I heard three of ChuckÕs budget statements last year, and one theme I remember is to try and hold the line on spending.  I didnÔt completely comprehend why that was until I started working with the numbers in these books. 

 

I will continue to seek advice from Chuck concerning the best ways to invest our money and to keep track of OCTM money accurately.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Ross Eells, OCTM Treasurer"

 

            - Questions about the budget concerning accepting a budget that does not have any cost      streamlining built into it yet.  Questions about the OML budget item at $7000.  Why is there a             bump up from the previous year's budget of $2500.  This is a proposed budget, a guideline.  If  we accept it, we give Ross a chance to go back and look at his notes.

                        Ideas generated for cost savings:

                                    ~ increase grant income

                                    ~ increase membership

                                    ~ decrease number of TOMT issues

                                    ~ cut down on paper printing costs

            - Other questions about the budget:  Did we take off the items called State Contest Coordinator  for $550 and State Conference Coordinator which was changed to Zero.  Or is the abbreviation to mean Coordinating.  Ross will refer to his notes and clarify for us at the next Board meeting.

 

            -  -  A motion to accept the proposed budget was made by Lois Costine, with a second by Cathy Bernhard.  The motion passed.

 

¥  Recording Secretary                                                          Patty Sandoz

            -  Receiving reports electronically is greatly appreciated.

            -  The 2004-2005 Motions and Policies were distributed.  The back side also includes an      addendum of policies that could not be correlated to Board dates.

 

 

¥  Membership Secretary                                                      Ralph Schubothe

            -  Membership stands at 790.

            -  A group met at noon today.

                        ^  They talked about reducing the number of TOMT issues from 6 to 5.  But we need to consider that Joe Spooner is paid per issue.  The postage would be a savings and some printing costs would be saved.

                        ^  Institutional Memberships are handled like individual memberships.

                        ^  There are free TOMTs when you make contact with schools.

                        ^  Increasing dues was discussed but we can't change it for this upcoming school year.

                                    ~  How much should we increase?  Would a $5 increase be noticeable to most people?  Maybe we could raise a little bit and nobody will notice.

                                    ~  We lose money on the international mailings.  We have about 10 international members. Their dues just barely cover the cost of mailing the TOMTs to them.

                        ^ Future agenda item:  Membership issues. 

                                    ~  If we change the dues, we should change it by the January meeting.  Need to                                notify the membership of any changes.

 

¥ NCTM Rep                                                                         Jackie Nissen

            -  Jackie shared two position papers from NCTM:  Computation, Calculators, and Common Sense and Highly Qualified Teachers.  These two position papers are included with the minutes  in the   Recording Secretary's notebook.

 

"NCTM Report

Submitted by Jackie Nissen

 

For more information on the following, go directly to NCTM.org.  At the bottom of this report are two position papers published by NCTM, also available on the web site. I often find it useful to send articles like these to my principal and superintendent.

 

Upcoming events:

 

Annual Meeting:

St Louis, Missouri, April 26-29, 2006

Theme: Asking Questions-Generating Solutions

Volunteers are needed. If you are interested, log onto NCTM.org and fill out the volunteer form.

 

Western Regional Conference:

Denver, Colorado, November 10-12, 2005

Theme: Mathematics at its ÒPeakÓ

Regional meetings are now working with a Focus embedded throughout the conference. 2005-2006 conference focus will be assessment.

 

President's Chat with Cathy Seely   This is a great opportunity to ask questions about current issues.

September 21, 2005, 4:00 p.m. EST

Candidates for Director, At-Large (three will be elected)

• Don S. Balka, Saint MaryÕs College, Notre Dame, Indiana
• Janet H. Caldwell, Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey
• John A. Carter, Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire, Illinois
• Beatriz S. D'Ambrosio, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
• Jane F. Schielack, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
• Edward A. Silver, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Professional Development Events

NCTM designs, develops, and directs a number of professional development events.

Among these are the NCTM Annual Meeting and Exposition, NCTM Regional Conferences and Expositions, Learn Reflect Strands, Affiliate Leaders Conferences, and E-Workshops."

 

¥  Northwest Math Conference                                            Jackie Nissen

            -  Jackie sent around NW Math Conference pamphlets

            -  The organizers increased the number of people allowed in to the John Van De Walle   breakfast.  For those who got shut out, try again.

¥  ODE Assessment                                                               Cathy Brown

            -  Cathy sent around pictures of the guests at our last Board meeting!

            -  Cathy is the First Vice Presidents of the Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics    (ASSM).  She is in charge of their program.  

            -  Cathy will write an article about navigating the ODE website. The website got changed just  yesterday.  It's fortuitous that she has not yet written the article. She will soon!

 

¥  ODE Curriculum                                                              Jonathan Wiens          

            - Jonathan's written report was read by Giny.

            -  Giny and Winnie both met with Jonathan at ODE recently.  They had a productive meeting.  Giny was able to provide the background on the Math Problem Solving issue.

 

"Introduction from Jonathan Wiens

 

Here is my background in short.  I grew up in Salem and graduated from South Salem High in 1982.  After graduation, I enrolled in the University of Oregon where I received a B.S. in Mathematics and Physics in 1985.  In 1988, after a few years of unenthusiastic work in graduate school in both math and physics, I joined the Peace Corps and was sent to the Philippines where I served two years as a Science Teacher Trainer.  It was during my time in the Philippines that I found renewed passion for learning and for mathematics.  After my Peace Corps service ended, I returned to the University of Oregon where I received a Ph.D. in Mathematics in June 1996.  During my time at the University of Oregon, I taught College Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus I, Calculus II, Statistics for Business Majors and Differential Equations.

 

After receiving my degree, I was fortunate enough to be offered a job as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.  I joined the Department of Mathematical Sciences, which has over 20 faculty members in mathematics, statistics and computer science. I was promoted to Associate Professor in 2001 and subsequently served two years as Department Chair.  During my time at UAF, I taught most of the courses in the undergraduate mathematics curriculum, ranging from mathematics for non-science majors to graduate-level mathematics courses as well as a few statistics classes.  While at UAF, I also worked at the Academic Advising Center, served on the Core Curriculum Committee and the Faculty Senate, developed correspondence calculus and trigonometry courses (and worked with the students in those courses) and assisted the faculty in the School of Education. Some of my work with the School of Education involved aligning the mathematics major to NCATE standards and strengthening the math requirement for Elementary Education majors. My work outside the department gave me a greater appreciation and understanding of other academic areas and, I think, a better perspective of the role of mathematics in education as a whole.  

 

During my time in Alaska, I was also married and my wife and I had twin boys in 2003.  Shortly thereafter, my wife and I determined it was time to return to Oregon and so we decided to relocate to Salem. I was fortunate to be hired at the Oregon Department of Education as a curriculum specialist in mathematics.  I am really looking forward to working with the teachers of Oregon as we continue to work on curriculum, standards and assessments.  One of my first tasks at ODE will be to facilitate revision of the Math Problem Solving Standards because this topic was not updated during the standards revision of 2002.  I will be asking for extensive input and advice from OCTM and other groups in Oregon as we work on this revision."

 

¥ Historian                                                                             Judy Johnson

            -  Judy said her first article is in and she did meet the deadline.  The article is about her.

            -  Ann read a note from Jim Specht, former Historian, who is in FBI school.

 

¥  TOMT                                                                                 Cathy Bernhard

            -  Jackie Cooke's surgery came between two issues of TOMT!

            - There will be articles based on the book studies at OML this year.

            - Cathy shared Joe Spooner's first book!

            -  TOMT will be getting articles from the Writer's Retreat this year.

 

¥  Publicity                                                                             Ann McMahon and Lois Costine

            -  Hope everyone can attend the Awards tonight.

            -  We spend about $400 to send out the certificates to recognize high school students.  Can we do this electronically?

            -  It was pointed out that if done electronically, then the name could be added instead of being calligraphed later.

            -  Lois received no responses back about who the recipients of the awards were.

            -  Could Lois show us what an electronic copy would look like at the next meeting?

 

¥ Scholarship                                                                         Brent Freeman

            -  Giny Christensen and Bonnie Swanberg will be recipients of scholarships to go to the       Northwest Math Conference.

 

¥ Contests                                                                               Cathy Brown

            - The State Math Contest has been around but no one knows who started it.

            - There will be a board at the state level to provide consistency.

            -  They will be meeting at Northwest. 

 

¥ OMEC                                                                                 Trudy Mitchell

            -  The focus of OMEC is to represent a broad range of interests.  They need a middle school and an elementary representative.  You volunteer but you get no reimbursements for your travel expenses.  It's great for networking and influencing.

            -  Last year they looked at the competencies of the teacher education programs.

            -  The overseeing board for the contests is a result of OMEC.

 

¥ TOTOM                                                                               Martha VanCleave

            -  The annual meeting will take place at Western Oregon University in September.

            -  They'll look at the ongoing projects around the state.

 

¥ Webmaster                                                                          Giny and Winnie for Jackie Cooke

            -  We looked at the webpage while Giny read Jackie's report.

            -  There was discussion about what minutes get posted to the web.  Sometimes there is some sensitive information or topics.  Our current policy says approved minutes get posted.  We will need to review this topic.

 

 

"To: OCTM Board

From: Jackie Cooke

RE: Web Page Responsibilities

 

Hi, all! Sorry I'm not going to be able to be with you for this meeting and Leaders conference. I'll especially miss all my karaoke buddies. I've put this information together for the board in answer to the questions that were raised regarding the web at the April board meeting. Please note the following:

 

1. I'm pleased to announce that for all intents and purposes reconstruction of the web page is finished.

 

2. Total number of hours we've worked on this site since April meeting:

JC: 71 hours

Joe:  As of 4/25/05 I've done 10 hours and a half worth of Web "stuff." I did quite (bold lettering, ALL CAPS) a bit more before I kept track, designing and putting up the site plus all the work on the NW site.

 

3. Both Joe and I feel we need to get more support from board members to streamline the amount of work involved in maintaining the web. We'd like for different members to take responsibility for deciding what the text on a page should say. Then they'd send the information to us electronically either in the body of a message or attached as an. html file (easy to do in Word). From there, Joe and I will be responsible for formatting and posting to the web site. It's especially important that Northwest (when in Portland), PDC, and any new additions to the web that the board may envision in the future should be created by someone else and sent to us as electronic files. As much as possible we want to get into the business of just doing the posting, formatting, and maintenance of existing pages. That's already a really big job. See the table below for our specific recommendations.

 

4. Since a great portion of the web is made up of information that is sent to us throughout the year for various TOMT issues, it makes sense to continue with the practice of having one of the TOMT editors be Webmaster.

 

5. TOMT deadlines are July 1, August 1^st, October 1^st, November 1^st, January 1^st, and March 1^st. These deadlines need to be considered when figuring out what time of year different parts of the web should be updated. For example, if the board should decide to go with electronic elections, all information related to that would need to be posted by the Jan. 1 deadline if there's going to be any print advertising of this in the Mar/April TOMT.

 

6. The page has grown tremendously in the last few years. Here's what I suggest the Board should look at during the Board meeting. It might be helpful to look at the flow chart while viewing the page to see how the pages are connected to each other. Especially note:

a)     the new look of the home page with all other pages having that consistent format

b)    the placeholder page for the PDC section that I'm imagining will expand once the committee has considered what it wants

c)     TOMT articles page with Steph's Today's Date added (plus more to come). We're going to be posting some expanded versions of articles during the next school year. There will be a note in upcoming TOMT articles that will refer folks to the web page. Also, this has the potential to attract new members by advertising the quality of our journal.

d)    Notice the link to Chuck Peterson's Problem Solving prompts and my Problem Solving for Primary People prompts and other math resources. These are actually housed on the OCTM web site now. We used to get lots of complaints from folks trying to access but not being able to do so because district servers would go down frequently so we moved them to OCTM site.

e)    Board minutes page

f)      Internet Bookmarks

g)  TOMT index.

 

7. How many years should we post board minutes? In perpetuity (that will make for a long list eventually)? For ten years? What is useful to the math community?

 

8. I've made a Webmaster decision to only do Internet bookmarks for the current and previous year since links seem to get out of date so quickly and it's a lot of work to check to make sure none of the links are broken.

 

9. At some point, I plan to make the TOMT index have a page for each subject since it's getting really long. Again, I wondered how long the TOMT index should be. What is useful? 10 years?

 

10. As you review the page please contact me about any suggestions or errors you find.

 

 

Who?	What Page?	Details?	When?
President	Officers Page