The ABLE annual General Business Meeting was held at Bowling Green
State University in 111 Olscamp Hall.
The meeting was called to order by President Carol Budd at 12:10 PM.
The meeting plan was presented and host Charlene Waggoner gave last
minute announcements.
1.0 Approval of Agenda of the 2004 Annual Business Meeting
The agenda was approved as announced.
2.0 Reports from Officers and Committee Chairs
2.1 President (Carol Budd)
Carol advised that this meeting would present supplementary information
to the published documents from officers and committee Chairs, which
will be archived. She deferred to the Board officers and committee Chairs
to report on follow-ups to last year’s Board motions, action items,
and suggestions.
2.2 Treasurer (Bob Hodson for Alec Motten)
The society continues to be financially healthy even though its total
assets are down about $5000 (12%) from last year (which in turn was
down about 10% from the previous year). Our resources are in the forms
of a checking account and certificates of deposit with a total value
of $35,046.64 as of May 31 (our fiscal year runs June 1 to May 31).
This total is from CD’s at $23,046.71 and checking at $11,999.93.
No CD’s were redeemed to pay for society expenses. A checking
account balance decrease of about $5000, which is almost entirely responsible
for the total asset decrease from last year, was mostly due to efforts
to increase membership and provide services to members.
2.3 Membership (Maggie Haag)
We are stable (stalled) at 312 members and need to build that up. Efforts
were described for increasing membership with pre-authorized expenditure
of some society funds. This included sponsoring a speaker and having
a booth at the national NABT meeting. There was not much return. It
was decided this year to go directly to 2- and 4-year schools with informative
letters, and a plea (again) was made to members present, especially
the new members, to help with recruiting. New members were also asked
to tell us how they found out about ABLE so we can learn what is working.
New members in the audience were recognized and thanked for attending.
2.4 Nominations/Elections (Ruth Beattie)
Three open positions were filled. Bill Glider was elected as President-Elect
and Chris Beck as Member-at-Large, and Bob Hodson ran unopposed for
another 2-year term as Secretary. Next year there will be an opening
for Member-at-Large.
2.5 Major Workshops (Ann Cordon, Sue Karcher)
We were reminded that the strength of ABLE is the sharing of ideas with
the rest of us. This year’s workshops came from discussions at
the meeting last year, from invitations, and from unsolicited offerings.
The format will remain the same with the first two days with exclusively
major workshops, 12-16 in all. Members were advised that a workshop
might not be accepted in a particular year because of need for balance,
for not over-emphasizing one particular area, or for lack of suitable
facilities. Although most workshops should be the tried-and-true type,
a few “cutting edge” types are encouraged. The on-line announcement
should appear after July 1.
2.6 No item
2.7 Mini Workshops (Catherine Ketter, Ralph Preszler, Tom Fogle)
There were 24 mini workshops. There is a trend toward computer-based
formats, and that can be a problem for the host institution. The application
form will be revised to stimulate more “wet” and application-based
formats, and there will be a limit on computer-based workshops. Minis
will be Friday afternoon, following a morning of discussion (round table)-based
sessions. It was speculated that limitations on host resources might
be unintentionally encouraging computer-based minis. Members were encouraged
to submit ideas regardless of format and let the committee, president,
and host institution decide what is doable and what is not.
2.8 Posters (Tom Fogle)
This is our second year of having an official poster session. Five posters
were presented and all were appreciated. This year presented a problem
in having posters available more than one day, but next year they will
be up longer if possible. Poster abstracts can be expanded for publication
in the Proceedings as mini workshops are now.
2.9 Proceedings (Mike O’Donnell)
Mike, 3rd year resident of the position, called for feedback on the
latest volume. He pointed out an extra appendix that has some historical
data, and gave a publication cost of $5,500 for a somewhat larger volume
than the preceding one. As requested last year, Mike surveyed various
publications for policies on double-publishing in the Proceedings and
elsewhere. In general, one can publish elsewhere if there is sufficient
change in the manuscript from the Proceedings version. One way to achieve
changes, now commonly required by journals, is to report the results
of an assessment on how one met the learning objectives. Associate editor
volunteers will be welcomed. A poll of preference for CD versus hard
copy was made and discussed; we will enjoy a hard copy next year!
2.10 Labstracts (Mariëlle Hoefnagels)
Mariëlle in her first year as editor produced two editions, one
in the fall and one in the winter. More articles are needed. A short
survey was conducted to determine member’s interests and gather
suggestions.
2.11 Grants-in-Aid (Bill Glider)
Up to 10 registration waivers for new faculty, graduate students, and
postdoctoral fellows can be granted per year. This year there were five
applications, and all received waivers. Teaching initiative grants of
$2,000 can be awarded to anyone, not just members, but none were requested.
2.12 ABLE Website (Corey Goldman)
The home page is being redesigned with drop-down menus and other enhancements.
There are now 164 Proceedings documents online in editable PDF format,
an increase from the previous 74. That makes about half of the workshops
online. As a result of Board action, by June of next year volumes 1-23
will be posted. Some printed volumes are still available and selling
for $15 to members and $18 to non-members. There is a need for volunteers
to prepare subject indices for Proceedings volumes 23 to 25, and images
from this year’s conference will be happily accepted for addition
to the website.
2.13 ABLE/BEN Partnership (Carol Budd)
There has been tremendous progress in linking BEN (Biology Education
Network) portal to ABLE online resources. AAAS is preparing a contract
to provide $5,000 to ABLE for our part in the linkage. The next phase
will involve a peer review process (recorded below).
3.0 New Business
3.1 ABLE Promotion (Carol Budd)
Some of our efforts towards promotion are directed at getting ABLE membership
in other organizations such as NABT. We are also considering several
other ways to promote ABLE with others paying for it, for example by
allowing advertising in Labstracts. A response to a recent Science
magazine forum about science education in which mention of ABLE was
absent is in the works. Ruthanne Pitkin suggested that we should donate
Proceedings to science resource centers at academic institutions. We
should also increase promotion of regional ABLE workshops. Hayden-McNiel
publishers have approached ABLE about the possibility of carrying Proceedings
volumes for sale at institutions where they are active. This would provide
an additional marketing avenue.
3.2 Peer Review Policy (Bill Glider)
This report on changing our peer review system is about a work in progress.
Bill noted that there is interest within ABLE for beefing up peer review
of workshops, and there is external pressure from BEN because they require
an approved peer review process in order for a resource to qualify for
inclusion in their portal. There are four parts to the developing upgrade.
- Workshop committee review will have some criteria, perhaps a rubric,
to guide its evaluation of proposals.
- After-workshop evaluation form will be somewhat revised to be better
focused.
- Establish some volunteers to give a more in-depth review and communicate
it to the Proceedings editor.
- Have the Proceedings editor use the in-depth reviews to advise
authors on manuscript revision.
Suggestions for any of the above steps were invited. A straw vote
was held about whether at least one presenter of a workshop needs to
be an ABLE member. Rejection of this idea was convincing.
3.3 New Partnerships (Mike O’Donnell)
Mike learned during contacts with journals about dual publishing that
there is interest in supportive partnerships, especially with Cell
Biology Education.
3.4 Straw Votes (Carol Budd)
Four straw votes were taken. Unfortunately, votes for only the third
item were recorded.
- How many read both Labstracts issues published during the past
fiscal year (fall and winter 2003-2004)? About 50%.
- How many favor the current 1-year membership versus a new 2-year
membership? About 50%.
- How many used the University of Delaware secure server to read
workshop documents before the meeting? About 36.
- Is there a preference for having all workshop documents in a binder
obtained at the meeting, or for a much scaled down binder containing
only meeting information but no workshop documents (latter would be
available online from the UD server for selective printing)? [It was
noted that complete binders would still be available upon request
on the registration form, and that reaching the UD server is made
easier by having a link on the official ABLE website maintained by
Corey.] Members want the option of having a printed version. Almost
everyone wants an editable electronic version.
In response to a question, reasons were given for having two ABLE websites;
Corey has enough to do with his official site, and the UD site provided
a trial secure server accessible only to meeting registrants (for workshop
documents – some business documents are available only to Board
members and some items such as photographs are available to all members).
3.5 Virginia Tech!! June 2005 (Mary Schaeffer)
Future meetings were announced for 2005 at Virginia Tech (Mary Schaeffer
host), 2006 at Purdue University (Sue Karcher and Anna Wilson hosts),
and 2007 at University of Kentucky (Ruth Beattie host). The year 2008
is not taken.
Mary described the arrangements at Virginia Tech and welcomed all.
The meeting adjourned at 1:30 PM.
Respectfully submitted
Robert C. Hodson
Secretary
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