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Radisson - Indianapolis (These minutes are considered a draft until approved at the next scheduled general membership meeting.) Executive Committee/Past Presidents' Dinner (2-14-07): Cindy Pittman hosted the after-dinner meeting and called on Joan McCormick to brief the group on the afternoon hearing of SB 451 regarding the re-instatement of emergency permits for teachers of communication disorders. Awards (2-15-07) During the luncheon awards session, Leonard Burrello (Indiana University) was presented the ICASE Career Achievement Award. Honorary Membership was granted to Julia Prather (West Central), who donated the value of a retirement clock to the Porter Scholarship Fund. OFFICERS PRESENT AT BUSINESS MEETING: Tom Adams (President), Pam Wright (President-elect), Cindy Pittman (Past-President), Vendetta Gutshall (Treasurer), Gary Collings (Secretary) 1. Minutes Tom Adams called the business meeting to order at 8:00 AM and requested approval of the September 29, 2006 minutes. MOTION: After a motion for approval by Pat Pierce and a second by Joan McCormick, the minutes were approved as presented. 2. Treasurer's Report - Vendetta Gutshall presented the Financial Statement noting year to date expenditures of $71,707.29 of the $167,650 budget, with a favorable revenue balance of $188,125.05, pending expenses related to the Spring Conference with an additional $30,000 protected cash balance. An unofficial total of the Thursday night sale of the Super Bowl footballs ($1,000) and the basket auction ($2,134) netted, which will be added $3,134 to the Porter Scholarship Fund current account balance of $3,049.12 plus the $6,600 invested balance in the CASE Indiana scholarship account. 3. ICASE Reports: a. Membership Vendetta Gutshall reminded members that the membership year begins in July at which time new levels of Patron Membership will be marketed. The products subcommittee is seeking ideas for additional products of interest to the membership. The website subcommittee has added many improvements <www.icase.org>. Theresa Oberley and Mary Custer are co-chairing the Membership Committee. In response to a question about rolling dues into registration fees, Vendetta said that in the past the membership year began September 1 and members often confused the payment of the Fall Conference fee with payment of the annual dues. The July 1 membership year also matches that of the CEC/CASE. She noted the Membership Committee would, however, be pleased to re-consider the option at the discretion of the Executive Committee. b. Legislative Tom Adams complimented the membership for its participation at the Legislative Breakfast. Joan McCormick spoke to the successful Senate hearing on SB 451. She thanked Kelli Waggoner of the KWK Management group for her partnership and support in all of the details and arrangements. Joan noted Senator Kennedy's federal SB 578 titled Protecting Children's Health in Schools Act of 2007. c. CASE Vendetta Gutshall reminded members to monitor the CASE website <www.casecec.org> for federal legislation, national news, conference dates, etc. d. CEC Tom Adams encouraged members to attend the CEC Convention in Louisville on April 19 21, 2007. ICASE is a co-sponsor of the CASE Fun Night to be held at the Kentucky Derby Museum. As a result of the ICASE nomination, George Van Horn announced that Leonard Burrello will receive the Harrie M. Selznick CASE Distinguished Service Award at the CEC Convention. It is the highest CASE honor in recognition of individuals who have been career-long leaders in the administration of special education programs. e. Fall 2007 Pam Wright confirmed that the Fall Conference 2007 on September 26 - 28 will be held at the French Lick Resort with reasonably priced overnight room rates. She encouraged members to register early for access to the block of rooms. f. Strategic Plan 2006 Conference Cindy Pittman reported the plan is moving forward with several work groups, which recently reported progress to-date to the overseers group. She will be compiling the notes and timeline for a future report. g. Article 7 Work Group Tom Adams explained the Executive Committee has formed a work group to be prepared to draft position papers for member reference at public hearings or with various stakeholders. The work group will review the strike-through draft being prepared by the State Advisory Committee. h. IAPSS Tom Adams reported John Ellis has accepted the ICASE offer to pay the expenses for George Batsche as the keynoter for the IAPSS Winter Conference to be held on January 31, 2008. i. Damar Update Bill Dreibelbis briefed members about the service delivery system for the residential facility in the RISE district, which has been under review as to whether RISE or Damar will provide the teachers and staff for the educational program. The CEO of Damar has recently committed to fully staffing the educational program. As a result, there will be potential changes in the placement process and billing for costs for step down services in RISE. 4. Election of Officers Pam Wright, President-elect and chair of the Nomination Committee with members Ann Schnepf and Karol Farrell, presented the following slate of officers: Lynn Gosser, President-elect (2007-08) and Vendetta Gutshall, Treasurer (2007-09). Pam explained the nomination process and reviewed the resume of each candidate. MOTION: Pat Pierce moved to accept the slate of officers as presented with a second by Tammy Ummel. No action taken. Before the Call for the Question regarding the slate of officers, Nancy Becker was recognized and presented a nomination from the floor. MOTION: Nancy Becker moved to nominate Mary Custer as President-elect with a second by Joan Riley. No action taken. Pat Pierce/Tammy Ummel offered to amend their original motion to include Mary Custer as an option for President-elect. No action taken. MOTION: Pat Pierce moved to accept Vendetta Gutshall as Treasurer for 2007-09. Motion died for lack of a second. After considerable debate, the membership agreed all active, voting members present would use the back side of his/her respective name card as a ballot to vote for President-elect and Treasurer. Vendetta Gutshall presented a list of 92 active members eligible to vote if present. Gary Collings was asked to proctor the voting process and announce the outcomes after the keynote presentation by Steve Kukic. During the ballot counting process, Gary requested the two candidates for President-elect join him in confirming the voided ballots and in the tallying of the valid ballots, without revealing names of those casting a ballot for either candidate. Before announcing the outcome of the ballot election, Gary Collings reviewed the ICASE constitution provisions for voting privileges with Active membership, which is open to an individual in the field of special education in public schools who holds membership in both CEC-CASE and ICASE. He reported 67 name tag ballots had been collected. In comparing the ballots to the active voting list, 17 ballots were voided with no consequence to the final outcome. Gary asked the membership for permission to forward the list of 17 names to Vendetta for follow-up with no opposition expressed. Of the remaining 50 ballots, one voted for neither candidate for President-elect, 8 voted for Mary Custer, and 41 voted for Lynn Gosser. There were no write-ins for Treasurer, and Vendetta Gutshall received 37 votes. The membership accepted the ballot votes as conclusive for the confirmation of the respective terms of office for both Lynn Gosser and Vendetta Gutshall. 5. Vendors At the conclusion of the business meeting, Tammy Ummel conducted a drawing of vendor door prizes and thanked the Event Sponsors (Bose McKinney Evans, Mecca Tech, Claimaid Consulting Corporation), the Patron Member vendors (NCS Pearson, Claimaid, Mecca Tech, Spectrum K-12, Three Springs, Educational Concepts, MetLife/MetDesk), as well as additional vendors (First Team Education, ICAN Project, VSAI, Sopris West). 6. Division Report The day before the business meeting (February 15), Bob Marra briefed the membership on the following topics: child count/funding issues, school-based Medicaid, speech language pathology, ISTAR, assessment, parent survey, disproportionality, early childhood, determination categories, IN-SIG update (Brett Bollinger), and progress report for Article 7/Advisory Council <http://doe.state.in.us/exceptional/advisory/welcome.html> NEXT MEETING: September 28, 2007 at French Lick Resort |