ICASE Business Meeting
February 29, 2008
Sheraton Downtown Hotel - Indianapolis
(These minutes are considered a draft until approved at the next scheduled general membership meeting.)
 
OFFICERS PRESENT AT BUSINESS MEETING: Pam Wright (President), Lynn Gosser (President-elect), Tom Adams (Past-President), Vendetta Gutshall (Treasurer), Gary Collings (Secretary)
 
I. Call to Order: Pam Wright called the business meeting to order at 9:00 AM; she introduced members of the Executive Committee, including the three new chairpersons, and recognized members of all of the committees and subcommittees.
 
II. Review Agenda/Meeting Procedures: Pam reviewed the agenda and meeting procedures, including the use of a floor microphone. Pam established a quorum of 25% of the 104 eligible voting members by the "raising of the envelopes". A quorum was confirmed.
 
III. Approval of Minutes: Pam Wright called for approval of the September 28, 2007 minutes. MOTION: After a motion for approval by David Chastain and a second by Mary Beth Hamilton, the minutes were approved by voice vote as presented.
 
IV. Treasurer's Report: Vendetta Gutshall presented the Financial Statement noting expenditures of $92,618.84 of the budget amount of $242,900 excluding a protected $30,000 cash reserve. Revenue to date is $268,223. The Porter Scholarship Fund has a current account balance of $4,413.35 + $1,249 raised last night at the basket auction + $1,385 in the cabin vacation raffle (totaling $7,047.35) in addition to the $8,200 balance invested in the CASE Indiana scholarship account. Pam Wright called for a motion to accept the February 2008 financial statement. MOTION: After a motion for approval by Joan McCormick and a second by Cheryl Corning, the financial statement was approved by voice vote.
 
V. ISEAS Report: Gary Collings noted the recent mentor training for Directors on February 15, which was conducted by two university trainers associated with the DOE Division. He reported the morning session of the RtI seminar for building administrators is full at 250 with space available in the afternoon. The Midwest Educational Leadership Conference in Breckenridge on June 23-25 has 25 directors registered and is sold out.
 
VI. Executive Standing Committee Reports:
A. Legislative and Research ­ Joan McCormick, chairperson, thanked committee members and directors for their support and involvement. She recognized KWK for its efforts in behalf of the membership. KWK will monitor health bills and other allied areas. The February 2009 conference during the long session will include another breakfast for legislators and our partner associations. The committee is preparing its platform for next year, likely to include SLP licensure and certification for educational interpreters. Copies of the Congressional Directory were available to the membership.
 
B. Membership and Fiscal Management ­ Denise Bashore, chairperson, commented that five years ago the membership was 179 and now is 353. The ICASE website <www.icase.org> and its links are being updated. A quarterly electronic newsletter will be launched this fall with Cheryl Corning as its editor. A contest to name the new e-newsletter is underway. The fiscal management component of the committee is being organized.
 
C. Professional Development ­ Patti Kem, chairperson, thanked officers, roundtable representatives, committee members, secretaries, and DEL and hotel staff for their contributions to the conference. She put out a call for presenters for the break-out sessions for the Fall Conference to be held on September 18 at Fort Wayne.
 
VII. Strategic Plan Update:
A. Supporting the Membership
1. SLP Shortage Task Force ­ Pam Wright reviewed the work of this task force, which includes representatives from ICASE, ISHA, and DEL. She reported members are in agreement that more SLPs are needed to work in schools. The task force has developed an action plan with sub-groups. Connections have been made with university training programs. There is agreement that the State could benefit from a distance learning model for speech personnel with four year degrees to earn a master's degree. University trainers will meet this summer to form a consortium to address a delivery system for a graduate program. Pam will be requesting names of SLPs with their CCCs who would be willing and capable mentors for both undergraduate and graduate students. University trainers would utilize the mentors for observations, clinicals, etc.
 
2. Article 7 Work Group ­ Lynn Gosser noted the hot topics paper that had been presented during yesterday's session. The group will update their notes from Bob Marra's session as well as feed back from the membership. The documents are available on the ICASE website <www.icase.org>.
 
B. Advancing the Organization
1. Examining Organizational Structure ­ Pam Wright reported the members of the Past President's Council have agreed to serve as the task force to address whether the organization should explore a paid position.
 
2. Strengthening National Connection ­ Gary Collings commented the members of the Executive Committee had concluded the organization could not have a national presence if its members were not present on the national scene. ICASE officers will attend the CASE Board of Directors and/or Executive Committee meetings in April during the CEC Convention. The full Legislative Committee will attend the CASE Summer Institute in Washington D.C. on July 13-16. As chairperson of the CASE Research Committee, Gary Collings is a voting member of the CASE Executive Committee.
 
C. Promoting the Organization:
1. State Partnerships ­ Tom Adams emphasized the various CASE Institutes held each year and encouraged members to attend. He noted state partnerships with other professional organizations had developed through legislative involvement and outreach opportunities.
 
VIII. Nominations Committee Report: Tom Adams reviewed the nomination procedures under the new Constitution. The committee is chaired by the Immediate Past President and includes a member from each roundtable as well as the President-elect. He thanked its members for their commitment to the process, which included setting criteria for each vacancy (President-elect and Secretary), creating a nomination form, and how to construct the slate of officers. The committee selected a single slate for each vacancy. Members prepared a timeline to streamline the process for next year's nomination cycle.
 
Tom presented the slate of officers and reviewed the resume of both Vendetta Gutshall as nominee for a one year term as President-elect and Gary Collings as the Secretary nominee for a three-year term. Each term begins on July 1, 2008.
 
IX. Review of Voting Procedures: As parliamentarian, Gary Collings was called upon to outline procedures related to the election process. Gary noted a quorum had been established and written ballots with space for write-in nominations had been provided to all voting members. The ballots will be collected and tallied by the three chairpersons of the Executive Committee (Bashore, Kem, McCormick).
 
X. Election of Officers: Pam Wright opened the election and called twice for nominations from the floor for President-elect and twice for Secretary. Hearing none, she closed the nominations and asked members to mark their ballots. After the 74 ballots were counted by the panel of three chairpersons, Pam Wright confirmed Vendetta Gutshall as President-elect for 2008-09 and Gary Collings for Secretary from 2008-2011.
 
XI. Awards/Recognitions: During the luncheon session on 9-28-08, Tom Adams presented the Distinguished Service Award to Dr. Cathy Pratt. Honorary Memberships were granted to Mary Kay Davis (JESSE) and Dr. Charis Snyder-Gilbert (East Noble) with contributions made in their behalf to the Porter Scholarship Fund. Patti Allison paid tribute to Dr. Snyder-Gilbert.
 
XII. Other Business: Jeff Young presented American flags to four members and announced that Linda Holland (JESSE) won the week's donated cabin vacation in the Upper Peninsula.
 
Tom Barth presented the names of members who had won prizes donated by the following vendors: Indiana Works (Lucy Wieland), VSArts (Kathleen Clark), ICAN (Kathy Cain), Educational Concepts (Lou Dickman and Pam Roberts), Whites Institute (David Chastain), CSC Learning (Paula Williams), Meadows (Bernadette Brier), Three Springs (Connie Hehman), Children's Campus (Eileen Humphries), Met Life (Teresa McKenzie), Scientific Learning (Barbara McNichols), Claim Aid (Jackie Balkevicius), Pearson (Bruce Kulwicki), Sopris West (Eileen Kalman), Mecca Tech (Joan McCormick), First Team (Nancy Becker, Chuck Moore, Thelma Schwenk).
 
The Past Presidents Dinner held on the evening of February 27 was attended by approximately 20 members. Tom Adams introduced Jeff Moeller, Vice President of Special Olympics Indiana, who was the guest speaker.
 
Business meeting was adjourned after a motion by Tammy Ummel and a second by Connie Brown.
 
Division Report ­ At his morning presentation following the ICASE Business meeting, Bob Marra noted that the time of the Article hearings would be posted on the DOE website <http://doe.state.in.us/exceptional/advisory/welcome.html>.
Bob announced that Nancy Zemaitis will be heading up the revised monitoring system to address the twenty compliance indicators and the implications of the federal citation for the Continuous Improvement Focused Monitoring. He reviewed the USDOE citation of IDOE for its Part B determinations with a "needs intervention" sanction. The USDOE citation on June 15, 2007 noted the determination was based on the totality of the State's data in its Annual Performance Report and revised State Performance Plan, which was re-submitted on February 1. Significant disproportionality is a compliance indicator for which Indiana must provide baseline data for FFY 2006. Districts identified as out of compliance in disproportionality will be required to use 15% of Part B funds to be designated for early intervening services.
 
Bob also discussed the following items:
· Need to formalize the formula for graduation and drop-out rates;
· Current inability to back out non-public school students by grade from the State assessment;
· suspension/expulsion data and significant discrepancy between risk rate and risk index;
· LRE coding;
· Early childhood populations and the need for a more global speech assessment;
· Evaluation/identification;
Due process indicators were acceptable. Data will need to be reviewed on every indicator. Parent surveys will be issued directly from DEL to parents in 84 districts in March to be returned to DEL for tabulation.
 
NEXT MEETING: September 19, 2008 at the Fort Wayne Hilton and Convention Center