PHILOSOPHY of EDUCATION SOCIETY
Business Meeting, 2004
Minutes
Philosophy of Education
General Business Meeting
March 28, 2004
5pm - 6:15pm
• Call to Order - Francis Schrag
30-35 members in attendance
• Approval of minutes of 2003 Business Meeting
Bob Floden motioned, Barry Bull seconded, minutes approved.
• Announcements
• Election Results. The Election Committee included: Barbara Houston, Chair, Dwight Boyd, Jim Garrison, Wendy Kohli, Cris Mayo, Lynda Stone and Audrey Thompson. The Committee named Sharon Bailin as the choice for President-Elect. Maureen Ford and James Giarelli were nominated for the open position on the Executive Board. Eduardo Duarte and Natasha Levinson were the nominees for COPA. Executive Secretary Kathy Hytten conducted the election by mail. James Giarelli was elected to the Executive Board and Natasha Levinson was elected to COPA.
• New Fellows Approved - Chris Higgins, Jeffrey Milligan, and Leonard Waks
• Reminder to Submit Papers to Chris Higgins, Program Chair - taking email submissions, deadline April 1st
• President's Report - Francis Schrag
The main task of the president this year was to draft a policy on resolutions. This was addressed under new business.
• Executive Secretary's Report - Kathy Hytten
• Membership - At the start of the 2003 meeting ( 3/27/04 ), 384 members had paid 02-03 dues. At the start of this meeting, 443 members have paid for 03-04 - and we expect more will pay at the conference. We had 49 new members this year so far, 16 are attending the conference.
• Financial Status - Our fiscal status is healthy. The Legacy Fund is growing and we are operating overall within budget. Our dues increase seems to be working, as it has generated more income with fewer members.
• Reports from Committee Chairs
• Educational Theory/Yearbook - Nick Burbules. Ralph Page has been serving as acting editor for the 3 rd time while Nick has been on sabbatical (January - August 2004). The content of the journal has been good. One new direction is to create more special symposia - if you have ideas or suggestions (preferably ones you are willing to put together) please forward them to Nick. Nick handed out budget figures (complicated because of the transition to Blackwell) and statistics on journal submissions (about 100 papers per year, rejection rate of 75%, with an average turn around time of 30 days).
Nick then described all the benefits of the shift to Blackwell, which is now complete. All subscribers to Educational Theory now have on-line access through Blackwell's synergy site (about 8-10 people have accessed the site - Blackwell will be informing members soon about how to take advantage of it). The site allows for on-line key word searches, and access to four other journals: Journal of Philosophy of Education, British Journal of Educational Studies, Educational Philosophy and Theory, and Curriculum Inquiry. Back issues should be available on the site soon.
Nick is working further with Blackwell about using the Educational Theory site for something more than just key word searches, but also adding additional tools and functionality. He described a "my synergy workplace" which would allow users to annotate, cut and paste materials and to take notes. This could really help users to do some interesting scholarly work with the journal. Nick and the other editors of JPE and the British Journal are talking about interconnecting with ideas about collaboration - "an international on-line community of philosophers of education."
Finally, Nick described the status of the yearbook (which is a PES operation - not something he is officially affiliated with). One issue with the yearbook is that occasionally over the past few years we've felt the absence of single person with PES authority in charge of production details. The Executive Board is talking about appointing a series editor to oversee the production process, including keeping an eye on deadlines, costs, and maintaining continuity. There has been some talk about this - if anyone is interested, please let the Executive Committee know. In the short term, the process will stay at UIUC - overtime this person might consider shipping it out to a different publisher or different location.
• Hospitality Committee - Dwight Boyd. Three things: thanks for coming, hope you had a good time, and the graduate students did in fact do all the work. The resolutions committee will thank them personally.
• Program Committee - Chris Higgins. The ten person committee (Barbara Applebaum, David Blacker, Deanne Bogdan, Ben Endres, Mark Hicks, Deborah Kerdeman, Jon Levisohn, Luise Prior McCarty, Paul Standish, and Sharon Todd) was great. They provided three sets of qualitative feedback comments for all submission. We received 85 papers (over 10 were postmarked on time but arrived quite late, especially from Canada ). We should think about electronic submissions and arrival deadlines. Ken Howe and Chris talked about this. All papers got three readings. 27 were accepted (this includes three general sessions). In addition, 11 papers close to acceptance were grouped for topical symposiums. Eight alternative sessions were proposed, and five were accepted. There were around 130 people on the program.
• COPA - No Report
• Committee on the Status of Women - Gayle Turner. The committee is planning a topical symposium for next year which will group papers on the topic of the contributions of feminism to the discourse in philosophy of education. Barbara Thayer Bacon is the incoming chair of the committee; she and Gayle will work together to create a call. They are also considering this idea as a symposium topic for Educational Theory.
• Membership Committee - Michael Katz & Randall Curren. The leadership of this committee was transferred to Randy Curren. They had a breakfast meeting at the conference to discuss three issues: strategies to get old members back in the fold, creation of a paper copy of the application form with a letter to mail out and to bring to other meetings attended by members (e.g., AERA, British PES, Moral Education Society), greater connection with regional PES societies to encourage all of their members to join.
• Jobs for Philosophers - No Report
• Old Business
• Proposed Policy on PES Resolutions Concerning Public Policy
Fran read the resolution we approved at the Executive Board meeting:
a. A resolution adopted by a majority of the PES Executive Committee, at the request of any member, shall be placed on the agenda of the regular business meeting.
b. Any resolution which purports to represent the collective sentiments of PES on matters of public policy must be voted on by the membership on an electronic ballot, if a motion to do so is authorized by the majority of those present at the annual business meeting.
c. The Executive Secretary shall allow a period of at least two weeks from announcement for members to debate the motion. The ballot shall include a summary of the arguments presented.
d. The outcome of the membership polling shall be forwarded to the membership. For a resolution to be used in publicity outside PES, it must have the backing of the majority of those voting and at least 25% of the membership must cast ballots.
Fran read the resolution and the membership discussed some finer points. It was agreed that a majority of the executive board had to vote for the motion for it to be place on the business meeting agenda. If a motion makes it through the process, then members can use this information publicly (that is, say in a public forum that PES supports a particular stance). Nick Burbules moved to accept the motion as presented, Daniel Vokey seconded, and there was a unanimous vote of approval.
• New Business
• Operating Rules. Jim Garrison said we should consider the rules we are operating under. We should formalize Roberts rules of order; parliamentarian Allen Pearson was in attendance. No further discussion of this ensued.
• Resolutions. These were presented by Michael Katz and Barbara Houston. Victor Worsfold was also a member of the committee.
• Passing of the Gavel - from Fran Schrag to Bob Floden
• Announcement of Site, Program Chair, and Program Committee for 2005 Conference
The 2005 Meeting will be held at the Crowne Plaza Union Square in San Francisco , March 18- March 21, 2005 . Valerie Phillips helped to negotiate a great deal with the hotel; Eamonn Callan will be the Hospitality Chair. Ken Howe will be the program chair. The program committee includes: Deron Boyles, Eric Bredo, Pamela Courtney-Hall, Scott Fletcher, Frank Margonis, Michelle Moses, John Petrovic, Stephen Norris, Suzanne Rice, and Stacy Smith.
Meeting adjourned at 6:15pm .
Respectfully submitted,
Kathy Hytten
Executive Secretary
CONTACT: PES Executive Director Jeff Milligan
850-644-8171; milligan@coe.fsu.edu