Call to Order: President Jolene Hetherington called the meeting to order at 4:35

Attendees: President Jolene Hetherington, Mather; Past Presidents Charlene Willey, Phelps; Cheryl Gustafson, Bothwell; Secretary Paula Diedrich, Bothwell; Treasurer Suanne Trebilcock, Negaune; Sara Moyle, Graveraet; Dan Reattior, Sault Ste. Marie; Judy Mattson, Aspen Ridge.

Amend/Approve Agenda: Under the President’s Report, MAMSE Conference was added. Under Conference 2002, MCTM Conference was added. Newsletter was added as Item XIII. Agenda was approved with additions.

Jolene stated the guidelines for UPMSA need to be updated before she continues with the incorporation process. She will report back to the Board at the September meeting with a list of changes.

Jolene also reported that UPMSA can become a member in the NMSA for a cost of $175 per year. Benefits include literature from NMSE and reduced costs for their conference(s). A motion was made by Dan Reattior to join NMSE for one year at $175 as an association. Charlene Willey seconded. Motion carried.

MAMSE Conference: As part of the president’s report, Dan Reattior notified the Board that the spring MAMSE Conference will be hosted by the Sault Ste. Marie district. Thursday, March 13, 2003, will be a full day while Friday, March 14, 2003, will be a half-day conference.

The Board was asked to make sure their district’s superintendents were aware of this event and that a professional day be scheduled for at least one of the days so middle school educators would be able to attend. The goal is for 1 minimum of 1,000 attendees.

Suggestions for the keynote speakers are also being taken.

The Board agreed that the conference should be promoted to area school board members also.

Nominations for the Teacher, Team, Principal, and Parent of the Year are being accepted until December 1, and the Board agreed that this would be a great year to have U.P. winners. As a note, MASSP Principal of the Year was Maxine Honkala from Aspen Ridge and the MACUL Teacher of the Year was Sharon Richards from Aspen Ridge.

MAMSE Grants: Dan Reattior is the chairperson of the MAMSE Grant Committee and informed the Board that the grants are due by June 1. There can be up to five grants awarded for $1000.00. The forms are available on-line or from Dan.

Secretary’s Report: The Board and anyone on the listserv that was created after the last conference will continue to receive the minutes for each meeting via e-mail. They will also be published on the website. Motion to accept by Suanne Trebilcock, seconded by Sara Moyle. Motion carried.

Treasurer’s Report: Only three entries since the last meeting. All were for reimbursement for travel to the MAMSE Conference in March. Motion to accept by Paula Diedrich, seconded by Cheryl Gustafson. Motion carried.

Middle Start Update: Carl Wozniak and Linda Greenberg could not attend but Cheryl Gustafson updated the Board. The grant’s fiscal year will begin July 2002 with $300,000 per year for 3 years to be provided for qualifying schools. Carl will notify the qualifying schools. (Contain a seventh grade and at least one grade on each side and have completed the self-study.) The grant covers the following areas: Academic Achievement, Healthy Development, and Social Equity.

Carl’s plan includes building a digital infrastructure for networking, building a roving network of experts to talk to people about middle school philosophy, support multi-school student programs and cross-curricular materials. The grant will not support paying for people to attend conferences but can support bringing outside people to our area.

Conference 2002:

Keynote: UPCED has agreed to pay for Elliot Soloway. He is a faculty member at U of M and is a member of the HI-Ce group. This group is currently affiliated with the Middle Start Grant and they would like to see grant monies used for expanding current affiliations.

High School Conference: Paula informed the Board that MARESA (formerly MAISD) would like to collaborate on the fall conference. MARESA is willing to pay for the morning keynote speaker (Jerry Mills), split the cost of the morning treats, and split the cost of providing folders, pens and paper with the UPMSA logo printed on them. MARESA would like the conference fee to be $25 instead of $36 this year because of the sharing of costs and the fact that their conference is usually $10. This cost would include lunch but not membership in UPMSA. Cheryl Gustafson made a motion to reduce the conference fee to $25 for a one year trial basis to collaborate with the MARESA conference. Judy Mattson seconded. It was further discussed that at least one conference chair, the conference principal, and one executive board member attend the Joint Conference Committee meetings. Motion carried.

A draft of the conference schedule was reviewed. It was noted that presenters are still needed in all subject areas. Paula is waiting to hear from Mary Mantei as she will be in Marquette the day before the conference. She is also waiting to hear from the MAMSE consultants. Dan Reattior will remind the consultants.

Promotion of UPMSA: The Board reviewed a draft of a brochure to be used to publicize the conference to the lower peninsula and northern Wisconsin. Paula will finalize the brochure and work with the UPCED on dispersing the pamphlet.

A motion was made by Jolene Hetherington and seconded by Judy Mattson for Paula to purchase up to $1000 of promotional items for the fall conference. Motion carried.

MCTM Conference: Cheryl and Paula are working with the MCTM Conference and the MCTM Committee is hoping to offer a half-day rate to any UPMSA Conference attendee. Jolene Hetherington made a motion that in the event that MCTM conference has a half-day rate, the UPMSA conference will have a half-day rate of $15 which includes lunch. The point was taken that UPMSA is being asked to cooperate with the other fall conferences and the Association should do so as much as possible without losing our identity. Motion carried.

Conference 2003-UPRA Keynote: Paula was approached by Judy Sarosik regarding UPRA’s Thursday evening banquet in 2003. UPRA has already booked Naomi Shabib-Nye as a keynote speaker and extended an invitation for UPMSA to again join them in the Thursday evening banquet. After some discussion of the cost the Board decided not to make a decision at this time.

Meals: A motion by Suanne Trebilcock was made to cover the dinner cost, excluding alcohol, up to $10 per person, for all UPMSA Board members in attendance at future meetings. Seconded by Cheryl Gustafson. The Treasurer will pay the bill and then reimburse herself. Motion carried.

Website: Paula informed the Board that she just met with Jason Vivian and he will be updating the website with the current 2002 conference information. The regional winners for Teacher, Team, and Principal of the Year will be posted upon receiving permission from the winners.

Incorporation: Jolene will be contacting a local attorney regarding the process. She will also be updating the Board guidelines and bringing changes to the September meeting.

Newsletter: Currently Char has five articles for the newsletter. The Board gave additional ideas such as promoting the UPMSA Conference, MAMSE Conference, regional winners and MAMSE grant deadline.

Future Goals: Paula brought forward the idea of contacting Central Michigan University to schedule classes for middle school certification in Marquette with the support of UPMSA. Discussion was held about the importance of the middle school certification. It was decided that workshops would be a better idea and the Middle Start grant would possibly cover some of the costs. Paula will research further.

Motion by Judy Mattson, seconded by Char Willey to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned 6:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Paula Diedrich, Secretary