M20120813

SUECON Meeting Minutes Date & Place of Meeting: Monday, August 13th, 2012, Woodward Building, 11:30 to

1:00. Lunch was provided from Jimmie Johns. Those Attending: Charlie, Cody, Dale, Ian, Jane, Jeanette, Kathy, Michelle, Randy, Scott, Summer, Tammy, Tony C., Tyler. Information Sharing: You can access committee assignments, agendas, minutes, etc. at http://suecon.wikispaces.com/

Early Registration: 1. 302 have registered online so far. Our goal is for over 1000 including staff and presenters. 2. Only two schools have offered to sign up their entire faculty so far: DMS and SCMS. 3. We are reminded that Charice Black said UCET gets most of their signups the last two weeks before online registration closes. 4. We will recruit more through various ways: • Jane will make an attendee list for Charlie to contact each principal to let them know who from their school will be attending or presenting. • Charlie will go talk to the faculties to request attendance and more presenters. • In a couple of weeks, Cody will send a reminder to the ALL list. It might be best to find out first if this can be used for PLC time, since that will be a big draw for teachers. • Cody will be sure all schools have posters. • Charlie and Kathy will talk to the principals at their meeting. • Charlie will contact Iron County and SEDC to see if they will bring more in. There is talk of making it a short day for their teachers to come. 5. Consider incentives: • We have offered a prize to the school with the greatest percentage of attendance worth $20,000. It is 30 Chromebooks. • Charlie will ask if the district can allow each day at the conference to be used for credit for PLC time. This would have to be approved by both Marshall Topham and Richard Holmes.

6. It will be okay for people to show up and register that day, unless we have reached our limits beforehand. 7. Committee members remember that you do not register as an attendee.

Vendors: 1. Signups: We have room for 36, but have 11 more available (if Pearson buys one more booth as expected today.) Cody has a list of local businesses that he will go to and talk with the store manager, but others were suggested too: Walmart, Steamrollers, and Alphagraphics. 2. There are five classrooms being made available for vendors. We have three out of five assigned, so we can have more. The three that want to have classrooms are Valcom, Light Speed, and the Chariot Group. Each group must have at least five presentations that can help people know how to use their products in the classroom, but are not to be a “sales pitch.” 3. There will be stamps for vendors so attendees can get SUU credit partly by visiting their booths.

Sponsors: 1. If you run into anyone who might want to be a sponsor, tell them to go to the suecon.org website or call the SUECON phone number, 767-1203 that goes to Cody and Scott’s phones. 2. There are six sponsors but not all of them want classrooms. 3. Troxell will provide more bags again for attendees. 4. It would be nice to have sponsors for programs or continental breakfast. Someone suggested the suppliers that we spend the most money with: Pearson (already enlisted), Waterford, CK-12.

Badges: 1. Scott has badge covers, but not enough lanyards. Cody has 50 leftover. 2. Badges will be color coded as to whether you are a presenter, attendee, or vendor. 3. We discussed whether to have lunch tickets printed with badges since it can be perforated more than once. They are 4x11”. 4. Vendor badges will be printed ahead of time and given to Scott. This will be their ticket for food. They will not scan their badges like attendees.

Registration: 1. Dale is in charge of the desk and assisted by Ken Kirkeby from tech office and Kay Pierce from Dixie Middle School. Ramona and/or Summer can also help there. Cody wants Jim to be their tech troubleshooter full-time, since they could run into trouble with printing badges, etc. These people will stay there all day long. 2. The kiosk will have 20 computers as people come in to briefly check in and tell it to print their ticket.

Presenters: 1. Besides others that are pending, Jane counted only the ones so far with exact titles and requesting a room for a certain number of hours. There are now 60 presenters doing 82 presentation titles using 138 hours of time in labs or classrooms 2. Advertized (soft) deadline for presenter signups is September 20th, but hard deadline is September 27th. 3. UEN has signed up and several of the regional trainers, but Charlie will contact the regional service centers to remind them to sign up. 4. Jane has sent out emails to all who have signed up so far and all who presented last year. 5. Jane has made a list of presentations we already have, so Charlie can give it to Richard Holmes and Marshall Topham to see where our strengths and weaknesses are. We would like them to send out directives for people in the district office to sign up as presenters. 6. Incentives for presenters. • Summer believes that recertification points for the time they prepare to present. Some suggested even 15 points would matter to them. Charlie needs to write a syllabus for that and get approval from Richard and Marshall. • Scott and Kathy will put together gift bags; perhaps a flash drive, Red Bull, etc. A hospitality room is planned in the teacher lounge. 7. This fall Charlie will do more to get the word out in our district that the theme is expanded beyond just technology, so we can add classes that are “teachers helping teachers.” 8. Charlie has someone he knows to ask if Texas Instruments would like to teach classes on how to use calculators.

New Possibilities with Strands: • Data Strand: Jim and Lawrence would like to have a Data Strand with several classes offered for data miners and secretaries, with PowerSchool helps, etc. If so, be sure to have Kaijsa send out email to only secretaries to get their attention. (Who is in charge of the data miners for those email alerts?) • Wellness Strand: Cody will talk with Tammara to see if her wellness classes could be offered at our conference. And might Altius come to teach some classes? Might Altius want to sponsor a meal, healthy snacks, or something else? The classes could be a big draw for many teachers trying to get their points taken care of to save money on deductibles (or whatever). • SPED or Vocational Strands: Charlie will talk to district leaders to see if they would organize several classes.

Advertising: 1. Summer prepared a questionnaire to send out to all certified staff in the next few weeks that asks questions, and it will be a reminder for them to attend. 2. Kathleen Wagner puts out the teacher’s union newsletter if we want her to mention SUECON. It needs to be soon.

Keynote Speakers: 1. Larry Shumway will come and talk for 15 minutes on Friday afternoon at 2:30. Conference “Housekeeping”: At 2:30 Friday, Cody will dim the lights in the auditorium. There will be a very short video, Summer will have a powerpoint to do her “housekeeping,” then Larry Shumway will talk for 15 minutes. 2. At 8 a.m. Saturday, Cody will dim the lights in the auditorium. Summer will have announcements for “housekeeping,” then Jaime Casap will talk for 45 minutes. Then there will be 7 sessions from 9 to 4 p.m. There will be no “lunch break” since classes will continue through the lunch hour. 3. At 4 p.m. on Saturday, all will head to the auditorium. Attendees will put their badges into a basket as they walk in the door to the auditorium to qualify for prizes. Summer Cornelius will be the Master of Ceremonies for the drawings.

Volunteers: 1. The shirts for committee will be black and the same as last year, so let Cody know if you can still wear your shirt. There will not be a special style for women this year as proposed. 2. The volunteers will wear orange shirts so they will be very noticeable. Jeanette will check with lab aides to availability and get exact sizes for all volunteers by our next meeting. ROTC will wear their uniforms but be given shirts as a thank you. 3. Jane will have Cindy Chamberlain assist her in the teacher’s lounge with two student runners.

Food: 1. For staff Thursday setting up and collating bags on Thursday, there will be pizza from Hungry Howie’s. 2. For staff, no food will be needed Friday night, but there will be food provided coming from Dickey’s BBQ Saturday night. Last year most of the cleanup was done by 5:30, so many of us may not need a meal. But this year there will be more take-down for the guys asked to work in the vendor area – perhaps 20? 3. For all, lunch on Saturday will be salads from Durango’s. 4. Lunch served from 11 to 1 p.m. We are still talking about whether to print lunch tickets or simply use the Saturday morning barcode count to count lunches. We can do the major count by 9:30 for the first group, then order more by 11 a.m. for the latecomers. 5. There will be a continental breakfast. 6. Tammy will close the kitchen by 2:30 to 3 p.m. so they can clean up and return food to Costco if extra.

Non-Profits Organizations in the Commons area: 1. Two of the authors will be allowed to have free tables in the commons area and three non-profits (UCET, UELMA, KUED channel 7). UELMA is yes, KUED already said yes, Charlie is asking UCET and PALS, and Jane is asking Southwest Behavior Clinic. We are not having Tony Pelligrini’s table this year. 2. The only SUU table this year in commons will be for participants turning in paperwork for credit at a table manned by Michelle and/or Ramona.

Facilities: 1. There is only 1 classroom and the wrestling room in the athletic building for vendor presentations, which could be converted with tables and chromebooks. 2. There is a new lab going into the vocational building, so there will be 4-5 labs. 3. Tony R. has ordered 8 tables (8 foot) and 72 chairs to rent to have on hand. 4. Last year we were short projectors, so this year we want extra on hand. Charlie just bought some, so he will provide extras for quick checkout. 5. Wireless should not be a problem this year. 6. The tech guys set up the partitions and they all fit and all the pieces are there. Video The only taping we will do is of the keynote, and Charice will bring better cameras this year to have better quality that could be put on the website. Room Posters with time schedules: Jane don’t forget that you are in charge of those. Also during the conference, go make changes if presenters drop out at the last minute.

Room Scheduling: (discussed after meeting) 1. The “meet and greet” could be in the media center to sign books during the hours that un-conference takes a break. 2. iPad classes will be so well attended that they should probably go in the theaters or even auditorium. 3. Last year a man (Edy thought from SUU) packed the theater talking about new children’s books. Most of the elementary teachers tried to go. Perhaps this year it should be held in the auditorium right after the kickoff assemblies both days! I believe it was Mark and Linda Marriot. They did “A Peek Between the Covers” about some of the newest children's picture books and chapter books published during the last six months, explore the themes of the new books as well as the trends for next year, and get ideas for the use of these books with the Common Core. They are offering the same this year with 40 books!

Assignments: Cody has detailed our tasks very well. Here are some reminders for Charlie from what was written above: Charlie will give Richard Holmes and Marshall Topham a list of our presentations to help them see where our strengths and weaknesses are. We would like them to send out directives for people in the district office to sign up as presenters. Charlie needs to write a syllabus for 15 recertification points for incentives for presenters and get approval from Richard and Marshall. Charlie ask google to submit their presentations. Charlie has someone he knows to ask if Texas Instruments would like to teach classes on how to use calculators. Charlie and Kathy will talk to the principals at their meeting. When trying to get more presenters at faculty meetings from within the district, emphasize that the theme is expanded beyond just technology, so we can add classes that are “teachers helping teachers.” Charlie will contact Iron County to see if they will bring more in. There is talk of making it a short day for their teachers to come. Charlie is asking UCET and PALS about free non-profit tables in the commons area.

Future Meetings: September 17th, then once a week after that, so possibly Monday, September 24th, Tuesday, October 2nd to coincide with monthly PLCs for media people, Monday October 15, and Monday October 22nd if needed. (Last year we did not need to meet the same week.)