Meeting Minutes
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
Division on Visual Impairments
2012 CEC Annual Convention & Expo
Denver, Colorado
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
12:00 p.m. – 4.00 p.m.
Hyatt Regency Denver
Mineral Hall C
In attendance:
Adam Wilton
Deborah Hatton
Derrick Smith
Diane Pevsner
Loana Mason
Martin Monson
Mary Jean Sanspree
Meredith McArdle
Phyllis Simmons
Richard Jackson
Seneca Smothers
Susan Brennan
Tanni Anthony
Tessa Wright
Tiffany Wild
I. Call to Order (Derrick Smith)
II. Adoption of Agenda & Executive Board Motions (Derrick Smith)
a. Approval of Minutes from Fall 2011 Executive
Board Meeting at APH Annual Meeting
b. Approval of Other Motions (items must be added to
the agenda prior to its adoption) (Executive Board Members)
III. Division Officer Reports
a. President’s Report (Derrick Smith)
Presidential Report (Smith)
Goal to get through agenda in two hours; and use the remaining two hours of the meeting for a
work group.
CEC membership as a whole is declining. Retention is more of a concern than recruiting new
members.
We have to have 1.5% of the total membership in each division; we're below the minimum (about
500; we're at 450). Smith went to the CEC Board for an exemption. Strong push to increase
membership/active membership.
New website is 1 month from going live; New DVIQ format (electronic) is up and running.
b. Past-President’s Report (Loana Mason)
i. Awards
ii. Nominations & Elections
Past Presidential Report (Mason)
Phyills conducted elections for new board members
Plaques for awards are ordered and are being picked up tomorrow. Mason was able to use tax
exempt status to be $20 under budget for the plaques. Mason asks that awards budget not suffer
further cuts.
Each year, we're spending about $1500 on elections to have an external company facilitate these
elections. This is one area where we could potentially cut.
Wild has raised concern about why we are contracting this out. Smith indicated that we have the
resources to do this ourselves. Smith says he can enlist students. Wright indicated she can do
postage for free. Mason asked if we could just use email. Smith indicated it would be best to back
it up with a postcard, but Hatton indicated other divisions aren't sending postcards. The
committee will decide
c. President-Elect’s Report (Diane Pevsner)
i. 2011 Convention Program
President Elect (Pesner)
Reservation for dinner under Pesner's name
Session schedule; visual impairment presenters each day. It's nice to have board member
introduce the speaker. A list was passed around so individuals could sign up to introduce DVI
sponsored speaker.
Make sure individuals introducing speakers should invite everyone to our general meeting.
Presentations for CEC next year are due May 23. Spread the word.
d. Treasurer’s Report (Susan Brennan)
i. Finance: 2011 Budgetary Report
ii. Finance: 2012 Budget Report and Projections
iii. Finance: Proposed 2013 Budget Development
Treasurer's Report (Brennen)
2011 we ended the year with just under $15,000. At this current date in 2012, we're just under
$16,000.
CAN line item of budget is determined by CEC.
Brennen distributed 2013 proposed budget and current balances
Current balances:
Proposed budget; We cannot budget more than we currently have in the bank; we have to show
we're being fiscally responsible:
Not a lot of changes from the 2012 budget
Awards are staying the same. Mason suggested that we reduce the proposed
CAN is staying the same
Convention is just a bit higher because the cost of the social keeps going up a bit each year
DVIQ is costing less; anticipated revenue is $1,500; Expenses are expected to be $3,500.
-First issue generated $750 in ads. We can estimate $3000 generated through ads annually.
Amato will bill for this soon since the issue is out.
Election—projected cost is down; $50
Helen Keller Art Show booth is going down. $1,000 is budgeted. Cost was lower this year because
we got one booth instead of two
IDC—fixed cost
Membership—based on trends, we expect our revenue to decrese by about $1000 to $7,500.
No operating expenses
There is confusion about the cost of the website/public relations. Suggested proposal for 2013 is
$150.
Perhaps next year we should add a line item to pay the webmaster for his services. We won't do
that this year to take a fiscally conservative approach.
This leaves us with discretionary funds, which is good. In 2011, these funds were donated to
GITWL, which was seen a beneficial partnership.
Sanspree recommended increase in funds for President and President Elect to travel to CEC
events, perhaps $500, which would not have to be used each year. This would be a contingency
for board members who don't have university funding to travel. Simmons got her school to
support her, but since it's a six year commitment, things can change with institutional budgets.
Sanspree and Hatton strongly advocate for this.
Brennen motioned that we add $500 line item to the budget to DVI meetings to fund officers (at
least to start). Seconded by multiple people including Monson. This job goes to finance
committee.
Mason suggested we build money into the budget to offer ACVREP credit as way of growing
memberships. There are ways to work around the excessive cost of this. CEC is amenable to this,
but only for DVI presentations. This could be especially helpful for the O&Mers. Anthony agreed to
be chair of the O&M committee.
After discussion, the proposed budget total is $8385. Motion to approve Hatton; Anthony
seconded; motion carried.
e. Representative’s Report (Tiffany Wild)
Representative Report (Wild)
Teacher Eval—how should teachers be evaluated
-Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) might come up; Mason and Wild are our representatives
and need to represent TVIs and COMSs.
-Points of concern include no differentiation of disability categories, confidentiality, etc
Cost of different levels of membership—true difference in benefit
IV. Committee Reports
a. Constitution & Bylaws (Lou Tutt)
-Lou Tutt has agreed to remain chair
-Ask Derrick to send me Lou's report
Smith would like to do some constitutional reform to bring things up to date. Changes can't be
made until next year.
b. Deafblind (Derrick Smith)
Chair-Amy Parker, wants to continue
Engagement of deafblind community is an area of concern
Parker is coming up with a list of ideas.
c. Diversity (Paula Conroy)
Chair—Paula Conroy was unable to attend. Did not send report
Dirersity could be added with special edition of DVIQ and more representation on website
d. DVIQ (Loana Mason)
DVIQ (Mason)
previously we paid Amato $2000 to be editor; her husband $1000 to PDF it; she would then
charge us printing and braille transcription.
PDFs being posted were not truly accessible; and the process was expensive.
Now, we're publishing in a flipbook format online. Packaging prices keep changing, but it appears
that the cost will be $30 months, and we can publish up to 5 items per month (could publish older
issues).
Mason has taken on the job of doing the braille transcription as a part of being the new editor.
All of this combines to come in under the $3000 for the editor's salary. Budgeting $3500 would be
safe.
We lost advertisers when we went electronic, but we can potentially grow our advertisers back.
For $250 a month, we could have Uberflip let us store our issues rather than Uberflip storing them
on their website, but this does not seem necessary at this time.
Tomorrow will do a demonstration of some of the features.
Move to electronic form was a financial decision but also a lifestyle/acquisition issue (itinerant
teachers, info on the go, etc)
Concern about older members feeling like they are losing a membership benefit
Including more practioner friendly articles, not just DVI benefits
Font is 18 pt because many people will be reading this on "smart devices
e. Governmental Relations (Michael Bina)
Chair--Mike Bina was unable to attend
Report from CEC came out yesterday; lots of negative news
One positive surrounds restraint and seclusion
Part C is suffering major cuts which will greatly affect IDEA
f. Helen Keller/DVI Art (Carol Allison)
Carol Allison is chair.
g. Membership (Meredith McArdle)
We're low, but just 28 members short. Average number is 262.
Get report from Meredith
When economy was heathier, CASE members were members of every division. When they cut
budgets, CASE members dropped divisions other than CASE. Those are the members we have
lost, not actual DVI members
h. National Agenda (Janie Blome)
i. Orientation and Mobility (Bonnie Lawrence)
Lawrence is stepping down as chair. No report was available.
j. Professional Standards (Mary Jean Sanspree)
Professional standards
-ethics statement approved by CEC board (Sanspree)
-there have always been 11 CEC standards that were used for curriculum, all agencies that are
part of NCATE are moving to 6 standards. We will have to compress as well, but not for a couple
of years. All of the standards will be evidence based/research based. We have basic, initial
certification standards have been approved. We are moving to get advanced standards approved
(EdS or MEd if initial certification was obtained at the undergraduate level)
i. Position Papers (Deborah Hatton)
Postion Papers (Hatton)
Approved last year's CEC meeting
 Facillitating Sensory Efficiency
 Supporting Social and Emotional
 Assistive Tech
 Deafblind was approved with minor revisions
Ready to be approved this year
 Physical Education
 Independent living
This will be passed along to Mason so they can be published in DVIQ (now that space constraints
are no longer an issue)
Perhaps a policy should be developed about copyediting being between the author and the chair
(as opposed to substantial content changes)
k. Publications (Loana Mason)
l. Public Relations (Mary Jean Sanspree)
Social (Sanspree)
We had less funding for the social (only $1000); it will be smaller scale; budgeted for 50 people
Social will be held in Mineral D; Thursday at 8:15pm
It will consist of hors d'overs and a cash bar
Lou Tutt personally donated $150 toward social
Next year we might want to partner with another division to help our resources go further
Another option is to get a suite for the president and open up the suite a couple of days for DVI
events.
Sanspree will start negotiating a suite for the social next year in San Antonio. Smith will work on
connections with Texas Tech and TSBVI.
Mason suggested that we give free advertising in DVIQ for social sponsors. Sanspree indicated
this could be complicating.
m. Website (Derrick Smith)
Chair-Derrick Smith—Adam Wilton taking over
Members only section being added.
First DVIQ was open to everyone, the rest will be for members only. Wilton will have to work with
someone to make this secure (this may need to be added to the budget). We will wait and amend
the budget later if we need to
V. Old Business
a. Alternative Electronic Election Options (Derrick Smith)
b. Future Direction of the DVIQ (Loana Mason)
c. AFB Press & DVI Partnership (Derrick Smith)
d. Future Direction of Website (Derrick Smith)
AFB Press and DVI Partnership
-DVI members still get a discount on JVIB (but so does everyone else)
-Wright expressed concern that a lot of members didn't know about this. This was distributed via
DVIQ and on handouts at GITWL. An email has not yet been sent to members. An email will be
sent to members
-Discount also applies to AFB webinars and books.
VI. New Business
VII. Adjourn (Derrick Smith)
Brennan moved the business meeting ajourn. Wild seconded.
Business meeting adjourned.
Followed by Work Session focused on these topics:
Membership Growth
Building Value of DVI
Defining our Mission and Vision
Strategic Planning Goals
Working Session
Value of CEC DVI
Connection to the bigger organization of CEC/our official lobbying group
Membership
Academics, some TVIs, people on the outside
We need to be connected to a larger body: grants, certification (in increasing numbers of states), etc
Something we send out monthly just for practitioners (3 pages, cookbooks style)
Open listserve
Maybe change name to DVIDB?
Do more for O&M
PD Units/CEU/Articles?
ACVREP Credits in Texas. It could be huge!
Looking at our geographic distribution
Build partnerships—website portal
Committees could be more focused
We need to give the teachers what they need—where they are now. What is that? We need a niche
Coordinated Social Media Strategy
DVIQ—give teasers—something like smart briefs, tech tidbits style
Easy and Quick
Get administrators on board
Working with other divisions
We need a mission and a vision
What are 1 or 2 things we can focus on?
Teacher Resources: Website, DVIQ, Social Media, Youtube videos, or we could use the website as a
portal/synthesize information—Make CEC presentation information (in DVIQ or podcasts or on
website) available.