Technology & Young Children's Interest Forum
Business Meeting Minutes
Nov. 12, 2004, Friday, 2:30-4:30pm

In Attendance:
Amy Betz, Letha Clark, Jocelynn Smrekar, Linda Robinson, Kim Moore, Carol Bell, Sally deVinceutis, Elma Ruiz, Catherine Gillespie, Beverly A. Corbin, Karen Heflin, Barbara Easton, Deanna Nekovei, Susan Griebling, Sharon Thompson, Sara DeWitt, Bonnie Blagojevic, Mark Bailey, Dina Walker-DeVose, Lynn Hartle, Susan Haugland, Ethel Beuch, and Ted Janicki: Reporter

Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order by Kim Moore, President for the Technology and Young Children Interest Forum.

Minutes:
The minutes from the 2003 Annual Meeting were accepted with all in favor.

Announcements:
Kim Moore reminded those in attendance that a reception would follow the Annual Meeting.

A special Thank You was extended to the Technology and Young Children Planning Committee for the 2004 Conference Tech Room. The Thank you included Fran Simon and Connie Joe Smith, whom were not present.

Mark Bailey volunteers to be Parliamentary procedures enforcer.

A thank you was also extended to all of the sponsors for their support during this year's conference. Kim Moore presented gifts to IBM, Carol Bell, Sue Haugland, Allen Simpson, Bonnie Blagojevic, and Lynn Hartle for their hard work and dedication to the Interest Forum's success.

Reports:
New Officer Election Results: Kim Moore. The Webpage will need to be updated to reflect these results.

President: Lynn Hartle
Past President: Kim Moore
Vice President for the November NAEYC conference: Susan Haugland
Secretary: Ted Janicki
Treasurer: Karen Heflin
Members at large: Elma Ruiz, Michael Kalinowski, Jocelynn Smrekar, Carol Bell, Connie Jo Smith Deanna Nekovi
Public Relations: Fran Simon
Webmasters: X. Christine Wang, Bonnie Blagojevic
2005 Children's Center Setup: Carol Bell, Bonnie Blagojevic

Carol Bell nominates Connie Joe Smith to organize volunteers again at next years conference because of superior job accomplished this year. A request will be extended by Lynn Hartle.

Volunteers still needed for the positions of:
Fundraising
Vice President for June
November conference volunteer coordinator
Preconference Coordinator

Meeting turned over to new President, Lynn Hartle

Communities of Practice: Lynn Hartle

Tech and Young Children will be the leaders as we move to this online forum - Communities of Practice. The forum website we allow for the ability to share information via chat, messaging, and posts on the main page. All of these vehicles were demonstrated.

To get onto the Tech and YC interest forum section:
1) go to www.naeyc.org/community
2) you will be asked to log on with your Naeyc ID (your number found on your YC Children Journal each month) and then your first name as your password
3) scroll to the heading - GETTING STARTED IN NAEYC COMMUNITIES
4) to get into the Tech and YC Interest Forum area, you will first have to join - GO TO - Join Communities and in the right box, highlight Tech and YC Interest Forum and then click on the arrow that points to the LEFT

Right now, Kim Moore, Dara Feldman and Lynn Hartle are the site Community Facilitators. Ted Janicki volunteered to be an additional site facilitator. That means that we can add new Quick Links, Upcoming events, etc.

Any of our members can use the Discussion Tools and Chat room after they log on.

The Members present discussed the relative uses of this Communities of Practice format, the List Serve and the Tech and Young Website.

Members emphasized the importance of the listserv to go out to reach the technology community of early childhood educators. Members might not check their Communities of Practice forum often enough. The Website has relevance to a broader community beyond those of us who are members of the Forum - to educate.

Members felt it important that we differentiate the vehicles of communication and their purposes on the Tech and Young Children Forum's community of practice welcome screen.

2004 Annual Conference Debrief: Lynn Hartle

--Number of attendees at various times - Everyone reported pleasant thoughts on the turnout. Most was contributed to placement of room. It will be beneficial to track computer usage to accurately access turnout.

--Outreach to membership - Educator Recruitment

What Worked Well:
-Successful presentations -Overall feeling was that spotlights produced many pleased individuals. -Email cafes - Biggest draw into center. Need to capitalize on this exposure into the room.
-Children's center - Five computers should be set aside for hands-on programming. Self-guided.

Session format suggestions for 2005 Annual (actually Dec.) Conference in Wash,DC:
- May want to have short 30 min. spotlight sessions during the 2005, but this may conflict with juried session guidelines.
- Invitation of vendors for presentations was discussed.
- Preference should be given to interactive sessions or spotlights of educator's work and highlight technology. - Infant and toddler sessions seem to be a big draw.
- Poster sessions may be valuable throughout the conference rather than just during the pre-conference.

--Should we have a Pre-conference? Or should we focus our energies on the Tech room with other formats.

--Should we have the two rooms set up next door to each other and the other room will be set up for the sessions and then the tech room can be used for continuing online/computer exploring in small groups?

--There is a real need for Tech sessions and presenters to be in the Program, rather than just on the websites - so attendees can plan for these along with other sessions they want to attend and so presenters have names in the programs for recognition, publicity, and to get reimbursement by their institutions.

--Conferences for the future - gear technology sessions to multiple learner levels. Have extra volunteers on hand to aide with session interaction.

--Alan Simpson has suggested we work early to get presenters and proposals lined up so our Tech proposals can go through the Naeyc juried submission - deadline Jan. 21 for the Annual Conference in 2005. Lynn will explore further the submission procedure with NAEYC.

--Members at the meeting suggested that the Tech and YC forum is more than just sponsoring the Tech Room, but planning for the Tech Room should start early

--Members hope IBM, Kidsmart Early Learning will continue as our sponsor, but if not one problem with planning for the conference is the time it takes to find a sponsor (or multiple smaller donation sponsors) to know if we are going to have a Tech Room at the Conference.

--The best way to approach the planning for the Tech room next year is to assume Sponsorship and work on gaining this along with the other planning. Board and members will be invited to join various committees, including a committee to work on maintaining/gaining sponsorship.

--Lots of ideas!

Sponsorship/Partnership ideas: Lynn Hartle

--Cost of running center - $10,000 to run tech center. It is important to begin this process early.

--Additional sponsorship needs - Small sponsors add just as much to the organization as large sponsors. It is important to look into local sponsors in the conference's host city.

Scheduled Board Meetings: Lynn Hartle

--The Membership agreed that Quarterly Board meetings via the Tech and YC Community of Practice chat would be beneficial.

--The First Board Meeting will be held in December to discuss subcommittee volunteers and juried submission timeline.

Goals of Tech YC Interest Forum for Coming Year: Lynn Hartle

Tech idea exchange
- Need information sharing
- What are people working on? Possible solution with be community of practice website. We need more research to validate the use of technology.

What would you like to see for TECH YC
- Need an outline on what the organization does?
- More use of listserv.
- Collaboration with ISTI in the use of National Standards.
- Member participation-strategies or suggestions
- Member dues to be explored by Lynn with NAEYC. Dues would include a newsletter to be edited by Amy Betz.

NAEYC Governing Board Liaison ---Debra Lawrence, Children Care Connections, CO is assigned as the NAEYC Governing Board Liaison to the Tech&YC Interest Forum. We hope to be working closely with her this year.

A motion was made to adjourn the meeting at 4:45 pm. The motion was seconded with all in favor.

RAFFLE for those members present: Everyone Present Wins!

Reception of wonderful Food and FUN sponsored by Wireless Generation