Adams Mark Hotel, Denver, CO, August 2, 2003
The meeting was called to order at 4:15 p.m. by President Suzanne McCray. The secretary was present as were Mark Bauer, Bill Beesting, Jane Curlin, Jim Duban, Mary Engel, Mona Pitre-Collins, Beth Powers, John Richardson, Betsy Vardaman, Steve Wainscott, and Susan Krauss Whitbourne.
Suzanne congratulated the elected officers and board members. They are:
- Beth Powers, University of Illinois-Chicago-Vice President
- Paula Warrick, American University-Secretary
- John Richardson, University of Louisville-Treasurer (reelected)
- Mark Bauer, Yale University
- Mary Engel, University of Scranton
- Cheryl Foster, University of Rhode Island
- Mona Pitre-Collins, University of Washington
- Susan Krauss Whitbourne, University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Vivienne Wildes, Penn State University
- Debra Brown Young, University of Mississippi
Suzanne stressed the need to create a new series of working committees. These would be standing committees with rotating memberships. Membership would consist of a chair (to be appointed by Suzanne, as stipulated by the Constitution) and 4-5 committee members.
- Cheryl Foster will chair a committee on ethics, John Richardson will chair a finance committee, and Jane Morris will chair a committee on travel.
- Bill Beesting will chair an ad hoc committee on establishing a NAFA journal. The journal's purposes are to permit NAFA members to engage in research and to provide a more scholarly forum for the exchange of ideas.
- Beth Powers will chair a committee to assess the issue of regional conferences-the ideal length, audience, format, and so forth.
- Mary Engel will chair an outreach committee to explore possible assistance to new fellowships advisors. The committee also will investigate conferences of other organizations where NAFA might establish a presence. One specific topic will be the possibility of sending a NAFA advisor to conferences with high numbers of student participants (such as the National Undergraduate Research Conference or the American Chemical Society annual meeting) in order to conduct a workshop on applying for nationally competitive scholarships.
- A motion to establish an advocacy committee did not carry. It was decided that the organization does not have the authority to speak with a collective voice given the range of its members' views.
Treasurer's report. John noted that NAFA now has a surplus (for details see the financial statement in the Denver conference notebook). He proposed giving thought to investing this money in activities to enhance NAFA. Upcoming expenses related to next summer's UK/Ireland trip, start-up costs for the journal, and the publication of the proceedings of the Denver conference, were noted. Other suggestions (not yet fully debated or adopted) were to implement NAFA conference travel grants to members at institutions facing budgetary constraints and to send NAFA representatives to student conferences to conduct grants-related workshops.
John also gave an update on the 2005 NAFA conference in Louisville. John has spoken with the Camberley Brown Hotel, which offered a deep discount to the rack rate. The ideal timing of the conference was discussed (June vs. July) and it was agreed that every effort would be made to take into consideration budgetary issues (coordinating the conference with the start of the fiscal year for as many members as possible).
A motion carried to publish the proceedings of the Denver conference. Suzanne will take the lead on this project. Mark pointed out that some sessions might lend themselves more to bulletin board discussions on the NAFA Web site, than to published text narratives. He will explore how best to implement the bulletin board discussions.
Beth proposed having the next Executive Council meeting in Chicago in April, 2004, as Gordon Johnson will be there then for another function.
Paula raised the issue of how to distribute the conference notebook materials to participants unable to attend the Denver conference. It is problematic to post many of the notebook materials on the NAFA Web site, as previously agreed, due to possible confidentiality and copyright violation issues. Paula will assume responsibility for distributing text copies of the conference notebooks for a fee of $26 (the cost of the notebook) plus shipping.
Suzanne adjourned the meeting at 6 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Paula Warrick
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