Spring 2009 Board Meeting -- Minutes (DRAFT)

SUNY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY, April 25, 2009

Note:
Alpha-numeric designators, such as "1A" refer to items not on the original agenda.

Attendees

Lawrence D'Antonio (LD) (Chair)
Stephen Block (SB) (not a Board member)
Lonnie Fairchild (LF)
Frank Ford (FF)
Tim Fossum (TF)
Michael Gousie (MG)
David Hemmendinger (FH)
Adrian Ionescu (AI)
Stoney Jackson (SJ) (not a Board member)
Amruth Kumar (AK)
Viera Proulx (VP)
Ingrid Russell (IR)
Jim Teresco (JT)
Karl Wurst (KW)
Richard Wyatt (RW)

I. Previous Meetings

1. Minutes

MOTION (FF/LF): To accept the minutes.
Passed. (12/0/1)

II. Reports

2. Chair's Report: Larry D'Antonio 


I. Report from National 

1. The next national board meeting will be held at Villanova on October
30-31, 2009.  

2. National has changed its reimbursement policy (yet again). There are now
eight categories of reimbursements for meals. Hopefully Adrian will be able
to figure this out.

Per Diem for each day in which no meals were provided                   $36.00
Per Diem for each day in which breakfast and lunch were not provided    $18.00
Per Diem for each day in which breakfast and dinner were not provided   $25.00
Per Diem for each day in which lunch and dinner were not provided       $29.00
Per Diem for each day in which only dinner was not provided             $18.00
Per Diem for each day in which only lunch was not provided              $11.00
Per Diem for each day in which only breakfast was not provided          $ 7.00
Per Diem for each travel day (use .5 a day if a meal was provided)      $18.00

3. National is doing well financially. It has a surplus of $120,000. On the
other hand, CCSCNE has run a small deficit the past two years. We should talk
about ways in which we can close this gap.

4. A new process in budget approvals is in effect. The Comptroller, Rob Bryant,
wants budgets that are basically templates that reflect past practice without
having to precisely predict future costs and revenues.  

5. National has formed a committee to look into the issue of obtaining liability
insurance for the regional conferences. Only occasionally has a host site
required insurance, but it seems to happening more often.  

II. Future Conferences 

1. 2010 Conference at University of Hartford.  Ingrid Russell and Hisham
Alnajjar will be the conference chairs for this meeting, to be held April 16-17,
2010. This will be the 15th anniversary meeting of CCSCNE.  Information about
this meeting, including the current composition of the conference committee may
be found at http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/ccscne/.

2. 2011 Conference at Western New England College. 

Ali Rafieymehr, who initiated the idea of WNEC hosting the 2011 meeting, has
been replaced by Heidi Ellis. I spoke with Heidi at SIGCSE and it was clear that
she is very committed to hosting the 2011 meeting. Heidi and Karl Wurst will be
co-chairs for this meeting. The dates of the meeting need to be set and a budget
for 2011 needs to be submitted by the next Fall Board meeting.

3. Future Conferences 

Quinnipiac College and SUNY Fredonia are the next candidates for hosts. I have
visited SUNY Fredonia and found them to be an excellent site. They seem to be
very interested in hosting, but the obvious issue is location. I haven't visited
Quinnipiac, but will do so soon. I hope to finalize the 2012 site by the Fall
Board meeting.

Remarks from the meeting on, or made at the time of the discussion of, the Chair's Report

&bull Larry reminded everyone that the reimbursements amounts are: for hotel, $120/day, and for travel, $200.

&bull For the 2011 conference, the possible dates in April are: either the 15th and 16th, or the 29th and 30th. SJ will look into the matter.

&bull The venue for the 2012 conference: the SUNY Fredonia is still an option, but many are (still) concerned about the distance.

MOTION (DH/LF): To have Larry explore opportunities for a venue other than SUNY Fredonia for 2012.
Withdrawn:

3. Membership Chair's Report: David Hemmendinger

The report was read and accepted by acclamation.

4. Web-master's Report: Tim Fossum

Tim stated that he will submit a written report at a later time.

Remarks from the meeting on, or made at the time of the discussion of, the Web-master's Report

&bull David noted that the descriptions of the conference persons' duties are out of date. Tim offered to update them.

&bull Larry notes that the submission instructions are inconsistent. The current paper/tutorials/workshops chairs will look at this matter.

5. Registrar's Report: Lonnie Fairchild for Frank Ford

Lonnie observed that the "whole registration system" seems to be in need of "rationalization", and that we should use Pay-Pal even if it costs us a little more.

Larry commented that National seems unwilling to fix the problems.

Ingrid remarked that on-line registration for $3/person is a very good price and that we should therefore look at it; Ingrid will report back. Larry said he would "inform" National that we will be using such a system. Lonnie then suggested that we collapse multiple payments into one payment, especially fro the programing contest teams.

5.1. Editor's Report: Michael Gousie

The report was given. There were no aditional remarks.

III. Old Business

6. By-Laws

MOTION (FF/VP): To accept the by-laws.
Passed. (13/0/0)
MOTION (FF/VP): To accept the standing rules.
Passed. (13/0/0)

7. Publication of Faculty Posters

This matter was briefly mentioned and Larry stated that since faculty posters are going into the ACM digital Library we need to enforce some standards, including writing quality.

IV. New Business

8. Discussion of Plattsburgh Meeting

At the 2009 conference there were, Larry reported, approximately 100 faculty and 120 students. Further, there were 27 papers submitted and 14 accepted; Larry noted that these numbers a very low. There was considerable discussion about the increasingly low level of participation in our NE conference, including the following:
  • Larry pointed out that we are very restrictive as regards the paper topics we accept -- only Computer Science education -- and asked whether we should allow other topics.
  • Lonnie asked if the numbers for this year were anomalous. The number of paper submissions in 2008 was 38.
  • Perhaps we might: consider K-12 outreach, contact CSTA, increase the number of faculty posters, or allow more "tools and course-ware" presentations.
    MOTION (VP/IR): To add for the 2010 conference a category entitled "tools and course-ware", of which the details are to be worked out by Ingrid, who will report back.
    Passed. (13/0/0)

  • David noted that the mechanics of presentations has deteriorated. Session and P/T/Ws chairs are to informed of this; we need to reintroduce 2-minute warning cards for session chairs.

    9. Vendors

    Postponed.

    9.1. September Board Meeting

    MOTION (VP/IR): That unless all relevant Board business has been decided by email beforehand, the September Board Meeting will be held in conjunction with the September Conference Committee Meeting, which is to be held on September 12, 2009.
    Passed. (12/1/0)

    9.2. Elections

    Two positions are up for consideration: Membership Chair and Registrar.

    MOTION (FF/LF): That David will continue as Membership Chair, but for only one more year.
    Passed. (12/0/1)

    MOTION (VP/LF): That Frank will serve another term as Registrar.
    Passed. (13/0/0)

    10. Adjournment

    MOTION (LP/TF): To adjourn the meeting.
    Passed: by acclamation

    Respectfully submitted,
    Richard Wyatt
    (CCSCNE Secretary)