Executive Board Meeting Minutes – November 11, 2023

Executive Board Minutes & Agendas

Iowa Reading Association
Executive Board Meeting
November 11, 2023 @ Zoom

Board Meeting Minutes

November 11, 2023
Taken by: Monaliza M. Chian
Reviewed by:  Megan Benson and Jill Swanson

  1.  Call to Order- The meeting was called to order by President Tony Pieper at 11:06 am.
  2. Roll call: Julie Anderson, Megan Benson, Monaliza Chian, Soh Meacham, Tony Piper, Jill Swanson, Dani Wagaman (joined later), Guest: Marissa Schweinfurth (Richard O. Jacobson Center for Comprehensive Literacy, University of Northern Iowa).
  3. Approval of meeting notes (September 30, 2023): Tony Pieper acknowledged the board has reviewed the meeting minutes and has been approved by a committee of  Nancy White and Jill Swanson; hence, there is no need to call for approval of the minutes.
  4. Approval and/or additions to the agenda: All board members have reviewed the agenda. Tony mentioned that he added a new item under the New Business section (Items to discuss at the January 13 full board meeting). Tony called for a motion to approve the agenda. Soh made the motion, and Jill seconded it. All voted in favor, and the agenda was approved.
  5. Appointment of Committee to approve minutes: Megan Benson and Jill Swanson volunteered to be on the committee to approve the minutes.
  6. Officer Reports: Everyone acknowledged that they had read the officer reports. Tony welcomed questions or addendums to the officer reports. No addendums or questions were raised. Tony expressed his appreciation for completing and reviewing the officer reports prior to the meeting and wanted to provide time for comments or questions.
    1. President – Tony Pieper
    2. Past President Report – Tony Pieper
    3. President-Elect Report – Megan Benson
    4. Vice President Report – Soh Meacham
    5. State Coordinator – Dani Wagaman
    6. Director of Membership – Julie Anderson
    7. Treasurer – Jill Swanson
    8. Secretary/ Publications/ Correspondence Report – Monaliza Chian
    9. Executive Director – Nancy Wright
  7. Old Business
    1. Fall membership drive – Julie Anderson
      1. Tony requested for a quick update
      2. Julie Anderson completed the spreadsheet for membership and entered all due. We currently have 119 members, and 33 of those are sustaining members. She hopes there will be more membership forms and urges everyone to keep promoting within our council.
      3. Tony and Megan asked the number of members of last year,
    2. State-wide book study
      1. Tony mentioned that the book study is now open and active on the website but has yet to hear from Nancy Wright regarding the number of registrants.
      2. Meg quickly glanced online and indicated that as of today (November 11), there are 79 more seats available out of 80, meaning there is 1 registrant.
      3. Tony asked whether the website indicated how long the registration was open.
      4. According to Nancy’s email, Meg and Julie mentioned that the registration is open sometime in December.
      5. Tony will ask Nancy or AEA about the huge discrepancy between the local and statewide costs of the book study. Local fees range from $35 to $120; statewide is either $85.00 or $225. For graduate credit, Morningside charges $225, and Drake charges $125.
    3.  State-wide Google site for leaders/webcasts update – Dani Wagaman
      1. Tony and the rest of the board complemented Dani’s success in coordinating the first webinar by IRA.
      2. The information is valuable, and we must find creative ways to share and disseminate the content.
      3. The next speaker is Lauren, and she has 33 books to giveaway
      4. It is critical to increase the publicity for the next webinar to reach more audience
      5. Julie asked whether the webinar should be exclusively for members or if we can invite guests to join the webinar as a way to recruit new members. Local councils can organize group watching parties as another way to get people involve
      6. Tony agreed to invite members only
      7. Jill suggested selling the seats to participate as a way to generate income.
    4.  Social media coordinator update – Dani Wagaman
      1. Andrea is from Iowa and has a side business; she posts 3x a week to keep us in front of everybody on social media.
      2. Dani asked about the types of information to post on Facebook and Instagram.
      3. Emily and Dani will get together and brainstorm
      4. Jill prefers an invoice or a bill from Emily to pay for her services
    5.  2024 Iowa Reading Association/Iowa Association of School Librarians
      1. Megan provided an update on the conference and her next steps (contacting the keynote speakers, generating to-do lists, putting together welcome bags for the speakers, among other details needed to put the conference together)
      2. There was a question about whether we invite speakers to attend the awards night.
      3. The session proposal is live on the website, and we anticipate having more proposals and presentations.
      4. Tony shared that an ongoing casual conversation about the conference is happening monthly.
      5. Before discussing the business regarding the 2025 IRA conference, Soh introduced Marissa, a representative from the Richard O. Jacobson Center for Comprehensive Literacy (JCCL), “University of Northern Iowa Literacy Initiative (ULI).”
      6. Marissa expressed her appreciation for inviting her to this meeting and their previous participation in IRA’s annual conference. She also mentioned that she and her team from JCCL have already submitted a proposal for the conference, which is shared by Soh here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lY4S5nW09BEZ6OR9WJIbY_zBv5QBMxUk/view)
      7. Marissa asked whether she and the team of teachers would have a round table for their participating teachers to share their work with the conference participants during lunchtime on Tuesday and a poster presentation during lunchtime on Wednesday.
      8. After much discussion on ways to provide the best time and place for the teachers to share their work in their classrooms, Marissa decided to focus on the lunchtime block and work around Megan’s idea regarding set-up and location.
      9. Tony asked the board for approval for the JCCL’s team at lunchtime, and everyone agreed. The current plan is to allot Rm 167 and 171 for the group during lunchtime.
      10. For next year’s conference, we can revisit the idea of setting up a room for poster presentations to include more participants to share their work. Given that JCCL is willing to partner and share some of the costs of the room, it may be worthwhile to try poster presentations for next year.
    6.  2025 Iowa Reading Association/Iowa Association of School Librarians conference update – Soh Meacham
      1. Possible venue change
      2.  Shared an Excel spreadsheet:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1B3SMhmHKUi0CEH4KtmEojYAwTs8OsqnCdgYJJE6Edyg/edit?usp=sharing
      3. Hotel rooms– less expensive
      4. Regarding the concern about the loss of participants, particularly Des Moines teachers, we want to examine how many Des Moines teachers participated last year and in the previous years.
      5.  Nancy Wright will check how many  teachers and the number of students
      6. One idea is to circulate the survey in the membership to ask whether they are still willing to move to Cedar Falls from Ames through Google Forms. This Google Form can be circulated in the survey before the board meeting.
      7. In the full board meeting, Soh will propose the proposed new venue and details of the conference layout, costs, location, proximity to the airport and restaurants.
      8. Use Waterloo Airport for incoming guest speakers
      9. Ames is  more centrally located
      10. Julie mentioned it might be worth a try; it could be an alternating east/west location.
    7. Iowa Reading Association website updates or concerns
      No concerns
    8. Miscellaneous
  8. New Business
    1. University of Northern Iowa Literacy Initiative proposal for 2024 Iowa Reading Association/Iowa Association of School Librarians Conference-Soh Meacham
    2. Items to discuss at the January 13 full board meeting
      Open for discussion regarding the full board meeting on that Sunday

      1. Propose to skip the board retreat and take care of the business on Monday as a way to kick off the conference
      2. Megan agrees and indicated that the by-laws do not require an annual board meeting as far back as 2010
      3. Tony sought permission to present this idea to the board; all agreed
  9. Adjournment: 12:21 PM

Announcements & Future Meeting Dates

Iowa Reading Association 2023-2024 Meeting Schedule
(all meetings via Zoom)

  • January 13, 2024: 10:00 a.m.- Full Board
  • April 6, 2024: 10:00 a.m.- Exec Board only
  • May 4 2024: 10:00 a.m.- Full Board
  • June 23, 2024: 4:00 p.m. Board Retreat – Location TBD
  • June 24, 2024: 10:00 a.m. Exec Board Only and Leadership Workshop- Location TBD
  • June 25-26, 2024: “ One World, Many Stories” Joint State Literacy Conference with Iowa Association of School Librarians — Scheman Building, Ames, Iowa
  • June 26, 2024: Full Board immediately after the close of the conference
All Resources