SCAO Executive Meeting
Central State Conference
April 3, 2004 Cleveland, Ohio

Members present:  MaryAnn Flannery, Jeff Tyus, Margaret Finucane, Sheida Shirvani

Call to the meeting to the order at 2:30 by Mary Ann Flannery

Keynote speakerfor the conference was discussed.  Jim 
Applegate was suggested for the fall conference.  He is the NCA past president and was involved with Ohio learning.  Mary Ann is going to contact him.

Deadline extension:  The deadline for fall paper proposals needs to be extended.  A new deadline of May 15, 2004, was approved.  An email will be sent to the membership informing them of this change and inviting submissions.

Student paper competition:  Whether we would like to keep the student paper competition was discussed.  The final decision was to retain the competition.

Reward deadline: The same problem existed with the award deadline.  We need to extend it and also to think about whether we would give the awards their year.  A deadline extension to May 15, 2004, was approved.

Promotion of the organization: Promotion of the organization and conference was discussed.  We need to do more one-on-one promotion of the organization and to invite more student participation.  

Time and Schedule: The following schedule items were discussed and passed:  (1) Keep 15 minutes between each session.  (2) Have two concurrent sessions. (3) Time for registration will remain the 30 minutes from 8:00-8:30 am

Location of conference: Once again the location of the conference was discussed.  The consensus is that moving the location of the conference will help to raise membership.  Sinclair Community College in October 2005 and Kent State in 2006 were proposed as sites.  Jeff Tyus will inquire at Sinclair Community College.  It was noted that other regional conferences usually allow universities to bid for the hosting privilege, leaving the final choice up to the conference planner.  Also, the ramifications of stating the conference on Friday at noon and ending on Saturday were discussed.

Next year Theme:.  Peggy suggested inviting high school members (OEA) to present on Friday.  The Executive committee needs to attend and participate in Friday’s activities.  

Nomination Committee: Beth Graham declined to be head of the nomination committee but gave name a doctoral student willing to help.  Sheida suggested getting Anita James involved by asking her.  Sheida will provide the voting slate for the conference.  Many positions need to be filled at the fall business meeting.  Jeff is going to ask Felicia, and Peggy is going to ask Anita James and Chris Goddard to join and to help.  Jeff also is going to ask Pam Kaylor if she would like to stay with the conference and become more involved.   

Constitution changes:  We all need to read the SCAO Constitution and bring the proposed changes to the business meeting at the conference.  We need to bring the changes to the next meeting.  

Next meeting will be Saturday, June 5, at John Carroll University in Cleveland.  Direction and time will be forwarded later.

Meeting was adjourned at 4:30