North Georgia Technical College Board of Directors

NORTH GEORGIA TECHNICAL COLLEGE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Meeting Minutes

January 4, 2006

Opening:

Gordon Telford called the Board of Directors’ meeting to order at 12:15 p.m. in the Ramsey-Hunter Dining Hall on the Clarkesville Campus. Since a quorum was not present, motions were faxed to Board Members for approval (see attached).

Present:

Gordon Telford

Joe Hatfield

Jeff Patterson

Don Jamison

Staff: Ruth Nichols, Tom Sommer, Mark Ivester, Judy Taylor, Mike King, Larry Culpepper, Sammy Howe, Sara Moore, Billy Chism, Michele Shirley, Teresa Henderson, Dorothy Hansen

Absent:

Shelby Gober

Kathy Blalock

Terry Wright

Alice Ariail

A.  Invocation

Mr. Billy Chism gave the invocation.

B. Approval of Minutes

Upon motion by Mr. Jamison, second by Mr. Hatfield, the minutes of the October 5, 2005, Board of Directors’ meeting were approved by all.

C.  Committee Reports

Administrative Services (presented by Jeff Patterson/Mark Ivester)

·  Rick Bartmas became certified in Hostage Negotiation.

·  Four Spring Mountain Water vending machines will be installed and will generate additional funds for student activities.

·  January is the most critical month to start reviewing our financials. After the students pay for tuition for Winter Quarter, we have completed ¾ of the year as far as revenue is concerned but only ½ of the year as far as expenditures. It doesn’t appear that there will be any problems in finishing up the year okay, and our self-supporting programs such as the bookstore and continuing education look good.

Upon motion by Mr. Hatfield, second by Mr. Jamison, the Board approved the Financial Report as presented.

Blairsville Campus (presented by Larry Culpepper)

·  Barbara Hughes has been hired as the Cosmetology Instructor for the Blairsville Campus.

·  HEROES and SLC recently sponsored a school supplies drive to benefit CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) for area foster children. Phi Beta Lambda also collected 40 Christmas boxes for the foster children in Towns, Fannin, and Union counties.

·  The student recruiters have been involved in several recruiting events.

·  The CIS department has begun building small informative websites for each program offered at NGTC.

·  Chef Drakes’ Culinary Banquet Class is planning, preparing and presenting food for the 21st Century Grant Program, which is continuing to grow with over 100 participants each session. This is good experience for the Culinary class.

·  At the GVTC Summit in Atlanta, Michael Rice received the XeL Award for excellence in online instruction.

Currahee Campus (presented by Sammy Howe)

·  Kevin Brown was hired to fill the position of Maintenance Technician and is doing an excellent job.

·  Erica Pickens’ position was relocated to the Currahee Campus in order to fill the need of an evening administrator and a career planner.

·  Skills USA, PBL, HEROES, SLC, and NTHS clubs attended the Fall Leadership Conference in Atlanta in November. Since their return, they have been getting other students involved.

·  The Conference Center continues to host a lot of events.

·  Student club members had a Christmas party with their children in the Conference Center. All of the children were given a gift. There were approximately 85 people in attendance.

Economic Development (presented by Judy Taylor)

·  Larry Bond, Director of Contract Training, retired effective October 31, 2005.

·  The TI Automotive Quick Start Signing was held November 29. This was well attended by Quick Start, community leaders, and community people.

·  The Quality Focus Group meeting which was originally planned for December 15 at the Currahee Campus has been rescheduled for January 18. BMW is one of the companies that will be represented at the meeting.

·  The Winter Quarter Mountain Message has been distributed. A copy is in the Board members’ notebooks.

Instructional Services (presented by Tom Sommer)

·  Paul Owenby was scheduled to be hired as the Program Director/Instructor of EMS; but due to surgery, he has not yet been hired.

·  Dr. Sommer, Gale Watkins and others from NGTC attended the COC annual meeting in Atlanta in December.

·  The SACS/COC application for accreditation was resubmitted in August 2005. Dr. Ann Chard, NGTC’s SACS/COC representative, will be reviewing the application within the next few months and will send her response to Dr. Nichols. If we receive approval to proceed, a team will visit the campus later on in the process.

·  Dr. Sommer introduced the Lighthouse Award recipients from NGTC, Teresa Henderson and Dorothy Hansen, and asked them to talk about their experience at the Lighthouse conference. Ms. Hansen stated she was very honored to receive this award. This was a great chance for her to talk with other instructors throughout the state and to attend some very good presentations. Ms. Henderson stated she appreciated the opportunity and that she enjoyed the conference.

·  A four-day class schedule will be implemented Winter Quarter to help the students during this time when the gas prices are high. The students have been very positive about it. If it works, we will probably continue with the four-day schedule.

Student Services (presented by Joe Hatfield)

·  Ellen Graham was hired as Recruiter on October 1.

·  Tamie Roper assumed her duties as the New Connections to Work Lab Specialist on December 1.

·  The VA auditor reviewed the Financial Aid records and NGTC received a great report. The next audit will be in three years.

·  ASSET tests are scheduled for 300 White County 9th grade students in January.

·  Trudy Ayers has begun planning for the 2006 GOAL program.

Chair’s Report

·  Mr. Telford presented Jeff Patterson with a certificate for completing his Board Member Certification, which he accomplished in less than twelve months.

President’s Report

·  Community Christmas and Christmas at the College were great events.

·  Dr. Nichols was part of a COE team that visited Louisiana Tech, and she stated that we are very fortunate at North Georgia Tech. She is very proud of our instructors, people who plan the programs, those who budget our money, etc.

·  Dr. Nichols was the speaker for the graduation at Lee Arrendale State Prison in December. This was a good time to let the female inmates know what opportunities are out there for them. After the graduation, Dr. Nichols received a letter from Susan Shlaer at LASP stating many of the female inmates are planning to continue their education.

·  Prior to Christmas, Dr. Nichols met with our legislators regarding Currahee and what funds we would like to receive from the state. Enrollment has decreased state-wide, and they may not see the need for additional funds. This decrease is due in part to the decreased number of plant closings and more people working.

·  Winter Quarter begins tomorrow. Dr. Nichols went to orientation this morning, and there was someone there who had very good things to say about our customer service. She also met a nurse in the emergency room, who is a student in Blairsville, and she was very complimentary of NGTC and especially Kristie Gibbs. We will be focusing even more on customer service because if customer service is not good, people may not ever make it to the classroom.

·  Leadership NGTC will kick off on January 19 and the Board will be invited to the dinner. The students who were nominated will be interviewed, and the Leadership Committee will make the final selections. Dr. Tim Miller will be our guest speaker at the kick-off dinner, and Commissioner Vollmer will be the speaker at graduation in June. We will invite the Leadership students to join the Board for lunch in the near future.

·  On January 26, DTAE will sponsor “A Taste of the Technical Colleges” at the Depot in Atlanta. They will be using the Culinary programs across the state to prepare the food and will also be showcasing some of the other programs in order for the legislators to see what programs are offered. Our photography students will be there taking pictures.

·  A second group of workers will be going to Long Beach on January 12-16. We are expecting this trip to be as positive as the first one. Most of the people that went before are going again.

·  We have a prospective new Board member, Jeff Gooch. He is a graduate of NGTC. We are waiting on State Board approval.

·  Coach Elrod, who was a coach here for many years, passed away. He will be missed by NGTC and the community. We are going to give his family a gift of memorabilia of him.

·  Dr. Nichols expressed appreciation to the people who have worked so hard on the breakfasts we have been having. We will continue to have these in hopes of making the community more aware of the college and what it is all about.

·  We are going to try to work a little harder this quarter on wellness.

·  Dr. Nichols read an article about a school system in Louisiana that has a program where they work with children at an early age to help direct them towards either technical education, college, or online education. She wants to look at this program.

·  Of the top 25 jobs for 2006, 19 of them require training from a post-secondary school.

Adjournment:

Mr. Telford adjourned the meeting at 1:00 p.m. The next meeting will be February 1, 2006.

Minutes submitted by: ______

Ruth R. Nichols, President

North Georgia Technical College

Approved by: ______

Gordon Telford, Chair

NGTC Board of Directors