6/3/08, Niagara Falls, Ontario – NASPSPA Pre-Conference Executive Committee Meeting

Attending: Deb Feltz (President), Digby Elliott (Past-President), Jill Whitall (President-Elect), Bev Ulrich (Past-Presidents’ Liaison), Kent Kowalski (Communication Director), Ann Smiley-Oyen (Secretary/Treasurer), and Julia Devonish (Student Representative). Penny McCullagh (Conference Sited Coordinator) was invited to attend to discuss conference-related items.

The meeting was called to order 6/3/08 by President Deborah Feltz at 8:20am.

I.  Approval of Agenda. Approved by the executive committee (EC).

II.  Approval of Minutes from Fall EC Meetings. Approved by the EC.

III.  Niagara Falls Conference.

  1. Abstract Submission. Elliott reported that there were special character problems that created some difficulties with formatting submitted abstracts. He also noted that how people designate their affiliation at the top of the abstract is a problem. We need to ask them to simply state their university/organization (not a lab or a center or a department or an address, etc.) Elliott suggested a full trial run with real abstracts in mid-November so any other problems can be worked out prior to opening the system for submissions. He also noted that the Interdisciplinary category has no committee to review the abstracts, so he and the Area Program Chairs reviewed those abstracts this year. It was thought this system would work as long as the number of interdisciplinary abstracts remained low. In order to do this, as well as facilitate other aspects of the review process, Elliott suggested that the Area Program Chairs be given complete access to help facilitate the review process. This year in the call for abstracts it will be announced that acceptance will be based not only on quality of research but also quality of writing. It was decided that reasons for rejection need to be summarized and that an efficient system be devised (such as a checklist) so people know why their abstracts were rejected. Feltz will work with Human Kinetics (HK) and Kowalski to develop and distribute this feedback.
  1. Conference Manager Report. McCullagh reviewed the budget and costs and reported that the increased costs for holding a conference are matching well with the increased conference fees. Conference pre-registration went very well with HK.
  1. Sponsorships. There were more sponsors this year (8 companies and 1 university). They will be located in the coffee break area, so it is a good place for interacting with the membership. We discussed our arrangement with HK for sponsorship and the HK lecture. It was suggested that in addition to the $1000 for the HK lecture, that they pay $1000 (currently $600) for table space, etc. Feltz will talk with Kim Scott from HK about the HK Lecture and sponsorship arrangement for 2009.
  1. Conference Proceedings. Due to the increased cost of printing, we discussed the possibility of producing the conference proceedings on a CD or a reusable memory stick. This will be further discussed at a future meeting.

IV.  Conferences Issues

  1. Guidelines for requesting a pre-conference session. For full consideration, pre-conference sessions need to be submitted to the Past-President by September 1 of the year prior to the conference. Pre-conference workshops/tutorials will have a cost associated with it as needed (based on whether there are costs to NASPSPA to hold the pre-conference). NASPSPA will cover the cost of coffee break for a pre-conference festschrift. The Past-President approves workshop/tutorials proposals and the EC approves festschrifts. Whitall will add this information to the Policy Manual.
  1. Sponsors contact membership. If a sponsor wishes to contact the membership prior to the conference, the Communications Director will send an email to the membership. The sponsors need to include the information in an email without using any attachments.
  1. Conference Manager Contract. McCullagh’s rolling contract with NASPSPA was recommended for extension for another year, thus taking it up through 2011. The contract should be sent to Smiley-Oyen so it can be stored on the NASPSPA laptop. Feltz and Whitall were given the authority to address any cost increase related to the contract and bring this information back to the post-conference EC meeting.

V.  Future Conferences.

  1. Austin 2009 and Tucson 2010. McCullagh reported that conference plans are in process. Feltz has a potential HK Lecturer, but suggests increasing the honorarium to $1000 plus expenses. (Historically, HK paid a $1000 honorarium and NASPSPA paid for travel and room expenses.) For consistency and to anticipate any requests, we need to establish a policy for a company to have a lecture named after it. Feltz has Area Program Chairs in place except for one confirmation. McCullagh reminded us that we are locked in to Tucson for 2010.
  1. Conference 2011 and 2012. Several locations were discussed for future meetings, such as a resort in New England, Florida, Newfoundland and the Catskills for eastern possibilities for 2011, and Alaska, San Diego or Hawaii for 2012 or 2013 for western possibilities. Joining with SCAPPS for an August meeting (midway between both meetings) was voted down by SCAPPS last fall.

VI.  Committees, Award and other Presidential Activities.

  1. Slate. Feltz announced the slate of 2008 candidates. Craig Hall and Thelma Horn are running for President; David Sherwood and Jackie Goodway-Shiebler for Secretary-Treasurer; and Graig Chow is running for Student Representative. The pool for 2009 nominees for President will come from the Motor Learning and Control and Motor Development areas and for Communications Directors will come from the Sport and Exercise Psychology Area. The EC is to send names to Whitall if they have suggestions.
  1. 2008 Award Winners. Feltz announced 2008 award winners. These are listed in the Business Meeting minutes. Feltz has a list of award winners that she will send to Whitall to update, which she will then send to Smiley-Oyen to store on the NASPSPA laptop.

c.  Changing to 3-yr-terms. Feltz suggested that we retain the 2-yr terms for the Communications Director and Secretary-Treasurer rather than a previously discussed 3-yr. term. Whitall made a motion to this effect, Kowalski seconded, and the board approved.

  1. Distinguished Scholar Awards Committee. Whitall presented nominees for the vacancy and the EC approved.
  1. Early Career Award. The need for this award to go to someone who is involved in NASPSPA as well as being an outstanding scholar was discussed. Ulrich moved that that an additional requirement for this award be that the recipient must have been an active contributor to NASPSPA. Whitall seconded the motion. The motion passed. Whitall will update the Policy Manual.

VII.  Secretary-Treasurer Report.

  1. Membership. Smiley-Oyen reported that membership is strong, with approximately half of the membership consisting of students. The need for some of the categories in the membership report was discussed. It was decided to drop some of the categories because they are difficult to maintain accurately, they are not used for decision-making, and they require substantial time to generate. Smiley-Oyen will create a new membership format for only those categories deemed important for NASPSPA decision-making. The revised membership format will be used for the business meeting and for the final membership count for the 2007-08 fiscal year.
  1. Finance Reports. Smiley-Oyen reported that the arrangement with HK to process membership and registration fees has gone very well overall. There have been some problems, but HK has quickly addressed them. Smiley-Oyen presented the financial report as of the end of May. The EC had directed Smiley-Oyen to put $20,000 into a CD, but this was not done because the arrangement of payment intervals for conference registrations was not clear, and she had concern that this extra money may be needed in the short term. However, HK used a monthly interval to forward the money, so assuming this is what will be done in the future, the EC directed Smiley-Oyen to establish a 1-yr CD for $20,000 through Wells Fargo Bank.
  2. Smiley-Oyen brought noted that the issue of filing our nonprofit status to the IRS has not yet been addressed, but will be done this summer.

VIII. Communications Director.

  1. Newsletter. Kowalski reported that he has had a very positive experience working with HK. He noted that the fall newsletter is very long, so there will be extra page costs this fall. To reduce the pages it was decided to move the minutes to its own tab on the website and provide only a hotlink so members can access the minutes either through the newsletter or directly on the website. It was also decided to do the same thing with award information.
  1. Website. It was discussed that even with the changes made in the past to help streamline our website, the basic design itself is not very engaging, and it could be much more informative. Kim Scott at HK was consulted by telephone and she reported that they will begin the shift to the new website design this summer. We will have three templates to choose from, using our own colors and logo. She encouraged us to garner feedback and to send that to her in building the website. In addition, once it is complete, the Communications Director will be able to put information on the website without going through HK.

IX.  Student Report.

  1. Communication. Devonish reported that communication with students this past year has not been effective. She had difficulty finding students to run for office and received no responses to her emails.
  2. Awards. She noted that the Policy manual indicates that the student representative is involved in the student award process, but that is not accurate. The EC decided there was no reason for the student representative to be involved, so Whitall was directed to change the Policy Manual accordingly. We also discussed expectations of students who receive research grants, and whether they are following through by presenting their research at a future NASPSPA meeting. It was decided that the student’s advisor’s should receive a copy of the announcement of the grant or award so they, too, are aware of the expectations associated with accepting the research grant or award.
  3. Conference. Devonish reported that there will be a student pre-conference. She also reported plans for the student meeting and social, which will be held Friday evening.

X.  Continued discussion on the purpose and future of NASPSPA.

  1. Suggestions for more symposia. In order to increase visibility of professionals at NASPSPA, it was suggested that we offer fewer free paper sessions and more symposia and posters. It was suggested that free papers need not be grouped by a common theme, thus opening up these free sessions to any topic. Feltz will communicate this to the new Program Area Chairs.
  2. Collaboration. Devonish noted that she’d be interested in listening to the results of a project in which several NASPSPA professionals collaborated. Ulrich suggested having a weekend where a specific topic was explored by several experts from NASPSPA and a resulting position paper presented at the next NASPSPA conference. This and other ideas will be discussed further at the Fall EC meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:35pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Ann L. Smiley-Oyen

NASPSPA Secretary-Treasurer

1