Texas ACT-SO Quarterly Report
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Waco, Texas, Baylor University
Texas ACT-SO has initiated the recruitment process in October, November, December. The Chairs met by telephone conference call on Thursday, December 1, 2017. Present on the telephone call: Janis Dunn, TriCities ACT-SO, Polly Street, Austin ACT-SO, Lisa Fisher, Nacogdoches ACT-SO, Alicia Hinkle, Irving ACT-SO, Joyce Mills, Nacogdoches ACT-SO, and Joyce Miller, Garland ACT-SO
Nacogdoches and Irving have filed their Letter of Intent with the national office and are on the mailing list to receive emails from Larry Brown, National ACT-SO Director. Nacogdoches and Irving will use this year to gather information regarding ACT-SO and prepare to begin their ACT-SO programs for the 2017-2018 year.
Program updates were presented by Polly Street, Avelina Holmes, Joyce Miller, and Janis Dunn.
Houston ACT-SO, Avelina Holmes, Chair will have its local competition on Saturday, April 15, 2017 for all competition areas except Culinary Arts. Culinary Arts competition will be held on Saturday April 22 and the Awards Ceremony is scheduled for May 22. All events will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Houston.
The first Enrichment Workshop is scheduled for Saturday, January 6, 2017. Enrichment Workshops will be held every two – three weeks. Goals for the Year: (1) Cut Off Date for receiving applications -- April 1, 2017. (2) All students submit required paperwork two weeks prior to the local competition.
Austin ACT-SO, Polly Street, Co-Chair- Austin will have its local competition on Saturday, April 8, 2017 at the Carver Museum. The deadline for submission of all paperwork for Humanities, Sciences, Entrepreneurship is two weeks prior to the local competition. Goals: Get Youth Council members involved by having combined Youth Council meetings and ACT-SO Enrichment Sessions. Austin does not have Culinary Arts.Local competition winners will be announced at the end of the day of the local competition.
TriCities ACT-SO, Janis Dunn, Chair presently deciding in which city the local competition will be held. The competition may be held in DeSoto. TriCities does have a Culinary Arts competition. The Awards Banquet will be April 1st at the Hilton Garden Inn in Duncanville. Deadlines for the submission of the application, paperwork is being decided.
Garland ACT-SO, Joyce Miller, Chair has held two meetings with the ACT-SO Coordinators and applications are being received. Garland ISD has at least one ACT-SO Coordinator at each of its seven high schools. The Coordinators assist in recruiting students for ACT-SO, serve as the contact person in each school, and the point of contact for the Garland ACT-SO Chair. Most ACT-SO Coordinators have regular meetings during the school day with the ACT-SO participants, and ACT-SO is a recognized school club in at least one of the seven schools. The local competition will be Saturday, Apri l 8, 2016 on the campus of Richland College.
Goals: Receive all paperwork for Humanities, Sciences, Entrepreneurship prior to the competition. This strategy will help to shorten the amount of time the judges have to spend reading materials when they are submitted on the day of the competition and will provide more time to read and thoughtfully evaluate the student products.
It was emphasized that orientations for the judges and students should be held. Units reported that they hold these orientations on the day of the competition and during the Enrichment sessions for the students. Orientation for veteran judges may be less detailed, however. It’s important to emphasis criteria for categories at each Enrichment Workshop. Students participate in ACT-SO individually; there are no group competition categories for ACT-SO. There is a time limitation for most ACT-SO categories; be sure to share this time limitation with students. All judges should receive the criteria and category description and the ACT-SO Fact Sheet prior to the competition. ACT-SO is a high school program designed by Vernon Jarrett for children of African descent.
Last year we received an official ruling that students would not be allowed to participate in multiple ACT-SO competitions sponsored by different units. This ruling prevents youth from going from one unit’s competition to another competing.
The ACT-SO Competition will be held July 20-July 23 in Baltimore, Maryland. The Awards Ceremony will be on July 23rdand is open to the public.
All units are encouraged to sponsor an ACT-SO program for 2016-2017 and to submit the ACT-SO Intent Form in the Fall. Submit your Intent Form in order to be added to the mailing list and receive ACT-SO Information. Adults units, College Chapters and Youth Councils may sponsors ACT-SO programs.
A Texas ACT-SO Orientation Workshop will be scheduled on January 7, 2017 –Garland, Location TBA.
The ACT-SO materials are accessible from:
Resources:ApplicationDeadlinesCriteraforAllCategories click here
National Competition Forms click here
Next Telephone Conference Call Meeting will be Thursday, January 12, 2017, 9pm; 1-712-775-7100; Access Code: 1068374.
Submitted by:
Joyce E. Kyle Miller, PhD,
State ACT-SO Chair
972-345-5386
2016 TEXAS ACT-SO PROGRAMS
PROGRAM CHAIRS, COMPETITION DATES AND LOCATIONS
ACT-SO Program / ACT-SO Chair / Email Address / Competition Dates / Competition LocationFort Worth / Sundra Davis /
817-229-1595 / Tarrant County
College South
Campus
San Antonio / Regina
Espree /
210-325-5857 / St. Philips
College
Garland / Joyce Miller / / April 8, 2016 / Richland
College
Arlington / Jason Thomas /
682-999-8574
936-494-9447 / James Bowie
High School
Austin / Melinda Walker
Polly Street /
512-293-6554
512-497-4342 / April 8, 2016 / Carver Museum and Cultural
Center
Houston / Avelina Holmes /
832-483-8009 / April 15, 2016
Culinary Arts:
April 22, 2016
Awards Ceremony: May 22, 2016 / Hyatt Regency
Hotel
Irving / Alicia Hinkle /
469-531-8770 / ORIENTATION YEAR
Cedar Hills, Duncanville, DeSoto / Janis Dunn /
972-841-2697
Nacogdoches / Lisa Fisher /
504-905-8720 / ORIENTATION YEAR
Nacogdoches / Joyce Mills /
936-552-9324 ©
936-564-3880 (h) / ORIENTATION YEAR
Submitted by: Dr. Joyce E. Kyle Miller, State ACT-SO Chair