JW Harrington called the meeting to order at 5:10 p.m., and thanked everyone for traveling to the meeting. We extended a warm welcome to our non-academic colleagues, who are new to the group! Patrick Buckley arrived soon thereafter, and chaired the meeting.
Treasurer's report
Chip Dodd noted that, because of some generous donations to the AWG for
award and prize programs, our savings balance stands at $1838.99 and our
checking balance stands at $169.42. Our semi-annual meetings are designed
to be self-financing, and our dues ($10/year, or $5/year for students)
primarily support the newsletter.
Autumn meeting
We discussed and made plans for the Autumn meeting, to be held 9:30 a.m.
to 3:30 p.m. Saturday 18 October at Edmonds C.C., Snohomish Hall 304. Tom
Chow has reserved the meeting space, and will provide equipment and
coordinate the program, which will feature: brief program reports from
the Bachelor's and graduate programs in the state; an overview and
discussion of geography offerings in the state's 2-year colleges, and
trends in those offerings and in the transfers to Bachelor's programs;
trends in technical cooperation among smaller municipalities; discussion
of what the professional geography community needs from geography and GIS
education; standards in GIS education and training. We agreed on options
for a keynote speaker.
Spring meeting
We agreed that the Spring meeting should be held on one of the first two
Saturdays in April. If our colleagues at University College of the Fraser
Valley (British Columbia) are still interested in hosting the meeting,
this would be a great step toward cross-border cooperation. In addition
to student presentations, we identified two topics for presentations:
what the state needs from academic geography; and opportunities for
international education.
By-Laws
We discussed and approved specific amendments to the By-Laws, to:
increase the number of Board members; assure participation by those in
community colleges, comprehensives, and outside of academic geography;
and standardize our use of the "Board" for the governing body.
Election of officers and Board members We agreed on a procedure for electing officers and Board meetings at the Autumn meeting.
Newsletter
We agreed that the Autumn newsletter should go out as soon as possible,
with these minutes, announcement of the Autumn meeting, letters from the
President and Vice-President, proposed amendments to the By-Laws, and
perhaps news from the Washington Geographic Alliance (WAGA).
The meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
James W. Harrington, Jr.
Vice President