Great Plains Honors Council
Business Meeting
9:00 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007
Denver, Colorado
GPHC President Guy Litton called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. He welcomed newcomers to GPHC and told them the organization is supportive and is there to help them.
Bob Spurrier relayed the message that NCHC’s publications need authors. GPHC members should consider sending articles to JNCHC or HIP for publication.
2008 Great Plains Conference
The next GPHC conference will be held in Abilene, TX, on April 4-5, 2008. It will be hosted by Abilene Christian University and McMurry University. Proposals are due no later than Feb. 15.
The conference theme (announced as “Paradox on the Prairie”) is changing to “Visionary on the Prairie” thanks to the likely inclusion of exciting and visionary plenary speakers. The featured speaker will be David Leeson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the Dallas Morning News. The founder of a biotechnology firm has also been invited to speak. The conference will begin at the Abilene Civic Center on Friday night, at approximately 6 p.m. The Saturday night dinner will be a barbecue at Buffalo Camp Historic Village.
Chris Willerton asked those present to indicate if they were interested in having Developing in Honors sessions at the conference. Mark Farris suggested that it would be helpful to have a session in which experienced Honors directors can counsel new directors and faculty.
The group indicated a strong desire to include poster sessions at the conference.
Several members requested accommodations for vegetarians.
Hotels and group rates will be posted on the GPHC website: www.acu.edu/gphc
Texas Directors
Mark Farris invited all the directors of Texas programs to contact him if they wanted to meet during NCHC. Other options were waiting until GPHC or using the Texas listserv to meet virtually.
Election Results
Guy Litton reported that David Lawless was elected vice president and will assume the presidency of GPHC at the conclusion of the meeting. Brad Gambill was voted the new VP/president-elect. Carol Sanders was elected executive secretary/treasurer, but she must step down for medical reasons. Her assistant at Park University, Virginia Brackett, has volunteered to take the job. There were no additional nominations from the floor. Guy Litton said the balloting will be done as quickly as possible after the meeting, probably in the next couple of weeks. He will assist the new EST in getting the dues notices out, etc.
No formal treasurer’s report or meeting minutes were presented because of the vacancy in the EST position. Guy Litton tried without success to contact the former EST, Dwight Moore, who resigned during the past year. In the last formal budget report, Dr. Litton recalled the balance in GPHC’s account exceeded $10,000.
At this point, Guy Litton gave the floor to the incoming president, David Lawless.
New Business
David Lawless told the group he was pleased and honored to serve the GPHC. In his nine years as Honors coordinator at Tulsa Community College, he benefited many times from the guidance of the kind people involved in this organization. He urged the new members to become an active part of GPHC, because it makes a difference.
He brought to the membership two new proposals:
New Directors/Membership Initiative
Many schools in the Great Plains
region have honors programs but are not
members of GPHC. He
moved that the group approve a plan to offer an incentive to up to seven
directors of such institutions, consisting of $200 against travel expenses and
a waiver of conference registration fees to attend the 2008 GPHC conference in Abilene.
Second: Donna Birdwell
Discussion: Gary Bell suggested that the president or vice president contact these directors personally, by phone, to make the connection and extend the invitation. Guy Litton told the group that his staff had identified 60 to 70 institutions that would qualify for the incentive offer. He volunteered to team up with the president and vice president to contact them.
Mark Farris suggested, because the number of institutions was so large, sharing this task with other GPHC members whose institutions were near those being invited. Nick Flynn volunteered to take the West Texas region.
The group asked about the current costs of dues and conference registrations. GPHC dues will remain at $50 ($100 for sustaining members), and the conference registration fee will probably be $60. This fee will cover dinner Friday, a box lunch on Saturday, and dinner Saturday. Breakfast on Saturday will be at the hotel.
Suggestion from the floor: Perhaps other schools could sponsor non-member institutions to attend, rather than spending GPHC money.
Someone asked what would happen if more than seven responded. David Lawless said the executive committee felt they would be happy if they received as many as seven. However, in the case of greater interest, he imagined that the offer would be limited to the first seven. Gary Bell suggested that if more than seven applied, maybe other member institutions could sponsor the remainder.
Guy Litton called the question. The motion passed unanimously by voice vote.
Travel Award Proposal:
David Lawless presented a proposal that would change the procedure for awarding travel grants. The executive committee had discussed showcasing student contributions that are particularly special, placing exceptional student presentations in time slots where there were no other scheduled presentations. The students selected for these presentations would receive awards that the committee proposed naming for Dennis Boe, the late director of the honors program at East Central University in Oklahoma. Mr. Lawless proposed that four of these awards be given to students at the junior/senior level and four to students who are freshmen or sophomores. Each winner would be given a cash award of $100 and a certificate or plaque. Applicants who did not receive Boe Awards could still be regular presenters at the conference. Many details remain to be worked out, but the committee sought the group’s approval for the concept. He envisioned the selection process might be modeled after the Portz Scholarships at the national level.
Question: Why the division between juniors/seniors and freshmen/sophomores?
Virginia McCombs answered that it struck the committee as important because some institutions will have students who are submitting senior theses, and it would be unfair to ask students who are at an earlier stage in their careers to compete with that.
Question: Why not just ask the students about their classification and take that into consideration, but not announce a set number of each?
Guy Litton responded that these awards serve two different purposes: encouraging promise, and rewarding accomplishment. Both are equally emphasized under this proposal.
Suggestion: Determine the division by year in the honors program, rather than by classification.
John Britt recommended making the two categories “up to 60 hours” and “60 hours and above.”
Robert McMahon said he supports the proposal and supports the division. It allows two-year schools to compete, and he would hate to see them cut out of it.
John Korstad asked if posters and oral presentations would be eligible to compete. Also, would faculty be asked to judge? David Lawless answered that details remain to be decided; for example, the committee needed to consider whether creative writing, music, and dance could be considered. However, for the first year, he envisioned the Boe Awards being for research papers only.
James Hallmark moved that the proposal be approved.
Second: John Britt and Ruth Randall
Discussion:
Question: Will we define “research”? Karl Petruso recommended that research be defined broadly. Perhaps the term should be “scholarly work.”
Elizabeth Beck once judged travel grant applications and expressed the opinion that the division between levels (fr/soph; jr/sr) is critical.
Virginia McCombs told the group that there would be a
committee of faculty judging the entries, hopefully from across disciplines. The process needed to involve “blind”
readings, with more than one faculty member reading each submission.
David Lawless said he hoped the group that started this proposal can be left to work out the guidelines and other details.
Chris Willerton announced that Feb. 15 is this year’s deadline to apply for travel grants. Next year, these will be competitive, so this is the last year under the old procedure. He will post instructions for applying on the GPHC website. He will receive all proposals and forward them to the travel grant committee.
John Britt observed that for the sort of competition proposed, the panel should see more than an abstract. The submission would need to be a whole paper.
Sarah (?) Baker said that she is an art professor, and she believes there is no field in which you can’t do research. She supports the idea of requiring research papers.
Someone (?) asked about giving awards for posters. She wondered whether students have time to prepare and submit entire papers; many students give oral presentations of research that has not been written down in the form of a paper.
Guy Litton answered that these awards are different from the old ones. These are not travel grants but, rather, cash awards to students. These would require completed projects at the time of submission. The deadline and guidelines/requirements will be published well in advance. The students will have time to complete and submit full papers.
Bob Spurrier suggested that the group consider the concept of the awards and allow the committee of officers to work out the details. Ann Eisenberg suggested that a committee of volunteers help the officers work out the guidelines. David Lawless asked anyone interested in helping the committee to see him.
John Britt called the question.
Second: several people
The proposal passed unanimously on a voice vote.
Guy Litton told the group that the officers were seeking a way to link these awards to support for the students’ institutions to attend the NCHC meeting. He proposed that each institution that had a winner or winners be awarded a $500 travel grant for the following year’s NCHC conference. (If two students from the same school won Boe Awards, the school would get only one travel grant.)
David Lawless moved that GPHC give a $500 travel grant to each school with winning student(s) in the Boe Awards, for the purpose of traveling to the following year’s NCHC conference.
Second: John Britt
The motion passed unanimously on a voice vote.
Guy Litton reminded the group that the proposals are all works in progress. The officers will report further during the conference in Abilene.
GPHC 2009
There is no designated host institution for the 2009 GPHC conference. At one time, the group had discussed holding that conference at Lamar University, but Donna Birdwell is retiring and feels it would be unfair to place that burden on a new director in his or her first year on the job. Guy Litton asked all those who had hosted a GPHC conference in the past to raise their hands, and he urged anyone interested in taking the 2009 conference to talk with any of those who had experience, check with others at their own institutions, and then contact GPHC if they are willing to offer the 2009 conference.
Other announcements:
Bob Spurrier reminded everyone present that NCHC elections are coming up. Two candidates are from the Great Plains region: Jay Mandt (Wichita State) and Roxanne Morales (student). He urged everyone to attend the NCHC business meeting to get a feel for how the national organization works.
To join the GPHC listserv, members should visit the GPHC website, where they will find instructions. If they encounter problems, they should email young@shsu.edu
Guy Litton told the group it has been his pleasure to serve as president of GPHC, and he leaves the organization in capable hands. The meeting was adjourned at 9:58 a.m.