The 2004 Annual Meeting of the National Council was held on November 20, 2004, at The Berghoff, Chicago, IL, beginning at 7 p.m. Present were the National President, John Jeep (Miami University); the interim National Secretary-Treasurer, Geoffrey Orth (Longwood University); and National Council members Ronald Horwege (Sweet Briar College) and James Davidheiser (University of the South).
President Jeep called the meeting to order.
The minutes of the 2003 Annual Meeting were approved as distributed (attached).
Geoffrey Orth then presented the National Secretary-Treasurer’s Report, which was approved as distributed.
President Jeep distributed the Annual Report on Invested Funds, from Professor Emeritus Maurice Conner (University of Nebraska-Omaha), which was approved as distributed (attached). The Council commended Professor Conner for the fine way in which he has managed our investments and his success in increasing the balance, which was $49,816.99, versus $48,563.86 a year earlier.
Geoffrey Orth reported on the actions of the Scholarship Committee [Dorothee Ostmeier, Chair (University of Oregon); Mary Wauchope (San Diego State University); and Anne Winston-Allen (Southern Illlinois University-Carbondale)] which designated the annual awards as follows:
· Graduating Senior Award: Graduating Senior Category: Ramona Lukauskaite of the University of Illinois at Chicago (Zeta Chi; adviser Elizabeth Loentz) will receive a $2000 cash award for study at a German university next year. Ms. Lukauskaite also becomes Delta Phi Alpha’s nominee for a DAAD graduate fellowship.
· Graduating Senior Runner-up: Sandra Booth of Longwood University (Iota Psi; interim adviser Geoffrey Orth) will receive Delta Phi Alpha’s second nomination for a DAAD graduate fellowship.
· Sophomore-Junior Category: Cory J. Krediet of Drew University (Iota Phi; advisers Elfriede Smith and Edye Lawler). Mr. Krediet will receive a $1000 scholarship for study in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland next year.
Orth remarked that the number of applications was low, perhaps due to the fact that numerous chapters seemed to have misplaced their applications copies. He announced that next year’s applications will be distributed as part of an electronic newsletter, which should serve to increase the number of applications.
Old Business
After brief discussion, the Council agreed to allot $1000 for chapter incentive grants for the spring of 2005.
Since the ACTFL meeting seems to work well for attendance, the Council will likely hold next year’s annual meeting in conjunction with the ACTFL Conference.
Orth reported that the website still needed to be updated, but that would have to wait until Secretary-Treasurer John Reynolds returned briefly from leave at the end of 2004, when he could contact the host, Ntelos, and authorize them to allow Orth access to the site. It has proven very difficult to find anyone at Ntelos who has knowledge of how to access the site. In the event that further communication with Ntelos did not work out, the Council urged Orth to transfer the site to Longwood University’s server as soon as possible, so that the site could be updated and serve our membership on a more timely basis.
New Business
Orth reported that November’s newsletter appeared to have reached a large number of chapters and that several advisers had remarked how easily they were able to forward the newsletter to their memberships. He also noted that it had an additional benefit of enabling the National office to update the e-mail listings more efficiently and saved postage and stationery costs of nearly $100 per issue. The Council urged him to continue with electronic newsletters.
Finally, Orth presented plans for finding contacts at the approximately ninety dormant chapters of the organization and use the National Council and advisers of active chapters in the area to encourage chapter reactivations. He will report to the Council on the success of his efforts in that area after all dormant chapters have been contacted.
There being no further business to conduct, President Jeep adjourned the meeting at 8:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Geoffrey C. Orth
Interim National Secretary-Treasurer