Now is the perfect time to register for the annual meeting and technical symposium and to submit an abstract for your oral presentation! The theme is Preparing for the Turn of the Millenium and Jeannie Banks will provide the keynote address on Y2K computer problems, myths and realities. Just like three years ago it will be held at a University of New Mexico research facility, the Sevilleta Long-Term Ecological Research site north of Socorro (I-25 exit 169). You can have a virtual visit to the Sevilleta LTER, at http://sevilleta.unm.edu/, one of the U.S. National Science Foundation LTER Network sites. Limited housing is available there for $5 per night.

The meeting dates are October 23-35, 1998. We will begin with registration at 3:00-3:30 p.m. on Friday October 23. There will be sessions for presentation of papers following registration and on Saturday, plus the State Board meeting tentatively planned for Sunday morning. After the board meeting we may have an optional visit to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Very Large Array which is located on the Plains of San Augustin 50 miles west of Socorro. Saturday evening dinner will be at the Val Verde Restaurant in Socorro. There we'll have a special performance of Susan B. Anthony by Marilyn Adams, Chautauqua Scholar (partially funded by the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities). Peg Strain has been invited to do a team-building session based on martial arts, so bring some loose-fitting clothes. Beulah Woodfin is making food arrangements similar to the previous meeting, so you can eat all other meals right at the LTER.

A registration fee of $50 covers meals (except Saturday dinner) and conference materials. Four students have requested scholarships. The Network can award a total of eight scholarships based on financial need if the potential recipient submits an abstract and presents the material. For program information and to transmit abstracts (by September 15) you can reach Debby by email -- ulinski@sevilleta.unm.edu. For other inquiries contact Rosalie Graves, Annual Meeting and Technical Symposium Chair, at 246-8600 (w) or 299-2039 (h).

There will be plenty of chances to visit with one another at this exciting, but casual meeting. See you there!

The Meeting was called to order at 10:15am. Those in attendance were Kelly Bitner, Adrienne Dare, Debby Potter, Margo Clark, Wyona Turner, Carol LaDelfe, Yolanda Jones King, Karen Saenz, dede Collins, Kristin Bennett and Jennifer Siders. The meeting was held in Los Alamos at the home of Carol LaDelfe. Tinka Gammel dropped by before the meeting to give the Board information on the web page and listserver she has set up for the Northern Chapter.

The minutes from the June meeting were reviewed and approved. The Treasurer had no report. The meeting adjourned at 12:00 p.m.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

Annual Meeting

The abstract deadline has been extended to the end of August and two students have applied for scholarships.

Archives

dede reported that she has received more stuff from Georgia Fritz’s collection. She brought some of the posters and pictures to show the Board. It was suggested that she get the posters laminated.

Elections

Submitted by Deborah Potter. Carol LaDelfe of Northern Chapter is nominee for President Elect. Terms that expire in October 1998 include Treasurer and the At-Large positions of Potter, Dare, Turner and Schultz-Paige. Adrienne Dare and Wyona Turner are running for re-election to the Board. Thanks to the hard work of Jennifer Siders we have a complete ballot. Claudia Lewis is nominee for Treasurer. J. Margo Clark and Angelique Newman of Northern are nominees for At-Large Members. Thanks to all nominees for transmitting their biographical sketch to include with the ballot. Vice President Karen Saenz will serve as President next year. In accordance with policy and procedures, the ballot will be mailed within one week from the August Board meeting.

Fundraising

No report.

Membership

No report.

Newsletter

Report made by Carol LaDelfe. Next newsletter will be put together at the end of August. Jennifer will put together the newsletter and send the document to Carol to copy and distribute. Kelly will send Jennifer the President’s message at the end of August.

State Science Fair

Kelly reported for Mercedes that we have received four thank you notes from young women who we gave rewards to at the State Science Fair.

Policies & Procedures

No report.

Publicity

Jennifer gave her Publicity binder to Kelly to pass on at the next Board meeting.

EYH

No report.

EYH Reports

CENTRAL. Deborah Potter reported that Nan Founds is the chair and so far they have been actively recruiting for students, including contacting the area Girl Scouts. Training for presenters has been arranged.

NORTHERN. Margo Clark reported that adult workshops for teachers are being discussed.

SILVER CITY. No report.

LAS CRUCES. Submitted by Karen Saenz. Our EYH conference was on April 23, 1998. We had over 250

Students and adults participating. We lost money this year: total income $2019.00, total expenses of $2299.33, NET -$280.33. Mostly this was because of printing costs we incurred this year. One of the highlights this year was using high school students as ambassadors and role models. The younger girls responded favorably. We plan to use high school girls again next year and the Military Academy has already volunteered. On the downside, we are still trying to get paid. The schools are very slow at paying for Purchase Orders even after receiving an invoice. Next year, we’l add payment requirements and instructions to the registration information to ensure we are paid on time.

CHAPTER REPORTS

CENTRAL

Reported by Kelly Bitner and Deborah Potter. Because of other committements which keep her from putting in the time she feels is required, Debbie Brinkeroff is stepping down as President of the Central Chapter. The chapter had a meeting in June which went very well. Everybody went around and told the group what they were doing and what was going on in their lifes. There was also discussion of changing the night of the week on which they hold their meetings to try to increase attendance.

EASTERN.

Kelly reported for Mercedes that they will not be having any meetings til the Fall when classes resume.

NORTHERN.

Submitted by Margo Clark. On July 10, 1998 the Northern Chapter (LAWIS), held its annual summer picnic. dede Collins was in charge of arranging the picnic. There were approximately 35 members, visitors, and students in attendance. It appears that holding the picnic during a long lunch-hour results in a larger attendance as compared with having it after work hours. We displayed several LAWIS related posters and the two quilts to be auctioned at the State meeting in October. Approximately $60 in lottery tickets were sold at the picnic.
The LAWIS Steering Committee held a meeting on July 8. At this meeting it was proposed that our chapter consider holding some workshops for teachers at the same time as the 1999 EYH conference. Discussion was tabled until the next steering committee meeting. Sharon Thomas will be putting together a proposal that examines various options for resources and organization.

The lunch hour seminars arranged by Tinka Gammel continue to be a great success. Recent or upcoming seminars are as follows: 1) July 8, 1998 : "Sensitivity of Once Shocked, Weathered, High Explosives" by Betty Harris, NMT-1, CMR, LANL. 2) August 4, 1998: "Massive exploding Stars: The Variability and Outbursts of Luminous Blue Variable Stars" by Joyce Guzik, X-TA, LANL.

SOUTHERN.

Submitted by Karen Saenz. We had a chapter meeting in May at Nancy Weinbrenner’s home. The meeting, a Thank You for all participants at the Expanding Your Horizons conference held 23 April 1998 was held at Nancy Weinbrenner’s home in Las Cruces. Members attending were Karen Saenz, Jane Madrid, Nancy Weinbrenner and Mary Bochmann; guests attending were Stacey Bellavia, Nora Christianson, and Angela Ferrara. The speaker was Ray Scalf. The talk, ‘Creatures of the Southwest’ was very interesting and we learned a lot. The chapter decided to take the summer off and are looking for officiers for next year.

OLD BUSINESS

Dept. Of Education Letter.

Yolanda said that she has received a draft of the letter that Lynda wrote, but that it would be more effective if the letter came from attorney Gary King. The Board agreed.

Debby Potter said that a member thought this letter might be in regards to a printing bill. Lynda still has had no response and will follow up on this.

Bank Accounts.

Kelly will write a letter to the bank explaining that the State and Central bank accounts are two separate accounts and should not be linked.

Insurance for EYH.

Adrianne had no report. Margo Clark will check with LANL to see if the Northern Chapter is covered during their EYH. Yolanda suggested that Math/Science Network may have an umbrella policy of some sort.

Scholarships.

Yolanda having missed the last meeting where the scholarship proposal was discussed in detail brought up some important points. The money she brings in as fundraising is for EYH, nothing else. So we can not use that money for scholarships and the money market will not last very long with the amounts and number of scholarships the board had decided on previously. She also pointed out that scholarships of a few $100 aren’t very useful in this day and age. The Board agreed and will recommend that this issue be closed. An alternative to spending the money of scholarships would be to increase the amount and number of awards at the State Science Fair. We could use the interest from the money market for this purpose, leaving the principle intact for emergencies.

NEW BUSINESS

Web Site.

Carol reported that we may need to move the NMNWSE web site from LANL. To get our own address, such as WWW.NMNWSE.ORG would cost a one time registration fee of $70 and $35 every two years for renewal. TRAIL.COM would charge $50 for establishing our web site on their server and then $5 every month. Some servers will give us a free site because we are a non-profit organization. The Board recommended that Carol proceed in obtaining a domain name and try to get a free site. The cost of the domain name can be paid from Publicity.

Scholarships

Kelly and Jennifer have been receiving requests from teachers, both in and out of NM, for Career books. The Board decided that we would give up to 5 free books to a NM teacher that requests copies and out-of-state teachers must buy the books at cost $4 each plus shipping, and are limited to 5 books. Requests for books should be forwarded to Kelly. Each Chapter should count the number of books they have and report that to Kelly. We need to make sure we have enough for next year’s EYH. Jennifer will try to work on a color master for the web version and will send an electronic copy of the manuscript to dede to archive.