Minutes

Maine State CEC Board Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, January 12/19, 2021 @ 4:00 pm

1. Welcome to all … Introductions to Luann Purcell from National CEC (Unit Mentor)

Present: Karen Smith, Sara Flanagan, Sarah Howorth, Debrajean Scheibel, Rachel Brown-Chidsey, Siobhan Bogle, Paige Fournier

Luann Purcell introduced herself and explained that as she retired from CASE (Executive Director), she was invited to join National CEC as a mentor to state and provincial units. Her charge is to connect with every state and provincial unit each month. She also told us about Brannan Myers, who is designated to work with the Divisions and the chapters as well.

Luann Purcell lead the discussion about the Maine CEC by asking us to reflect on these three questions:

a. What do you think is your unit’s greatest strength?

• Grassroots passion for serving students with disabilities.

• We have grown from 1 to 7 people on the board.

• Small community feeling/ Once we have momentum going we are “relatable”

b. What do you think is your unit’s greatest weakness?

• Seeking more teacher involvement

• Connecting teachers in remote areas to each other

• Support the teachers in the state

• Time

• Tricky time to provide PD during a national pandemic.

c. If you had a magic wand, what is the one thing you would like/need in order to make your unit better!

• Collaborate more with MADSEC, but for teachers.

• Offer funds for people to get CEC membership more easily

• Free Marketing: Let teachers know what they are getting for their membership

Luann suggested that we consider the following strategies as we move forward:

• Developing a strategic plan and prioritizing them, then enlisting membership to divide and conquer our tasks.

• Doing a needs assessment

• Find an “in” to MADSEC: suggested a MADSEC liaison

• Start a local chapter in Paige & Siobhan’s district (Just find 5 people)

• Social Media Committee: Facebook, Instagram, etc.

• Promoting the national conference to our membership

2. Meeting adjourned...

Maine State CEC Board Meeting Minutes Tuesday, December 8, 2020 @ 4:00 pm

1. Welcome to all ...

Sara Flanagan, Debrajean Scheibel, Paige Fournier, Karen Smith, Beth Lorigan, Sioban Bogel, and Rachel Brown-Chidsey

2. Will the Board vote to accept the draft ​Maine State CEC Board Meeting Agenda from 12/8//2020​ meeting and, will the Board vote to accept the draft ​Maine State CEC Board Meeting Minutes ​11/27/2020 minutes?

Sarah Howorth made a motion to approve the agenda and Rachel seconded the Sarah motioned to accept the minutes and Rachel seconded it. All in favor.

3. President’s report: Debrajean Scheibel

Sarah said that there is a new person at the CEC who is available to help us. Her name is Brannan Myers. She is available to support us if we need assistance.

There is also Luann Purcell who has reached out to us a few times to support us at the Maine CEC. She could come to our meeting to talk about our goals. Rachel will reach out to Luann to meet with us in January. Rachel suggested a range of dates, including January 12th or the 19th at 4:00pm. The date she agrees to will be our January meeting.

4. Vice Presidents report: Rachel Brown-Chidsey

Rachel and Paige updated us about the website progress. Paige and Siobhan worked together on the look and log for the website. Paige put some information up and they have some ideas to share with the Board. Siobhan said that she is working on links to send more traffic toward the website. They would like to do a teacher interview once each month and post them to the website. Siobhan is using the national CEC website package for colors, text, etc. They would like the interviews to be provided in a Blog that connects to the website. There was a discussion about permissions for the sharing of personal information on the website and Paige and Siobhan have done that. Sarah shared the website on the screen and talked about the history...Sarah said that we only have a few agendas and minutes on the website. Siobhan is a photographer and we could use her skills to bring more people to the website.

Sarah suggested that we need to vote and approve Paige and Siobhan moving forward as administrators of the website. Sarah made a motion that we create social media chair and co-chair positions which will become part of the duties of Maine CEC “members at large” for now and the future. Sara made a motion and Rachel seconded it. We had a discussion about posting information on the page. We will have Sarah, Siobhan, and Paige as administrators for the page. All in favor.

5. Treasurer's report: Sarah Howorth

Sarah said that $1,490.02 in the treasury presently. Sarah said that she has learned that online conferences are happening and they are making money doing them, which is a bit of a surprise. There is a possibility that we could do some online workshop type events and charge people for their registration and attendance. Debrajean suggested that we have a working meeting to discuss ideas/plans for this sort of event with consideration for both live and recorded options.

6. New business/Reminders:

Sarah talked about this coming event:

CEC-ISET Expert Panel Discussion: Sources of Friends During Remote Learning

Friday, December 11 from 2-3 pm P​ ST (5-6 pm EST) ​CLICK HERE to Register in advance for this meeting.

There is another event on assistive technology and remote learning on January 26th. This event will be help the ISET youtube channel.

1. Old Business:

a. CEC hosting of Maine CEC website..

Rachel said that this is in the distant future, but we are moving forward with updating our website in anticipation of support from the CEC..

b. New and fresh ideas moving forward....

Siobhan and Paige shared thoughts about the work they have done with the website and ideas for a blog. See notes in the Vice president’s report.

c. New committee for website development...

We will talk with Brannan about these topics and the progress that has been made as the Maine State CEC is noted in the Vice president’s report.

Sarah said that she wanted all of the members to know how much she appreciates having new members on the Board.

7. Old Business: ​Update above 8. Adjourn: