PBK Fall 2006 Minutes

The Fall 2006 Meeting was held on Friday, September 22, at 4-5 pm in Eaton Humanities 350.

Attending: Jerry Peterson, Jon Rush, Michael Wertheimer, Susan Prince, William Adams, Megan Burgess.

Regrets were received from Patricia Limerick, Lori Goodman, and Greg Evans (Raymond James).

Jerry Peterson called the meeting to order at 4:05. The first order of business was to elect a secretary-treasurer to replace Lori Goodman, who has left the university. Susan Prince, who has served as interim since August, was nominated by Jerry Peterson and elected by acclamation.

Minutes of the spring meeting were approved. It was noted that enrollment percentages have increased dramatically since email contacts were initiated. Now 80% of acceptances are received by email.

Old business:

New criteria for election (spring 2006) were reviewed: 3.85 GPA or higher for 90 credit hours and 3.70 GPA for 100 hours.

Professor Adams proposed reducing the GPA criterion and adding additional criteria such as departmental honors, double major, or other more qualitative measures. It was agreed that departmental honors advisors might be allowed to make special cases for students who fall below the GPA criterion.

Professor Peterson proposed that a motion be drafted to this effect and circulated by email to the entire campus PBK community later in the semester.

New business:

I. Professor Peterson presented a slate of 341 candidates for election in fall 2006 who met the criteria of major and GPA. Two cases with judicial affairs violations of unclear severity were discussed: one of these candidates was retained in the pool of invitees and the other was dismissed.

Megan will send a letter of invitation, an enrollment form, and an instruction sheet for registering with PBK National via email to the candidates. We will follow up with a letter to parents.

II. Upcoming events:

a. Initiation December 3, 5:00 pm, in Glenn Miller Ballroom.

b. Visiting Scholar Thomas Rowski will speak April 7, 2007, to be co-sponsored and organized by the Center for Asian Studies.

c. The national Triennial conference will be held October 26-29 in Atlanta, Georgia. By practice the President and Secretary-Treasurer attend as representatives. The delegates were charged with two missions: find out typical acceptance percentages at liberal arts colleges and large public universities; and collect suggestions for making an impact on the campus.

III. The 2007 Crisp Fellowship competition was discussed, with the goal of increasing the applicant pool. The fellowship should be publicized widely among departments and parents. Discussion followed on the size and format of the scholarship, including the possibility of a 5-year scholarship in the amount of $3000 per year. Professor Adams moved that the 1-year format be retained and the size increased from $7,500 to $10,000, with the option of one or two fellowships to be awarded each year. Professor Rush seconded. Motion passed 4-1.

IV. The possibility of a Phi Beta Kappa website was discussed. This might eliminate routine questions which currently come to Megan by email, and enhance the visibility of PBK on campus. Susan Prince is looking into obtaining space on the server and will post a draft site as soon as she is able. The site should include minutes of the meetings, clear criteria for election, including Judicial Affairs and Honor Code issues, announcement of the upcoming visiting scholar, links to the National association, and a history of the chapter.

V. The financial records were discussed. Jerry Peterson reported that Greg Evans (unable to attend) met with the Finance Committee on September 18 and discussed plans to complete the liquidation of most individual stocks and transfer the assets to mutual funds. Susan Prince reported that the Wells Fargo account had a balance of about $12,000 and the CU agency account might be in deficit (but recent statements have some unclear charges). Initiation fees, currently $60, leave us little excess for overhead charges once we pay $50 directly to PBK national and an additional $6 for the certificates. It was decided that the fees will be reconsidered once we have clear accounting data for a full year.

VI. Appreciation was expressed to Jerry Peterson for keeping the chapter going through 17 years of presidency.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:05 pm.

Susan Prince

Secretary/Treasurer