PBK Spring 2007 Minutes

The Spring 2007 Meeting was held on Monday, February 12, at 4-5:15 pm in Eaton Humanities 345.

Attending: Jerry Peterson, Nancy Watson, Michael Wertheimer, Susan Prince, Maria Velazquez, Carlyn Williams, Caitlyn (Avedan) Raggio, Yuko Marshall, Scott Spanbauer, Carey Kohout, Greg Evans (Raymond James), Megan Burgess.

Regrets were received from Robert Schulzinger and Jon Rush.

Jerry Peterson called the meeting to order at 4:10. He announced that he had just received news of an additional bequest from the Crisp family, approx. $10,000 from a recently deceased daughter of Katherine and William Crisp.

Those present, who included six fall ’06 initiates, introduced themselves.

1. Minutes of the fall meeting were approved. Matters arising:

Approximately 90 members were initiated in December 2006.

A website is now posted in the domain of the dean’s office, www.colorado.edu/ArtsSciences/pbk.

Financial Report: Prof. Prince presented data for fall 2006 which showed that the chapter spends approximately $95 per initiate on PBK fees and certificates ($56), office expenses ($12.76) and initiation ceremony ($26.47). We are therefore subsidizing each initiate from the Crisp endowment approx. $35 above the $60 we collect in registration fees. Prof. Peterson opened the floor to a motion regarding a revision of fees, and there was none.

The Wells Fargo account had a balance of about $1700, down about $9000 from the opening of the AY: this reflects our operating deficit plus the $7500 Crisp Fellowship for 2006 which was paid from this account. The CU agency account had a balance of about $1100.

Greg Evans presented documents on the Raymond James account, now entirely in mutual funds except for one stock. Current value (2/12/07) is $330,490. Return over the last year has been very good, with only one fund showing a loss, and this due only to accounting peculiarities. A cash balance in excess of $60,000 reflects a recent stock sale: after the award of the 2007 Crisp Fellowship/s and other cash needs the remainder may be reinvested in funds currently held.

Prof. Wertheimer emphasized that the fund should be used to promote Phi Beta Kappa projects, not just left to grow for its own sake.

New business:

Prof. Peterson took agenda item 4b out of order, to report an initiative to establish a Hazel Barnes Fellowship and/or prize/s for undergraduate Phi Beta Kappa members. This idea arose at the Triennial in Atlanta, where Prof. Barnes was honored nationally for her role in establishing the Visiting Scholars program, now fifty years old. Prof. Peterson reported that Prof. Barnes is very pleased at the proposal, and a committee to begin fund raising will be formed from faculty, to include those in the Honors program.

2. Spring 2007 Elections. Prof. Peterson presented a slate of 278 candidates who met the criteria of major and GPA. By contrast with past lists, this one had been culled for candidates who had already declined the PBK invitation two times. Since information from Judicial Affairs had been received only that day, Prof. Peterson reviewed his own criteria for removing candidates for JA violations and received approval from the chapter to proceed later in the week with further culling on these criteria. Pending this Judicial Affairs review, the slate was approved unanimously. Prof. Peterson will forward a list of address labels of the final invitees to Megan for mailings to parents. Megan will send email invitations to the students next week.

3. Election of Vice President. The three-year term of Nancy Watson ends this spring. Prof. Peterson presented the candidacy of Prof. Robert Schulzinger (History); Nancy Watson also agreed to stand for re-election. After discussion of the possibility that we could have two vice presidents, a vote was held by secret ballot. Robert Schulzinger received 4 votes, Nancy Watson 2 votes, and 4 persons voted for both candidates. It was decided that both candidates would serve as Vice President (Prof. Schulzinger will be on sabbatical next year and makes no promises regarding his service), and particular duties would be divided. A VP on the CU faculty will have access to internal records and can ease the burdens on the President regarding selection of candidates for initiation.

4. Recruitment for Committees.
(a) Constitution and By-Laws committee. Revision is needed; no specific arrangements were made.

(b) Hazel Barnes Fund committee. Prof. Peterson has his eye on candidates for this committee.
(c) Publicity committee. PBK national has invited the University of Colorado to participate in its new Parmele Project, an effort to sustain chapters which are in jeopardy of failing, by agreeing to demonstrate a set of “best practices” (still to be determined in detail): PBK national offers financial support in the range of $1-2 K, partly as matching funds. In conjunction with the Parmele Project, we need to discover ways to attract more invitees to accept initiation into PBK.

Most of the undergraduates in attendance volunteered to participate in PBK recruitment and publicity this spring, and two (C. Williams and M. Velazquez) agreed to head up a “Publicity Committee.” Immediate ideas included emailing lists of invitees to home departments; organizing parties for students by discipline (e.g. natural sciences, social sciences, humanities) for those with more than 75 credit hours who met PBK GPA requirement; having current PBK student members visit classes to talk up PBK. C. Williams and M. Velazquez will get to work right away.
(d) Crisp Fellowship Committee (Adams, Spellman, Peterson) needs an undergraduate member: Avedan Raggio volunteered and was accepted.

5. Report from Triennial. Prof. Peterson and Prof. Prince reported on their experiences at the Triennial in Atlanta in October. Prof. Peterson emphasized the change in student “mentality,” discussed in several sessions at the Triennial, which makes recruiting for PBK more difficult than it used to be. Prof. Prince emphasized the challenges at CU in following “best practices” of chapters as advocated at the meeting. At smaller institutions, where faculty are far more inclined to participate, students’ records are reviewed by hand, invitations are made personally, and events such as parties and receptions are well attended. At CU, even basic undergraduate advising in larger departments is handled by staff rather than faculty.

Appreciation was expressed (on the initiative of Prof. Wertheimer) to Jerry Peterson for keeping the chapter going through 17.5 years of presidency.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:20 pm.

Susan Prince

Secretary/Treasurer