Tennessee Academy of Science Executive Committee Meeting Minutes, November 2021

Abstract

President Amy Thompson called the meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Science (TAS) Executive Committee to order at 2:32 PM CST via Zoom® video conferencing. In attendance were President-Elect Greg Vieira, Past President Darlene Panvini, Treasurer Steve Murphree, Secretary Marcia Schilling, Managing Editor of the Journal Justin Oelgoetz, Electronic Communications Director Gilbert Pitts, Junior Academy of Science Director Preston MacDougall, Visiting Scientist Director Tony Johnston, Annual Meeting Coordinator J. Allyn Smith, Publicity Chairperson Mandy Carter-Lowe, Membership Chairperson Karen Kendall-Fite, TSU Local Arrangements Chair Thomas Byl, State Department of Education Liaison Brian Caine, and Members-at-Large Nikki Glenn and Maryam Farsian.Director Pitts moved to accept the minutes from the April 9, 2021 Executive Committee meeting, and Director Johnston seconded the motion. The minutes were approved by a unanimous vote.President Thompson introduced Dr. Theresa Barke as a candidate to the executive committee to serve as Chairperson of Education. Dr. Barke earned her BS in Microbiology from Kansas State University and PhD from Vanderbilt University with a focus on infectious diseases. She currently is a full-time teacher at Northeast High School in Clarksville, Tennessee, and an adjunct for Austin Peay State University. The executive committee unanimously voted in favor of her appointment.President Thompson included a report of her continuing activities. “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as President of the Tennessee Academy of Science. This year has been very busy. Since the April meeting, I worked with Gilbert Pitts to make updates to the website, including adding several president names from the gavel stands. I have the list of three names that need to be added to the newer gavel stand and have been looking for someone to create a new metal plate. Marcia Schilling and I discussed various logistical issues related to procedures and methods of the Academy and worked to resolve several issues. I helped plan the Annual Meeting with Allyn Smith, Greg Viera, Darlene Panvini, Steve Murphree, and Jeff Boles including helping to edit the program. I discussed the TAS Awards with Darlene and helped design and order a custom plaque for our Distinguished Professor Award from the APSU GIS Center. I also continue to try to recruit new members from underrepresented schools and recently invited scientists from Nashville State Community College to get involved with the Academy. I also have told several teachers in the Clarksville area about the Visiting Scientist Program and offered to help them get involved. As I transition to Past President, I look forward to continuing to serve the Academy and of course to sharing time with my wonderful TAS colleagues.”Darlene Panvini nominated officers for the next year. Dr. Clint Ary, Associate Professor of Animal Science from UT-Martin with expertise in veterinary medicine was nominated for President-Elect. Dr. Marcia Schilling was nominated to continue as Secretary. Dr. Steven Murphree was nominated to continue as treasurer. Following a motion from J. Allyn Smith to accept the nominated candidates, and Director Pitts seconded the motion. The committee voted unanimously to accept the candidates to present to the members for service into their intended positions.Past President Panvini presented the following report:“Since the April 2021 Executive Committee meeting, I have worked with Amy Thompson on committee descriptions and filling open positions. I responded to various emails regarding the Journal, the upcoming fall Annual Meeting, and various other TAS details. I re-created the Google form to collect abstracts for the Annual Meeting and organized the submissions to send to Allyn Smith, Annual Meeting Coordinator.“I sent a proposal to the Executive Committee in December 2020 recommending that we revitalize the TAS Awards and change the structure for how those are determined. The recommendation is that the Past President would oversee this as chair of the Nominating Committee. Proposals for awards would be sent to the Past President by early April to be reviewed by the Nominating Committee for presentation to the Executive Committee at the spring Executive Committee meeting. A call for nominations was sent to the TAS membership in March and two nominations were received. These were discussed at the spring 2021 Executive Committee meeting. Following that meeting, I created a Google form for Executive Committee members to vote on the TAS awards. I worked with Amy and Marcia on the details of presenting awards at the Annual Meeting.“Based on this process, I submit the following two proposals to the EC for consideration.“Proposal #1: Award descriptions are at: https://www.tennacadofsci.org/about_TAS/awards.php“I propose that we amend this language for the Distinguished College/University Scientist Award, Distinguished Industrial Scientist Award, and Distinguished College/University Teacher Award as follows. Proposed changes are in bold.“By April 1 send the nomination packet to the Past President Nomination packet should include the following items:[No changes to items #1 & 2]“3. Letters of recommendation from one to five professional colleagues well acquainted with the candidate's qualifications, with at least two letters from the candidate's current institution.”“4. Self-nominations will not be accepted.”“Proposal #2: Change the Past President's duties to include in the section on the Nominating Committee:“In January, send out a call for nominations for the TAS Awards Distinguished College/University Scientist Award, Distinguished Industrial Scientist Award, and Distinguished College/University Teacher Award. Receive application packets and work with the nominating committee to present nominees to the Executive Committee at the Spring Executive Committee Meeting. “Greg Vieira reported Associate Professor of Physics Dr. Adam Holley would deliver the keynote address “The Tortoise and the Hare: A Race for Anwers to Big Questions about the Universe” for the 131st Meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Science at Tennessee Tech University. The 2022 meeting would be held at Tennessee State University, and Dr. Tom Byl, Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, would serve as Local Arrangements Committee Chair. The provost at Rhodes College verbally committed to hosting the 2023 133rd meeting to be held in West Tennessee region.Marcia Schilling met with Past Secretary Teresa Fulcher in Knoxville in early August. The Tennessee Academy of Science records in Teresa's care remained in secure storage pending completion of construction at Pellissippi State Community College, anticipated to be completed by the start of the fall 2021 semester. Secretary Schilling also emailed action items to Executive Committee members, and offered to send reminders of duties as indicated in the Operations Manual. Executive Committee members could opt out if they were not interested in regular reminders.Steve Murphree reported a successful audit of the accounts for the fiscal year of 7/1/2020 to 6/30/2021 (Table 1), as well as fiscal transactions between 7/1/2021 and 11/4/2021 (Table 2):Justin Oelgoetz reported Volume 95 was the first issue of the Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science published both online and in print. He was preparing Volume 96, with 5 articles accepted, undergoing edits, or under review. Editor Oelgoetz was working with Treasurer Murphree to get an updated list of institutional members to submit to Allen Press.Preston MacDougall included in his reports the press release for the winner of the 2021 Tennessee Academy of Science Distinguished Science Teacher Award who was Megan Pitts from Clarksville Christian School.“The 2021 recipient of the Distinguished Science Teaching Award, which is sponsored by the Tennessee Academy of Science, is Ms. Megan Pitts, from Clarksville Christian School.In 2012, after earning her Bachelor's Degree in Marine Science, with a concentration in Biology, from Eckerd University in St. Petersburg, Florida, and then a Master of Arts degree in Teaching from Austin Peay State University, Megan began her teaching career in Kenwood High School's STEM Academy. As a Lead Instructor at Kenwood, she taught Biology, Chemistry, and General Science for grades 7 thru 12. In 2017, she changed her focus and her locus with a move to Clarksville Christian School where she was Lead Instructor for its Engineering and Technical Institute. Her diverse teaching responsibilities are Engineering, Biology, Chemistry, Ecology, Algebra I, and Middle School Math, but her focus is on teaching problem-solving skills.Megan Pitts believes that students best learn problem-solving skills when they are “given the freedom to think creatively and learn from their mistakes.” She proudly says that “In my classroom, we learn by doing and we celebrate failures as growth opportunities.”She also celebrates the success of her students, as members of the American Junior Academy of Science couldn't help but observe when she accompanied one of her students to a joint meeting of the AAAS and the AJAS in Washington, DC. The young man, then a grade 10 student, credited his teacher with inspiring him to think creatively, and to look for opportunities in obstacles. Modeling the teacher he admires so much, his poster presentation was so engaging that a Community College Instructor invited him to teach his Arduino programming tricks to his engineering class via Skype!Please join us in recognizing and thanking Megan Pitts for her Distinguished Science Teaching efforts!”Director MacDougall indicated plans to return to an in person format for the 2022 Junior Academy of Science, which had been held in virtual format for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He hoped to receive confirmation to hold this meeting once again at Belmont, pending approval from Belmont University's new president. President Amy Thompson offered to read the award citation for the Distinguished Science Teacher Award and the Resolutions, as Director MacDougall would not be in attendance the next day's meeting at Tennessee Tech University.As Fred Matthews stepped down as Collegiate Division Director in April, Darlene Panvini reported interest in assuming the duties as her responsibilities as Past President were concluding at the 131st Meeting, November 6, 2021. Past-President Panvini reported receiving a copious number of relevant documents from Fred Matthews regarding his past activity to support effective transitioning to her new role.Gilbert Pitts reported updating the Tennessee Academy of Science web pages, to include more names and images to the Past Presidents page. Director Pitts requested additional images of the past presidents, and asked for help identifying past presidents featured in a photo taken at the TAS Centennial Meeting held at Vanderbilt University as a potential source of images. Despite server interruption with MidPhase (most recently in September), assistance from computer science students attending Austin Peay State University resulted in resolving issues with missing graphics. Web statistics indicated an increase in activity from 10,000 to 11,500 hits. Views of monthly web traffic for 2021 and 2020 (for comparison) are shown below.Comparing September activity, the web page was visited 9000 times in 2021 compared to only 5000 the prior year. In contrast, the Facebook page was not well utilized despite almost 170 followers. Director Pitts suggested that a low number of posts to the Facebook page was likely the reason for low interest. Although a Google business account had been generated and invitations sent to visit the account, only Past President Panvini and President Elect Vieira had visited it. The person designated to generate the Instagram account for TAS had not yet done so, and the YouTube account had not been created. However, Director Pitts voiced concerns about a lack of information that would be shared on these. Finally, he appealed to the Executive Committee Members to keep him informed when updates regarding meeting dates, forms, and changes were needed for the website.Tony Johnston submitted the following report,“Covid-19 continued to wreak havoc on in-person education across the US at all levels between our last meeting (Nov 20, 2020) and the present, making it difficult, if not impossible to execute significant interaction between TAS members and classrooms of students. Despite these difficulties, progress has been made toward revitalizing the TAS Visiting Scientist Program. Most recently (Oct 28, 2021), I made a presentation to the Tennessee Science Education Leadership Association (TnSELA) on the TAS Visiting Scientist Program and emphasized our collective desire to interact with STEM teachers in their classrooms. The ease of utilizing Zoom and similar technologies to facilitate such interactions was discussed, especially with respect to its elimination of the need for TAS members to physically travel to interact with students across the state. TnSELA met in association with the Tennessee State Teachers Association (TSTA) at their 2021 annual meeting, which started that day.“In addition, work resumed on a coordinated document that combines considerations, proposals, and brainstorming thoughts on interaction between TAS and the State Department of Education, TSTA, TnSELA, and other related agencies within TN. I have attached this document to my electronic annual report for Board review and comment. I solicit input from all Board members as we seek to create a new framework for interaction and better facilitate TAS- K-12 STEM teacher and student interaction.“As we consider re-envisioning the Visiting Scientist program, it is critical to repeat several points presented at last year's meeting. TAS continues to need to:“My primary objective for the upcoming year is to utilize the previously discussed coordinated document to create a comprehensive plan for TAS – K-12 STEM education that has been vetted by the appropriate educational agencies across the state. Assuming this objective can be achieved, the plan will be presented to the TAS Board for approval at the 2022 Annual Meeting.”Director Johnston indicated that continued input from the committee and TAS members were welcomed to generate an efficient framework to better facilitate TAS interactions with K-12 STEM teachers and students.J. Allyn Smith reported that the November 2021 meeting was scheduled for Tennessee Tech University, 2022 at Tennessee State University, 2023 at Rhodes College, and then two years would follow in the Middle Tennessee region. For the November 2021 meeting, a total of 165 abstracts were submitted (74 for oral presentations; 91 for poster presentations). Annual Meeting Coordinator Smith had formatted the abstracts to prepare for printing in the upcoming volume of the Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science, but the section chairs at the TTU meeting would need to notify him of any abstracts that should be deleted if not presented.Brian Caine reported that he was working with Director Johnston to clarify associations of K-12 STEM educators and help revive the Visiting Scientists program.Preston MacDougall reported that the 2021 meeting of the American Association for the Academy of Science was held through virtual video conferencing. The student representative presented work on elastomers used in prosthetics. The upcoming February meeting was anticipated to be held in person.Jeffrey O. Boles reported plans for the meeting at Tennessee Tech University were going well. Although TTU rescinded the campus mask mandate, the meeting would support mask use for participant safety for the 131st Meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Science. Chair Boles indicated exit 286 (Willow Road) along I-40 was the most direct route to TTU. Rooms for oral presentations had been tested, but IT personnel would be present for ongoing support throughout the day. The College of Arts and Sciences were providing continental breakfast for the morning. Lunches were ordered with 25 extras for purchase at registration. Coffee would be available throughout the day.The 2022 Local Arrangements Committee Chair Tom Byl shared that Dr. Chandra Reddy was eagerly awaiting the opportunity for Tennessee State University to host the main meeting. Chair Byl indicated that the College of Agriculture would be the main host for the 2022 meeting. The intended campus area would be easily accessed near the entrance right off the highway with easy parking on a Saturday or even a Friday. He offered a potential tour of the Research Farm which recently added bioremediation processing to reduce algal blooms. He indicated the Publicity Chair Mandy Carter-Lowe had already shared information for hosting the future meeting, and he welcomed additional input. Steve Murphree would transport TAS materials from TTU to TSU following the 2021 meeting.Past President Darlene Panvini mentioned that chair positions for Long Range and Strategic Planning, as well as Nominating Committee were expected as part of the duties of past presidents. She submitted the following report:“I contacted colleagues at Cumberland University and Belmont University to inquire about hosting the Annual Meeting in the future but have not heard back from either. In addition to planning for future meeting sites, I wanted to explore what other long-range planning should occur to strengthen TAS but made no progress on this. Upcoming conference sites are:For the record: the Cumberland Mountains and TN River have traditionally been the dividing line for the three divisions.” Prior host sites could be found on the TAS web site.Dr. Theresa Barke introduced herself as being new to TAS, but was excited to serve as Chair of the Research and Education Committee. Chair Barke was previously a clinical trial coordinator at Vanderbilt University up until 2018, and more recently transitioned to education as an adjunct at Austin Peay State University, as well as a full time teacher in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System in both middle and high schools. Chair Barke welcomes guidance and information to best serve in her role for TAS.Dr. Charles McGhee submitted no report, and no fellows nominations were submitted to Secretary Schilling.Tommy Wooten's accounting class audit of the TAS books fully reconciled the accounts of TAS for the fiscal year 7/1/2020 to 6/30/2021.Karen Kendall-Fite had nothing to report regarding the Membership Committee.Martin Stewart retired from Middle Tennessee State University. Chair MacDougall indicated that communications with Chair Stewart had ceased. President Thompson suggested that Roger Jackson from Cumberland University was willing to serve in this capacity and Past President Panvini offered to confirm the appointment with Roger. President Thompson reported the passing of Dr. A. Floyd Scott (1944-2021), herpetologist for the Center of Excellence in Field Biology at Austin Peay State University. Secretary Schilling had written a short passage in his honor that would be read at the meeting the next day. Local Meeting Arrangements Chair Boles reported the passing of Dr. Eugene A. Kline (1940-2020), organic chemist at TTU and President of TAS in 1998. Dr. Kline had retired in 2015 and moved to his family farm in Pennsylvania.Mandy Carter-Lowe reported that a printing station was set up at TTU to print award certificates. Section chairs would report winners via a spreadsheet, they would be printed on site, and given to students at the award ceremony at the end of the meeting. This process would minimize the number of award certificates needing to be mailed to student winners.Preston MacDougall reported two resolutions were planned for the meeting the following day. The first would be presented to Local Arrangements Chair Dr. Jeffrey Boles to honor the host institution, Tennessee Tech University. The second resolution would honor Dr. Fred Matthews, 2016 President of TAS and Collegiate Division Director for the past 17 years. The resolutions would be presented by President Thompson at the business meeting of the members the following day.Resolution of the Tennessee Academy of Science“Whereas, the Tennessee Academy of Science is enjoying the most pleasant and profitable series of meetings, organized during the exceptionally challenging and final (hopefully) course of the Coronavirus pandemic, by Tennessee Technological University andWhereas, the success of these meetings has resulted mainly from the efforts of the Chairs of the respective sections; the Local Arrangements Committee Chair Dr. Jeffrey Boles; Local Arrangements Committee members Drs. Gilbert Pitts, Amy Thompson, Justin Oelgoetz, Steve Murphree, Darlene Panvini, and Annual Meeting Coordinator Dr. Allyn Smith; the 2021 TAS officers and Executive Committee; and from the recognition given the meeting by the host university, thereforeBe it resolved that the Tennessee Academy of Science expresses its sincere appreciation to these and all others who contributed to the success of the meetings.”Signed by the President of the Academy, Amy ThompsonTennessee Academy of Science Resolution of Appreciation for Fred Matthews' Service to the Academy as 2016 President and 2003-2020 Collegiate Division Director“Whereas, almost 50 collegiate meetings from all across Tennessee were held under the auspices of the Tennessee Academy of Science during Dr. Matthews' tenure as Collegiate Division Director; andWhereas, as President of the Tennessee Academy of Science in 2016, Dr. Matthews safely steered the Academy through very litigious waters; andWhereas, at the end of his Presidential term, when Dr. Matthews was called on to lead the Academy into ‘overtime', he cheerfully did so;Now therefore, be it resolved that the Tennessee Academy of Science makes official recognition of seventeen years (2003 - 2020) of generous time commitment to the oversight of collegiate meetings of the Academy, another one-plus year of service as its fearless President, and extends to Dr. Fred Matthews, Professor of Chemistry at Austin Peay State University, this statement of appreciation for his cheerful and dedicated service to the Academy;And be it further resolved that this statement of appreciation be appropriately inscribed and conveyed to Dr. Fred Matthews, with a copy to be included in the official minutes of the November 6, 2021, meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Science.”President Thompson reported that open leadership positions had been filled with the exception of an Assistant Editor and member-at-large. Collegiate Division Director duties would be assumed by Past President Darlene Panvini. Necrology Chair would be assumed by Roger Jackson. Research and Education Chair was now Dr. Theresa Barke. Greg Vieira would find a member-at-large.Managing Editor Oelgoetz reminded the Executive Committee of the desire to replace a single Assistant Editor with an Editorial Board to oversee manuscript reviews. He also suggested proposing an amendment to the Constitution in the future that would allow Executive Meeting and Business Meeting minutes to be published on the TAS web site rather than in the journal. President Thompson encouraged a meeting with a journal editorial subcommittee to write the appropriate language to formally propose this change, so that the Constitution and Operations Manual could be updated with approval of voting members after formal notification. Past President Panvini voiced concerns for submission to publication turnaround time for submitted manuscripts. Managing Editor Oelgoetz assured her that increasing the depth of the pool of reviewers would improve the process, but also indicated manuscript submission to the journal was very low.President Thompson intended to continue to work closely with Past President and Collegiate Division Director Panvini to clarify the selection process for committee chairs in the Operations Manual with intentions to present the information to the Executive Committee at the April 2022 meeting.A constitutional amendment would be proposed for a vote by the members to better reflect the publication practices of the Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science. The amendment would replace the language in the Constitution of the official publication of the academy “shall normally be published as four issues per year”, and change it to “shall publish at least one volume per year”. Electronic Communications Chair Pitts clarified wording in the constitution indicating that since the amendment was presented at the November 2020 meeting, the vote to amend could be added to the Business Meeting agenda for the following day. The supporting rationale for the amendment was that few manuscripts had been submitted to the journal in recent years for publication. The amendment was proposed to reflect more recent publications (including the 2020 volume when only one manuscript had been submitted), while maintaining the freedom to publish more issues with an increase in manuscript submissions. Furthermore, it would alleviate a requirement for publishing 4 issues per year when only a few manuscripts would be submitted.Past President Panvini presented nominees for TAS awards. The Executive Committee voted in favor of Dr. Gore Ervin receiving the Distinguished College/University Teacher Award and Dr. Aruna Kilaru receiving the Distinguished College/University Scientist Award.Annual Meeting Coordinator Smith recognized that guidelines for nominating and submitting professional packet for consideration of awards given by Tennessee Academy of Science were not dictated in the Constitution nor Operations Manual. Tony Johnston requested that nominating and award decisions should be less complicated.Past President Panvini proposed that the language in the submission packet guidelines for the Distinguished College/University Scientist Award, Distinguished Industrial Scientist Award, and Distinguished College/University Teacher Award, and (after discussion for best wording) be amended to:“By April 1 send the nomination packet to the Past President.Nomination packet should include the following items:(No change to guidelines 1 and 2)3. Letters of recommendation from 2-5 professional colleagues well acquainted with the candidate's qualifications, with at least 1 letter from someone at the candidate's current institution”,and an added guideline “4. Self-nominations will not be accepted”. Greg Vieira moved to accept the change in wording regarding the letters of recommendation. J. Allyn Smith seconded the motion. The motion carried with a unanimous vote. Regarding self-nominations, J. Allyn Smith moved that the number 4 guideline be added and Preston MacDougall seconded the motion. The Executive Committee voted to add the fourth guideline stating:“4. Self-nominations will not be accepted,”with 7 in favor of the added guideline; 4 not in favor. Junior Academy of Science Director Preston MacDougall moved to clarify the Industrial Scientist Award to include under qualifications:“Contribution should be interpreted broadly to mean contribution directly to Commerce or Industry, or research at a non-academic institution, or the improvement of the quality of life in the State.”Visiting Scientist Program Coordinator Tony Johnston seconded the motion, and a unanimous vote carried the motion.Guidelines for these awards would be changed on the TAS Awards web page, as well as added to the Operations Manual. President-Elect Vieira suggested that a simple majority vote or consensus be clarified to determine agreement when approving an award or not. Treasurer Murphree voiced concerns for a time line allowing deciding votes on nominees in time to generate and present a plaque or physical award at the Business Meeting.One final proposal to include that the Nominations Committee would receive and review awards nominations packets to present to the Executive Committee members was presented by Past President Panvini. Visiting Scientist Coordinator Tony Johnston suggested to informally try this model out before officially voting on adding these duties to the Operations Manual. The process would then be reconsidered at the April Executive Committee Meeting in 2022.A request from Anthony Delman to collect opinion surveys on an iPad at the 131st Meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Science was considered. The request was approved by a 8 to 3 vote, provided an IRB approval had been secured from the individual's institution. Since TAS did not currently have a policy in regards to collecting survey responses, clarification would be addressed in new business at the April 2022 Executive Committee Meeting.President Thompson entertained a motion to adjourn from Visiting Scientist Program Coordinator Tony Johnston, and the meeting was adjourned at 4:45 pm CST.Respectfully Submitted,Marcia M. SchillingSecretary, TASAustin Peay State University