Archives

​​

Regional and Business Meeting, November 2024

​​

The Far West Fall Business Meeting was held on November 9, 2024 in person in Sacramento, California. Thirteen members were in attendance.  Participants were reminded that we have a regional website. During this meeting, following introductions, we reviewed the activities from the previous year, discussed updating avenues for communication among the membership, and continued to discuss updating the region’s mission and by-laws. We discussed the possibility of collecting dues for our region, but voted again not to include dues in the by-laws. We shared the duties and expectations of the executive officers of the Far West region and encouraged nominations for Regional Director and Regional Director-elect. The initial draft of the by-laws was approved, but we also agreed to bring them to the January meeting where we would have more members prior to posting them to the website.  We anticipate that the presence of the 2025 Annual International Conference taking place in southern California will result in the return to a greater number of active members in our region.  We ended the meeting with an update about the upcoming annual ASTE conference which will be held in Long Beach, California. 

At our regional meeting in Sacramento in November 2024 we also hosted a poster session.  We had 7 presenters, including an undergraduate student and a community college instructor. The session was attended by 23 people.   We made tentative plans to meet again in Fall 2025 at the California Association of Science Educators (CASE) annual conference. Donna Ross, who at that time will be serving as Past-Regional Director, will approach CASE for conference space again.

​

Regional and Business Meeting, January 2024

​

The Far West Winter/Spring Business Meeting was held in January, 2024 in person, in Hawaii, in conjunction with our Regional Conference. Fifteen  members and five prospective members attended the business meeting.  Participants were reminded that we have a regional website. During the meeting, we reviewed the activities from the previous year, discussed updating avenues for communication among the membership, and continued to discuss updating the region’s mission and by-laws. Donna Ross agreed to send a draft of the by-laws out to our members over the summer.  The topic of the timing of our election of the Far West Regional Director as it relates to the rotation of directors/representatives to the ASTE Board of Directors was raised. We agreed to include in our by-laws a statement that our regional director or a person designated by our regional director may serve as the regional representative to the ASTE board. By opening the option to a person designated by the regional director, we can simplify the problem of the two rotations not aligning.  Donna Ross emailed  the 59 people on our email list and encouraged them to renew ASTE memberships.  We continue to strive to increase ethnic and linguistic diversity among the members in our region.  Although our business meeting in January did not consist of as diverse a population as we would have liked, the sessions at the Regional Conference were attended by a fairly diverse group of educators and we will continue to send them information about the region and encourage them to become ASTE members. Our greatest success to date in this objective was at our regional meeting in Palm Springs in October, 2023.  We hosted a poster session and encouraged members to have their graduate students present. Of the 12 posters in the session,  seven were presented by graduate students from traditionally underrepresented groups. We continue to invite and encourage those graduate students to stay connected with ASTE. We made plans to meet again in Fall 2024 at the California Association of Science Educators (CASE) annual conference, which will be located in Sacramento, California.  Donna Ross will again attend the CASE board meeting and request space at the November 2024 meeting. The regional members voted to have a poster session again, in addition to the business meeting.  

During subsequent meetings, the conference sub-committee the 2025 ASTE International Conference identified and investigated field trip options.  Disney has agreed to offer a field trip which will be free of charge except for the transportation. We anticipate a whale-watching field trip and a “Science of Beer” field trip. Two members are communicating with potential Keynote speakers and we have other members exploring sponsorship opportunities. 

​

Regional and Business Meeting, October 2023

​​

The Far West Fall Business Meeting was held on October 21, 2023 in person, in Palm Springs CA, with a zoom option. Eight members were in attendance.  Participants were reminded that we have a regional website. During this meeting, we reviewed the activities from the previous year, discussed updating avenues for communication among the membership, and continued to discuss updating the region’s mission and by-laws. We discussed the possibility of collecting dues for our region, but voted not to include dues in the by-laws. The topic of the timing of our election of the Far West Regional Director as it relates to the rotation of directors/representatives to the ASTE Board of Directors was raised. We considered including in our by-laws a statement that our regional director or a person designated by our regional director will serve as the regional representative to the ASTE board. By opening the option to a person designated by the regional director, we can simplify the problem of the two rotations not aligning. This will be voted upon in the January regional meeting. 
The Far West ASTE region has 27 due-paying members of ASTE, but our mailing list includes 54 people.  We discussed that the impacts of COVID-19, and the California list of States Banned for Travel due to discriminatory legislation, decreased the numbers of people who are ASTE members. 
We made plans to meet again in Fall 2024 at the California Association of Science Educators (CASE) annual conference, which will be located in Sacramento, California.  Donna Ross will again attend the CASE board meeting and request the space during the 2024 meeting for posters and a business meeting.  
A sub-committee of the region (Corinne Lardy, Lisa Martin-Hansen, Donna Ross, and Susan Zweip-Gomez) with the assistance of Kate Popejoy agreed to submit a proposal, which was accepted, for the Far West region to host the ASTE International Conference in Long Beach, CA in January 2025. At the business meeting we brainstormed possible field trip options, including a geology field trip, a visit to the shark lab, a trip to the La Brea Tar Pits, a tour of the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), a back-stage tour of an amusement park, and Movie Magic.  Our members will continue exploring these and other options.  We discussed possible themes, including the most popular, Fearless Science Education.  Also mentioned was the need for a logo and recruitment slide.   
At our regional meeting in Palm Springs in October, 2023, we also hosted a poster session.  We had 12 presenters, including doctoral students. The session was well attended (we didn't count, but over 20 people). Members expressed interest in doing a poster session next year, as well.  Donna agreed to work with the CASE board of directors to secure space.  

​

Regional and Business Meeting, January 2023

 

We offered a virtual mini-conference immediately before the business meeting. This meeting was simultaneously on zoom and in person, with 24 people participating in part or all.  
We again discussed the plan for the Fall 2023 regional and business meeting to be in Palm Springs, CA, in conjunction with the CASE conference. Donna Ross is submitting proposals to have a session and a space for poster presentations.  The topic of social media came up again, but nobody has (as of yet) volunteered to take on that task.  The need for a webpage was brought up and Donna said she would investigate free or low-cost options.  Ideally, we will use a platform that can be transferred to the next Director.  We have a google drive with resources that can be transferred from director to director.  The topic of the location of the annual ASTE conferences was raised.  Unfortunately Louisiana is on the travel ban for the state of CA.  We discussed how hard it is to plan these conferences so far in advance. For example, in Utah the discriminatory laws were put into place after the deposit was made for the conference.  Corinne and Donna agreed to try to coordinate with HICE to see if we could go to Hawaii again. The idea of collecting dues and having an independent regional meeting was discussed. Several people offered to talk with other regions about how they hold funds and have bank accounts. There were mixed feelings about requiring dues from our regional members.  One of the opinions that seemed to be unanimous was that grad students should be free or very low-cost. ASTE is a welcoming conference to introduce graduate students to our professional organizations.  We also shared the exciting news that Corinne Lardy and Lisa Martin had submitted a proposal to host the Annual ASTE conference in Long Beach!!!  

​

Regional and Business Meeting, October 2022

​

We discussed the plan to have the Fall 2023 regional meeting and business meeting in conjunction with the CASE California Science Education Conference because it will be a win-win. We attract people to the CASE conference which benefits CASE. We benefit because we will have the hotel conference rate, be able to attend the sessions along with our students and Noyce Scholars and Fellows, and because we don’t require dues we can meet without additional conference-related costs or commitments.  Donna Ross will request a session for our meeting/roundtables and she will also submit a proposal that our students can collaborate on.  Update: We discussed having two sessions, with one of them being the poster session, but there weren’t enough breakout rooms so the poster session will be in the lobby or hallway. We need to develop a webpage and share the information.