Nov 10-12 meeting and some history of ADP South

As the Provost of UT Martin, Dr. Tom Rakes said, it is not that often you get to see the beginnings of organizations and it is interesting. We are still beginning, but we have also come a long way since the original idea in Albuquerque in June 2004. That idea was aided significantly when Carl Kell, Jackie Tisdell, Gene Hatfield and I met in Baton Rouge, LA in Nov 2004. Lea Williams of North Carolina A&T, Linda Summers of Florida Gulf Coast and Marilyn McKenzie from George Mason University joined us by conference call on Nov 19.

The meeting in Portland, OR, June 2005, saw us get interest from a number of new people. Between the 04 and the 05 groups, we have grown into nearly 100 people across the south who are networking around democracy. With the choice of UT Martin as the Center in the Summer of 05, the first infrastructure was put in place. This conference is both the culmination of a lot of work and I think we all believe and hope, the start of something big.

Jackie, Gene and I planned the 2005 conference with support and guidance from Lynn Hall, Trisha Boyer and Petra Kohlman. The three of us have been together in the same location now four times, Albuquerque June 2004, Baton Rouge Nov 18 and 19 2004, Portland June 2005 and now Atlanta November 2005. Countless emails and files have been exchanged, numerous conference calls have occurred and local arrangements have been made.

Jackie hosted our November 2004 meeting and we even had some time with the system President. Gene hosted the first conference and I have put together the financial and web infrastructure at Tennessee-Martin.

The 2005 conference started off well with a successful business meeting and proceeded well from there. Elizabeth Bumiller from the NY Times spoke to an overflow crowd of over 300, on the subject of the President's push for democracy around the world.

The 2005 conference had 76 participants from 21 Institutions and nine states. The only states not represented were North Carolina, West Virginia, Alabama and Mississippi. Morehead State in Kentucky, brought the most people with 17 registrants. It was decided that the 2006 conference will be held in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

The council for 2005-06 was voted in as follows:

Alabama – none

Arkansas – Ronald Sitton UA –Monticello 2

Florida – Deandre Poole proxy for Becky Mulvaney 1

Georgia – Gene Hatfield 2

Kentucky – Bev McCormick 3

Louisiana – Jackie Tisdell 1

South Carolina – Dennis Wiseman 2

Tennessee – Mike McCullough 3

Texas – Tamara Waggoner 1

Virginia - Dave Locascio 3

The number after each council member's name, indicates the number of years left on their term.

The executive council for 05-06 will be:
Chair - Gene Hatfield
Vice Chair - Bev McCormick
Executive Director of the ADP South Center - Mike McCullough
Past Chair - Jackie Tisdell

Committees decided upon, to be appointed by Gene Hatfield were:

National-regional coordinating committee

Membership

Conference

Awards

Publication

Joint initiatives/projects

Some possible constitutional amendments discussed were:

Amend the constitution to allow council to hear grievances

Nature of student involvement

Size and composition (e.g. student/staff) of committees

Student leadership will be done on an interim basis to be ratified or not at next meeting

Another vote was taken that:

Allow for email vote on student membership to be determined before for amendment