Minutes

Call to Order – President – Mona Bickham called the meeting to order at 3:20 p.m.

Invocation – Chaplain – Pam Courville led us in an opening prayer.

Approval of Minutes – Secretary – The secretary was out due to illness so Mona Bickham distributed copies of the minutes from the April 2, 2004 meeting and noted they were published in the Bulletin Board newsletter. Kathyrn Francois made a motion to accept the minutes as presented and it was seconded by June Thompson. The vote was unanimous.

Treasurer’s Report – Treasurer – Genny Melancon stated a balance of $7,180 as of June 30, 2004. She said that since we were in such good financial shape we should talk about how we could give back. The 2 suggestions she made were (1) a scholarship to a high school senior going into Business Education and (2) a gift certificate besides the plaque for the Teacher of the Year.

The Officers Reports included:

President – Mona Bickham – distributed SBEA Convention information and encouraged everyone to attend. It will be in Charlotte, NC on October 27^th – 30^th, 2004. If you have not received emails from Mona, please give your email address to Genny or Mona. You can email Mona at . She mentioned that to email anyone in the State Department of Education, just use the following format – . Mona stated that in reference to Genny’s suggestions to “Give Back” that maybe LABE could bring back some awards that have been deleted in the past. She also reminded everyone this year’s award is for post-secondary educators. Mona would like LABE members to continue to support LACTE. LACTE is promoting the change in date of their annual meeting for 2005 from summer to February. Secondary level state employees will be making presentations on “What’s New and What’s Changed.”

President Elect – June Thompson – had nothing to add to Mona’s report. She has asked Marilyn Gastineau to become the new Secretary for her term of office.

Vice President – Pat Miers –said members would like to receive some type of confirmation for their LACTE conference registration, so she, Genny, and June will look into this being in the form of an email. There was also a concern because there was no starting time listed. Pat noted that the hotel for the 2004 Spring Conference gave them a significant discount for the problems of the meals. It was stated that there were no problems with the hotel just problems with the catering in the hotel.

NBEA/SBEA Rep – Karen Duplechin – was not in attendance but Mona handed out the SBEA information and NBEA will be held in Anaheim, California during the week before Easter, March 23 – 26, 2005.

Bulletin Board Editor – Elaine Garland – was not in attendance because of an FBLA commitment. Mona mentioned the mailing cost for the Bulletin Board was now going to be picked up by LABE as we no longer have a university sponsoring the postage.

Journal of Business – Betty Kleen – was not in attendance but Melanie Meche stated that they were working on getting it out by the end of the year. Betty has already sent 4 articles to Melanie. Their goal is to get the journal out by December or January. There was talk about giving them out at the conference but only members receive the journal. It was noted that our journal is considered a Professional Publication.

Awards – Mona Bickham – This year’s recipient was Adra Johnson of Laranger High for the Secondary Level Teacher of the Year and she went on to the regional competition. Mona reminded everyone that next year’s recipient will be from Post Secondary. Please contact Mona if want to nominate an individual.

Auditing – Tina Allen – was not in attendance. Mona stated she was also at FBLA.

Finance – Genny Melancon – informed the members that hotel gave a discount by not charging LABE for the chicken meals at the spring conference.

Legislative – Travis Bush – was not in attendance because he was attending the FBLA convention. Mona stated that the biggest item in the legislative session affecting LABE this year was the Perkins funding which did not change.

Membership – Karen Duplechin – was not in attendance. Mona stated that while membership is up; we are lacking memberships from the secondary field.

Memorial – Pam Courville – reported that two former business education teachers had passed away – Jo Ann Timmons and Dr. Marty Seaward. Pam wrote a poem and read it to the members. It will be included in the resolutions given to the family members.

Nominating – Daniel Prather – was not in attendance. Mona asked if there were any nominations from the floor. There were none. Genny Melancon will tabulate the results.

Public Relations – Patricia Seal – asked for suggestions on what else she could do to improve our public relations.

Resolutions – Laura Spencer –showed the members the framed memorials. She reported that the board approved the purchase of an embosser to use on future LABE resolutions – which would include the shape of Louisiana and LABE on it. She will make the purchase from Office Depot. It was also stated that the seal would stay in the possession of the presiding LABE president.

Unfinished Business – As the web site has been completed there was no unfinished business.

Changing of fiscal year for officer terms. Mona reported that due to numerous conflicts LACTE is changing the date of their annual meeting from summer to possibly tie into Mardi Gras week. She also noted the LABE board discussed changing our annual spring meeting to coincide with LACTE’s annual meeting in order to save the organization money. There was also discussion of reducing the number of LABE meetings from twice to once a year since many school boards are reducing the amount of funds available to the teachers. If the date of the meetings is changed then LABE has asked the incoming new officers to stay in office until the 2006 LACTE annual meeting – approximately 18 months. Then the offices would revert back to 1 year terms of spring conference to spring conference. These changes would mean changes in the by-laws which takes a vote of the membership. The current by-laws were distributed. It was noted there were only 2 changes – the date on the cover sheet “Revised April, 2004” and Article III Members, Section 3 stating the membership period as “spring conference to spring conference.”

Web Page - The website is www.labe.org It is very nice and being maintained by Tina Allen. Members should make a point of visiting the site.

LACTE, February 10-12, 2005 the theme will be “Trading Places” in Lafayette at ULL.

New Officers – Ginny counted the votes of the ballots and reported the following results: June Thompson, President; Daniel Prather, Vice President; Debbie Duplechain; Caroline Malbrue, Chaplain; Elaine Garland, Secondary Representative North; Susan Fontenot, Secondary Representative South. Mona then swore in the officers. June Thompson then took over the meeting. Melanie Meche presented Mona Bickham with a “Thank You” Plaque. June noted we don’t have a camera and asked for a volunteer to take pictures at future meetings. Marilyn Gastineau agreed to bring her camera.