No time for any dust to settle!  Just when I am finally getting my “AHA” moments in sync it’s time to step down from the stage coach. 

I hope that you will have an opportunity to attend the Education and Business Summit June 21-25, 2009 at Carolina First in Greenville, SC. 

The SCACTE Business meeting will be from 4:30-5:30 pm on Monday June 22, 2009.  We have two big items to bring to the memberships attention for voting.    The first item deals with proposed by-laws changes and I would like you to go to our website, www.scacte.org to go over that document.  The second item will address offering $25,000 liability insurance for our members but that will require increasing our membership fees for SCACTE from $40.00 to $65.00. 

I do appreciate all the support from past officers to the current executive board members who have helped keep me straight and on a smooth ride.   A BIG THANK YOU to all of you!

To recap this year, we began with the hiring of a part time Executive Director – Ray Boland, Irmo, SC.  Folks, this is one of the best moves for SCACTE.  He will be a great asset and will contribute well to the transition of officers through the years.  We also increased membership thanks to Randy Evans, Membership chair and his committee and their efforts.  They had a membership drive that began at last year’s EBS and concluded Oct 31, 2008.   The member that brought in the most new members received registration for National ACTE held in Charlotte, NC.  Trina Greenwood, Cosmetology Instructor at Aiken County Career Center.  However, due to scheduling conflicts she was unable to make National ACTE so we have applied it towards registration for the EBS in June.  We also did a competitive membership drive amongst divisions and the winner will be announced at the EBS Awards Day when other award winners will be recognized for SCACTE.  Our current membership count is 524. 

“SC Executive Director drives four Ms. Daisy’s to Florida and Survives”

SC was represented at Region 2 Conference hosted by Florida ACTE held in Daytona October 4-12, 2008 by 5 members.  Attendance was much decreased than normal due to budget cut restraints but SC members have a lot to be thankful for compared to Florida and other states with their extreme teacher/personnel job cuts.  I was honored to be selected as Region 2 Teacher of the Year. 

The next Region 2 Conference will be held September 24-27, 2009 in Savannah, GA, hosted by Georgia ACTE.

This was my first Regions 2 conference to attend and I enjoyed it tremendously, the workshops, the networking, the food and of course the fellowship!

National ACTE held in Charlotte, NC was represented with SC folks, some members and some non members.  We need to track down those who attended that were not!  From Bill Daggett to Daniel Pink and countless great keynoters as well as great workshops, vendors and more networking, it was quite a conference. At the state luncheon, SCACTE received a State Quality Association award which is awarded to states that meet quota for criteria such as documentation of set number of board meetings in a year as well as newsletter mailing (email or hardcopy).

Ray Boland and Kathy Bradford attended a meeting regarding tax return filing procedures for state checking accounts which will be clarified at the next board meeting in April.

I represented Region 2 and SC as Teacher of the Year Candidate and even though I was not selected, it was again an honor to be recognized as one of the top 5 teachers in the nation.

Candidates for President Elect, Region 2 Vice President, some division Vice Presidents were announced at the Business Meeting.  Two nominations were represented from South Carolina.  Pat Earle, Chesterfield High School, one of 5 candidates for Ag Division and Grace Decken, Daniel Morgan Technology Center, one of 3 candidates for Health Science Division. 

SCACTE had 3 Voting Delegates represented at the Business Meeting, Kathy Bradford, Region 2 Policy Committee Member, Ray Boland, Executive Director and Grace Decken, SCACTE President.

Mark your calendar for the next national conference which will be held in Nashville, Tennessee November 18-21, 2009.

Voting for Candidates was done by electronic ballot this year and announcement of candidates were made the beginning of March.  The election results were as follows:

President Elect – Gary Moore, North Carolina
Region 2 Vice President – Debby Ford, Georgia
Region V Vice President – Doug Meyer
VP Administration – Doug Major
VP Adult Workforce – Harry Snyder
VP Guidance & Placement – Lela Bunch,
VP Special Populations – Ella Thompson
VP Ag Ed – Jeff Maierhoffer
VP Health Science – Grace Decken, South Carolina

Everyone elected will hold a three year term which will commence July 1, 2009 and end June 30, 2012.  We will attend our first board meeting July 11-13, 2009 which will be held at the ACTE office in Alexandria, Virginia.

“Part Two:  Executive Director Drives Three Ms. Daisy’s and a Gentleman to Washington and survives again!”

The National Policy Seminar was held in Crystal City, Virginia March 8-11, 2009 headed by Leonard Williams, BJ Skeleton Career Center with 11 SC Delegates, Nick Milosevic, Muck Muckenfuss, SC State Ed Dept, Patrick O’Neil, Aiken County Career Center, Kathy Bradford, Charleston County, Gwen Scarborough, Berkeley County, Tammy Haile, Chesterfield County, Mike Parris, Enoree Career Center, Cathy Shaw, Hannah Westside Extension Campus, Ray Boland, Irmo, and Grace Decken, Daniel Morgan Technology Center. 

Teams were assigned to visit different legislators represented by their districts of residence in South Carolina. 

Some of the executive board officers attended a finance workshop which was highly informative regarding importance of proper documentation of state finances and the importance of upholding a strong finance committee for the state with representatives from each division. 

Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education was the keynote speaker which I did not get to attend due to early departure from NPS for attendance to SC HOSA State Leadership.   

There are some new faces and restructuring of current staff members in ACTE to help better serve the members.  Please take advantage of their assistance, that’s what they are there for!  (website:  www.acteonline.org)

Ron Roveri, York High School, SCCTEA President Elect and Ray Boland will be speaking at the 9^th Administration Institute on May 5^th hoping to recruit some new members as well as some new leaders for SCACTE.

I look forward to serving as SCACTE Past President as well as VP for Health Science Division for ACTE next year and handing the President’s “gavel” over to Gwen Scarborough in June.  She will do a great job to continue to carry the momentum we are building to bring SCACTE to new heights.  Appreciate your support in helping her bring new members and new leaders for SCACTE so that 90% of the work is not just done by 10% of the same recycled folks (don’t get me wrong, they do a great job!)  We just need more people to join/renew and upgrade their membership tickets to third class!

Remember the Sound of Music movie?  One of my all time favorites!  Can’t remember the name of the song but it goes like this…
“..So long, farewell, I hate to say goodbye, adieu, adieu, to you & you & you…”
(Don’t worry; I won’t start singing at the EBS Business Meeting)

Thank you for the opportunity and privilege for serving you this year as your SCACTE President.