Pat Miller
President AECT

Thanks, Brooke, for updating us on the organization activities of the new Graduate Student Assembly. Graduate students make up more than 1/3 of the AECT membership, and we welcome your participation in the community of AECT. Rick West, your representative to the AECT Board, has already offered his leadership for GSA to the board as we start a new year. You are our next generation of AECT leaders. It's wonderful to have a vibrant group to take up the work of our field!

Happy New Year,
I had an early phone call from Exec Director Phil Harris this morning. He is preparing for a proposal discussion with the Board this week based on the Graduate Student Forum discussion of costs to the conference and comparing with other similar organizations. There was similar discussion by the Board in 2006 at which time I prepared a comparison of member and student costs related to membership and conference.

2008(prelim) member costs registration costs
Reg /Student/ conf regis/conf regis student

ALA $100.00 $30.00 $260.00 $120.00
AERA $120.00 $30.00 $260.00 $120.00
ASCD $49.00 $29.00
AEA $80.00 $30.00 $215.00 $90.00
AACE (SITE Conf)$95.00 $35.00 $355.00 $170.00
PDK $85.00 $42.50 $290.00 $240.00
ASTE $85.00 $50.00 $205.00 $100.00
AECT $99.00 $50.00 $440.00 $195.00
ISTE $79.00 $54.00 $255.00 $125.00
CCUMC $325.00 $55.00 $545.00 $250.00
ISPI $145.00 $60.00 $899.00 $349.00
NCEA $145.00 $70.00 $200.00 $75.00
ASTD $180.00 $159.00 $1,125.00 $300.00
AASL (ALA)add $40.00 to ALA add $20.00 to ALA
EduCause $445.00 $615.00
ITEA $70.00

Generally the costs for students are half the cost of general membership in all organizations. Those organizations which include a print journal are costing more than those which have periodic meetings or electronic forums. The student volunteers who assist with large organizational meetings (ISTE, FETC and ALA) may receive a days registration reduction from full costs for a days work, but these are all conferences with over 10,000 attendees, which allows for the shifting of conference costs.
Phil's question which I cannot answer from internet searches is what has been your experience at other meetings for which volunteers are used? If you have served, how many hours per the conference, and what if any cost benefit has been provided, meals or receptions provided as a free benefit? Is the volunteer program just for students or open to assistance from all members. Do the organizations pay for external volunteers from Chamber of Commerce or Convention services (as happened this week at the Myrtle Beach Republican debate where 700 local volunteers participated)? Proposal: Volunteers: volunteers receive the Super Early-Bird rate at any time, based on their membership status.(quoted from ISTE volunteer rates)..

I continue to send out each month renewal notices and the interesting result I see is that student members are likely not to reply. Perhaps email addresses are more likely to change (we only send via email), or perhaps institutions block our notices as spam (which I have seen in replies). So here is my request for your opinion... If AECT proposed a 5 year paid up front membership for new student members at ($35 per year total of $175) and then renewal would be in year 6 for regular membership costs. This would encourage a commitment for those Graduate Students, for a maximum of 5 years while full time students at the institution.
This is one option I can think of which would benefit the grad students while also providing a commitment to the organization of more than the one year they may present at the conference. The charge is the minimum for Tech Trends, and if international students receive only electronic subscriptions, then this might also apply for the international student memberships.

Do you have any additional thoughts to provide a greater benefit to the new student members?
Current AECT membership renewals as of today January 15, 2008..

Expire < 30 days: 7
Expire 30 - 60 days: 404
In good standing: 1860
Expired by 1 - 30 days: 88
Expired by 31 - 60 days: 9
Expired by 61 - 90 days: 114

I want to congratulate all of you on your elections and wish you the best of luck. You all had a great list of presenters for the Graduate Student Lounge, which was fantastic to see.

As the Chair of the Leadership Development Committee I would like to invite you to send me any thoughts or ideas on professional development ideas that you would like to see within the organization.

Chris