Minutes of the 2002 Folklore & Education Section Meeting
Introductions
Ruth Olson, senior convener, facilitated the meeting and took notes. Ruth
handed out copies of the section’s annual report. (If anyone would
like a copy of the annual report, please contact Ruth at reolson3@facstaff.wisc.edu).
There were about 18 members who came and went during the meeting. We began
by more-or-less briefly introducing ourselves and saying what education
projects we’d been working on in the past year.
We have $3,128.20 in the section's account.
Newsletter
Rosemary Hathaway reported on the newsletter. During the past year, Jackie
Thursby stepped down as newsletter editor. This past year, Rosemary acted
as the newsletter editor, with Gregory Hanson as co-editor. Thanks to
Jackie, Gregory and Rosemary for their fine work on the newsletter. Based
on input both prior to and during the October 2001 business meeting, we
agreed to continue issuing only a single issue per year. In 2002, the
newsletter became a solely on-line publication, and everyone in attendance
agreed it was a wild success; Rosemary got some well-deserved praise for
its lay-out and structure. Rosemary has generously agreed to continue
as newsletter editor this year. Ruth reminded section members that in
2001, we had agreed to send out email announcements of the newsletter’s
posting, complemented by postcard announcements for those section members
without email addresses--whoops. We didn’t quite do that this year,
but I’m sure we will next year. In the meantime, if any section
member cannot access the virtual version of the newsletter, they can contact
Rosemary for a printed copy.
Assessment
No progress was made on the Assessment project this year (the idea is
to figure out a way to assess the impact of our various folklore-in-education
projects and training workshops). Anne Pryor (anne.pryor@arts.state.wi.us),
Sue Eleuterio (suee1@JUNO.COM) and
Linda Deafenbaugh (ldeafenbaugh@riversofsteel.com)
have agreed to work on this project this year, and would welcome other
participants. At the meeting, we discussed several ideas, including writing
a TAG grant to identify and fund an evaluator, and possibly picking four
different programs throughout the country to evaluate.
Committee to create a prize for K-12 educators-Possibly the Beverly Robinson
Prize?
This committee will assess the feasibility of such a prize, and if it
were deemed feasible, determine its shape (would this be a travel grant?
A prize with no strings attached? How large a prize?), set up criteria,
and report (either electronically or in the newsletter) to the section
members for a vote. It was also suggested at the meeting that such a prize
might intersect with the Public Programs section; perhaps they would be
interested in offering a joint stipend. Sue Eleuterio and Paddy Bowman
(pbowman@ix.netcom.com) have
volunteered to be on the committee; please contact them if you also are
willing to serve.
Another possibility is that we could honor Beverly Robinson by naming
this prize after her. As always, we’re interested in section member
input—let us know what you think.
Committee to create
a logo for the Dorothy Howard Prize
This was a topic raised in Anchorage. We considered some suggestions during
the year. Ruth talked with Jan Rosenberg who suggested a scroll or pen,
since Dorothy was a copious note taker. Ultimately, we decided that the
section would need to approve any logo. Cindy Kerchmar (ckerchmar@earthlink.net)
and Anne Pryor have volunteered to be on a committee to create some logos
and post them in the on-line newsletter so that folks can vote before
AFS next year.
(NOTE: Logo candidates appear on the following page! Click on the right arrow at the bottom of the page to see the logo designs and vote for your favorites.)
Committee for 2003 Dorothy Howard Prize
After the section meeting, Kristin Congdon and Amy Skillman graciously
volunteered to serve on the 2003 Dorothy Howard prize committee, which
will be chaired by incoming junior convener, Bea Roeder. Deadline for
submissions for the 2003 prize is August 1, 2003. See the section's
home page for complete information about submitting entries.
2002 Dorothy Howard Prize
The 2002 Dorothy Howard Prize was awarded to two submissions: Kristin
Congdon’s book Uncle Monday and Other Florida Tales, and
the Smithsonian Institute’s multimedia package, "Discovering
Our Delta." This year’s committee consisted of Rosemary Hathaway,
Nancy Nusz, and Hayden Roberts. They received seven submissions. Congratulations
to this year’s winners, and thanks to the committee for their work.
The Section “Greeter”
It’s been a tough year trying to get membership information from
AAA, so it’s been hard to know if we’ve had new members signing
on or not. However, now AFS has taken over its own membership records,
so it will be much easier to get responses to our inquiries, since we
can address them to the ever-efficient Tim Lloyd. Thanks to Amy Davis
for being the Greeter during this past year. Ruth is volunteering to be
the Greeter for this upcoming year.
Workshop for Teachers
This year at AFS, the section once again co-sponsored, with the National
Network for Folk Arts in Education, the 9th annual workshop for teachers.
“Developing a Sense of Place,” held on Saturday morning, was
convened by Paddy Bowman of NNFAE and featured 4th/5th grade teacher Mark
Wagler and folklorists Ruth Olson and Anne Pryor, all of Madison, WI,
who described a four-day cultural tour they developed for Mark’s
class and guided participants through fieldwork and project-building exercises.
(The Dane County Cultural Tour is at csumc.wisc.edu/cmct/DaneCountyTour/index.htm).
The workshop also featured Rick Hill (Tuscarora) of the Haudenosaunee
(Six Nations Iroquois) Resource Confederacy who talked about Native American
stereotypes. It was an energetic workshop with terrific attendance. Thanks
to the New York State Council on the Arts, who helped provide support
for this workshop. The section also sponsored a forum at AFS, “Folklore
in Education and New Media.”
