NAPSG Business Meeting

February 24, 2002

MS. LEE: We're going to begin. Welcome to all of you. It's wonderful to see you. We have 360 people registered for this conference. It's the largest ever. I thought of taking attendance to see who misses the business meeting, but wiser heads prevailed.

I thought I would begin by reading our mission statement. "The mission of NAPSG is to further the professional growth of its members by providing a forum in which issues pertinent to the education of girls and young women are presented and discussed. School heads and other representatives of member schools meet to address issues ranging from curricular and administrative policies to moral education and the role of women in a complex and changing world."

And I think that all of us must have felt our mission particularly acutely when we saw the lives of women and girls in Afghanistan, and I think it made me, at least, really aware of what a privilege our girls have and how important it is that we make certain that they're our ambassadors for the rest of their lives for women's dignity, women's rights, and not the least, women's education.

So with that very sober note in mind, we will begin the formal portion of our meeting.

I want to thank Carol for doing all the arrangements up to this point so that we could get here. She has been tireless and she has my very least favorite job, which is the tables at dinner. Our trustee dinner always has me nearly hysterical over the tables, and I think doing a dinner of heads of schools would be even worse. So Carol, thank you very much.

And then I want to thank our program chairs. Having been the program chair twice for this meeting, it is an onerous task, and you don't get to really enjoy the fruits of your labors because you're nervous all the way through the program. And Jessie-Lea Abbott, Joan Lonergan, Harry McKay, and Dulany Bennett have done a wonderful job. The program is phenomenal. Jessie-Lea, would you like to say a few words about the program?

MS. ABBOTT: After such a serious beginning, I have to start with a quip. Someone just came up to Harry&emdash;Harry, do I have your permission? -- and said, "Oh, you put together a great program."

And without blinking Harry said, "I hope you say the same thing at the end of it."

We do hope you say the same thing at the end of it. We have worked hard and tried to take the concept of balance&emdash;which, if you share my sense of humor, you'll think is quite ironic for a group like us who are so totally unbalanced&emdash;and look at it from the very broad perspective, and then keep narrowing it down again and again and again.

So I'm going to tell you about two things that don't show on the program, one of which involves you. On Tuesday after Dr. Pollycove's presentation, Wendy Mogel is going to come back and join her, and we're hoping we can have a very lively discussion with all of you asking questions and making observations that link what you have been hearing from the speakers with your own experience and your schools or in your personal life.

And then the other thing is that on Tuesday evening at dinner, we are going to be entertained by some people from the San Francisco School of Circus Arts. This came to our minds initially as a joke, a physical balance as sort of a metaphor for spiritual and emotional and professional balance. And then we decided it really was a great idea.

In my school, Katherine Delmar Burke, for our younger girls we have actually quite a well-developed circus arts program, and I have to say it's one of the moments that we see those girls come into their own and take risks, take educated risks, and really literally learn how to fly.

So we're hoping that our entertainers on Tuesday will both encourage all of you to try things you haven't tried before, all of us, and totally amuse and enthrall us. Thank you.

MS. LEE: I think the program, Jessie-Lea, is what got 360 of us here.

The president's report will be very brief this year. We are really working on two things. One is the leadership seminar for women. When we send out our questionnaire to you about what you value, that came out as something you felt was very important to this organization, as well as this meeting. And so you will see a bright yellow flyer about our administrative leadership seminar for women. The dates are Friday, October 11th, through Sunday, October 13th. It's at Miss Porter's. Burch Ford is hosting it again.

It is more important than ever that we begin to get younger people into leadership positions, into positions as heads of our schools. They need young, energetic blood. And so if you are the head of a school and you can identify a young woman who is really eager and ready for a challenge, please be certain to send her to the administrative leadership seminar.

The other aspect of NAPSG life that we're working on is the strategic plan. You have heard about the strategic plan. You got a questionnaire asking about the paths that you thought the organization should take, and thank you very much to those of you who filled them out.

The Council met in November for an extra day and began the process. We are continuing the process, and we expect to be able to tell you at this meeting next year exactly where we're going.

I should say at the outset that we have confirmed that the mission statement that I read to you is a mission statement that accurately describes the work of this organization and that accurately describes the goals of this organization. So we will be working from that mission statement.

Now, that is the end of the president's report. I will be happy to answer any questions you might have of the president at the end of the program, the entire program.

We are going to go slightly out of order from the program where you see the order of the reports. They're not going to be given in their order, and you will understand why when we get to the end of it.

This might be a nice time, though, before we begin, to introduce our representative from the Canadian Association of Independent Schools, who happens to be a member of this organization. Paul Duckett.

Paul, do you mind standing so everybody can see you? We're delighted that you're here.

And we do not have a representative here from the Girls School Association in Great Britain. We hope that they'll be able to send someone next year.

We'll move on to the membership report, Bruce Galbraith.

MR. GALBRAITH: Thank you, Liza. Welcome also to all of you to beautiful Napa Valley. For those of us that came early on Friday, it was the earliest we possibly could get here. The weather wasn't that great. So if you didn't come that day, you didn't miss a whole lot. It's gotten better each day. Someone must have taken over on that responsibility.

I'd like to welcome you and remind you of something about your badges. Now, this is a test of learning styles. You don't need to look at them, but you need to wonder what color dot you have. It makes a huge difference. If you're a member, you're green. If you are a spouse, a guest, or a speaker, you are a blue dot. If you are a Council member or an honorary member, you have a yellow dot.

Carol, as you know, does so many things to make this run smoothly. But a member came forward and they were supposed to have a green dot, but they got a blue dot. And so she announced that she had been de-spoused. If you're wearing a blue dot and you remove that blue dot, that is a significant marital issue. You need to be very careful.

We are an organization of over 300 schools. We have 30 colleges, we have nearly 100 affiliate members, and we have 16 honorary members. Their names are in your program.

But I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our honorary members, because we believe that they are very, very special to this organization. We told them we were going to introduce them at dinner, and now we're throwing them a curve. This is to check and see if they're coming to the business meeting.

Diana Beebe, would you please stand?

Evy Halpert. Stay up, please.

Nancy Kussrow.

Joan McMenamin, Julia Williams, Aggie Underwood, Jones Twaddle, Blair Stambaugh, and I think Edes Gilbert will join us soon.

A round of applause, please, for our honorary members.

We're delighted to have a number of new members with us this year. There are some second members from schools. We shall not name you all at this time, but we'll ask that if you're green, you say hello to a red. Thank you.

We have three new member schools. As you know, we're an association of schools. Two are here, but we are coast to coast in our new members. The first is the Hanahau'oli School, and Bob Peters is the head there. He's on the NAIS board and meeting early, I believe, in San Francisco.

And the other two are here, and I'd like to ask the new members to stand. From Far Hills Country Day School in Far Hills, New Jersey, Jayne Geiger, if you are here. Oh, good.

And Gail Ruddy, from the York House School in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. She will be here. And she'll love the weather, although it rains a little there, too.

We'd like to mention last something that you'll be asked to vote on later in the treasurer's report and that's what Liza was referring to about why the change of order.

We are going to propose an amendment to our membership fee structure, moving to a single fee which would include a second member, rather than having it yes or no on that issue. As you know, the second member from your school should be a member of your academic administration. The cost of this minor change, which will be an enormous boon to both our budgeting and to our record-keeping, will be rolled into a very small $25 dues increase in each of the next two years.

That's the issue that will come up, and you'll hear that in the treasurer's report. The logic for it is driven somewhat from the membership segment of the operation, in that we are sensing an enormous change in the number of people that want to change second members yearly, and that will help us plan budgetarily, whether you're bringing one or not, and so you'll have a chance to vote on that later in the membership meeting. Thank you.

MS. LEE: Thank you very much, Bruce.

Next we're going to hear from Dick Jung, who is the nominations chair.

MR. JUNG: Good afternoon. Speaking of colors, despite the colorful background of the people who are being nominated, they're on a very vague-colored sheet in your packet.

I'm glad to be representing the nominating committee consisting of Mary Booker, Linda Gibbs, Jerry Hansen, our two wonderful most recent presidents, past president and honorary member Diana Beebe and Liza Lee, as well as our director Carol Lane.

The nominating committee is presenting for election four officers, and then also proposing to the Council an appointment of a member at large. So this is where we have active audience participation. We'd like to propose for election Deborah Richman as the treasurer, Keith Shahan as the secretary, Priscilla Sands Watson as the Region II Vice President, and Kristi Kerins as the Region IV Vice President. We'd like to have a motion for election of this slate of officers. (So moved.)

MS. LEE: Second.

MR. JUNG: All in favor? Any opposed? No. So we have these new officers. Let's give them a round of applause.

Finally, it's an exciting time when you hear a little more about the long-range plan, and I would say this to the new members who are coming to serve on the board. This is an important time and you're going to have some special responsibilities.

In addition to these four officers, the nominating committee proposes for appointment Eugene Bratek of the Providence Day School as a Council member at large.

All of these members, both the officers and the member at large, will serve terms that begin on February 24, and will go two years, through the annual meeting in 2004.

By the way, these terms are under some reconsideration. Some need to be extended so we get more continuity in our officers. So if we could also then extend a round of applause congratulating Eugene Bratek.

Finally, as the person who's in charge of the nominating committee, we do say a lot of wonderful appropriate words for our executive director. But I also think we deserve and should recognize both our former president and Liza Lee, particularly as we're going through this more dutiful long-range planning process. And so let's recognize them, too.

MS. LEE: Thank you very much, Dick. We had no one this year who wrote me any letters about our finances, and they seem to be in very good order. I'd like to ask Dulany Bennett to come forth and give us a financial report.

DR. BENNETT: The report is in three parts. First the budget, then investments, and then the resolutions about the dues increase.

We did slightly revise the charge to the finance and investment committee, having decided that at this point moving forward at least for the next few years, we do not need to have an external consultant, but rather the treasurer's CFO can serve as an advisor, and we have enough staff we were top-heavy on the financial side, as Liza likes to put it.

Budget changes. Your budget, you remember, reflects the previous year of only nine months. And this is the first year when we went to the July 1/June 30 year, so you have a September 1/June 30 comparison that is not going to take you very far down the road this year. We'll get back on track next year.

But as to updates, since the January 31 update that you have on your pale green sheet, some things have happened in the last two weeks. The timing of these reports is always, of course, quite bad because right now is when everything is happening financially and the changes are coming. So these are mostly estimates, and there are some significant changes.

First of all, the dues are predicted to be just under $51,000, higher than the $47,800 that you were shown.

The annual meeting gross revenues are predicted to be above $95,000, which is significantly up from the $88,700 that's recorded there, and that's just an estimate of gross revenue.

On the expense side, the FICA line, our accountants are recommending expanding that. We're going to call that payroll expenses and include unemployment insurance, among other things. That will add about $700 to that line.

The directors' insurance is going up from $1100 to $1500, and in addition, whereas it used to be that you could sign up for three years at a time, from now on it's annually. So we won't know until this time each year what that will be.

The speakers' fees for this year will be about $1,000 over what was estimated. But when all is said and done, it looks very likely that the deficit predicted for June 30 will not occur because of the larger revenues because of the greater attendance at the conference, even after expenses. So that's good news.

On the investment side, which is on the other side of your pale green piece of paper, there's not much news here. The money market percent rate has gone down to 1.61 percent as of the 15th. All of the CDs that you see there will be rolled over upon maturation, with the possible exception of the May 21st CD, the interest of which&emdash;that is, the amount above $50,000 -- may be needed to initially cover the cost of the conference, so that the 116 you see under the money market may need to be increased. We don't think so, and in which case that will be rolled over. But just maintaining enough funding available to Carol to pay bills as they come in.

And finally, the resolution is not before you, but I'll read it twice, if it's troubling you.

"Be it resolved that in order to support more effectively the programs of the annual conference and the women's leadership seminar, annual dues will increase $25 per year for each of the next three years," Bruce. "Be it further resolved, the dues will include a second associate member from each school, should the head wish to appoint one."

MS. LEE: Do I have a motion for approval? (So moved.)

Do I have a second? (Second.)

Any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? The motion is carried unanimously.

DR. BENNETT: Thanks to Carol, the bookkeeper, the auditor, and Liza.

MS. LEE: Carol, do we need to approve the treasurer's report? Is that traditional? It was not in the proceedings last year. Well, let us approve the treasurer's report.

MR. GALBRAITH: So moved.

MS. LEE: Second?

MS. BEEBE: Second.

MS. LEE: Any discussion? All in support? Any opposed? No. Great. The treasurer's report has been approved.

Thank you very much, Dulany.

Being the treasurer of this organization is a job because it's done long distance, and it is very confusing. But I do want to assure you that we have a bookkeeper. We also have an auditor, and we have a treasurer who herself has a chief financial officer, so we did feel that we had a lot of people examining the finances of this organization, and the finances of this organization are not huge. So we felt that we could just finally eliminate the position that we had looked at as an overall financial consultant. And we feel should the treasurer decide that we need one on an ad hoc basis, certainly that would be possible.

We did not have a visitor from the US to the Canadian Association of Independent Schools this year. No one could get free at that time. It was a combination of the football season and board retreats, and no one could go, and I'm very sorry about that. But we have found someone who can go next year.

Ellen Fleming did go to the Girls School Association, and I wonder, Ellen, wherever you are, can you come up and give us a report?

MS. FLEMING: Love to. I have to tell you it was kind of a poignant experience. I hope Bill Clarkson didn't make it to this meeting because he has heard me talk about it for three months.

Oh, no. I was hoping you weren't coming.

He has heard me to go nonstop ever since I got back.

First of all, I was very honored to represent you. I arrived on November 11th, and so it was a rather poignant time to be traveling. I spent most of the trip over discerning who the sky marshals were but feeling very safe and very happy to be there.

I got there just in time to rush over to Whitehall at 11:00 on November 11th to watch or view the most amazing parade of remembrance I have ever seen or been around. It was doubly poignant this year because at the end was a huge contingent of New York City police and firefighters. And so it was great, wonderful to be an American at that moment among all those people who cared about us so much.

The very next day I went to St. Paul's Cathedral. I had seen those pictures of the blitz in the past a few times, but I looked at them through very, very different eyes, and stood in that strong, rebuilt building and felt great encouragement from the strength of those walls.

Then I fooled around in London for a few days, and then I got on the train and went down to Brighton.

I knew it was going to be an interesting conference from the very first conversation I had with a lady on the train who was going to the meeting, who spent most of the time explaining to me the difference in leadership styles between the trouser set and the twin set group. I wasn't real sure why they had to be exclusive, but as soon as I got there, I realized it was generational, more than anything about leadership style.

We stayed at the Grand Hotel. If you remember, that's right on the English Channel. It's also the hotel that was bombed when Margaret Thatcher was there a few years ago. It's absolutely exquisite. There were over 200 schools represented, and everybody gathered for all the meals together.

The dinners were utterly elegant. The big banquet night began with a toast to the Queen, and they laugh very, very hard, just as we do, but there's a sense of formality, and also a greater sense of intense debate after speakers.

The meeting opened with a press conference, and Sue Singer, the wonderful GSA representative last year, was just astounding. She gave a great talk. The theme of this conference was creative problem-solving. She spoke mostly about wanting to reduce assessment and to enrich the very able students in their schools.

And one thing she said about Americans, which I thought was fascinating: Her impression is that Americans praise the trying of our students while the British damn the failure. Interesting. I wrote that down.

Most of the problems they discussed were shared in two wonderful sessions on needing more and more women in science. One was a woman who's a physicist and is the Airbus UK research director. Another was a pulsar specialist.

There was a man from Cambridge who talked about the 21st century being, of course, the century of knowledge, the source being the brain, the energy being intelligence, the aim being ideas and creativity, and the schools' position on this will be that we need to produce lifelong learners who can be able to change careers several times and contribute to the community.

We were encouraged to be patiently passionate about the way we teach, allowing time and space, which are essential for this. Leaders are to inspire confidence in what the school does well, and confidence to take the risks needed to do things differently and better.

Lord David Putnam, who is the producer of "Killing Fields" and "Chariots of Fire," has now ditched Hollywood and is the head of the Teaching Council in England. He asked that we rethink the global economy to being stability for all and a quest for social justice. He spoke about the haves and the have-nots&emdash;the latter include teachers. He emphasized the need to pay teachers, who have been paying the price for years.

There was a wonderful conference service at St. Mark's Chapel, at St. Mary's Hall School, where many of their girls sang and participated in the service.

The last speaker was probably the most inspiring of the whole conference. She was Sister Frances Orchard, who is the general secretary of the Catholic Independent Schools. She spoke on preventive spirituality, and she challenged us all to think about what is truly holy in our schools. She said spirituality has to do with a person becoming more whole every day. While we measure with tests, we also need to measure with the fruits of the spirit. We should model values, we should commit great service, we should be community leaders, and we should look for lots of hot chocolate to keep us going. And that we should travel as pilgrims, and that we should look at things not as a burden, but as all things being life-giving.

I felt this was a very wonderful, wonderful experience, and I'm very, very grateful for the opportunity. Thanks to Diana and Carol for inviting me a year ahead of time so I had a whole year to participate and anticipate. Thanks.

MS. LEE: Thank you, Ellen. Next I'm going to ask Kay Cowan to come up and read the code of ethics. If you recall, we decided that we would have this code read at every meeting just to remind ourselves of our ethical responsibilities.

MS. COWAN: Thank you, Liza. There are six parts to our code of ethics.

Number one. The head of school will not offer a position to a teacher of another independent school without first notifying the principal of that school.

Number two. A head will not seek to induce a teacher who has signed a contract for the ensuing school year to break this contract.

Number three. The head of school will not seek to enroll a pupil who has enrolled in another school. School heads will inform the representatives of this policy.

Number four. The head of school will not accept a new pupil transferred by parents from another school without first consulting the head of the previous school to discuss the cause of leaving, character of the pupil, and discharge of financial obligations to the previous school.

Number five. Heads of schools, while recognizing the necessity of giving financial aid to some students, will not permit such offers of assistance to be used as a basis of bargaining. School heads will notify their directors of admissions of this policy.

Number six. Correspondence between heads about pupils and parents or concerning teachers is absolutely confidential.

MS. LEE: Thank you. Now we're going to have Carol give us housekeeping details next, and then Blair will read the memorial resolutions. After that, we'll take a five-minute break so we can be back here in time for our speaker, the Very Reverend Alan Jones. So please, come back more quickly, if possible, than you came in.

MS. LANE: First, I'd like to remind you to use the microphones in the aisles when you ask questions of the speakers. That helps us get your questions accurately. We are taping through the microphones, so that our wonderful stenographer, Mary Seal, here, who is a court stenographer doing her thing that she does, will also have a good clear sound on the questions that you ask at all the sessions.

Tomorrow the winery tours are in the afternoon. Everybody who signed up to go on a winery tour has been accommodated. Not everybody will go to all of the same places. We had set a limit of 90 on the tours, and we were so oversubscribed we now have 175 people going on tours. These wineries can only accommodate a certain number of people at a time. So you'll be going to different places, but you will all have a wonderful time. I promise. I tried some out yesterday and you're going to have a very nice time.

About 25 of you will find in your folders a yellow three-by-five card that said, "Please board the Rutherford Hill bus."

Please board the Rutherford Hill bus. There are no substitutions on these tours, okay? And it's going to be a slightly different experience, but you will have just a really grand time.

Box lunches will be provided for those of you who are on the tour and they will be here in the Silverado lobby. I will remind you tomorrow where the buses are going to be. We won't overload you with a lot of information, but they will be out front to go.

Again, please be on time. The wineries close at 5:00. If we leave at 1:00, we've scheduled it so the four hours is enough time for you to get to the places that you are scheduled to, to have a good time there, and to go on to the next winery, and to be back as soon as the wineries are closed.

The Coalition of Girls' Schools has asked if they could have a short meeting tomorrow. I don't know whether that's actually going to happen. But in any case, I have arranged for the Beaulieu Room for you to meet in. That room is off the main lobby. So if any of you from the coalition want to meet, that room has been set aside for you.

Breakfast will start at 8:00 tomorrow out on the Fairway Deck. You will pick up your breakfast there. There will be places to sit out on the Fairway Deck and in various places. It's a buffet, continental breakfast, so that's all the same.

I'm trying to work on dinners for tomorrow night. As we usually do, we try to arrange some places for off-site dinners for those of you who have not made prior arrangements. It's not as easy here, for reasons I will not go into at the moment.

What I have done, however, is to put signup sheets out on the registration table. We have blocked ten spaces at the Royal Oak Restaurant here. So I have asked you to sign up if you want to stay here at the Royal Oak onsite. I have then asked, if anybody else wants to have something arranged, to let me know and sign up, and I will do my best to arrange some places where you can go. At this point, I can't absolutely promise. I think a lot will depend on how many of you want to go on these groups. As always, you are responsible for your own transportation, so you do need to carpool. So that's a little bit open and I'll try to keep you up to date on what's happening there.

I think that's all for today. I said I won't overload you. You will get more instructions tomorrow morning. Everything tonight and tomorrow morning is on this level. We will go to the Fairway Deck for the reception, just off to my right, your left, and come back here once they have turned the room and set up 37 tables to accommodate us for dinner in this room.

So enjoy yourselves, and I'll be seeing you around this evening and for the rest of the conference. Thanks.

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