Sunday, February 23, 2003 OPENING OF THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND BUSINESS MEETING.

MS. LEE: If you will take your seats, we can start. We have a riveting business meeting. It is astonishing, so I do want you all to take your seats quickly. You won't want to miss a minute.

I'm going to ask Carol to come up with one of the most interesting lists of housekeeping details you have heard in years.

MS. LANE: I get to do all the fun stuff.

Just for your information today, obviously, this meeting is here, and our reception and dinner will be in the main Inn building, right next door. And then all of the other activities for the rest of the conference will be in this building. Our general meetings are in this room, our breakout sessions in all the rooms around here. The continental breakfast, which is set up already -- the plates, not the food -- will be in the lobby. And actually, there will be a room set up with some tables, but you may also just want to go out on the patio tomorrow at breakfast to eat before we come back in here for the meeting.

I would like to tell you what the name tags mean, the color, because everybody always asks. It's in your program. But red is brand-new members, first-year members. Yellow is council and honorary members. Blue is spouses, guests, and speakers. And green is everybody else.

The table seating is listed in your attendance chart, but that changes constantly. Your table number is also on your name tag. If you can't read upside down, get a friend to tell you where you're sitting. If there is a disconnect between the list number next to your name and the name tag number, the name tag number is the more accurate of the two. So please follow that. I should write this in disappearing ink, but I didn't. It does just change constantly.

I did want to tell you that the Inn assures me that messages that come in to you by telephone will get sent to your room within minutes. Any deliveries such as Fed Ex or so on will be sent to your room within the hour. And they're very good about that. Not every place is.

I want to reassure you that dinner plans for tomorrow night I will divulge to you tomorrow, but I think you can be reassured that you will all find places to eat, either here onsite or offsite. I just didn't want to overload you with too much detail tonight. But tomorrow morning I will tell you about plans for dinner, because dinner is on your own tomorrow night.

I would also like to remind you when our speakers speak, starting this afternoon, if you do have questions, to please come up to the mike, or I will try to hand mikes down the aisle, for when you ask your questions. That's so that you can hear each other's questions, but also so that Mary Seal, who is our court stenographer, can hear the questions and record them and transcribe them into the Proceedings.

So enjoy the rest of the day, and I will see you later at the reception and dinner. Thank you.

MS. LEE: The opening agenda lists the president's report, and really, my report is just welcome to a beautiful place. I hope you enjoy the meeting.

Jessie-Lea Abbott is our program chair. She's been helped by several other people, but her major achievement is the weather. She has worked very hard on it, and it's supposed to be slightly warmer even tomorrow.

I'm sorry to tell you that you are going to have to listen to my voice throughout this meeting, because various people who were supposed to give reports have not shown up.

So I'm now going to give the treasurer's report, which is from Deborah Richman, and really, this does not need approval because the budget has already been approved. This treasurer's report just shows you where we are. Did any of you have any questions on it? We're pleased, we have been very conservative in budgeting for this conference, so we hope to have a budget that's in the black at the end of our fiscal year.

If there's no discussion, I'll move on to the membership report, which was supposed to have been given by Dick Jung. He's not here, but Bruce Galbraith is going to give it.

MR. GALBRAITH: Thank you, President Lee. I'm bringing you these remarks as -- this is a very lofty title -- the immediate past membership chair of the National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls.

I would like to welcome you to my new home state of Florida. I now live 350 miles to the south, and I hope it isn't too chilly for y'all up here. I wasn't sure what to pack.

Our association is very strong, as you'll see in your materials. We've got 652 members in the various categories, and one of the things we like to do right now is ask those who are new to us this year, wearing a red badge or if you're a guest, wearing a blue badge, would you please stand so we can give you a round of applause and welcome you to NAPSG.

If things hold true for you, as they did for Karen and for me years ago, at the dinner tonight when you meet some new people, you will have some indepth conversations over the fodder of the great speakers and you will make many, many new friends in the next few days, and we'll do our best to look for your badges and we can say hello to you, as well.

At the council meeting earlier today, four new schools were admitted to our total, and I'd like to thank Carol, as always, for her help in all of that.

There are no pithy membership issues save this one, and I did get a report that came to my attention and we do need to deal with this one a little bit, at least make you aware of it.

Apparently, one of you has made a great impression on the airlines on your way down here. Some of you had some trouble in the airlines and the story that I got is that apparently one of you got on the plane -- they didn't tell me male or female, so this is sans gender; I don't know who you are yet -- and sat down in the front section of the plane in first class without a ticket.

The flight attendant said, "What are you doing here?"

And the answer was, "I'm a head of school. I have had a hell of a year, and I deserve to sit up here. I'm going to Jacksonville. Leave me alone."

The flight attendant called for the copilot, recognizing someone who was almost out of control. The pilot came back and explained the economic difference between a first-class ticket and a coach ticket, and the person still said, "I'm a head of school and I'm not moving."

So they went up to the cockpit and told the pilot, "You better call Jacksonville because we need the police there when we arrive. We're going to arrest this person. There's a crazy head of school in the first-class section."

And he said, "Head of school? Oh, my children went to a school like that. I think I can still remember how to speak head of school. Let me see if I can go back and talk to this person."

And so the pilot comes out of the cockpit, goes back and whispers something in this head of school's ear and the head says, "Oh, thank you," and got up and walked to the back.

On the way back the flight attendant said, "You're a genius. How did you do that?"

He said, "It's easy. I just told that head of school that the front part of the plane wasn't going to Jacksonville."

MS. LEE: No comment. The next report I have is the nominations report, which you should have, as well. The nominating committee proposes the following slate of officers to be elected at this meeting. For president, Bodie Brizendene. Vice president, Region 1, Susan Haberlandt. Vice president, Region 3, Clayton Chambliss. Vice president, Region 5, Rick Clark.

Do I have a motion to accept this slate? Thank you. Ned Becker. Do I have a second? Okay. Thank you, Diana Beebe. Any discussion? All in favor? Thank you very much.

And the rest, everyone else is staying in place. Actually, Kay Cowan is the nominations chair. I'm giving her report because she's not here, either.

Next would ordinarily be a report from a representative to the Canadian association, who is Deborah Richman, and she is not here, as I said before. And she had a lovely time.

Steve Blanchard went to the Girls School Association, and he is not here, and he also had a lovely time.

Now, I saved the real business for last, and that is from Dick Jung, who isn't here. It's the bylaws revision, and he actually sent them to Kay Cowan, and of course, she's not here, either. So you are going to have to bear with me. I am presuming that you all read the bylaws.

I just want to tell you who the committee was. It was Kay Cowan, Bruce Galbraith, Dick Jung, Carol Lane, and Keith Shahan, and they met and were charged with the task of making sure that the bylaws were tight and efficient, read smoothly, and provided for more continuity than we felt we had on the council.

There are three categories of change. The first are general housecleaning revisions, which were recommended by a legal expert. The second is a wording change, reflecting the council's current thinking about attendance at this meeting, and the third are revisions in the council terms to provide realistic extensions for improved continuity.

So general housekeeping. I'll give you a good example of the general housekeeping. In the first line, you'll notice that we have put "The Association" in parentheses, after the National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls, because it appears that you must do that in order to be able to refer to the association legally and not have to write out the whole name all the way through the bylaws. So we have done that. That is just one of the housekeeping revisions.

An example, and the only one, of attendance at the meeting changes is in section 3, under article 1. It says, "Principal members are expected to attend" now instead of "required to attend," because we never had someone fail to attend who didn't have a good excuse. So it seemed more realistic to say "expect."

And lastly, the terms have been changed, and these are in articles 2 and 3. And the changes, in order to preserve more institutional memory, are that the terms of the president, the five regional vice presidents, and the council members at large will now be three years instead of two. The president and the treasurer will serve for one year after his or her successor has been chosen, and it was already the practice that the secretary served for two years after his or her successor had been chosen. And this will remain.

So they're really quite simple. Next year's officers have already agreed to longer terms, so we anticipate that these bylaw changes will run smoothly. But I need a motion to accept all of the changes. Bruce?

MR. GALBRAITH: So moved.

MS. LEE: Thank you. Do I have a second? Aggie Underwood. Second. Thank you. Is there any discussion? Well, great. All in favor. Any opposed? No?

So we now have new wonderfully streamlined bylaws that provide for great continuity in this association.

Now, the next item -- and we're coming to the end of the business meeting -- is the reading the code of ethics, which Keith Shahan will do.

MR. SHAHAN: Our organization has a code of ethics, which is a good thing. Several years ago the council decided to have these read every year at the opening session of NAPSG, on the theory that it never hurts to remind ourselves of what we believe in. It is customary that the secretary be given the task, so here they are. There are six principles.

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.

The second is, a head will not seek to induce a teacher who has signed a contract for the ensuing year to break that contract.

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

The fourth is, the head of a 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 the discharge of financial obligations to the previous schools.

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.

Six, correspondence between heads about pupils and parents or concerning teachers is absolutely confidential.

Thank you.

MS. LEE: Thank you.

I have no further business unless one of you does. This meeting is adjourned. Does anyone have anything he or she wishes to say at this moment?

Well, we are then adjourned early, I'm proud to report, and I ask that you please come back at 5:00 and be here on time for our wonderful speaker. Thank you very much.