Page 152 - International Journal of Process Educaiton (Special Issue)

Figure 7
second edition of the International Journal of Process
Education was distributed to the attendees.
The board of directors had originally been set up with three in Figure 9.
at-large members, each with a three-year term, but it soon
became evident that more Academy members needed to be
involved in governance. At the January 7–8, 2011 winter
meeting at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa, the at-
large board membership was expanded to four members,
each with two-year terms. Also, because the positions
of treasurer and finance officer had been limited to one
term in the original bylaws, the board recommended
that this restriction be removed to preserve continuity in
these essential offices. Finally, it was decided to allow
the audit committee to meet during rather than before the
conference. These changes were approved by email ballot
before the summer conference. On February 18, 2011,
webmaster Denna Hintze, set up the Academy forum to
facilitate communication among Academy members.
This forum has been particularly helpful in planning the
summer conferences since that time (see Figure 7).
The 2011 conference was held June 27–29 at Kirkwood,
with the theme: Facilitating Transformational Learning
(Academy of Process Educators, 2011; see Figure 8).
A highlight was the ability to stay on campus in the
same facility as the meetings. The third edition of the
International Journal of Process Education was published
for the conference.
Since 2011, the Academy has continued to meet twice
a year. At the winter meetings much attention was paid
to assessing potential International Journal of Process
Education articles.
January 6–7, 2012 Georgia Tech
January 2–5, 2013 Georgia Tech
January 10–12, 2014 Valparaiso University
January 2–4, 2015 Virginia State University
January 8–10, 2016 North Carolina Central University
150 International Journal of Process Education (February 2016, Volume 8 Issue 1)
At the 2012 meeting, the strategic plan was revised to in-
clude local Academy chapters (Academy of Process Educa-
tors, 2012c) and the idea for an institutional membership
was explored, through which up to 50 members of an aca-
demic institution could gain membership for a flat $350 fee.
This was approved at the 2012 conference. Kathy Burke,
Cy Leise, and Tris Utschig also introduced the first draft of
the writing rubric at this meeting. This rubric was refined
over the next three years and has become the assessment in-
strument for the International Journal of Process Education
(Burke, Ouellette, Miller, Leise, & Utschig, 2012).
Conferences and Innovations Since 2011
The Process Education Conferences since 2011 are listed
In the ten years of the Academy of Process Educators,
the number of members has increased from 49 to more
than 300 allowing ever more exciting opportunities for
professional collaboration. The Academy has continued
to innovate practice even as it upholds the value of
collaboration. A recent innovation (introduced during
the 2014–15 academic year) was a series of webinars
integrating Academy members into Masila Mutisya's
Professional Development course. The webinars allowed
interested Academy members to log in remotely and
participate in interactive activities (Beyerlein, Burke,
Mutisya, & Cordon, 2014). This experience was very
successful and there are plans to repeat it.
Current Academy activities are focused on planning
an expanded Process Education Conference in 2016
to celebrate 10 years of the Academy and 25 years of
Process Education. Planned special features of this
conference include a series of symposia addressing key
issues in Process Education, more than two dozen invited
workshops from members who have helped shape Process
Education and the Academy in significant ways, and a full
day devoted to research in order to foster scholarship and
grant writing related to Process Education.
Figure 8