[Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: IRA

[Jack Cassidy]

Bill,

Thanks for your comments. You are in an ideal position to suggest some
changes to the Board. Some of the specific changes I would like include:

- sending a report (similar to the one) I did to all past presidents/board
members; state,provincial, and national affliate Presidents and
coordinators; and international development committee members AFTER each
board meeting. The official minutes generally do not contain all the
information I have given. As I write this, however I'm beginning to
reconsider - maybe it is better that such a report come from an observer?
Anyway, the Board should consider this option. I believe, Vicki Risko is
going to start a blog; this might be a source of unofficial info. No
information leads to the circulation of much misinformation.

- post on the IRA website that Board meetings are open to all members as
observers. Of course, caveats stating that members would be responsible for
all their expenses and space is limited would have to be posted.

-reconsidering the suspension of the research conference and other services
formerly available for members.

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR ELECTION. IT SHOULD BE AN INTERESTING TIME TO BE ON
THE BOARD.

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 11:29 AM, William Teale <wteale at uic.edu> wrote:

> Hello All,
>
> Having been just elected to the IRA Board of Directors, I am listening
> intently to this discussion.  I must say that I do not know much of anything
> about the inside story on any of this, but should be getting up to speed
> soon.  My first Board meeting (as an observer) will be in Orlando.  I'll
> keep these issues in mind and RHoF folks informed as we move forward.
>
> Bill
>
> -----------------------------------------
> William H. Teale
> Professor
> University of Illinois at Chicago
> College of Education (MC 147)
> 1040 West Harrison St.
> Chicago, IL 60607
> 312.996.4669
> http://education.uic.edu/directory/faculty_info.cfm?netid=wteale
> Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Feb 21, 2011, at 11:15 AM, richardallington at aol.com wrote:
>
>  The real question about IRA has to do with membership. As I understand it
> membership is down about 50% since my presidency (from 90,000 to 60,000). As
> I departed the presidency IRA was planning for 100,000 members and taking
> the annual meeting only cities where conferences of 35,000+ could be
> accommodated (thus the focus on Orlando and Chicago recently). But
> conference attendance is also down about as much as membership (from over
> 25,000 in my year as president to 12,500 last year). I'm not sure how things
> turned around so quickly but IRA has adequate funds in surplus to survive
> for awhile (praise the Lord). Still the question that keeps me awake is what
> has driven IRA membership and conference attendance to the pits? Is it that
> IRA has finally fell victim to the special education complex? That
> struggling readers are no longer seen as a problem for reading specialists
> to work with but instead are now seen as LD and largely unremediable? IRA
> lost its leadership in publishing on struggling readers to LDA and CEC in
> the 1980s and now reading specialists are typically my age and retiring from
> teaching.
>
>  Dick Allington
> University of Tennessee
> A209 Bailey Education Complex
>
>
>
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