[Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: Literacy leadership institute

[Risko, Victoria J]

Dear Yetta, Thank you for expressing your concerns.  It is important to facilitate communication among the Board and our former board members, past presidents and our membership.  As a board, we very much value the perspectives of our membership.  

And I thank Mark for his response to the question of speakers for the conference.  Actually, this issue has been a learning experience for me.  Presidents don't choose the speakers for the conference in a traditional sense of contacting individuals that I might want as speakers for the conference.  Instead, IRA staff and a hired outside group work with publishers to determine who might be available and sponsored by a publisher as speakers for the conference.  Thus, I do not initiate the list of speakers as main stage speakers, but instead am supplied with names and asked to choose.  I did nominate a few individuals for main stage speakers in addition to the publishers' list, but to date, none of the ones I nominated has been chosen - either they are unavailable or not sponsored by a publisher (IRA no longer pays for speakers, and that is a good cost saving measure). 

The Board generated a list of speakers that hold interest to us as main stage speakers and it is possible that some of these individuals will be pursued in future years.  For this year, there was not a strong overlap between our suggested list and the list of names supplied for the publishers. 

Willie Benjamin is the new conference manager for IRA and he is working tirelessly with the group who is contacting publishers and soliciting names. Willie is a great resource for IRA.   He has been helpful in keeping on point, trying to make matches that make sense for our audience.  And he and I have collaborated on the selection of speakers and discussed the lists of names - but the options for main stage speakers are constrained by the names that have been made available by the publishers. We have selected two main stage speakers and a third one is yet to be identified.  

The Teaching Edge speakers were identified before I was brought into the process but I was able to add a few individuals to this list.  And I worked with Willie, Ginny Goatley, and the conference staff to identify authors for the luncheons and other featured authors, also with Ginny to recommend speakers for the research series as featured speakers and panel members.

Hope this information builds on what Mark shared and clarifies how the Board and the president is involved in the process.  Vicki



From: Mark Mullen [mmullen at reading.org]
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 1:55 PM
To: Yetta Goodman; Risko, Victoria J; Reading Hall of Fame
Subject: RE: [Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: Literacy leadership institute

Dear Dr. Goodman,

Thank you for the email and the opportunity to respond to your concerns.
As IRA history dictates, all speakers at IRA's conference - with the exception of the six individuals who presented the Teaching Edge Series - are selected by the IRA President.

The Teaching Edge Series was piloted during the May 2011 Conference with the knowledge and approval of the IRA Board.  The presenters selected for this series were the top drawing presenters from the 2010 Conference as identified by member attendance. With a total of 8,900 member attendees at the 2011 conference, 6,400 attended the Teaching Edge Series.

Again, thank you for your email.  Should have further questions, please do not hesitate in contacting me.

Best wishes and Happy Thanksgiving.
Mark


From: Yetta Goodman [mailto:ygoodman at u.arizona.edu]
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 1:01 PM
To: Mark Mullen; Victoria Risko; Reading Hall of Fame
Subject: Fwd: [Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: Literacy leadership institute

Dear Reading Hall of Fame Members
I think it is very appropriate to send any concerns any of us have have about IRA and/or BofD actions directly to M. Mullen, Victoria Risko and BofD members.  It seems to me that there are things going on at IRA that even Board of Director Members and the IRA presidential are not aware of.

I have heard recently that IRA headquarters selects and invites all the IRA speakers. I worry about how this supports the BofD and Executive Committee to highlight those scholars in our field who have the greatest impact and need to be heard by membership.  I saw Jerry and Helen Weiss at NCTE.  Jerry said that he was told by one of the publishers he still works with that IRA no longer selects and invites authors to the conference but that this is negotiated by an outside agency who doesn't seem to know IRA history or  mission. Helen Weiss asked me: "shouldn't membership be involved in such decisions.  Isn't IRA a membership organization?"

I think when new professional organizational directions are decided at IRA, membership with a history, concerns for literacy education, aware of what is wanted and needed by teachers, researchers etc. must be informed and their participation and questions encouraged. Rumors about IRA are rampant. But most important is that the Executive Board must be involved in decision making and then make sure information is made transparent to the membership.   Yetta Goodman, past board member.




--
Yetta Goodman, Regents Professor Emerita
7914 S Galilleo Lane, Tucson Arizona 85747