2020 AGM Minutes (approved, 2021) and 2020 Chair’s report

Annual General Meeting Agenda – July 8, 2020, 4:00pm

1. Apologies

• Approval of Minutes

• Matters Arising

1. Constitutional revisions

• Chairs report

• Financial report including setting of subscriptions

1. Membership fees: It is recommended that the 2020-21 membership fee remain at the current rate of: $2000 (for institutions with over 500 ITE EFTS) and $1000 (for institutions with fewer than 500 EFTS).

• General Business

1. Carbon Offset Statement
   1. Election of officers – each nominee introduced and breakout room caucus for attendees by institution (see agenda papers for description of process)
   1. TEFANZ Awards
   1. Any other business?

Chair’s Report to TEFANZ Annual General Meeting Agenda – July 8, 2020

Since our last AGM, July 19, 2020 in Ōtautahi, our member institutions have been very busy with programme review and reapproval which has been complicated by the COVID-19 situation.  Temporary ITE policy changes, in light of the global pandemic took some time to be developed and released, and providers’ have needed to remain nimble in order to manage external and internal policy demands.  It has certainly been a very demanding few months with teacher educators’ management of their own workloads complicated by student and partner anxiety during this time; sensitivity to and respect of the needs of others has remained a high priority.  I do hope that our teacher education community is able find some relief in the second half of the year. 

It was with great disappointment that we moved to cancel the joint TEFANZ/ATEA conference, scheduled for July.  The conference committee, under the expert leadership of Fiona Ell was delighted with the range and quality of submissions received for the conference.  We have all experienced the conference cancellation as a loss in terms of both the opportunity to come together in community, and for the scholarship and research we were unable to learn about and discuss.  The ATEA committee is planning to send a copy of the Springer Book to all submitters to the conference in due course.

TEFANZ members were pleased to work in collaboration with the Teaching Council during the COVID-19 lockdown period through the ITE Panel that was constituted to consult on programme changes.  Members of the profession who participate were: Andrea Milligan (Victoria University), Pania Matthews (TWOA), Rosina Merry (Te Rito Maioha) and Alex Gunn (University of Otago).  The group’s membership changed in June when the Council invited additional members of the profession to join: [X and Y].  On behalf of ITE providers, I wish to thank all those involved for their contributions during this time.

Finance and administration

The TEFANZ financial report is tabled.  The EXEC approved the report at their meeting of July 7.  The responsibility for financial management of the Association moved from the University of Waikato Te Kura Toi Tangata Faculty of Education to TEFANZ directly in November 2020.  Bev Cooper was instrumental in effecting this transition and our thanks are noted in this regard.  Additionally Bev has continued with day-to-day management of the financial matters of the Forum. 

Motion to be put during financial report: that 2020-21 member subscriptions remain at the current level

Constitution and Election of Officers

The Constitution allows for an executive composition of normally between 7-10 members (six of whom are to be elected, up to three may be co-opted and the immediate past chair or deputy chair role may be occupied).  Presently the executive consists of Beverley Cooper (University of Waikato, Immediate Past Chair); Fiona Ell (University of Auckland); Bev Norsworthy (Bethlehem Tertiary Institute); Sally Hansen (Massey University); Alex Gunn (Otago University, Chair), Robin Averill (Victoria University) and Misty Sato (Canterbury University, seconded for 2020).  Tracey Hooker (WINTEC),  long standing executive member resigned her position at the end of 2019, Bev Norsworthy has indicated that she will finish her term at the AGM.  We all thank Tracey and Bev for their service and wish them all the best for their ongoing endeavours.  Executive terms for Bev Cooper, Robin Averill, Sally Hanson, Tracey Hoker, Fiona Ell expire. An election for up to five members will therefore be held.  My sincerest thanks to members who will stand down from executive positions this year, your leadership and service has greatly benefitted us all. 

Nominations for executive may be sent to Alex (alex.gunn@otago.ac.nz) before July 7 with the nominator, a seconder, and an indication of assent to nomination by the nominee.  If an election is to be held member institutions are entitled to one vote, which in this case would involve a ranking of nominees.  We would use the breakout and chat function of ZOOM to allow attendees from membership organistions to caucus over their vote and cast their vote.

The constitution changes we ratified in 2019 have not yet been registered.  We discovered, in the process of attempting to register these, that none of the previously changed and ratified constitutional changes had ever been lodged with the companies office.  To this end, we are currently attempting to lodge the version of the consitution from the ratified AGM minutes of 2015 so that those changes we most recently agreed to (ratified today), can be lodged next.

Executive Committee Meetings

This past year the executive met on 17 October, 26 March, 20 May (special meeting with Teaching Council re: COVID-19), 7 July.  Reports of the regular executive meetings were circulated as newletters after each of those hui and can be found on the TEFANZ website for ongoing reference.

TEFANZ Current Member Organisations (financial members 2019-20)

AUT, Bethlehem Tertiary Institute, Eastern Institute of Technology, Laidlaw College, Massey University, Manukau Institute of Technology, Open Polytechnic, Te Rio Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand, Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, University of Auckland, University of Canterbury, University of Otago, University of Waikato, Victoria University of Wellington, WINTEC.

TEFANZ representation and liaison

The executive committee continues to liaise and work with key education stakeholders in ITE.  In many cases this has occured through active participation by TEFANZ members on working groups and in committees. 

We have had TEFANZ reprsentation on the Teaching Council’s ITEAG (with thanks to Bev Cooper).  This group consisted of representative of stakeholders in teacher education including school principals, ECE managers, Māori medium leaders, Ministry of Education representatives, private consultants and teacher educators. TEFANZ is one of the  few groups which has an institutional representative. meetings have been cancelled. Bev was also involved in the scoping of the  formative evaluation framework for the implementation process for the new requirements for ITE approvals.

NZCER Electoral College a voting role when NZCER appoints persons (Bev Cooper fulfills this function for us at present).

Tertiary Teaching Awards

Lexie Grudnoff is the TEFANZ  representative on the Ako Aotearoa Tertiary Teaching Awards Panel

We held professional meetings with PPTA on 18 October 2019 and with NZEI on 26 November, 2019 and March 12, 2020.  These continue to be valuable hui for our members to interact directly with advocates in the profession and to network and liaise over matters of mutual interest.  Thanks to Bev Cooper for her liaison with PPTA in this regard, and Fiona Ell for the same with NZEI.  Our appreciation is extended to PPTA and NZEI for hosting our hui and for their generosity and welcome.

Website

The University of Waikato’s Faculty of Education  technology team have continued to provide generous support in the maintenance of the TEFANZ website. We are committed to making this a more dynamic space but for now it serves mostly as a repository for newsletters, meeting minutes, notices around TEFANZ events and the suchlike.  However, three new initiatives on the site have occurred in the past year, first we have a ‘sign up’ for TEFANZ emails link on the site now so individuals can request this and receive TEFANZ emails and newsletters direct; we have a sharing space around ITE programme requirements ideas e.g., several institutions KTTs are available to view; and we have a list of TEFANZ members research publications and current projects for reference.

TEFANZ Survey

The TEFANZ survey cycle finished at end of 2018. In 2019 Data was cleaned and collected from the contract firm who had run the survey.  This was a protracted process as we worked with the contractor through ethical issues to ensure data was secure. All data has been deidentified and collated into one collection point. Individual institution  reports were distributed at the time of the surveys being carried out and any copies have now been destroyed to maintain confidentiality.  All cross institution reports are also stored securely.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou

Alex Gunn, Chair.

DRAFT MINUTES (TO BE RATIFIED 2021)

Annual General Meeting MINUTES – July 8, 2020, 4:00pm

Online Hui Via Zoom

Apologies: Anthony Fisher, Te Rito Maioha; Janette Kelly, University of Waikato; Steven Sexton, University of Otago, Gwenda Cavern (EIT), Liz Reinsfeld, Julianne Ward (UA), Charolotte Lewitt (Winntec)

Meeting began at 2:04 with Karakia Timatanga offered by Chair, Alex Gunn.

Alex began with Zoom meeting participation etiquette.

• Approval of Minutes

Alex Gunn moved that meeting minutes from 2019 be taken as read.

Bev Norsworthy seconded.

• Matters Arising

1. Constitutional revisions

Alex explained that the constitution that we voted for revisions in 2019 was not the version already lodged with the Incorporated Societies. The 2014 constitution has now been registered with Incorporated Society. The revisions we have made since 2014 still hold as duly voted on by membership. Now that the minutes from 2019 have been approved, we can now lodge the new version of the constitution with Incorporated Societies. This will happen in due course with support of Alex Gunn and Bev Cooper.

• Chair’s report

Alex moved that the report be taken as read and a factual account of TEFANZ work over the last year.

Glynnis Cooper seconded.

Noted: Financial report dates needs to be changed from Nov 2020 to Nov 2019.

Chat comment from Jane Ewans offered thanks for a clear report that helped get her caught up on TEFANZ business.

No further discussion.

• Financial report including setting of subscriptions

1. Membership fees: It is recommended that the 2020-21 membership fee remain at the current rate of: $2000 (for institutions with over 500 ITE EFTS) and $1000 (for institutions with fewer than 500 EFTS).

Bev Cooper reported that we opened our own TEFANZ account, most expenditures were on travel and wrapping up the contract for the survey data analysis.

Bev Cooper moved for the receipt and adoption of the financial report.

Bev also moved that we maintain subscriptions at the current level (noted above).

Emily Nelson seconded the joint motion.

Approved by majority.

Alex Gunn thanked Bev Cooper for her work establishing TEFANZ stand alone accounts.

• General Business

Query from the Chair for additional general business requested. None tabled.

1. Carbon Offset Statement

Robin Averill reported on the Executive Committee’s discussion about travel related to TEFANZ business being guided by a statement to recommend and encourage carbon off-set fees. Further to that, the Exec agreed to set up a working group related to policy regarding climate change and sustainability.

The March Newsletter had a call for interest in being on a working party to develop and inform TEFANZ policy related to climate change and sustainability. No names came forward, understandable given the times. Exec would like to have a working group to draft some recommendations for the organization’s policy on climate change and sustainability.  Robin requested if anyone in this meeting or their colleagues would like to be on such a working group let her know. This group would have a member of the Exec Committee and the working group would make recommendations to the Executive Committee.

Alex noted that she would be happy to accept Robin’s offer to lead this effort as a member of the Exec Committee. New Exec members will be elected today and the new executive would identify who would follow up with them about their interest in serving on this working group. Other interested people may come forward from membership.

2. Election of officers

Alex Gunn acknowledged members of the Exec Committee who have served and are stepping down. Kind and personal acknowledgements were made to: Tracey Hooker, Sally Hansen, Bev Norsworthy, Bev Cooper (who will stand again in the election), Fiona Ell (who will stand again in the election), Robin Averill, Misty Sato.

Alex Gunn made a change to the list of nominees that was sent out with the agenda. Liz Reinsfield has withdrawn, Karyn Aspden (Massey University) has been added.

Each nominee made a brief statement in this order:

Karyn Aspden (Massey University), Shilo Bluett, WINTEC, was not present and Tracey Hooker spoke on her behalf, Bev Cooper, Uni Waikato, Fiona Ell, Univ of Auckland, Jae Major, Uni Vic. Wgtn was represented via video presentation, Hiria Mcrae, Uni Vic. Wgtn, Rosina Merry, Te Rito Maioha ECNZ, Emily Nelson, EIT, Eunice Price, Laidlaw, Steven Sexton, Uni Otago was represented via video presentation, Sandra Williamson-Leadley, Uni Canterbury.

Alex Gunn reviewed the voting procedures (see meeting papers)

Breakout groups began at 5:08 and full meeting resumed at 5:17.

Sally Hansen tabulated the votes.

Sally noted that the votes were close and it is exciting to see such a strong field of candidates. Elected members of the executive 2020 are:

Bev Cooper, returning

Fiona Ell, returning

Rosina Merry

Emily Nelson

Eunice Price

Alex Gunn noted that we have 6 elected members and we are allowed up to 10 members according to our constitution. The new Executive Committee will next elect a Chair, and decide on whether to co-opt additional members to round out various aspects of representation that may be needed on the Executive. This marks the minimum elected membership for the Executive and the full complement will be announced after the next Executive meeting.

Alex will communicate with each member who was nominated and not present at the meeting to hear the results. The outcomes will also be in the next edition of the newsletter.

3. TEFANZ Awards

Two awards were awarded today with citations read out by Bev Norsworthy who chaired the awards sub-committee. We will organize to have the taonga and framed citations presented to the recipients at a later date.

Emerging Teacher Educator Award: Dr. Elizabeth Reinsfield, University of Waikato (not present to accept the award)

Sustained Excellence in Teacher Education Award: Beverley Cooper, University of Waikato

Bev Cooper made a few comments to thank her colleagues, acknowledge her work as collaborative and with teams over the years, and to amplify the need to have the Teacher Education voice at the policy table.

Chair, Alex Gunn asked that Bev pass our congratulations to Liz Reinsfield.

4. Any other business?

The chair opened the invitation for further business. None tabled.

Andrea Milligan left at 5:00 and via chat sent her thanks to current and new Executive members for their hard work and professionalism.

Karakia Whakamutunga was offered by Alex Gunn.

Meeting was adjourned at 5:34 with many thanks for departing members.