From the Chair

John Stewart, West Virginia University

The summer is the busiest time for the Executive Committee (ExComm) of the Forum on Education (FEd). The Nominating Committee chaired by Vice Chair Laurie McNeil has selected the next slate of FEd candidates. Elections will be held this fall. The Program Committee chaired by Chair Elect Larry Cain is just wrapping up the program schedule for next year’s March and April meeting. Laurie will discuss the process in more detail later in this newsletter. The ExComm also voted to provide $2000 to support travel and registration fees for graduate students, post docs, and early career physicists at next year’s Gordon Conference in Physics Education Research. Nancy Ruzycki and Dawn Meredith will describe the conference in more detail. The awards committees have finished their work selecting new APS Fellows, the Excellence in Physics Education Award awardee, and the Jonathan F. Reichert and Barbara Wolff-Reichert Award for Excellence in Advanced Laboratory Instruction awardee. The winners have not yet been announced.

The FEd has also been working to revise its bylaws to incorporate language compatible with the new APS governance structure, to conform with APS best practice, and in response to suggestions by members. The set of revised bylaws approved by the ExComm follow. These changes are being incorporated into the bylaws document. If anyone has any concerns or suggestions please let me know. After the revised document is approved by the ExComm, it must also be approved by the APS Council, and then voted on by FEd members. I hope we can have the bylaw election early next year.

Proposed Revisions to Bylaws:

1. Revise bylaws to conform to changes in APS governance structure.
2. Change the beginning of officer terms to January 1st.
3. The Chair Elect will continue as program chair until the end of the March or April meeting for which he/she is the chair of the Program Committee.
4. Increase the number of Members-at-Large to seven. One of the Members-at-Large would be a graduate student who would serve a two-year term. This member would have travel funded for the ExComm meeting like any other member. The student would be invited to serve out his or her term even if he or she graduates during the term.
5. Create a membership committee with the ExComm Chair as the chair of the committee. This would be a committee internal to the ExComm; however, the chair could invite non-ExComm members to serve at his or her discretion.
6. Formalize Member-at-Large roles. Members-at-Large will take on a sequence of roles like ExComm members in the Chair line, but in reverse order. Members-at-Large would be on the awards committees their first year, the program committee the second year, and the nominating committee the third year. All would serve on the new membership committee in their second and third years. The graduate student member would serve on the membership and program committee. These roles are the typical roles and the Chair, with consultation of the Members-at-Large, can adjust the roles or assign additional tasks as needed.
7. If the Secretary/Treasurer runs for a second term, the Past Chair is responsible for overseeing the election of the Secretary/Treasurer position.
8. The Secretary/Treasurer is responsible for notifying the Chair of all expenditures.
9. The Chair-Elect, Chair, and Past Chair will also serve on the APS Committee on Education. Typical duties require two face-to-face meetings and a few teleconferences each year.

Disclaimer – The articles and opinion pieces found in this issue of the APS Forum on Education Newsletter are not peer refereed and represent solely the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the APS.