INTRODUCTION

In July 2001, the Board of Directors and the senior staff held a retreat in Colorado Springs to establish key goals for NSTA's future. During the fall, the President and Executive Director combined the Colorado Springs retreat ideas with the Blue Ribbon Panel report (December, 1999), and the PD task force report (December, 2001). The result was a set of nine goals that were mapped onto the 3 strategic actions of "Strategy 2000."

Board members established a priority for the goals at the fall convention in Memphis (3 members were absent; their votes were taken via phone later). The goals and a weighted score (assigning 3 points to a highest priority goal, 2 points for second, and 1 point for third) are listed below. The priority scoring is shown in square brackets.

Strategic Action 1: Engaging Many More Teachers Of Science

     [26] GOAL 1-a: Increase total NSTA membership
     [13] GOAL 1 b: Increase percentage of urban teachers of science engaged. 
       [2] GOAL 1-c: Facilitate expanded networking about science educators.

Strategic Action 2: Enhancing Professional Development

       [5] GOAL 2-a: Improve the quality of teaching of novice teachers.
     [13] GOAL 2-b: Improve the quality of teaching of experienced teachers.
       [5] GOAL 2-c: Assist school administrators in conducting a total science program needs assessment.
       [1] GOAL 2-d: Improve the quality of professional development providers.
       [0] GOAL 2-e: Build leadership cadre among science educators.

Strategic Action 3: Increase Support for Science Education

       [9] GOAL3-a: Improve, perception of science education.

The remainder of this document reports on the activities of the NSTA staff during the past six months. The structure of this report remains aligned with the "Go Forward" document that grew out of Strategy 2000:

1. Getting in Shape Plan (Team Leader: Moira Fathy)
2. People Plan (Team Leader: Gerry Wheeler)
3. Programmatic Plan (Team Leader: Wendell Mohling)
4. Product Plan (Team Leader: David Beacom)
5. Financial Plan (Team Leader: Moira Fathy)

"Getting in Shape" describes the activities that allow NSTA to be stronger and more efficient. Our progress in this domain has brought about some exciting technology changes over the past six months.

Auditors

The auditors gave NSTA another clean bill of health with no material weaknesses, reportable conditions, or noncompliance material to the financial statements noted. While NSTA was fortunate to finish out the fiscal year with a healthy surplus of $1.5M, this surplus is not reflective of the results we can hope to expect for fiscal year 2002.

Business & Finance

NSTA has migrated its DOS-based accounting software to a new SQL-based system as the final stage of the software association management integration that began in 1999. The report writer feature of this software is a powerful tool. NSTA directors and managers will have the ability to "drill down" into the transaction details in each of the budget line accounts. Reports can be easily written and run from many different perspectives: grouped by divisions, by functions, or by categories.

NSTA has moved its payroll processing to an outsourced payroll services company. Staff wrote and implemented an office-wide electronic timesheet software system that allows the automatic transfer of timesheet hour information to the new payroll service.

Communications Department

Staff took advantage of the latest NAEP release to gain high-level visibility for NSTA and its key messages. Advance media work secured quotes from the NSTA leadership in articles filed by the Associated Press, USA Today, the Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Reuters News Service, Education Week, and District Administration. In addition, MSNBC.com, CNN.com, and the LA Times.com published the Associated Press story, and it also appeared in more than 200 newspapers around the country.

Widespread coverage was also secured for the release of the new FDA Food Science program in September. A lengthy article and two photographs ran on the Associated Press wire services, prompting pick-up by various media outlets, including CNN.com. A prominent article appeared in The Washington Post.

In September, a Letter to the Editor was published in USA Today on the issue of how schools are decreasing science instruction time and allotting it to other subjects. In January, an Op Ed piece on the lack of funding for key science education initiatives in the ESEA legislation was submitted to several major daily newspapers. We await word of its acceptance for publication.

The department has discussed a partnership with AAAS/Project 2061 in a major public outreach campaign promoting science education. NSTA's role would be to create and implement an advocacy campaign to engage science educators as leaders in the community pushing for science reform initiatives. This grassroots campaign will give science educators tools for conveying information to the community, the media, and legislators. The campaign is expected to launch in early 2002. A proposal to the National Science Foundation is being contemplated.

Staff has started work on an NSTA Annual Report. The publication will detail the Association's accomplishments from the previous year and provide a preview of NSTA's strategic direction for the future.

Work has also begun on a survey of NSTA members. The survey will reveal how science instruction time is faring in light of testing mandates in math and reading from the President's No Child Left Behind bill. Results will be released at the NSTA convention in San Diego.

Computer Operations

The Computer Operations department is implementing software for enhanced web security, essentially providing another layer of security between the firewall and the web site.

Our reliance on technology has its risks. The full Information Technology (IT) team - computer operations, systems development, and web staff - has been assessing IT risks to NSTA. This team is expanding the IT disaster recovery plan to include use of an offsite data center. They are also developing a new IT policies and procedures document.

Exhibits and Advertising

NSTA has changed the data processing and invoicing systems for journal advertising and exposition booth sales. The Institutional Research Department facilitated the implementation of automation systems for these two major areas which had been previously tracked only by a manual paper system. With the automation of advertising and booth sales, all receivables except product sales are now kept in the iMIS system. With this consolidation, we have developed software to facilitate the tracking and collection of receivables.

Grants and Contracts

This year, with the most recent transition to Solomon, we now have the capability to fully implement and develop a project tracking system to dynamically evaluate the progress of work on grants, contracts, and internal publications. Our goal continues to be better budgeting and cost projecting, with fewer costs being disallowed for failure to complete the contract work on schedule.

Institutional Research (IR)

During the last six months, the IR staff has built financial models to model future initiatives. They have also been developing a management 'picture' of how department profit and loss would look with a full allocation of all overhead costs.

Legislative Affairs

Congress finally completed reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). NSTA was very successful in ensuring that a number of key programs were included in the final ESEA legislation:

• a Math/Science Partnerships program separate from Title II, Part A (The teacher quality part of ESEA)
• science assessments beginning in the year 2007
• a needs assessment to determine the professional development needs of science teachers. (Future professional development and programs under the Math and Science Partnerships must be based on the results of the needs assessment.)

It was disappointing that despite our best efforts, the Labor-HHS FY 2002 appropriators only funded the partnerships at $12.5 million. This is in stark contrast to the $450 million that Congressional ESEA authorizers requested for this program. However, a significant amount of new funding will be allocated to districts under the new Title II programs ($2.8 billion) for professional development for all teachers, including science and math educators. Science teachers and supervisors also must be vigilant to gain their share of these funds.

Please note: The new Math and Science Partnerships contained in the ESEA and funded at $12.5 million for FY 2002 are separate from the NSF Math and Science Partnerships MSPs), which received $160 million in funding for FY 2002. NSF has announced that the RFPs for their MSP program will be available in mid-January and due by mid-April. Thus, in addition to the ESEA effort, we are working with both the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education to implement the new Math and Science Partnerships. Staff has had numerous meetings with key people at NSF both agencies.

Unfortunately, during this long process, an explicit definition of professional development emerged in this legislation. The new law states that the federal funds will be used for professional development activities that . . . "(E) are high quality, sustained, intensive, and classroom focused in order to have a positive and lasting impact on classroom instruction and the teacher's performance in the classroom, and are not one-day or short-term workshops or conferences." This definition could have serious consequences for national and state meetings.

Staffing Update

As mentioned in the January update, we have a new membership director - Mary Lou Bosco -and a new NSTA Press(r) director -Claire Reinburg,

We're still searching for a marketing director AND a science teacher to join the Building a Presence program. We also hope to add a higher-level staff person to handle professional development. (See budget.)

Systems Development Department

The Systems Development Department has completed several projects, including

• an online session proposal submission form, coupled with the automatic import of those submissions into our Sessions database
• an overhaul of the SciLinks website to add new administrative features and searches
• an online Suppliers Guide to replace the existing printed version,
• an upgraded the Building a Presence website
• a new NSTA Institute portal website for professional development

Moving ahead, we will create a web interface for NSTA's manuscript review system, along with a web interface for review of session proposals.

"The People Plan" includes our external relations with Chapters, Associated Groups, and Affiliates, as well as internal staffing relations.

Chapters/Associated Groups http://www.nsta.org/chapters

District directors received their new display boards with wheeled cases for a series of 50-plus meetings this fall and next spring. We hope that this effort can reach approximately 40,000 nonmembers.

The C/AG Field Coordinator, Ken Rosenbaum, has accomplished the following:

• designed and published Profiles of NSTA Chapters and Associated Groups to facilitate communications and networking among C/AGs
• assisted in the design and implementation of the Summer Congress and networked with C/AG leaders
• responded to requests for advice and assistance from C/AG leaders regarding matters such as nominations, NSTA Display Board, Affiliation standards, Principles of Collaboration, and nominations procedures
• assisted with the revision and implementation of the chapter convention display board

Conventions http://www.nsta.org/conventions

A new system of convention program proposal submissions was implemented this fall for the 2002-3 conventions. All proposals must be submitted online. This process not only will streamline the submission process, but also allows for greater communications that are necessary for the program strand development. The establishment of program strands will also help support for additional marketing of the conventions as a professional development venue, thereby further accommodating the increasing number of convention attendees who wish to earn credits for attendance. We are continuing our efforts to establish appropriate procedures and to provide documentation of these credits for all meetings.

Governance Update

The presidential chain and the executive director have continued to hold a weekly phone conference, which has proven successful. Bi-monthly e-mail updates have been sent to the Board and Council.

The C/AG Field Coordinator was assigned the task of also serving as NSTA's Council Coordinator. With the governance changes of a couple of years ago came the need to examine, negotiate, and facilitate new roles, rules, and regulations for the Board, Council, and Congress. In this role, Ken Rosenbaum has

• established frequent phone and e-mail contact with all the Directors on a continuing basis. These contacts involve responding to questions, providing suggestions regarding chapter visits, and completing reports and vouchers
• created a Director Membership Report and NSTA Contact Report to be used by the new Membership Director to facilitate future membership initiatives
• developed a job task analysis for the role of District Director
• facilitated Council work sessions and designed draft agendas for all Council meetings
• designed and implemented revised orientation sessions for new Council members
• advised the NSTA President on Council matters
• served as a liaison to the Council for NSTA Corporate program staff, and the NSTA Nominations Committee
• facilitated the design of a District retreat model program and created a matrix for Council implementation

Human Resources (HR)

HR staff have been focused on staff professional development. particularly at the managerial level. Staff development seminars held in the summer and fall discussed budgeting and NSTA's personnel handbook. We had a stimulating training session on diversity awareness for the entire staff that provided a tremendous learning experience for us all.

We will be conducting a needs assessment with supervisors, managers, and directors to clarify ways we can enhance their skills. Monthly supervisory/managerial workshops have been scheduled through the end of the fiscal year on such topics as the supervisor's role, effective communication, time management, delegating tasks, goal setting, interviewing techniques, enhancing employee potential and satisfaction, and conflict management.

A workshop on NSTA's crisis management plan was conducted, followed during the same week by a staged disaster with blocked exit routes, to ascertain how well we would respond. We performed very well. Since the crisis management plan has been in place, we have experienced a few real-life situations and have found the plan extremely useful. Members of the Arlington County Police Department and SWAT Team presented a highly interactive training in self-defense techniques that left attendees feeling quite empowered. We have just received medical authorization to purchase an automatic external defibrillator for the building and will offer professional training to staff on its use. We also have secured the garage access to staff only.

A counselor from our Employee Assistance Program was made available to staff onsite shortly after the Sept. 11th incident to help employees handle the trauma of the event. In response to anthrax concerns, we have posted current information from the United States Postal Service, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Arlington County Health Department.

Institutional Research (IR)

The IR department is exploring the logistics of NSTA providing marketing and administrative services to some Chapters and Associated Groups.

Membership http://www.nsta.org/yourmembership

Our trend in membership rates have been flat for individual members and decreasing for institutional members. We have a direct mail experiment occurring this month where we're mailing sets with different premiums. These campaigns are expensive and, with the anthrax scare, it's unclear how effective they'll be. We do have some good numbers on past attempts, though, so we'll be watching this experiment closely.

District Directors report that most science teachers they meet at state conventions think they're members of NSTA because they have joined their state group.

Staff is exploring new member benefits that will be "behind the membership wall" on our website. The first is a five-year journal archive. (This feature will also be useful in other professional development activities, such as background reading for convention strands.) The second feature we're exploring is adding the SciLinks search capability as a member benefit. In this scenario, a member would be able to type in a topic and the software would search the SciLinks database. We are investigating the impact of adding this feature on our publishing relationships.

Early last month, staff met with a representative from Readex, the company that conducted a survey for NSTA two years ago. We discussed a new survey that would explore a direct mail marketing campaign to elementary, middle, and high school science teachers. This campaign will not take place until the new membership director has a chance to evaluate it.

Staff also met with MGI representatives to discuss outsourcing a direct mail campaign. This group has an interesting business proposal that has them investing in the upfront costs (they obviously make their money on the new memberships). The problem is that we lack the retention rates necessary to make this financially benficial for NSTA in the long run.

Retention is a big issue. It costs a lot more to find a new member than it does to keep the ones we have. Unfortunately, NSTA retention rates are very low. This fall we initiated a special monthly e-mail to new NSTA members. We call these our "O-blasts" (orientation blasts). They'll be sent to new members during the first three months of their association with us.

The first-year retention rate by journal is not good, and it is especially poor for Science and Children which has a retention rate of about 33% of first-year members. Since most of our members report that the main benefit of membership is the journal, it behooves us to look at ways of increasing this retention through the journal and/or the development of alternative value-added features to membership. As a point of comparison, I've been able to glean from conversations (not hard facts yet) that the industry standard retention rate is hard to determine, but an educated guess is that it is about 65%.

Nominations http://www.nsta.org/boardofdirectors

Ballots containing candidates' names, their statements, and an NSTA Bylaw change were mailed in mid-January. Deadline for return of ballots is February 22, 2002. Results will be made public prior to the NSTA National Convention, with an introduction of elected officers taking place during the convention.

An NEA Partnership

President Pratt and the Executive Director met with the National Education Association (NEA), along with our counterparts for NCTM and ITEA. The purpose of the meeting was to explore opportunities to cooperate on projects. It was decided that our need to attract elementary teachers to NSTA might provide a context for joint projects. NEA clearly has the "footprint," while NSTA has the professional standing. To date, we have agreed to trade booth space at our respective national conventions.

Strategic Partnerships

We selected corporate leaders, organized, and set the date of the first meeting of the Corporate Advisors Group. A detailed board book was sent to all new members. The first meeting was postponed due to Sept. 11th and has been rescheduled for mid-2002.

We tested the concept of convening meetings with local corporate leaders interested in science education in conjunction with conventions. This effort recruited 10 leaders from the Salt Lake City area, some of whom had financially contributed to the SLC meeting. These leaders were introduced to NSTA and its priorities at a successful reception held on the opening night of the convention. Each participant is now included in NSTA's database of supporters.

Our plans include researching sources of financial support for an NSTA capacity-building initiative. We hope to obtain foundation and/or corporate support for training and materials that will strengthen the governance and staff performance of NSTA.

"Programmatic Plan" The Professional Programs Division has been busy this past summer and fall providing many professional development (PD) opportunities for science educators. Challenges for the future include providing guidelines for the NCATE accreditation process every five years and fully developing a world-class PD program that blends onsite and online activities in a professional manner.

In addition, the PD task force report has been delivered to the Board of Directors. The task force identified three areas of opportunity for NSTA:

• develop a comprehensive needs assessment and professional development services product to be marketed directly to school districts in a "business-to-business" model
• integrate and expand existing professional development offerings to provide comprehensive assessment and professional development services to both individual and groups of science teachers
• forge new partnerships to increase access to quality professional development services for teachers and school districts

Awards and Recognitions http://www.nsta.org/awardscomp

Final judging for the 2002 NSTA Teacher Awards took place January 19-21, 2002. We experienced a dramatic increase in the numbers of applications received for the "Members Only" NSTA Distinguished Awards and the Robert Carleton Award. This is due to increased efforts to make members aware of this benefit opportunity. Sponsored teacher award application submissions remained at the same level as last year. The NSTA Teacher Award Programs will share a spot in the NSTA Showcase with the Membership Department. The 2003 Award Programs have a new deadline: -July 15, 2002.

The Building a Presence (BaP) for Science http://ecommerce.nsta.org/bap/

We have taken several large steps forward in the last six months with the BaP online system. First and foremost is the conversion to a database system in which all school names and addresses are entered into our database before the Point of Contact name. Much of this information was taken from the NSTA Registry. This process has many benefits for us: it eliminates user typos, it allows us to accurately determine which schools have and do not have a Point of Contact in which it allows states to create a preexisting grid that matched Key Leaders with their assigned schools; and it allows for an easier transition when replacing Points of Contact. In addition, the online system now features improved communication tools, including state-specific message boards and the ability of state coordinators to create custom e-mail lists.

Each of the National Partners received a letter in January reminding them of the value of the BaP communication system. Included in the mailing were materials that reacquainted them with the structure and goals of BaP, along with a list of events scheduled for BaP participants at the National Convention. Many responded that they looked forward to attending the special events at the convention, and a list of these attendees will be made available to senior staff for possible one-on-one conversations.

The BaP states are divided according to the phases of funding from ExxonMobil. For the Phase I states, the focus is now professional development.

NSTA staff is working with BSCS to develop two types of inquiry workshops that will enhance the BaP network. The first type will be a traditional face-to-face effort with BaP key leaders within states, and the second will be an online effort. In the online effort, we hope to engage the Points of Contact as the building facilitators of site discussion groups. This is similar to the concept put forth in the Glenn Commission report which called for "study/reflection" groups within school districts. BSCS held a session at the Salt Lake Area Convention in October and at the Memphis Convention in December. Both of these sessions were billed as a full day of professional development, but they were not as well attended as anticipated, suggesting that NSTA conventions may not be the best venue due to competition from many other available programs. However, this session, which focuses on inquiry, was presented to 130 Key Leaders in San Antonio on January 23rd. Feedback from this session will direct our decisions regarding delivery issues in the other Phase I states.

State activities in the Phase I states funded by ExxonMobil are

• a 3-hour training session for Texas Key Leaders on the Building a Presence Online System
• new BaP sessions focusing on inquiry learning and the program's communication system at the 25th Annual New Jersey Science Convention
• a specially designed train-the-trainer course for Points of Contact in Norfolk, VA. During 2002, these PoCs will train colleagues in every elementary school in the Norfolk School District on special aspects of teaching science. See the February/March 2002 issue of NSTA Reports! for more details.

In the Phase II group, a consortium of California partners under the guidance of WestEd Eisenhower Regional Consortium made an in-state announcement at the CSTA annual meeting in Palm Springs in October. The official program launch will take place at NSTA's National Convention in San Diego. Pennsylvania also announced its affiliation with BaP on December 5th as part of the PSTA annual convention. Final agreements should be concluded in the next few weeks in New York, Michigan, and Massachusetts. Connecticut and Wisconsin have identified a majority of their Key Leaders and held program trainings. Illinois has held a Building a Presence Day that highlighted the breadth of support for the program and drew many applications for both Key Leader and Point of Contact positions.

Conventions

NSTA has moved advance convention program planning forward another year. A meeting took place in November included the Program Committees for the 2003-4 conventions scheduled in Minneapolis, Kansas City, Reno, and Atlanta. Each of the future convention committees has accepted the challenge to develop several programmatic themes that will serve to enhance and sustain the PD opportunity for attendees. Efforts are under way to establish these strands with specific goals to select and coordinate sessions centered around these topics. Strand leaders will be expected to take a leadership role in implementing this component of the program. NSTA staff will link convention program strands to other venues of professional development.

In comparison with a number of other association conferences scheduled this fall, NSTA seemed to escape serious negative consequences from the September 11 events. Issues of travel approval, availability of substitutes for classroom teachers, and professional development support funds continue to challenge our convention operations.

NSTA holds the largest 'conversation' in science education in the world each spring through its national convention. The effort is a huge multi-million dollar enterprise. All organizations interested in science education - from governmental agencies to textbook companies - want to join that conversation. Like-minded organizations want to give presentations at our convention and use the proposal-submission mechanism. Our policy has been that if an organization is promoting a particular product or service, it is deemed a commercial venture and must be delivered via the exhibitor-workshop mechanism. This means that the proposal is not in competition with other proposals from members, but NSTA would charge a fee for this activity. Organizations such as BSCS or AAAS could easily submit a half-dozen proposals, each for each of our conventions.

Corporate Recognition Programs http://www.nsta.org/awardscomp

Expanded programs, a new multi-year contract, and a resolve to prevent the events of September 11th from diminishing the excellence of student achievement in science are hallmarks of NSTA Corporate Recognition Programs this year. Toshiba renewed its contract with NSTA to administer ExploraVision for another three years, through June 2004, at the rate of $1,050,000 per year. The student competition, now in its tenth year, serves as the prototype for similar programs sponsored by Toshiba in China, Japan and the United Kingdom. Toshiba marked ExploraVision's tenth anniversary with a four-page editorial/ad in the October 1, 2001, issue of Time magazine that highlights NSTA and celebrates the more than 200,000 students who have participated since the program's inception. Toyota TAPESTRY expanded its teacher grants this academic year to include a new science and literacy category and mini-grants for smaller, less complex projects. A total of $550,000 in TAPESTRY grants will be awarded, an increase of $50,000 over each of the previous eleven years of the program.

NSTA and Sears experienced new challenges in the program's sixth year because Sept 11th occurred during the same week as the Craftsman Young Inventors Awards weekend. This put NSTA's program administration to the test, and we impressed Sears with our ability to respond to the unexpected. The awards weekend was postponed until December, at which time Sears and NSTA gathered with the student winners, their parents and teachers in Chicago to celebrate this year's Young Inventors and declare everyone's resolve to overcome our national tragedy.

NSTA Corporate Recognition Programs will generate more than $2.5 million in combined sponsorship fees for the Association this year and will award nearly one million dollars in grants and prizes to students, teachers, and schools throughout the United States and Canada. These programs support NSTA's "science for all" mission; provide innovative learning, teaching, and economic resources to our members; and help increase NSTA revenues by enabling the purchase of association advertising, exhibit space, and other products. Whenever feasible, Corporate Recognition Programs use internal rather than outside services, thereby keeping sponsorship funds within NSTA and increasing the association's buying power.

Astronomy With a Stick Day Into Night Astronomy Education Programs http://www.nsta.org/301 Stimulated by a partnership with Sylvia Shugrue, NSTA Past President, the "Astronomy With a Stick" program has been expanded to a second project in partnership with the Hubble Space Telescope Institute. This new effort adds to the nine nighttime astronomy lessons online a series of online upper-elementary level activities that center on the broad problem of light pollution. These activities are accessible from the NSTA web site, and formats are available for data exchange. Future expansions are being planned to address the astronomy education needs of lower-elementary level students.

NASA Educational Workshops (NEW) http://www.nsta.org/new - Ten "core" workshops and nine specialized workshops were planned for implementation last summer and fall. Two of the specialized workshops developed for informal educators, representing science centers/museums, had to be postponed due to the aftermath of September 11th. The other specialized workshops included two for urban educators, two focused on educators serving Native American populations, one that addressed the needs of Puerto Rico teachers, one that focused on the needs of rural educators, and one workshop of a systemic nature designed to support the needs of teachers in West Virginia.

Ten core workshops are again being planned for summer 2002 and will occur at each of the ten NASA Field Center locations. A pilot test is under-way with two of these workshops to convert them from individual-teacher applications to a team format. Five specialized workshops are also being planned. Two will have an urban focus; one will center on the needs of Native American populations; one will address the systemic needs of South Carolina teachers, and another workshop will serve science center/museum educators. Extra effort is being expended in the new cooperative agreement to address the needs of the program participants to further sustain the initial professional development experience. The NSTA Institute venue will serve well in this capacity.

NSF/NSTA Webwatchers Program http://www.nsta.org/218 - Two successful workshops were held last summer for elementary and secondary science teachers. More than 350 teachers applied online for the 40 positions available. Both groups developed web guides centered on major concepts in science. These web guides are currently undergoing pilot testing and eventually will be available on the NSTA web site for all teachers.

The application process is under way for two upcoming summer workshops, one for K-6 and the other for grades 7-12 teachers. Since the program is in the third and final year of its NSF contract, decisions for appropriate follow up are being reviewed.

NSTA Institute http://ecommerce.nsta.org/institute/

The Institute has two components: an online presence and onsite (face-to-face) programs.

Last summer's onsite offering the "Inquiry: The Bridge Between Content Standards and Student Learning" Program, attracted 22 participants to the Lied Conference Center in Nebraska. The conception of this professional development program for middle level science teachers was stimulated by interest from District XI leaders in Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri., who worked with NSTA staff to develop a pilot program. Collaboration and support from the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) Eisenhower Regional Consortium and Riverdeep Interactive Learning gave us an additional incentive to offer a test run of this new professional development venue for NSTA. Financial support from Riverdeep enabled us to provide scholarships for the attendees. NSTA Board member Susan Koba provided important leadership from the field in the creation and implementation of this program.

A second onsite Institute program was offered at the conclusion of the NSTA Area Convention in Columbus. Responding to needs expressed by university science education departments regarding the NCATE certification requirements the full-day NSTA Institute "Preparing for an NCATE Review of the Science Teacher Preparation Program" was offered via an e-mail solicitation. Registration exceeded a planned cap of 45, with 53 actually attending. A repeat of this NSTA Institute Program is scheduled this spring, onsite during the San Diego National Convention.

The online component of the NSTA Institute has been evolving over the past 6 months. It started as a pilot with a single partner, the Burns Telecom Center (BTC) at Montana State University. Their National Teachers Enhancement Network (NTEN) offers semester-long, content-rich courses for middle level and high school science teachers.

A "Learning Anywhere Anyplace" (LAAP) proposal for the original concept was co-submitted by NSTA, BTC, and CSSS to the Department of Education. It failed to receive funding. Since then, NSTA has sought additional online course providers to help fund the initiative. The first new provider is the JASON Academy. NSTA is charging JASON a fee for marketing, and the Burns Center has agreed to split their profits for the same marketing services. JASON offers 5-week courses for middle level science teachers.

As directed by the Board [7/01BOD57], staff is continuing to pursue a partnership with Montana State University to accomplish, at least partly, the objectives of the LAAP proposal. Copies of the failed LAAP grant, as well as the external evaluation of Montana's NTEN courses have been sent to the Board subcommittee overseeing the partnership conversations.

In January, the BTC partners learned they would be receiving $500K of federal funds earmarked for work with NSTA on its portal. NSTA staff has not yet met with BTC to discuss the implications of this earmark.

We have, to date, received inquiries from 3 other groups seeking to be part of the online portal. The first are two online masters degree programs for high school biology and chemistry teachers from the University of Maryland. NSTA received an inquiry from Lesley College (via TERC). Lesley also has an online masters degree for elementary teachers. We were also contacted by the Museum of Natural History in NYC. All of these constitute interesting challenges and opportunities.

Self-Assessment Tool for the NSTA Institute Portal

We're developing an online self-assessment tool for the portal that would allow individual teachers to fill out a questionnaire on their background, teaching assignments, etc. and get a report, or recommendation, of a professional development plan. Susan Koba (Omaha) is building such a tool, and we've had conversations about how NSTA might piggyback onto their efforts. One of the delightful features of Susan's tool is the ability to have a mentor be part of the process. In the Omaha scenario, the mentor would be a local teacher, and the interaction would be face-to-face. Within NSTA's portal, a 3rd-grade teacher can be paired with another, more experienced, 3rd-grade teacher miles and time zones away.

Telementoring Initiative

The above telementoring effort may be aided by an emerging partnership among the Teacher Center in Santa Cruz, Montana State University's School of Education faculty, and NSTA. (The MSU faculty are not the same people who are part of partnership staff. The Teacher Center staff has quite a bit of experience with mentoring, but, as in the Omaha project, they are using face-to-face interactions. Dr. Elisabeth Swanson at Montana State has used an NSF teacher collaborative grant to develop a successful telementoring program. NSTA was approached by the two groups a few months ago to further enhance telementoring. We submitted a proposal to NSF that did not get funded. We'll be doing a pilot this spring that will be sponsored by the Montana State partners.

An Inter-Association Website for Elementary Teachers?

Executive Directors from IRA, NCTE, and NCSS met with NSTA's Executive Director this winter. NSTA proposed jointly sponsoring a free (or almost free; to be determined) website for elementary teachers to which the different organizations would contribute existing journal articles, top tips, etc. Since the other Executive Directors were interested, NSTA staff is exploring the implications. Staff will be hosting a focus group in February for DC-area elementary teachers to find out what they believe site should include.

Suppliers Guide Goes Online http://ecommerce.nsta.org/suppliers/

We no longer have a printed version of the Supplier's Guide. The online version is finished and will be going live soon. We will have a direct link from NSTA's homepage for the guide within the month. As convention attendance drops, we'll need to find ways to keep vendors. This new effort won't bring much revenue in but it will help with vendor relations.

FDA/NSTA Professional Development Program in Food Science http://www.nsta.org/286

Currently three phases of this program are in operation. Those fifty educators involved in the Summer 2000 workshop program are now completing their own district- or regional-based follow-up workshops. The second-phase group participated in the Summer Workshop and held their enhancement conference in the fall in conjunction with the NSTA Area Convention in Columbus. They are now beginning to arrange their community-based workshops. In a third phase of the program, teacher applicants are currently being solicited for the Summer 2002 program. In addition to these three simultaneously running contracts, additional support for this food science initiative is being provided by the Science and Our Food Supply dissemination project and the Albertson's supported project for the NSTA Institute programs outlined earlier.

NSTA provided the leadership for a most successful press conference and release of the new FDA/NSTA curriculum kit, Science and Our Food Supply. Although this National Press Club event had to be postponed due to world events, the need for materials to help students understand microbiology was underscored with the anthrax threats in the Washington, DC, area. Cindy Workosky has monitored significant follow-up press activity, and our partners at FDA have been impressed with NSTA's leadership in this endeavor.

A new contractual agreement between FDA and NSTA serves to disseminate information about the Science and Our Food Supply curriculum. Through NSTA staff and many of its services, science teachers are being made aware of the availability of this curriculum. A system is in place that allows interested parties to simply provide the necessary contact information on a web site (http://www.nsta.org/fdacurriculum), and the entire curriculum kit consisting of middle level and high school teacher and curriculum materials, an A to Z reference guide, and an introductory videotape (which won an Emmy Award!) is sent at no charge.

Albertson's and FDA Food Science Projects

Albertson's, Inc., a national grocery and pharmaceutical chain, has agreed to partner with NSTA to provide for NSTA Institute offerings to train teachers to use the FDA/NSTA materials. An additional component of the partnership agreement allows NSTA and Albertson's to match interested science teachers with support from local grocers for the training program along with follow-up support.

LYSOL/NSTA Science and Your Health Challenge http://www.nsta.org/302

In response to interest from representatives of the Lysol Brand, the NSTA Professional Programs Division developed and implemented a new partnership program this fall. The goals of the program are to further stimulate interest and participation in the learning of science at the elementary level and to provide recognition and professional development support to elementary teachers of science. Because we had an extremely tight timeline to get the program up and running this academic year, we required the support of the chair, Kathy Horstmeyer, and members of the Preschool Elementary Committee, other local educators, and the review of the Awards Committee. Despite the short timeline and limited ability to promote this new program, adequate applications have been reviewed, and fifty elementary science educators will receive $1,500 awards. The award provides $1,000 toward travel, registration, and accommodations for the NSTA National Convention in San Diego and $500 toward purchase of science teaching materials. A special recognition event and poster session is scheduled in San Diego.

"Product Plans" The products activities includes all of NSTA's print efforts plus the online initiatives aligned to print efforts. The NSTA website, online newsletters, and SciLinks, for example, are part of the Product Plans.

Journals http://www.nsta.org/40

Two of NSTA's K-12 journals began the new school year with a fresh look: Both Science & Children and The Science Teacher sport strong new designs that presage a deeper rethinking of journal content and processes this spring and summer. The thinking has been ongoing for two years. And it is made manifest in the new look of the journals and in readjustment of some back-of-the-book content (such as NSTA Recommends) to highlight our services to education in general and to members in particular.

January 14th marked the first in a series of meetings devoted to a renovation of NSTA's venerable and valued journals. The aim is to make sure journals are doing their part to serve today's teachers' needs, and doing so in a reader-friendly way, by

• Increasing our efforts to attract strong articles-this means well-written, relevant, accurate, and Standards-driven pieces
• Adding departments for key constituencies, such as new teachers
• Delineating more clearly the complimentary roles of staff and field editors, and assigning appropriate decision-making powers to each. In addition, we are standardizing practices across journals-from the introduction of a paperless review system (already near-complete) to the creation of a set of unified submission and acceptance procedures
• Incorporating multiple (and distinct) voices, mainly through commentary from educational leaders, individual teachers, and other informative and attractive personalities who prove able to "connect" with journal readers
• Using design cues as well as explicit text instructions to signal readers as to which articles offer "just-in-time help" and which require-and will reward-more thoughtful reading
• Making the journals simultaneously more predictable and more varied. That is, providing more regularly featured content to build steady readership, while at the same time offering greater variety in length, style, and point of view.

As mentioned earlier, NSTA membership retention rates are alarmingly low. Journals play a role in retention. Low retention rates are not necessarily an indictment of the journals because so many other factors influence the decision to renew. But it's hardly an endorsement, either. So the Periodicals staff is determined to do its all to improve those rates-and that "all" specifically includes altering NSTA's relationship with its field editors to (a) take best possible advantage of their knowledge and experience and (b) simultaneously "raise the bar" for both the performance and the decision-making power of staff editors.

Learning Network Newsletter

In an effort to gain the attention of the greatest number of teachers who might not otherwise think of visiting our web site, we have joined in a two-year partnership with the Learning Network to publish a monthly e-newsletter on science teaching. The Learning Network is the online arm of Pearson, the world's largest educational publisher. The monthly science newsletter-previously a veritable mausoleum of old textbook content from Pearson subsidiaries-has been largely replaced with carefully restricted but timely selections from NSTA's online journal archive and by original content jointly developed with Learning Network staff. The actual commercial value of this relationship is unclear: hence the two-year term, to allow for (a) sufficient time to take its measure and (b) an easy exit if the deal becomes undesirable.

The unquestioned value, however, lies in skill building for NSTA-where developing short, to-the-point, and timely material has been the exception rather than the rule. Journals, for instance, have long lead times and are developed mainly by novice writers. Staff editors strive to enliven the material. But working with original content, well written from the start and designed to be brief-in acknowledgment of teachers' crowded schedules-is a necessary expansion of Pubs' skill set.

NSTA Press® http://www.nsta.org/pubs/nstapress/index.htm

Six new books have been published since June; another six are due out in March. Practical, focused titles like Hands-on Herpetology exemplify the Press's two-year-old trend toward greater coverage of core content, while the revival of NSTA's yearbook series brings a distinguished group of thinkers together to address current pedagogical concerns.

A quick scan of NSTA's recent publishing history shows an over-emphasis on environmental titles and a titles list guided more by funding opportunities than by actual market need. The new director, Claire Reinburg, comes to us from the American Psychiatric Association, where she was Editorial Director of their publishing unit for the past decade. There she simultaneously wrestled with challenging scientific topics while slowly but steadily building a $10 million book business. And she forged a particularly strong reputation for effective use of volunteers.

NSTA Recommends® http://www.nsta.org/recommends/default.asp

NSTA Press® continues to grow and improve. The catalog is now called "NSTA Recommends," and we're getting compliments on this new approach.

NSTA and Reading

NSTA has entered into the "content-area reading" marketplace, partnering with the Great Source Education Group, a Houghton-Mifflin subsidiary. Hoping to echo its success with an earlier social studies/reading program, Great Source is developing a new program that builds reading skills by including high-interest science content, buttressed by activities garnered from our online journal archive. NSTA is contributing to the selection of the readings, reviewing all content for accuracy, and assigning appropriate SciLinks - in the process expanding our efforts to release SciLinks from the exclusive embrace of Holt and Harcourt.

SciLinks™ http://www.nsta.org/91

SciLinks now has four publishers (in addition to NSTA publications):

• Holt, Rinehart and Winston (middle and high school texts)
• Harcourt Publishing (elementary texts)
• Kendall-Hunt Publishing (BSCS high school biology)
• Great Source Education Group (supplementary materials)

The statistics for JUST the month of October were

• 5 million hits (169,000 per day)
• 991,743 page views (31,991 per day)
• 126,767 SciLinks viewed
• 217,146 websites viewed
• 27,646 unique visitors
• 6,947 visited more than once
• 1,219 visited 10+ times
• Average visit length is 14:32 minutes
• Median visit length 6:08 minutes

Website http://www.nsta.org/index.html

Fall 2001 witnessed the launch of our redesigned website, with its distinctive graphic treatment, clearer navigation, and useful new tools, including a calendar function that allows convention registrants to build their own personal schedules.

Leading off the new website - and still unproven, but promising in its direct value to members and other teachers-is a daily gathering of news about science, teaching, science teaching, and NSTA itself.

"Financial Plan" Our fiscal year 2001 audited financial statements reflect that NSTA ended up with an unprecedented operational surplus of $1.5 million. We have built the reserves at a much higher rate than requested by the Board in July 1997. In January 1997, the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors [1/97 EC7] charged staff with reaching a reserve of 40% of operations within 20 years. We accomplished it in 5 years. The good news, of course, is that this reserve gives the Board the opportunity to think in ways that it couldn't afford to do a few years ago. The surplus exists for a number of reasons: Our income from exhibits and advertising was much higher than budgeted, and we realized significant savings in a couple of areas.

The future might not be as rosy: In addition to the loss of Eisenhower monies, by all reports, the advertising industry is going "into the cellar." It is not clear what the impact on NSTA will be. To date, we have held our own, but as the economy continues to slump, we need to watch carefully the trends in vendor spending on marketing.

While the interim budget for 2002-2003 might seem like a "place holder" until the Board sees the revision budget at its summer meeting, it is an important first step toward aligning our financial activities with the Board's programmatic desires. The financial consequences of the Board's priority-ranked goals (see page one) may be slightly visible in this interim budget, but again, due to the uncertainty of "the times" and the mismatch of our fiscal year calendar, the goals won't really percolate to the financial surface until next summer's Board meeting.

Advertising and Exhibits

For the first time since fiscal year 1973-74, NSTA is experiencing a decline in its advertising sales. The reasons for the ad decline are varied, including the ad decline that others are experiencing throughout the U.S. ad market. Nevertheless, NSTA ad sales are still relatively strong. The difficulty is that ad sales as of a year ago were exceptionally strong. NSTA experienced ad increases for the last twenty-seven consecutive years.

Beginning with the September '01 journals, NSTA strengthened its reader service program by adding a line for e-mail addresses on the reader service cards and by including a device that allowed teachers to indicate their approval for promotional materials to be sent to them electronically. The indexes of advertisers in all publications were also expanded with advertisers' web addresses and toll-free phone numbers. With the online version of the Directory, banner ads returned to our website.

Despite the events of Sept. 11th, area conventions had a modest increase in exhibit sales, up about $86K from the predictions of the revision budget. The three area conventions for fall 2001 had exhibit sales to 324 exhibitors who rented 544 10x10. While the numbers within exhibits continue to look strong, it is important to realize the lag time between changing registration numbers and vendor sales. Our challenge right now is to maintain vendors' satisfaction with their decision to attend NSTA conventions and advertise in NSTA journals. To increase teacher traffic in the exhibit halls during closing hours of fall meetings, raffles were conducted during which exhibitors gave away prizes.

AIMS Report

NSTA has used the financial analysis services of Association Information Management Services (AIMS) for the last 6 years. Their benchmarking services allow us to compare our results from year to year and to some extent compare NSTA with other associations. (The individual who runs this service is now retired, and the universe of comparative associations has diminished; nevertheless, benchmarking ourselves from year to year remains valuable.)

The key items included in the report

• A good profit percentage in 2001 improved NSTA's financial strength, but it still remains weaker than that of other associations. Key ratios indicating financial health include
  • the current ratio now stands at 1.48 compared to 0.84 in 1997
  • days cash on hand now stands at 164 days compared to 43 days in 1997
  • reserves by total assets - 28.09 compared to 8.51 in 1997

The report indicates that continued profitable operations are necessary to build NSTA's financial strength to an appropriate level compared to other associations.

• An increase in revenue from conventions and an improvement in margin on these activities both were important to the good profit percentage. NSTA earns a larger percentage of revenue from conventions than from any other source of revenue - 30.9% compared to 17.9% in dues - and a larger percentage than is typical of other associations, which earn between 16.5% and 21.9% of revenue from conventions. The margin between convention revenue and expenses has improved this last year. The report indicates that NSTA's margin from conventions remains somewhat below the level achieved by associations of NSTA's size.
  
• Revenue from publishing improved with an increase of 12.4% and now represents 10.2% of our total revenue; expenses seem reasonable and inventory is under control. The analysis reports that large associations like NSTA earn the highest percentage of revenue from publication activities, a somewhat higher percentage than NSTA earns.
  
• The increase in the number of members from last year, 2.0%, is smaller than the increase other associations have experienced. The change in dues revenue, 2.5%, was also smaller than that of other associations, which had dues revenue increases ranging from 4.8% to 7.5%.
  
• NSTA's cost per square foot is steadily declining: $28.40 in 2001 compared to $38.32 in 1997. As a result of the combination of lower cost and a small amount of space per employee, occupancy cost per FTE declined to 7,672 in 2001 from 10,252 in 1997, and it is extremely low compared with other associations, which range from 11,373 to 15,032.
  
• Days revenue in receivables has declined each year since 1997, 24.7 days compared to 44.2 days. It is low compared with other associations, which range from 42.6 to 61.7 days. This indicates that NSTA is collecting amounts due more promptly than is typical of other associations. Accounts receivable as a percentage of assets have also declined steadily over the years, from 7.7% in 1997 to 3.7% in 2001.
  
• Uninvested cash as a percentage of total assets decreased in 2001 to 0.42% of assets and remains lower than is typical of other associations: 5.5% to 11.8%. The report indicates that NSTA has a consistent, effective program to keep cash invested to yield non-dues revenue for the association.

For the AIMS analysis, contributions, contracts, grants, and special projects revenue plus SciLinks are classified as other major revenue activities. Except for a small improvement in 2000, a steady decline has occurred in the percentage of revenue of this type, but a steady improvement has taken place in the margin between this revenue and related direct expenses.

Conventions

One of the ways to keep the budget in the black is to "shoot low" with the attendance prediction for our conventions, especially the national. Our national convention is the largest revenue event of the year, and it occurs very close to the end of our fiscal year. Any mistake in predicting that number could be catastrophic. We've adopted a conservative stance.

We experienced a shortfall in attendance at the three fall 2001 conventions of about $25K/convention. Overall we had about a 10% decline in attendance. The gain in exhibits covered this loss, but the point here is that the drop in attendance can be a harbinger of things to come. A number of factors affect our conventions' future. The biggest immediate factor is the difficulty teachers face in release time from school. Federal support is still there but will be disappearing in 18 months. As mentioned above in Advertising and Exhibits, the mood of our exhibit vendors drops when they feel they're not getting what they paid for: traffic to their booth. A lot of complaining was heard from vendors in Salt Lake. On the same weekend that we were in Salt Lake, the California Science Teachers were attracting twice as many registrants.

The Science Store came in close to target (Salt Lake was on target; Columbus above; and Memphis below). The Science Store income was not related to registrants: Experience shows us that the average income for the store is $14/head. At Salt Lake our take was $15.11/head; at Columbus, $16.01/head; and at Memphis, $10.66/head. I don't know the reasons for the low attendance and variation in Science Store spending. It's easy to blame "Sept 11th" and even the legislation, but the answer may be more complex.

Facilities

Delta Computer Education defaulted on their lease and filed for bankruptcy in September. The bankruptcy court had to make arrangements for the auction of all of Delta's furniture, fixtures, and equipment, and this was completed in December 2001. Everything was removed from the NSTA building soon afterward. On a positive note, the RARE Center, a tenant in the building, has agreed to negotiate the extension of their lease (1 year left) to a term of 5 years or more. The Biotechnology Institute has moved in as a tenant on the second floor. Additionally, the attorney tenants on the second floor indicated that they wish to remain in the building indefinitely.

International Reading Association is doing a cost study to determine the feasibility of leaving their DC location and taking space in the NSTA headquarters building. They seem to be most interested in space on the 2nd floor, though they have considered the first- and second-floor spaces. They would be interested in a five-or more-year lease if it they decide to rent the space. JETS, the Junior Engineering Technical Society, is also interested in space in our building, coupled with an association management agreement that would include financial accounting and payroll management.

Partnerships: AAAS/Project 2061

We've held discussions with Project 2061 leadership on possible partnerships with them. Three tentative models emerged:

• that NSTA markets their onsite workshops and NSTA gets a percentage of the revenue
• that AAAS trains BaP key leaders to run P2061 workshops
• that NSTA develops an online workshop on the Atlas for Scientific Literacy

2001 Executive Director's Report