a. Nominations and Elections: Joyce Fine reported the results of the election for two ARF Board Members. The new board members are George Hruby and Cindy Hendricks. Further, Jill Lewis has agreed to continue as Chair of ARF and Joyce Fine will continue as Past Chair . Fine also reported that the committee is investigating the possibilities of having elections online.

b. Membership: Brenda Townsend reported that currently ARF has 111 members plus 14 student members. She asked that conference participants visit the ARF conference registration desk to verify the accuracy of their contact information, because e-mail is the primary means ARF communicates with members. Additionally, she requested that interested members volunteer for the membership committee.

c. Publications: Bob Schlagel reported that from last year’s conference, there were 21 articles submitted, with 5 of these rejected and 10 in a final revision stage. There were two keynote articles submitted, and 1 is pending revision. January is the deadline for review. Papers will be up within the next several weeks, and April is the deadline for the publication of all articles on the e-journal.

Bob Schlagal reported that next year is the last year for this editorial group. ARF is seeking volunteers for the next editorial group. As soon as the new editors are identified, the current editors will begin working with them to ensure a sooth transition.

d. Conference Program: Cynthia Bertelsen and Lessie Cochran reported that at the current conference there were 121 presentations scheduled and 3 general sessions. They thanked the members of their committee (Cindy Hendricks, James Hendricks, Mike French) and all of the presenters and keynote speakers.

e. Proposal Review: Joanne and Randy Bass reported that the call for proposals for the 2005 conference were distributed to participants and would be posted on the ARF website. They announced that March 14, 2005 is the deadline for proposal submission; however the deadline for graduate students is September 19, 2005.

f. Budget: Jill Lewis reported for Treasurer Dowhower that an additional $800 had been allocated to Appalachian State University for technical assistance. Attendees reviewed a sheet that had been distributed with budget projections as compared to former years . Attendees had no questions regarding the budget report.

g. Graduate Student Mentoring: Randy Bass and Lynn Yribarren thanked ARF members for their scholarship donations. They made graduate scholarship awards in the amount of $200 to the following individuals: Tammi Luke, David Meredith, Cathie Stamper, Gail Rice, Mary Coates, and Sean Baughn.

h. Site Selection: Peggy Ransom reported that the committee looks for sites on a three year cycle. Next year the committee will begin looking for sites. She reported that the ARF conference is scheduled for the Sundial for 2005, 2006, and possibly for 2007.

i. Public Relations: Jill Lewis reported for Mike French that the Shrimp Fest was a great success and that he thanked all who participated. Jill Lewis thanked Mike for heading up this annual conference event.

j. Service Award: Joyce Fine reported that the first annual Brenda S. Townsend Service Award was presented at the conference this year to Brenda Townsend for her outstanding contributions to the organization. She reported that to be considered for this award, an individual needs to have been a member of ARF for 10 consecutive years and needs to have served ARF in multiple capacities. E-mail nominations will be accepted from December through June. Nomination applications will be read by Service Award Committee members, who will vote in September for the award recipient. A plaque and ARF life membership will be presented at the annual conference. The application will be on the ARF website.

k. International Projects: Sharon Kossack reported that the Abaco Diagnostic Project was well underway. More clinical educators would be certified by February, 2005. She reported that due to the hurricanes, Abaco had lost many children’s books and was in great need of book donations. Sharon Kossack said that she would see that all donated books reached Abaco children. Jill Lewis added that books should be new or like new.

Sharon reported that the following international conferences were approaching:

· February, Guatemala Reading Association

· June, Latin American Congress

a. 2005 Conference Program: Randy and Joanne Bass announced that the theme for the 2005 conference is “The Next Big Thing.” They encouraged members to write proposals related to this theme, and they requested input for speakers for general sessions who would be particularly able to speak on the topic of the conference theme.

b. 2006 Conference: Jill Lewis announced that Beth Frye is the chair for the 2006 conference and that she may be looking for a co-chair.

c. CRA/ARF Co-sponsored Session: Jill Lewis announced that the ARF Board of Directors was working on establishing a co-sponsored session at the CRA conference. Mike French will be coordinating these arrangements as well as investigating the possibilities of co-sponsored meetings at NRC, ACTE, AERA, etc.

d. Auction: Terry Bullock announced that George Hruby made the high bid for both the Gray and the Elson readers, and that Glenda Lofton made the high bid for the 1940 edition of Fun with Dick and Jane. Money raised will support the scholarship fund.

Terry announced a new auction that will involve bidding on having Donna Alverman for a day of professional development. The willing institution will pay for expenses and all money raised though the action will support the scholarship fund.

e. On behalf of ARF members, Terry Bullock expressed sincere thanks to Jill Lewis for all of her tremendous efforts as president of ARF this year, given the many problems she had to deal with due to problems created by the hurricane that required that the conference be moved from Sanibel to Marco Island in a very short period of time. He praised her leadership in bringing fun and sincerity to this year’s annual conference.