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Present: Task Force Members: Patti Brown (Denison University), Roger Casey* (Rollins College), Anne Ledvina (Birmingham-Southern College), Sue Mennicke (Southwestern University), Blake Michael (Ohio Wesleyan University), Michael Monahan (Macalester College), Patrick Quade (St. Olaf College), Elizabeth Hayford* (President, ACM), Tanya Lee (Project Coordinator, ACM)

*members of the GPP Coordinating Committee

The Best Practices Task Force met once each of the four days of the Best Practices Conference: "Integrating Liberal Learning and Intercultural Education: Theoretical Frameworks and Best Practices." In the course of these meetings, the following topics were discussed.

The Conference

A considerable amount of time was, of course, devoted to immediate logistical concerns of the conference. The Task Force also reported to each other at every meeting on comments they had heard from participants and on their general sense of how the conference was going. General impressions were highly positive. Roger Casey commented that the intergenerational aspect of the conference was unusual and good, and Sue Mennicke felt that that applied to the mix of participants overall. Several commented that Milton Bennett had spoken well to the point of the conference and had spurred a lot of conversations, with people referring back to his presentations frequently.

Partners Projects

Discussions on the Partners Projects continued where the May 9 discussions left off. The Task Force confirmed their earlier decision that the standard grant would be $2,500, with applicants invited to "make a case" for needs above this amount. The question of stipends -- whether the award should include a stipend for some or all project participants and how much that stipend should be -- is to be left to applicants to determine. Upon completion of the projects in 2002, each Partners Project team will be required to submit a budgetary report with receipts along with a full report on how the project was accomplished, to be posted on the Web site. Blake Michael, Anne Ledvina and Patti Brown will be the selection committee for the Partners Projects, communicating through e-mail correspondence and a conference call.

Follow-up

Since the Partners Projects will track only a select few of the conference participants after the conference, it was felt that we should make an effort to keep in contact with all of the participants in some manner, in order to track how their projects progress. It was suggested that a leader from each team should be recognized and regular contact should be established with him/her; the question of representation from institutions that did not attend the conference was left open. Also, the deans ought to be informed of how the conference went, perhaps in the form of a formal report.

Future Best Practices Activities

The Task Force also discussed possibilities for future conferences and/or meetings under the auspices of Best Practices. Several conference participants suggested repeating this conference after a suitable interval. The consortial presidents and the Mellon Foundation are not receptive to direct replication, however, Elizabeth Hayford pointed out, and it would therefore be better to focus in on particular topics at future conferences or meetings. There was some discussion of the feasibility of developing cross-consortial programs. Other ideas included:

The Task Force agreed that their next meeting would be in September, to discuss the next phase of Best Practices. New members will be recruited by the consortial presidents over the summer.

Submitted by Tanya Lee, 7/17/01