Welcome

Letter from the IDEA President 

IDEA Members,

The Fall Conference was a great opportunity to meet together, attend workshops, learn the latest and greatest software upgrades, and prepare ourselves to teach our students the 21st Century skills that they will need for their future success. Congratulations to Mark Anderson, Dr. Ryan Brown, ISU, and the IDEA Board for offering another great fall workshop. It was a great day to greet our fellow drafting and design instructors from throughout the state. Attendees came from the north and south, east and west, and went away with new knowledge and skills.

The conference business meeting also allowed members to discuss and approved changes to the IDEA constitution. The biggest changes affects the election and terms of the executive board.  We will now submit a slate of candidates to be elected to the 5 member Board. This elected Board will then reorganize to fill the positions of President, Vice President, Secretary, and Membership Chairs much as local school boards do. Elected officers may serve consecutive terms. In odd-numbered years, three members will be elected, and in even-numbered years, two members will be elected. Board members may choose to serve multiple terms if they so desire and are elected. Following nominations the Board reorganized for 2013-14 with President- Steve Skorup, Vice President- Brain Rick, Secretary- Kevin Weston, and Membership Chairs- Pat Feulner-North and Joe Wuest- South.

It was great to make our award presentations during our Thursday lunch session and again during our Friday IDEA/TEAI ITEC breakfast session. Congrats to the following recipients:   

IDEA Awards and Recognitions

 "Friend of IDEA"   Dan Coleman of MasterGraphics 

"Teacher of the Year"   Mark Molinari - Downers Grove South

With the adoption of the new IDEA Constitution we will no longer be acknowledging a Past President.  We will be awarding service awards for serving on the Board once the member has finished their term or commitment. We also will be starting a new program of awarding you- the teacher members—awards for your years of memebership and commitment to IDEA and your students. When you register as a member we will be asking you to indicate how many years you have been involved in IDEA. These records are not up to date or available so we will start our initial list based upon your input. We will be sending out certificates for 5 year and plaques for 10, 15, 20, 25, etc years of membership. 

At last year's 2012 Fall Conference the membership voted to allow the Board fund $500/year Dr. Ryan Brown Scholarship.  The scholarship application will be linked from our site. Please encourage your former  IDEA and current ISU CAST students to apply.

I hope that your year is off to a great start and we will see you in the spring at the IDEA Regional and State contests.

Sincerely,

Steve Skorup
IDEA President
Waubonsie Valley HS Instructor

Ryan K. Brown IDEA Scholarship

Students who have participated in the IDEA annual Drafting and Design Competition and who are attending or planning to attend Illinois State University are now eligible to apply for the new Ryan K. Brown IDEA Scholarship.   Applications are due by May 15, 2014.