History

20 Year Celebration Photo Mashup published in the March 1996 MACUL Newsletter

40+ Years and Counting

MACUL has given over 40 years of service so far to educators and students in the state of Michigan. The organization continues to grow and garner support for education and technology.

“Within the MACUL organization there has always been a spirit of exploration. Look to MACUL for leadership. The spirit of early MACUL pioneers always will find a warm home within our amazing organization.” Greg Czarnecki, long-time MACUL Newsletter columnist

The First Year

The Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning or MACUL was started in 1976. On February 24, 1976 there were 49 attendees that met to ratify the organization’s proposed constitution and name.

MACUL’s leading group was President Tom Hartsig, President Elect Larry Molloy, Secretary Margaret Nielsen, Treasurer Roland Meade, and Communications Secretary Lary Smith. The Board of Directors included John Camp, Garrett Vander Lugt, Bessie Cobbins, and Leighton Price.

The first board meeting was on July 8 of that year. They decided to sponsor sessions in October 1976 at the MAEDS (Michigan Association of Educational Data Systems) and hold a conference in the Spring of 1977.

Board Members

Over the years there have been many that have stepped into leadership roles within the organization. Thank-you to our the current and past board members for giving their time and support to MACUL!

Past Presidents

Annual Conference

MACUL holds one of the largest Midwest annual conferences for K-12 educators.

The first MACUL conference “Spring into Instructional Computing” was held on Thursday, March 17 at Oakland Community College, Oakland Ridge Campus. There were 189 in attendance with a total of 16 sessions.

Since that time, the conference has continued to grow in attendance growing to over 5,000 attendees and 300+ session! The 2020 conference theme is “Inspiring Innovative Practices” and is at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, MI!

Milestones

– The first MACUL Grants were given out in 1987.
– The first executive director Ric Wiltse started in January 1999.
– MACUL received 501c(3) designation in 2000.
– The first Student Technology Showcase was at the 2000 MACUL conference.
– The current MACUL logo was adopted in 2012.
– Over 5,000 attendees were at the 2015 MACUL conference in Detroit.