JUNE 25, 2003

PHILADELPHIA, PA

 

The Annual Business Meeting of the Teratology Society was called to order by President William Slikker at 5:00 PM.  Approximately 65 Society members were in attendance at the call to order.  A motion to accept the minutes of the previous business meeting (as posted on the web site and in the registration lobby) was made, seconded and the approved by those in attendance.

 

PRESIDENT'S REPORT - Bill Slikker reviewed the progress the Society made in implementing our Strategic Plan over the past year.  We had organized a full day Public Affairs Committee Workshop, there have been press releases announcing Society positions on important areas of concern, Ron Jensh has been appointed Society Historian and many items are being catalogued and reviewed, we have a trip to the Mutter Museum to provide entertainment for spouses and families and the Philadelphia Convention Bureau has a table in the registration area to provide members with information about places to go and things to due in the Philadelphia area.  The past presidents of the Society have all been personally invited to attend the awards luncheon this year, we have organized a Behavioral Test Methods Workshop in conjunction with NBTS and BTS and it was held immediately prior to our meeting, the Web site has been revised and the Membership Directory is now on-line.  Additionally, the division of the Journal into three parts has been accomplished and all the additional Editorial Boards and Publications Committee members have been recruited.  Many more items indicative of growth of a healthy Society were also mentioned.  A brief review of the names of the Corporate Supporting and Sustaining Members was also presented.

 

VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT - Shelley Tyl reported that the program for the meeting was running smoothly.  We had 365 attendees for the Annual Meeting, 111 attendees in the Continuing Education Course and 85 registrants for the Mini Course. 

 

Shelley then presented slides of the Vancouver area and reported that the meeting next year will be June 26 through July 1, 2004.

 

VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT - Ken Jones announced that he was anxious for the members to present Symposium Suggestions for next year.  The Preliminary Program deadline is August 31 this year.

 

Ken reported that the meeting site for 2005 was being determined by Council and that the decision had been narrowed to two sites and we were going to go back to them to obtain their best and final price quotation prior to making the final decision.

 

SECRETARY'S REPORT - George Dearlove put in a plea for more membership contributions to the Newsletter and to the Web site.  The existence of the suggestion box at the registration table was emphasized, and the current membership numbers were reviewed.  George also noted that Council had made personal calls to a number of the individuals who had not paid their dues last year and the Society was able to recapture a number of these individuals.  George thanked the individuals who supported the Society by volunteering to staff the Teratology Society membership booth at meetings of SOT, CDC and FDA.

 

TREASURER'S REPORT - John Rogers reported the current status of the Society financial figures.  This report included current meeting income data and our account balances to date.  The numbers indicate that the Society is still in a very strong financial position and we will be placing more funds in our investment accounts after the expenses from the annual meeting are covered.

 

Approval of the Treasurer's reports was moved, seconded and affirmed without further discussion.

Actual tables of numbers presented at the annual meeting from the Treasurer's report are available in the Society Headquarters Office.

 

 

NOMINATIONS AND ELECTIONS COMMITTEE REPORT - Mary Alice Smith announced the results of the 2003 election:  Melissa Tassinari is the new Vice President-elect, George Dearlove was re-elected Secretary and Bob Parker was elected to Council.  All candidates were thanked for their willingness to put their names forward.

 

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE - Ida Smoak provided the current new membership numbers and reported that a change in the by-laws was determined to be required by the committee in order to bring the by-laws in line with current membership requirements.  Council will refer this issue to the Constitution and By-laws Committee.

 

A brief moment of silence followed for the membership to reflect on the loss of two of our members, Dr. Khera and Dr. Sieber

 

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE - Barbara Abbott presented a power point discussion about the launch of our three new Journals with proper acknowledgment to the publisher, Wiley-Liss, the editors and the editorial boards.  Each Journal editor had a prepared summary that was presented at the Issues Forum (the presentations are available if desired by individual members).  If the membership is having difficulty getting their Journal announcements electronically, or are not receiving their printed copy they are to contact the Headquarters Office.  The Publisher has agreed to extend access to all three Journals (Parts A, B and C) electronically for another year.  Wiley will mail the subscriber the password code and then they may be retrieved from the Wiley link on Teratology.org.  Barbara concluded with a plea for membership contributions to all three parts of the Journal.

 

PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE - Tina Chambers reviewed the work conducted by the PAC this past year:  The Fetal Alcohol Syndrome paper has been published in Teratology and the PAC is currently pushing for other groups to co-endorse the paper and possibly get it published in additional locations.

 

The Tobacco Use position paper is in final review form.

 

The current experiment with the all day workshop to try to bring in outside people to address specific issues and then publish the findings appears to be a success.

 

For the coming year, continued press releases are planned as are new statements on Obesity and Pregnancy.

 

Education Committee - Dana Shuey reported that the course attendance was high for the mini course as well as the standard continuing education course.  The course books for both courses were prepared and donated by CTBR this year.  Both sets of materials were excellent quality and the registrants were very pleased.  The Society thanked CTBR for this donation and then acknowledged the sponsors of the breaks and breakfasts this year (Covance, DuPont and Endo Pharmaceuticals).

 

STUDENT AFFAIRS COMMITTEE - Jack Bishop reported that 23 students had registered for the meeting this year.  13 travel awards (approximately $700 each) were granted.  Tom Knudsen was the individual who completed the NIH travel grant application this year.  For his efforts, the Society was awarded $8,000 to cover student costs to attend the annual meeting.

 

The winners of the Wilson, Bradford and Taubeneck awards will be announced at the awards luncheon.

 

Mentors were encouraged to communicate the availability of the awards, to help the Society track the students and to encourage membership with the Society.

 

MARTA and MTA were thanked for producing another successful student career event.

 

WEB SITE COMMITTEE - Robert Felix announced that the web location has been moved to UCSD to facilitate update and revisions.  The Directory is now on-line, the site itself has been "renovated" and user comments are requested.  Robert will look into the possibility of downloading the entire directory as one file (possibly a pdf file) to facilitate members creating hard copy of the directory for their personal use.

 

COMMITTEE ON BIOINFORMATICS IN TERATOLOGY - Tom Knudsen presented the status of this new committee to the membership.  The committee was formed to help the membership stay informed about the rapid developments in this new area of scientific research.  If individuals would like to participate, they should contact Tom for future discussion dates.

 

FASEB UPDATE - Jeanne Manson (Scientific Policy Division) and John DeSesso (Public Affairs Division).  Jeanne reported that the NIH got a 15% increase in funding last year which completed the doubling of the budget in five years.  In 2004, the FASEB suggested about 10% increase, but will be lucky to get 2-3%.  The issues with foreign postdoctoral individuals getting Visas was discussed (more difficult with the concern about foreign workers post 9/11).  John asked for a volunteer to replace him as his term expires in June 2004.  This person will need to be able to go to Congress to assist in lobbying for FASEB agenda items.

 

TERMINOLOGY COMMITTEE - Howard Solomon is heading a committee to see about up dating the terminology paper that was published in Teratology.  Any interested parties are to contact Howard.

 

NEW BUSINESS - was called for from the podium.  There being none, the meeting was adjourned at 5:55 PM.