Vancouver, BC

July 1, 2004

 

The meeting was called to order by President Ken Jones at 12:05PM on Thursday, July 1, 2004

Members in attendance were: K. Jones, President; M. Tassinari, Vice President; E. Faustman, Vice President-elect: R. Tyl, Past President; I. Smoak, Treasurer; G. Dearlove, Secretary; K. Filkins, J. Graham and R. Parker, Councilors; D. Hansen, Chair - Publications Committee; and T. Masson, Executive Director

Feedback from the Annual Meeting indicated that:

 

Special Presentation by D. Savitz, President of SPER-

David indicated SPER was pleased with the reception of the symposium they co-sponsored at this meeting. They are looking forward to Teratology Society sponsorship of a symposium one day before the start of their annual meeting. They are meeting with Society of Epidemiology the third week of June (Conflict Probably).

SPER has approximately 250 members with about 150 of them attending the annual meeting.

In the second week of June in 2006 SPER will be meeting with the Epidemiology Congress, along with about a dozen other Societies in Seattle. This is a very large meeting (approximately 1500 attendees). They are very inclusive of related disciplines and want scientific groups to organize one and a half to two hour symposium sessions at the meeting. David felt this could be a good opportunity for the Teratology Society and suggested that we put something together and request a symposium slot during the early part of the meeting when most people would still be in attendance. SPER would either co-sponsor the symposium or at least lobby for us to be chosen as a participant.

We should get listed on the web site (no charge for listing) to see if we can generate any interest. Our only expense for this event would be for speaker support.

K. Jones appointed an Ad Hoc Committee to follow up on this offer. Committee members are M. Werler, T. Chambers and Council Liaison is E. Faustman. M. Werler to be asked to serve as chairperson of the committee.

 

Committee Appointments

President Jones presented the nominees for the Education Committee, the Membership Committee and the Nominations & Elections Committee to Council and approval was obtained.

Discussion followed regarding Diversity, Minority Officers, Grant Requirements, etc.

Committee memberships were approved by Council.

 

Mid-Year Conference Call Scheduling

A conference call was determined to be necessary to complete business prior to the Interim Council meeting. The final date was to be determined by AIM following e-mail communication. Target date is first week of August with the follow up Interim Council Meeting in October.

 

2005 Annual Meeting Discussion –M. Tassinari

The Program Committee for the 2005 meeting has started to review the many ideas and suggestions presented. They already have a significant number of members who have volunteered to be on the committee.

The banquet may be moved to the beach to take advantage of the location for the annual meeting. Other changes have been suggested and are being reviewed and will be presented at the conference call in August.

Continued efforts to keep student participation up and tie in the past presidents to these activities are being considered. Current plans are to try to arrange a meeting early during the annual meeting so the students can meet and greet past presidents throughout the meeting week.

E. Faustman volunteered to get someone from the NIEHS to give a presentation on transitional funding at the Annual Meeting if possible.

 

The Postdoctoral Fellowship Committee will be working on identifying funding for postdoctoral fellowships. One area of effort will be to approach the pharmaceutical industry to see if they would be interested in funding such a program that would train people in GLPs, NDAs and basic Drug Development….areas that are not now covered in academic programs. The goals and particulars of this program are still very vague and the Ad Hoc Committee was reappointed to try to generate a specific proposal of what we want the fellowships to do and how they will be administered. Additional sources of funding are also to be sought.

G. Kimmel will Chair, M. Tassinari, R. Miller, K. Jones, R. Parker, Wm Slikker are appointed members. M. Nemec to be appointed to represent industry. Name to be changed to Career Development.

 

Publications Committee Chair, D. Hansen reported that B. Hales will be Vice-Chair for the coming year. L. Dostal and B. Abbott will rotate off the committee and their replacements were discussed. Council provided Deb with a list of three candidates for each position. D. Hansen to call candidates in order prioritized by Council and report back as to which member was able to accept the nomination.

The terms for the European and Japanese Liaisons were also completed and replacements for these two positions will also be needed. Names of the replacements are to be provided to Council at the Interim Council Meeting. A more formal job description for these positions will also be presented.

Other Business

Interim Council Meeting dates and duration will be discussed at the conference call to be held in August.

Symposium Speakers who are not members of the Society: Many come in for one day and then leave. Tuan suggested that the Society consider sponsoring the students and postdoctoral fellows of these individuals to try to encourage them to stay for the entire meeting. Council will discuss at the Interim Meeting if more details are provided.

Bioinformatics Committee has requested computer terminals for the next annual meeting so the membership can have real time access to the internet.
The proposal was postponed until the conference call so more information could be obtained to determine exactly what the committee was requesting.

• Meeting adjourned to be continued at the August Conference Call.