April 8, 2005

 

Council Members Present: K. Jones, President; M. Tassinari, Vice President; E. Faustman, Vice President-elect; I. Washington, Treasurer; G. Dearlove, Secretary; K. Filkins, J. Graham, R. Parker, Councilors; D. Hansen, Publications Committee Chair; T. Masson, Executive Director

Conference call initiated at 11:00 EDT by K. Jones

President’s Report – K. Jones

Item 1. FASEB Dues Increase was discussed. The current dues (approximately $5,000) will go up to $6,409 ($13/active member) in 2005 and will go up again in 2006. FASEB has decided to do away with the Associate Member category and the Teratology Society will have to become a full member (with increased dues) if they are to remain part of FASEB after 2005.

The advantages of continued membership were discussed (advocacy at governmental levels, MARC program for minority funding to the Annual Meeting, FASEB offer to operate Annual Meeting - currently managed by AIM)

K. Jones moved, and Council approved that the Teratology Society pay the increased dues and retain FASEB membership for this year.

Council will ask J. DeSesso, J. Manson, R. Brent and R. Filler (past and present FASEB representatives) to meet with Council to discuss continued membership at the Annual Meeting in June.

Item 2. All Council Action Items from October Council Meeting.

Calling members who had not paid their dues has resulted in the renewal of dues for 14 members from the 2004 delinquency list and 9 members from 2003. (Not all Council members reported calling their specific contacts, so the numbers may be incomplete)

The strategic plan matrix will be discussed on another call.

Teratology Primer was distributed to Council and the Authors for feedback. Changes were incorporated and the Primer is going to print (20,000 copies at the first printing). The cost for production, estimated at $32,000. The Primer will be available at the June meeting. Distribution of the Primer is still an issue and the possibility of charging for copies was discussed, as was the possibility of distributing the Primer in the registration package along with a one page flyer regarding membership in the Society. Sources of the production costs were discussed – Mission on Education, outreach, cost neutral or look for corporate sponsor. K. Filkins will ask ACOG if they want to distribute copies to their members. J. Graham suggested sending copies to each Medical School member and asking them to distribute at the Medical Schools. Each member of OTIS, NBTS and BTS will also receive a copy at the Annual Meeting. Final resolution deferred to the next conference call.

Item 3. Individual Council Members Action Items

K. Jones had not yet established a definition and goal for the Diversity Committee, nor staffed (Ad Hoc Appointments) the Special Populations Committee but these items will be addressed prior to the June meeting. E. Faustman volunteered to assist K. Jones with committee resolution. The Career Development Committee goal needs to be refined and a chairperson identified. All other items had been addressed.

M. Tassinari had completed the Annual Meeting Program and was working on the revision to the job description for the Vice President-elect. Other items had been addressed.

E. Faustman had completed many items and was going to follow up on the remaining as soon as possible after the conference call. The future meeting site selection committee work will be coordinated through T. Masson at AIM. Other items had been addressed.

G. Dearlove reported that neither NBTS nor OTIS responded in a timely manner to requests for coordinated funding efforts for this year. Representatives from these two Societies are to meet with G. Dearlove at the Annual Meeting to try to get organized for the following year. Other items had been addressed.

D. Hansen is still waiting for the publisher to respond on the status of electronic access to just two, or to all three parts of the Journal. Other items had been addressed.

J. Graham had completed his action items.

K. Filkins indicated that the attempts for a teacher workshop in Florida had fallen on deaf ears with the Florida Board of Education and there will not be a workshop this year. The CME issue is still unresolved and will be explored for future meetings.

T. Masson reported that most of the items she had been assigned were either completed or were under way. Council will receive e-mails regarding Society job descriptions for review and comment. T. Masson will also distribute any suggested changes to the Constitution and By-laws that are put forward by that committee.

Vice President’s Report – M. Tassinari

Annual Meeting Update – The program is completed and the meeting looks very good. There will be 120 scientific presentations with 55 to be platform presentations given in six sessions and 65 presented as posters in two sessions. There will be the possibility for additional work to be presented in the late breaking abstracts session as well. With inclusion of the invited speakers in the program, this year’s annual meeting has 155 presentations already in the program. We will have a joint platform session with OTIS (four speakers supplied by OTIS and three supplied by Teratology). We have identified seven students for the best paper competition and there are an additional 46 students with abstracts throughout the program. Some of the session chairs are still being recruited. We have identified just under $50,000 in Sponsor funding and have not yet heard about travel grants. We also only have six exhibitors registered (a planned reduction in exhibitors to increase meeting site selection flexibility). We still need some sponsors for symposium. (G. Dearlove volunteered to contact Gene Logic to see if they would sponsor the ‘omics symposium).

Treasurer’s Report – I. Washington

I. Washington asked for specific Council guidance regarding the investment of the CD funds that matured in November and those that will mature in November 2005 and 2006. There are two additional CDs that mature in December of 2007. Legg Mason (Jason Harris) has offered some advice. Investment philosophy discussions followed. Council requested a written report/review of the entire portfolio from Legg Mason for presentation at the Annual Meeting for membership review.

Public Affairs Committee Report – T. Scialli

Report, presented in pre-meeting handouts, was not discussed. T. Scialli unable to be on call. E. Faustman expressed concern that a position paper by the PAC might result in the exclusion of a member from a government working group. Council was to address their opinions and suggestion about this matter via e-mail so T. Scialli could be included in the discussion. Topic of position papers should be placed on the Council I agenda.

Publications Committee Report – D. Hansen

D. Hansen reported that 19 manuscripts were selected for the Wilson Award for the best Publication. These were narrowed to six full papers that were reviewed by each of the committee members. The Award this year will be presented to K. Augustine, et. al. for work performed while at GSK.

New Business - Review of Council-required meeting times for the Annual Meeting; Council I will begin Saturday in the morning, break for the Continuing Education course in the afternoon. Council I will then reconvene Saturday evening. Council II will be Thursday from noon until 4:00. The Program Committee Meeting will be Wednesday morning. The members are still to be appointed by E. Faustman.

Call concluded at 12:20.