TradeWinds Island Grand Resort
St. Pete Beach, Florida

June 30, 2005

 

Attending – The post-meeting Council Meeting was attended by President M. Tassinari, Vice President E. Faustman, Vice President-elect T. Knudsen, Past President K. Jones, Secretary G. Dearlove, Treasurer I. Washington, Councilors E. Carney, K. Filkins, and R. Parker, Executive Director T. Masson, and A. Scialli, Chairperson of the Public Affairs Committee. J. Bannigan, President of the European Teratology Society attended at the request of K. Jones to provide Council with input regarding the ETS position on the IFTS.

Annual Meeting Feedback

The membership liked the new Symposium Format employed for the PAC Symposium. A. Scialli felt the speakers were prepared, but some of the discussants were not as well prepared as necessary. This format will be utilized again next year.

Each Council member had positive feedback to report from the attendees. The schedule changes were agreeable to those who voiced opinions. The mini-course may want to consider having three (rather than two) speakers, even if that would require delaying the start of the regular sessions that day. Sponsored symposium sessions should not have too many concurrent sessions, if possible.

IFTS Issue

J. Bannigan reported the ETS had discussed the IFTS last year and felt the group had done their job and the ETS decided to stop paying for the group and would pull out and let the IFTS expire.

A. Ornoy wants to keep the IFTS going and believes that it could help in getting funding for meetings (if the request were from the IFTS rather than an individual society).

E. Faustman suggested it may make more sense to look at supporting travel of a teratologist from a third world country by the individual societies.

D. Wise is currently the listed trustee of the $10-12,000 held by the IFTS. The bank is asking him what to do with the funds.

T. Knudsen will attend the ETS Council meeting at their next meeting to present the view of the Teratology Society on the future utility of the IFTS.

Both groups agree that the IFTS currently serves no function. However, some international forum is still needed to facilitate scientific exchange and support of educational opportunities. This new structure would also include the Japanese Teratology Society.

The terminology project is still going forward, and the Website still needs to be maintained. The current request is to have MARTA provide people to get things moving.

M. Tassinari is going to JTS and may be able to shed additional light on the IFTS issue in a few weeks. M. Tassinari and E. Faustman will coordinate generation of ideas on where to go in the future.

Committee Appointments

Education Committee was listed in an earlier e-mail. To this list, add S. Marty and E. Zahalka as regular members and Ad Hoc student member R. Ellis-Hutchings. (note: E.F. and K.F. to work on CME requirements to try to make the CE course qualify).

Nominations and Elections Committee will ask D. Shuey – Past Chair, K. Jones – Past President, J. Graham, D. Stump and J. DeSesso. Alternate B. Fisher

Society Historian (R. Jensh may have health issues) – T. Shepherd and/or B. Brent will be asked.

Other appointments will be sent to Council by e-mail e.g. Student Affairs will have W. Harrouk as Chair and M. Collins as Past Chair (W.H. cannot write the grant as a government employee, M. Collins has agreed to do again this year) still need student volunteers. Public Affairs Committee may need up to four – M. T. and A. S. to discuss.

Post-doc Funding Committee to be chaired by G. Kimmel who will try to establish a functioning committee with a task during the year.

Ad Hoc Fundraising Committee to evaluate practices and develop some
recommendations by the time of Interim Council in October. The five year history of funding efforts is needed. AIM to provide these data.

Communications Plan

E. Faustman requested Council to fill out forms distributed at Council I if they were not already done. Forms to be e-mailed to E. Faustman ASAP

Various ideas were discussed (links to Website, hot topics for membership. Special topics of concern, etc….not a resurrection of the newsletter.

Newsletter reconstruction to be totally different approach with the format on the Web as special e-mails. E. Faustman, E. Carney, T. Knudsen and R. Parker to work on a list of suggestions of what audience we want to address and what are their interests. There will be an effort to link this task with the Strategic Plan.

Room Upgrades

OTIS has requested that their President receive one of the room upgrades at the annual meeting. (in 2006 the Society will qualify for 11 upgrades and in 2007, there will be 10 upgraded rooms. Neither number includes the suite reserved for the president). NBTS has not received upgrades automatically (did this year because Hotel provided 20 upgrades to the Society)

MOTION made and passed to provide the presidents of OTIS and NBTS with room upgrades at all future Annual Meetings (2006 onward).

Teratogen Update

Council discussed the Teratogen Update section of the meeting, the selection of topics and the great deal of work the B. Brent does each year to organize this session. The suggestion was made to alter the format as follows: Establish a Robert Brent Lecture to be the keynote speaker of this session. The single speaker and topic are to be selected by Council, in consultation with Dr. Brent. This speaker will be afforded ample time for a presentation, followed by commentary by Dr. Brent. There may be other speakers in this session discussing the same or related topics. A. Scialli and K. Jones to draft one or two paragraphs to describe this program format change.

Student Mixer on Saturday Night

Discussion already underway. R. Parker to inform the Student Affairs Committee that he will be the Council Liaison and oversee this function. R. Parker will determine if additional people will be required on the committee to undertake this task.

Code of Ethics Review

The SOT has reviewed and posted their Code of Ethics and the Teratology Society should do the same. I. Washington and G. Dearlove will undertake this task and report to interim Council if changes are required.

Strategic Plan Matrix

Discussions were put off to a future conference call when there will be more time to devote to this item.

Issues Session

Discussion regarding possible format changes to the CDC Surveillance review indicated that Council will need input from previous editors of the Journal to determine if the CDC has altered their document. K. Jones will address this question to L. Holmes and B. Brent.

A. Scialli indicated that the content is the choice of the CDC and that the Editor decides what the Journal will accept. The point was made that we may have some say as to what is in the surveillance document if we are not charging the CDC to publish the material. This issue should be put on hold until such time as BDR-A is actually using all its page allocation and research papers are being withheld because of space concerns.

S. Lamm request to support a Rubella press release was discussed. A. Scialli will call S. Lamm to find out what he wants – Journal article or Press release with co-signers. This may end up as a PAC position release and S. L should be added as an Ad Hoc committee member for the purpose of the release. OR should the PAC draft a letter to the New York Times and have Council review the letter? OR some combination of both. To be addressed by electronic communication following the meeting.

Distinguished Fellow discussion recap from the issues session indicated mixed messages. Some felt the membership was in favor and other felt they were opposed to the creation of this status. R. Tyl to be requested to be an Ad Hoc committee member of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee to research this option. When finalized, Council will write an article to the membership explaining the results of the research.

New Business

Interim Council Meeting – sometime during the last two weeks of October. T. Masson will communicate date selections to Council electronically.

K. Jones and T. Knudsen to draft document indicating how the royalties from the Journal will be used. The funds are for student support and possibly for funding emeritus members’ attendance at an annual meeting, or more travel awards, etc. M. Tassinari and I. Washington will look at communication of these alternative uses of the royalties to the membership.

Creation of a Narsingh Agnish scholarship to support attendance of a student at the CE course was discussed; A. Scialli will draft a document for Council review.
PAC position papers and litigation coverage for the Society was discussed. T. Masson will request a legal opinion regarding wording required for Council and the PAC regarding errors and omissions policy with respect to position papers.

T. Knudsen reported that the primer was a big hit and he would like 200 copies for the Medical Genetics course. Also, the Editorial Board of Reproductive Toxicology will offer a reduced subscription rate to Teratology Society members. ETS has a reduced rate and they are now negotiating for reduced rates for BDR for their members. This information needs to be put on the web.

K. Filkins would like to take the Primer to one of her medical meetings and the PAC has voted to make the Primer available on Amazon.com.

Meeting adjourned.