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Minutes for Neuropharmacology Executive Committee Meeting April, 2002; New Orleans, LA Present: Marie-Francoise Chesselet, Israel Hanin
(Chair), Steve Holtzman, Michael Kuhar, Cynthia Kuhn, Darryle Schoepp, David
Sibley, Pat Sonsalla (ASPET Councilor) 1. Welcome Dr. Michael Kuhar was welcomed as the President Elect for
2003. The Secretary-Treasurer Elect for 2003, Dr. George Breese, was unable to
attend. 2. Approval of Minutes The Minutes were reviewed and approved.
We discussed posting these Minutes on the web site, but did not want to
post until the Minutes were approved. We
agreed that the Secretary/Treasurer would circulate the Minutes to members of
the executive group, right after the meeting, and once all corrections were
made, they would be posted on the web site. 3. Chairman’s
Report The following division activities were reported: (1)
enthusiastic member response to Career Opportunities Symposium; (2) student
awards poster competition has 19 applicants; (3) we have added a postdoctoral
competition for upcoming year; (4) 5 Neuropharmacology Symposium presentations
were approved for EB 2003; and (5) the web page for the division is up and
working well. 4. Proposed Budget The proposed budget is mainly an extrapolation of the
current year’s budget, with addition of $60/month for the web site,
consolidation of hospitality and social costs at the request of ASPET, and a
slight reduction in a couple of categories in which we have not spent our
allocation. Revenue is derived from
a per-head allocation for members ($15 for each of 682 primary and $5 for each
of 514 secondary members this year; increases of 62 and 178 respectively). Notes added after consultation with Christie Carrico: Budget is based on the calendar year. Socials: Expenses
for a given calendar year include the prior year’s Society for Neuroscience (SFN)
and current year’s Experimental Biology (EB) meetings.
For example, this year our expenses are the November 2001 SFN social and
the 2002 EB social. We discussed independent solicitation of drug companies for
Symposium support. Israel Hanin
reported that this issue had been discussed at Scientific Council but not fully
resolved. We can obtain industry
funds, but they will be used first to reimburse ASPET for the waived
registration. ASPET pays travel
($4,800 in the upcoming year for each Symposium).
Can we use extra funds raised to offer honoraria?
We need to check with ASPET. 5. Current Budget It is too early to compare budgets with last year’s
budget because the only costs we have allocated so far are the costs of our half
of the SFN social, which was within $200 of the budgeted amount. Travel funds: are
intended to support travel for Division officers who cannot afford to attend the
meeting otherwise. 6. Careers in Neuropharmacology This symposium will be our first Division programming at
FASEB. Steve Holtzman consulted
with Beth Fischer, who does this type of presentation at a number of different
venues. We had many volunteers to
present, and are looking forward to a successful event.
We are presenting a range of careers – NIH, Academia, Industry.
Each speaker will present for 5-10 minutes.
Then they will spread around the room and students can have one-on-one
conversations with them. Soft
drinks and refreshments will be provided. 7. Poster Award competition We initially had 9 applicants, and with a second round of
applications in early March now have 19. We
recruited 18 judges from the membership by email.
Information on each of their posters was mailed 2 weeks before the
meeting. We will give prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd
in the amounts of $400, $300 and $200, respectively.
We will compile the scores at the judging, and award the prizes at the
business meeting. Next year, ASPET has requested that all divisions give the
same prizes- a total of $600 for pre- and $600 for postdocs.
They would rather that we not supplement them.
We can give as few as we want, but cannot give more than 4. We will get the names and SS #s of the winners; Christie
Carrico will prepare the checks and they will be awarded at the Business
Committee meeting. 8. Web Site Our web site is working well. Bill Jeffries and his son are maintaining it and sending any
posting to Dave Sibley for approval before posting. It has been moved to the ASPET server. We would like to post executive committee minutes after they
are approved. We cannot charge for
anything on the Neuropharmacology division web site.
Companies can advertise jobs, but not products.
ASPET does offer ads for pay, but not division web sites.
We will try to post all division activities- lists of deadlines, winners
of poster competitions, nominees for office when elections take place, etc. 9. Arrangements for Monday’s Social The arrangements for the division social, in combination
with Behavioral Pharmacology, have been made by ASPET.
Socials are all at the same time. We
discussed the possibility of a scientific program, but everyone agreed to keep
it social, with just an announcement from the two Division Presidents to welcome
everyone to the social. 10. Report from Scientific Council The Scientific Council is comprised of the Chair or Past-Chair of all divisions. 1. Symposia: amount will be increased to $4,750-$4,800 2. Membership on Program Committee and Scientific Council- previously, Chairs have alternated appointment to these two committees for 2-year terms. The divisions have been asked to submit by May 5 each division’s plans for appointing members to these two committees. Pat Sonsalla recommended highly that it should be an executive committee member, but did not need to be the present, or past Chair. Darryle Shoepp volunteered to take the Scientific Council position immediately, and Cynthia Kuhn will take the Program Committee position, when Steve Holtzman’s term is over. Program Committee meets twice annually – once in December, and once at EB. Scientific Council meets the Friday before EB. So the Neuropharmacology Division can report on May 5 that we will send a volunteer from the Executive Committee. 11. Nominating Committee report The process worked well, and was a good way to involve the
members. Marie-Francoise Chesselet sent an e-mail to all division members asking
them if they wanted to nominate someone for the Nominating Committee, or if they
wanted to serve themselves. She
received 6-8 names, which was about perfect.
Then she sent out an e-mail to all Division members asking for
Nominations for offices. The
nominating committee ranked these names, and Marie Francois contacted candidates
to ask if they would be willing to run. She
collected biographies, and presented the slate to ASPET for publication in the
Pharmacologist, and vote by the membership.
We discussed the possibility of rotating just half the nominating
committee at a time, but all agreed that since it was very little work and a
good way to involve members, that we would leave the process unchanged for now.
Next year we agreed to put the nominees’ information on the web site. 12. Report for the Program Committee The Program Committee will meet this afternoon.
Last year, the Neuropharmacology division submitted 9 symposia, and 5
were accepted - the most of any division! In
the future, the Program Committee will select no more than 3 from any one
division, and may also put a limit on the number submitted.
They do not go exactly by ranking, but balance across topics and
divisions (for example, our Nicotinic Receptors symposium was not accepted, but
a similar presentation from Integrative Biology was accepted). February 5 will be the new deadline for receipt of
symposium proposals, instead of the preceding November, allowing more
flexibility because topics will not be selected so far in advance of the
meeting. The
Neuropharmacology Division Symposium requires no approval.
We will circulate a notice to the membership soliciting ideas for the
symposium, and will decide on the topic at the next executive committee meeting,
at the upcoming SFN meeting. 13. Perspectives in Pharmacology (PIP) Linda Dwoskin was unable to attend the meeting; therefore
no update was available. 14. Status of Action Items a) A PIP review is being prepared by Marie Francois Chesselet and Jeff Conn.
b) Jeff Conn had agreed to solicit funds for symposia and postdoctoral
travel awards. 15. Student
Membership on Executive Committee We discussed this issue, and considered several proposals
including allowing the winner of the poster competition to serve a year on the
Executive Committee. Steve Holtzman
raised several potential concerns. ASPET will support travel and waive registration for the
meeting, but students will not always be attending this meeting.
In addition, only the senior students will be likely to attend. We did
not achieve consensus, and decided to continue the discussion at the SFN. 16. Old Business None. 17. New Business New Action Items: Cynthia Kuhn will: a) talk to Christie Carrico about guidelines for Industry sponsorship of symposia; b)
circulate the Minutes after this meeting for approval. David Sibley will: b)
circulate an e-mail soliciting ideas from the membership, for the Neuropharmacology
division symposium for next year’s EB meeting. Minutes prepared by Cynthia Kuhn, Ph.D. |
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