VOLUME 19, NUMBER 1 FALL 2000
NEWSLETTER
AChemS Association for Chemoreception Sciences
fostering chemical senses research and understanding smell and taste in health and disease
In This Newsletter You Will Find:
Deadlines/Events in 2000-2001:
- December 15-January 19: Window for Abstracts for AChemS XXIII open
- January 19: Abstract Payment Due
- January 31: Student Travel/Housing Award Applications due
- January 31: Minority Travel Fellowship Applications due
- January 31: Clinical Travel Fellowship Applications due
- January 31: Nominations for Officers and Awards due
- March 1: Items for Spring 2001 Newsletter due
- March 15: Deadline for pre-registration for AChemS XXIII
- April 1: Deadline for Hyatt reservations
April 25-29, 2001: AChemS XXIII
The AChemS Newsletter is published twice a year. Those interested in publishing in the Spring 2001 Newsletter should submit material by March 1, 2001 to: Dr. Linda Barlow, Secretary of AchemS, Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Denver, Denver CO 80208. Tel: (303) 871-2722; FAX(303) 871-3471; email: lbarlow@du.edu
COMMENTS FROM THE PRESIDENT
Stephen Roper
Greetings, colleagues! I have the pleasure of providing a short introduction to our Fall newsletter and bringing us all up to date on the state of AChemS. I will be brief and, hopefully, to the point. Pull up a chair and bring over a cup of coffee or tea.
First, this has been an active summer for the chemical senses. A major international conference, ISOT XIII, was held in Brighton, sponsored in part by ECRO. Kudos and thanks are due to Dr. Stephen Van Toller, University of Warwick, organizer of ISOT XIII. This meeting, like all large international conventions, had its ups and downs. Although it is disappointing that there will be no published proceedings, attendees generally felt ISOT XIII was a worthy conference. There were a number of exciting presentations and symposia, and hey, the food was great! Thankfully for many, Starbucks had established a beachhead in Brighton right next to the conference center. ISOT XIV will be held in 2004 in Japan, co-sponsored by JASTS.
Second, AChemS is now beginning to carry out new goals and objectives recently established by the Executive Committee (EC, see minutes of EC meetings), and by a special Long Term Planning Committee. Details can be found in the EC minutes (later). One major change is emphasis on professional management for our organization. AChemS critically evaluated several professional management groups. We were delighted to accept the proposal put forward by Panacea Associates (PA). PA have been our business managers to date and we have signed a contract to renew and extend this relationship. Practical differences that all us members will notice include a spanking new website (http://www.achems.org) with a professional and responsive webmaster. This site will contain up-to-date information on meetings, including our annual conference in Sarasota; on-line registration; job postings; announcements; related sites; a membership-wide mailing capability; and a searchable Membership Directory. Please visit the new site and send suggestions for changes, additions, deletions, or just your comments (send to Roper@miami.edu). We want to make this website our major venue for all us members and corporate sponsors, as well as the general public who are becoming more and more interested in the chemical senses.
Third, there have been important changes and initiatives at NIH, especially at the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (see message by Dr. Battey and Dr. Davis, later). Specifically, our long-term colleague Rochelle Small has left NIDCD and taken a position in the extramural branch of the NIDCR (Dental Institute). We deeply and sincerely thank Rochelle for her work over the years and wish her continued success at NIDCR. Dr. Barry Davis has been named Director of the Taste Program and until someone is recruited to replace Dr. Small, Barry will handle the taste and smell portfolios alike. Dr. Battey also describes important new research funding initiatives, especially aimed at New Investigator applicants. The goal is to expand the number of young scientists pursuing chemosensory research, a pool that has been alarmingly shrinking.
Fourth, speaking of recruiting young scientists, Tom Christensen, our Membership Chair, issues an eloquent call for AChemS membership in this newsletter. My stated goal is to increase AChemS membership to 1000, about a 25% increase over our existing level. We need this number to attain national visibility and retain credibility with corporate sponsors and government agencies. We have a new, improved Conference Center for 2001 to accommodate an increased meeting size. The Hyatt Sarasota has undertaken major new renovations and reconstruction during the summer of 2000 to enhance their conference facilities. Please heed and attend to Tom’s Call for Membership!
Fifth, congratulations to Ms. Michele Schaefer, a graduate student at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, for winning the Don Tucker Memorial Award for her presentation at AChemS 2000. Congratulations are also due to Dr. Stuart Firestein for organizing such an excellent conference. Dr. John Scott, Conference Organizer for AChemS 2001, is hard at work putting together an exciting meeting. All of us on the Executive Committee are scurrying trying to help John and to keep the AChemS organization running seamlessly. Finally, bravo to Dr. David Smith for taking the helm as Editor-in-Chief of Chemical Senses. David will continue to build our journal and increase its impact in the scientific field.
That’s it! Work hard and collect/polish those nice new data for our upcoming AChemS 2001.
Stephen Roper
October, 2000
MINUTES OF THE SPRING ACHEMS EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE MEETING
April 26, 2000
Present:
Joe Brand (Membership Chair), Christine Byrd (Councilor), Tom Finger (Chemical Senses), Stuart Firestein (Program Chair), Charles Greer (Past President), Dave Hill (President), Sue Lampman (Panacea Associates), Pat Meredith (Panacea Associates), Bob O’ Connell (Public Relations), Wayne Silver (Treasurer), Stephen Roper (President Elect), John Scott (Program Chair Elect), Susan Travers (Secretary) Joel White (Councilor)
President’s Agenda (David Hill)
The meeting of the Executive Committee (EC) was called to order by AChemS President, David Hill at noon. Christine Byrd discussed efforts that she and Jeanine Stewart had made regarding Educational Outreach. She noted that the number of interested students had been dwindling over the years. Therefore, instead of going to the schools this year, the Educational Outreach Committee would be meeting to discuss new ideas. Two that were mentioned were a permanent display in the Sarasota Science Museum that is to be built across the street from the Hyatt, and the creation of a Web page. Bob ‘O Connell next discussed the state of public relations. Rich Costanzo and Chuck Wysocki are the other members of the ad hoc committee on public relations. Bob discussed the possibility of going to electronic media for public relations. One complication in establishing media interest is that the motivation of the press is to be first with a "scoop" for a story. Bob also discussed the need to reach out to the press beyond those in Sarasota (e.g., Paul Harvey and NPR). Lately, efforts to interest the local press have not been very successful perhaps because the local market is saturated. Finally, Dr. O’ Connell mentioned that it would be helpful if AChemS members were more forthcoming in bringing items of potential interest to the Committee. The Public Relations Committee will continue to attempt to come up with more effective mechanisms to publicize the activities of AChemS. Tom Finger announced that Dr. David Smith had been nominated for the position of Editor-in-Chief of AchemS. The EC then voted on this nomination and confirmed Dr. Smith as the new Editor-in-Chief. Dave Hill discussed the Travel Fellowship report that had been submitted by John Caprio. The other members of the committee were Julie Mennella, Pamela Scott-Johnson, and M. Scott Herness. The Travel Fellowship Committee received 7 applications for minority funds, 8 for clinical travel funds and 9 for ECRO/ISOT funds. The committee was able to accommodate all of the minority and clinical applicants, with awards of $1000 and $600, by dividing the available funds for each of these categories. Because there was less money available for ECRO/ISOT awards, two of the applicants were chosen to receive awards of $1000 each. Dave Hill discussed the issue of corporate support. Although the corporate support that we do get is much appreciated, the amount of corporate support is less than it could be. Stuart Firestein voiced the opinion that it seems to be helpful to ask corporations for something specific (for example supporting a symposium) rather than simply asking for general support. The idea of having corporate representation on the EC was also mentioned. Dave Hill discussed the Junior AChemS initiative. He floated the idea of having a presidential symposium that would highlight the efforts of new investigators. This would be similar to that at the annual meeting for the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB). This year, Dave organized a more casual event to target the young investigators: a "burger and beer blast", designed to facilitate interactions between the junior and senior members of our organization. He urged EC to attend. Next, the Awards Symposium was discussed. As mentioned in minutes from other meetings of the EC, there has been some controversy regarding whether or not the Awards Symposium should be continued. Some of the advantages and disadvantages of the Symposium were discussed. The Awards Symposium certainly appears to have been enjoyed by many AChemS members. This includes the recipients themselves, as documented in a survey by Dave Hill. However, there was some thought that the limited time available in the annual meeting could be better spent. Reasons mentioned were that many attendees of the meeting are already aware of the awardees’ accomplishments and that the length of time available for the talks does not permit an in-depth presentation. After further discussion, it was proposed that the Awards Symposium be removed from the agenda for future Annual meetings. The motion passed with a majority vote.
Treasurer’s Report (Wayne Silver)
Wayne Silver presented the budget (see Budget later in this newsletter), and asked the members of the EC to look it over and suggest any necessary changes. There were a few unanticipated costs this year. One was that the costs for the electronic abstracting service (Scholars One) were higher than initially predicted. In addition, the Past President convened a long-term planning meeting in mid-year, which was very worthwhile (see below), but not part of the original budget. Stuart mentioned that there needed to be a mechanism in place to allow the Program Chair to facilitate transfer of funds between corporate sponsors and AChemS. The practicalities of making these transfers via checks or electronic wiring were discussed, and Wayne agreed to put together a memo on how corporations could wire money to us.
Report from Panacea (Pat Meredith and Sue Lampman)
So far, there are 392 persons registered for the meeting this year. This compares favorably with our historical average of 400. Beginning the week following the meeting, the Hyatt will tear down the meeting space and begin renovations. These will include better audio-visual capabilities. Charlie Greer complained that the Hyatt had not lived up to certain promises that they had made-- there was no sign welcoming AChemS members, no sign for the turn to the Hyatt, and the suites had not been renovated! Sue Lampman mentioned that we had booked the Hyatt through the year 2003. She admitted that the "place didn’t look that great", but again reminded us that financially, the Hyatt is a "good deal," costing about 1/3 less than comparable hotels. She asked the group whether or not we should look into a new hotel and mentioned that a new Ritz is being built and should be finished within a few years. She emphasized that we need to make it clear to the Hyatt that AChemS is very concerned about the state of the hotel. We also need to discuss the boathouse hours with the management. They close too early, giving people insufficient time to socialize after the meeting in the evening. A new member of Panacea, Michael Lampman, was introduced to the EC. Michael is a technical specialist who will work on electronic capabilities for the organization and manage our website. Michael announced that Panacea has purchased a server, which provides enhanced capabilities. We can now run our website and mailing list from our own server. We are also now an official internet domain with a secure socket. This should provide us with the capability to make secure payments, run elections, and register for the meeting online. Individual members will also be able to change their directory information online. Real-time online interactions will also be feasible. Dave Hill suggested that everything that is currently on the Florida State server (including the website) be moved to the new AChemS server. Stuart Firestein suggested the creation of a working committee to make suggestions for the new website. Charles Greer made a motion that we shut down the FSU website, accept Panacea and its server as the new webmaster and website, and appoint a small working committee to advise construction of the new website. The motion was approved by a vote of the EC. Steve Roper mentioned that the University of Miami Neuorscience group uses undergraduates to help upgrade and maintain its website at a relatively low cost. It was agreed that this could be a good idea, but that perhaps it would be better to employ more experienced workers. Dave Hill mentioned that we are committed to upgrade our website but need to understand that it will entail significant costs. Steve Roper commented that this represents an investment, not a cost.
Membership Report (Joe Brand)
We have about 600-650 members and have remained stable for the last three years. Even though we gain 150-175 new members each year, we lose just about that many as well. One continuing problem is that members, even (or especially) those who have been around for awhile, don’t pay their dues, at least not on time. Stuart (who’s been around for quite a while) suggested that dues payments would be facilitated if payment were electronic. Charlie mentioned that the dues notices are unclear with regard to the period for which dues have been paid. Joe suggested that it might be beneficial to send out an early (in the summer) dues notice by mail and then receive another reminder by email in the fall stating that dues are required by January 15. Joe expressed his pleasure at working with the EC for the last two years and recognized the many selfless efforts made by AChemS members in service of our organization.
Program Chair (Stuart Firestein)
This was the first year for electronic submission of abstracts and this went well, despite a few snafus. There were some problems with notification. This problem can be solved by better management of the AChemS website and mailing list. There was also a "temporary" loss of some abstracts. This seemed to occur during the editing process. Because the company has every keystroke! backed up, however, it was possible to retrieve this lost information. Another complication was the fact that it was not possible to pay for the meeting online. Some of the challenges of moving to electronic payment were discussed, and it was agreed that this would be beneficial, although there would still need to be an option for those persons who preferred not to pay by credit card. Stuart also mentioned that the original company that we started with for electronic abstract submission (Carden-Jennings) split with Scholar One (who we ended up with) during the time we were working with them and caused some minor complications. These have been ironed out. Charlie asked for clarification on whether it was now a matter of policy that we were no longer sending out programs. This is true. Instead, the meeting program can be downloaded from the internet. Members of the EC had heard a few complaints regarding the lack of a mailed program, but felt that this will probably not continue to be a problem when the membership is fully aware of the electronic capabilities. Stuart next suggested that we might consider adding a symposium to the annual meeting, which would focus on "late-breaking" research, perhaps Ambryx would be willing to sponsor this. There was general agreement that this might be a great idea, although in some years, there might not be appropriate material for such a symposium. Therefore, the consensus was that the initiative for planning symposia ought to stay with the Program Chair. Steve Roper also mentioned the potential difficulty that having such a symposium sponsored by a given company might limit permissible topics.
Secretary’s Report (Susan Travers)
Susan Travers noted that publishing the first color version of the newsletter resulted in the later than usual publication date for the Spring Newsletter this year. This caused no major problems, except that the election had to be held electronically (see below). The color version of the newsletter seemed to be a welcome change, but it was more costly. Costs could be reduced if the content of the print newsletter was reduced to avoid some of the redundancy with the web. One reduction that was suggested was reducing the length of the minutes. Other members of the EC, however, felt that the cost savings of such a move would be negligible and that the print newsletter minutes served as a valuable archive. At any rate, if the color version of the newsletter is to be continued, and there was general consensus that it should be, it would more practical to use a desktop publishing, rather than a word processing program to produce the newsletter. Suggested enhancements to the newsletter were to continue including photos and editorials, and to perhaps add some short articles highlighting interesting discoveries in the chemical senses.
Councilors’ Report (Joel White and Christine Byrd)
A total of 42 applications for student travel were received, including requests for 32 housing awards and about $13,000 in travel. The total student travel budget is $10,000. Thus, most of the students requesting funds (36/42) were offered an award. A few students declined their award. In the end, 22 students received housing awards and the remaining amount in the budget ($8000) was slated for travel awards. This means that most domestic travelers should receive the full amount of their airfare.
Past President’s Report on Elections (Charles Greer)
Charlie reported that elections were run electronically this year for the first time. Voting on the web was a big success. Many more members voted (292) than has typically been the case (only ~50 or 60). It is worth mentioning that the number of people voting doubled when the announcement was sent out via the new mailing list (members@achem.org), rather than by the chemsenses listserver. Although it was initially hoped that a more secure system could be used for voting, this was not possible, due to firewalls. In the future it is recommended that members receive a unique membership number that is required for voting to make it certain that a given member votes only once. Michael Lampman proposed that this number be confidential– that it not be published or used for other purposes. The new newly elected officers are: President Elect–Stuart Firestein, Program Chair Elect (Program Chair in 2002)- Alan Spector, Membership Chair–Tom Christensen, Secretary- Linda Barlow, Councilor — Leslie Tolbert.
President-Elect (Stephen Roper)
The Awards Committee consisted of Bruce Bryant, Heather Duncan, John Glendinning, Gabrielle Ronnett, and Steve Roper. Steve discussed the awards nominations process. A continuing challenge is to obtain an optimal number of nominations. Certainly, the nominees are very deserving, but the committee continues to feel that many excellent individuals are not nominated, probably simply because it requires a fair amount of work and forethought and people are busy. Suggestions to increase the number of nominees for future years are to hold over the current nominations for 1-2 years and to solicit nominations from the awardees for the past 2-4 years. This years awardees, Tim McClintock (Takasago), Linda Barlow (Ajinomoto), Harriet Baker (IFF), Barry Ache (Outstanding Achievement), were heartily congratulated.
As President-Elect, Steve emphasized the importance of upgrading our website. Importantly, there should be one site for submitting abstracts, learning about AChemS and searching the directory. We should also do a better job of posting critical dates ahead of time. For example at the time of this year’s meeting, we should already have the vital information for AChemS 2001 posted. Steve emphasized that he felt that the website was critical and that it is worth dedicating a significant portion of our resources to the site.
Program Chair Elect (John Scott)
John Scott reported that he had been acting as part of this year’s Program Committee and that it had been helpful in giving him insight into requirements for planning a meeting. He intends to involve the next Program Chair in this process.
Long-term Planning (Charles Greer and David Hill) and Other New Business
Last year, Charlie had discussed the need for additional meetings for the purpose of long-term planning purposes. It was felt that such meetings should occur in a venue outside the regular Fall and Spring meetings of the Executive Committee, to allow adequate time for discussion. At that time, he received a charge to organize such a meeting and did so during late February, 2000 at the Hyatt in Sarasota. Participants in the long-term planning meeting included Barry Ache, Charles Greer, David Hill, John Hildebrand, Charlotte Mistretta, Sue Lampman, Pat Meredith and Judith Van Houten. Many issues were discussed and it was apparent to all of the participants that the meeting was very helpful. The participants also agreed that such a meeting should occur at least every four years. One issue discussed was that having the Past President sit on the Executive Committee for just one year may not be long enough for that person to put their experience to full use. It was suggested that it might be helpful for the Past President to sit on the EC for one additional year. Bob O’ Connell mentioned that there had been resistance to this idea in the past. Dave Hill suggested that we do this as an "experiment" for one year, obviating the need to change our bylaws. The "Past-past-president" could be called the "Senior Advisor". There were no objections to this idea. Another issue that was discussed at the long-term planning meeting was the need for professional help in moving more decisively into the electronic age. Specifically, additional professional help would be useful for functions such as the webpage and newsletter. The issue of Panacea’s contract was also discussed. This contract comes up for renewal this year. The EC will carefully consider Panacea’s proposal and compare it to services offered by other firms. However, Panacea will remain as our management firm for the next year.
Steve Roper, our President-Elect voiced concern that our membership had remained constant for the last 3 years, despite a big jump before that time. The EC discussed whether this was cause for concern. John Scott asked whether we were meeting our original goals formulated when we began AchemS. Bob O’ Connell thought that we were meeting our major goal, which, importantly was to have annual meetings. Steve thought that it would nevertheless be a worthy goal to increase our membership to 1000 (by more than 50%). Stuart Firestein pointed out that, in fact, there were a large number of persons in relevant industries, who were not AChemS members.
Finally, Dave Hill proposed that we vote on holding long-term planning meetings every 5 years. Charlie thought that a 5-year interval was too long and moved that a long-term planning meeting be scheduled every two years. (perhaps, alternate meetings could occur at the Neuroscience Meeting). The proposal was seconded, voted on and passed.
The meeting was adjourned in the late afternoon.
MINUTES OF THE ACHEMS BUSINESS MEETING
Friday, April 28, 2000
The president of AChemS, Dr. David Hill called the meeting to order shortly after noon.
Treasurer's report (Wayne Silver)
Dr. Silver summarized the state of the AChemS budget. At the time of the meeting, estimated expenses for the year were $161,573, of which $42,539 had already been paid, leaving 119,034 yet to be paid. An anticipated $32,529 of income was expected to be collected, leaving $86,505 of expenses to be taken from our reserves, which are in a CAP account containing $284,739. After paying these expenses and shelling out an additional $26,000 to Oxford University Press for subscriptions, but adding in another $10K from a CD, AChemS has about $182,234 in reserve. This puts us in good shape and is probably better than the amount that we had last year.
Membership report (Joe Brand),
Dr. Brand reported that membership had been stable for the last three years. A problem in getting an accurate count at this time is that many people don’t pay their dues until the end of the membership year. Joe cautioned the membership to make certain to pay their dues on time (by January 15th) to avoid having a lapse in their Chemical Senses subscription. The membership numbers for 1999 (the last year for which we have complete numbers) was 642. As of the day prior to the business meeting, however, only 567 members had paid this year’s dues, and this includes new members (in last 3 years we have usually gained and lost about 100 members). Joe ended by urging everyone to pay their dues and by welcoming the next Membership Chair, Tom Christensen.
Program Chair (Stuart Firestein)
Dr. Firestein noted that he was very pleased with this year’s meeting. In fact, he received more abstracts than expected, considering that this was an ISOT year. There were a total of about 336 abstracts, which only represents a decrease of about 50 from last year. Stuart was especially enthusiastic about the large numbers of abstracts submitted by students and post-docs. He also reported that the clinical luncheon had been a great success. He thanked the Program Chair Elect, John Scott and the rest of the Program Committee Members, Peter Brunjes, Debra Fadool, Mary Lucero, John Scott, Andrew Spielman, Susan Sullivan, Chuck Wysocki, Steven Youngentob), along with Panacea, for their help in organizing the meeting. Finally, he encouraged the membership to submit ideas for symposia for the 2001 meeting to John Scott.
Councilors (Joel White and Christine Byrd)
The total student travel budget is $10,000.42 applications for student travel were received, including requests for 32 housing awards and about $13,000 in travel. This enabled AChemS to offer most of the students requesting funds (36/42), an award. A few students declined their award. In the end, 22 students received housing awards and the remaining amount in the budget was slated for travel awards. This is anticipated to be sufficient cover the full amount of their airfare for most domestic travelers. Joel thanked Alan Nighhorn for his help in
organizing the audiovisual efforts of the students.
Past President, Elections (Charles Greer)
Dr. Greer reported that electronic voting, along with the use of our new email list, led to a large increase in the number of members who voted in the election. The new officers are: Stuart Firestein (President Elect), Alan Spector (Program Chair Elect), Tom Christensen, (Membership Chair), Linda Barlow, (Secretary), Leslie Tolbert, (Councilor). He thanked and congratulated all of the nominees, not only those who won the election. Charlie next noted that one of our members, Dr. John Hildebrand, was a candidate for President for the Society for Neuroscience. He pointed out that it would be very beneficial for AChemS to have representation in the leadership of that Society and urged us to strongly consider voting for John.
President Elect, Awards (Stephen Roper); President (David Hill)
Stephen Roper thanked the other members of the Awards Committee, Bruce Bryant, Heather Duncan, John Glendinning, and Gabrielle Ronnet, for their help, also extended appreciation to all of those persons nominating people for awards. He congratulated this years awards winners: Dr. Tim McClintock (Takasago Award for Research in Olfaction), Dr. Linda Barlow (Ajinomoto Award in Gustation), Dr. Harriet Baker (International Fragrances and Flavors Award for Innovative Research), and Dr. Barry Ache (Outstanding Achievement in the Chemical Senses). Steve suggested that nominations be forwarded to the committee at an earlier date next year, and also made a special plea to previous award winners to make nominations themselves. Dave Hill mentioned that AChemS was not planning to raise fees or dues for the following year but that this would probably be necessary in upcoming years. He also mentioned that Jeanine Stewart had chaired a committee on new ideas for educational outreach and that a report would be forthcoming. One possibility is that the library across the street from the Hyatt has now moved and there are plans to make this into a Children’s Museum. If this comes to pass AChemS could have a permanent exhibit.
Chemical Senses (Tom Finger)
Dr. Finger reported that he would be stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of Chemical Senses. Dr. David V. Smith will be taking over as the new Editor-in-Chief. Tom also reported that Oxford University Press (OUP) will be increasing the frequency of publication of Chemical Senses to at least 8 issues per year, and plans eventually to go to monthy publications. Another piece of good news was that OUP will reduce the cost of color plates from $1000 to $600 and will also provide free public access to issues more than 2 years old. The cover of the journal will also change. Michael Meredith asked whether the OUP webpage could be linked to the AChemS homepage. Tom replied that PDF files could certainly be posted on the AChemS website but that we will have to check out copyright limitations with OUP.
President (David Hill)
Dr. Hill spoke about new initiatives for recognizing and promoting "junior" members of AChemS, specifically those persons at the postdoctoral and new faculty levels. He pointed out that this was a very important group of people, who would eventually serve in leadership roles, e.g., on the Executive Committee of AChemS and on Study Sections. Dave himself has very warm memories of how he was made to feel welcome by the more senior members of the organization at that stage in his career. AChemS has made special efforts to welcome graduate students in the past, and now it is time to expand those efforts to include the postdoctoral/new faculty group. These efforts will be kicked off this year at the "beer and burger blast" planned to facilitate interactions between the junior and senior members of AChemS. Dave next discussed the long-term planning meeting that had taken place in February. This meeting had been proposed and then organized by our Past President, Dr. Charles Greer. A group of individuals who had long been involved in AChemS (Barry Ache, Charles Greer, John Hildebrand, Dave Hill, Charlotte Mistretta and Judy van Houten, Sue Lampman, and Pat Meredith) was convened in Sarasota. The group met for two days and had spectacular discussions. A report was generated and distributed to the Executive Committee. Two recommendations from that meeting were approved at this years Executive Committee meeting: (1) that the Past President would continue to serve as a non-voting advisory member of the Executive Committee for an additional year; and (2) that long-term planning meetings, separate from the regular Executive Committee meetings, would continue to be held every other year.
ISOT/ECRO (Steve Van Toller)
Steve Van Toller brought greetings from ECRO. He noted that they hoped to get the ISOT/ECRO meeting website up quickly. He thanked AChemS for their support. Steve pointed out that the ISOT/ECRO and Electronic Nose meetings were to be held simultaneously. He also mentioned that the deadline for abstracts had been postponed. He hoped to see many of us at the meetings. Tom Scott noted that the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior was to take place in Dublin, Ireland, close on the heels of the ISOT/ECRO meeting. A member of the audience asked Dr. Van Toller whether there were plans to publish the proceedings of the ISOT meeting. Steve said that there were only plans to publish the abstracts.
Closing Ceremonies
Our president, David Hill, thanked Pat Meredith and Sue Lampman of Panacea Associates for all of their help over the year, and especially for their efforts in organizing the meeting. Pat and Sue received a gift and a hearty round of applause. Dave Hill noted that it was a true pleasure to serve as the President of AChemS, in particular because of the congeniality of our group. He then asked whether there was any new business. A brief discussion of the venue for the next ISOT followed. Dave then handed over the gavel to our new President, Stephen Roper. Dr. Roper thanked the organization for electing him and thanked Dave Hill for his contributions over the last year as President. Dave was applauded by all of those present and received a gift. Steve Roper briefly mentioned some major goals for the coming year, including the creation of a new and better website and expanding our membership to 1000!
The meeting was adjourned!
AChemS Budget
|
BUDGET PLANNING for 2000-2001 |
| 1999-2000 Actual Income |
|
2000-2001 Estimated Income |
| Membership |
|
|
|
Membership |
|
|
|
| Regular |
500 x $45 |
|
$22,500
|
Regular |
500 x $45 |
|
$ 22,500
|
| Student |
104 x $25 |
|
$ 2,600
|
Student |
120 x $25 |
|
$3,000
|
| Corporate |
|
|
|
Corporate |
|
|
|
| Total Membership |
|
$25,100
|
Total Estimated Membership |
|
$25,500
|
| |
| Conference |
|
|
|
|
Conference |
|
|
|
| All fees |
|
|
$101,520
|
All fees |
|
|
$98,000
|
| Corporate Donations |
|
$ 6,475
|
Corporate Donations |
|
$6,000
|
| Total Conference |
|
$107,995
|
Total Estimated Conference |
|
$104,000
|
| |
|
| Abstract fee |
|
|
$7,525
|
Abstract Fee |
|
330 x $25 |
$8,250
|
| Grant |
|
|
$28,621
|
Grant |
|
|
$29,766
|
| Interest |
|
|
$11,161.20
|
Interest |
|
|
$10,000
|
| Total of all Funds 1999 |
$ 180,402.20
|
Total of all Funds estimated 2000 |
$177,516
|
| Note: Money received from Chemical Senses subscriptions is not included since it will be sent to OUP in December |
BREAKDOWN OF EXPENDITURES for 2000
|
| TOTAL EXPENSES |
|
|
$165,040.61
|
| Membership expenses |
|
|
$36,317.99
|
| President |
Communications, NS & Achems lunch, Awards, Office Supplies |
$1,500
|
$543.01
|
| President Elect |
Awards plaques, Office Supplies |
$600
|
$502.78
|
| Past President |
|
$100
|
$4,220.00
|
| Secretary |
|
$100
|
0
|
| Membership |
|
$300
|
0
|
| Treasurer |
Charge Card Fees, Communications, Office Supplies, Accountant, Misc. Bank Fees |
$4,200
|
$4,237.92
|
| Public Relations |
Communications, Office Supplies |
$300
|
$147.94
|
| 1/2 P. A. Management Fee |
|
$16,637
|
$16,637.00
|
| P.A. Membership Office Expense |
Fall Newsletter Print and Mail, Spring Newsletter Print and Mail, Membership Dir. Print & Mail, New Member Postage, Office Supplies, Communications, Dues Notice |
$9,100
|
|
