Minutes of January Board Meeting

by Gloria. D. Jahnke, GEMS Secretary
January 11, 2006
CIIT

1. President Les Recio called the Board to order at 3:00 p.m. The following members were present: Les Recio, Greg Stuart, Susan Ross, Gloria Jahnke, Janice Allen, Rose Anne McGee, Cindy Innes, Jayne Boyer, Susan Oxendine, and Errol Zeiger. An assortment of cookies and soft drinks were made available to the participants by the host, Susan Ross and CIIT.

2. Susan Ross presented the treasurer’s report and provided a handout of the GEMS Financial Report for January 11, 2006. The balance in the checking and money market accounts were reported. Gloria Jahnke reported that a thank you letter acknowledging NIEHS’ conference contribution had been sent to Ms. Ann M. Parnow, coordinator, government programs, at Courtesy Associates in Washington, DC. Also enclosed with the letter was the GEMS 2005 fall meeting summary and completed W-9 tax form.

3. Membership Approval of GEMS By-Laws. Errol Zeiger has completed an update of the GEMS By-Laws and they are ready for approval by the membership. It was decided that a pdf file would be prepared of the revised by-laws along with a letter/ballot to the membership. The letter would provide choices of acceptance of all changes, non- acceptance, and partial acceptance with space for comments. The membership voting would be through a global email submitted by the webmaster, Frank Stack. A time frame for receipt of membership response would be with the email. It was proposed that a two week timeframe be used with a reminder sent at one week.

4. 2006 Spring Meeting. Discussion of the 2006 Spring Meeting was lead by Greg Stuart. He is in the process of contacting the NC Center for Biotechnology to schedule the meeting for the last week in April. He provided a handout to the Board listing potential meeting topics. Some of the topics were not relevant to the GEMS and were deleted: Air Pollution and Human Health, Infectious Diseases, and Clinical Research Programs. The topics (see below) of Antimutagenic Mechanisms of Chemopreventive Agents (7 votes) and Oxidative Damage & Stress (7 votes) received the most votes. It was proposed by Les that the topic of “Antimutagenic Mechanisms” be used. This subject encompasses a broader area, e.g., oxidative stress, DNA repair, phase two metabolism, and holistic medicine. It was suggested that someone in Tom Kunkel’s laboratory and a research scientist from UNC, Rudolph Salganik, could be speakers. The possibility of GEMS hosting a career lunch in conjunction with the Spring meeting was discussed. Gloria will talk with Jane Allen who had chaired last year’s effort about the usefulness of this venue. It was suggested that some GEMS members could be identified as available to answer career questions informally at the spring meeting and via email.

5. GEMS 25th Anniversary. The 25th fall meeting of GEMS will be in 2007. October, 1983 was the first annual meeting, so the 2007 Fall meeting will be the 25th. RoseAnne McGee suggested that for the 25th anniversary of GEMS, there be a 1 ½ day scientific meeting and reunion. EMS members and GEMS past presidents would be invited and a hotel would host the meeting. There would need to be a change in venue for this fall meeting, such as using the Sheraton Hotel or Holiday Inn at Research Triangle Park. Janice Allen and Rose Anne McGee volunteered to provide information to the BOD regarding the local venues.

6. Corporate Sponsor Representative. It is uncertain whether the current GEMS corporate representative will continue for 2006 and the Board discussed a potential replacement. Les will confirm whether Rob plans to continue to serve as GEMS corporate representative. Les will also ask for feedback on responses from vendors from the 2005 fall meeting.

7. GEMS Newsletter. A replacement for newsletter editor was discussed. It was proposed that the content of the newsletter could be handled through the GEMS blog and/or website providing that the membership be alerted that this information is available and that the template for the GEMS Newsletter be used. Items covered in the newsletter are: list of officers, a list of corporate sponsors, a meeting summary from the travel award recipient, pictures from meetings, meeting information, letter from the president-elect, information on meeting registration, abstract submission, and the draft meeting program.

8. The next board meeting will be February 23, 2006 at 3 PM at CIIT


Fall Meeting Topics and Votes

7 Antimutagenic Mechanisms of Chemopreventive Agents
7 Oxidative Damage & Stress
4 Individual Variation In Health & Disease.
4 In vitro Models of DNA Damage, Mutagenesis & Repair (or Prevention)
3 Diet & Cancer
3 Mitochondrial DNA Damage & Repair
3 RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) Technology
2 Mouse Models of Disease
2 Scientific Fraud & the Integrity of Science
2 Systems/Integrative Biology
1 Environmental Factors Influencing Development
1 Gene Interactions During Mammalian Development
1 Genetic Consequences of Environmental Exposures
1 Mouse Models of Mutagenesis & Carcinogenesis
1 Mouse Models In Toxicology
0 Alternatives to Animal Testing in Toxicology
0 Cell Imaging
0 Chromatin Modifications & Cellular Responses
0 Developmental Toxicology
0 Gene Therapy
0 Genotoxicology Models
0 Global Testing Requirements
0 Health of Children (Sensitive Populations)
0 Imprinting
0 Microarrays
0 Mitochondria