Feb. 2006 Board Meeting

GEMS Meeting Minutes

February 23, 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, RoseAnne McGee, Cindy Innes, Jayne Boyer, Jeff Ross, and Errol Zeiger. Alan Townsend participated by speaker phone. An assortment of cookies and soft drinks were made available to the participants by the host, Susan Ross and CIIT. Minutes from the January 11, 2006 board meeting were approved. Les Recio provided a meeting agenda.

2. Susan Ross presented the treasurer’s report and provided a handout of the GEMS Financial Report for February 23, 2006. The balance in the checking and money market accounts were reported.

3. 2006 Spring Meeting. Greg Stuart provided a draft spring meeting agenda to the board. The meeting topic is “Antimutagenesis and Anticarcinogenesis” and features six speakers: Drs. Thomas W. Kensler, Johns Hopkins University; Rudolph Salganik, University of North Carolina; Karen Katula, University of North Carolina; Errol Zeiger, consultant; Alan Townsend, Wake Forest University; Daniel Shaughnessy, NIEHS. Speakers will be offered an honorarium and a GEMS coffee mug. The GEMS Spring Meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 24, 2006 at the Charles Hamner Conference Center at the NC Biotechnology Center. The Center provided at stipend to GEMS and a 50% reduction in room charges. Greg provided a handout itemizing the meeting costs. The total estimated cost for the meeting is $4,900.45 (including the 50% discount). The cost of food will be reduced further, in that the estimated number of people for the continental breakfast, beverage service, and reception is ten people over what is required. Early registration cutoff will be Monday April 10 and the meeting will be announced through the GEMS Blog, membership emails, and outreach contacts by March 10.

It was decided that the career lunch would be more informal this year. Some GEMS members could be identified as mentors and answer career questions informally at the Spring meeting and by email. These people will have career mentor badges and represent government, industry/companies and academia. Gloria Jahnke will recruit at least two mentors per career area. Jeff Ross (US EPA), Jayne Boyer (UNC), Errol Zeiger (consultant/NIEHS), Les Recio (ILS), and Janice Allen (grant funding/NIEHS) volunteered to help. The mentors will be introduced at the beginning of the meeting.

5. GEMS 25^th Anniversary. The 25^th fall meeting of GEMS will be in 2007 and 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 RoseAnne MCGee provided the board with detailed meeting information for six area hotels.

6. Corporate Sponsor Representative. Julie Ginsler from Perkin-Elmer has agreed to be the GEMS corporate sponsor representative. Please include her in GEMS Board of Director’s correspondence (Julie.Ginsler@perkinelmer.com). Les mentioned that he had gotten feedback on the vendors take on the Fall 2005 meeting from Rob Blackman, the outgoing corporate sponsor representative. The vendors did not feel there was sufficient interest in their products from the meeting attendees. Although the corporate sites were well attended, it may be that the membership does not have enough buying power to make financial support of GEMS worthwhile for the companies. Increasing the support for corporate sponsors will be discussed at future GEMS BOD meetings.

7. The next board meeting will be Tuesday, March 21, 2006 at 3 PM at CIIT

Gloria. D. Jahnke, GEMS Secretary