March Board Meeting Minutes

by Gloria. D. Jahnke, GEMS Secretary

March 20, 2006

CIIT

1. President-Elect Greg Stuart called the Board to order at 3:00 p.m. The following members were present: Les Recio, 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 February 23, 2006 board meeting were approved.
   
   
2. Susan Ross presented the treasurer’s report and provided a handout of the GEMS Financial Report for March 20, 2006. The balance in the checking and money market accounts were reported. So far 14 people have registered for the Spring Meeting; 90-100 attendees are expected.
   
   
3. 2006 Spring Meeting. The meeting announcement and registration form was sent out by Frank Stack to the membership on March 10, 2006 and posted on the GEMS web site. 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. All speakers except Dr. Shaughnessy will receive an honorarium. The GEMS Spring Meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 24, 2006 at the Charles Hamner Conference Center at the NC Biotechnology Center. Greg has sent out information on this meeting to NIEHS, NCCU, EPA, NCSOT, and all department heads at Duke, UNC (Greensboro and Chapel Hill), NCSU, and NC AT&T. Greg has sent out the agenda and registrations to the speakers and has requested a short biographical sketch and abstract of their presentation. As a backup plan for a late cancellation from a presenter, we will have a mini-symposium/panel discussion for that time period featuring the other speakers. Greg has also confirmed that the Image Associates photographer, Steve McCaw will be the photographer for the Spring meeting. Images posted on the GEMS website will have an acknowledgment to Steve and Image Associates posted with the photos. A meeting reminder will be sent by Frank Stack to the GEMS membership on April 3.
   
   Meeting Handouts. Handouts to meeting attendees will consist of a small booklet with meeting agenda, abstracts of the talks, and NIEHS pens and notepaper. The booklet will acknowledge Image Associates and Steve McCaw for the photography, CIIT and Susan Ross for the badges and nametags, and NC Biotechnology Center for meeting support. A slide will also have this information for display between speaker presentations. Greg has agreed to assemble the booklets and Gloria and RoseAnne will help out as needed.
   
   
4. Mentoring. Jane Allen is helping to recruit 2-3 people from GSK for mentoring during the Spring meeting. Mark Miller (WFU) and Jeffrey Ambroso (GSK) have recently agreed to participate. Jeff Ross (US EPA), Jayne Boyer (UNC), Errol Zeiger (consultant/NIEHS), Les Recio (ILS), and Janice Allen (grant funding/NIEHS) from the GEMS Board have also volunteered. We hope to have one more university and industry person. The mentors will be introduced at the beginning of the meeting and prior to lunch and be identified by nametag with ribbon.
   
   
5. By-Laws Voting. The membership voting on the revisions to the GEMS By-Laws will continue through March 31. Frank Stack will send a reminder to the membership on March 27 to vote on the by-laws by March 31. A member noted that there were two different dates for the close of membership dues payments. Errol Zeiger will resolve any inconsistencies in the bylaws after the voting has closed and they have been adopted.
   
   
6. Corporate Sponsor Representative. Julie Ginsler from Perkin-Elmer is the new GEMS corporate representative. Please include her in GEMS Board email correspondence.
   
   
7. The next board meeting will be Thursday June 1, 2006 at 3 PM at CIIT