Board Meeting Minutes - July 25, 2006
CIIT
by Gloria. D. Jahnke, GEMS Secretary
- The meeting was called to order at 3:10 PM. The following members were present: Les Recio, Greg Stuart, Susan Ross, Gloria Jahnke, Cindy Innes, Jayne Boyer, Errol Zeiger, Julie Ginsler, and RoseAnne McGee. An assortment of cookies and soft drinks were made available to the participants by Susan Ross. Minutes from the June 20, 2006 board meeting were approved.
- Susan Ross presented the treasurer’s report and provided a handout of the GEMS Financial Report for July 27, 2006 that included expenses for the Spring meeting. The balance in the checking and money market accounts were reported.
- 2006 Spring Meeting. Susan reported that the overall meeting cost was $4829.47; total revenues for the meeting were $3,210.00 resulting in a net loss of $1,619.47. There were 72 attendees at the meeting.
- Fall Meeting – The GEMS Fall meeting will be at the Friday Center, October 26, 2006.
- Meeting Registration Fee – The board agreed to increase the GEMS meeting registration fee. Fees for members and non-members will increase by $10 and student members by $5. The amount for student non-members would not change. Early registration will be: members, $50, non-members $60, student members $10, and student non-members $15. Late registration will be $60 for members and $70 for non-members and remain at $10 and $15 for student members and student non-members, respectively.
- Corporate Sponsors – Julie Ginsler, the GEMS corporate representative, reviewed information on corporate sponsorship for the upcoming Fall meeting. She will solicit corporate sponsors for the meeting from a list of 50 contacts. Sponsorship includes a display table at the meeting, meeting attendance and lunch for two people, and listing in the meeting program. An advertisement in the program is $50. The advertisement would also appear on the GEMS blog. Susan will send Julie a registration form for corporate sponsors and Greg will check to see if the display table size for can be increased from 6 to 8 feet. Sponsors will send their contact information and a synopsis of the products the company offers (50 words or less) for the meeting program. Julie suggested having a raffle at lunchtime for meeting attendees who visited 10 tables during the meeting.
- Speakers and Call for Abstracts – The contract with the Friday Center has been signed. Two of the three invited speakers have accepted. The other one has tentatively accepted. An email with a Call for Abstracts will be released soon. Categories are student/technician/first- or second-year postdoc. After some discussion that postdocs would have difficulty completing a project within one year, the time period for postdocs was extended to 2 years. Awards to presenters, speakers, and out-going board members will be discussed at the next GEMS meeting.
- Food – The buffet lunch is $12.50/person, and is estimated for 120 attendees. The minimum order by Carolina Catering for the Reception is 30 persons (at $13.35/person), which will be sufficient.
- Funding – Greg has prepared an application for meeting support from NIEHS through the Director’s Discretionary Funds. The application was submitted to Dr. Cidlowski on July 19. Another option, perhaps, for next year is grants.gov. However, applications need to be submitted approximately >6 months in advance and require detailed program information, including speakers. Greg noted that “if we are obligated to go follow this rather detailed and convoluted route for funding, a "request for permission," would have to be prepared no later than March 1st, to meet the deadlines for a GEMS meeting scheduled for mid-October. This simply does not seem practicable, for a small volunteer society like GEMS. Thus, we will likely need to consider alternative sources of funding (sources?), and/or cost-saving measures, for coming events." Information on funding sources is appended below.
- GEMS Elections – Greg reviewed potential candidates for GEMS offices. There are 3 outgoing councilors: Mary Smith, Alan Townsend, and Karin Drotschmann. An email will be sent to GEMS membership requesting candidates for 3 councilor positions and for president-elect.
- The next board meeting will be Tuesday, August 29, 2006 at 3 PM at CIIT.
Appendix:
Information on Conference Funding Sources from Greg Stuart
Requests for funds generally require, minimally, the conference date(s), estimated number of attendees, sometimes the composition of the attendees (e.g., students, investigators, etc), plus a draft agenda and draft budget. Depending upon the source, application deadlines are up to 7.5 months in advance. Scientific organization can formally apply for NIEHS support through the grants.gov web site: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/dert/programs/conferen.htm. Application receipt dates are April 15, August 15, and December 15. The receipt date chosen must be at least 6 months prior to the meeting. A request for permission to submit a conference application is required and must be received no later than six (6) weeks prior to the receipt date as described in the announcement (March 1, July 1, or November 1). In your request please include:
- Meeting Title, Date and Location
- PI name and location
- Meeting and need justification e.g. Meeting purpose and goals (2-3 sentences)
- Preliminary draft program with speakers if known or suggested speakers
- Amount requested and purpose
posted by GEMS blog at Wednesday, August 30, 2006
