2003 Business Meeting Minutes

ASHG Business Meeting
Los Angeles, California
Friday, November 7, 2003

MINUTES

President Valle opened the meeting and asked for a moment of silence for deceased members of the Society: Marianne Bernstein, Renee Bernstein, David Danks, Ira Herskowitz, Ching Chun Li, William Pollitzer and Dorothy Wertz.

He then welcomed new president elect, Peter Byers, new secretary, David Nelson and three new directors, Anne Bowcock, Bruce Korf and Patricia Ward. He thanked the retiring board members for their service to ASHG and presented gifts to Lynn Jorde, Eric Lander, Ann Walker and Hunt Willard. Virginia Corson was not present to receive her gift.
 

SECRETARY'S REPORT – Ann Walker

Walker asked for a motion to approve the Business Meeting minutes from the 2003 meeting in Baltimore that were posted on the ASHG Web site in October. A motion was given and seconded. There were no objections and the motion was approved.

She reported that the 2003 Nominating committee was chaired by David Ledbetter. Other members of the committee were Judith Benkendorf, Susanne Haga, Michael Hayden, Jeffrey Murray, Harry Orr, Gail Vance and Joann Boughman, ex officio. The slate of candidates included Peter Byers for President elect and for the board of directors, Bruce Korf, Patricia Ward, Ann Bowcock, Garry Cutting, Muin Khoury, and Peter Rowley. She thanked everyone for their willingness to stand for election.

For the 2003 election, 4,982 ballots were mailed to members in good standing. One thousand, three hundred sixty-two (1,362) were returned (27.3%) which is down 0.5 % from 2002 and 2.5% from the 2001 election. Walker mentioned that there may be Web-based voting in the future that may increase participation in the election if the proposed amended bylaws are ratified by the membership (see discussion below).

As of October 16 there are 7,719 paid members; 1,424 are trainees/students. Membership is up 6.5 percent. There were 1,132 members who have let their membership lapse but this figure is down from last year. Walker reminded members that dues can be paid on line as well as updating contact information for the Web directory.

Walker presented the pre-registration meeting figures. Seventy-three percent of pre-registrants are ASHG members. Thirty-two percent are trainees. Seventy percent are from the US. Fifty other nations are represented including six percent from Canada and one percent from Mexico. Nearly two-thirds of pre-registrants reported that their primary activity is basic research and another 25 percent are directly involved in patient care and clinical research.

Walker explained that the bylaws need to be amended in order to allow the membership to be able to do more things electronically. There are three articles that are affected. Two involve a change from mailing ballots to e-mailing ballots (Articles IV & IX). Article VIII has to do with the change in the size of the Program Committee. The Committee would like to have the flexibility not to be limited to 14 members as it states in the bylaws. Walker took a question from the audience regarding the number on the Program Committee. There was some concern about whether it could ever be decreased and the member wanted to put something in the bylaws saying "no less than 14". There was a motion that the new language in the bylaws should reflect this change. Article IV and Article IX amendments passed. The original change to Article VIII passed by a margin of two to one, leaving out the number 14.
 

TREASURER'S REPORT – Jan Friedman
 

Friedman summarized actual expenses and revenue. The total revenue for the current year is $4 million. The total expenses are just over $3.8 million with an excess of revenue over expenses of nearly $200,000. For 2004, the proposed budget is higher with total revenue of 4.3 million and total expenses at 4.16 million with revenue over expenses of $165,000.

The annual meeting revenue for 2003 is expected to be approximately $1.6M with expenses of almost $1.459M. The budget figures for the 2004 meeting show a deficit possibly as high as $75,000. Ways to decrease the deficit are being sought.
 

EDITOR'S REPORT – Stephen Warren
 

Warren thanked retiring editors and welcomed the new ones (B. Keats, M. McDonald, J. Moran and B. Munella). He reported that circulation of the Journal has dropped a bit in 2003 largely due to the bankruptcy of a consolidating firm that takes library subscriptions. The journal continues to do well with an impact factor of 10.6. There is only one journal above it (Nature Genetics) that publishes primary research in human genetics. Among all the journals publishing primary literature, AJHG is 39th. The Journal office is projecting over 1,200 submissions for 2003, the highest number in the journal’s history, although it is publishing at about the same number of pages. Because the page numbers have remained static, the acceptance rate has dropped to about 19 percent. It has been determined to be too low so steps are being taken to either increase the number of pages or reduce the length of each paper so that there can be more articles per issue to bring the number up into the twenties. The turnaround time from submission to rejection is ten days including those papers rejected editorially and those papers that are peer-reviewed. The time from submission to acceptance is about 70 days, a little bit higher than last year, but more time is given to the reviewers for papers that are heavy in statistical genetics.

The UCP receipt to electronic publication is 43 days – about the same as last year but higher than it should be. This year steps will be taken with UCP to get back on a more timely scale. Fast track manuscripts received last year were relatively small (8) with an average of 10.3 days to first decision. The average number of days to acceptance was 21 days.

Warren said the biggest initiative this year is the electronic submission and review system (Web Peer Review System). It seems to be working out very well but encouraged the members to let the Journal office know if anyone has experienced any problems as UCP can make it more user-friendly.

Regarding PubMed Central, he reported that the Journal has directed UCP to release everything six months or older to PubMed Central. Currently, the office is exploring ways to accommodate authors that would like to have their papers released immediately upon electronic publication.

Finally, Warren thanked the people that make the editorial office work so well. Mary Ann Hall, the production manager, Kate Garber, the deputy editor and Theresa Gillman, the managing editor.
 

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT – Joann Boughman
 

Boughman reported that Dr. C. C. Li’s family has named ASHG as well as the University of Pittsburgh as memorial gift recipients.

She discussed the status of the genetic nondiscrimination legislation and indicated how important it is for members to be responsive to letter-writing campaigns. She said that there has finally been a piece of legislation passed by the Senate (95-0). However, the Society along with many other advocacy groups and coalitions need to be diligent when it comes to working the House side. It is important that the House approve the Senate version of this legislation (S1053) and members of the House need to hear from their constituency on this issue. She told the membership about a new system that the ASHG is using called CapWiz. This system makes the process of writing to one’s representative to register an opinion very easy with a couple of clicks on the Web site. Boughman said that the Society office will be emailing ASHG members again using CapWiz. Every email that gets sent to one’s representative registers in the ASHG office so it becomes possible to easily track the number of letters that have been sent. President Valle reiterated the importance of this legislation and the need to have members contact their representatives to urge that this legislation be moved forward.

On the policy side, the ASHG is working with the HHS Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society by providing them with background information and testimony as appropriate. In addition, the Board had some concern with the problems associated with implementation of HIPAA legislation, and a specific Rapid Action Team has been formed to work on these issues. This team will eventually develop a statement addressing special genetics-related concerns surrounding the implementation of this legislation.

In the area of education, Boughman updated the membership on the new educational resources on the ASHG Web site. She told them of a new initiative, "The People Behind Human Genetics." She explained that it is a series of five or six interviews including past ASHG student award winners and past/present Board members. It highlights their careers in human genetics; a sampling is presently on the Web. She reported that having these resources is making a big impact as the ASHG Web site is getting between 5-600,000 hits per month.

The Society is now developing strategies to enhance the Mentor Network both in materials available to the mentors and by facilitating connections with science teachers. Some of these activities are being done in concert with the National Science Teachers Association.

She reported that the ASHG is collaborating with the Genetic Alliance and NSGC on an initiative called the Family History Project. It is an awareness campaign to encourage individuals in the general public to start asking questions about their own family history. The group is now strategizing on how this process can be enhanced.

Finally, she told the membership that she is available by phone/email any time to hear from members about suggestions they may have to make the Society even better than it is. She said that she will be glad to bring any new ideas up with the Executive Committee and the Board.
 

SOCIAL ISSUES COMMITTEE - Mary Kay Pelias
 

Members of the 2003 Social Issues Committee are: M. Pelias, Chair; S. Au; T. Caulfield; L. Elsas; R. Fineman; E. Johnson; M. McGinniss; A. Scheurle; W. Uhlmann.

Mary Kay Pelias discussed the manuscript in progress entitled "Representations, Reception and Perception of Human Genetics and Genomics Research". It is almost completed and will be ready by the March 2004 Board meeting. She reported on the social issues sessions and said that the two presented this year in LA were very well attended. The committee has already discussed next year’s suggested sessions which are: Reproductive Genetic Technologies – Who Decides; Public Representations of Genetics Research – Social, Legal and Ethical Issues. Someone has already requested a session for 2005: Nature and Implications of Genetic Information – Is it Different from Other Kinds of Information?
 

INFORMATION AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE - Loraine Oman-Ganes
 

Members of this committee are: L. Oman-Ganes, Chair; L. Baumbach; D. Gale; P. Gregory; F. Kaplan; N. Lamb; A. Pandya; V. Riccardi; S. Terry.

Loraine Oman-Ganes reviewed some of the highlights of 2003 that included enhancing collaboration with several groups -- the ACMG, NCHPEG, NSGC and the Genetic Alliance. Joe McInerney has chaired a subcommittee on undergraduate education and has also worked hard in his efforts to enhance evolution education in the public schools. Vic Riccardi is compiling the important and essential aspects of the history of the Society through the legacy project. The Committee was asked to review several documents including an internal medicine genetics curriculum, the FASEB individual development plan for postdoctoral fellows, and medical school curriculum guidelines for genetics education. The Committee has continued to build connections with students and teachers nationally. The Society has been represented at the National Association of Biology Teachers meetings through the provision of a keynote speaker (Dr. Bonnie Pagon) this year. Also, at the NSTA annual meeting (about 15,000 attendees) the committee presented a half-day interactive short course called "The Genetics Detective" and in April of 2004 there will be another one, "The Genetics Detective: the art and science of inquiry." The annual trainee/mentor luncheon this year had the largest attendance ever with 120 students and 20 mentors. In addition, the annual High School Student/Teacher workshop held at the LA meeting had 220 students and teachers from the Los Angeles area with a waiting list of 60. There were four concurrent interactive sessions and attendees were given an evaluation form to complete.

Finally, Oman-Ganes strongly encouraged the membership to submit education proposals for next year and thanked all of the Committee members for all of their hard work.
 

2003 PROGRAM COMMITTEE - Charis Eng
 

Members of the 2003 committee are: Charis Eng, Chair; B. Baty; N. Cox; M. Grompe; L. Hudgins; B. Lee; M. MacDonald; J. McPherson; R. Spielman; N. Spinner; C. Stratakis; E. Wijsman; R. Wilson; A. Wynshaw-Boris. D. Valle, R. Nussbaum, A. Walker, ex officio. Program committee members leaving are Bonnie Baty, Marcus Grompe and Ellen Weisman. New members are Cathy Schneider, Chris Amos, David Byer, Bill Gahl and Jeff Long.

Charis Eng reported that as of 11/6/03 the number of registrants was 4,884. In 2002 (Baltimore), the total was 4,968. In San Diego, post 9/11, it was 4,314. This year there were 80 proposals submitted by the membership for invited sessions and 21 were selected. There were 2,770 abstracts submitted and 2,702 were published and are being presented. She mentioned that this year’s meeting varied a bit by adding several different alternatives to the scientific program, including an invited plenary, Genetics at the Movies and the Special Genomics Symposium on Friday night. This year the Program Committee highlighted advances in cancer genetics and epigenetics as the theme for the 2003 meeting. The idea of having a theme each year as well as cross topic sessions seems to have been well received by the attendees. Eng introduced the 2004 Committee Chair, Brendan Lee.
 

2004 PROGRAM COMMITTEE - Brendan Lee
 

Brendan Lee invited all of the membership to come to the 2004 Toronto meeting and reported that the theme as determined by the Program Committee will be development, specifically human development as it is the common link that is present in all of the genetic subspecialties. The theme of the Distinguished Speakers’ Symposium will be "From Rare Genetic Diseases to Common Pathways." He outlined changes that will take place in 2004 pursuant to Board action. The abstract submission date will be moved closer to the meeting and the committee will continue to evaluate invited sessions. They have received 51 so far. It will be implementing some additional changes in the abstract submission process in terms of gathering more data. Abstracts will be identified as to whether they are being submitted by trainees, graduate students as well as postdoctoral, so information can be tracked in terms of the number of trainees who are submitting work on a year-to-year basis.

There being no new business, a motion was made and seconded that the meeting be adjourned. The motion carried.

Respectfully submitted,
Ann P. Walker, Secretary
Elaine Strass, Executive Director

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