|
2004 Business Meeting Minutes
ASHG Business Meeting
Toronto Convention Center
Thursday, October 29, 2004
MINUTES
President Robert L. Nussbaum
welcomed everyone to the business meeting.
He began by asking for a moment of silence
for the ASHG members who died during the
past year. They are: Margorie Asmussen, Don
R. Barnett, Camilynn Brannan, Arnold M.
Clark, David M. Danks, Andree M. Dozy, Avril
M. Friel, Melissa V. Hill, Claes Lundsteen,
Helena A. Miller, Matthew W. Nash, Jane M.
Olson, Fay O. Redwine, David C. Rowe, Jakub
Patrick Sram, Richard H. Ward, Robin Michael
Winter.
Nussbaum thanked retiring board members for
their service to ASHG and presented gifts to
those who were present. They are: P. Michael
Conneally, Wylie Burke, Leena
Peltonen-Palotie and Val Sheffield.
SECRETARY'S REPORT – David Nelson, PhD
Nelson presented the Business Meeting
minutes from the 2003 meeting in Los Angeles
that were posted on the ASHG web site in
October. A motion was made and seconded to
approve the minutes. The motion carried.
Elections
Nelson thanked the 2004 Nominating
Committee comprising Harry Orr, Chair;
Miriam Blitzer; Virginia Corson; Stephen
Goodman; James Lupski; John Phillips and
Anne Spence. The names of the following
candidates appeared on the slate: Steve
Warren, PhD, for president; Harry Dietz,
MD; Brendan Lee, MD, PhD; Roderick
McInnes, MD, PhD; Roberta Pagon, MD;
Reed Pyeritz, MD, PhD; Daniel VanDyke,
PhD for directors. The winners were:
Steve Warren for president and Rod
McInnes, Roberta Pagon and Reed Pyeritz
for directors. Nelson thanked everyone
for their willingness to be on the
ballot. He then said that this was the
first year electronic balloting was
instituted. Out of 4500 ballots sent out
by both paper and email, 1121 were
returned – about 25% - which is about
the same as the number of paper ballots
received in the past election. Balloting
electronically reduces the cost to the
Society, and he appreciates that members
are keeping up with ASHG’s efforts to
utilize electronic methods.
Nelson reported that as of October 19th,
there were over 7,700 members, which
includes 1,500 trainees and 1,300 from
overseas. There are 1,500 members who
have let their membership lapse in the
past two years, but this is balanced by
1,100 new members, such that total paid
membership is nearly identical compared
with 2003. He encouraged people to go to
the Web site and pay their dues. Nelson
said that the Society had enjoyed an
annual increase in the membership since
1999, but it has leveled off in the past
two years.
Regarding this year’s meeting, the
registration total is 4,980, up slightly
from last year. He said that a high
percentage of registrants came from
outside the US – perhaps because of the
Canadian location. The increase in
Canadian registrants was over 700.
ByLaws Changes
Nelson said that the Board decided to
make some minor changes to the bylaws.
The first change is in Article IV and
deals with elections. In this article,
there is an opportunity for individuals
to add names to ballots and this had
been linked to the timing of the annual
meeting. The Board thought this was an
awkward way of putting in deadlines for
this process. They are proposing to
remove "received by the secretary not
less than 10 weeks before the Annual
Meeting" and replace it with
"nominations must be received not less
than 10 weeks before ballots are
distributed". Nelson asked for a show of
hands to change this section of the
Bylaws. The membership voted unanimously
for the change.
The second change is found in Article
VI. The Bylaws read that "The Society
shall publish a program of its
scientific meetings, including abstracts
of the papers to be presented. A copy of
the program will be sent to members in
good standing without additional
charge." The Board is proposing to
change this to "will be available to
each member without additional charge."
Nelson explained that the rationale is
not to have to send the abstract book to
every member of the Society, but only
make the books available upon request,
and continue to make them available at
the meeting. He made it clear that the
compact discs would be sent out to
members prior to the meeting.
There was much discussion by the
membership present at the meeting in
reaction to this proposed change. Many
were unhappy about the possibility of
not having a book prior to the meeting.
Nelson called for a show of hands in
favor of changing Article VI. There was
not a clear majority, and the motion was
tabled. President Nussbaum said that it
is important to hear from the general
membership and a survey will be sent out
to all regular members immediately after
the annual meeting to determine the
opinions of the full membership. (Staff
Note: An internet poll was distributed
and as a result of the responses, there
will be a Program and Abstracts book
with CD sent to all registrants. The
Program guide will be distributed on
site.)
TREASURER'S REPORT –
Jan Friedman, MD, PhD
Friedman reported that in general the
Society is doing fine with a projected net
revenue for 2004 of $132,963. The total
revenue is projected to be $4.1M, slightly
higher than in 2003. The total expense is
projected at $3.99M, slightly higher than in
2003. The projected net revenue for the
meeting is $104,852.
Friedman discussed major changes that
include an increase in the price for
nonmember journal subscriptions, an increase
in income for fellowships, reduced journal
expenses due to fewer pages being published
and a reduction in manuscript editing fees,
a decrease in payments to ABGC as a result
of fulfillment of a 10-year support program,
and increased expenses in contracted
services for computer support.
He said that the "fund balance," or the
Society’s net worth ratio is 60%. The
preferred level is between 50% and 75%. The
Society moved its investments from
Merrill-Lynch to TIAA-CREF. The overall
portfolio return is about 11.5%. The
management fees are lower than previously at
$833/month.
The development fund started at $200,000 and
now is at $160,000 after travel awards and
the education summit. No money has been
added to the development fund. The Board
after much discussion decided to ask the
membership, starting with the Board, to
contribute to the fund. The development fund
committee will be comprised of Bianchi,
Ward, Nussbaum and Strass. Various ways of
advertising the fund and how to contribute
to it will be devised. The Board decided
that getting involved in K-12 education as
well as encouraging medical students to come
into the field would be the targets for
spending. The Board decided to spend up to
$10,000 to explore hiring a professional
development person to devise a plan to raise
money for these purposes.
Budget
The budgeted total revenue for 2005 is
$4,265,000 and the budgeted total expenses
are $4,210,000, with a net revenue of about
$55,000. The 2005 meeting is budgeted to
have a net income of $193,972, about double
that of the 2004 meeting.
Friedman outlined cost increases/income
decreases. The nonmember subscriptions have
been falling at the rate of 6% per year. UCP
has stated that their copyediting fees will
probably rise in 2005. A new staff education
position has been added. The Board discussed
accepting a break-even budget but was
uncomfortable with the risk that a large
deficit could ensue. Friedman said that it
was decided that the regular member dues
will be increased by $20 per year in 2006 to
$150. By doing so, the Society will raise an
additional $57,000.
EDITOR'S REPORT – Steve Warren
Warren thanked retiring editorial board
members for their service: John Blangero,
Rob Nichols, Evan Eichler, and Lisa Shaffer.
He then announced the new associate editors:
Goncalo Abecasis, Michael Epstein, Stephen
Scherer, and Deborah Nickerson.
Warren told the membership that he would be
retiring as editor and Cynthia Morton, the
next editor-in-chief, will begin her
transition over the summer of 2005. She will
begin her editorial duties with the January
2006 issue. Morton should have a fairly
seamless transition because all the journal
products and processes are electronic.
Warren said that the journal circulation has
declined for two reasons. Libraries under
increasing fiscal constraints have
consolidated multiple institutional
subscriptions to a single subscription
allowing electronic access to all those on
campus or within the institution; our open
access policy at six months after
publication has added to the problem.
Warren announced that submitted manuscripts
will be available on the Web prior to
typesetting. The details of this new
publish-ahead-of-print feature are being
ironed out. This will serve to diminish the
submission to publication interval. The Web
page for the journal is much improved and
now resides in the administrative office
instead of at UCP. Warren commented that it
is now much more user friendly. Most of the
top ten genetics journals are review
publications so we are considered number two
among journals who publish primary research
is human genetics. The cited half life of
papers in the journal is 5.1 months, 32nd
overall in primary scientific publications.
The journal’s impact factor went up a full
point in 2004 to 11.4. Reasons for the rise
are that the turnaround time has been
reduced and the journal has been more
selective than in previous years. Warren
stated that the acceptance rate has dropped
to 16% even though the standards have not
changed. Approximately 40% of submissions
are sent for peer review, and the rest are
rejected after editorial review. In general,
the latter are not flawed, they are just not
of sufficient interest to the journal.
The time from submission to rejection is 10
days. The time from submission to acceptance
is 65 days (including both editorial office
review and the review of the manuscript by
external referees). The time from point of
acceptance to electronic publication by UCP
is 33 days.
Open access
Warren was asked about the "Open Access"
issue, and he said that the AJHG has had a
long tradition of open access. It was the
first journal to go to free release 6 months
after publication, and it is distributed
without charge at the time of publication to
many third-world countries, so the journal
fulfills many of the points that were raised
recently both within the scientific
community and in Congress. The Board is
actively discussing ways in which it can
readily make the journal available to the
public without affecting the business plan.
Having the journal completely open access
would jeopardize the subscription base, but
there may be ways to make it available to
the public, who are paying for a good
percentage of research that is being
conducted.
EXECUTIVE VICE
PRESIDENT'S UPDATE - Dr. Joann Boughman
Boughman described briefly the two types
of ASHG fellowship programs. She reported
that there have already been two completed
cycles of the NHGRI/ASHG fellows (Daryl
Pritchard and Jennifer Leib have finished
their tenures). The third fellow is in place
(Michael Stebbins), and he is now spending
time at the NHGRI and will move on to the
"Hill" in the winter.
Another fellowship program is now being
funded through the CDC in conjunction with
ASHG. A public health genetics fellow,
Ridgely Green, was chosen as the first
fellow. This is a new partnership that the
ASHG and the CDC are developing to
institutionalize genetics in the pubic
health sector via CDC and to make the public
health perspective more integral to ASHG.
There are several policy and legislative
issues being discussed between the two
agencies.
Genetic Nondiscrimination
Boughman reported that genetic
nondiscrimination legislation will die at
the end of the 108th Congress, but in
the109th Congress, ASHG and other coalition
partners will push the legislation forward
on both the Senate and House sides. The
Society has been working with the
Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetics,
Health and Society on the issue and has
helped arrange panels for testimony at
SACGHS’ recent meeting and for various
jurisdictions around the country.
Stem Cells
Stem cell research continues to be an
important issue at the US federal and state
levels. Legislation was put forward on the
House side recently, and it is anticipated
that legislative endeavors will come forward
in the 109th Congress that ASHG will track.
Open Access
ASHG will be responding to the NIH notice in
the Federal Register by November 15. FASEB
is also very involved with this issue, but
ASHG is one of the organizations already in
compliance with proposed policies and
clearly supports the spirit of open access.
Rare Disease Testing
Presently, the ASHG is a part of a working
group with CDC on rare disease testing. The
ASHG perspective includes the interface
between research and clinical testing. The
Society hosted a workshop and will continue
to include and obtain the perspective of the
researchers as CDC and others move forward
in clinical rare disease testing.
Family Health History Initiative
There have been several initiatives in
family health history taking place
simultaneously. ASHG has an active program
along with the NSGC and the Genetic
Alliance, and the family history tool
developed as a result of this association is
available on the ASHG Web site. The ASHG is
also working with the Institute of Cultural
Partnerships and with the Library of
Congress on a HRSA-funded project in which
grantee representatives will be going to
underrepresented minority populations and
will take a more culturally sensitive folk
approach to family histories, leading to the
development of an increased awareness of
family medical history. The Society has also
worked with Research!America on some of its
polls (Parade Magazine, September 9, 2004,
on Individualized Medicine).
On November 8 the Surgeon General will
launch a national initiative to encourage
all American families to learn more about
their family health histories. He will
announce that Thanksgiving Day will be
declared Family History Day. The ASHG, the
Genetic Alliance and NCHPEG have been
working with NHGRI and the Surgeon General’s
office to make this an annual event.
SOCIAL ISSUES
COMMITTEE – Mary Z. Pelias, PhD, JD, and
Kathy Hudson, PhD, Chairs
Members of the committee are: Wylie
Burke, Sylvia Au, Elizabeth Cameron, Louis
Elsas, Robert Fineman, Eric Johnson, Matthew
McGinniss, Angela Scheuerle.
Pelias announced that the Social Issues
sessions in Los Angeles in 2003 had been
very well attended and the two sessions at
the 2004 meeting are: (1) Reproductive
Genetic Technologies: Who Decides? The Role
of Professional Societies and Advisory
Bodies in Setting Policy Guidelines; and (2)
Public Representations of Genetic Research:
Social, Legal and Ethical Issues. She
reported that one of the sessions for the
2005 meeting had already been determined:
Genetic Information: Is Knowledge Power? It
will be moderated by Bonnie LeRoy. The
second one for 2005 is tentative but will
revolve around race and genetics. The
details will be worked out at a later date.
Pelias thanked the Board and the Society for
giving her the opportunity to serve and to
chair the Social Issues Committee. Her
tenure will be ending at the end of 2004.
She then introduced Kathy Hudson, the new
Chair of the Committee.
Hudson reported that in addition to
organizing the Social Issues sessions, the
committee is responsible for a new mandate
from the board to help coordinate rapid
action teams to respond to new and emerging
issues. She reported that the committee is
anxious to be as responsive and helpful to
the board as possible and to reflect the
broad interests and expertise of the
membership of the Society. The committee
will review the 31 policy statements that
are already in place dating back to 1987 and
will develop a set of priorities to bring to
the Board for further direction.
Hudson announced that there are positions
open on the committee, and she encouraged
interested members to contact her.
PROGRAM COMMITTEE –
Brenden Lee and Tony Wynshaw-Boris, Chairs
Members of this committee are: Chris
Amos, David Beier, Nancy Cox, William Gahl,
Louanne Hudgins, Jeff Long, Marcy MacDonald,
John McPherson, Richard Spielman, Katherine
Schneider, Nancy Spinner, Constantine
Stratakis, Douglas Wilson
Lee announced that the theme for this year’s
meeting is "development." He stated that the
2004 committee continued to do cross topic
sessions, and he encouraged feedback from
the membership. He highlighted some of the
new initiatives for this year including a
joint workshop with ARVO and one that
focused on NIH study section mechanics. He
said that for the first time the schedule
was changed in order to have two poster
sessions on Friday and two platform sessions
on Saturday. The committee this year
reviewed over 113 new proposals and some
deferrals from the prior year for a total of
121, the highest number ever submitted. Many
excellent proposals have already been
considered by the current committee for
2005.
For the Toronto meeting, the committee
evaluated 3,160 abstracts, an all-time high
for the Society.
He thanked the Committee for their hard work
and made special mention to those rotating
off at the end of 2004. They are: Nancy Cox,
Louanne Hudgins, Nancy Spinner and Doug
Wilson. The chair for the 2005 meeting will
be Tony Wynshaw-Boris.
Wynshaw-Boris reported that the theme for
the 2005 meeting in Salt Lake City will be
"the promise of the genome," and Peter
Byers, 2005 President, is planning a
presidential symposium on that subject.
Fifty invited sessions have already been
reviewed, and the committee is also
considering a new set of invited speakers
that will provide outreach to other
professional societies. He acknowledged
Brendan Lee’s hard work and encouraged
members to let the chairs know how
improvements can be made.
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
COMMITTEE - Ethylin Wang Jabs, MD
Members of this committee are: Bartha
Knoppers, Barbara McGillivray, Helga
Toriello, Daniel Van Dyke, and Vivian
Weinblatt.
Jabs reported that this committee is
responsible for responding to the board as
it considers ethical issues within the
Society, the scientific community, the
general public and industry. She said that
the committee has proposed to draft a code
of ethics for the ASHG. It will consist of
guiding principles for the Society as a
whole as well as for its individual members.
Among the principles will be those that
advocate for the responsible conduct and use
of basic /clinical scientific expertise, the
disclosure of conflicts of interest, the
respect for racial and cultural diversity
and the avoidance of misconduct and
misrepresentation. The committee will draft
a document that will be available for the
membership for comments and suggestions.
Through an educational session at the 2005
meeting and through publications, the
process involved in developing this code of
ethics will be presented and discussions
will be encouraged on issues such as the
relationship of the Society to industry.
Anticipated date of finalization and
approval by the board will be 2005 and no
later than early 2006.
INFORMATION AND
EDUCATION COMMITTEE – Loraine Oman-Ganes,
MD, Chair
Members of the 2004 Committee are: David
Gale, Paula Gregory, Susanne Haga, Feige
Kaplan, Judith Fridovich-Keil, Neil Lamb,
Howard McLeod, and Vincent Riccardi.
Oman-Ganes discussed the importance of
maintaining old partnerships and building
new ones with multiple groups and
organizations interested in science
education, including teacher organizations.
She reported on a unique collaborative
effort that was held in September in
Bethesda called the "ASHG Science Education
Summit", in which 30 leaders in the field of
science education participated. This was a
first-of-its-kind event where
representatives considered collaborative
approaches to enhancing K-12 and beyond
science education. A list of participants
can be obtained via the ASHG Administrative
Office.
Oman-Ganes said that the committee has
continuing concerns about the status of
evolution education both nationally and
internationally, and Joe McInerney has
assisted the committee extensively in
promoting positive information. The Society
was represented this year at the annual
National Association of Biology Teachers
meeting and a short course entitled "The
Genetics Detective" was presented at the
National Science Teachers Association’s
annual meeting in Atlanta. Eighty-five
science teachers attended the short course.
The annual high school workshop was held in
Toronto, and there were 320 students and
teachers in attendance. The workshop
included 10 small group sessions with 30
Canadian and US presenters. In addition, the
annual student mentor lunch was
well-received again this year.
Oman-Ganes reported on the "mentor network"
and said that the committee is planning to
make it more effective by liaising with
other networks that are already in
existence, both in school systems and
through other organizations.
She thanked committee members for their hard
work and particularly noted the outgoing
members, Vincent Riccardi and Feige Kaplan.
INTERNATIONAL
FEDERATION OF HUMAN GENETICS SOCIETIES –
Judith Allanson, MD
The Federation consists of five full
member societies including: ASHG, ESHG, the
Human Genetics Society of Australasia, the
Latin American Network of Human Genetics
Societies and East Asian Union of Human
Genetics Societies. The Federation is in the
process of considering an application from
the newly formed African Society of Human
Genetics. There are also 48 corresponding
members, many of which are national genetics
societies. Most of the activity of the
Federation over the last year has focused on
the International Congress of Human
Genetics, which will be held in Brisbane in
August of 2006. The Scientific Program
Committee will be meeting in Singapore at
the HUGO meeting in November. The Committee
has finalized eight workshop proposals and a
large number of invited session proposals.
The breakdown in session proposal
acceptances is 30 from North America, 30
from Europe, 30 from Australasia and 10 from
South America. Allanson appealed to Asian
colleagues to submit proposals for invited
sessions. The committee would like to see
more proposals in the following areas:
clinical genetics, prenatal diagnosis,
pharmacogenetics, stem cells and
bioinformatics.
Student support will be made available, and
the ASHG has pledged $20,000. Large-scale
sponsorship has been arranged with two
companies.
NEW BUSINESS - Dr.
Steve Warren
In response to a question about fund
raising, Nussbaum said that the Society is
at a turning point right now and it must
decide whether to stay the course or have
heightened visibility on certain issues. The
Society presently is starting to have an
impact on policy issues, as it has invested
in ASHG fellows on the "Hill." However,
Nussbaum emphasized that education is where
the focus needs to be right now, and he
plans to approach philanthropic
organizations for funding to support a much
more concerted full-time effort in
educational activities. He talked about the
importance of the Development Fund and how
it will target educational initiatives for
K-12 or other educational efforts such as
bringing MD/PhD students who haven’t quite
decided on making a career in genetics to
the meeting. He also mentioned raising funds
to increase the exposure of underserved
minority groups to genetics by granting
student scholarships to attend the meeting.
He stated that many Board members have
already donated to the fund, and he hoped
that other Society members will join him in
making similar contributions.
Nussbaum discussed the possibility of a
bylaws change regarding the tenure of the
president. There has been some support for a
two-year presidency. If that were the case,
the presidency would require a more
substantial time commitment. He asked for
feedback from the membership and promised to
investigate the idea over the next year.
Vic Riccardi from the floor reminded the
ASHG officers of the importance of
preserving the history of the Society and
appealed to the Executive Director to
consider a more formal way of keeping this
history. He also pointed out that the
Toronto Convention Center has been difficult
for handicapped people and asked for
additional considerations in future
meetings. He suggested that a handicapped
liaison be appointed and volunteered to be
that person.
There being no further business, it was
moved and seconded that the meeting be
adjourned. The motion carried.
Respectfully submitted,
David Nelson, Secretary
Elaine Strass, Executive Director
 Back
to Previous Page
|
