Michigan
Chapter for the Society for Neuroscience
Council Meeting Minutes
Michigan State University
January 23, 2004
Members Present: Lisa Baker, Mark Breedlove, Verne Hulce, John Jellies,
Greg Kapatos, Chris Kreipke, Danielle Paris-Larson, Jeffrey Potts,
Roy Schwarz, John Spitsbergen, Scott Turner and Art Weber.
Meeting
was called to order at 11:30 AM.
Item
1 (Lisa Baker): Review and approval of meeting minutes for October
27th business meeting.
Minutes were approved without revision.
Item
2. Discussion/Action Items (Lisa Baker):
Review
Chapter Bylaws.
The current bylaws for the Michigan Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience
can be viewed at the following web site.
http://www.msu.edu/~looking/misfn/bylaws.html
The
following positions listed in the bylaws are currently vacant.
President
Elect
Councilor-at-large
The
issue of annual dues was discussed. As stated in the bylaws, annual
dues for the Michigan Chapter will be established by a majority vote
of the Chapter membership present at a business meeting during any
of the annual meetings. To change the bylaws, written notice of the
proposed amendment must be sent to the Chapter membership 30 days
prior to the annual meeting, and ballots on the proposed amendments
must be included in the meeting notice mailed out and any completed
ballots must be tallied in the final vote.
The point was made that there is no mention of the actual dues rate
in the bylaws, thus we may be able to proceed as though we have no
annual dues, only annual meeting registration fees. The cost of registering
for the annual meeting can be dictated by the committee that organizes
the meeting for a given year.
In the end it was decided that a committee be formed, composed of
Verne Hulce and Lisa Baker, to examine the current bylaws and make
suggestions for any changes in the future. Please contact Verne Hulce
with any comments or suggestions.
Grass
Foundation Visiting Scientist.
The Michigan Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience recently was
awarded funding to support a Grass Foundation Visiting Scientist.
It was decided that these funds should be used to sponsor a visiting
scientist at a function other than the Annual Chapter Meeting. Jeffrey
Potts agreed to act as the initial organizer for this event. Please
send your suggestions to Jeffrey and he will develop a prioritized
list and then begin contacting individuals. As a nominator you should
be willing to act as host if your nominee is chosen to present. The
following individuals were nominated at the meeting.
Dr. Tom Sudhof
Dr. Donald Stein
Dr. James Thomson
Chapter
Award Funds.
The Michigan Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience recently was
awarded funding to help cover the costs of poster awards at this year’s
annual meeting for the Michigan Chapter, as well as to help cover
the costs of a shared Brain Awareness Week (BAW) activity. It was
decided that the $1200.00 designated for awards would be used to cover
the awards for best poster presentations and possibly to help cover
the costs of invited speakers. Funds provided by Pfizer will be used
to cover the two Graduate Student awards.
In addition, $800.00 was provided to help cover the cost of BAW activities,
with matching funds coming from participating institutions (currently
have $600 in matching funds promised). It was decided that the funds
should be used at a shared event. Students and faculty members at
Wayne State University will be approached to determine whether any
assistance is needed for the event planned for March 20th at the Detroit
Science Center.
Note: Additional BAW activities are planned for March 26th in Mt Pleasant
and March 13th in Kalamazoo.
It was also decided that all scheduled BAW activities should be listed
on the Chapter’s web site.
Membership
list.
Lisa Baker circulated a list of members sorted by institution. Please
look over the list and send any changes to Art Weber.
Item
3. Awards Chair Report (Greg Kapatos):
Greg
received 2 FENS applications for consideration by the chapter. The
applications were presented to the councilors and copies of the applications
were circulated. Please review the applications and submit your choice
to Greg by this coming Monday (January 26th).
The following list of criteria to be used when judging posters and
papers (at the annual chapter meeting) was presented to the council
for their consideration. The councilors voted to approve the scoring
criteria.
Michigan Chapter Society for Neuroscience Awards (2004)
Scoring Criteria
Scoring Criteria for Paper Competitions and Travel Applications
Scientific Merit (10 points)
Research objectives/questions are clear. (2)
Methods employed are adequately described and appropriate to address
the stated objectives. (3)
Data analyses are appropriate. (1)
Results are clearly summarized and displayed. (2)
Interpretations and conclusions are logical and supported by the data.
(2)
Letters of Support (5)
The student’s independence on the project is clearly documented.
(3)
The student’s oral presentation skills are acknowledged. (2)Scoring
Criteria for Poster Competitions
Scientific Merit (10 points)
Research objectives/questions are clear. (2)
Methods employed are adequately described and appropriate to address
the stated objectives. (3)
Data analyses are appropriate. (1)
Results are clearly summarized and displayed. (2)
Interpretations and conclusions are logical and supported by the data.
(2)
Oral Presentation (3)
(If the student is not present at the time of judging, no points should
be awarded in this category.)
The student’s independence on the project is evident. (2)
The presentation is delivered clearly and concisely. (1)
Visual Presentation (2)
All essential components (objectives, methods, results conclusions)
are adequately displayed in the poster. (1)
Data are visually displayed in a clear and understandable manner.
(1)
Item 4. Annual Meeting Report (Cindy Linn):
The
Annual Meeting of Michigan Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience
is scheduled for Friday, April 30th, at Western Michigan University’s
Fetzer Center, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The schedule for the meeting
is as follows.
8:00
to 9:00 a.m. Registration, Breakfast and Poster Set Up
8:30 to 10:30 Poster Session, Vendor Exhibits
10:30 to 10:45 Coffee Break
10:45 to 1:00 Symposium “Neuroplasticity and Development”
Dr. Rita Balice-Gordon (University of Pennsylvania)
Dr. Ronald Oppenheim (Wake Forest University)
Dr. Steven Heidemann (Michigan State University)
1:00 to 2:30 p.m. Lunch and Business Meeting
2:30 to 3:15 Graduate Student Oral Presentations
3:15 to 3:30 Poster Award Presentations
3:30 to 5:00 Poster Session, Vendor Exhibits and Reception
Cindy
presented the cost for this year’s meeting (estimated between
$6970.00 for 100 attendees to $8720.00 for 150 attendees).
It was noted that a check-box needs to be added to the registration
form, to allow students to be considered for travel awards for this
year’s national meeting.
The question arose as to how individuals will cover the registration
costs for the meeting. If an individual’s institution will no
longer reimburse for personal checks, then it may be difficult for
these individuals to pay the registration costs. The possibility of
accepting credit card payments was discussed briefly but no action
was taken.
All payments must be submitted to Cindy Linn, at Western Michigan
University.