Minutes from Council Meeting 10/27/03:

Michigan Chapter for the Society for Neuroscience
Council Meeting
Michigan State University
October 27 th , 2003

Members Present: Lisa Baker, Mark Breedlove, Verne Hulce, John Jellies, Greg Kapatos, Chris Kreipke, Keith Lookingland, Roy Schwarz, John Spitsbergen, Scott Turner and Art Weber.

President's Report:

Item 1: Welcome and introduction of new members, 11:00 AM.

Item 2: Review and approval of meeting minutes for May 19 th business meeting.

Minutes were approved without revision.

Item 3: Discussion of Member-at-Large for the council.

Prior to addition of council members from WMU and CMU, the council had a Member-at-Large from one of the participating institutions. The council currently does not have a Member-at-Large. It was decided that the council members would review the chapter by laws, with respect to this matter as well as other matters, to see if any changes are necessary.

Item 4: Proposal for funding from the National Chapter.

A grant proposal was submitted to the National Chapter requesting funds to help support graduate student awards at this year's local meeting and to fund Brain Awareness Week activities.

The following items were discussed/agreed upon concerning graduate students awards.

•  Pfizer has agreed to fund both graduate student awards (Montford F. Piercey and Duncan McCarthy) for this year's meeting.

•  If the application to the National Chapter is funded the award funds will be set aside for the next meeting.

•  It was agreed that the granting of student awards should continue into the future even if the dollar amount of each award needs to be decreased due to limited funds.

•  The possibility of setting aside money each year for a student award fund was discussed. No decision was made concerning this issue.

Treasurer's Report:

As of 10/27/03 the Michigan Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience has an account balance of $9,602.90.

On average the cost of the annual chapter meeting is approximately $9,000.00.

On average the chapter brings in approximately $9,000.00 per year through the annual meeting.

Thus, we typically make just enough to cover the cost of the meeting.

However, the following items are variable sources of funding/expenditures that can either make or break the bank each year.

Variable Sources of Income:

•  Monetary donations from Corporations, Universities, Programs, Departments and Individuals.

•  Fees from exhibitors.

Variable Expenses:

•  Cost of food.

•  Cost of poster boards.

•  Travel and honorarium for invited speakers.

The following were discussed as possible ways of increasing income or decreasing expenses.

•  Increasing the registration fees for the meeting (we need to change the Chapter's by laws to do this).

•  Obtain poster boards from Pfizer (these were located in Kalamazoo at one time).

We also discussed the possibility of allowing for payment of dues using a credit card. One way to allow for credit card payment would be for the organizing committee (or Chapter) to set up a Pay Pal account and then charge more for credit card registration to cover the cost of the account.

Annual Meeting Planning Committee Report.

Cindy Linn (Western Michigan University) has agreed to act as the chair of the Planning Committee. A tentative date of April 30 th was agreed upon for this year's meeting. Cindy Linn has already booked the Fetzer Center, on WMU's campus, for the purpose of this meeting.

The theme of this year's meeting will be "Neuroplasticity and Development". The Planning Committee hopes to have 3 invited speakers for the meeting with expertise and interests that extend from the molecular and cellular level to the organismal level. Please contact John Jellies (john.jellies@wmich.edu) if you have any suggestions concerning an invited speaker.

John Jellies will contact potential vendor's at this year's National Conference to see if any are interested in setting up an exhibit at the Chapter meeting. If you have any suggestions for vendors (possibly companies from which you have recently made large purchases) please contact John Jellies.

New Business:

Increasing Meeting Attendance:

How do we contact individuals and institutions that are not normally represented at the annual meeting of the Michigan Chapter?

•  Contact individuals who attended the previous 2 conferences (Art Weber has email addresses for these individuals).

•  Talk with colleagues at your institution that do not normally attend this meeting.

Brain Awareness Week Activities:

            If the grant submitted to the National Chapter is funded how should we spend the funds designated for Brain Awareness Week activities?

•  Divide the funds between participating programs. Each program can combine these funds with the matching funds provided by their institution and then use the funds for Brain Awareness Week activities in their area.

•  Each council member was asked to bring a synopsis of their planned Brain Awareness Week activities to the next council meeting.

•  There was some discussion concerning the feasibility of a web-cast program as one of the possible activities.

Awards for Best Poster Presentation:

            The matter of setting more strict criteria for judging posters for the awards competition was discussed. No official action was taken.

Graduate Student and Post Doc Travel Awards:

•  The question was asked whether we could require more than just an abstract for the purpose of judging these applicants. We need to contact the National Chapter to find out if this is possible.

•  It was decided that a check box would be added to the submission form for the Chapter meeting, allowing students and post docs to apply for consideration for one of these awards.

Location of Chapter Meeting:

            Verne Hulce asked whether it would be possible to have the annual meeting at a location farther north than East Lansing. This matter was scheduled for discussion at the next council meeting.

Meeting adjourned 1:00 PM.