Michigan Chapter Society for Neuroscience
Council Meeting Minutes
Michigan State University
B-448 Life Sciences Building
February 7, 2003, 11:00 a.m.

Council Members Present
Lisa Baker
Sean Donevan
Mihaly Hajos
Verne Hulce
Christian Kreipke
Dave Kruelen
John Jellies
Keith Lookingland
Jeffrey Potts
Lance Swick
Art Weber
Absent
Margit Burmeister

President’s Report
Keith Lookingland indicated that we need to identify and recruit new chapter officers at the upcoming annual meeting. He encouraged everyone to begin thinking about nominations for the following positions to be elected at the meeting.

Treasurer
Secretary
Awards Chair
CMU councilor
MSU councilor
UM councilor
Pfizer councilor
Student councilor

Keith also discussed the website. Soon to be added are an Officers’ Page and a link to the WSU meeting site. All council members will be notified when the meeting site is uploaded. It will be the responsibility of all council members to distribute the meeting website to everyone at their own institutions.

Treasurer’s Report
Art Weber reported that the chapter has $10,600 in the account. The Credit Union interest rate on this account was dropped from 2% to 1%. Art suggested that we may want to consider putting some portion of the chapter funds into a short term CD in order to obtain a higher interest rate.

The checking account requires a minimum balance to avoid monthly charges, but the checking account interest rate is only 0.5%.

Secretary’s Report
The minutes from the October chapter council meeting were distributed and reviewed. Some changes were noted. Dave Kruelen, and not Don Kuhn, was present at the October meeting. The deadlines for travel award nominations from the chapter were also changed. The new nomination deadlines are noted below in the Award’s Chair report.
John Jellies moved to approve the minutes as amended. Sean Donovan seconded the motion. All voted to approve.

Lisa Baker also distributed a mailing from the Dana Alliance regarding free promotional materials that are available for Brain Awareness Week activities. There was also a form for notifying the Dana Alliance regarding Brain Awareness Week plans, which they will post on their website. Baker encouraged everyone doing activities for Brain Awareness Week to take pictures and forward them to Keith so that they may be posted on the chapter website.

Awards Chair Report
The poster awards for the upcoming Chapter meeting were discussed. Sean Donovan moved that we increase the number of undergraduate and graduate student poster awards to two. Lance Swick seconded the motion and it was passed unanimously.

The issue discussed at the last council meeting regarding repeat winners of awards was brought up for discussion again. Some members were reportedly not pleased with the outcome of the vote to allow repeat winners. Keith questioned whether we should make a distinction between the McCarthy Award and the Piercey Award, so that they would be separate award categories. This idea was discussed but no formal motions were made to distinguish between the two awards. Sean Donovan moved that any individual who receives either of these two awards shall be ineligible to apply for either award in future years. Jeffrey Potts seconded the motion. The motion passed with a vote of 9 in favor and 2 opposed. Donovan also moved to confirm the existing policy that repeat winners of poster awards will be allowed. Lance seconded the motion. This motion passed unanimously.
Donovan announced that the National SFN meeting travel award deadlines have been changed to June 2nd, 2003. The two awards for which the chapter may submit nominations are as follows:

Society for Neuroscience Chapters Postdoctoral Trainee Travel Award
Society for Neuroscience Chapters/Eli Lilly Graduate Student Travel Award

Keith raised the question of whether we want to set application deadlines early enough to announce the chapter nominees for these travel awards at the Chapter Annual Meeting in May. There was a general consensus that the award judges would be sufficiently busy reviewing the applications for the Piercey and McCarthy Awards prior to this meeting. Therefore, applications for these nominations will be reviewed after the Chapter Annual Meeting.

2003 Meeting Chair Report
Jeffrey Potts presented a progress report on the plans for the upcoming Chapter Annual Meeting. A separate website (http://www.med.wayne.edu/neuroscience/misfn2003/) for the meeting was created by the organizers at Wayne State. We will be notified by email when the site is ready. The meeting schedule, registration forms and award information and deadlines will be posted on this site. When we are emailed notification that the site is up, it is our responsibility to notify individuals at our home institutions.

The annual meeting is to be held on Monday, May 19, 2003 at the McGregor Conference Center at Wayne State University. The theme of this years meeting is entitled “Neural Adaptation to Drug Abuse”. The invited keynote speakers are Dr. Peter Kalivas from the Medical University of South Carolina and Dr. Terry Robinson from the University of Michigan.
Jeffrey Potts acknowledged the following individuals who are assisting with the planning of the meeting. Tom Fisher will be putting together the abstracts and meeting program. Paul Walker is making arrangements for the vendors. Lance Swick is developing the meeting website.
The registration deadline is May 2nd. Only those registering by the deadline will be guaranteed lunch.

Potts reported an estimated cost of the meeting of $4315. This does not include the cost of poster board rental, which was yet to be determined.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:28 p.m.