Welcome: Michael Pogue-Geile
Necrology: John Abela passed away approximately 1.5 years go.
Secretary’s Report (Deanna Barch): Deanna reported that Deanna Barch is President-Elect, Bill Horan is Treasurer-Elect, and Scott Sponheim and Steve Silverstein were elected to the Board. She also reported on the membership dues drive and clean up, which is now complete. She asked people to check their information and let her know if there is a problem.
Treasurer’s Report (Bill Horan): Cash balance was $41,000 at the end of 2010. There was a small deficit for the Seattle meeting, not counting dues. Our investments went up during 2010. Bill Horan announced a move of our fiscal year to coincide with the calendar year rather than being based on the annual meeting.
Local Host Report (Christine Hooker): Online registration was good. We have a total of 330 registrations. We are within our budget. Christine suggested that we explore tax-exempt status next year. We are a tax-exempt organization from the perspective of paying federal taxes, but the rules on tax exemption for sales tax purposes vary from state to state.
Program Committee Report (Jack Blanchard): There was a record number of submissions and posters this year: 105 posters at each session. Jack suggested that we move the submission deadline earlier next year so that we can get responses to presenters quicker. Ann Kring raised the question of whether we will max out on room space. Scott Sponheim suggested we think about an extra poster session, such as over lunch. However, there was concern that a lunch session would not be well attended.
Membership Report (Wendy Heller): We had a total of 35 through last night. Thus, we have 17 applicants for Full members and 18 for Associate Members. This ties last year’s record for the highest number of applicants. Wendy suggested that we place a deadline approximately a week before the meeting to allow the membership chair time to process the information.
Sponsors: Michael Pogue-Geile asked if anyone would be willing to be on a fundraising committee. Mike O’Hara said he would think about it and the membership discussed various ideas for fundraising (publishers, etc.).
Proposed Bylaws Changes: Michael Pogue-Geile put forth the proposal that we no longer require the associate member dues to be ½ the member dues, since we would like to have the member dues be $50 and the associate member dues be $20. In addition, he proposed that we change the grace period for non-payment of dues to 3 years. No one felt that either of these was a problem, and we will proceed with the procedures to change the bylaws.
Dual Track Sessions: Michael Pogue-Geile put forth the idea that we would allow the program chair to have up to six dual track sessions. There was some discussion of other possibilities, such as a having a triple-track session or some sort of lunchtime session. It was felt that it was best to give the program chair some flexibility. There was also a suggestion that we consider a data blitz session, where people have 5 slides and 5 minutes to present. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of giving the program chair flexibility to decide.
Future Meetings
2012 Ann Arbor (Patty Deldin) (10/4/12-10/7/12)
2013 Oakland (Sheri Johnson & Ann Kring) (9/19/13-9/22/13)
2014 Stu Shankman hosting in Chicago
2015 Alex Cohen offered to host it in New Orleans