BIOTECHNOLOGY SECRETARIAT STEERING COMMITTEE
Hilton Garden Inn
Cleveland Park Room
Minutes of the Meeting:
The meeting was opened by Secretary-General,
John Finley at
Approval of the minutes from the previous meeting as posted on the website and sent out by the Secretary-General was moved by Sharon Vercellotti and seconded by Fred Heinekin.
The treasurer’s report was given by
Anna Wilson. Dues have been collected
from 11 divisions and deposited into the account.
The bill for the breakfast at the
Changes to the agenda were as follows:
1. The meeting chair for Fall 2006, San Fancisco, Anthonoy Guiseppi-Elle was not present to report.
2.
The meeting chair for Fall 2007,
3.
The general programming theme of the Fall 2008 meeting in
Secretary-General John Finley invited John Katz from ACS to meet with us to discuss how the ACS sees future opportunities for Secretariats in general.
The discussion and comments:
There are opportunities for divisions that could be pursued with the help of the DOC and DCC. The new vision for the Divisional Activities Committee is that they want more frequent cooperation across divisions and to use more electronic technology to develop and carry out this cooperation. They find that divisions are picking topics and scheduling in isolation—many are using the same or similar topics but are not collaborating or trying to work together to spread the information throughout these divisions or with the ACS. The ACS and divisions need a new model to make this cooperation happen.
John Katz also brought out the idea that much information is given at the National meetings, but this information is not preserved in any way. Information given in symposium papers that are presented retains value after the meeting and so should be preserved for future reference. To this end, the divisions need to retain electronic records of material presented. If you can’t attend papers presented; either because you can’t attend the meeting, or because you can’t be in two places at the same time, the material should be available later. This would bridge across divisions via electronic retaining of material.
Some people think that Secretariats do not work, but they are the first thrust for this electronic bridge across divisions. Communication at the P2C2, Division Chairs Conference, and the Long Range Planning Forum would be a good place to start. Some problems are that many Divisions don’t have long range planning, the DAC and staff haven’t given divisions a way to communicate on long term topic planning. P2C2 will invite the Secretariats to send someone to the Long TRange Planning Forum in October.
Some ideas to retain the presented papers in a physical form is to link audio recording to powerpoint presentations. The divisions would record the material in archives which could be put on divisions’ websites, sent overseas, etc.
Katz agreed that the ACS web site needs to be updated and to take the initiative for a web presence. They should provide training and support for division web masters. This idea has the support of the ACS staff and directors.
BIOT says they identify the “best
of
Sara Risch reports that book sales are decreasing for books prepared from symposia. If ACS could help with resources, everyone would benefit. Proceedings from symposia could be sold as video or audio via the web rather than as a book.
Powerpoint presentations, if the person doesn’t mind, could be put on websites to be viewed free as long as the division wants to leave them up. SCHB and CINF does this but the ACS has not given much help so far. A lot of space is needed to store archives. Katz says a person has been hired by ACS to do this and will start in September.
It is commented that Journal material has been evaluated, reviewed and pre-judged before publication. What obligation does the division have to “keep” the best or “good” stuff? How can it be best packaged for dissemination or to identify the important papers? Katz says the ACS office of Communications is already doing this as they select papers for pre-meeting publicity.
How can the Secretariats add to this? Fred Heinekin noted that BTEC is already programming for 2008, but the P2C2 does not address this. P2C2 doesn’t invite the Secretariats representative to the meeting and Division Program Chairs don’t understand the Secretariat’s purpose and how they can “unite” or contribute to cooperation across divisions.
There are good ideas, but they are not publicized. BTEC used to have programs listed in the front of the program booklet and also with the Division but that has been discontinued. P2C2 needs more information from the Secretariats.
Divisions comment that Secretariats set a topic and the divisions have to program to fit. Finley commented that the procedure was set up to have division representatives vote on a topic before it is used. However, divisions seldom responded.
Divisions are asked to program at Regional Meetings, but most don’t have the people or time to do it. Regional Meetings are a place to develop future leaders and local themes that might become national themes. SCHB reported that their division is trying to focus on some regional meetings where they are presenting topics, symposia, or papers again to get new attendees, ideas, etc.
Why program through the Secretariat?
Why aren’t people paying attention to the Secretariats? The divisions are single minded and focus on their own topics. People outside of a specific division don’t know where to look for a topic they might be interested in that is located in another division. Certain sessions might be programmed with an incentive package to the divisions.
Communications between divisions is critical and is not occurring now. Some medium is needed for this cross-communication. And it needs to be labor neutral for Program Chairs.
Secretariats can participate in plenary sessions and should commit to programming at every national meeting. More industry people should be involved in meetings and programs. Grete, Heinekin, Arnold, Nash, and Finley will participate in a conference call prior to September 18.
ACS wants to have meeting coordinators as a team. BTEC will send three people to the P2C2, DOC, and Long Range Planning Forum: John Finley, Fred Heinekin, and Gianna Arnold.
Fred Heinekin took over for John Finley who left to chair a symposium.
Comments: Did anyone from BTEC go to the 2005 P2C2? BTEC has a hard time finding chairs for meetings and then getting divisions to participate. Division Chairs, Chairs-Elect, Program Chairs all need to be contacted.
In summary, the Secretariat and the divisions need to have preprints on websites in a searchable form. At least a list of the division’s topics should be on the website so other divisions can look through them to see what could be co-sponsored or at least co-listed. Divisions need to find a common ground and them improve communications between them. The Blue Book has all officers, web masters, etc. listed.
Gunter Grete gave a report
from the web master, Andy Berks. He
will continue to serve as the webmaster if the bill for the new server is paid. Andy will send the invoice to the treasurer.
The meeting was adjourned at
Respectfully submitted by Anna Wilson
Attending:
BIOT Fred Heineken fheineke@nsf.gov
CHED Anna Wilson wilson@purdue.edu
CINF
Guenter Grethe
grethe@comcast.net
SCHB Sharon Vercellotti Sharon.Vercellotti@v-labs.com
MARM Chair William Suits billsuits@earthlink.net
PETR
Lisa Nash
ljnash@paclp.com
ACS John C. Katz j_katz@acs.com
AGFD Sara Risch sjrisch@msu.edu
MEDI Rich Gibbs rag@pharmacy.purdue.edu
POLY Doug Kiserow Douglas.kiserow@us.army.mil
CARB Gillian Eggleston Gillian@srrc.ars.usda.gov
AGFD John Finley jfinley@amtodd.com
SCHB Gianne Arnold GArnold@EBG.law.om
2004 member divisions
AGFD COLL
AGRO PETR
ANYL POLY
BIOT PMSE
CHAL SCHB
CHED