Michigan Chapter Society for Neuroscience
Council Meeting Minutes
Michigan State University
B-448 Life Sciences Building
October 11, 2002, 11:30 a.m.

Council Members Present
Lisa Baker
Margit Burmeister
Mihaly Hajos
Verne Hulce
Christian Kreipke
Don Kuhn
Cindy Linn (substituting for John Jellies)
Keith Lookingland
Jeffrey Potts
David Rock
Lance Swick
Art Weber

Absent
Sean Donevan

President’s Report

President Lookingland started the meeting with a warm welcome to the new council members: Jeffrey Potts (Wayne State), Mihaly Hajos (Pharmacia) and Christian Kreipke (Wayne State). He arranged for a photographer to take some group pictures, which will be posted on the Chapter website.

Lookingland announced that the website has been recently updated with highlights of the 2002 annual meeting, including several photos from poster sessions, the exhibitors, the business meeting and the poster and paper award winners. Pictures of the Travel Award nominees are also featured. The updating of faculty and student membership lists on the website is still in progress.

Council business since our last meeting included the judging of applications for nomination to the National SFN for the Eli Lilly Graduate Student Travel Award and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Travel Award. Lookingland thanked the council members who participated in the judging. The nominees submitted were Yanh Hae Park for the Graduate Student Travel Award and Jennifer Vannest for the Postdoctoral Travel Award. Yanh Hae Park subsequently won the SFN/Eli Lilly Graduate Student Travel Award to attend the 2002 SFN national meeting in Orlando.

Lookingland called for ideas on how to recruit new members to the Chapter. He requested that we communicate to our faculty colleagues to encourage more students to submit abstracts and to participate in the Chapter annual meeting. He also raised the idea of having CME credit available for annual meeting attendance, which may attract physicians and clinical scientists to attend the meeting. We have done this once before.

Updating the email distribution list in order to reach more people was also discussed. Jeffrey Potts indicated that the meeting organizers for the 2003 annual meeting are working on developing a web page specifically for the upcoming meeting.

Treasurer’s Report

Art Weber provided a spreadsheet detailing the income and expenses of the 2002 annual meeting. There were 186 registrations received (73 students, 113 non-students) for a total of $6,345.00. Ten vendors attended the meeting and provided a total of $3,430.00 in exhibit and advertising fees. Sponsorships were also received from Pharmacia ($600), Pfizer ($600) and Field Neurosciences Institute ($1000) to cover awards expenses. In addition, a carryover donation from MSU to help cover the cost of the previous (2001) meeting was included. The meeting expenses ($6,348.90), honorariums ($1,200) and award costs ($1,800) totaled $9.348.00. After expenses, a balance of $3,626.10 remains from the 2002 annual meeting.

Weber suggested that we increase the number of poster awards given at the next meeting. It was suggested that we award a first place and second place for the undergraduate and graduate student poster competitions. Christian Kreipke moved to adopt this suggestion and Don Kuhn seconded the motion. All voted in favor of the motion.
Some concern was raised due to Pharmacia/Pfizer merger regarding whether both the Duncan McCarthy and the Montford Piercey awards will still be covered. The Pfizer council member, David Rock assured us that both awards will continue to be funded by Pfizer.

Secretary’s Report

The minutes of the May meeting were sent to all council members for review and approval. There were no suggested changes to the minutes. Verne Hulce moved to accept the minutes, and Christian Kreipke seconded the motion. All voted to approve the minutes.

Baker encouraged all council members with pictures of Brain Awareness Week 2001 activities to send them to her. She will then forward selected photos to our webmaster, Kathy Lookingland, to post on the Chapter web site. Baker and several Psychology students from WMU conducted various hands-on neuroscience-related activities at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum during Brain Awareness Week 2002. Some of these pictures will be posted on the web site.
Baker also indicated that the “Brains Rule” website (www.brainsrule.org) was added as a link to the Michigan Chapter site and she encouraged the council members to help advertise and promote Brain Awareness Week. Margit Burmeister indicated that the University of Michigan had participated in the Brains Rule program for Brain Awareness Week in the Ann Arbor area. They conducted a “reverse science fair” where local neuroscientists had various exhibits that were attended and judged by school children. She noted that it was great fun for all who participated.

Christian Kreipke described the activities in which several graduate students from Wayne State voluntarily participated during Brain Awareness Week 2002. They were able to get substantial financial support from two companies, Accenture and Elsevier, to sponsor exhibits for the public at the Detroit Science Center. They had several hands-on activities and information booths. There was substantial media coverage of this event. Lance Swick noted that he has a Powerpoint presentation with photos of these activities, which he will forward to be added to our web page.

Kreipke enthusiastically indicated that there is substantial interest on the part of the Detroit Science Center to expand the BAW exhibits and activities for the full week in 2003 and to advertise to Michigan schools to make fieldtrips to the Science Center during that week to participate in BAW activities. Kreipke indicated that Accenture and Elsevier have agreed to sponsor these activities again. However, more people are required to assist with these activities and he raised the possibility that we make it a Michigan Chapter event. There was some discussion about this and all councilors agreed to take the idea back to their own institutions in an attempt to rally some commitment to this endeavor. Depending on feedback he gets from us regarding such a commitment, Kreipke will begin to make arrangements with the Detroit Science Center.

Awards Chair Report

David Rock represented Sean Donevan in presenting the Awards Chair report. There was some discussion about repeat winners of the student awards. It was suggested that we consider making a rule that an individual can not win an award in the same category on more than one occasion. After some discussion regarding the rare occurrence of repeat award winners, it was decided not to make any rulings on this issue at the present time.

The deadlines for chapter nominations for the 2003 travel awards were announced. The Eli Lilly Graduate Student Award nomination is due by May 9, 2003 and the Burroughs Welcome Post Doc Award nomination is due by June 6, 2003. These deadlines will be posted on our website and an announcement will be included with our 2003 Chapter annual meeting announcement. Baker suggested that we make the application deadline early enough so that there is sufficient time for judging and selection of nominees early enough so that they may be announced at our annual meeting. Lookingland agreed.

2003 Meeting Chair Report

Jeffrey Potts is the chair of the upcoming annual meeting and he has organized a planning committee consisting of the following people: Jeffrey Potts, Paul Walker, Lance Swick, and Christian Kreipke.
The venue and date have not yet been determined. They are aiming to have a symposium consisting of two to three speakers as we have done in the past.

Potts indicated that the organizing committee’s priorities are to establish the program and speakers, then reserve a space and select a date. They are hoping to finalize these details by the end of November and send out the first meeting announcement out by first week of January.

There was no new business raised and the meeting was adjourned at 1:49 p.m.