Michigan Chapter Society for Neuroscience
Council Meeting Minutes
January 18, 2002, 10:00 a.m.

Council Members Present: Lisa Baker, Margit Burmeister, Sean Donevan, Vern Hulce, John Jellies, Dave Kruelen, Don Kuhn, Keith Lookingland, David Rock, Audrey Seasholtz, Kjell Svensson, Lance Swick, Art Weber

President Keith Lookingland opened the meeting by charging the council with three major tasks to consider.

Updates to the chapter website
The webmaster has changed. Keith Lookingland’s wife has graciously agreed to take on this task and is working on modifying the look of the website. Keith encouraged all council members to provide input regarding updates and changes.

Expanding membership
President Lookingland asked the council to consider ways to expand the chapter’s membership. The website and the annual meeting are two avenues for expanding membership. The council was encouraged facilitate interest in the chapter among our colleagues and other Michigan institutions.

Meeting attendance
The location of the meeting is a key factor. There was some concern expressed that several people only attend the meeting when it is sponsored by their home institutions.

Increased effort at student recruitment is one way to increase meeting attendance. The main purpose of the poster sessions is to offer student researchers an opportunity and a forum for presenting research.

Officers were encouraged to facilitate interest in council membership among colleagues.

These issues were discussed by the council and the following points were raised.

1. It was suggested that links to other neuroscience sites be placed on the chapter web page.
2. The issue of online registration for the annual chapter meeting was raised and it was suggested that online registration may increase meeting attendance.
3. We are not set up to charge registration fees on line, but we can have a pdf version of the registration form that can be downloaded. The question was raised regarding the cost of doing credit card registration on line. We may investigate this possibility for future meetings.
4. It was also noted that ease of registration is not as an important factor in determining attendance as is the substance of the meeting and advertising. The web site and word-of-mouth are our key forms of advertising the meeting.

The minutes of the business meeting conducted in May 2001 were approved with one addition noted. Michigan State University College of Natural Science also donated $1000.00 to offset the cost of the 2001 Chapter Meeting.
Treasurer Art Weber gave the financial report. The receipts for the 2001 MI Chapter Meeting (registration fees, donations) totaled $11, 465. The meeting expenses totaled $12, 898.51, leaving a net loss of $1,433.51 from the 2001 meeting. However, we currently have a surplus of approximately $6800 in the MI Chapter’s bank account.
A discussion followed this report regarding ways to better offset the costs of the annual chapter meeting.
It was suggested that we consider increasing member registration fees and vendor registration fees. It was noted that it has been four or five years since the last registration fee increase. A motion was made to increase the student member meeting registration fee to $25.00 and the faculty/senior scientist member registration fee to $40.00. This motion was seconded and approved by unanimous vote.

There was a fairly lengthy discussion regarding whether to increase vendor registration fees. It was motioned and seconded to raise the vendor registration fee for the upcoming Chapter meeting. After discussion, this motion was not approved. Alternative ideas were discussed for increasing financial support from vendors, such as paid advertising in the meeting program. It was suggested that in addition to the vendor exhibit fee (currently $250), we offer sponsors the option to pay an additional $100 for a full page ad in the meeting program. We voted to approve this option for the upcoming meeting. In addition, David Rock offered to contact various vendors to explore other ways to increase financial sponsorship of the Chapter meeting.

The 2002 Annual Meeting plans were discussed. Audrey Seasholtz is the meeting organizer. She indicated that the meeting is set for May 13, 2002 at the University of Michigan Medical Campus, Towsley Center. The auditorium seats 300-400 people. Posters will be displayed in the lobby. The banquet room only seats 200, so we may have to have an overflow room for lunch.

The meeting schedule was discussed. A similar schedule to last year’s meeting will be followed, with the symposium in the morning and the posters and student award talks in the afternoon. Although there was some discussion regarding changes to the poster time schedule, no changes were made.

Tentative Schedule for 2002 Chapter Meeting
8:00-9:00 registration and poster set-up
8:50 introduction
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 symposium
12:00 -1:30 lunch and business meeting
1:30-3:30 poster presentations/judging
3:30-4:00 student award talks

Audrey indicated that there are only 60 parking permits available, and will be distributed on a first come-first serve basis. Carpooling to the meeting was strongly encouraged.

It was agreed that the meeting announcement and registration forms (pdf format) will be sent out electronically to each councilor. It is up to the councilors to distribute them to all neuroscientists at our own institutions and communities.

The membership list was discussed and the question was asked regarding whether it is worth or effort keeping it updated on the website. The general consensus was that no, it was not.