2002 Section Advisory Committee Report
The Section Advisory Committee (SAC) has held two
meetings in the past year in which all 12 sections were represented. Celia
Sladek chaired the first meeting that was held in Bethesda in December. A
major objective of this meeting was to update section chairs on the
procedures to be used for programming at the 2005 International Union of
Physiological Sciences meeting, to be held in conjunction with Experimental
Biology (EB) Meeting in San Diego, CA. Following this meeting, section
Chairs met as the Nominating Committee to select candidates for
President-elect and Council.
Susan M. Barman assumed the role of SAC Chair on
January 1, 2003. SAC met separately and in joint-session with Council at EB
2003 in San Diego. A synopsis of SAC’s major activities is reported here.
SAC Responsibilities
According to the APS Bylaws, one of the duties of SAC
is to interact with the Long-Range Planning Committee (LRPC). In an effort
to strengthen the relationship between the two committees, SAC has proposed
that APS Council designate a LRPC member to serve as a liaison to SAC and
vice versa. This change should promote more effective information transfer
regarding future plans that impact on the membership. It is expected that
the LRPC member would be able to directly inform SAC of how specific
strategic plan initiatives are progressing, and the SAC member would be able
to inform the LRPC of any concerns from the sections that relate to the
ongoing and planned activities of the Society.
In accordance with the Section Operating Procedures,
most of the sections have a journal representative on their steering
committee. While in some cases this has been useful, in other cases the
addition of this representative to the steering committee has not had any
obvious benefit to the functions of the section. SAC members discussed ways
in which the relationship between Section Steering Committees and
Publications could be strengthened. One, the journals could advertise
symposia or conferences of interest to the section by including “banners”
when one accesses the journal online. Two, the journal representative could
take a more active role in programming for the section. If the journal
representative identifies a topic that seems to attract a lot of manuscript
submissions, they might organize a Featured Topic or Symposia that
highlights the topic. Potentially, this topic could be a focus of a later
issue of the journal.
All SAC members recently received a copy of the
Handbook for Sections of the American Physiological Society. They have been
advised to check the “Statement of Organization and Procedures” for their
particular section and to make certain it is current. In some cases, these
documents have not been updated in over 10 years.
Annual Section Reports
During the SAC meeting, each section Chair was asked to
report what they considered to be their section’s biggest success and
failure in the past year. Among the positive outcomes: several sections have
been able to obtain financial support for their activities and awards, and
others have seen an increase in the number of applications by qualified
individuals for their awards. Interestingly, the opposite was expressed by
other sections. Specifically, there was a desire (but limited success at
best) in getting support from individuals, businesses, or drug firms, etc to
help support section activities and awards. Also, some sections are
concerned by the fact that only trainee level individuals apply for applying
for the Society-sponsored Young Investigator Awards. Another area that is a
recurring concern for many sections is the inability to get members of their
section to be willing to serve on APS committees or to submit ideas for
programming at EB.
Section Awards
In the past two years, there has been an attempt to
prevent an individual from receiving more than one abstract-based APS award
for attendance at EB meetings. For EB 2003, six applicants received more
than one award. Although this is an improvement from two years ago, there is
still a need to work on this plan which was proposed in an effort to spread
the numerous awards available to as many student/fellows as possible. The
ability to prevent multiple awards going to the same individual is dependent
on all sections following a particular schedule for selecting their award
recipients. There was agreement at our meeting that the schedule used for EB
2003 should be used again in 2004 in hopes that continuity in the plan will
make compliance more feasible.
At the SAC meeting, several section Chairs voiced a
concern about the confusion resulting from multiple awards being termed
“Young Investigator Award.” Thus, SAC made a proposal to Council to change
the name of the Society-sponsored Young Investigator Award to the Research
Recognition Award. APS Council unanimously approved this request.
Arrangements will be made to change the information on the APS Award pages
so this will become effective for EB 2004.
Several SAC members reported that no applications were
received for their section New Investigator Award. This award recognizes
outstanding independent investigators in the early stages of their career
who have made meritorious contributions to the area represented by the APS
section to which they apply. In part, the lack of applications might have
been due to the late notice regarding the availability of the award. Efforts
will be made to draw awareness of this opportunity for EB 2004.
Trainee Members of Section Steering Committees
All section Chairs have complied with the request to
have a trainee member (student or postdoctoral fellow) serve on their
section steering committee. In accordance with the 2000 APS Strategic Plan,
these 12 individuals will comprise a new Trainee Advisory Committee, whose
purpose will be to facilitate the role of the Society in addressing needs of
the young membership. Most sections have included one of the
student/postdoctoral section award winners to serve in this capacity for a
two to three year appointment. Some sections have also allowed this
individual to organize a Featured Topic Session during their last year on
the committee.
Renaming of sections
Gastrointestinal Physiology Section: This section has
had to compete with the American Gastroenterological Association and
American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases for submission of
abstracts as meeting times for EB and these organizations are approximately
one month apart. This situation has led to a decline in EB attendance by
investigators who work in the fields of gastrointestinal and liver
physiology and pathophysiology. In an effort to reverse this trend, members
of the GI Section voted in favor of a proposal to change their name to
Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology Section. Council subsequently approved
this name change.
Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology Section: Many Comparative
Section members recently participated in a straw poll to re-examine the
image and name of the section. The outcome was a strong sentiment to include
the words “Integrative” and “Evolutionary” in their section name in an
effort to more accurately describe the group interest. Section members voted
in favor of a plan to change the name to “Comparative, Integrative, and
Evolutionary Physiology.” At the Spring Council meeting, a modification of
the proposal was recommended. Specifically, Council suggested that the
section be re-named “Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology” in an effort
to better represent the scope of the section, to broaden its appeal, and to
encourage comparative scientists who are not presently APS members to join
the Society and become involved in the section’s activities. The Comparative
Section Steering Committee will continue to discuss the matter with their
membership before making a final decision regarding the proposed name
change.
Proposal to revise the format of Poster Sessions at
EB Meetings
In his address at EB 2003, NIH Director Adam Zerhouni
noted the steps that NIH has taken to advance biomedical sciences, and he
challenged the research community to become a proactive partner in this
effort. Specifically, he pointed out that two of the greatest challenges
that we face are to break down the existing barriers that inhibit cross
fertilization between disciplines and to actively foster the next generation
of biomedical researchers. EB meetings were initially designed to foster
interdisciplinary interactions and nurture young scientists. However, the
current format for poster sessions fails to meet this challenge.
Specifically, since each Society independently arranges their posters, it is
often done in a manner that fails to promote interactions of scientists with
different backgrounds. SAC has requested that Council consider a plan to
re-organize poster sessions in the following manner. Posters from abstracts
submitted to different Societies would first be grouped by a general topic
(e.g., cardiovascular, neuroscience, endocrinology), but within each
category they would remain grouped by the Society. For instance,
cardiovascular biology posters might be in row A and start with APS posters
followed by ASPET posters, etc. Major benefits of this new format are that
it would: 1) help break down barriers that inhibit cross fertilization
between disciplines, 2) promote interdisciplinary research, and 3) address
some of the concerns raised by several young physiologists that the current
format of EB meetings is not conducive to gaining new insight. Implementing
this new format will require 1) that all participating Societies buy into
the plan, 2) a small group of individuals to coordinate the project, and 3)
development of a method to evaluate the success/failure of the new format.
Getting Involved in APS Section Activities
APS members are encouraged to become active
participants in their Section activities. Each APS member can select one
primary affiliation and as many secondary affiliations as fit their
interests. For those who are interested in becoming more involved in
sectional activities, you can contact SAC members. For further information
on the 12 Sections, go to
http://www.the-aps.org/sections/.
Susan M. Barman, Chair
Council Actions
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