2004 Section Advisory Committee Report
The Section Advisory Committee (SAC), chaired by Susan
M. Barman, has held two meetings in the past year in which 10-12 sections
were represented. The first meeting was held in Bethesda in December. A
major objective of this meeting was to update SAC members on recent Council
activities and to initiate discussion about the Fall, 2005 Strategic
Planning Meeting that will involve SAC participation. The first step in this
process is a Members Needs Survey that will be distributed to the
membership. Several SAC members participated in formulating the survey.
Following this meeting, section Chairs met as the Nominating Committee to
select candidates for President-elect and Council. SAC met separately and in
joint-session with Council at Experimental Biology (EB) 2004 in Washington
DC. A synopsis of SAC’s major activities is reported below.
SAC Responsibilities
According to the APS Bylaws, one of the duties of SAC
is to interact with the Long-Range Planning Committee. In an effort to
strengthen the relationship between the two committees, in 2003 Council
approved a request by SAC to designate the SAC Chair as an ex-officio member
of the Long-Range Planning Committee. This change should promote more
effective information transfer regarding future plans that impact on the
membership. It is expected that the SAC Chair will be able to inform the
Long-Range Planning Committee 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. In some cases, this has been a very positive experience with the
Editor or Associate Editor having an active role in promoting the activities
of the Section. In other cases, there has been very limited interaction
with a Society Journal. As noted below, SAC has come up with new ideas on
how to strengthen the cooperation between APS Journals and the Sections.
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
continue to have success in obtaining 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, some sections are concerned by
the few (if any) applicants for the New Investigator Award. As indicated
below, SAC has identified ways to promote this Award. An area that is a
recurring concern for many Sections is the inability to get their members to
be willing to serve on APS committees or to submit ideas for programming at
EB.
Section Awards
New Investigator Award: Several SAC members reported
that no applications were received for the APS Section “New Investigator
Award.” A brief description of the Award criteria are: “Candidates should
be investigators who have made meritorious contributions to the area
represented by the APS Section to which they are applying. They should not
be above the rank of Assistant Professor or a comparable position in a
research track at an academic institution or in industry (e.g., Scientist,
Sr. Scientist, Research Investigator, etc.). They should receive nominations
from at least two regular members of the APS. Candidates will be judged on
their publications, how the publications relate to the APS section to which
they have applied, and evidence for independence and promise (grant funding,
peer review activities, etc.).” Several suggestions were made for getting
the word out to potential applicants: advertise the Awards in APS Journals
and on the Journal web sites, prepare a flyer for distribution, personal
contact, send a notice to Physiology Chairs for them to let their junior
faculty know about the New Investigator Award. SAC will work with Council
and Publications Committee to explore the feasibility of some of these
proposals.
Also with regards to the New Investigator Award, SAC
members expressed an interest in highlighting the Award winners. Some
sections offer their award recipient the opportunity to publish their
lecture in an APS Journal. There was strong support for all sections to
adopt a similar policy. For those not presenting a lecture, Mike Wyss
(Chair, Central Nervous System Section) has come up with a proposal to have
a mini-review published by the award winner in Physiology. This plan has
been discussed with Dale Benos (Chair, Publications Committee). He was
supportive of this idea and has subsequently corresponded with Walter Boron
(Editor, Physiology). As an alternative, he also communicated with Dee
Silverthorn (Editor, Advances in Physiology). SAC is excited about pursuing
this method of highlighting the New Investigator Award and is hopeful that
Council will endorse this plan as a mechanism by which Sections can more
effectively interact with the APS Publications and also promote the careers
of outstanding APS junior investigators.
Section abstract-based awards: For the past few years,
an attempt has been made to prevent an individual from receiving more than
one abstract-based APS award at the same EB meeting. Although the situation
has improved, in an effort to further limit multiple awards going to the
same individual in one year, SAC discussed a proposal to require applicants
of these awards to submit their abstract to one of that Section’s Topic
Categories. This idea and others will continue to be discussed in
anticipation for some changes for EB 2006.
Section steering committee members are proud of the
many outstanding applicants and winners of their Section awards. Currently,
names of the Proctor and Gamble, Caroline tum Suden, and NIDDK Travel award
winners are listed in the August issue of The Physiologist. SAC has
requested that all Section-based award winners be given the same
recognition. This is a small way to recognize our future science leaders.
Upon learning that Proctor & Gamble would no longer
provide support for a graduate student award at EB, Mike Wyss has proposed a
new plan for a student Award. Award selection would be based on each
Section’s post-meeting choice of the best graduate student presentation of a
poster that was programmed by that Section. This new student award is
viewed as a great tool to better engage graduate students in the meeting and
to forge long-term loyalties to the APS. This is in a planning stage, and
again, input from the membership is strongly encouraged.
Trainee Members of Section Steering Committees
In the past year, all Sections have identified a
trainee member of their steering committee. These members comprise the new
Trainee Advisory Committee. Sections have been encouraged to identify ways
to interact with these young APS members to encourage their continued
participation in activities of the Society. Several Sections have included
their trainee member on the Section Program Committee and allowed them to
organize a Featured Topic. Other Sections have included these members on
other Section subcommittees (e.g., Awards) or included a Trainee page on the
Section Newsletter. Trainee members of APS are encouraged to communicate
with members of the Trainee Advisory Committee or SAC to identify ways to
assist them in their professional development.
International Members on Section Steering Committees
In response to the request by the International Members
Committee, many of the Sections have now included an international APS
member on their Steering Committee. These members are also serving on
Section subcommittees, including Program and Awards. International members
are encouraged to communicate with their Sections to provide ideas on how to
promote an effective interaction.
Section Name Change
Comparative Section members recently voted to change
their name to Comparative, and Evolutionary Physiology. Council approved
this change 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.
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 at: http://www.the-aps.org/committees/members/sac.htm.
For further information on the 12 Sections, go to
http://www.the-aps.org/sect_groups.htm.
Susan M. Barman, Chair
Council Actions
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Council accepted the report of the Section Advisory
Committee.
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Council approved the request to publish the names of
all Section Award recipients (including photos if available) in The
Physiologist.
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Council approved the plan by Section Chairs to
enhance the New Investigator Award by providing the award recipient an
opportunity to publish a mini-review in an APS-sponsored publication.
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Council approved a request to encourage the Chairs of
Physiology (ACDP) to nominate their young faculty for the Section New
Investigator Awards.
-
Council approved the request to invite the ACDP
President to meet with Council at the APS Spring Council Meeting.
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