2008 Section Advisory Committee Report
Meeting Activities 2007-2008
Over the past year, the Sectional Advisory Committee
(SAC) met three times, which included a formal teleconference in December
2007, the annual meeting at EB on April 4, 2008, and an additional
teleconference in May 2008. During these meetings the Committee discussed
the Stop-gap Measure for unfunded postdoctoral NIH grant requesters;
assignments for the Lectureship Series at EB08; issues concerning Council
recommendation for Primary/Secondary membership within sections; financial
issues relevant to sectional programming (Distinguished Lecture/Featured
Topics) at the Annual Meeting; APS allotment of symposium and featured
topics; increasing trainee presentations on featured topics; embellishing
trainee development awards; SAC interactions with APS Public Affairs
initiatives; sectional initiatives for local conferences; and sectional
reports.
Section Affiliation Changes
At their fall 2007 Council Meeting, Council approved
the cessation of tertiary sectional membership. Members may affiliate with
three sections: one as their primary interest area and two as secondary.
Sections may allow primary and secondary members to have full benefits of
sectional membership (voting, serving on committees, etc). The SAC concurs
with this decision and will re-evaluate the sectional statements of
operational procedures to incorporate guidelines to insure involvement of
secondary members in the programmatic activities of the respective sections.
Trainee Development Award
David Brooks of the WEH section submitted a draft for a
Trainee Development Award (TDA) which would allow successful candidates to
attend trainee development courses, even of other societies. There was
general consensus to raise the award to $2,000. However, there was question
about the appropriateness of having predoctoral candidates competing with
junior faculty. It was agreed to request funding for four awards each, in
three categories: predoctoral, postdoctoral (one to five year of degree) and
junior faculty (within five years of assistant professorship). It was
suggested that this be reviewed by the Awards Committee. The awards would be
granted quarterly.
Interactions with Public Affairs Committee
At the SAC meeting at EB08, Michael Portman, Public
Affairs Committee Chair, Alice Ra’anan, APS Director of Government
Relations/Public Policy, and Rebecca Osthus, APS Science Policy Analyst,
provided an update on activities of the Public Affairs Committee. The SAC
commented that some of the recommended changes that NIH is thinking about
are unusual such as eliminating the scoring of grants so that reviewers can
no longer tell if an application is a revised application. Portman commented
that APS did address this issue in a formal letter to NIH.
Osthus also reported that the Public Affairs Committee
is interested in recognizing members who serve on review committees and asks
the group for input on how to do that. After considerable debate it was
approved by SAC that APS add a question on the annual dues notice: “Have you
served on an NIH Review Board over the past year?”
Sectional Reports
The majority of sections have put greater emphasis in
solidifying the steering committee infrastructure to insure a more cohesive
operational plan for selecting student awards, and enhancing programming
within sections and across sections for the annual meeting. Some sections
are also including foreign members to increase the interaction of the
international community.
Enhancing trainee (pre-and postdoctoral) insolvent in
has been a high priority across the sections. Many of the sections are
exploring better ways to improve the quality of selecting student awards
(evaluating posters, etc.) as well as soliciting sponsors for student
awards.
The most encouraging and exciting transformation that
has occurred within and across sections is the more proactive stance that
has been taken in improving the program quality of the meetings.
|
