Current and Future Meetings: The initial goal of the committee was to have two high quality APS Conferences per year. Two conferences were held in 2009: "ET-11 APS International Conference on Endothelin," September 9-12, Montreal, Canada, and "Sex Steroids and Gender in Cardiovascular-Renal Physiology and Pathophysiology," July 15-18, Broomfield, CO. For 2010 there will be an APS Intersociety Meeting: "Global Change and Global Science: Comparative Physiology in a Changing World," August 4-7, Westminster, CO, and "Inflammation, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease," Westminster, CO. The dates for later conference have not yet been set. The conference "Aldosterone the ENaC/Degeneration Family of Ion Channels: Molecular Mechanisms and Pathophysiology," will be held in 2011, and the Committee has approved and sent to Council for approval, a meeting entitled: "Autonomic Regulation of Cardiovascular Function in Health and Disease."
Website for Proposal Submission: At last year's Conference Committee meeting, website submission of proposals was discussed. Some improvements were recommended which included items such as a field for: "what is the scope of the meeting" in 50 words or less; how will you include career-developmental workshops; how do you plan to incorporate junior investigators; and what are the competing meetings? There were other suggestions that have improved the quality of the information that is provided in the application without making it too cumbersome. This has allowed the Committee to more thoroughly evaluate applications. There was discussion as to how to continue to promote and emphasize of junior investigators, gender, and ethnicity participation and representation.
Criteria for APS No Cost Sponsorship: It was agreed that the science should be within the scientific area of APS. The program should have minority representation, junior researcher representation, and gender balance and should be scientifically appropriate for the Society. There should be opportunities for training of junior investigators (mix of presentations/workshops). In return for allowing the APS moniker to be used, meeting organizers must supply APS with the meeting registration list free of charge.
Conference Financing: Since contributions from industry are decreasing, and with the downturn in the stock market and economy, there are continued concerns about how to make the APS Conferences less costly and more self sufficient. The Committee emphasizes to the conference organizers that they need to do everything possible to secure additional funding. Based on the comments received from NIH on the ET-11 conference, there is concern about how NIH is evaluating proposals for conference grants. The Committee requested to see the grant applications and NIH�s responses for the two 2009 conferences. There was discussion about possibly changing the instructions to conference proposers to better address issues NIH is now focusing on. There is also the continued emphasis on reducing the number of invited speakers; the goal is to have more revenue from paid attendees.
Soliciting for New Proposals: There continues to be suggestions and ongoing discussions for recruiting new proposals. Suggestions range from contacting EB Symposium Speakers and Organizers to APS award winners at EB, and working with the JPC and the various section representatives.
Number of Conferences: Although the members of the Committee believe that organizing conferences on new and exciting topics should be strongly encouraged, it was also recognized that establishing a cohort of highly successful meetings that met periodically would help to solidify the APS conference program and move it towards an equal footing with the Gordon and FASEB summer conferences.