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

• Council accepted the report of the Section Advisory Committee.

• Council approved the request to publish the names of all Section Award recipients (including photos if available) in The Physiologist.

• 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.

• 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.