December 2005 Meeting:
The first SAC meeting took place in early December 2005 as a dinner meeting prior to the annual meeting to select the candidate slate for the council- and president-elect offices. Traditionally, the primary function of the December meeting is to select time-slots for the sectional distinguished lecturers to be held at the subsequent Experimental Biology Meeting, e.g., in San Francisco. Also, residual items for the upcoming EB meeting and updates from the Strategic Retreat were covered.
One of the shortcomings of the annual December meeting is that, most of the time, there are considerable Section Chairs not in attendance since many of these individuals are nominated as candidates for the APS Council. As such, most of the "pinch hitters" are not well informed of what is actually going on within their respective sectional activities.
Outcomes of the December Meeting
The council should evaluate the utility of having such a meeting at that time of year in the current format as little headway is accomplished beyond selection of the distinguished lectureship time-frames at the EB meeting.
April SAC Meeting
The SAC meeting was held prior to the 2006 EB/Council meeting and it was very interactive and productive with a full agenda being covered. Only one SAC member (Respiratory) was not in attendance. The following items comprised the agenda: 1) discussion of relevant issue with the Chairs of other APS committees (Communications, Public Affairs, Animal Care and Experimentation, and Membership); 2) Section Reports; 3) Sectional Awards (processes and mechanisms to recognize honor-award winners); 4) APS Strategic Plan: Implementation Strategies Impacting the SAC; 5) New and Dropped Member Communications; and 6) Other Business.
Outcomes of the April Meeting
SAC Chairs gained considerable insight from the interaction with Chairs of other APS Committees. It was agreed that such interactions should be held routinely, because the deliberations will bolster Sectional activities on several fronts, especially in membership retention and recruitment of new members, and in the utilization of the public affairs office as a valuable resource.
The SAC unanimously passed a proposal to have the final Sectional Reports received by May 15 each year. This time-frame will enable each section to include a variety of actions that occur during their steering committee deliberations, which normally take place after the SAC meeting is held at the EB meeting. This action was presented to and accepted by the Council at the Spring Meeting held at EB.
The SAC strongly endorsed the APS strategic plan implementation process and its use of task forces to address key issues in The Plan. The SAC expressed enthusiasm for playing a role in The Plan implementation process, especially in the categories of Direction 1, Strategy 2 and in Direction 2, Strategy 1&2. Specifically the members were interested in focusing on enhancing regional chapters and alternative venues for APS sponsored meetings. Further, the SAC was enthusiastic in supporting enhancement of the international membership base and becoming more aggressive in the recruitment and retention of membership within the sections, especially at the level of student membership.
The SAC agreed in principle to: a) participate in the "Living Scholars Program" by having each section provide a list of candidates suitable for the program as presently conceived for implementation (It seems appropriate for the Council to provide a set of guidelines for implementing the program if it is to become viable); and b) support the concept of a grass-roots section(s)-driven type of regional meeting format, which will be submitted for review by the Task Force to be assembled on chapters and regional meetings, which will be a key task-force for implementing the Strategic Plan.
Synopsis of Relevant Items/Issues Redacted From the Sectional Reports
All sections submitted final reports with the exception of the Respiration Section.
With the exception of the GI& Liver, NCAR, and Teaching Sections all the other sections reported financial stability in meeting its primary goals of operation.
All sections reported a robust student award program operating at the pre-doctoral, postdoctoral and beginning investigator level.
All sections have active social interactions at the EB meeting ranging from formal banquets to business meeting reception socials. These venues are generally used to recognize the award winners. The CV section raised $20,000.00 to fund its banquet.
CV Section has utilized novel approach of seeking active discussions with SRAs of NIH study sections impacting its membership. This is an item that more sections should be looking into given the nature of the funding situation at NIH.
Some sections are utilizing the Sectional Distinguished Lectures for generating Review Articles for its primary APS Journal. This is an un-tapped area for keeping the various disciplines up to date and better utilizing the various journal entities.
Many sections report strong participation of its memberships now serving on APS committees. CVS reports 60 members being involved.
Most sections report active interaction with one or more other sections in forming programmatic interactions.
It appears that all sections are publishing two newsletters a year in communicating with its membership. Some are more informative than others.
All sections report active participation of its Trainee and Industry appointments on the steering committees.
All sections are making concerted efforts to energize their steering committees by either appointing more members or seeking involvement of younger, recognized awardees for involvement.
Most sections acknowledged satisfaction with the quality of recent meeting in terms of program content and the quality of the subject matter, including the number and quality of the abstract award applications.
Most sections expressed an interest in enhancing the visibility of new investigators and graduate students within the EB program format. This is an area that needs to be better flushed out.
In general, the sections are very much satisfied with resources and assistance being provided by the APS.
Areas Needing Fine Tuning
Tweaking of the Web Server for Sectional use to communicate with their constituency and for submitting award applications on-line.
The Hand Book For Sections and the SOPs need to be up dated and this should be an action item delivered to the sections to get them in synch with the new strategic plan and its implementation.