The Section Advisory Committee (SAC) convened three meetings over the past year including a face-to-face meeting in Bethesda and another meeting at EB09. Discussions from these meetings are summarized below.
Funding for Featured Topics Sessions: At the summer 2008 Council meeting, SAC asked Council for an increase in funding for the Featured Topics sessions at the EB meetings. Before approving the request, Council asked SAC to present additional data regarding how the current funding is used by each Section. SAC compiled this data, which revealed that all Sections use these funds to partially defray travel costs for participants in the symposium session, although there is variation with regard to the distribution of funds among these individuals (organizers, invited speakers, early career investigators, etc.). No Section plans to alter the use of the funds for Featured Topics in the future.
Statements of Organization and Procedures: All Sections are in the process of updating their respective Statement of Organization and Procedures ("bylaws") to reflect current procedures and changes in APS governance. In particular, these documents must be revised in light of the deletion of the tertiary section affiliation, with members now allowed to designate one primary and up to two secondary section affiliations. Sections are defining the rights and responsibilities of primary and secondary members in terms of sectional activities (officers, voting, committee service, etc).
The Experimental Biology Meeting: Having taken on a long-range planning role within the Society, SAC undertook the daunting task of looking at the nature of the EB meeting. This was the primary topic of the SAC meeting in July 2008. In an impressive display of logic that was virtually devoid of turf-wars, SAC discussed several limitations with the current EB programming format. Attention quickly focused on the allocation of sessions among the sections, as well as the limited number of sessions available to be programmed by the sections and interest groups (currently a total of 75 Featured Topic and symposia sessions). SAC presented Council with several specific recommendations as summarized below.
1. SAC agreed that the distribution of sessions among Sections (and interest groups) was out of balance relative to abstract submissions. As such, modest changes were made to about half of the Section (and interest group) allocations to bring the ratio closer to parity. These changes are to become effective with EB 2010, with the allocations to be revised as appropriate every three years.
2. In order to increase the number of sessions available to be programmed by sections, SAC recommended that APS program fully on Wednesday by scheduling sessions in the 3:00-5:00 pm time slot. This change is to be implemented at EB 2011.
3. Having reallocated the sessions within the current fixed framework and assuming that Council would approve programming on Wednesday afternoon, SAC added one session to each Section's allocation. This session can be either a symposium or Featured Topic, with this choice to be declared by each Section to be implemented at EB 2011.
4. SAC recommended that a $1,000 incentive per session be provided to Sections that program on Wednesday afternoon.
5. SAC agreed that Sections should strive to formally "cluster" their programming into identifiable blocks to facilitate full and successful utilization of Wednesday afternoon sessions. Sections choosing to include Wednesday in their programming "cluster" are to consider holding their Distinguished Lectureship on that day. Advance publicity of the various cluster days is envisioned to be important in allowing members to plan their travel/meeting itineraries.
6. SAC recognized that bunching the high profile, society-wide lectures/events at the beginning of EB (i.e., the Cannon Lecture on Saturday and the Bowditch Lecture on Sunday) might disenfranchise members of Sections that cluster their program in the latter few days of EB. SAC requested that Council consider repositioning out these special events to more "central" days of the EB meeting. In particular, SAC recommended moving the Bowditch Lecture to Monday. At the joint meeting of SAC and Council in April 2009, Council agreed to "think outside the box" regarding ways to shift traditional opening elements of the meeting to later in the week.
Involvement of SAC in other Long-Range Planning Activities: SAC will provide input to Council with regard to producing a new strategic plan, which is planned for release in conjunction with the Society�s 125th anniversary (in 2012). As a first step in the strategic planning process, SAC is reviewing the most recent member needs survey and is in the process of drafting a new survey.