APS News
As originally published in The
Physiologist
Volume 45, Number 5, October 2002, page 394
Horwitz Thanks APS Staff
Council Meets in Bethesda
APS President Barbara A. Horwitz hosted a staff appreciation reception for the Society?s 70 employees at the Bethesda Marriott in Bethesda, MD. Horwitz, APS Executive Director Martin Frank, and the rest of the APS Council thanked the staff for their efforts over the past year. She said that APS is able to provide quality programs and services to its membership due to the hard work and support of the staff. Many of the APS committee chairs were also present for the reception and offered thanks to the staff for all the assistance provided to the committees.
A major portion of the staff appreciation reception is the recognition of years of service to the Society. This year, Horwitz presented 15-year certificates to Mona Trang (Peer Review Assistant) and Anna Trudgett (Editorial Manager); 10-year certificates to Eric Pesanelli (Editorial Art Manager) and Alice Ra?anan (Public Affairs Officer); and 5-year certificates to Dell Pillers-Cline (Accounting Manager) and Sue Sabur (Marketing Manager). Horwitz expressed Council?s appreciation for their years of service.
The APS summer Council meeting was held in Bethesda, MD, on July 12-14, 2002. During the meeting Council met with the APS committee chairs. The chairs presented reports of the committees? programs and accomplishments during the past year, and committee plans for the coming year.
At the 2001 summer Council Meeting, a new Communications Committee was established. This summer the Committee presented its first official report to Council. After the Committee was formed, the Society hired the Krupa Company, a public relations firm, and Stacy Brooks, the APS Communications Specialist, to assist the Committee with its efforts to promote APS and physiology. Over the past year the Committee and the Krupa Company have worked on several objectives. They have been working on attracting attention to APS programs, such as the distinguished lectureships and the APS awards program. Additionally, through their efforts, a number of APS journal articles have been featured in the media and several APS conferences have received media coverage. They also reviewed the abstracts that were submitted to EB ?02, identified those that may have been of interest to the media, and sent out press releases to both local and national medial outlets. These releases yielded coverage in media outlets such as
Science, the CBS Radio Network, WebMD, and the Times Picayune (New Orleans, LA).
The Communications Committee has developed a communications web site that is a resource for both the media and APS members. Posted on this web site is a guide entitled ?The Media and You.? This guide is available to APS members and is a resource that can help them better communicate with the media. A timeline of physiology is also being developed for posting on the web site.
The Publications Committee continues to strive to provide the highest quality publications with the greatest impact in the life sciences. This is evidenced by the fact that almost all the APS journals had an increase in their 2001 Impact Factors. In October 2001, a new category for submission of papers to the
AJP was made available. The ?Reports? category is for submissions that are short, original scientific research papers having broad significance. They are not shorter versions of full-length papers. Currently, there are eight submitted papers in peer-review, four have been accepted for publication, and one paper has been published.
At the spring Council Meeting, the Publications Committee was asked to review, with APS legal counsel, the APS Ethical Procedures to ensure that they did not adversely expose APS to legal action in an ethical case. The Committee presented its findings and recommended changes to Council at the summer meeting. The Committee recommended that if an ethical infraction has occurred, the Committee will refer the matter to the Executive Cabinet for possible sanctions, and if the sanctions are imposed, the author will have the option of appealing the decision to full Council. Finally, work has begun on scanning the content of the APS journals back to 1987 for the first stage of putting all journal content online by the end of 2004. This material will be available free to APS members.
The Career Opportunities in Physiology Committee reported that its session at EB 2002 was well attended. They requested that Council support a careers session at EB 2003. The theme will be opportunities for physiologists in the drug development industry. Various steps in the process, from basic research to approval of new drugs, will be highlighted. Council approved the necessary support for this session. The Committee also reported that the APS Summer Undergraduate Research program has gone very well. In fact, the Committee currently receives more quality applications than can be funded. Although it is too early in the program to determine its long-term success, it has been successful in achieving its short-term goals. The Committee requested, and received, funding to support up to 12 Summer Undergraduate Research Program Fellowships for summer 2003. During the upcoming year the Committee will be directing much of its efforts towards the development of the Careers portion of the APS web site.
In its report to Council, the Section Advisory Committee (SAC) stated that they have developed a time-line to review section awards. This was developed with the goal of ensuring that a single individual does not receive multiple abstract-based awards at the EB meetings. Since individuals will be limited to receiving one award, it is desirable to have the section awards be of similar monetary value to the Society awards (e.g. the Procter and Gamble and tum Suden Awards). Thus, the SAC requested that Council approve funding to provide complimentary advanced registration for all section awards. This would help eliminate some disparities between the section and Society awards. Council did approve the funding needed to provide complimentary registration. The SAC also requested that Council approve the funding necessary to provide complimentary advanced registration for invited speakers for featured topics. They believe this would be a mechanism for promoting participation of speakers in these sessions as well as an inducement for members to organize the sessions.
Reports from the Animal Care and Experimentation, Awards, Finance, International Physiology, Liaison with Industry, Porter Physiology
Development, Public Affairs, and Women in Physiology Committees were also presented to Council. The Animal Care and Experimentation Committee (ACEC) organized and presented a Public Affairs Symposium at EB 2002 entitled ?Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the IACUC But Were to Ask.? The goal of the session was to provide scientists with focused training in dealing with IACUCs. The session proved to be very successful and a similar session will be presented at EB ?03. The Education Committee reported that their programs have been very successful over the past year, especially the ?Explorations in Biomedicine? and the ?Frontiers in Physiology? programs. Over the next year, the Committee will be developing plans for a series of web-based, self-directed mini-tutorials for graduate and postdoctoral students. The Committee will also be developing plans for an online resource site for medical physiology course directors to be placed in the ?Members Only? section of the APS web site. Resources would include information on faculty evaluation, course evaluation, curriculum issues and instructional options.
In addition to the reports provided by APS committee chairs, the Task Force on Fundraising/Foundations, the Task Force on Trainees, and the Task Force on Awards also presented reports to Council. In its report, the Task Force on Trainees proposed that the APS sections be encouraged to add a trainee member to the Section Steering Committees, and that these trainee members form a Trainee Steering Committee. The goal is to get trainee students more involved in the Society and its programs. The charge of the Trainee Steering Committee will be to organize symposia, survey other trainees regarding their needs, staff a trainee help desk at the EB meetings, publish a regular Email newsletter, and establish a trainee page on the APS web site. The Steering Committee will also formulate events, programs and activities to more involve students in the APS.
The Task Force on Fundraising and Foundations has been working on several documents that will be available to the APS membership. The documents are: 1) ?Giving to the American Physiological Society,? a draft of a fundraising letter addressed to APS members; and 2) ?Leave a Legacy,? a document describing ways in which a potential donor may give to the APS (e.g., bequest, life insurance policy, annuity, etc.). The Task Force also made a proposal to Council that an APS Endowment fund be established.
The Task Force on Awards has been reviewing the APS Awards Program and made several recommendations to Council. The recommendations included enhancing the visibility of the awards and interaction among awardees, to improve the prestige of the Young Investigator and Distinguished Lecturer Awards, and to increase the promotion of the Cannon and Bowditch awards.
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