Minutes of the Meeting: Prepared by Aubrey E.
Taylor, Secretary-Treasurer
The meeting was called to order by the President, Dr. Donald Bers with
26 members present. He asked
members to send in recommendations for speakers at the next meeting and a
brochure is now available for the meeting in Los Cabos which is enclosed (Room
costs include all meals and drinks).
Then Bob Price was asked to present the budget: 1) Bob said total
members dues collected increased last year because of new membership (175) and
also an increase in dues occurred last year.
The ACDP now has 135 paying members.
Gabriel Navar recommended that we contact veterinarians and osteopathic
schools and any other schools that have physiology departments whose chairs
could possibly become members. 2) No changes have occurred in interest gained
on our reserve. 3) Expenses for
supplies, postage and secretarial fees are now less than in previous years
because of cheaper mailing rates using the APS office.
4) Dues to other organizations are about the same as in the previous
year and 5) the meeting costs were about $8,000 each at Palm Springs and at
Tucson. 6) Travel costs were also
the same. 7) The increased legal
costs reflect the costs associated with developing our new by-laws which are
now in compliance for tax-exempt status.
8) $5,000 was assessed for keeping the books at the APS for the last
two years.
The targeted reserve and the society budgets are $38,722 and the society
is solvent and has at least six months to a year of funds that can serve as a
financial buffer in the upcoming year. A question was asked whether we should or shouldn=t
increase dues (in two years). There
was no vote on this issue and dues will be discussed in December at the next
meeting. In addition, we requested Melinda Lowy to compare the AAMC=s
salary data to the data contained in the recent APS Survey.
This is a continuing question that definitely needs an answer, i.e. are
they really different?
Gabriel Navar also asked about the level of graduate student stipends in
different departments. It was
pointed out that they are now contained in the ACDP Survey, which has been on
the Web for several years. The last
five years of the survey will be posted on the Internet in order that
budgets and costs from year to year can be compared.
In addition, ACDP information for on line, E-mail addresses of our
members and their Web sites should be sent to the APS office and the results
will be available at the annual meeting.
Members should send information to the President about any issues that
should be covered by speakers at our annual meeting in Los Cabos.
Questions were raised about the Caucus of BMS chairs.
Dr. Bers will be able to develop this along with Drs. Dantzler and Scarpa. These past members can provide insight about this Caucus
relative to its worth to the Society.
It was
requested from several chairs that a discussion about how clinical and
physiology faculties (and departments) are now being assessed, funded and
challenged due to the tremendous money crunch at most if not all schools.
This issue will be discussed at the next meeting, i.e. are promotions,
raises, etc. evaluated according to productivity, grant dollars, sq. ft. of
space, etc., how stable is faculty salary, how is the level evaluated, what kind
of financial support is available, and are post-tenure reviews for faculty as
well as their salaries evaluated each year?
It was mentioned by Dr. Taylor that several members have been through
reorganizations at their Schools and would make excellent speakers on this
topic, e.g., Bob Gunn at Emory.
At
6:35 PM, a motion was made to adjourn which was seconded and approved.
