Reports to the Membership

Officer's Reports

President's Report
Secretary's Report
Treasurer's Report

Committee Reports

2005 Program Committee
2005 Local Host Committee
Basic Neurochemistry Editorial Board
Bernard Haber Award Committee
Committee for the Advancement and Encouragement of Neurochemistry in Latin America (CAENLA)
Electronic Communications Committee Report
Jordi Folch-Pi Memorial Award Committee
Marion Kies Memorial Award Committee
Membership Committee
Nominations Committee
Public Policy and Education Committee
Young Investigator Education Enhancement Committee
2006 Program Committee

President's Report

During this my last year as President of ASN in collaboration with the Council and the Officers of the Society (Treasurer, Secretary, and Past-President) the following things have been accomplished:

1. A special council meeting was again in San Diego. A number of important issues were addressed and are summarized in the secretary's report including:

a. Reduction of council meetings at ASN
b. discussion of plans for current ASN meeting /summary of NYC
c. issues related to nominating committee
d. discussion of deadbeats
e. discussion of future ASN meetings

The meeting was well attended - all officers and officers-elect present and 10 members of council. It was a general feeling that these council meetings should be continued.

2. The joint ASN/ISN reception was held again with an excellent turnout probably related to the location of the reception which was right at the meeting site whereas the previous reception was somewhat removed from the main meeting site and not as well attended.

3. The offices of Treasurer elect and Secretary elect which have been established seem to be working well and allow the incoming officers to have a better grasp of their responsibilities prior to assuming the office.

4. The standing committees of the society were reformulated with each committee having new members serving. Terms have been established for each committee member. Half the committee will rotate off each two years and a new chair will be appointed every 4 years. This appears to be working well and every effort should be made to continue to rotate new members into committees so they will remain a part of ASN. This rotation schedule will insure that more members of the society (especially the younger members) will play a role in the society and create loyalty to the society.

5. A final agreement for the Cancun meeting has been made between ASN/ISN

6. An excellent program has been planned for Madison thanks to Doug Feinstein and his committee (Program Chair) and Ian Duncan and his committee.

7. Innovations introduced at the NYC meeting will be continued and improved:

a. lunches with speakers-very successful- liked by both sides
b. Introduction to the meeting by the President
c. welcome recognition of new members
d. welcome/recognition of new attendees
e. recognition of awardees- Young Investigator/Latin America

8. Some innovations added to the Madison meeting:

a. Past-Presidents luncheon
b. Ethics workshop- Monday AM- Do we need better scientist or better science?
c.Earlier meeting time for council meeting- working lunch
d. Thanks to Ian Duncan we have a record number of exhibitors and their continued participation needs to be encouraged and insured.

9. Membership certificates and membership Ids are in process also a membership brochure. (more from Chair of Membership committee-Jim Conner)

10. R-13 grant was written and well received (score=145 should be funded for sure)

However, from the perspective of being President for almost two years I have the following concerns:

a. We need to impart value to belonging to this society. I don't understand why the majority of the members don't come to the meetings and refuse to pay dues!
b. The society needs to be on a better financial basis- we have no budget!
c. Ongoing society related matters which come up in the annual meeting should not be the financial responsibility of the meeting budget but should be accounted for by the finances of the society. (e.g. council meetings, ASN committee breakfasts etc.)
d. The society desperately needs a journal and efforts to have an official ASN journal should be vigorously pursued.
e. More member participation in meetings would be very helpful.

Overall the ASN is in good shape-largely because of a core of caring involved members. There is still much room for improvement and insuring the future viability of the society. I thank all of you for your input and help in these past two years. I look forward to continue to work with you (in a less visible role!) and continuing to improve the society and securing its future.

George De Vries, President

Secretary's Report

Nomination and Election of President-Elect and Council Members
I worked closely with Regina Armstrong and the Nominations Committee. A call for nominations was sent to the membership on December 9, 2004 by email. Nominations were accepted until February 15, 2005. The nomination committee reviewed the nominations and selected the names to be placed on the ballot. On March 23, 2005 the online voting system was turned on and the membership was alerted by an email. Also, a notice was mailed to the membership directing them to go to the website to vote. There they could either vote online or print off a ballot that could be mailed or faxed to Ms. Sheilah Jewart who was appointed by Dr. DeVries to be the Senior Teller. A total of 213 ballots were received by the close of voting on May 9, 2005. Ms. Jewart tabulated the votes and reported the results to me. I, in turn, reported them to Dr. DeVries who then contacted the candidates.

Membership
I sent letters offering an expedited membership process and a free year's membership to the speakers and recipients of travel awards to the New York meeting that were not members of the ASN. Of the 85 letters that were mailed 39 accepted the offer.

Web site
During 2005 the day-to-day maintenance of the website has moved to Dr. Eric Klann, the chair of the Internet Committee who is also at Baylor College of Medicine. I formally registered the copyright of our website with the US government.

Email Announcements
We continue to rely on sporadic email announcements to alert the membership to important deadlines and other issues. Dr. Eric Klann, the chair of the Internet Committee is in charge of the listserve and reports to the Secretary. We have reason to believe that due to some universities anti-spam efforts members are not receiving the announcements. Dr. Klann is looking into this.

Newsletter
The ASN membership receives the newsletter in two formats. We continue to post information in the "Neurochemistry News" published by the ISN. The "Neurochemistry News" is about 4 pages in length so we just post major announcements. A more detailed newsletter is posted on the website.

David Shine, Secretary

Treasurer's Report

The ASN is at a critical period in its financial history. During the 2004 fiscal year, ASN lost over a tenth of its assets. A similar loss was incurred in the 2003 fiscal year. Total ASN assets at the close of FY2004 were $319,363. A breakdown of the income and expenses during 2004 is shown in the table below. The escalating costs of annual meetings pose the largest threat to the ASN budget. The ASN council must decide on policy changes to trim costs or generate additional income for the annual meeting.

LOSS ON ONE YEAR PERIOD 200: $48,693

Lynn Hudson, Treasurer

2005 Program Committee

The development of this year's program is due to the work of many members of the program committee. The committee selected potential plenary speakers, and after several rounds of invitations, we are delighted to have Professors Mu-Ming Poo, Mary E. Hatten, Klaus Nave, and Stuart Lipton presenting their work at this year's meeting. Dr Poo was selected to present the Basic Neurochemistry Lecture.

The Program Committee received about 50 session proposals, and 4 subcommittees were created to select sessions falling within the major themes of the ASN (Building the Nervous System; Glial Mechanisms and Injury; Metabolism and Cell and Molecular Biology; and Neurodegeneration and Disease). The final program consists of 8 symposium, 14 colloquium, and 6 workshops including one that addresses Ethics in Scientific Research. The workshop organizers were asked to emphasize panel discussions and maintain a 'practical' flavor to their sessions. This year we initiated a 'Cutting Edge' session where pharmaceutical representatives will present novel and recent technologies. Monica Carson organized the Public Forum on Autism to be held on Sunday evening.

Abstract submission began December 1st, ended March 1st, and was extended till March 15th. Much credit is to be given to the software developer, Christian Schmitz, in getting the online abstract submission system and database organization tailored to our needs. We received 364 abstracts, including 124 from invited speakers. Of the rest, 27 were selected for Oral Sessions (Glia and Neurological Disorders; Intracellular signaling in Glia and Neurons: Oligodendrocytes: Life, Death, and Resurrection; and Neurotoxicology); the majority of those talks will be by graduate and post doctoral students. The remaining 212 or so abstracts were divided into 16 poster sessions; this year all posters will be displayed for 2 full days, allowing greater time for viewing and discussion.

We have continued the 'new' annual tradition of having a 'lunch with speakers', based upon the large success from last year's meeting. Pre-registration for these lunches was encouraging.
This year the pre-meeting workshop is organized by Steve Pfeiffer and Lynn Hudson, and will provide an overview and integration of various 'omics' fields. Publicity for the workshop started late, but we expect full attendance.

I want to again thank those members of the program committee who helped with the organization of this year's program.

Doug Feinstein, Chair

2005 Local Host Committee

Plans are in place for an excellent meeting in Madison. The Scientific Program is first-rate and many leaders in their respective disciplines will be present. Monona Terrace should prove to be an ideal site for the program and banquet. We are hoping for a strong attendance based on the number of submitted abstracts and registrations at present. This year will see an increase in the number of exhibitors and sponsors. The meeting will be preceded by a one-day workshop titled "-Omics": From Transcriptomics and Proteomics to Metabolomics. There will be an interesting social program this year, with the highlight being a night at the American Player's Theater to see the "Merry Wives of Windsor." There will be some special entertainment at the banquet on Wednesday night, so people are encouraged to stay through the whole meeting. Those who like to exercise may enjoy a leisurely bike ride around Lake Monona on Monday morning before the meeting begins. Weather permitting, the ingredients are in place for most enjoyable four days in Madison.

Ian Duncan, Chair

Basic Neurochemistry Editorial Board

Production of the seventh edition is on schedule and publication is expected
in November, 2005. Page proofs and figure corrections are now in progress.
Editors: George Siegel, Wayne Albers, Scott Brady Donald Price
Section Editors: Joyce Benjamins, Stephen Fisher, John DeVellis, Nicolas
Bazan, Sangram Sisodia, Joseph Coyle

For the Editors
George Siegel, Editor-in-Chief

Bernard Haber Award Committee

In addition to the information on the ASN web site, the Bernard Haber Award Committee (Bernard Agranoff, Lou Sokoloff, Beatriz Capputo, Steve Pfeiffer, and Nicolas Bazan, Chair ) have advertised the availability of this new award among the membership of the Society. The committee received two nominations for the 2005 award, and unanimously voted to present this year's award to Dr Abel Lajtha. Sadly, due to the recent death of his wife, Marie, Dr Lajtha will not be attending the meeting in Madison.

Nicolas Bazan, Chair

Committee for the Advancement and Encouragement of Neurochemistry in Latin America (CAENLA)

This year the major function of CAENLA has been the selection of the Young Latin American Scholars. By the March 15 deadline, the committee received a total of 7 highly competitive applications from three Latin American countries [Brazil (3), Argentina (3), Chile (1)] and selected the top 3 candidates disbursing a total of $6,000. The awardees are Dr. Claudia Funchal (Brazil), Dr. Rodrigo Quintanilla (Chile) and Dr. Rogerio Panizzutti (Brazil). The plan for next year is to grant another 3-4 awards.

Dr. Oscar Bizzozero, Chair

Electronic Communications Committee Report

In July 2004 an entirely new set of individuals were named to the committee. These new members include Steve Carroll, Paula Dore-Duffy, Sean Liour, and Eric Klann (Chair). During the past year, a smooth transition has taking place with Eric Klann taking over the day-to-day operation of the webpage from the past Chair, David Shine.

During the last year we have assisted the annual meeting organizers by:
1) Maintaining and updating the meeting website
2) Supporting and troubleshooting issues with respect to the online abstract submission
3) Providing support for issues concerning meeting registration

The website is updated almost daily upon request of individual members.

Several issues have arisen that may be of concern in the future. We currently use a listserve system to send mass e-mail announcements to the membership. Spam blocking software used by some universities may be blocking these announcements from reaching members. We have done an analysis and found that, for the most part, these announcements are being received by the membership. However, this is an issue that we will need to address in the future.

Although the website has been updated without problem on a consistent basis, the membership may wish to consider using an outside professional to maintain the site in order to keep pace with the ever changing website technology.

Eric Klann, Chair

Jordi Folch-Pi Memorial Award Committee

The Jordi Folch-Pi Memorial Award Committee received five high quality nominations for the 2005 award. After deliberation, we selected as the award recipient, Dr. Mathew Rasband, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Connecticut Health Center.

I would like to thank the other members of the Committee; Gary Gibson, Eric Murphy, Brian Popko, Grace Sun and Bob Zand for their contributions and good judgment. I ask that all of you begin thinking of nominees for the 2006 award.

Joe Eichberg, Chair

Marion Kies Memorial Award Committee

Applications were solicited by advertising in the ASN mailings and by encouraging colleagues to nominate their most innovative and competitive students. This year the committee received exceptional nominees and selected Dr. Christopher Taylor based on his overall high scores. Christopher graduated from University of Connecticut, and did his thesis in the laboratory of Dr. Steve Pfeiffer from the Dept of Neuroscience. Chris has recently graduated, and moved to a post-doctoral position at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the Department of Cancer Biology in the laboratory of Dr. Charles Stiles. Chris has done outstanding work in the field of oligodendrocyte development that has a global impact in the field of myelination. This taken together with his strong letters of recommendation, high quality of publications, active involvement in the scientific community and extracurricular activities gave him high scores in all categories evaluated. Rick Cohen will present Chris with the award on Monday, June 27, 2005, at 8AM prior to the Keynote speaker in Ballroom C, and Chris and Dr. Pfeiffer, will say a few words.

The committee will convene during the ASN meeting to discuss the applicants, the results, and for ways to improve the application and review process. We would also like to invite suggestions from ASN members. We encourage you to begin thinking about nominating one of you most outstanding graduate student's for next year's meeting in Portland Oregon.

Rick Cohen, Chair

Membership Committee

The membership committee processed over 80 applications for membership in the society in this past year. These numbers indicate the continued excitement in our society among neuroscientists. The committee also assisted in the development of a membership card and a certificate of membership that would be provided to new members. We also helped to develop a of invitation to join the society that will be sent to potential members and that can be used as a recruiting tool.

James R. Connor, Chair

Nominations Committee

Nominations were requested for ASN President-elect and for 6 open seats on council. Nominations were solicited from the general membership, the nominating committee, and officers and council. This round we had responses with nominations from 55 members with a total of approximately 80 individuals among the group of nominees. As stated in the By Laws and Standing Rules, anyone with 6 or more nominations was automatically placed on the ballot. The remaining slots on the ballot were decided by the nominating committee (group of 6 appointed by the ASN president), and the ASN President was consulted. With about 80 individuals nominated by the general membership, the nominating committee worked through those nominees to fill the remaining slots. From among this list, those that were selected by the most committee members were the first to be asked if they would accept the nomination.

The ballot was posted with 2 candidates for President-elect and 10 candidates for the 6 open seats on Council.

Regina Armstrong, Chair

Public Policy and Education Committee

This committee has two major tasks:
to organize a forum to educate laymen about a subject of public interest and
to publicize the Society to the scientific community.

This year, the committee worked closely with the Madison Chapter of the Autism Society of America to organize a public forum on Autism. The format of forum and the types of speakers to be invited were developed by the committee in concert with the Madison Chapter, while the publicity to the lay public for the public forum was handled entirely by the Madison Chapter. The committee wishes to acknowledge and thank Nancy Alar (vice president of the Autism Society, Madison Chapter), Glenis Benson, Judy Endow, Maureen Fitzgerald, Molly Immendorf, Tina, Iyama, Lezli Redmond, Kathy Kennedy Steffen and Lori Wing for all their contributions to the public forum.

The second charge of this committee is to publicize the Society and the meeting. Due to budget constraints, the committee has sought to develop low-cost and no-cost opportunities to announce and publicize ASN and its annual meeting. For the last two years, this committee with the help of Sheilah Jewart has been developing a database of email address lists designed to target ASN announcements to neuroscience training programs, neuroscience departments, recipients of neuroscience related NIH grants, member and non-member attendees of the annual ASN meetings and of other neuroscience related meetings. In addition, the committee has continued to post ASN announcements on the webpages of other neuroscience related societies (for examples, see postings on the SFN, PNI and ADNP websites).

Finally, this committee asks that all ASN members with web pages add a link to the ASN website to their webpages to help increase the visibility of our society within the neuroscience community.

Monica Carson, Chair

Young Investigator Education Enhancement Committee

This year the YIEE Committee consisted of 4 members: Richard H. Quarles, Chair, NINDS, NIH, Bethesda, MD; Susan McGuire, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL; Govind Vatassery, VA Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN; and Andrzej Wieraszko, College of Staten Island, Staten Island, NY. The committee gave 29 travel awards totaling $17,600, with the amounts of individual awards varying from $400 to $900 depending on travel distance and other considerations, such as number of applicants per lab and the applicants' history of previous awards. Because of improved interactions with the Committee for Aid and Education in Neurochemistry (CAEN) of the ISN, CAEN provided $1000 travel awards to 4 of the applicants to YIECC from Argentina and YIECC covered the registration fees for those 4 applicants totaling another $900. In conclusion, with the help from CAEN, all of the eligible applicants received travel awards.

Richard H. Quarles, Chair

2006 Program Committee

The 37th annual meeting of the American Society for Neurochemistry (ASN) will be held in downtown Portland, Oregon from March 11-15, 2006 and will feature the following four plenary speakers.
1) Helmut Kettenmann: "Mechanisms of neuron glia interactions"
2) Freda Miller: "Neural precursor cells: novel signals and sources"
3) Jenny Ting: "Unexpected roles of inflammatory cytokines in neuropathology"
4) Richard W. Tsien: TBA

The 2006 ASN program will encompass 4 broad themes:
Building the Nervous System
Glial Mechanisms & Injury
Metabolism, Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology
Neurodegeneration & disease

In addition to the sessions generated from invited speakers, several oral sessions will be generated from abstract submissions. The topic of Neural-glial interactions is being considered for the topic of the premeeting workshop, however suggestions for the workshop topic are still welcome.

Monica Carson, Chair