Minutes of 2007 General Meeting

Bob Hodson
University of Delaware

hodson@UDel.Edu

Association of Biology Laboratory Education
Annual General Meeting
June 8, 2007

The ABLE annual General Business Meeting was held at the University of Kentucky in the auditorium of the T.H. Morgan building.

The meeting was called to order by President Bill Glider at 12:29 PM.

1. Approval of Agenda

The agenda was approved as presented.

1. Reports from Officers and Committee Chairs
   1. President (Bill Glider)
      Bill called for help from ABLE members, particularly to offer major and mini workshops at future meetings and to recruit new members, but also to nominate themselves or agree to be nominated for elected positions and to assist in other ways as needed.  He also mentioned two surveys being developed for online distribution – one about purchases of lab supplies and the other about the ratio between major and mini workshops.
      
   2. Treasurer (Alec Motten)
      We have a positive cash flow due to funds being returned by the previous meeting host (Purdue University), new members and member renewals, and cost-cutting resulting from publishing the Proceedings on a CD.  Increasing membership is still the best way to increase our financial reserve.

1. Membership (Maggie Haag) and Proceedings Distribution (Carol Budd)
   Carol is stepping down from Proceedings Distribution.  We are giving away old printed Proceedings; they will be mailed by request with postage cost requested from recipient.  There are 245 members at the time this conference started.  We are reminded that the membership fee for Postdoctoral Fellows and graduate students is only $15.  The two-year pay-in-advance membership fee offer has been discontinued because of bookkeeping problems, folks not remembering when their membership expires, and something to do with the auditor.  Someone reported that the Mac operating system 10 can’t run the Proceedings CD; this will be investigated.

1. Nominations and Elections (Chris Beck)

Elected positions open next year are Member-at-Large, President-elect, and Secretary.

1. Grants-in-Aid and Waivers-of-Registration (Ann Lumsden)

Six waivers were awarded.  Three recipients of grants are Pliny Smith, Oney Smith and Kathy Falkenstein, and Joanna Klein.  We look forward to their required workshops at a future meeting.

1. Major Workshops (Donna Bozzone, Mary Schaeffer)

Ruth was thanked for an excellent meeting.  Mary is retiring and her replacement on the committee is Kate Verville (Washington College, MD).  The perpetual call for workshop presenters was made.

1. Mini Workshops (Ralph Preszler)

Ralph called for workshop submissions and for help in identifying which past workshops could be developed in a major.

1. Posters (Tom Fogle)

We had a record 19 posters at this (UK) meeting and this method of communication is clearly growing.  Under consideration is requesting all posters be done with Powerpoint so they can be digitized for the Proceedings.

1. Proceedings (Mike O’Donnell)

CD’s of volume 28 were given out at the meeting.  It has a hybrid format of HTML and PDF.  Mike is retiring from this position to become President.  Keri Klase will be the new editor and she will be assisted by Peggy Brinkman.

1. Labstracts (Barbara Stegenga)

Barbara has been editor for one year.  She called for articles from new members on impressions members have about the meeting.

1. ABLE Web Site (Marielle Hoefnagels, Corey Goldman)

Marielle is stepping down and her replacement as manager is Mark Walvoord (Univ. of Oklahoma). 

1. RABLE

Ruth Beattie had a regional ABLE meeting here at UK two years ago with an attendance of 48.

1. ABLE/BEN Partnership (Carol Budd)

We need volunteers for cataloging our remaining Proceedings.  Funding is available.

1. Publicity (Kathy Nolan)

A new flier is being developed by Todd Nickle. 

1. New Business
   1. Membership Survey

A survey developed by Todd will be sent out to all members requesting information on dollars spent on laboratory teaching supplies and textbooks adoptions.  The budget information will be used in seeking sponsors for annual meetings.

1. Collecting Membership Fees

Next year membership fees will be included in conference registration fees.

1. ABLE Website Server

Mark Walvoord is looking into moving to a commercial service.

1. Future Meetings

In 2008 the meeting will be at the University of Toronto – Mississauga hosted by Anne Cordon and Lisa Cheung.  The dates are June 3-6.  The website already has information about the meeting and presents an attractive venue with some features traditional and some new such as lunches planned to foster connections between attendees.   We are reminded that passports will be needed by US citizens, and presenters shipping organisms should look into arrangements well in advance.

The meeting in 2009 does not have a host at this time.  In 2010 we will meet at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The meeting adjourned at 1:56PM

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert C. Hodson
Secretary