Minutes of the General Business Meeting

Radisson Hotel Ft. Worth North Fossil Creek

Barons Restaurant

2011 Meeting, April 7-9

 After the luncheon, Jo Taylor, President, called the general business meeting of the Texas Society for Microscopy to order at approximately 12:55PM on Friday, April 8, 2011. 

 Secretary Report:

Jo called attention to the minutes from the last general business meeting held at the Hilton Garden Inn inFrisco, TXApril 16, 2010, which were placed on everyone’s table.  She asked if there were any comments and corrections that anyone wished to make. Hearing none she asked for a motion to approve the minutes.  A motion to approve the minutes was made by Ernest Couch, seconded by Becky Holdford. The motion was approved by all.

 Bob Droleskey then gave the new members report. He stated that the society had 18 new members apply and that 15 of them had fulfilled the requirements for membership.  There were 3 new regular members; one each from TWU, UTSA, and MD Anderson and 12 new student members.  Jo asked for a motion to accept the new members of the society.  Howard Arnott made the motion which was seconded by Judi Ellzey. The motion passed unanimously.

 Meeting report:

Jo Taylor then gave the meeting report and stated that the program contained 2 invited talks, 18 oral presentations, 13 poster presentations and 11 participating corporate members.  She thanked the corporate members for their support.  She also thanked Paul Kotula for his presentation during yesterday’s workshop along with Kevin Cronyn of Hitachi and Linda Dailey of Marine Reef for providing a tabletop SEM for use during the second half of the workshop.  She said that participation in the workshop was low.  Students from Mountain ViewCollege did not attend the workshop as planned.  She briefly went over the costs of the meeting so far, approximately $3600.

 Journal Editors Report:

Ann Ellis gave the journal editors report and said that we had changed printers for the journal and that publication was more efficient than in the past.  She stated that she was going to try and have an earlier call for papers in the future and wanted to encourage students to submit papers for publication.  She said that she and Mike had prepared new guidelines for submitting papers that would hopefully speed publication of articles. Judi Ellzey asked why the guidelines were not in the journal and Jo replied that they will be placed on the society’s website.

Webmaster Report:

Becky Holdford gave the webmaster report and stated that our domain name is paid up through 2012 but she was going to renew it for another 5 years. She asked for any feedback to make the site better.  Howard Arnott asked if it was possible to publish preliminary publications on our website.  Nabarun said that the electronic newsletter might be a more appropriate venue for article publication while others felt he was seeking something similar to MSA’s Microscopy Listserv.  In the end Howard said that he really did not get an answer to his question.

 Election Report:

Bob Droleskey gave an update on the election of new officers.  He stated that the executive council was unable to recruit anyone to run for any of the open positions.  Judi Ellzey asked why she didn’t get a ballot and Jo explained that there wasn’t anyone to vote for.  Jo asked that if anyone was interested in running for office they should contact one of the executive council members.

 Treasurer’s Report:

Alice Stacey gave the treasurer’s report and stated that the society had a balance of approximately $22,000 in its checking account with about $5470 in our CD.  We have brought in about $3000 in corporate sustaining memberships and $2000 in dues and registration fees.  She estimated that this meeting will cost around $4000.  She thanked Judi Ellzey for her donation to help fund the meeting. Jo asked for questions about the report. Hearing none she asked for a motion to accept the treasurer’s report.  Howard Arnott made the motion seconded by Nabarun Ghosh.  The motion passed unanimously.

 Old Business:

Jo stated that last year the society failed to get a plaque for outgoing president Jodi Roepsch.  That oversight had been corrected and that Jo will see that she receives the plaque.  Jo then presented a plaque to Camelia Maier thanking her for her contributions to the society as journal editor from 2000 to 2010.  Jo asked if anyone had any other old business to discuss.  Hearing none she closed the discussion.

 New Business:

Jo then opened the discussion on new business and Howard Arnott brought up the topic of online publication again.  He was more specific this time in that he wanted to know if there was a way to place a preliminary manuscript on the website so that it could be quickly commented on and improvements in the article made before officially submitting the paper for publication.  After much discussion many people felt that Howard was talking about either a blog or a listserv of some kind.  Howard was not sure what a blog was so a discussion ensued that attempted to explain the concept of a blog to him.  It was pointed out that EMSA has a listserv, the Microscopy Listserv, and Ann Ellis stated that the newsletter might be an appropriate place to incorporate a blog.  Jo and Camelia both said that it might be possible to do a combination newsletter and blog.

 Jo then went over the new executive council members; Camelia Maier-President, Ernest Couch-Program Chair, Sandra Westmoreland-Treasurer and Kevin Cronyn-Corporate Member Representative.   She then thanked the other members of the executive council for their efforts and turned the proceedings over to the new president of the society, Camelia Maier.

 Camelia stated that we needed to attract new members, academic as well as corporate/industry, to the society and that the society needed separate representatives for both the biological and materials sciences.  She said that to attract new members we needed to improve the quality of the presentations and organization of our meetings.  She asked that if anyone had any ideas for workshop topics they should contact a member of the executive council.  She also stressed that she was going to hold regular teleconference meetings with the executive council with the aim of putting a program for next year’s meeting in place by August.  The location of the next meeting has yet to be determined but it will most likely be in the DFW area and that she would ideally like to have it associated with a university.  Howard Arnott commented that we needed to be less isolationist in nature as a society with more interaction between members.  Camelia stated that she had asked our student representative, Jennie Wojtaszek, to start a Facebook page for the society.  Judi Ellzey stated that she would come to a meeting regardless of its location as long as there was an airport but she did ask why we were not considering someplace like San Antonio for example or a town where other universities are located.  Camelia acknowledged her concern but said a drawback to going outside the DFW area right now was the lack of a local member to help in setting up the meeting.

 Ernest Couch then presented Jo Taylor with a plaque on the society’s behalf thanking her for all of her efforts over the past year serving as president.

 Jo Taylor moved to adjourn, seconded by Bob Droleskey, all approved.

 Meeting adjourned at 1:18pm.

 ___________________________

Minutes respectively submitted by:

Bob Droleskey, Secretary