TSM Business Meeting held at 12:15 PM Friday, April 24, 2009 in Salon E of the Solana Marriott Hotel in Westlake, Texas.

 For the morning session of the meeting, approximately 25 to 30 persons were in attendance.  Many of these persons attended the business meeting/luncheon.

 The meeting began with the treasurer's report by E. Ann Ellis. She mentioned that a policy needs to be implemented for how the funds of the awards for travel assistance will be given. At this time, there is about $600.00 being distributed for travel assistance for this meeting.  Many persons who are "members" of TSM have not paid dues in several years. The dues paid for this year and the corporate member dues for this year are not included in the treasurer's report as passes out during this meeting.  Ann and Camelia G.-A. Maier suggest that a dues reminder be sent to all members prior to the scheduled meeting for the year.  Nabarun Ghosh proposed (moved and seconded) that students must be registered and have name tags at the meeting to be eligable for a travel award and therefore must pay and register for the meeting in advance. 

 Sandra Westmoreland presented the program chair report.  At this meeting there were 22 presenters, 5 poster presentations, 4 invited speakers and a workshop.  David Garrett is the new program chair elect.  West Texas A&M was considered as a possible location for a TSM future meeting.  There were 42 persons advance registrations with 6 on-site registrations.

 Camelia G.-A. Maier presented the TSM Journal editor's report. No articles were published in the current edition but one is being reviewed.  She requested that members submit articles for the journal and that perhaps the journal could be produced online.  Some journal ads from certain vendors have not been renewed for the current issue.  Many societies have newsletters, and Camelia felt that TSM could have a viable newsletter as well.  Camelia announced that she wants to retire as journal editor.  Judy Ellzey asked for a series of guidelines for the editor's job along with guidelines for administration of the newsletter.  A co-editor position for the journal and newsletter may need to be created to assist the editor in the future.  Becky Holdford had no comments on the website and it appeared to be very useful to the members of the society.  Howard Arnott complemented the webmaster for a great job.

 Camelia mentioned that the next meeting should be in the Dallas/Ft. Worth because it has an international airport.  Nabarun Ghosh suggested that the next TSM meeting could be held in Canyon at West Texas A&M, while Joanne Elsey though that San Antonio would be a good venue for a meeting.  Nabarun Ghosh suggested that new member recruitment be based on personal contact rather than mailings.  He welcomed the president elect, Jodi Roepsch. 

 Jodi Roepsch thanked the general membership, the executive council and the vendors for their support to produce such a fine meeting.  She suggested that we have a workshop at the next meeting designed to appeal to high school students. She suggested that the position of youth outreach ambassador be created.  At the workshop for the next meeting, she proposed that 50 students from a local high school be invited to hear guest speakers presenting talks on scientific topics designed to be at the student’s level of understanding.  A demonstration of a tabletop SEM could be given at this workshop as well as other presentations by vendors to spark interest in microscopy as a career choice. She asked for suggestions on this type of workshop from the membership and thanked Camilia for the novel newsletter idea for the society. 

 The Business Meeting/Luncheon ended at 1:45 PM to allow a break before the general meeting began with an invited speaker.