Present:
Louise Ryan (President), Susan Ellenberg (Past-President), Linda J. Young (President-Elect and IBS Council), Lisa LaVange (Secretary), Tim Gregoire (Treasurer and IBS Council), Jane Pendergast (RAB Chair), Julia Bienias (Local Arrangements Chair 2000), Kathy Hoskins (Executive Director, Drohan Management), Peter A. Lachenbruch, Peter Imrey, Joan Chmiel, Sam Greenhouse, Mari Palta, Larry Gould, Greg Campbell, John Lachin, Judith O'Fallon, Michael O'Fallon, Jonas Ellenberg, David Schoenfeld, Tom Louis, John Karon, Stephen George, Judith Goldberg, Joan Alster, Elizabeth Margosches, Lawrence Muhlbaier, Gregg Dinse, Els Goetghebeur (President of the Belgian Region, IBS).

1. Welcome: Louise Ryan opened the meeting at 5:30 p.m., welcoming all in attendance. The minutes of the August, 1999 business meeting (Attachment 1) were distributed and approved.

2. Treasurer's Report (Attachment 2): The Treasurer's report (Attachment 2) was distributed. Tim Gregoire reported that ENAR's financial goal set at the Spring Meeting in Cleveland was to increase net assets to 1.5 times annual operating expenses, and that we are making progress towards that goal. Net assets increased by $24,000 in the past year, however, current meeting expenses have yet to be subtracted from the balance sheet. A more accurate picture of our financial health will be available at the next meeting (August, JSM). Tim reviewed the various expense items, including maintenance of the website, 1999 meeting expenses, etc. A question was raised concerning the variances reported relative to the budget, and it was noted that the misalignment of dates on the report make it difficult to interpret. Tim stated that an ad hoc committee has been formed to revise the report format, and future reports should provide more meaningful information to members.

3. Meetings
   1. 2000 Spring Meeting in Chicago: Kathy reported an attendance of 931 for the meeting. As of noon today, 340 tutorial registrations were received, 240 short course registrations were received. All roundtable seats were sold, and the social event planned for later this evening at Second City was sold out. Kathy thanked both Xihong Lin, Program Chair, and Julia Bienias, Local Arrangements Chair, for their hard work and excellent planning efforts. They were both a pleasure to work with, and all agreed that the meeting was a tremendous success.

   2. 2000 JSM in Indianapolis: Estelle Russek-Cohen is the ENAR Program Chair for the upcoming JSM this summer. An excellent program has been planned, and members are encouraged to attend.

   3. 2001 Spring Meeting in Charlotte: Carol Gotway Crawford is the Program Chair for the 2001 Spring Meeting to be held in Charlotte, NC. Beverly Mellen is the Local Arrangements Chair. A flyer with meeting information is available in each member's registration packet and at the registration desk. Ideas for invited sessions and speakers are welcome. The theme for the meeting is "The Impact of Technology on Biometrics." Louise asked that members encourage students to submit posters for presentation at the meetings. This is an excellent venue for a 'first presentation.' Xihong Lin reported that a workshop for new researchers will be offered in Charlotte. A planning committee has been formed, and members are encouraged to share their ideas with Xihong.

   4. 2001 JSM in Atlanta: Francoise Seillier-Moisetwitsch is the ENAR program chair for the 2001 JSM meeting.

   5. 2002 Spring Meeting: Kathy reported that the location for the 2002 Spring Meeting has been chosen. The meeting will be held in the Crystal City Hyatt near Washington, D.C.

4. COPSS: No report was given.

5. IBS: No report was given.

6. RAB: Jane Pendergast reported on the RAB meeting held earlier. Reports from several Ad Hoc Committees were received and discussed by the group. Rocky Feuer reported that the By-Laws committee had recently completed revisions to the document, and these would be posted on the website for member viewing and feedback. Sharon-Lise Normand of the Proceedings Committee reported that discussion was continuing on whether to publish proceedings from the Spring meeting or not, and asked RAB members for ideas and feedback on the topic. The Nominations Committee is newly formed and had no report for the RAB. Sam Greenhouse asked whether any restrictions would be placed on nominations for President-elect, similar to those in place for ASA President-elect, namely that the nominees should represent academic, government, and industry sectors on a rotating basis. There are currently no restrictions other than a limit of one term as President.

7. Operations Manual. Louise Ryan reported that an ad hoc committee would soon be formed to develop a detailed Operations Manual for ENAR. The committee will compile pertinent information needed to govern ENAR effectively, which should be valuable for incoming officers in terms of duties, timelines, etc. Louise is currently seeking an ENAR member to lead this effort, and asked for interested parties to contact her.

8. Other Ad Hoc Committee Reports:
   1. The Website Oversight Committee has a new chair, Oliver Schabenberger. Louise reported for Oliver on an important topic being considered by the committee, the proposal from IBS to convert the membership database to a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) format accessible to all regions via the Internet. The IBS proposal calls for housing of the directory at the University of Mainz, Germany, where the current IBS President resides. Costs include an initial investment for hardware and software plus yearly license and maintenance fees. Louise reported that the ENAR Executive Committee fully supported the concept of electronic exchange of information among regions, but did not endorse the current LADP proposal as it now stands. The lack of support was due primarily to the size of the initial investment, lack of proposal for pilot testing, and location external to the IBS Business Office. Louise will be sending a letter to IBS leaders to this effect in the coming week, and offered to circulate the letter to interested ENAR members.
   2. Louise reported that the Membership Committee is planning a survey to obtain information on the general membership and to obtain feedback on the level of service ENAR currently offers its members.
   3. Louise announced a newly formed Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity, whose primary responsibility will be to oversee the planning and implementation of future Diversity Workshops. Successful workshops have been held in conjunction with the past two Spring Meetings, and tentative plans are in place to alternate this workshop with the new researchers workshop, planned for 2001. This rotating schedule may be modified depending on the meeting locale. Amita Manatanga will chair the Committee on Diversity. Interested members should contact Amita about joining.
   4. Larry Gould of the Quality of Presentations Committee reported somewhat disappointing results in terms of the guidelines' impact on this year's talks. The guidelines were posted on the website in advance of the Spring Meeting, and provided to session chairs for dissemination. For the 2001 Spring Meeting, the committee recommends distributing the guidelines to each speaker directly via email or regular mail. In addition, the committee proposed developing guidelines for poster presentations.