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), Kathy Hoskins (Executive Director, Drohan Management), Peter A. Lachenbruch, Peter Imrey, Joan Chmiel (RECOM), Larry Gould, Joan Alster, Mary Foulkes, Beth Gladen, Estelle Russek-Cohen (ENAR Program Chair for 2000 JSM), Carol Redmond, Vicki Hertzberg, Craig Berkowf, Segun George.

1. Welcome: Louise Ryan opened the meeting at 5:35 p.m., welcoming all in attendance.  The minutes of the March, 2000 business meeting in Chicago (Attachment 1) were distributed and approved.
2. Treasurer's Report (Attachment 2): The Treasurer’s report (Attachment 2) was distributed.  Tim Gregoire reported that our net revenue  year-to-date (June 30, 2000) was equal to $53,560.  Total revenue and operating expenses were $282,573 and $229,013, respectively.  Tim noted that our total assets are approaching one year’s operating expenses.  Schedule 1 of Attachment 2 provides a detailed breakdown of revenue and expenses for the 2000 Spring Meeting in Chicago.  With 904 attendees, meeting revenue totaled $190,549, and expenses totaled $149,307 for a net of $41,242.  Short courses and tutorials yielded net revenue in excess of expenses of $25,169 and $9,250, respectively (Schedules 2 and 3, Attachment 2). 

Tim presented graphs depicting the growth in meeting attendance and revenue over the past several years.  ENAR lost money on the Spring Meetings held in 1995, 1996, and 1997.  Beginning with the 1998 meeting in Pittsburgh, profits were realized.
 
The Finance Committee proposed changing ENAR’s fiscal year to coincide with the calendar year.  This change was approved by the Executive Committee and brings our fiscal year in line with both dues collection and ASA’s fiscal year.  For the first time, members will be able to see a full fiscal year report at the next Spring Meeting.  The current fiscal year will be extended through December, 2000 to affect the transition.
The Executive Committee also approved a change in meeting fees, proposed by the Finance Committee.  All registration categories will increase by $5 except for half-day short courses, which will increase by $10.  Regular and student fees will be $155 and $75, respectively.  Half-day short courses will cost $100, full-day, $180, and tutorials, $50.
 
Tim has been working with a new accountant at Drohan Management.
 
Louise asked about bank charges as a line item in the expense report.  Kathy responded that the bank charges covered the processing of members’ credit card payments and other miscellaneous transactions.  Tim reported that approximately 30% of meeting expenses were accounted for by food costs.
 
3. Meetings
1. 2001 Spring Meeting in Charlotte: Linda Young reported that plans were taking shape for the upcoming Spring Meeting in the Charlotte, N.C. Convention Center, March 25-28, 2001.  The program is excellent, with 38 invited sessions and 4 contributed paper sessions.  Four of the invited sessions involve special topics related to the theme of the meeting, “The Impact of Technology on Biometrics.” Rather than relying solely on the President-elect for ideas, an educational advisory committee was formed to identify short course and tutorial topics, with the hope of appealing to a broader member audience.  


The local arrangements committee has identified several venues for the social event.  One of the options, dinner at the Loews Motor Speedway (NASCAR), would require moving the event to Monday evening. Linda reported that the entertainment at the speedway would involve either watching a race event or offering members the opportunity to ride in race cars, at an extra charge of $10. Suggestions were made to ensure that enough room was available for mingling prior to dinner and to select a menu appealing to most members.
 
Xihong Lin reported that a grant has been submitted to the National Cancer Institute to provide funding for the Young Investigator Workshop, planned for the Charlotte meeting.

2. 2000 JSM in Indianapolis: Estelle Russek-Cohen, ENAR Program Chair, reported that ENAR sponsored six (6) invited sessions and one (1) contributed session this year.  ENAR additionally co-sponsored six (6) sessions with WNAR and four (4) with the ASA Section on Biometrics.  Together, the three groups were responsible for a significant portion of the program.  Attendance at the meeting is approximately 3900. 
3. 2001 JSM in Atlanta: Francoise Seillier-Moisetwitsch is the ENAR Program Chair.  No report was provided.
4. 2002 Spring Meeting: Kathy Hoskins reported that the 2002 Spring Meeting will be held at the Crystal City Hyatt Regency Hotel in the Washington, D.C. area.  The hotel is located two blocks from the metro station and will accommodate all sessions.

 
4. IBS: Linda Young reported that the 2000 IBS meeting held in July in Berkeley, CA was a success, in spite of a somewhat lower than anticipated attendance.  The local arrangements and program were both very good.  The council members received a report on the progress of the LDAP initiative.  The 2002 IBS meeting will be held in Freiburg, Germany.  Proposals have been received from two cities in Australia for the 2004 meeting..
5. COPSS: Louise Ryan reported on several items from the COPSS meeting, held earlier today.  New brochures for the Visiting Lecture program, led by Joseph Ibrahim, have been mailed to undergraduate departments.  The COPSS website has added links to other societies and data sources of interest to members.  An award in memory of F. N. David has been established to honor women successful in research and collaboration.  A committee has been formed to review proposals for additional awards.  COPSS is reviewing the membership procedures in order to consider possible expansion.  A search committee has been formed to identify a new chair and secretary.  (The search was subsequently completed, with Sallie Keller-McNaulty  selected as Chair and Aparna Huzurbazar as Secretary).
6. JMAC: Louise reported for Tony Lachenbruch, ENAR representative to JMAC.  ASA will be sending a letter of notification to participating societies stating that the contract for JSM will be re-negotiated in five (5) years.  This advance notification is a requirement of the current contract.  The re-negotiation is not expected to have a major impact on ENAR’s participation.  Peter Imrey asked if there were issues concerning the terms of profit-sharing of meeting revenue among the participating societies.  Jane Pendergast reported that the issues centered around management of the scientific program, and that some difficulties had been encountered in the past in working out program details via committee.  Estelle reported a significant drop in the number of invited sessions open for competition, given the increase in the number of ASA sections.  Larry Gould noted that all comers have a chance to present at ASA, resulting in a large number of presentations when the meeting is held at a popular venue.  Larry further noted that medical societies handle such situations by including a large number of poster sessions.  ASA might want to consider elevating the importance and/or visibility of poster sessions.
7. RAB: No separate report was provided, as items from RAB are included in 8 (a), (b), (d), and (e) below.
8. Ad Hoc Committee Reports: 
1. By-Laws: Louise reported that proposed revisions to the By-laws are posted on the ENAR website, and members are encouraged to review and provide comments to Rocky Feuer, chair.  Final revisions will be submitted to the membership for approval next spring/summer.
2. Operations Manual: The formation of this committee was recommended by the By-laws committee.  Joan Chmiel is chairing this important effort.
3. Quality of Presentations: Larry Gould, chair, will send a pdf file containing the guidelines for improving the quality of presentations to Carol Gotway Crawford, 2001 Program Chair, for distribution to all speakers in advance of the Spring Meeting.  Louise Ryan reported that the guidelines were given to the session chairs of the 2000 Spring Meeting in Chicago for dissemination to the speakers. Kathy Hoskins noted that for the 2001 meeting, the guidelines would be sent by return email to all speakers submitting electronic abstracts through the ENAR website.  The comment was made that Rick Chappell faxed a one-page document with presentation guidelines to all speakers at a previous Spring Meeting, and it appeared to impact positively on the quality of presentations at that meeting.  Other suggestions were made to either require handouts or have speakers sign a document stating that they agreed to abide by the guidelines.
4. Membership: Louise suggested that we need to do more to understand who our members are and why we are experiencing a slow but steady decline (current membership stands at 1,994).  To this end, RECOM is considering attaching a member survey to the dues notice to be mailed later this year.  The Ad Hoc Committee on Membership will be disbanded and a continuing committee established.
5. Proceedings: No firm recommendation for or against publishing Proceedings from the Spring Meeting was made by the committee.  A member survey was prepared for possible mailing with the upcoming dues notice.  Some discussion on the topic ensued.  A straw vote indicated a majority of those present were in favor of publishing a Proceedings document on either paper or CD.  Beth Gladen commented that if ASA co-sponsors the ENAR session, the papers can be published in the ASA Section Proceedings.  Jane Pendergast felt that more information on the cost of publishing was needed, and pointed out that only four sections of ASA currently make money on their Proceedings.  Peter Imrey commented that it was unfair to ENAR members to not offer this opportunity.  The Ad Hoc Committee on Proceedings will be disbanded, and the Executive Committee will provide any follow-up activities required.
6. IT Oversight: The Web Oversight Committee will change status from an ad hoc committee to a continuing committee, with a name change.  Oliver Schabenberger has been doing an excellent job leading this committee and has agreed to continue.
7. Diversity: A new ad hoc committee has been formed, chaired by Amita Manatunga.  This committee will oversee the Diversity Workshops to be held every other year at the Spring Meeting.  The two workshops conducted in past years have been very successful.  Members and other activities to be announced.
9. New Business: ENAR has been asked on several occasions to sell their mailing list to vendors.  The Executive Committee agreed to this sale for reasonable proposals, provided that members had been polled and consent obtained for inclusion on the list.  A check-box will be added to the upcoming dues notice for this purpose.  The determination as to whether a proposal is reasonable or not will lie with the Executive Committee.  In all cases, only hard-copy mailing labels will be sold, not electronic copies.  Larry Gould suggested that guidelines should be put in place to assist the Executive Committee in their decision making concerning vendor proposals. 
 

Respectfully submitted,
 

Lisa LaVange
ENAR Secretary