Appendix A contains a list of the attendees.

1. Opening Remarks (Marie Davidian)

Marie opened the meeting at 5:33pm. She informed the attendees that the Pittsburgh Spring meeting is the biggest meeting on the books. She noted that every chair in the hotel was occupied for the Presidential address.

2. Treasurer's Report (Joanna Shih)

Joannna distributed the financial report (Appendix B) and noted we the net assets in the amount of $300,000. She indicated that we will need to increase the registration fee in order to cover the increase in the management fee. Judy O'Fallon wondered what are expenses are in a given year. Joanna indicated that our revenue is related to short courses and sponsorship. She noted that the 2003 Tampa Spring Meeting resulted in a net revenue of about $46,000 - slightly lower than in 2002. Kathy Hoskins noted that 175 people took short courses (down from the 2003 Meeting) but tutorials are up relative to 2003. Joel Greenhouse indicated that our prices are low relative to other societies. A suggestion was made regarding a student rate for short courses, as well as different rates for academics, industry, and government. All were in favour of the student rate for the short course, but there was disagreement about the other suggestions.

Marie Davidian solicited opinions from the attendees regarding increasing the size of the meeting. Currently, for example, we have up to 11 parallel sessions. Much discussion ensued the question posed by Marie. Larry Gould questioned if meeting attendance is driven by location? Tim Gregoire responded that ENAR has tracked such information since 1992, and that the trend indicates attendance is increasing, regardless of location. Larry Gould suggested putting a limit on the number of sessions. Judy O'Fallon believed more students are attending the meeting and we would not want to stop that trend. Joan Chmiel suggested eliminating some of the contributed sessions. Linda Young disagreed, indicating we want the diversity and that the meeting is the primary benefit to the membership. Peter Imrey indicated that the size of the meeting should be related to the size of the profession.

Another suggestion was made to not front-load the session - half of the sessions occur on day 1, and this leaves few people for later sessions. Jane Pendergast countered with she saw no problem going to sessions with few people while Joan Chmiel did say it costs money to use all the rooms. Joel Greenhouse suggested moving the Presidential Address to Sunday evening and that would open up a number of slots.

Kathy Hoskins noted that other societies are facing attrition rates and meetings are not well-attended. These are good problems to have as the Spring Meeting is the only revenue. Joel Greenhouse agreed that having increased meeting attendance was a good problem to have.

LindaYoung suggested moving the meeting to the western part of the region once every three years.

3. RECOM (Marie Davidian)

Marie reported that we have recommended an increase of RECOM membership from 6 to 9 members. This issue will appear on the ballot. Larry Gould suggested making RAB bigger there was consensus that RAB is too big already. There was a suggestion to think of a different mechanism on how RECOM members are selected. For example, representation from pharmaceutical industry is absent from governing board but RAB is very diverse. Tim Gregoire indicated that he is heading up the Nominating Committee and will take the diversity issue into account.

The Business Meeting closed at 5:58pm so the attendees could catch the boat to attend the Tuesday night event at Heinz Field.

Respectfully Submitted,

Sharon-Lise T. Normand
ENAR Secretary