1. The annual business meeting of the members of the Behavior Genetics Association, a corporation not for profit, duly organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Illinois, United States of America, was convened in the Olympia room of the Salénhuset Konferens & Matsalar, Stockholm, Sweden at 4:45p pm on the 11^th day of June 1998.

   Those attending constituted a committee as a whole, and signed a record sheet indicating their attendance at the meeting. President Martin opened the meeting. He noted the deaths of Hans Eysenck and Ray Cattell, who have had a profound influence and have been a great inspiration to the field of Behavior Genetics.

2. Upon motion duly moved, seconded and carried, the minutes of the 1997 Behavior Genetics Association business meeting were approved as written.
3. The secretary's report was given. By provision of the by-laws of the Association, the Secretary is instructed to submit by mail ballot to the full membership of the Association the names of those nominated to be candidates for offices becoming vacant. This was done, with the notice that ballots were to be returned for tabulation by February 1, 1998. Election to office requires a plurality of those members voting with ties to be broken by lot. Tabulation of the votes received resulted in the election of Richard Rose as President-Elect, Hermine Maes as Secretary and Irwin Waldman as Member-at-Large for Regular Members. Upon motion duly moved, seconded and carried, the election results were accepted. Written notification to members of election results, as required by the by-laws, is fulfilled via these minutes furnished to all members. Accordingly, the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Behavior Genetics Association at the close of the meeting will be:

Norman Henderson, President
Richard Rose, President-Elect
Nicholas Martin, Past-President
Hermine Maes, Secretary
Matt McGue, Treasurer
Irwin Waldman, Member-at-Large
Deborah Finkel, Member-at-Large
Nancy Pedersen, Member-at-Large

Upon motion duly moved, seconded and carried, the Secretary's Report was approved as submitted by Secretary Andrew Heath.

4. The Treasurer's report was submitted by Matt McGue (see attached). The treasurer reported a small loss in the financial status of the society, in part due to unpaid dues, leaving a current balance of approximately $33.000. The expenses include a $1000 fee to the Federation for Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences. This federation, which receives bipartisan support, represents hundred's of organizations by lobbying in Congress to improve changes of funding for behavioral sciences. The membership agrees to remain a member of the federation at the discounted rate of $1000 (regular rate is $5000). Reports and website of the federation will be announced on BGA announce.
5. The Membership report was also submitted by Matt McGue. Worse than usual, only 55% of members are current on dues. The treasurer reported that the active membership roster consisted of 466 members, of whom 325 are Full members, 116 are Associate members, and 25 are Retired members. This represents a net loss to the society of 15 members since the previous business meeting in 1997. 347 of the members reside in North America, and 119 reside in other continents. Upon motion duly moved, seconded and carried, the Treasurer's report was approved as submitted.
6. President Martin reported that the Executive Committee, in its constitutional role as a nomination committee, was nominating the following members for the offices indicated:

President-Elect: John Hewitt and David Rowe
Treasurer: Rick Viken and Pam Madden
Member-at-Large (Members outside North America): Juko Ando and Jennifer Harris.

President Martin asked if there were nominations from the floor. Members were reminded that nominations from the floor required the support of five members in good standing. There being none, upon motion duly moved, seconded, and carried, nominations were closed. The Secretary was instructed to submit the slate of nominees to the membership by mail ballot.
7. The local host report and program committee report were given by Nancy Pedersen. There were a total of 101 registrants at the meeting, from 10 countries. A total of 75 presentations were made at the meeting, including 25 posters, 36 oral presentations and 16 symposium talks. She thanked her collaborators for their assistance, and announced that a break even was expected from the meeting.

President Martin expressed thanks for the superb meeting that Nancy had organized.

8. Richard Rose reported representing Kerry Jang as local host for the Vancouver meeting, to be held July 4-7, 1999. The meeting will overlap with the meeting of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID), which is held July 5-9 at the same Coast Plaza Hotel. BGA will organize a 3-day program of scientific sessions July 4,5, and 6; a plenary scientific session scheduled for the morning of Wednesday, July 7, will be jointly organized and sponsored by BGA and ISSID.
9. The 2000 meeting of the Association will be held in Vermont. Jim Hudziak as local host is planning a one day seminar on child psychopathology. Offers to host future meetings have been received from Hawai & London (2001), to be organized in conjunction with the International Twin Congress.
10. There were no reports from other committees.
11. Stephanie Schmitz, reported, representing David Fulker as Executive Editor of Behavior Genetics. She reported that the journal continued to receive approximately 50 submissions per year, with a rejection rate of approximately 15-20% after revision. Two special issues were published in Volume 27, one on the Genetics of Obesity, edited by David Allison and Myles Faith, and one on the Roman Rat, edited by Peter Driscoll. Two special issues are being planned.
12. The Executive committee has proposed to abolish several standing committees of the Association, including the Professional Training committee and the Public and Professional Affairs committee, which may be replaced by ad-hoc committees when needed. There being no objections from the membership, upon motion duly moved, seconded and carried, the motion was approved.
13. Other Business.
    John Hewitt raised the issue to provide a two year lead time for the organization of the program to allow the possibility to raise funds for special symposia. This issue will be further discussed at the Executive Committee.

    Jim Hudziak discussed strategies to interact with NIH people and the possibility for invitation to the annual meeting.

    Jim Wilson asked for a preference vote between London and Hawai as possibilities for hosting the 2001 meeting of the association.

Respectfully submitted,

Hermine H. Maes
Secretary

Note from the Secretary:

At the Association Banquet, the Thompson Award for the best presentation by an associate member was made to Javier Gayan, for his paper 'Quantitative trait locus for specific language and reading deficits on chromosome 6p' and to Alexander Weiss, for his paper 'The heritability of personality factors in zoo chimpanzees Pan Troglodytes', and the Dobzhansky award for Outstanding contributions to the fields of Behavior Genetics was given to Stephan C Maxson.

After taking the advice of the membership on the issue of a two year lead time for the organization of the program to allow the possibility to raise funds for special symposia, the Executive Committee proposed to change the responsibility of the program organization from the local host and the president-elect to the local host and the president.

On a personal note, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of Andrew Heath and Donna Van Meer for three years of service as Secretary, the contributions of Mike Miller and Jeff Lessem on the electronic submission of abstracts for last year, and members from the current executive committee, Jim Wilson and local staff for their help in preparing this mailing.