BGA

Minutes of the 2005 Annual Meeting

Behavior Genetics Association

Minutes of the 35th Annual Business Meeting of the Members
Of the Behavior Genetics Association
Saturday, July 2, 2005, 2:30-3:30 pm, Room Studio D & E,
Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, Hollywood, CA, USA

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 Room Studio D & E of the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, Hollywood, CA, USA at 2:30 pm on the 2nd day of July, 2005. Those attending constituted a quorum and signed a record sheet indicating their attendance at the meeting. President Carlier opened the meeting. She acknowledged with a moment of silence the passing during the past year of member Ronald Johnson, an important contributor to the field of behavior genetics.
2. Upon motion duly moved, seconded and carried, the minutes of the 2004 Behavior Genetics Association business meeting were approved as written and published in Behavior Genetics, 34, 667-669.
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 March 15, 2004. Ballots were counted 7 days following this deadline with ballots received after March 22, 2004 not counted (no late ballots were received). 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 Laura Baker as President-Elect, Stacey Cherny as Treasurer, and Juko Ando as Member-at-Large for Members Outside North America. Upon motion duly moved, seconded and carried, the Secretary’s Report was approved as submitted by Secretary Michael Stallings. Those members who were nominated, but not elected were thanked for their participation (Eric Turkheimer, President-Elect, Irwin Waldman, Treasurer, and Paul Lichtenstein Member-at-Large). 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 of the
   Behavior Genetics Association at the close of the Annual Business Meeting will be:
   • Hill Goldsmith President
   • Laura Baker President-Elect
   • Michèle Carlier Past-President
   • Michael Stallings Secretary
   • Stacey Cherny Treasurer
   • Danielle Dick Member-at-Large (Associate Members)
   • Jenae Neiderhiser Member-at-Large (Regular Members)
   • Juko Ando Member-at-Large (Members outside North America)
4. The treasurer’s report was submitted by Treasurer, Deborah Finkel. The treasurer reported a balance as of 12/31/04 of $79,240.36. Upon motion duly moved, seconded and carried, the Treasurer’s report was approved as submitted. Due to the favorable balance, the Executive Committee has recommended several initiatives to put it to good use, including: increasing the budget for travel fellowships to the annual meeting, removing the restriction on travel fellowships that required travel overseas, increasing the budget of the meeting program chair to $6,000, and allocating $2,500 to initiate the process of hiring of a web designer to enhance the BGA web site.
5. The membership report was also submitted by Treasurer, Deborah Finkel. The treasurer reported that as of June 1, 2005, the active membership roster consisted of 420 members, of whom 282 are Full members, 119 Associate members, and 19 Retired members. This represents a net gain to the society of 22 members since the previous business meeting in 2004 in Aix-en-Provence, France, with 45 new members (17 Full and 28 Associate), 2 who changed from inactive to active, and 25 members who were dropped from the active roster for non- payment of dues (20), by request (4) or as result of death (1). Of the members dropped, 11 were Full members, 13 Associate members, and 1 retired member. 281 members reside in North America and 139 reside in other continents. Members are considered active if they have paid dues at least once in the last 3 years (in 2003, 2004, or 2005). As of June 7, 2005, 308 (73%) of the currently active members have paid their 2005 dues. Upon motion duly moved, seconded and carried, the Membership’s report was approved as submitted.
6. The local host report was given by Laura Baker and Chandra Reynolds. There were a total of 168 paid registrants at the meeting and 2 speakers invited at the expense of the Association. 121 registrants came from within North America, and 47 represented 12 countries outside North America including the United
   Kingdom, Finland, Japan, Belgium, South Korea, Australia, France, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Italy. A generous $25,000 grant from the Ahmanson Foundation was secured by the local hosts for the meeting to cover associate member travel awards, audio-visual expenses, the trip to the Getty Museum, and other program costs,resulting in a positive surplus of approximately $14,000 after expenses. President Carlier expressed thanks for the superb meeting that Laura and Chandra had organized.
7. The program committee report was given by President-Elect, Hill Goldsmith. There were 145 submitted scientific contributions; all submitted papers were accepted for presentation. A total of 147 presentations were made at the meeting including 60 posters, 62 paper and 23 symposia presentations, and 2 invited addresses (by Professors Jean Shih and Caleb Finch, both of the University of Southern California). The program included 5 symposia (one of the symposia was plenary and the others were in parallel sessions opposite oral paper sessions), 10 paper sessions (one organized into a methods-oriented plenary paper session), and 2 poster sessions. President-Elect Hill Goldsmith was thanked by the membership for the excellent program that he had organized.
   
8. President Carlier reported that the Executive Committee, in its constitutional role as a nomination committee, was nominating the following members for the offices indicated:
   
   President-Elect: Pierre Roubertoux & Stephen Maxson
   Member-at-Large (For Associate Members): Valerie Knopik & Danielle Posthuma
   
   President Carlier 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.
   
9. John Hewitt reported as Executive Editor of Behavior Genetics. During calendar year 2004, in addition to 11 special issue manuscripts, the journal received 74 regular new submissions. This was the highest number of submissions in a single year, and 9 papers more than in 2003. Of the 2004 regular submissions 21 (28%) were rejected outright, 37 (50%) have been accepted for publication, and the remainder, 16 (22%), are in various stages of review or revision. The first four issues of the year are available
   electronically, and the hard copies are usually being received in the publication month. Since the last meeting, a special issue on Ultrasonic Vocalizations, edited by Marty Hahn, appeared in January 2005, and the May issue was edited by Young-Kyu Kim honoring the contributions of Lee Ehrman and her students and her colleagues. Other special issues on Brain Imaging, Linkage Studies of Human Behavior, Substance Use and Abuse, and Animal Models in Psychiatry, are in various stages of organization. John thanked the guest editors who provide the journal and the association with these special issues on topics
   of interest to our members and to the field of behavior genetics.
   
   John noted that our publisher is now Springer (who bought Kluwer) and our new publishing editor is Janice Stern. The subscription rate, currently $50 for dual electronic access and hard copy, is due to increase for next year by a percentage determined by the CPI (~3% or $1.50). Progress is being made on making available archival material and the full archives back to the inception of the journal should shortly be available to members. John is also working with the publisher to increase the page number and/or the
   frequency of publication without raising the subscription and has been informed that we can increase the page number by 20% effective immediately. This will help alleviate the lag between acceptance and publication that has arisen because of the larger number of high quality papers received. John thanked the Associate Editors, reviewers, and Managing Editor, Christina Hewitt, for their time and expertise to maintain the high quality of the journal, and announced that Tatiana Foroud, of Indiana University, has
   accepted an invitation to join the editorial board. Finally, John urged members of the Association to continue to submit their work for publication to the journal as a first choice. He also reminded the membership that the November issue has to await the addition of this meeting’s abstracts and reports for publication. Because this can cause delays, any changes to abstracts must be sent to Hill Goldsmith by July 11th.
   
10. Local host Stephen Maxson presented information concerning the 2006 meeting in Storrs, Connecticut, June 20 - 24, 2006. Detailed information will be posted on the BGA website as it becomes available and provided in the annual mailing to the membership in January, 2006.
    
11. Dorrett Boomsma will host the 2007 meeting in Amsterdam. Offers for hosting future meetings were made by Deborah Finkel (Louisville, KT), Marty Hahn (Bar Harbor, MA or Boulder, CO), Valerie Knopik (Newport, RI), and Yoon-Mi Hur (Seoul, South Korea).
    
12. The Secretary, Michael Stallings, updated the membership regarding Travel Fellowships for Associate Members. Any Associate Member may apply; the previous requirement that an applicant reside outside the continent of the meeting venue no longer applies. This rule change resulted in a large pool of applicants for the 2005 meeting. As before, the granting of fellowships will continue to be based on need and merit. The Executive Committee will discuss guidelines for making decisions regarding budget implications and criteria for awarding these fellowships.
    
13. President Carlier asked John Hewitt for an update on the BGA archives. John stated that the Institute for Behavioral Genetics in Boulder is an appropriate place to house an archive and would be willing to do so, but there are no funds to initiate or maintain it. Marty Hahn, who is moving to Colorado, has agreed to pursue avenues for establishing an archive, given there is sufficient enthusiasm from the Association for doing so.
    
14. President Carlier called for any new business from the floor. In response, Danielle Dick suggested that the 2006 program committee take advantage of funds to sponsor outside speakers from the Decade of Behavior Initiative. The deadline for applications is August, 15, 2005. The membership agreed that this could be a valuable resource. The Executive Committee will discuss mechanisms for nominating and approaching potential speakers and putting in an application. Deborah Finkel noted that the BGA has no official logo. She suggested a competition among the membership to establish one. The Executive Committee agreed to consider a mechanism for this.
    
15. President Carlier thanked outgoing members of the Executive Committee: Andrew Heath, who had served as Past-President, Deborah Finkel as Treasurer. In addition thanks were given to Javier Gayán and Jeff Lessem for their outstanding work on the BG website, Stacey Cherny for his important administration of BGAnnounce, and Mike Neale and Carol Prescott for their time representing BGA to the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological, and Cognitive. Following which, President Carlier adjourned the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Michael C. Stallings
Secretary