The U.S. Federation for Culture Collections

Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Board

May 19, 1996, New Orleans, La.

The 1996 Meeting of the Executive Board of the United States Federation for Culture Collections was called to order at 1:05 pm by Stephen W. Peterson, President. Also present were David Boone (Secretary), Bobby Brandon, Jennie Hunter-Cevera, George Garrity, Marianna Jackson, Karen Kealy, Gina Koenig, Micah Krichevsky, and Sally Meyer.
 

Minute 1. Approval of Minutes. The minutes of the 1995 Executive Board Meeting were approved unanimously.

Minute 2. Treasurer's Report. Bobbie Brandon presented the Treasurer's report, which was accepted unanimously.

Minute 3. Approval of the 1996 Budget. The motion to approve the following budget for 1996 was approved unanimously:

• $2,000 Porter Award expenses, including a $1,000 prize and travel expenses for the recipient
• $5,000 Newsletter expenses (the current issue cost approximately $1,000 for 12 pages)
• $400 Arrangements for the Executive Board Meeting
• $400 Affiliation dues and other costs
• $100 Treasurer's office expenses
• $300 Secretary's office expenses
• $1,500 Expenses of the Program committee
• $500 Expenses in support of endangered collections
• $250 Membership solicitations
• $100 Publicity

There was some discussion about ways to trim the expenses related to the publication of the Newsletter, including its possible combination with the newsletter of the Society for Industrial Microbiology. One method of trimming costs that was agreed upon was that in future we need to be quicker in trimming the distribution list of members who have not paid their dues. However, the annual per-capita cost of producing and distributing the Newsletter is approximately the same as our regular annual membership dues, so even if all the distributions are for paid memberships, Newsletter expenses will continue to consume most or all of the income from dues.

It was also suggested that we might be able to accomplish the Newsletter layout ourselves, at significant savings. David Boone volunteered to give the layout a try if someone else can continue soliciting articles and being responsible for other editorial duties. Alma Dietz continues to meet these responsibilities although she continues to express a desire to be relieved.

Additional savings may be realized if some members are willing to receive an electronic version of the Newsletter, either as an image file a postscript file, or in a word-processor format.

The USFCC's Web Page has been up and running for almost a year now. It's URL is http://www.ese.ogi.edu/ese_docs/bugs/usfcc.

Minute 4. Database Management Committee. The Database Management Committee has undertaken a survey of US culture collections. The initial survey garnered 935 responses, and 301 collections responded to a more detailed follow-up questionaire. The Board expressed its support for the goals of the project.

Minute 5. Program Committee. Marianna Jackson reported great interest in the Roundtable we organized at the recent general meetings of the Society for Industrial Microbiology (Tuesday, April 8, in San Josè, Describing Microbes for Patents).

Plans are continuing for a weekend meeting of the USFCC on the West Coast of the US sometime next spring or summer.

Minute 6. Nominating Committee. Jennie Hunter-Cevera reported that she hopes to have the names of nominees and their statements to the Secretary within a couple of weeks.

Minute 7. Membership List. An old Membership List is posted on the USFCC's web page, and it will be up-dated and published in the next Newsletter.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:27pm.