United States Federation for Culture Collections

Minutes of Executive Board Meeting held May 21, 2000

At Los Angeles, Molecular Biology Center, University of California

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 1:02 p.m. by Gina Koenig, USFCC President.

Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting of the Executive Board held May 30, 1999, in Chicago were approved.

Secretary's Report

The biographies of the candidates are not yet complete.  The ballots should be ready for mailing during June.

President's Report

The president delayed her report until later in the meeting, as a part of New Business.

Treasurer's Report

The treasurer submitted her report.  Operating expenses totalled about $8,400 for the year, with expenses exceeding revenues by $889.  The president appointed a finance committee to advise the treasurer: Barry Bochner (chair), Jim Karwowski, and Micah Krichevsky.

The Board reauthorized $500 to support a USFCC reception, now rescheduled for the Westin Boneventure hotel at the ASM meeting this year.

The budget approved for the 2000/2001 fiscal year is the same as that two years ago:

• $3,000 for Porter Award
• $6,000 for Newsletter publication
• $400 for dues to other societies (such as AIBS, IUMS)
• $1,000 for Executive Board Meeting
• $100 Secretary's expenses
• $300 Treasurer's expenses

Committee Reports

Editorial

Alma Dietz is ready to retire after a long tenure as Editor of the Newsletter.  The difficulty in finding a replacement is testament to the fine job she has done.  Marianna Jackson volunteered to edit the Newsletter for a term of two years.  The possibility of an electronic newsletter was discussed again.

Nominations

Marianna Jackson discussed the difficulties in finding two people to run for each office or Board membership.  Experience has shown that a loss in such an election may be demoralizing.  A number of alternatives were discussed.  One alternative is to reduce the slate nominated by the Nomination Committee to one per office, with other nominations possible from the membership, with some number (2 to 4 was suggested) of members signatures required for a nomination.  An advantage of this procedure would be that the Nominating Committee might be able to evaluate the enthusiasm that a candidate might bring to the office better than the electorate.  A disadvantage of this procedure would be that such additional nominations would be rare, so the Nominating Committee would have too much power in shaping the future of the Federation.  A second possibility is for the Nominating Committee to continue efforts to find two candidates for each office, but allowing a single candidate when two willing nominees cannot be found.  Our By-Laws currently stipulate that two nominees should be put forward for each office, and change will require a change of the By-Laws.

Old Business

Marianna Jackson announce that USFCC's archival materials will be sent to ASM to be stored there.  Anyone with additional USFCC artifacts should contact her.

Alma Dietz is continuing to work on finding a logo for USFCC.

New Business

The ASM has asked USFCC to increase the cash award that is part of the Porter Award, and to broaden the scope of activities that the award recognizes.  Because this award is a substantial part (about 20%) of the USFCC annual budget, increasing its amount would be difficult for the Federation.  Those present also felt that the amount of cash is a small part of the value of the award.  After a lengthy discussion, the Board also agreed that the current scope of the activities that the award recognizes is appropriate, especially since culture collection acitivities are generally undervalued in scientific circles.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 4:20 p.m.

Submitted by David Boone, Secretary.