Minutes

SEAAPM Business Meeting

March 18, 2000

Atlanta, Georgia

The meeting was called to order by President Wlad Sobol at 1:10 on Saturday March 18, 2000 at the Grove Park Resort in Asheville, North Carolina.

The minutes of the 1999 meeting were approved.

The results of the 1999 election of officers was announced as follows:

President-elect:

Winner: Sandra McIntosh

Secretary-Treasurer:

Winner: George David

The treasurer's report had been previously distributed to meeting attendees. It showed a balance in the First Union Corporate CAP account as of December 31, 1999 of $20,649.04 and a CD whose value is approximately $10,000. A motion was made by Wlad Sobol to incrementally put money into a reserve fund with an initial value of $10-20,000 including the CD. The motion passed. George David announced his retirement as SEAAPM Secretary-Treasurer effective in one year.

Perry Sprawls reported that the chapter continues to support one physicist.

Advanced Medical Publishing (AMP) has been chosen by Symposium Director, John Gibbons, to publish the proceedings of the 1999 Symposium, "Monitor Unit Calculations For External Photon And Electron Beams".

Little work has been done in the last year. There is a need for the chapter to more actively pursue students. Students may attend SEAAPM symposia and meetings for half price.

Wlad Sobol said that little work has been done in the last year on this ecause of illness. The president and immediate past-president said they will work on this.

There was a discussion of chapter finances for 1999 where the chapter lost approximately $15,000. The cause of the loss was identified as the large attendance at the 1999 symposium. The chapter's symposium fees did not cover costs for individuals to attend. In the past the vendor income has been large enough to cover this shortage. In 1999 the vendor income remained essentially constant while the symposium attendance approximately doubled. Thus the chapter lost money on the large attendance which it did not make up with vendor income. The executive committee announced changes that had been made to correct this situation. There was an increase of approximately 50% in vendor, symposium, and meeting fees. The Thursday and Friday lunches were eliminated (a Thursday evening reception was added). It was too early to know the impact of these actions on the finances of the 2000 symposium.

• Michael Yester reported that much of what would normally be in his report was given by Geoff Ibbott in his talk to the chapter on issues and goals of the AAPM for the 21^st century.
• Board meetings for the past year have gone smoothly
• Headquarters staff continues to be a big asset to the organization.
• The Professional Council is expanding.
• Medical Physics Work Value studies are being done
• A government relations individual is being hired.
• Annual meeting locations have been approved through 2006
• The AAPM has reached its financial goal of having one year's operating budget in reserve.
• The 2000 meeting will be co-sponsored by the World Congress. This will result in substantially greater cost to the AAPM than would otherwise by the case.
• Several chapter members expressed interest in whether individual dues would be dropped now that the desired cash reserves have been achieved.
• Gary Barnes moved to have Board Representative Jerry Allison take to the AAPM board a Sense of the Chapter that membership dues be held constant for the next 3-5 years. Perry Sprawls amended the motion to say the dues not be raised for the next 3-5 years. The amendment was accepted by Gary Barnes. The rationale for Sense of the Chapter message was that a leveling of the national dues would be especially significant in that it would not discourage of new younger members. The motion passed.

• Perry Sprawls moved to split the Secretary-Treasurer job into two jobs, Secretary and Treasurer. Gary Barnes amended the motion to amend the by-laws if necessary. Gary Barnes suggested development of a calendar that would provide duties of each office. Michael Tkacik suggested having a chapter webmaster instead of a Secretary. Gary Barnes said he thought this should be left up to EX-COM. David Vassy suggested an amendment to give Ex-Com the flexibility to split the secretary-treasurer into two positions. This amendment was accepted and passed.
• The CRCPD has invited the SEAAPM to send a representative to attend their meetings. Jerry Allison moved that the chapter sponsor a representative to the CRCPD. Gary Barnes stated that this needs to be a several year commitment in order to establish continuity and get to know the folks at the CRCPD. Wlad Sobol amended the original motion as follows: the chapter will designate and support a representative to attend the CRCPD for a year term and that this representative will report back to the chapter at our annual meeting. The motion was clarified that the president would appoint this representative. The motion was passed.
• George David brought up that several individuals had inquired about the dress code for SEAAPM events and that the chapter had no formal policy while the national AAPM does. Jerry Allison moved that the chapter adopt the language of the national society for meeting dress code. The motion passed.
• President-elect Sandra McIntosh expressed her wish that the 2001 SEAAPM Scientific and Business Meeting be held in Atlanta in accord with a consensus developed at the 1999 meeting. Wlad Sobol made a motion to this effect which was passed.
• Perry Sprawls and Jerry Allison agreed to co-direct a symposium on MRI to immediately precede the 2001 SEAAPM meeting in Atlanta. Wlad Sobol moved to sponsor this symposium and the motion passed. Suggested topics included image fusion and image distortion.
• Cash flow issues related to the annual symposium and meeting were discussed by President Wlad Sobol. He related that some chapters allow vendors to sponsor lunches at which they would give a commercial talk. The consensus of those present was that they did not wish to do this and no action was taken
• John Gibbons moved to have the symposium directors submit a budget to EX-COM. The motion passed.
• Tom Slowey suggested the possibility of allowing exhibitors to give a short presentation (5-10 minutes) at the beginning of the meeting. It was pointed out that with the 27 vendors exhibiting at the 2000 meeting that would take several hours. No action was taken on the matter.
• Gary Barnes announced that proceedings of the 2000 SEAAPM symposium would be published.
• Tom Slowey moved that annual dues be set to $25 for members, $5 for students, residents, and fellows. The motion passed.
• Tom Slowey suggested the chapter investigate a corporate membership class with designated benefits. One benefit suggested was providing a list and/or link from the chapter web page to that of the corporate member instead of its present policy of providing links to all requesting vendors. $100 was suggested as a price of membership. The matter will be looked into by EX-COM.
• The (virtual) gavel was passed to John Gibbons.

Perry Sprawls moved to adjourn. The motion passed and the meeting was adjourned at 3:12 PM.

Respectfully submitted

George David, Secretary-treasurer SEAAPM