SRP 2012: Thursday Exec Board Meeting

Minutes
Executive Board Voting Members in Attendance: President Lee Anna Clark; Secretary Sheri Johnson; Treasurer Bill Horan; President-Elect Deanna Barch; Past-President Michael Pogue-Geile Executive Board Members-at-Large: Howard Berenbaum and Kate Harkness (2008-2012), Jutta Jorman and Patty Deldin (2009-2013), Bob Krueger and Diego Pizzagalli (2010-2015), and Steve Silverstein and Scott Sponheim (2011-2015)

Present as Observers: Members at Large Elect: Angus MacDonald and Elizabeth Hayden; Program Chair Jennifer Tackett; Membership Chair Wendy Heller; Sustained Mentor Award Chair Jill Hooley; Financial Investments Chair Marty Harrow; Publications Chair Jason Shiffman; Website Development and Oversight Chair Shaun Eack (via videolink )

Updates/ Reports

1. Welcome to Continuing and Soon-to-Join Executive Board Members: Lee Anna Clark
 President-Elect Ann Kring; Members-at-Large Angus MacDonald and Elizabeth Hayden
 Call for additional items from the Board, and approval of agenda.

2. Secretary’s Report: Sheri Johnson
 No updates.

3. Treasurer’s Report: Bill Horan
 2011 Boston Meeting final numbers:
o Total income (Registration, CE Credits, Banquet fees, Dues): $79,694.30
o Total expenses (Food, AV, Conference rooms, Awards, Speakers: $72,200
o Total net gain: $7,494.49
 2012 Michigan finances to date:
o Income (Registration, CE Credits, Banquet fees, Dues): $77,490
o Expenses (Food, AV, Conference rooms, Awards, Speakers): $47,939.69
 Other accomplishments this year include the following:
• Resolved 2010 tax issues —
– Worked with accountant to appeal an initial fee for nonpayment of taxes in 2010– no penalty due!
– Worked with accountant on 2011 filing
• Michael O’Hara has become the registered agent for SRP in Iowa
• Changed the format of the annual meeting expense document

4. Financial Investments Report: Marty Harrow
a. Final 2011 numbers:
o Value as of January 1, 2011: $104,739.52
o Value as of December 31, 2011: $98,285.13
o Total net loss for 2011: -$6,444.39
b. Our investment account value as of 10/2/2012 is $112,000

5. Local Host Report: Patty Deldin
 Registration at Ann Arbor has set a new record.
 Patty recommended making it clearer in announcements and on the website that associate membership is available for graduate students and postdocs in psychopathology who have an SRP sponsor, and that registration fees are much lower for associate members than for student non-members.
 The expenses for this meeting are projected to be less than previous meetings. Hosting at a university allowed use of rooms and other resources at lower cost. Hosting the student social at a bar rather than the hotel saved money.
 There was some discussion of whether the registration fees are set too high. There is a concern that we need some margin to allow for cities that are more expensive. We also agreed that increasing the visibility of the associate membership is likely to lower the registration income in future years.

6. Program Committee Report: Jennifer Tackett
 Thanks to members of the Program Committee: Jack Blanchard, Angus MacDonald, Kate Harkness, Edelyn Verona, Josh Miller
 Thanks to members of the EB who assisted, particularly Shaun Eack and Lee Anna Clark
 Same number of poster acceptances as Boston (105 in each session)
 The earlier deadline for submissions seemed to work well; only one faculty member voiced concern
 Major changes in the program include:
o Parallel sessions throughout (allowed an increase in paper and symposium acceptances)
o One triple-track session which was, in part, a solution to having only three smaller rooms available at that time slot
o Face of the Future symposium to highlight Early Career Award (ECA) winner and other noteworthy junior faculty: The ECA winner will speak for 20 minutes, and three junior faculty each will give 15-minute talks
 Board members decided that the secretary would survey membership about the increased number of parallel sessions and the inclusion of a triple-track session.

7. Early Career Award Committee Report: Greg Miller (delivered by LAC)
 The 2012 ECA will be given to June Gruber
 The committee made several suggestions for improving the ECA process. After discussion, the board decided on several changes:
o Publicize the award more on the website
o Set a later deadline (in Feb.) for submissions.
o Ensure that people are aware that they can re-apply
o The call for applications should make it clear that the award winner will be asked to attend the banquet, and the award winner will be provided with a free banquet ticket
 The board also recommended review at the membership meeting of removing the requirement that applicants must be pre-tenure

8. Sustained Mentor Award Committee Report: Jill Hooley
 The committee consisted of Jill Hooley (Chair), Tom Oltmanns, and Kate Harkness, who chaired the committee last year.
 Dan Klein is the 2012 recipient of the sustained mentorship award.
 The committee recommended that we strike the word “sustained” from the title of the award. The board agreed to discuss this at the membership meeting.
 The committee also recommended enhancing the description of the award on the SRP website.

9. Smadar Levin Award Report: Don Lynam (delivered by LAC)
 The 2012 Smadar Levin Award Committee consisted of Donald Lynam (Chair), Thomas Kwapil, and Timothy Strauman.
 A two-stage application process was used this year. At the first stage, interested graduate students submitted standard poster applications to the conference committee, and simply indicated whether they wished to be considered for the Smadar Levin Award. A total of 95 submissions asking for consideration for the award were received; 94 of these submissions were accepted for the conference. For the second stage, committee members read and rated the 94 submissions on a scale of 1 to 5 indicating the relative strength of each. Two committee members read each submission. Based on the aggregated ratings, 16 submissions were chosen as finalists in the award competition. These finalists were invited to submit extended abstracts for further consideration by the committee. All 16 abstracts have been received. The committee will read the abstracts in advance of the meeting, meet prior to the poster session on Thursday night, visit each of the finalists’ posters at the poster session, and convene immediately afterwards to identify the Smadar Levin Award winner.

10. Membership Report: Wendy Heller
 Several suggestions for improving the website functionality regarding membership applications were discussed (these are noted under the Website Development and Oversight Committee report below).
 Three applications may have been corrupted by the website and not received, and Wendy has no information on the identity of those applicants.
 One sponsor had failed to respond to email, and Steve Silverstein was able to sponsor that applicant.
 The board unanimously approved all 13 associate and 19 full member applications.

Full members: Ayelet Ruscio, Jill Cyranowski, David Cicero, Luke Hyde, Keith Bredemeier, Sylia Wilson, Pamela Butler, Aidan Wright, R. Michael Bagby, Scott Vrieze, Sarah Sass, Michael Gaffrey, Carla Sharp, Kristin Naragon-Gainey, Kelly Klump, Richard Zinbarg, David Gard, Shmuel Lissek, Kyle Minor

Associate members: Raegan Mazurka, Yuri Shishido, Catherine Robertson, Sara Masland, Timothy Campellone, Kathrin Herzhoff, Anjuli Bodapati, Whitney Gore, Andrew Peckham, Dustin Washburn, Melissa Tarasenko, Janelle Caponigro, Casey Sarapas

 Wendy and Lee Anna recommended that we set an annual deadline for membership applications, and the board recommended September 1st of each year. This will be brought to a vote at the Member Meeting.
 Wendy provided a summary of membership trends for the past 5 years.
Year Associate Full Total
2008 16 6 22
2009 10 6 16
2010 9 27 36
2011 12 16 28
2012 13 18 31

11. Website Development and Oversight Committee Report: Shaun Eack (via Skype)

 Shaun and Lee Anna have considered whether the website architecture can be updated so that it can be maintained more easily. Underlying infrastructure could be updated while keeping the face of the web preserved. A core goal would be to allow appropriately authorized individuals to be able to make edits. Shaun has begun to reprogram the website using Drupal. Sheri will attempt to make some website changes using the new version, so that we can test whether the website seems easier to edit.
 Board members suggested the use of our reserve funds to support upgrading the website, and Shaun noted that he could identify consultants with appropriate expertise. Shaun thought that he could identify some of the more challenging facets of website development, which would be a better use of programming consultation.
 Lee Anna recently revived the Web committee, with Shaun as Chair and liaison to the Exec Board, Angus MacDonald agreeing to be the Exec Board liaison to the Committee, and Len Simms agreeing to be the third member.
 Various committee chairs and board members have suggested a number of changes to the website. These have been conveyed to Shaun. The proposed changes include improving the functionality of the membership application process, improving the program/conference submission components of the website, allowing the secretary and treasurer better ability to edit and draw information from the website, creating a dedicated webpage for deceased prize holders and officers, expand search options for membership pages, including interests and location, create subfolders in Handbooks site (e.g., “Award Guidelines,” “Legal Documents”), clarify the associate dues so that students will know to apply, integrate membership and dues information into one system. For the program chair, key goals include automating emails requesting faculty to attend poster sessions, allowing the program chair to edit or withdraw submissions when requested by authors, and greater ease in downloading and manipulating the program information. There is also some concern that at least some members found submitting symposia to be complicated and confusing this year, and this led to a problem in which certain material was neither submitted correctly nor reviewed.
 Committee will confer re: more extensive changes to the Website and report to the Executive Committee. Jennifer Tackett as former program chair, Wendy Heller as membership chair, and Sheri Johnson as secretary can provide input and help with this process.

12. Publications Committee Report: Jason Shiffman
 In 2006, along with Craig Neumann and Michael Green, the SRP Newsletter was overhauled to create a student-driven, interview-style newsletter, whereby interested students would be afforded the opportunity to interview prominent SRP members. The initiative was designed to increase student involvement, provide student access to role-model scholars, and provide an avenue for dissemination of unique and interesting information about interviewed members to the broader Society through ‘publication’ of the interviews. The publication has been distributed in different ways. More recent hosting of the Newsletter on the SRP Website seems to be a good fit.
 The new format was rolled out in Iowa in 2007, skipped in 2008, and has been going strong from 2009-present. Sixteen SRP members have been interviewed (20 counting this year), and have involved between 8 and 12 students each year.
 Although Jason and Deborah Walder are stepping down as the publication committee chairs after this year, Vijay Mittal and Emily Durbin have worked with the publication committee for the past year and are continuing as committee members. Jason and Deborah have created a time-line with all steps and example emails to help facilitate the process. This will be placed in SRP’s “Handbook” website.

13. Passings: John Neale, our first sustained mentor awardee
Bill Hetrick filmed a DVD of members discussing their gratitude for his influence.

Old/ Ongoing Business Discussions

1. New appointment of FABBS rep
 Eric Turkheimer is stepping down.
 Possibilities (eligibility based on close proximity to DC to attend Annual Meeting): Jim Gold, Jason Shiffman, Gregory Strauss.

2. Applicability of SRP members’ research for FABBS. Deadline = Oct. 15
 Lee Anna asked members to provide one-paragraph research summaries from SRP members that would be compelling for members of congress to understand why funding psychopathology research is important.
 Steve Silverstein volunteered to provide a one-paragraph research summary for FABBS.
 The item will be put on the Members’ Meeting agenda.

3. Handbooks Update
 Handbooks completed; simply need yearly updates
• President, Secretary, Treasurer, Local Host, Newsletter;
 Handbooks needed or in need of revision
• Program: Jennifer Tackett is developing
• Membership: Wendy Heller has agreed to develop
• Award: Levin Award, Early Career Award (revised as needed after discussion), Mentor Award, Zubin Award: LAC will update and standardize format after the meeting.

4. Meeting Liability Insurance – Deanna Barch/ Sheri Johnson
 Sheri: There are two types of event insurance we can consider: liability insurance (personal and property, excluding medical runs about $1430) and event cancellation insurance. Basic event cancellation insurance would cost about $382, but coverage for communicable disease coverage would be an additional $447.50. Event insurance is purchased on an annual basis and rates vary by location. These estimates are based on Ann Arbor. Some universities already provide coverage for academic activities held on their campus.
 Deanna: From asking their respective presidents, it seems that few societies of our size have this insurance, though some larger ones do.
 The secretary and treasurer will seek estimates for liability and event cancellation for Oakland and New Orleans.

5. CE arrangements for Oakland – Sheri Johnson
 CE arrangements through UC Berkeley are expensive ($225 per person).
 Sheri will see if Eric Granholm might be able to facilitate CE credit through his school. If this does not work, Patty Deldin will help explore possibilities through the depression center.

6. Future Meetings (dates – confirmed and not)
 Ann Kring and Sheri Johnson are hosting at the Marriott Oakland City Center from 9/19/2013 to 9/22/2013.
 105 rooms are reserved at $149 until August 29, 2013. Our contract includes 1 free suite and one free room for each 40 rooms booked, as well as 2 upgrades.
 We were able to lock in menu prices at no more than a 3% increase from 2011 rates.

2014 Evanston, IL: Stew Shankman (9/11/14—9/14/14; Hilton Orrington)
 We have signed the contract with the Hilton Orrington in Evanston, IL. The dates of the conference are Sept 11-Sept 14, 2014.
 The room rate is $159 a night, and we have a complimentary room for every 40 paid guestrooms. Stew also negotiated major discounts on room rentals and food, and several free room upgrades.

2015 New Orleans, LA: Alex Cohen (10/1/15—10/4/15; Astor Crowne Plaza
.
2016 San Diego, CA: Bill Kremen respectfully asks if a different location or local host could replace him.
Several potential sites were discussed.

7. Fundraising Committee (Mike O’Hara, not present)
 Lee Anna and Mike O’Hara are committed to reviewing fundraising goals this year. We need to identify other committee members and provide a charge to the committee.

8. Banquet Agenda
 MC: Lee Anna Clark
 Lee Anna asked that each award committee chair say a few words, name the awardee, and present a plaque.
Smadar Levin Award and Travel Awards: Don Lynam (TBD)
Sustained Mentor Award: Jill Hooley (Dan Klein)
Zubin Award: Michael Pogue-Geile (Keith Neuchterlein)

9. Thanks to outgoing members
Past-President Michael Pogue-Geile; Members-at-Large Howard Berenbaum and Kate Harkness
 With a reminder to Michael that he’s not completely off the hook because he’s Chair of the Nominating Committee this year 😉

New Business Discussion

It was agreed that the secretary will order plaques for award winners in the future to centralize/ simplify the process.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:30 pm.