Osaka International Convention Center, Osaka, Japan
Tuesday, September 21, 2004, 7 p.m. -7:25 p.m.

Agenda

1. Opening of the Meeting
2. President's Report
3. Treasurer's Report
4. Secretary's Report
5. Report on the activities of ISN Committees
6. Matters arising from the ISN Council Meeting
7. Status of the Innsbruck Meeting 2005
8. Meeting 2007. Cancun
9. Venue and Topic of the 2nd ISN Special Neurochemistry Conference
10. Membership dues
11. Any other business

Ad 1 Opening of the meeting

The President welcomed the approximately 16 ISN members who attended the meeting, and concluded that the quorum of at least 1% of the membership needed for decisions to be made was satisfied.

Ad 2 President's report

Preparation of minutes from the council Meeting in Paris and preparation of the December 2003 Newsletter
As a consequence of the transition from Secretary to President and the start of the newly elected Secretary, it was decided that the outgoing Secretary (the President) and the incoming Secretary should work jointly on these issues. To further facilitate the transition the newly elected President spent a few days in Barcelona to help the newly elected Secretary getting started.

Meetings of the Officers
The Officers met in Hong Kong and Avignon for consultations mainly concerning issues related to the possibility of establishing a permanent business office. Subsequently consultations with possible agencies have been initiated. A decision on this matter will be taken at the Council Meeting in Osaka.

Preparations for the Special ISN Conference in Avignon
Several matters concerning the organization of this conference and the subsequent Program Committee Meeting were handled in collaboration with Jacques Mallet and his secretary Sue Orsoni. The President would like to express his appreciation of the efficiency and help of Sue Orsoni in these matters. The program of the First Neurochemistry Special Topic Conference was excellent and the meeting was highly successful. The attendance was, however, lower than anticipated.

Meeting with Blackwell 2004
The Officers and the Chairman of the Publication Committee met with the Chief Editors and the Publishers (Blackwell) of J. Neurochem. in Avignon. The Journal is doing well securing a steady income for the Society.

Preparations for the Innsbruck Meeting (ISN/ESN) 2005
The scientific program was finalized at the Program Committee Meeting in Avignon. Additionally several organizational matters were discussed with the local organizer. The efficiency of both Phil Beart (Program Chair) and Alois Saria (Local Organizing Chair) is greatly appreciated. A formal contract with the Conference Center in Innsbruck has been negotiated and will soon be signed.

Preparations for the Cancun Meeting (ISN/ASN) 2007
A contract with the Cancun Conference Center has been prepared and subsequent to a number of consultations among the officers and with the local organizers (Drs. Ricardo Tapia and Herminia Pasantes) a final contract has been signed.

Arne Schousboe
The President
August 2004

In reference to the Innsbruck Meeting the President remarked that all efforts have to be made for this meeting to be highly successful because the ISN has not had a meeting in 4 years due to cancellation of the Hong Kong meeting in 2003.

With regard to the Cancun meeting the President informed that the first payment has been made and that Council decided that the President and GDV (President of ASN) would meet to sort out each society's responsibilities in this Meeting.

The President's report was unanimously accepted.

Ad 3 Treasurer's report for the calendar year 2003

Introduction
The Treasurer's Report for 2002 as well as projections of ISN income and expenditures for 2003 and 2004 were presented to the Council at the ISN meeting in Paris, France in August 2003. Council found the report to be in order and it was approved by the membership.

The present report covers the calendar year 2003 together with projected budgets for 2004 and 2005.

Financial records for 2003 held in the Treasurer's Office in Montreal were audited by Deloitte and Touche (Montreal) who reported their findings to Deloitte and Touche LLP in Birmingham, UK (Society accountants). All relevant records were sent to their UK office.

Income for 2003
Total income for 2003 was $964,890 some $30,591 lower than in 2002. This decrease was due mainly to decreased revenues from the journal.

Expenditures for 2003
Expenses for 2003, at $508,182 were more than in 2002 but less than projected due mainly to the cancelled Hong Kong meeting.

Investments in 2003
Investment income rose to $78,584 from $73,328 in 2002 despite the poor performance of stocks and GICs. Investment income represents a return of 2.76% on total assets for the year 2003. ISN did relatively well to hold on to this amount considering the international financial climate in 2003.

Total assets at the end of 2003
Total assets of ISN in 2003 are $2 872 336, up from $2,293,429 in 2002 due mainly to decreased expenditure as a result of the cancelled Hong Kong meeting.

Projected income for 2004 and 2005
The income of the Society is expected to be maintained at $965 000 in 2004 and 2005 as journal revenues stabilize.

Expenditures for 2004
Expenditures for 2004 are expected to be $691.000, somewhat higher than in traditional `off meeting` years in the past (example $ 446,034 in 2002). Increases are due to financing of the Avignon special meeting ($150,000), support of the APSN meeting in Hong Kong ($175,000) as well as increased budgets to the CAEN and Conferences Committees ($100,000 each). Increases in the CAEN budgets include amounts of $25,000 per annum for the support of the two joint ISN/IBRO Schools in Africa (Niarobi, Kenya in 2004; Morocco in 2005) as approved by the Council at the Paris meeting.
Expenditures on the ISN news distribution are expected to fall as this goes on line and is replaced by `Neurochemistry News.`

PROPOSAL

The Treasurer proposes that the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche in Birmingham, UK be re-appointed as the official Society (¨company`) auditor for 2004.

Roger F. Butterworth. Ph.D. D.Sc.
Treasurer International Society of Neurochemistry

The assistants unanimously accepted the continued use of Deloite & Touche as auditors.

The Treasurer's report was unanimously accepted.

Appendix A

Cost of cancelled HK meeting, as of July 19th 2004.

* Amounts parentheses, awaiting final receipts.

Appendix B

Deloitte and Touche report on the accounts of 2002 as presented:

The $USD accounts as presented on the following pages are only a summary of information contained in the pound sterling accounts. They do not contain sufficient information to allow for a full understanding of the results and state of affairs of the company. For further information, the full annual accounts in pounds sterling, the Trustee's Report and the Auditor's Report should be consulted.

The receipt of the $ accounts does not remove the right of members under section 239 of the Companies Act 1985, to receive a copy of the company's full sterling accounts, Trustee's Report and Auditor's Report on those accounts. Any person who wishes to receive a full set of these UK statutory accounts should apply to the Company Secretary in the United Kingdom.

Contact details are as follows:

Professor John B. Clark
Miriam Marks Division of Neurochemistry
Institute of Neurology
National Hospital
Queen Square
London WC1N 3BG
UK
Phone: +44 207 829 8722
Fax: +44 207 833 1016
Email: jclark@ion.ucl.ac.uk

Ad 4 Secretary's report

The following activities have been carried out in the Office of the Secretary since the previous Council Meeting in Paris, August 2003.

Meeting with the President concerning ISN matters
A meeting with the President took place in Barcelona on November 2003 to discuss issues concerning the Secretary's job. This meeting greatly facilitated the transition between the outgoing and incoming secretaries.

Minutes of the Council and the Business Meetings in Paris.
The minutes of these meetings were prepared in collaboration with the former Secretary (the President) and were published in the December 2003 Neurochemistry News online.

Membership
A new membership application form was prepared, printed and distributed.

Neurochemistry News
The December 2003 issue of Neurochemistry News was prepared in collaboration with the President. Following the decision made in the first Council Meeting in Paris a short version of the News containing the new composition of Council and Standing Committees, announcements of meetings and funding programs and call for proposals, was printed and mailed to membership. A more complete version of the News including minutes of the Paris Council and Business Meetings and reports on ISN funded conferences was made available at the ISN website with the inestimable collaboration of David Shine.
The June 2004 printed issue of the Neurochemistry News was prepared in a new colour newspaper-like format and was mailed to membership. This change has been well received by members. The complete version was made available online.

Preparation of the First ISN Special Neurochemistry Conference and other meetings held in Avignon in May 2004
The Secretary's office worked in collaboration with Jacques Mallet secretary Sue Orsoni on matters concerning the organization of the conference and the celebration of the Innsbruck Program Committee meeting. Additionally, a meeting was arranged at the request of Bernd Hamprecht for the presentation to the Officers of a new version of the World Neurochemistry Membership Database prepared by Mr. Bjoern-Olaf Seif.

Collection of proposals for the Second ISN Special Neurochemistry Conference
The December 2003 Neurochemistry News called for proposals for hosting the Second ISN Special Neurochemistry Conference to be held in the Americas in 2006. The Secretary received five proposals at the deadline. The topics and sites were: "Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Neurological Disease". Pucon, Chile; "Neural Glycomics and Lipidomics". Antigua, West Indies; "Neurobiology of Drug Addition". Pucon, Chile; "Neurochemistry of Cognition". Acapulco, Mexico; "Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders: Neurochemistry and Neurobiology". Costa do Sauípe, Brazil. Proposals will be distributed to Council Members previous to the ISN Council meeting in Osaka for their evaluation.

Preparations of the Council and Business Meetings to take place in Osaka
Preparations regarding the Council and General Business Meetings such as collection of committee reports have been taken care of. Reports will be distributed to Council Members before the meeting. Letters of invitation to Council members and Officers were sent and hotel reservations were handled in collaboration with Kaz Ikenaka's secretary Keiko Hill.

Preparations concerning the ISN/ASN Meeting in Cancun in 2007.
The Secretary's office collaborated with the President and the local organizers in the preparation of the Spanish/English version of the contract with the Cancun Conference Center.

Agustina García
The Secretary
August 2004

The President apologised for the Secretary not attending the meeting due to health problems and thanked her for her efforts.

The Secretary's report was unanimously accepted.

Ad 5 Committee reports

a. Committee for Aid and Education in Neurochemistry (CAEN)

Following is a report of CAEN Funding since the last report presented to the ISN Council meeting in Paris in August 2003. The Chair is pleased to acknowledge and praise the current Committee membership, which has been particularly active and productively thoughtful this year.

A. Forty CAEN grants totalling US$51,050 have been awarded to 38 individuals from 11 countries. Three requests for funds were rejected as being outside the CAEN mandate. Several recent applications are currently under discussion by the Committee.

B. Some issues that CAEN feels should be considered as part of an ongoing process of evaluating the CAEN mandates and procedures are indicated.

A. Funding of fellowships and grants

1. Travel Fellowships to attend APSN Meeting in Hong Kong, February 2004. These were drawn from a list of applications (except Bragin) made to APSN via Alfreda Stadlin that she was unable to fund, and thus pre-reviewed. Nevertheless, each was reviewed by CAEN prior to providing support. This was a very successful endeavor. Many of the candidates, including all of the Indian awardees, wrote after the meeting thanking ISN for the support and discussing the positive impact attendance made on them. The question (see below) arose if CAEN should continue to make 'bulk' awards in effect in this manner.

China, India, Thailand, Russia US$10,700
Sonal Patel $750
Liu Jun $400
Zhy Paer-Mu Rati $400
Basudha Basu $750
Yaiyubg Ma $400
Uayart Chuchuen $500
Khantichat Khankasikam $500
Houzhen Tuo $400
Yong Yong Shi $400
Kumar Sathyasai $750
Ying Wang $400
Rungtip Soi-ampornkul $500
Kavita Seth $750
Goutam Chandra $750
Walaipporn Tongjaroenbuangam $500
Prasonghai Sattayaprresert $500
Rajappa Kenchappa $500
Rama Krishna Devaki $750
Wipawan Thangnipon $350
Denis Bragin $450

2. Contin, Maria. Visit to a laboratory in the USA (S. Dryer). November 2003.
Argentina $3,000

3. Frederico Dajas. Neuroscience Course. March 2004.
Uruguay, (Course held in Peru) $3,000

4. Palotas, Andras. Laboratory equipment. April 2004.
Hungary $2,000

5. Palotas, Andras. Visit to a Canadian laboratory (Nagy). April 2004.
Hungary $2,200

6. Fedorovich, Sergei. Laboratory research funds. May 2004.
Belarus $2,500

7. Pasquini, Laura. Research support. June 2004.
Argentina $2,500

8. Bashkatova, Valentina. Travel fellowship for registration fee, First ISN
Special Conference, Avignon, France. June 2004.
Russia $350

9. Travel Fellowships to South Americans to travel to ASN Meeting, August 2004, New York City. The original application came from ASN in order to supplement their ability to support South American scientist. CAEN decided that this was outside CAEN Guidelines, but offered to consider individual applications. Note that in spite of handling this set of applications separately, this was in one sense another 'bulk' award. June 2004.

Argentina, Chili $10,500
Bersier (Argentina) $1,000
Cerseto (Argentina) $1,000
Diaz (Argentina) $1,000
Garcia, Corina (Argentina) $1,000
Garcia, Maria (Chili) $1,000
Igaz (Argentina) $1,000
Salvador (Argentina) $1,000
Sanchez-Borzone (Argentina) $500
Blasina (Uruguay) Brokered with ASN for them to fund.

10. Zhuravliova, Helen. Travel award to ASN. Email communication problems make it uncertain if she will actually use this award.
Russia $1,000

11. Njemanze, Philip, for INBR. Transfer of equipment from a US laboratory (G. DeVries) to Nigeria. Award made in July 2004, actual shipment pending.
Nigeria ~$3,500

12. Njemanze, Philip. Visit to a US laboratory (G. DeVries). July 2004.
Nigeria $3,000

13. Prado, Marco. Workshop in Brazil. July 2004.
Brazil $1,800

14. Knaryan, Varduhi Laboratory equipment. August 2004.
Armenia $5,000

TOTAL US$ 51,050

B. Issues for (further) consideration in the coming year.

1. The CAEN Guidelines will receive their annual check-up.

2. There has been concern whether the CAEN program is sufficiently known and understood by those most targeted and in need.
a. Requests for information on CAEN arrive from time to time from potential applicants who apparently have not seen the CAEN Guidelines on the ISN web page. Working with David Shine to alleviate this problem, it is now much easier to find these Guidelines on the ISN web page. The recent Neurochemistry News included a section on CAEN with appropriate email address and Web-address nearby. It might be good to include the direct link address to the Guidelines in this section.
b. Plans for better dissemination of the Guidelines are under development. Ideas are solicited from Council.

3. Related to #2, it seems prudent to reexamine the list of countries that are considered appropriate targets. This applies in particular to several former Easter Bloc countries, such as Hungary. Clearly, this is a case of "need is in the eyes of the beholder". A examination of the cut off of 'need' would be appropriate perhaps. Once again, the retention of some flexibility seems worthwhile.

4. There have been some 'one off' awards that did not necessarily quite fit the current Guidelines. While wishing to maintain an appropriate level of flexibility, the Committee is aware that reasonable boundaries of activity must exist.
a. For example, the question has arisen of whether the CAEN budget is the appropriate source for activities such as the funding of travel fellowships in situations as for the 2004 APSN meeting (above); this was in effect a supplement to the ISN support to APSN.
b. A request was funded to support speaker expenses at a South American meeting. Strictly, the funds should be used to support the attendance of South American investigators directly. Nevertheless, in this case the application was funded with assurance from the organizers that young investigators would be encouraged to attend without registration fees. It was felt that the proposed meeting offered an excellent opportunity for these colleagues.
c. One award supplemented the budget for speakers in two symposia in an IBRO-sponsored meeting. Requests to make ISN support apparent have been made as part of the award. The issue of joint funding with IBRO is worthy of further discussion.

5. As an administrative point, it will help if the Chair of CAEN can be alerted when an award is actually paid to a successful applicant. For example, travel fellowships are paid directly to successful applicants only at the meeting (when practical), assuring their actual attendance.

Steven Pfeiffer
Chair of ISN Committee for Aid and Education in Neurochemistry (CAEN)

Thanks are expressed to CAEN for its excellent job.

b. Conference Committee

Since the last Council meeting in Paris in August 2003 two deadlines for application for ISN support for conferences have been resolved.

For the October 31 2003 deadline there were seven applications and April 30 2004 deadline there were twelve applications examined. Six of them for the first deadline and nine of them for the last deadline were considered worth supporting to some extent. The name of the applicants and the amount granted are summarised in the attached tables.

During this period, some important issues have been raised and we have come to the conclusion as follows. These must be approved by the council members.
First is that we have decided to increase the upper limit from 7,000 to 10,000 for supporting symposium within other society.
Second, it would be more favourable to be "intercontinental" more than only from several different countries within one continent. But we will be flexible in handling this matter and will not exclude those applications with participants from one continent.
Third, we put the funding of IBRO schools on hold. They should go to CAEN at present.
Fourth, the present application format is not appropriate for some applications. We have divided this into two applications. One is for "Small conferences on specialized neurochemical topics." Another is for "Neurochemistry symposia within meetings of their scientific societies or groups."
New application formats are attached as the files.

Kazuhiro Ikenaka, Ph.D.
Chair of ISN Conference Committee Neurochemistry

Regarding the increase in the upper limit for supporting an ISN symposium organized within a meeting of another society from $7,000 to $10,000, the President pointed out that it is not logical to support these symposia with considerably more money than the symposia of the ISN biennial meetings. After some discussion, Council had decided that a particular society could apply for support for more than one symposium within the same meeting and the maximum support it could get would be $10,000. An amendment should be made in this respect in the guidelines.

Small Conference Application

Symposium Application

c. Standing rules

Nothing to report.

d. Internet Committee

The major emphasis of the committee remains the development and maintenance of ISN's web site and membership email notification system. For the first time in several years we have had no major problems with our internet server provider.

In addition to maintaining the internet site and the online membership directory and occasionally sending email announcement to the membership we have:

· Established and maintained a web site and online abstract submission system for the 6th biennial meeting of the APSN
· Assisted the organizers of the first Special Neurochemistry Conference that was held in Avignon.
· Reviewed the proposed directory service in Avignon
· Assisted the ISN Secretary in establishing an online newsletter
· Assisted the organizers of the ISN/ESN meeting
· Established a method for members to update their directory information online

The committee asks that the Council advise the committee on guidelines for sending email notices to the membership.

The ISN internet system has the capacity to set up an online membership application and online voting. It is willing to work with the committees responsible for these activities to enable these systems.

To date the costs for maintaining the web site has been 224 USD.

David Shine
Chair of ISN Internet Committee

It was agreed that anybody willing to add something to the ISN website should send it first to the Secretary who has the final decision of what goes into the website.

The President thanked the Chair for his services to the Society.

e. Company Secretary

I took over from Herman Bachelard (Company Secretary 1995-2003) at the Paris meeting of the Council (August 2003). Since that time I have carried out the following:

a) Liaised with the accountants at Deloitte & Touche in respect of the annual accounts and VAT matters.
b) Maintained an up-to-date list of Trustee (Council Members) details and forwarded these to the Charity Commissioners.
c) Liaised with the accountants/Charity Commissioners with respect to our statutory obligations as a UK charity.

I have also received from Herman, the official minute books of Business/Council meetings, which now reside in my office in London. I would also like to record my thanks to Herman for his unwavering support and help to me in taking over this role.

John B. Clark
Chair of ISN Company Secretary

The President informed that in the last Meeting in Paris John Clark became the new ISN Company Secretary and that Herman Bachelard continues as Historian of the Society.

f. Historian

The ISN Archives were initiated by Jordi Folch-Pi in1977 and previous Historians were Abel Lajtha (1980 - 1983), Henry McIlwain (1983 - 1991), Gerald Curzon (1992 - 1999).

All files of interest are stored in heat- and acid-proof boxes in a basement computer room in the School of Mathematics (adjoining Physics) at the University of Nottingham. Cataloguing of materials from ex-Officers is now complete and the Historian would welcome new material of interest from current ISN Officers. The collection contains all bound volumes of the Journal of Neurochemistry from v. 1, 1956 to v. 86, 2003, with unbound issues to the present, and over 60 books of Neurochemical interest, including 16 related to Thudichum and 15 histories. The History of ISN, 1967 - 1992, published in J. Neurochem. v. 61, suppl. 1993, given to each new member of the Society, can be seen on the ISN website Portal.

The list of materials stored in the Archives can also be seen on our ISN Portal, and enquires should be made to the current Historian (Herman Bachelard, Phone: 44-115-951-4752; Fax: 44-115-951-5166; email: herman.bachelard@nottingham.ac.uk ). Replies to requests would be expected to be by email or Fax as the materials are in non-electronic form.

It should be noted that due to our Registration as a Charitable Company in the UK, the official Minute Books of Business and Council Meetings are held by the Company Secretary, John Clark, in London.

I am grateful to David Shine for his efficiency in placing our Archives and History on our website.

Could I make a further plea for the inclusion of Historical Symposia or Workshops in some of our future meetings? These were discontinued after the Boston meeting in 1997 - the reason being that ISN meetings since then have been held jointly with our sister Societies (ASN, ESN and APSN) and the prevailing view was that there was insufficient space in the programmes.
However the points made by Gerald Curzon following the decision not to include an historical session in the Berlin meeting are worth re-iterating:
a) "The more knowledge accumulates, the more history there is to discuss - as the production of knowledge accelerates, its disappearance from our consciousness also accelerates if history is neglected. In the absence of historical perspective, work done even as recently as 20 years ago is forgotten"
b) "In the past the historical sessions have generated attendances at least as large as many scientific ones".

My own feeling is that an historical session can put an interesting or controversial development in our science into perspective while it is still active in our collective memory?
It seems a real pity that these sessions appear to have fallen off the agenda!

The Science Museum in London has an extensive section devoted to Biochemistry, which includes a substantial amount of material of interest to neurochemists.
For example, about 20 or so of Thudichum's chemicals, Rapport's three original crystallised serotonin samples (published with structural analysis in 1948/9), and McIlwain's original prototype chopper made from war surplus materials. I am in contact with personnel in the Museum with the aim of obtaining a catalogue of their materials of interest to ISN members.

Herman Bachelard
ISN Historian
August 2004

g. Publication Committee

Board Membership 2003

J.B. Clark - Chairman, London
R. Butterworth - Ex-Officio, Montreal
B. Collier - Ex-Officio, Montreal
S.K. Fischer - Ann Arbor
A. Garcia - Ex-Officio, Barcelona
M. Hamon - Paris
S. Murphy - Nottingham
I.J. Reynolds - Pittsburgh
A. Schousboe - Ex-Officio, Copenhagen
H. Shine - Houston
H. Soreq - Jerusalem
A.J. Turner - Ex-Officio, Leeds

Committee business is carried out by email and liaison with the publishers (Blackwells) maintained by an annual business meeting attended by the Society officers, the Chair of Publications and Internet Committees and the Chief Editors. The object of this meeting is to set future page nos., subscriptions and review Journal strategy. Suggestions for initiatives from the publishers are then referred to the Publications Board for consideration.

2003 was another good year for J Neurochem and both the impact factor and the journals ranking improved marginally (see later). Although there was a change in the management of the J Neurochem at Blackwells in the Autumn of 2003, out new production team led by Liz Marchant has proved to be equally enthusiastic and able. However, none of this would have been possible without the dedication and hard work of our Chief Editors and their offices, coupled with the Deputy Chief Editors and the Editorial Board members. The thanks of the ISN as a whole are due to them all.

Finance

Although Institutional subscriptions fell by just over 4% in 2003 [841 - 2002 : 804 - 2003], consortia subscriptions increased more than 55% [998 - 2002 : 1562 - 2003] increasing the number of institutions providing access to J Neurochem through one means or another by almost 30%. Put in a slightly different way, readership (as judged by online downloads) more than doubled in 2003 as compared to 2002. This is perhaps a more meaningful marker of journal use as financing of journals moves away from the more traditional subscriptions to charging for reader access. These statistics translate into a total Journal income of $2,477,652 [5.6% up on 2002] which taking account of costs will yield to the ISN a return of approx $940K. A similar dollar income is forecast for 2004.

Subscriptions for 2004 are given below:

Institutions paper & on-line - $3114
on-line only - $2548

Individual paper & on-line - $717

Members paper & on-line - $214

It was agreed at the Journal Business Meeting in Avignon in May 2004 that the Institutional Subscription rate should increase by 7% for 2005 but that there would be no increase in the members rate.

Editorial Offices

The two editorial offices and the Editorial Board have continued to work in their customary efficient way. 5 Editors and 1 Deputy Chief Editor (Dr Robert Wenthold) has retired from the Western Board. Dr Ian Reynolds has been appointed as a Deputy Chief Editor and Drs K St. P McNaught (New York), E.J. Murphy (Grand Falls) and J.R. Traynor (Michigan) join the Editorial Board. Several changes have also occurred in the Eastern Board. Prof Tatsuya Haja has finished his term as a Deputy Chief Editor but will continue as a handling editor. Prof Misayoshi Mishina will take over the role of Deputy Chief Editor. Prof Phil Beart has finished his term as Deputy Chief Editor (Reviews) and has been replaced by Prof Michel Hamon, who also joins the Publications Board. Several new editors join the Eastern Board to cover new growth areas - Prof Natalia Gulyaeva (Moscow) to replace Dr Natalia Avrova, and Drs Marcel Leist (Valby, Denmark) and Michael Weller (Tubingen). 1582 full papers were submitted to the journal (~12% increase on 2002) with slightly over half (54%) coming to the Eastern Office and the balance to the West. Acceptance rates are similar in both offices, 39-40%, with online submissions occurring in 98+% of submissions. In future, non-electronic submissions will only be accepted in exceptional circumstances. Rapids continue to decline - only 85 in 2003, of which 10 were accepted - given the speed of review and the 'early on-line' facility, it is proposed to phase out rapids in due course. Review and mini reviews are now handled by Prof Michel Hamon via the Eastern office, helped by members of the review advisory board. 34 articles were submitted in 2003 compared to 22 in 2002 - so far in 2004 we should match the 2003 figure. Any suggestions should be sent to Michel Hamon. Handling times for both offices remain good and continue to decrease in the Eastern office (historically higher than the Western office). Scholar One are bringing out a new version (3) of Manuscript Central, which will be brought on-line when Blackwells are confident with it.

Citations

The Impact Factor for 2002 was 4.969 [up from 4.834 in 2001] and the Journal rated 26/194 in the Neuroscience listing and 47/263 in the Biochemistry/Molecular Biology list. The 2003 citation statistics have recently been reported. Whilst our journal ranking has remained the same (or marginally improved) - 26/198 in Neuroscience - 46/261 in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology - our Impact Factor has fallen marginally to 4.825.

Supplements

These were published for the ASN meeting in Newport Beach and the ESN meeting in Warsaw. Those relating to the cancelled Hong Kong meeting (Aug 3-8) have also been subsequently published. Supplements for 2004 either published/planned are the APSN meeting in Hong Kong (Feb), the ISN Special Meeting in Avignon and the ASN meeting in New York.

Publishing/IT Initiatives

Blackwells are exploring a number of publishing initiatives - distribution, printing and typesetting in order to reduce costs. 'On-line early' is working well and the transition from on-line availability via 'Highwire' to Blackwells 'Synergy' alone has gone smoothly, saving us a subscription of US$ 90K. Members now enjoy one free colour print per paper.

J.B. Clark
Chair Publishing Committee
July 2004

h. Membership Search Committee

Membership report.

ISN Memberships as of July 2004.

Associate 106
Emeritus 128
Junior 114
Ordinary 1145

Total 1493

· The society continues to lose a large number of memberships due to non-payment of dues; the current practice is to remove members names from the database if they are more than 3 years in arrears (ie: 6 payment invoices have been received). This amounted to over 200 members since the year 2000.

· So far, in 2004, 35 members have resigned, mostly due to retirement.

· The Society now has 53 members from the African continent (Algeria (1), Egypt (1), Ethiopia (1), Ghana (1), Kenya (1), Morocco (6), Nigeria (34),
South Africa (7), Uganda (1).

Roger F. Butterworth.
ISN Treasurer & Membership Coordinator 2004.

i. Liaison Committee

This committee's goal is to tighten the links between ISN and other organizations with similar interests as well as to develop new ties with other organizations.

A letter of introduction was sent to 15 different organizations and societies.

All societies were glad to provide details of their websites and future meetings, but not more than that. An exception was FEBS, which expressed an interest in adding an ISN symposium to their 2005 Prague meeting. Having consulted with Tina, it was agreed to propose a multinational young lecturers ISN symposium which was principally accepted by FEBS, and was submitted to the ISN committee of small conferences for requesting support.

The speakers came from the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine in Gottingen, Germany; the NIH and Stanford, USA and the College de France, Paris. Two of them are post-doctoral fellows, one is an assistant professor and one is an associate professor.

The committee asks that the Council advise the committee on guidelines for accepting invitations to present ISN Symposia in conferences held by other societies (e.g. in Istanbul's FEBS meeting, 2006).

Yet more addresses and contact persons of additional organizations to communicate with would be appreciated.

Hermona Soreq
Chair of ISN Liaison Committee

j. Advanced School Committee

The Sixth Advanced School of Neurochemistry took place on May 11th-13th, 2004, at the Palais des Papes, Avignon, France. The theme of the course was Responses to Trauma in the CNS: Genes to Ethics. Originally about 60 students applied from about some 20 countries. The School Committee reviewed the applications taking into account level of training of individuals, recommendation letters and cv as well as keeping in mind the goal of having a good geographical distribution. This was the first school to admit students from Africa (4). A total of 30 students were admitted. Arrangements were made with the local organizing committee of the ISN Meeting in Avignon to arrange for the venue at the Papal Palace and a nearby hotel where faculty and students could stay at one hotel and eat all meals together. There were some difficulties.

It was very difficult to maintain communications with the organizers as names of participants would be sent and on return the same old lists would be sent back.

At the outset we were told that faculty and students could not stay at the same hotel, as there were not enough rooms available, also no rooms available prior to the day of the school or days after for most people.

We were given a list of restaurants and told to make our own arrangements for meals.

There was no help from local organizers for travel arrangements. I had to provide that help by hiring a part time person.

It was a nightmare to get visas. In the end African students were not able to get visas from France in spite of great efforts on behalf of myself and the organizers. Here they really did try making phone calls etc. From the start the French consulates stated they would not consider any letters I sent on ISN stationery as valid since I was not in France or a member of a French government agency. In the end even after letters, faxes and telephone calls from France, they just refused to give any African a visa because "once in Marseilles they would go into the getto and disappear so as to stay in France illegally" as was stated to African applicants. Individuals holding professional academic positions in Africa. I apologized in shame to the students.

A Cuban applicant was denied an exit visa by the Cuban government at the last minute without explanation even though the ISN was covering all this travel and lodging expenses.

Other students had great difficulties getting visas at great expense but in the end they did obtain them.

A Chinese student from the United States was told that if he went to France he would difficulties reentering the USA. I apologized to him for the behavior of the US government.

Once we started the school the local staff were wonderful, the students and faculty were fantastic, the ambience terrific. The restaurant very good from the opening reception to the last banquet meal with a Cuban band playing music. This was thanks to Manuel Gaviria from Alain Privat's group in Montpellier who helped with the local eating arrangements. It made all the difference.

Prices for facilities were extremely high and there was little help offered in terms of having a reception. When I obtained a good offer from an outstanding restaurant to cater the event, I was told a few days before the school started that only an "approved" caterer, at a much higher fee, could be used.

All negotiations with the site had to be carried out using hard copy contracts in French, fortunately I am somewhat fluent in French but it could have been a problem with another chair not fluent in French.

Also, the contracts were always erroneous in their insistence that contracts were with the University of Texas and not the ISN. Finally, straightned that out.

Checks for students and faculty were made on Bank of Canada which has no branches in many of the countries of origin of the students and it was impossible to get the local committee to help in cashing checks. This was a serious problem.

Students awarded funds from the meeting had in some instances problems as the local committee was confused about source of funds at the last minute. This was resolved.

Because several students did not show up as outlined above we did not go in the red.

Avignon was a great site. Very expensive but great and the program was a success. The lectures were well received. David Shine has a set of photographs from the meeting and the meals available on a web site.

Advise for the future.

We should try and have a local committee such as the one involved in organizing the main meeting help out in the planning and funding process as was done in Buenos Aires where students could cash checks. We should also use travelers checks in lieu of checks or pick a bank that is well represented in the country where the meeting is taking place by having the local committee open an account in the town of the meeting.

We should not hold meetings in countries that will not provide access to students from all countries. Certainly the USA and France fall into that category.

I enclose the program booklet with all abstracts and programs.

Regino Perez Polo
Chair of ISN Advanced School Committee

k. Advanced School Subcommittee

1) The 6th Advanced School of Neurochemistry took place on May 11-13, 2004 in Avignon, France. This School was organized by Regino Perez-Polo and a report on this activity has been submitted by him.

2) Planning the 7th Advanced School.
- Together with Alois Saria a venue in Obergurgl, a small village in the Austrian Alps near Innsbruck, was booked where the next School will take place from August 17-21, 2005.
(http://www.tiscover.at/universitaets.sportheim)

- School committee members agreed on the following topics for the next school:
"Watching the Invisible: The Impact of Molecular Imaging, Proteomics and Functional Genomics on Modern Neuroscience"

- The following colleagues have agreed to participate as faculty members in the school:
1. Seth Grant (Hinxton; UK) (proteomics, data basing)
2. Eckart Gundelfinger, (Magdeburg, Germany) (synaptoproteomics, synapse assembly)
3. Juergen Klingauf (Goettingen) (molecular inaging, SV cycling)
4. Colin Masters (Melbourne) (functional genomics - Alzheimer)
5. Carlo Sala (Milan)
6. Hermona Soreq, Jerusalem, Israel (functional genomics - AChE-related diseases)
7. Alfreda Stadlin (Hong Kong) (functional genomics - drug addiction)
8. Antoine Triller (Paris) (cell surface imaging, quantum dots)
9. Noam Ziv, Haifa, Israel (molecular imaging in primary cultures)
10. Yukiko Goda, London, (actin dynamics)
11. Maryann E. Martone, San Diego (cell-centered database)
12. Amiram Grinvalds Rehovot, Israel (Optical recording

Invited, still pending:
1. Petra Schwille, Dresden (single molecule imaging)
2. Afonso C. Silva, NINDS, Bethesda (fMRI)
3. Philip W. Landfield, Lexington; KY (fMRI, spectroscopy)

We may invite two or three more colleagues as faculty members. School committee members, who are not contributing to the actual topics will be involved in organizing round table discussions and other activities.

- A website will be available for application (www.neurochemistry-school.de).

Magdeburg, July 7, 2004
Eckart D. Gundelfinger
Chair of ISN Advanced School Subcommittee

The president urged to encourage young people to participate.

The president remarked the nice program presented and thanked the committee for the effort.

Ad 6 Matters Arising form the Council Meeting

Establishment of a Permanent Business Office

The President had received two proposals, one from Portland Press and one from Kenes. The offer of Portland Press was considered more appropriate for ISN needs. Portland Press is a non-profit company that already provides similar services to other scientific societies.

The President informed that Portland Press would maintain the ISN Membership Database, as well as the World Neurochemistry Membership Database for two years. This will require an active collaboration from ASN and ESN. Portland Press will also collect membership fees and JN subscription fees. After these two years the Portland Press job will be evaluated and a decision taken about the convenience of prolonging the contract and increasing the responsibilities.

Establishment of facilities for a permanent Advanced School of Neurochemistry

The Treasurer informed that the ISN has 3 million $US in the bank without use and suggested to start thinking of ways of getting some benefit. He suggested the possibility of acquiring a property to establish a permanent Advanced School. A decision will be made in the next Council Meeting to be held in Innsbruck in August 2005.

Ad 7 Status of the Innsbruck Meeting 2005

a) Program Committee

The Chairman of the Program Committee, Phil Beart, presented the scientific program that includes 5 Plenary Lectures, 16 Symposia, 25 Colloquia and 9 Workshops. There will be also 6 pre-and post-satellite meetings. He remarked the high quality of the proposals and draw the attention to the fact that three Nobel Prize winners will participate in Symposia and Colloquia.

The program will include four Young Scientist Lectureship Awards, two of ISN and two of ESN. It was decided that advertisement and evaluation of proposals would be done separately by each society since requirements differ.

b) Local Organizing Committee

The Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee, Alois Saria, informed about different organizational issues:
- Promotional activities have been undertaken such as announcing the meeting in the webs of scientific societies, in scientific journals and distributing posters and flyers in Neuroscience meetings.
- Sponsorship activities are pending. Negotiations are underway with local authorities and commercial companies and publishers.
- Online registration and abstract submission will be open in December and the deadline will be March 15th, 2005.
- The deadline for application for ISN/ESN Travel Awards and ISN Young Scientist Lectureship Awards will be January 31st, 2005.
- The abstracts will be posted in the website before the meeting. The issue of copyrights will be consulted with Blackwell in case the abstract are posted before their publication.
- 900 participants are expected to attend the meeting.

Proposed registration fees:

Early fee Regular fee
by March 15th, 2005 from March 16th, 2005

ISN/ESN members 325 € 390 €
Non-members 400 € 465 €
Students 130 € 160 €
Accompanying Person 160 € 160 €

The registration fee includes program booklet, abstract book, conference bag, coffee or tea during coffee breaks, snack lunch, welcome reception and farewell dinner.

The President pointed out the need to advertise the meeting in the USA. He cordially thanked Phil Beart and Alois Saria for their excellent service to the Society.

Ad 8 Status of the 2007 Meeting in Cancun

The President informed that the Council accepted Maria Teresa Miras-Portugal (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain) as the Chair of the Program Committee for Cancun 2007.

Council will ask both societies ISN and ASN to suggest candidates for members of the Cancun Program Committee.

Ad 9 Venue and Topic of the 2nd ISN Special Neurochemistry Conference

The 5 proposals submitted to the Secretary by the deadline were made available to Council Members before the Council Meeting for their evaluation. All proposals were considered excellent and the one selected for the 2nd Special Neurochemistry Conference was Neural Glycomics and Lipidomics that will be held in Antigua, West Indies.

The President thanked the effort and the work done by the chairs of the other proposals.

Ad 10 Membership dues

The convenience of an increase in membership dues was discussed. It was finally accepted to maintain it at the actual rate of 45 $. Nevertheless, the President suggested to include the issue of a possible rise in membership dues in the Agenda for the next General Business Meeting in Innsbruck, 2005.

Ad 11 Any other business

There was nothing to comment.

The meeting ended at 7:25 p.m.