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Minutes
of the ISN Council Meeting
Osaka, Japan September 19, 2004
Officers: Arne Schousboe, President (AS), Roger Butterworth, Treasurer (RB), Peter Dunkley, past President (PD), David Shine, Chairman for Internet Committee (DS). Councillors: Vera Adam-Vizi (VAV), Polycarp Nwoha (PN), Hermona Soreq (HS), Bernard Zalc (BZ), George DeVries (GDV), Gianfrancesco Goracci (GG), Kazuhiro Ikenaka (KI), Ursula Sonnewald (US). Invited participants: The following people were invited to participate in specific items: Phil Beart, Chairperson Program Committee 2005 Meeting in Innsbruck (item 9a); Alois Saria, Chairperson LOC 2005 Meeting in Innsbruck (item 9b).
1.
Opening of the Meeting. Apologies and acceptance of the agenda
7.
Report on the First Special Neurochemistry Conference held in Avignon
in 2004
10.
Status of the 2007 Meeting in Cancun The President (AS) opened the meeting asking participants to introduce themselves (tour de table). The agenda was accepted with the following modification: Items 9 and 10 were transferred to items 7 and 8 respectively.
Preparation of minutes
from the council Meeting in Paris and preparation of the December 2003
Newsletter Meetings of the Officers Preparations for the
Special ISN Conference in Avignon Meeting with Blackwell
2004 Preparations for the
Innsbruck Meeting (ISN/ESN) 2005 Preparations for the
Cancun Meeting (ISN/ASN) 2007 Arne Schousboe 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. He urged that Council should be flexible if an increase in budget is necessary. With regard to the Cancun meeting the President informed that the first payment has been made. Council decided that the President and GDV (President of ASN) would meet to sort out each society's responsibilities in this Meeting.
Introduction 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 Expenditures for 2003 Investments in 2003 Total assets at the
end of 2003 Projected income for
2004 and 2005 Expenditures for 2004 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. The continued use of Deloite & Touche as auditors was unanimously accepted by Council. The Treasurer's report was unanimously accepted.
Cost of cancelled HK meeting, as of July 19th 2004.
* Amounts parentheses, awaiting final receipts. The President remembered that in the last Council Meeting held in Paris, it was agreed that ISN would transfer to the APSN the surplus money from the original budget of the ISN-APSN Hong Kong meeting. The first part of these funds was provided to the APSN to run the meeting in Hong Kong in February 2004. The rest of the funds will be used by the APSN for the Singapore Meeting in 2006.
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 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 Minutes of the Council
and the Business Meetings in Paris. Membership Neurochemistry News Collection of proposals
for the Second ISN Special Neurochemistry Conference Preparations of the
Council and Business Meetings to take place in Osaka Preparations concerning
the ISN/ASN Meeting in Cancun in 2007. Agustina García The President apologised for the Secretary not attending the meeting due to health problems and thanked her for her efforts. 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 totaling 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.
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 2. Contin, Maria.
Visit to a laboratory in the USA (S. Dryer). November 2003. 3. Frederico Dajas.
Neuroscience Course. March 2004. 4. Palotas, Andras.
Laboratory equipment. April 2004. 5. Palotas, Andras.
Visit to a Canadian laboratory (Nagy). April 2004. 6. Fedorovich, Sergei.
Laboratory research funds. May 2004. 7. Pasquini, Laura.
Research support. June 2004. 8. Bashkatova, Valentina.
Travel fellowship for registration fee, First ISN 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 $10,500 10. Zhuravliova, Helen.
Travel award to ASN. Email communication problems make it uncertain if
she will actually use this award. 11. Njemanze, Philip,
for INBR. Transfer of equipment from a US laboratory (G. DeVries) to Nigeria.
Award made in July 2004, actual shipment pending. 12. Njemanze, Philip.
Visit to a US laboratory (G. DeVries). July 2004. 13. Prado, Marco.
Workshop in Brazil. July 2004. 14. Knaryan, Varduhi
Laboratory equipment. August 2004. TOTAL US$ 51,050
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. 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. Regarding the issue of joint funding with IBRO, RB proposed to temporarily suspend CAEN support of IBRO-sponsored schools and to consider the implantation of joint ISN-IBRO schools in developing countries similar to those planned for Africa in 2004 and 2005. The convenience of
setting up deadlines for application to CAEN, as it is done for the Conference
Committee, was debated. No agreement was reached and Council recommended
asking the Chair of CAEN for his opinion.
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. Kazuhiro Ikenaka,
Ph.D. 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, it was 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.
c. Standing rules Nothing to report.
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 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 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. Council was in favour
of an electronic voting system to be established for Council Elections
in the near future. This will need a change in the bylaws and until then
the procedure will be the same as before. The President thanked the Chair for his services to the Society
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. 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.
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. 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? The Science Museum
in London has an extensive section devoted to Biochemistry, which includes
a substantial amount of material of interest to neurochemists. Herman Bachelard The President reminded
Council that a new Historian has to be appointed in Innsbruck when HB
retires. He also pointed out the need to find physical space to keep the
ISN Archives. g. Publication Committee Board Membership 2003 J.B. Clark - Chairman,
London 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.
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 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 There was a discussion about the way the Journal is handled because the ranking has only marginally improved in comparison with other Journals. It was concluded that a Business plan is needed and that Council should be more proactive in this respect. The decision was taken that the Chair of the Publication Committee together with a subcommittee formed by the 3 officers (AS, RB and AG) and HS, who is member of Council and of the Publication Committee, will present a plan in the next Council Meeting in Innsbruck
Membership report. ISN Memberships as of July 2004. Associate 106 Total 1493
· 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),
It was agreed to maintain a membership fee.
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. 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. Yet more addresses
and contact persons of additional organizations to communicate with would
be appreciated. The possibility of sponsoring ISN Symposia in the next meeting of the Society for Neuroscience was discussed. The general opinion was that this meeting is too large and that it would be better for ISN to sponsor speakers instead of symposia.
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, straightened 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 travellers 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 In reference to the immigration problems the president indicated that there is nothing ISN can do apart from sending invitation letters. The Treasurer informed that from now on reimbursement of Travel Awards would be in cash.
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. - School committee
members agreed on the following topics for the next school: - The following colleagues
have agreed to participate as faculty members in the school: Invited, still pending: 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 The President remarked the nice program presented and thanked the committee for the effort.
The Chair (VAV) informed that the procedure for awarding Travel Grants for the Innsbruck meeting would be the same as for the Hong Kong Meeting. The proposal of giving Travel Grants to retired scientists willing to attend the meeting was rejected.
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 Council complimented the Program Committee for the high quality of the program. Funding for the different activities will be finalized by the Treasurer and the Program Chair. 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 Chairmen of the
Local Organizing Committee, Alois Saria, informed about different organizational
issues: Proposed registration
fees: ISN/ESN members 325
€ 390 € The registration fee includes program booklet, abstract book, conference bag, coffee or tea during coffee breaks, snack lunch, welcome reception and farewell dinner. The Council approved the fees. 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
The President mentioned that the final contract has been signed and the first payment made. The Local Organizers are looking for a PCO.
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 Council thanked the effort and the work done by the chairs of the other proposals and suggested that they consider proposing the conferences as Satellite Meetings of the ISN Cancun Meeting in 2007. Ad 10 Report on the First Special Neurochemistry Conference held in Avignon in 2004 1. Organization The first ISN Special Conference, "Changes in neuronal gene expression and CNS drug responses" took place in the congress center located within the magnificent Popes Palace of Avignon, France, 13 - 16 May 2004. Approximately 150 persons attended. A professional congress organizer in Paris, Colloquium, managed all arrangements: registrations, finances, hotel accommodations in Avignon for those who requested them, catering services, etc. A website was opened for the conference (isnconference.org) which can be maintained by the ISN if it chooses. All registrations, reservations, abstract submission, etc were carried out electronically via this site. People were invited to arrive on the afternoon of Thursday 13 May with an opening reception that evening in the Closter's Gallery of the Palace. The full program began Friday morning and continued through Sunday with lunches catered daily in the nearby Espace Jeanne Laurent overlooking the Rhone river. A congress gala was held Saturday evening at a farm located an hour's drive away in the Camargue region of France with people transported by bus. 2. Scientific Program
Committee The three days were composed of a morning session from 8:30 to 12:30 with five speakers (30 minutes followed by ten minutes of questions), lunch, and an afternoon session from 14:00 to 16:00. During the morning and afternoon coffee breaks approximately 50 posters were viewed and discussed. The day was completed by a round table attended by the majority of the participants which covered a topic such as Proteomics, Transciptomics or Bioinformatics and led to most stimulating and lively discussions. The scientific quality of the material presented throughout the meeting was considered by everyone to be outstanding, and the abstracts were subsequently published in Supplement 1 of the Journal of Neurochemistry Vol 90. 3. Fellowships Eighteen fellowships were awarded to young people coming from Argentina, India, China, Russia and numerous other countries. The amounts ranged in value from 200 € to 800€ depending on the distance to be travelled with registration offered. Half of the recipients participated in the school which preceded the conference. 4. Finance The registration fee of 120€ (TTC) for students and 350€ (TTC) for full participation included the conference, abstract book, lunch on the three days, and the opening reception. When I was first invited in 2002 to organize the conference, the ISN generously offered a subvention of $150,000 which at that time was equivalent to 150,000€ and quite sufficient. Unfortunately by the time of the meeting the value of the US$ had diminished considerably, and the value was closer to 120,000€ making it hard to meet the budget. However, the ISN generously provided an adjustment with the total subvention coming to 141,500€. In addition Aventis provided a sponsorship of 5000€. Although the accounts are not yet closed, there appears to be a surplus of approximately 12,000€ which will be returned to the ISN before the end of 2004. 5. Conclusions The original assumption had been that 300 or more persons would participate. In actual fact only half that number did attend because of a variety of global economic and political reasons. However, everyone present felt that the smaller number permitted a highly productive and stimulating interaction among speakers, researchers and students. The overall feeling was that although small it was an excellent meeting in an outstanding environment.
The Treasurer informed that in order to avoid problems with the budget of meetings due to fluctuations in local currencies in reference to the $US, from now on expenditures will be decided and paid in $US. This decision should be incorporated in the Guidelines. The president thanked the organizers of the Avignon meeting for the effort and the Chair for the nice report.
The President and the Secretary in the meeting they held in Barcelona before the Council Meeting discussed this issue. 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. Kenes services were more expensive. The Council unanimously accepted that ISN signs a contract with Portland Press for two years. During this time Portland Press will maintain the ISN Membership Database, as well as the World Neurochemistry Membership Database. This will require an active collaboration from ASN and ESN. Portland Press will also collect membership fees and JN subscription fees. Negotiations with Portland will be initiated to start website maintenance starting mid 2005. 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.
The Treasurer informed that the ISN has 3 million $US in the bank without use and suggested that Council starts thinking of ways of getting some benefit. He suggested the possibility of acquiring a property to establish a permanent Advanced School. This suggestion was well received by Council and it was decided that before taking a decision it was necessary to perform a study about the cost and risk of owing a property and maintaining it. The general opinion was that even if it is finally decided to buy a property for the establishment of a permanent school, ISN should keep running the Advanced School as part of the Biennial Meeting program. One idea put forward was that the property could be rented to other societies and thus provide an income. A decision will be made in the next Council Meeting to be held in Innsbruck in August 2005.
The President proposed Maria Teresa Miras-Portugal (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain) as the Chair of the Program Committee for Cancun 2007. Council unanimously accepted the proposal. It was recommended that she attends the Innsbruck meeting. Council will ask both societies ISN and ASN to suggest candidates for members of the Cancun Program Committee.
There was a debate about the possibility that Council Members could be reimbursed Business class airfares for long journeys to attend ISN Council meetings. The Treasurer pointed out that this measure would double the travel expenses. PD indicated that this issue has to be decided at the General Business Meeting. No further action was taken at this stage. KI presented the new structure of the APSN and asked support from the ISN to develop it. It was decided that the 2006 ISN Council Meeting would be held in Singapore in coincidence with the APSN Annual Meeting. PN asked support from ISN for the newly created Nigerian Neurochemistry Society and for the publication of the Nigerian Journal of Neurochemistry. The President pointed out that the normal procedure is to apply to CAEN. The President reminded Council that four of its members (VAV, PR, BZ and HS) will be replaced in the next Council Meeting in Innsbruck. He asked Council to think of possible candidates and the Chair of the Nomination Committee (GG) to start recruiting people. The call for nominations will be included in the December News.
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