Minutes of the February 13, 2004 Meeting of the GTA Board of Directors

The Board of Directors of the Genetic Toxicology Association met at Covance Laboratories, Inc. in Vienna, VA on February 13, 2004. The members thank our Covance colleagues for planning the meeting and for their cordial hospitality.

Members of the Board in attendance at the meeting were Skip Wagner (Chair), Krista Dobo, Maria Donner, Dan Levy, Laura Schild and Joe (Haizhou) Zhang. Dan Benz (Web Master), Gerry DeVito (Secretary), Andrea Ham (Membership Chair) and Greg Erexson (Treasurer) were also in attendance. Darlynea McCluskey (Newsletter Editor), Leon Stankowski (backup Treasurer) and Board member Devaraya Jagannath were unable to attend. The meeting came to order at approximately 9:05 a.m. Skip provided the agenda for the meeting.

Secretary's Report
Gerry DeVito reviewed the highlights of the minutes from the previous meeting and the action items for today's meeting. The major item to be accomplished today was the finalization of the plans for the upcoming Spring meeting. The minutes were approved on the motion of Dan L., seconded by Skip. Dan B. will post the approved minutes from today's meeting on the GTA web site, and Darlynea will include them in the next GTA Newsletter.

Treasurer's Report
Greg Erexson presented his Treasurer's Report on the finances of the GTA as of February 12, 2004. Current Wachovia account balances are: Checking Account $7,176.21, Money Market Account $25,153.78 and an outstanding BB&T checking account balance of ~$143.00 not included in the total balance of $32,329.99. The balance of net assets for the GTA from the Informatics and Computational Toxicology Symposia was $3,767.20. Income from the Fall 2003 Meeting from registrations was $4465.00. The Fall meeting expenses were $4,035.45 to the University of Delaware (including poster boards) and $220.86 for speakers for a total of $4,256.31. This amount also included $150.00 for the use of a laptop. Greg pointed out that we could save this fee if speakers could bring their own laptops. A $600.00 deposit was paid to the University of Delaware for the May 6, 2004 Spring meeting. $552.69 was paid for the Fall 2003 Meeting Speaker Dinner and name badges for that meeting. At today's meeting, Skip was reimbursed for the purchase of the bookstore gift certificate in the amount of $100 to be sent as a thank you from the GTA membership to Russ DuFrain. Also at today's meeting, Andrea was given a check in the amount of $392.84 for maintenance of the official GTA mailbox and for mailing labels.

Greg stated that he would be sending e-mail reminders to those who preregistered on line (with a promise to pay on-site) for the Fall 2003 meeting but did not come to the meeting. They will be asked to reimburse the GTA for a portion of their registration fee.

The wording of the on-line registration was discussed. Dan B. will change the default for membership type to "non-member" and remove the selections that include a GTA mug. This should allow us to keep better track of whether member dues have been paid by those registering for the reduced fee. It was decided that future speakers would be given mugs. Dan B. will also add a statement that if the form is being used for registration, fees can be paid at the meeting, but if it is being used only to pay dues, the user will need to send a check to Greg for that amount.

Poster Boards were discussed. Andrea said that we could borrow the poster boards for future meetings from AI DuPont Hospital. They are a smaller size than usual but we could reserve two per person (per poster). These should be easier to transport because of their size.

Dan had prepared the thank you certificates for both Russ and Anita, which we signed today. Krista will bring them back to Pfizer for Darlynea's signature and then they will be sent on until all signatures are complete. Skip will send the Barnes and Noble gift certificate to Russ.

Newsletter
Darlynea McCluskey (Newsletter Editor) was unable to attend but sent information with Krista for the meeting. Meeting flyers will go out by mid-March and the Newsletter will follow in mid-April. Preregistration for the meeting will be allowed up until one week before the meeting.

She will need to have the final agenda for the Spring meeting by early March so as to send out the meeting flyers in a timely fashion. Laura offered to take GTA brochures and meeting flyers to the SOT meeting in late March. Items to be included in the Spring Newsletter will include the agenda for the Spring meeting, the minutes from today's Board meeting, the Letter from the Chair and a Member profile. Laura kindly volunteered to take over the Member Profiles from Greg. A possible member profile would be Ceinwen Schreiner. Laura will check the GTA website for other suggestions.

Darlynea asked that the question of whether or not we should continue to prepare and mail the hard copies of the Newsletter be discussed. Since most of the information, if not all, is contained on the GTA Website this may no longer be needed. This was talked about and the Board decided to ask the membership at our next business meeting. Some members felt there were benefits to a paper Newsletter and enjoyed Darlynea's added artwork and others were not so sure that it is worth the additional cost and efforts. Darlynea stressed that she is happy to continue to be the editor if that is the decision.

Web Site
Dan Benz, Webmaster, gave an update on the EMS Website and the GTA membership directory in particular. Barry Ford is the new EMS Webmaster and they are using Webgenii to design the site. There have been issues with accessing the directory; usernames and passwords are case-sensitive. It seems that the GTA directory had been deleted. It is also more difficult to get to our site from the EMS site now. Skip will ask for a better view for GTA on the EMS site. Dan B. got permission from the Association of Government Toxicologists (AGT) Council to put the GTA membership directory onto the AGT server. The Board agreed that that might be a good idea.

Dan B. would like to post all the details for the Spring 2004 meeting as soon as possible including speaker abstracts.

Membership
Andrea Ham, Membership Chair, stated that she would add updates to the membership directory file prior to the Fall 2004 meeting so that Greg has an up-to-date membership listing. Andrea will also send the updated Access file to Dan B. who will make the user names and passwords for the Web site directory all the same case. Currently user name is the person's name as it appears in the directory (with spaces removed) and their password is their e-mail address. We agreed to have a generic password to avoid confusion. We will send out an e-mail to the membership once the new process is put into place.

A statement will be added to the Newsletter and the Web site stating the GTA permanent official address as: 4142 Ogletown-Stanton Road, Newark, DE 19713 PO Box #311. This address will be used for all paper registrations and dues payments.

GTA Meetings

Spring 2004
Krista and Joe are responsible for the Spring meeting, which will take place on May 6, 2004 at Clayton Hall. The title of the meeting is "Challenges of Predicting Carcinogenesis." Speakers will be someone from Bill Morgan's laboratory in Baltimore (Bill had a conflict), Andrew Grosovsky from UC Riverside, Robert Schiestl from UCLA, James Klaunig or Jim Goodman from Indiana University. Errol Zeiger has agreed to be the keynote speaker for the meeting and Dan B. has agreed to give a talk on Computer Models. Krista and Joe will confirm titles with the speakers, request the abstracts of their talks, information for a short introduction and ask if they will need us to make travel arrangements for them. The on-line registration deadline for the meeting will be April 29, 2004.

Andrea will plan the dinner with the speakers held the evening prior to the meeting. Possible exhibitors are MD Biotech and MolTox. Skip will contact MolTox and Darlynea will contact MD Biotech. Maria will also contact some local vendors to see if there is any interest to participate. Greg will arrange for tables for the exhibitors as needed from the University.

The menu for the meeting was decided. Anita will be presented her gift during the Spring Business meeting.

Fall 2004
Laura Schild and Dan Levy will chair this meeting. Greg will check the availability of October 21, 2004 with Clayton Hall. Possible topics were Follow-up Assays such as the SHE, Comet, UDS, Rat Lymphocytes, etc. and /or Impurities Issues. Possible speakers discussed were David Kram, Andreas Hartman, Gary Williams, Byron Butterworth, Jon Mirsalis, etc.

University Outreach
Dan Levy has assumed this role with guidance from Skip. Dan L. suggested that the Board members take a look at the list of universities and their respective contact persons that Skip had put together to see if they know any of them personally. Dan L. felt that a message from someone you know would be better received than from a stranger and the Board agreed. We plan to send out e-mails to each University contact informing them of the upcoming meeting. Dan L. also suggested that we might have a Student breakfast or lunch with GTA members to give the students an opportunity to meet people from industry and government. We could solicit volunteers and put information into the meeting flyers and /or the Newsletter.

EMS Student Reception and Travel Award
We will again sponsor a Student Travel Award recipient and the Student Reception and Poster Session in 2004. Maria has assumed the responsibility for the GTA sponsorships with guidance from Krista. We discussed requesting that nametag ribbons be created for GTA Board Members attending the EMS meeting in October so that students will be able to seek out the members more readily. Greg will ask the EMS management company if this would be possible. Since the 2004 EMS meeting is not until the Fall this will be a summer Board meeting topic.

Future Board Meetings
The Spring Board meeting will be held immediately following the Spring Scientific Meeting on May 6, 2004 at John M. Clayton Hall Conference Center at the University of Delaware in Newark, DE.

The meeting was adjourned, on the motion of Dan L. seconded by Joe, at approximately 1:22 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Geralyn L. DeVito, Secretary

Back to Top ↑

Minutes of the May 6, 2004 Meeting of the GTA Board of Directors

The Board of Directors of the Genetic Toxicology Association met following the Spring 2004 GTA Scientific Meeting at the John M. Clayton Hall Conference Center at the University of Delaware in Newark, DE held on May 6, 2004.

Members of the Board in attendance at the meeting were Krista Dobo, Maria Donner, Dan Levy, Devaraya Jagannath, Skip Wagner (chair) and Joe (Haizhou) Zhang. Gerry DeVito (Secretary), Greg Erexson (Treasurer), Andrea Ham (Membership Chair), Darlynea McCluskey (Newsletter Editor) and Leon Stankowski (co-treasurer) were also in attendance. Board member Laura Schild and Dan Benz (Webmaster) were unable to attend. The meeting came to order at approximately 4:00 p.m. Skip Wagner provided the agenda for the meeting.

Secretary's Report
Gerry DeVito reviewed the highlights of the minutes from the previous meeting and the action items for today's meeting. The major items to be accomplished today were the plans for the Fall meeting. The minutes were approved on the motion of Dan L., seconded by Skip. Dan B. will post the approved minutes from today's meeting on the GTA Web site, and Darlynea will include them in the next GTA Newsletter.

Treasurer's Report
Greg Erexson presented his Treasurer's Report on the finances of the GTA as of May 4, 2004 at the Business meeting. Current balances are: Wachovia Business Checking Account $5925.40, Wachovia Money Market Account $25,181.04 and an outstanding BB&T checking account balance of ~$143.00 not included in the total balance of $31,106.44. The estimated Spring meeting expenses are $3918.75 (fees to the University of Delaware) not including speaker expenses. The projected Spring meeting registration income is approximately $3900.00 with approximately 78 paid attendees.

Also at the business meeting Skip stated that he would send the Barnes and Noble gift certificate for $100 as a thank you from the GTA membership to Russ DuFrain for his many years of service as treasurer. Skip also presented to Anita Bigger, in absentia, the latest edition of Casseratt and Douhl's as a thank you for her time as Chairperson.

Leon suggested a proposal to invest in laddered CD's and approved by the members present, a motion to approve the idea was made by Maria and seconded by Krista. Another motion was made and approved to increase the cost of meeting registrations by $10.00, which was raised by Dan L. and seconded by Joe.

Newsletter
Darlynea McCluskey (Newsletter Editor) led a discussion of the proposal and vote which was held at the Business meeting regarding whether or not we should continue to prepare and mail the hard copies of the Newsletter. The voting was very close so the board made the decision that an abbreviated Newsletter/Meeting Flyer combination would be sent out twice a year.

The Member profile and Personal Information section from the membership were briefly discussed. The next member to be profiled will be Dan Benz. Skip will contact him.

Web Site
Dan Benz, Webmaster, was unable to attend the board meeting but gave an update during the Business meeting. Dan stated that the majority of registrations for today's meeting were done on-line. He asked for any new ideas for the GTA Website.

It was suggested that the e-mail addresses of the GTA meeting speakers be listed on the Website so that people can contact them for copies of their presentations or with questions. Dan already posts the abstracts on our Website.

Membership
Andrea Ham, Membership Chair stated that the current active membership was 170 persons and asked that members check their dues status at the reception desk.

GTA Meetings

Spring 2004
The Board agreed that Krista Dobo and Joe (Haizhou) Zhang did an excellent job co-chairing today's meeting entitled Challenges of Predicting Carcinogenicity. All agreed that each of the speaker's talks promoted much lively discussion. Dan B. in particular did a great job and was very entertaining (as always) with his topic of Advances in In Silico Toxicology.

Fall 2004
The topic for the meeting will be Follow-on Testing, including DNA adducts, metabolic pathways, topoisomerase, PDM, etc. The co-chairs will be Dan L. and Laura Schild. Possible speakers to be included are Sheila Galloway, Gary Williams, Martha Moore, Ron Snyder, Laura Schild, David DeMarini, Jim Swenberg, Doug Brash, Patricia Escobar, Jim MacGregor, Marie Vasquez or Ray Tice, and Terry Smolark. We will decide at our summer Board meeting if our 2004 student EMS awardee will present at the fall meeting or at a later meeting since EMS will take place from October 2 through October 6 this year. The date for the meeting is October 21, 2004.

University Outreach
Dan Levy reemphasized that the Board members should take a look at the list of universities and their respective contact persons to see if they know any of them personally. Dan L. stressed that a message from someone you know would be better received than from a stranger and the Board agreed.

EMS Student Reception and Travel Award
We will again sponsor a Student Travel Award recipient and the Student Reception and Poster Session in 2004. Maria has assumed the responsibility for the GTA sponsorships. We discussed requesting that nametag ribbons be created for GTA Board Members attending the EMS meeting in October so that students will be able to seek out the members more readily. Greg will ask the EMS management company if this would be possible. Since the 2004 EMS meeting is not until the Fall this will be a summer Board meeting topic.

Future Board Meetings
The Summer Board meeting will be held at Pfizer Inc. on July 16, 2004.

The meeting was adjourned, on the motion of Skip, seconded by Dan L., at 5:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Geralyn L. DeVito, Secretary

Back to Top ↑

Minutes of the July 16, 2004 Meeting of the GTA Board of Directors

The Board of Directors of the Genetic Toxicology Association met at Pfizer Inc. in Groton, Connecticut on July 16, 2004. The members thank the Pfizer colleagues for planning the meeting and for their hospitality.

Members of the Board in attendance at the meeting were Skip Wagner (Chair), Krista Dobo, Devaraya Jagannath, Dan Levy and Joe (Haizhou) Zhang. Gerry DeVito (Secretary), Greg Erexson (Treasurer) and Darlynea McCluskey (Newsletter Editor) were also in attendance. Dan Benz (Webmaster), Andrea Ham (Membership Chair), Leon Stankowski (co-treasurer), and Board members Maria Donner and Laura Schild were unable to attend. Laura did participate in the meeting via phone conference. The meeting came to order at approximately 9:15 a.m. Skip provided the agenda for the meeting.

Secretary's Report
Gerry DeVito reviewed the highlights of the minutes from the previous meeting and the action items for today's meeting. The major item to be accomplished today was the finalization of plans for the upcoming Fall meeting. Nominations for the Fall Board election would also need to be discussed. The minutes were approved on the motion of Dan L., seconded by Jag. Dan B. will post the approved minutes from today's meeting on the GTA web site, and Darlynea will include them in the next GTA Newsletter.

Treasurer's Report
Greg Erexson presented his Treasurer's Report on the finances of the GTA as of July 16, 2004. Current balances are: Wachovia Checking Account $5,754.40, Wachovia Money Market Account $25,221.77 and an outstanding BB&T checking account balance of ~$143.00 (Greg will follow up with Russ on this) not included in the total balance of $30,976.17. The Spring meeting expenses were $3,318.75 to the University of Delaware, $1877.90 for speakers and $28.77 for name badges for a total of $5225.42. Income from the Spring meeting was $4,555 for a net loss of $670.42 (amount corrected so as not to include the book for Anita which was inadvertently included in the meeting expenses). Other expenses were the $244 incorporation fees for 2004 and $200.59 for the gifts presented to Russ DuFrain and Anita Bigger.

On line payment of dues and registration fees was discussed. Dan L. will investigate Pay Pal so that we might be able to give people the option of paying on-line or by mail.

[Post meeting note: One speaker's expenses from the Spring meeting still remain to be paid (just recently submitted), Greg will update the final numbers at the Fall meeting.]

Newsletter
Darlynea McCluskey (Newsletter Editor) discussed the dates for submissions to and mailings of the next Newsletter/Flyer combination. The deadline date for additions to the Newsletter/Flyer will be August 31, 2004.

She will need to have the final agenda for the Fall meeting, the minutes from today's Board meeting, the Letter from the Chair and a Member profile. Skip has contacted Dan B. for his profile.

Web Site
Dan Benz, Webmaster, was unable to attend today's meeting. Skip presented an e-mail he had sent to Barry Ford, the EMS Webmaster, and the response that he had gotten regarding access to GTA from the EMS Web site. The gist of which was that he agreed to move us to the special interest group pages and/or the links pages for easier access to our Website.

Membership
Andrea Ham, Membership Chair, was unable to attend today's meeting.

GTA Meetings

Fall 2004
Dan L. and Laura are responsible for the Fall meeting, which will take place on October 21, 2004 at Clayton Hall. The title of the meeting is Beyond the Battery: Resolving Genetox Ambiguity. We have six speakers scheduled, Andreas Hartman, James Klaunig, Gary Williams, Maik Schuler, Maria Vasquez and Dan Levy. Letters to the speakers will be sent out by August 10, 2004. Dan L. and Laura will confirm titles with the speakers, requesting the abstracts of their talks by August 17, 2004 and information for a short introduction and if they will need us to make travel arrangements for them. Greg will handle any necessary travel arrangements.

Andrea will be asked to plan the dinner with the speakers held the evening prior to the meeting.

Possible exhibitors are MD Biotech and MolTox. Skip will contact MolTox and Dar will contact MD Biotech. Greg will arrange for tables for the exhibitors as needed from the University.

The menu for the meeting was decided on.

Post meeting note: Maria Vasquez will not be presenting at the Fall meeting. Brinda Mahadevan from Oregon State University will be presenting instead.

Spring 2005
Maria and Jag will co-chair this meeting. The topic will be Impurities. A May 19, 2005 date for this meeting was discussed. Greg will check the availability of this date with Clayton Hall.

University Outreach
Dan L. reminded the Board members to take a look at the list of universities and their respective contact persons to see if they know any of them personally. Dan L. has a draft letter for us to send. We should send out e-mails to each of the University contacts informing them of the upcoming meeting by mid-September.

EMS Student Reception and Travel Award
Maria was unable to attend. Krista will contact Maria with our selection for the $1000 Student Travel Award for the October EMS Meeting so that she can contact them. We selected GC Lin from Yale. We should find out if they accept by August 31, 2004 so this information can be included in the Newsletter. We decided to give the recipient the option to present at either the Fall 2004 or Spring 2005 GTA meeting. We also plan to sponsor the Student Reception and Poster Session at the EMS meeting in the amount of $500. Maria will contact Tonia of the EMS management group.

Elections
Krista and Skip will be rotating off the board this Fall. Nominations were discussed. Possibilities are Ron Snyder of Schering-Plough (Gerry will contact), Ofelia Olivero of NCI (Laura will contact), Pat O'Neil of J&J (Leon will contact), Andy Henwood and/or Jim Wojciechowski of BMS (Greg will contact). Dan L. will contact Sheila Galloway to possibly get a name from Merck. Dan B. will bring the paper ballots for writing in your choices.

[Post meeting note: Ofelia Olivero has accepted the nomination.]

Future Board Meetings
The Fall Board meeting will be held immediately following the Fall GTA Meeting on October 21, 2004 at John M. Clayton Hall Conference Center at the University of Delaware in Newark, DE.

The meeting was adjourned, on the motion of Dan L., seconded by Skip, at approximately 2:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Geralyn L. DeVito, Secretary

Back to Top ↑