Minutes of IRA Board Meeting 05.03.04 Caucus Room Westin, Indianapolis, IN

Attendees: Steve Stimpson, Richard Griffiths, Bill Selig, Arpita Maiti (phone), John Somerville (phone), Carlos Paya, Brendon Bennett (phone), Laura Cox, Dave Becher (phone), Andy Glasebrook, Chinne Chintalacharuvu

• Steve Stimpson welcomed the participants and thanked the Lilly group for sponsoring and running an excellent Midwest meeting. He also congratulated the newly elected Officers and Board of the IRA whose term will become effective during the October 3-7, 2004 12th International Meeting of the IRA being held at the Sagamore at Lake George.

• John Somerville, Richard Griffiths et al. discussed some of the issues surrounding the publication/printing of abstracts by Birkhauser. The consensus was that everything needs to be ready for Birkhauser by July 15th. Birkhauser does not want the Word files embedded in the excel document as they are hard to retrieve. Main symposia abstracts will be included and abstracts will be printed 6/page. We need to be assured that there are no issues getting the abstract book through customs as well. Carlos Paya inquired as to whether abstracts could be made available electronically on the website (assuming these were not posted prior to booklet distribution).

Action Item (John Somerville) The cost associated with the Abstract booklet (~$5650) needs to be confirmed with Board (especially the treasurer, Loran Killar). Also drop dead dates need confirmation.

Action Item (Bill Selig) Check with Karl Smizer as to the feasibility of posting abstracts on the website. (Post Meeting note: Bill checked with Karl and there is a mechanism to accomplish this and a location on the website to store abstracts.)

Action Item (Bill Selig) Send bulk e-mail reminder about abstract deadline next week.

• Steve Stimpson stated that the earliest possible site visit date (July) needed to be identified.
• There was discussion about having a combined IRA & IAIS board meeting at the Sagamore Meeting. More details to follow (date/time and process).
• The website needs to be updated with the final Lake George program ASAP.
• Richard Griffiths stressed that we need to proactively identify more “New Drugs” presentations.
• Steve Stimpson sent registration booklets to Chris Evans to distribute at the 3rd International Meeting on Gene Therapy in Rheumatology and Orthopaedics being held in Boston, MA May 19-21.
• Richard Griffiths summarized the existing or proposed meeting schedule
  for 2004-2006:
  • MMPs-Expanding Horizons (Greenwald?) Oct 23-35, 2004
  • Joint IRA/PRG Meeting (2005—Inflammation, Airway Repair, and Remodeling-->Boston MA?)
  • Translational Medicine (2005/2006—Tony Arulanandam Biogen; Linda Tripp Abbott Bioresearch?)
  • Autoimmune Diseases (2005-Tony Manning Roche Bioscience San Francisco)
  • Cardiovascular Inflammation (Midwest; Lilly)

Steve Stimpson stated that we might want to solicit meeting proposals. We could also come up with a slate of meetings and get membership feedback.

• Along those lines, Richard Griffiths and Steve Stimpson agreed that another “Strategy Day” early during the 2004-2006 was appropriate.
• Steve Stimpson stated that we should set up a teleconference to discuss the two Professional Meeting Planner proposals currently on the table.

Action Item (Loran Killar) Query meeting planners as to when this could be accomplished.





Minutes from IRA Strategy Meeting 11.12.02

Attendees: Stephen Stimpson, Richard Griffiths, William Selig, Shripad Bhagwat, Joan Chapdelaine, John Rediske, Amy Roshak, Jerry Skotnicki, Howard Karstein, Jessica Valencia, Herbert Dang, Sue Yocum, Leonard Buckbinder, Simon Blake, Mark Noe, Deborah Wolff, Marcia Bliven, John Somerville, Janet Rivello, Lisa Marshall

2.Introductions were made and Steve reviewed the meeting agenda.

3.Goals of IRA strategy Meeting (Steve/Richard)

• Organization 30 years old
• Migrating towards regional meetings (fewer NYA meetings)
• Ultimate purpose of meeting — define our near term and long term format
• Membership is a mix of Big Pharm, biotech, and academia
• Impact of this group – sharing around new drugs
• Marcia/Debbie/Joan are Triangle 3 (the "organization" that executes the National meeting). Marcia is putting together the SOP for the National meeting
• How do we make this process as efficient as possible?
• IRA is an industry-based organization that relies on resources from our respective companies (Richard)
• Need industrial nucleus why encouraging academic and clinical input
• The problem remains that this is now a shrinking industry, how to maintain it?

4. Anticipating future needs (Debbie)
Will our identity represent what goes on in the next 10-15 years in terms of inflammation research and the industry?
• Question raised whether we can we survive in our present identity?
• Do we need to branch out?
• Should we have dues in the future?

5. Mission statement, membership, and membership goals:
What is the ideal membership? (Steve)
• Mission statement reviewed
• Ultimate goal is to increase in membership and regionalization of meetings Membership now a mix of big pharma, biotech, and academia
• Holding National meetings of 300-400 members is not a problem Networking suggested as means of regionalization
• 1800 total membership of which 25% are academic (based on mailing list)
11% academics at last meeting (including clinicians and speakers) (Joan)
• Funding strategy (Loran Killar will implement).
Large companies provide bulk of funding – can this be expanded?
• Also need to use biotechs as a funding source
Model organization around the direction industry is going in inflammation research with representation of therapeutic areas of interest to generate more support (Debbie) • We need to aggressively go after smaller companies (Joan)
• Potential membership can be solicited from:
— Big pharm
— Biotech
— Academic – represented by speakers
— Clinical – an unknown
— Public (NIH, FDA) – NIH is a source for both funding and membership that needs to be exploited.
- Jerry S./John Rediske to contact NIH

• Need to formalize regions to get word out (NE, NW, SE, WC, MW) (Steve)
• Each region represented by Board member and clinical/academic rep
• Encourage name recognition
• Need more extensive mailing lists
• We need to broaden our therapeutic scope to attract general membership with interest in all inflammatory diseases (Simon B)
• Major strategic change to be achieved through regionalization (see below)

• Academic membership — Need to find a way to bring more academics as well as other diverse groups into organization
— Use of topic selection, i.e., chemistry, pharmacology, etc. to encourage meeting attendance by various disciplines
— Use of American Chemistry Society (ACS) to target chemistry (Jerry S)
— Stress potential for collaboration with industry by academiaΰindustry research grants available
— Could conduct workshops on technology transfer and intellectual property to encourage collaboration between academics and industry
— IRA recognition of special grants through NIH sponsored by IRA (Jerry S to inquire)
— Approach private foundations for support. (John S to address)
— Use regional meetings to attract university support (i.e. fellows/chairmans) (J. Rediske)
— Must target specific schools (i.e., NYU, Santa Barbara, etc.) and tailor meetings in areas of interest for these schools
— Mailings need to go to specific people/organizations. Generic mailings do not work (Lisa M)
— Focus on inflammatory sessions at national meetings to generate more contacts (John S)

• Clinical membership
— What can IRA offer to a clinical person (Lisa M)
— Clinicians can learn more about basic research
— Need to further explore clinical organizations sponsoring IRA National or regional meeting sessions
— Offering CME credits discussed
— Category I (AMA sponsored; costs incurred); any slide presented can not have no industry logo
— Category II (physician initiated; need proof of attendance; no cost) may be a possibility
1. Give certificate of participation. AMA needs to be involved to do this
2. Give certificate of attendance to all of those attending national meeting
3. AMA IAIS meeting (G. Bowen)
4. Offered CME credits at previous meetings — approach organizers for more info
— Find out if a joint sponsor can provide CME credits (Lisa M)
— Volunteer needed to find out CME/clinical angle further (Shripad B to explore)
• Table this for future discussion at a board meeting since all information is not available.
• Look into possibility of Canadian government participation as a partner
• Explore whether IRA can sponsor a new Society in a country such as Mexico. Thus expanding IRA as a North American as opposed to US organization
• Approach NIH about funding and membership/co-sponsorship of meeting (Len B to address.

6. Current Membership (Richard)
• Use of regional meetings to generate many additions to mailing list
• Add all meeting speakers to mailing list
• University database – Peterson’s list (Provide to Bill S)
• Need for more accurate e-mail addressesΰpresently possess only 30% of e-mail addresses
• Potential for West Coast National Meeting was raised
• Do we need a formal meeting organizer to replace our volunteers?

7. Review of National Meeting
• Should the 2006 National meeting be held in a different region (Proposals reviewed by Board)
• Location of 2004 National meeting needs to be decided on now. More time may be needed to explore proposed locations. 2008 considered a more realistic date to change locations (Marcia)
• Should meeting run from Sunday to Thursday?
• 2004 meeting at Sagamore
— Will run Sunday-Thursday (Oct 3-7, 2004)ΰ no afternoon session on Sunday.
— Biggest complaint from 2004 meeting was food expense.
— Need to explore the following concerning food expense:
1. Feasibility of meal plan
2. Possibility to include breakfast/continental breakfast
3. Include a flat price for lunch/dinner
— Do we have leverage to do any of the above at Sagamore since we filled hotel? (Richard)
• IRA Policy on recording devices – no photography or video in future conferences

8. Upcoming meetings
• Registration for all meetings can be done online (in addition to onsite)
• Need to keep at least one "free" meeting/year
• Discussed possibility of having IRA meeting two coast simultaneously
• April 9-10 Seattle: Cytokines
— $200 registration
— Need to work on advertising for all regional meetings
— Exhibitors are welcome

• May 2003 NYAS: Cox
— Pfizer and Merck contributed 11k to date
— All day session, mostly academic
— Pfizer and Merck will also host some of the speakers
— Annual business meeting to be held at this time
— Advertising for regional meetings (Dennis A to coordinate)
1. Posters to academic institutions (possibility)
2. Notify Chairs of departments (possibility)
3. Website (Jerry S to coordinate)

• IAIIS , August 2003
— Advertise 2004 National meeting there

• Society for Leukocyte Biology Oct. 2003
— Cost will be about 5K
— Will insure exposure at a different venue

• Midwest Regional Meeting Fall 2003 (Pfizer): Toll receptor
— 100% certain of meeting but need exact time.

• February, 2004 – Chemokine Meeting (Boston)

• Spring, 2004 in San Diego Topic to be decided (Shripad)

• Oct 3-7, 2004 – National meeting

• IAIS 2005 (Australia)

• A future West Coast meeting to be held in San Francisco area

9. Regional Partners (from the Board)

• SE — D. Becherer (Academic, clinical)
• NW — B. Selig (Academic, clinical)
• Boston — G. Letts(D. Presley, D. Tracey) (Academic, clinical)
• Washington/Tri State/PA — S. Blake
• SF — T. Manning
• SD — S. Bhagwat
• MW — D. Dyer, J. Mobley, D. Morgan
• Canada — T. Meijers
• Colorado — K. Koch, J. Winkler

10. Operational issues
• 5K provided to support regional meetings
• Treasurer
— Need to return unused money from conferences to IRA – Treasurer needs to track this
— Potential for separate treasurer for conferences? This worked in the past
— J. Skotnicki and A. Roshak volunteered to assist Loran with Treasurer issues
— Need to designate where money coming into IRA is used for
• D. Argentieri B. Selig, J. Rivello to work on website.
• Mailing

- The mailing list being updated to include National meeting participants (Phyllis Van Dyne)

- 1st quarter 2003 targeted to start updating e-mail addresses

11. Newsletter
• H. Karstein to create a newsletter (M. Blivens to advise). Suggestions for newsletter include:
— Pictures
— Board meetings
— Upcoming meetings
— Regional updates
— Women in science
— Call for volunteers
— Meeting programs
— Donor list
• Newsletter should be people based vs. science based
• Newsletter should ultimately be website-based. It is currently mail based
• Call for volunteers in newsletter
• Newsletter issued 4x/year

12. "SOP's"
• renamed as "Conference Manual"
• Authors: Marcia Bliven, Joan C. & Deb W.
• 2 Main sections: I. National Meetings II. Regional Meetings
• Available to web-based members only
• Committees will help to input contents
• Marcia B. to send request to committees for their contributions
• Contribution deadline from committees: End of Jan '03

13. 2003 National conference planning
• Planning : Officers
• Symposia: V. Pres.
• Mini Symposia: Loran K. & Amy Roshak
• Sci-Program: Richard
• Program & Abstract/Poster Session (now a combined task): Richard, Amy R. & Loran (need to check with Loran)
• Site Selection: competed

*Noted that Lisa Marshall will be the IAIS Professional Societies Liason

Scholarship/Van Arman: (note now combined task): John Rediske on committee, recommended by Richard that previous chair (Richard) continue on until next year to bring John up to speed to become chair.

Committee consists of: Dennis S., Dick C., Ann W., John Sommer, Richard, John R.

Poster Session
• Mark & John R Co-Chair's

Abstract Submission/Poster Session (note new title)
• Q: Joan C.: can presenters also submit posters? John and Mark need to decide
• John & Mark need to come up with a process/system
• New volunteers: Jessica & (some other person who I didn't get the name) who work with John R. at Novartis to help with this committee

Conference Coordinator: Marcia Bliven

Social Events: Jeff Self & Tineke

Registrar: Joan C,

Advertising/website/Newsletter: Bill, Dennis, Janet

Audio Visual: Christopher Stevenson

Finance: (Loran: needs to be asked)

Exhibitors: Sue

*Action: Lisa Marshall actioned to ask IAIS when IRA would be able to sponsor another international meeting.

Q: Will the IRA continue to offer honoraria? (asked by Steve S.)
• only academic
• bring up as an agenda item at the next meeting

Richard Griffith's suggestion: to change name from National IRA to International IRA.

Discussion point: IRA has shown an interest, and willingness to have international participants, speakers and should be recognized as an international organization.

Action: Lisa M. & Steve S. to find out expectations for IRA from IAIS.

Scientific Committee Prog: Additional volunteers: Shripad & Jerry

EOM: 3:25 PM

Flip Charts from the IRA Strategy Meeting 11/12/02 (Word doc)





Minutes of IRA Board Meeting 05.16.02 NY Academy

Attending in NYC: Dennis Argentieri, Lisa Marshall, Dick Dyer, Richard Griffiths, Loran Killar, Steve Stimpson, John Rediske, Amy Roshak, Bill Selig, Dick Carslon, Kevin Koch, Jerry Skotnicki, Rich McLaughlin
Attending by telephone: Jilly Evans, Denis Schrier

11th National Meeting
Scientific program:
Symposia are close to being finalized and abstracts to go into the program have been requested.
Action: Steve to follow up with Symposia chairs to ensure abstracts are submitted and to coordinate pulling together program for submission to Birkhauser.

Mini-symposia: The committee has identified a list of chairs and will finalize these shortly. Current plan is for 4 mini-symposia with 4-6 presentations per session. Currently, 80 abstracts have been received from which the mini symposia speakers will be chosen. Abstracts will be circulated to poster committee by David Becherer next week. Speakers will be allowed to present a poster also.
Although the abstract deadline was May 15th it was decided to extend the deadline. Abstracts will be accepted up to the end of September but late entrants will not be eligible for the minisymposia and the abstracts will not be published.
Action: Richard to update website with this information.

Van Arman competition: Eight contestants have entered the competition. The judging panel will review the minipapers and select the five finalists by mid-June.
Action: Richard to circulate minipapers to scholarship committee and to coordinate with poster subcommittee to ensure that the Van Arman finalists who also submitted their work via the web-site are not selected for minisymposia.

Registration: The information necessary to finalize the authorization of credit card payments via the website has been sent to the web-site manager.
Action: Richard to follow up with website manger and update website with the date this feature will be operational.
Post meeting note: Web site manger has been tracking requests to register via the website and will send out an email to these people once system is live.

Audiovisual: Amy has recruited four volunteers and the AV company (Randy) has conducted a site visit at the Sagamore. Everything is set for this aspect of the meeting. However, the responsibility for organizing this has fallen back to Amy and the board is requested to identify someone to take over.

Sagamore site visit: Rich McLaughlin reviewed the facilties available at the Sagamore. A site visit will take place on July 28/29th. Board members wishing to attend should confirm with Marcia (seven complementary rooms are available). At this visit plans for the meeting will be finalized. The board had an extensive discussion of the planned dinner cruise and there was general agreement that this was an attractive feature. It was felt important to provide to buses to transport people to and from the dock (11 miles from hotel) and a provisional decision to book 6 coaches was reached. A spread sheet of anticipated expenses for the meeting is required for planning purposes.
Action: Dick to conform this was Rich and to set up a board meeting/telecon on July 29th at the Sagamore. Dick to follow up with Marcia to ensure an expense report sheet is available for site visit.

Folders: Dick will order 350-375 folders and Bill and Richard will work on getting pens.

Vendors: Loran reviewed progress on exhibitors. 10 vendors can be accommodated and several have already committed and it seems likely we will get 10 ($1000 each with one free registration).

Social events: It is not clear if Jeff Selph will be available to act as organizer of social events this year.
Action: Board to identify a social chair asap and they should ideally be invited on site visit.

2004 site selection.
We have tentative dates in 2004 at the Sagamore and the Hyatt (Maryland shore). The latter is a new facility that will open in September 2002. Rich McLaughlin will visit this facility when it open and report back to the board.

Treasurer’s report" Kevin reported that we currently have ~45K in the bank. Several major companies have not yet donated money for the 11th National meeting. Board members were asked to step up efforts to identify contributors.

IRA strategy session
The board agreed with Steve that a working session to discuss future goals/strategy would be valuable and ideally this would take place before the National meeting. John Rediske volunteered to host this at Novartis, NJ.
Action: John to propose dates for this meeting.

IAIS meeting: Lisa updated the board on progress with the 6th IAIS meeting in August 2003 and reminded the board that once the 11th National meeting concludes they need to rapidly turn their attention to the final stages of planning for this meeting. One item of planning was decided; Richard Griffiths will be the IRA member nominated to the judging panel for the Young Investigator award.
At the 5th IAIS meeting a prestigious award was presented named after a well-known academic figure (The Willoughby award). For 2003 the board was asked to consider a North American scientist of similar stature whose name could be used in association with the award.
Action: Board to submit names to Lisa

Scientific program
Three new proposals for meetings have been received and were approved by the board.
• Nov/Dec 2002: Receptors for microbial products and their potential roles in inflammatory disorders. Organizer, Jim Mobley, (Pfizer Ann Arbor). Dick Dyer to be board contact for this meeting.
• Jan/Feb 2003: Opportunities in the prostaglandin pathway beyond COX-2:Prostaglandin synthases and prostaglandin receptors. Organizers, Per-Johan Jakobsson (Karolinska Institute) and Laurent Audoly, (Pfizer, Groton). Richard Griffiths to be board contact for this meeting.
• April 2002: West coast meeting in Seattle. Organizer, Eoin O’Leary (Omeros Medical Systems). Bill Selig to be board contact for this meeting. One and a half day meeting. Site identified. Board gave approval to go ahead and make reservation.

Elections to board
The Board approved was slate elected. The new board members and officers will assume their roles at the conclusion of the 11th National Conference.

President: Stephen Stimpson, PhD
Vice President: Richard Griffiths, PhD
Treasurer: Loran Killar, PhD
Secretary: Bill Selig, PhD

Board Members
Dennis C. Argentieri, MS
J. David Becherer, PhD
Joan Chapdelaine, PhD
Anthony M. Manning, PhD
John J. Rediske, PhD
Amy Roshak, B.S.
Denis J. Schrier, PhD
Jerauld S. Skotnicki, PhD
Shripad Bhagwat, PhD
Past President Richard D. Dyer, PhD

Action: Richard to contact new board members to inform them of their election to the board





Minutes of IRA Board Meeting 05.17.01 NY Academy

Annual Business Meeting:
The annual business meeting of the IRA was opened by Dick Dyer (President) who reviewed the mission and structure of the organization. Steve Stimpson (Vice-President) then reviewed the meeting program for 2000/2001 and gave a preview of upcoming meetings. He concluded with a call to the audience for future meeting topics. Kevin Koch (Treasurer) reviewed the current financial situation (~$45,000 in the black).

Board meeting:
Attending in person: Richard Griffiths, Marcia Bliven, Steve Stimpson, Kevin Koch, Dick Carlson, John Rediske, Steve Gilman, Ron Magolda, Jerry Skotnicki
Attending by telephone: Amy Roshak, Lisa Marshall, Denis Schrier

1. Planning for National meetings
The board agreed to ask meeting planner Rich McLaughlin to begin a search for suitable site for the 12th National meeting in 2004.

A contract for the site of the 11th National Meeting (The Sagamore, Lake George, NY) is in place. Rich McLaughlin did a site visit and negotiated the contract. Marcia has also visited and approved the site.

A preliminary brochure that can be distributed over the summer and be used at the IAIS meeting in September will be prepared by Amy

The board agreed on the following timetable:
• Call for abstracts and distribution of preliminary program: January 15th 2002 (Marcia). Symposia chairs and speakers need to be identified by Thanksgiving.
• Follow up mailing in Feb-March timeframe
Abstract deadline: April 15th 2002
• Deadline for registration: August 1st 2002

AV will be handled by Amy but a back-up who will take over at the next meeting needs to be identified.

Title: 11th National Conference of the Inflammation Research Association

The board brainstormed a list of potential plenary speakers:
Mike Weinblatt, Ed Keystone, Frank Austen, Steve Krane, Dan Furst, Larry Moreland, Bill Coopman, Wim van den Berg, Rodger McMillan, Charles Dinarello. The consensus of those present was that Mike Weinblatt would make a great speaker but the board is asked to submit other candidates before May 30th at which time the officers will make a final decision.

Chairs and members of organizing committees were identified:
Symposia Program: Steve Stimpson. Ron, John and Jerry
Workshop Program: Denis, Amy??
Poster sessions: Dick to ask Loran if she is willing to continue. Steve to ask David Becherer from GSK if he would like to be involved.
Amersham Poster competition: Dick, John.
Finance/Advertising: Kevin, Bill Selig??
Registrar: Dick to ask Joan if she can do it
Van Arman scholarship competition: Richard
Social: Jeff Selph





Minutes of IRA Board Meeting 01.18.01 NY Academy

Attending in person: Dennis Argentieri, Lisa Marshall, Richard Griffiths, Loran Killar, Marcia Bliven, Steve Stimpson, Kevin Koch, Dick Carlson, Gordon Letts, John Rediske, Rich McLaughlin
Attending by telephone: Dick Dyer, Amy Roshak, Jerry Skotnicki

1. Treasurer’s report (Kevin)
$78,000 in the bank with most of the 10th National meeting expenses paid (only a few travel expenses outstanding). The Homestead meeting made a profit of ~$39,000.

2. 10th National Meeting manuscripts
Current deadline is February 25th. Volume is likely to contain mostly session overviews. Lisa to follow up.

3. Site selection for 11th National meeting
Rich McLaughlin reviewed several options for the board to consider.
The Hershey Lodge
The Cavalier Virginia Beach
The Nevele (Catskills)
The Homestead
Board members suggested in addition two sites on the Jersey shore and one in Hyannis, Cape Cod.

Rich also suggested the board consider Seven Springs (~1 hr south of Pittsburgh) for 2004. Rich was asked to follow up on the sites suggested at the meeting and to feed information back to the board through Marcia. Dick will arrange a teleconference week of Feb 15-22 to select a site.
The board (via email prior to the meeting) unanimously approved giving Rich McLaughlin a $2500 payment for the work he did in association with the 10th National meeting.

4. IAIS meetings
Vancouver 2003
Lisa asked for a volunteer to act as the fundraising chair for the 2003 meeting- Loran agreed to do this. Steve has made preliminary contact with the Canadian Arthritis Network to gauge interest in helping with the meeting. The initial response was favorable and Steve will follow up. The question of selecting an honorary President for the meeting was raised and although no candidates were suggested the board was in favor – Lisa to follow up on this?
Edinburgh 2001
The board previously agreed to sponsor a workshop at this meeting (cost $5000. Lisa’s suggestion that the subject matter be Cathepsins was approved and Lisa will organize the session.


5. Web-site review
Two quotes for improving the current web-site had been obtained (one by Dennis Argentieri and one by Richard Griffiths). The goals for the improvements are attached as appendix 1. The board accepted the lower quote ($8,000-10,000) and Richard will contact the company ( Smizer Design, Waterford, CT) and report back to the board on the timeline for completion.

6. Scientific program
03/5-6/01 West Coast meeting – Inflammation Targets and Clinical Candidates for the New Millennium at the Salk Institute; organized by Brydon Bennett and Frank Mercurio, Signal Research Division, Celgene, Inc and Amy Roshak, SKB. Two announcements have gone out by mail (paid for by Pfizer, Ann Arbor and SKB). Registration is available on the web-site and the program is finalized.

04/18 Inflammation in Cardiovascular Diseases (Hahnemann,)
IRA will co-sponsor along with Sreekant Murthy (Hahnemann University). Tony Manning co-organizer. Steve confirmed that final program is nearly set. Post meeting note – Pfizer Groton will do the mailing for this meeting.

05/01 Medicinal chemistry focused on Inflammation (NYAS) (Jerry Skotnicki and Ron Magolda, organizers). Aiming for 6-8 speakers with a medicinal chemistry focus, e.g., case histories of drug discovery. Steve confirmed that we have the ground floor room at the Academy for this meeting and arrangements will need to be made for the AGM. Lisa put in a plea that full day meetings not start before 10 a.m to allow travel time – the board concurred with this. Kevin has access to an additional database he will use to advertise the meeting. Post meeting note: Dick alerted Richard to the existence of a Medical information web-site that allows free advertising for meetings. Richard will place future meetings on this site unless the board has objections (to be received by Feb 15th).
http://www.mioti.com

There are currently no suggestions for the fall program – the entire board needs to address this.
Post meeting note – Gordon Letts, Bill Selig and Steve Gilman have proposed the second Boston chemokine meeting for Nov 8/9.


Appendix
Goals for the IRA website

• To be the primary means for communicating the aims of the organization to the scientific community

• To be the primary means of advertising Regional and National meetings of the IRA. In addition, either by directly advertising on the site or through links to other sites, to inform members of other meetings of interest e.g. IAIS, BIRAs, Inflammation Research

• To facilitate communication with members via email

• To be the primary site for collecting new members contact details and for updating contact details of all members

• To allow registration and abstract submission for National and Regional meetings

• To be the primary repository for the storage of information related to the working of the organization e.g. bye-laws, standard operating procedures, meeting minutes, Newsletters etc
  
  
  Design of web-site

• Home page with site map and mission

• Goals of organization and contact details for board members

• List of upcoming meetings with link to registration details

• Membership registration/updates

• Archive

• Links to other sites of interest
  
  
  
   

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