Minutes of the CCR-FYI Steering Committee Meeting

October 26^th^, 2006, Thursday 11:00 AM- 12:00 PM

> **Bethesda:** Building 37, Room 4041, dial-in \# 301-435-4223 (phone:
> 301-402-9194)
>
> **Frederick:** Building 549, Conference Room A, 301-435-4225 (phone
> 301-846-1659)

**ATC Gaithersburg:** 8717 Grovemont Circle, Rm 142, 301-435-4224

**Members present:**

**Bethesda campus:** Girish Patel, Margaret Pratt, Swati Choksi,
Jonathan Wiest Elena Ambrosino, Martin Guimond, Tamaro Hudson

**Frederick campus:** Kevin Chang, Gillian Whittaker, Stephen Maher,
Jordan Irvin, Melissa Maderia, Veronica Hall, Jianbo Hu. Gonzalo de la
Rosa, Tinoush Moulaei, Veronique Pascal, Arti Santhanam

**Gaitherburg campus:** Heidi Erickson, Jennifer Shen, Renuka Shivendran

**Members excused:**

Haiqing Li, Maarten Leerkes, Michael Rosu-Myle, Maja Bumke.

1)  Call to order.

> Welcome to new member Jianbo Hu \[mailto:huj@ncifcrf.gov\]

2\) Action Items:

Priority projects:

> [1. Updating Bylaws:]{.underline}
>
> Margaret sent out the bylaws. Please look over the various
> subcommittees and their responsibilities Arti has sent Margaret a
> written request for addition of "Friends of the Steering Committee"
>
> The Bylaw committee has added the proposed category of membership.(see
> attached).
>
> [2. Increasing the visibility of CCR-FYI]{.underline} through new
> employee orientations. Jordan Irvin and Stephen Maher will present a
> short report on the fourth new employee orientation in Frederick.
> Swati and Martin Guimond will manage the operation and create a list
> for Bethesda and Gaithersburg.
>
> Jordan and Stephen met with 3 new NCI post-docs. In Bethesda we are
> waiting for the appointment of a new coordinator, who should be in
> position in November 2006, before the committee can participate in the
> orientation process.
>
> [3. Brown bag lunches at CCR grand rounds]{.underline}
>
> Michael Rosu-Myles has taken on the task of setting up the \"brown bag
> lunch\" to allow post-docs to meet with Grand Rounds extramural
> speakers after their lecture. There is an item that he would like the
> Steering committee's vote on:
>
> He proposes that we change the name of the \'brown bag lunch\' to
> \'The Post-doc Networking Brunch\' as it is no longer a lunch
>
> He has sent an email to Michelle Bennett who oversees the Grand Rounds
> Seminars. Hopefully he will soon be able to interact with the Grand
> Rounds committee and receive the necessary contact information for the
> speakers participating in the \"Networking Brunch\".
>
> The committee acknowledges Michael Rosu-Myles as the new coordinator
> of the brown bag lunch and accepts his recommendation to change the
> name to "The post-doc networking brunch".
>
> [4. The Postdoc seminar series:]{.underline} No new report

Secondary projects:

-   [Compiling the 2006 survey results]{.underline}: Gonzalo has
    finished compiling the results Melissa and Arti have made
    preliminary conclusions on the survey results. Arti will send the
    results to all for further comment

The committee was informed that the 2006 survey results have been
compiled and that these will be circulated to the committee.

-   [Creating the 2007 survey questionnaire]{.underline}: Gonzalo has
    offered to help Girish and the retreat committee with the next
    survey.

Girish said that he will liaise with Gonzalo to formulate the 2007
survey, after work with the 2006 survey is complete.

-   CCR-FYI alumni database- progress thus far: Jonathan and Terry Moody
    are working on this. Any updates?

Jonathan is planning to meet with Terry Moody to take this forward.

-   Newsletter: Any articles or any ideas for an article to be sent to
    Stephen Maher by the 3^rd^ week of November

3\) Subcommittee Reports

> a\. Retreat subcommittee: Monthly progress report (Girish, Veronica,
> Veronique, Gillian)

1.  Decision about retreat dates, web page (including resume upload
    facility), registration, abstract deadline and judging.

The new retreat dates are Tuesday February 27^th^ through Thursday March
1^st^, Girish explained how the committee had considered all the
alternatives and concluded that changing the dates was the best
solution. He also mentioned that the retreat committee has asked Jean to
launch the retreat website, which should make it possible to register
for the meeting and upload a resume.

Moreover, the abstract deadline is December 18^th^. Jean will categorize
the abstracts (including the new category, Cancer research technology)
from December 18^th^ to 29^th^. Thereafter abstract judging will be from
December 29^th^ to January 15^th^. There will be three judges per
category, one of whom will coordinate the judging and return the list to
Jean. Girish will be sending out requests for Judges in the next week or
two.

2.  An explanation about the provisional agenda

Girish explained the thought process behind the revised agenda. The
committee agreed upon the current agenda for the retreat.

3.  The directors (Veronica, who is also going to coordinate the
    trinkets)

Veronica informed the group that both Dr's Wiltrout and Helman have
accepted to join the meeting. But Dr Neiderhuber will not be able to
attend. Also Veronica will be organizing the trinkets at the retreat and
enticed us with the possibility of tee-shirts or mugs. Keynote speakers'
invitations, including the NPA rep

Girish has managed to get three keynote speakers, but has not managed to
get a fourth keynote speaker despite trying hard. He has asked for
further suggestions from the group. Girish has emailed the NPA rep
(Alyson Reed) to ask if she will attend the retreat.

4.  Post-doc plenary talk & Workshops (Gillian)

Elena said that there were 23 potential candidates and that the
sub-committee was going to meet the following day to discuss a shortlist
to interview.

Gillian gave updates on all the workshops:

1.  How to succeed in science (Gillian and Jordan) -- Jonathan Yewdall
    has agreed to come and they are writing to others.

2.  Alternative careers (Veronica and Melissa) -- Still planning

3.  What does it take to publish in science and nature (Arti, Jordan and
    Haiqing) -- Letters have been sent to editors in Science Nature,
    Cancer research and JNCi. Waiting for reply.

4.  Interview techniques and resume critique (Stephen and Haiqing) --
    Scott Morgan will do the interview technique session and either
    someone from Work-life center or from Veronique's list of critiquers
    will do the other talk.

5.  Science communication (Gillian and Girish) -- Scott Morgan and
    Maggie Meltzer have agreed.

6.  Core facilities (Jordan and Kwang) -- three workshop individuals
    have agreed, Kwang is waiting to know if Dave can make it also.

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5.  Career fair (Veronique)

Veronique with help from Tinoush have began contacting 30 companies so
far. It was suggested that potential vacancies should be simultaneously
be listed on the retreat website.

6.  Survey

See above comments.

If you invite individuals to the retreat, please insure that you copy in
Jean so that she can coordinate all travel and accommodation
necessities. Moreover, Jean is keeping a record of all attendees

> b\. Scientific Subcommittee

-   Report from The WSA meeting -- Heidi Erickson reports that the WSA
    meeting at Bethesda went well. Susan Bates expressed interest in our
    workshops that we hold at the fellows' retreat. She was thinking of
    doing that type of thing for the junior faculty. Maybe we could join
    forces and they might be interested in attending our retreat for the
    workshops!

Heidi reported back from a very positive meeting, in which the WSA
wanted to attend the retreat and in future actively participate. Drs.
Susan Bates and Nancy Colburn will be sent a special invitation to
attend the retreat.

-   [NPA:]{.underline} No new report

-   [FELCOM:]{.underline} Heidi suggests a feedback symposium to bring
    all of the groups supporting fellows to a half day symposium for the
    PIs that would inform us of the Fellow\'s concerns, and point to
    areas where we need to focus our efforts. Heidi is working on this
    with Felcom.

> Matt Kohn of Felcom is working on a childcare survey for all fellows.
> He will put it up on survey monkey for fellows to take, hopefully by
> the end of the year

[c. Social Subcommittee]{.underline}

Farewell for Susan and Nicole went well.

Melissa is organizing the next social.

The committee wished Susan and Nicole well for their future careers.
Melissa has organized an ice skating get together on December 2nd, which
will cost \$9.

> [Additional Item]{.underline}: Some of the members in Frederick have
> conflicting meeting on Thursdays at 11 am. Can we change the timing to
> 12 pm?
>
> Further discussion revealed that there was no conflict anymore. So it
> was agreed that it was no longer necessary to change the meeting time.

The floor is open for new business or announcements.

Adjourn meeting.