Minutes from CCR-FYI Steering Committee Meeting

July 26, 2007

**Members in Attendance:**

[Fredrick:]{.underline} Chan, Tim; de la rosa, Gonzalo; Hall, Veronica;
Irvin, Jordan; Jacobsen, Kristen; Legiewicz, Michal; Manzoni, Maria;
Orr, Selinda; Pasek, Marta; Santhanam, Arti; Savan, Ram; Schaughency,
Paul; tewary, Poonam; Yamada, Eriko; Torruellas, Julie

[Bethesda:]{.underline} Capitini, Christian; Choksi, Swati; Jacobs,
Jonathan; Pratt, Margaret; Rosu-Myles, Michael; Velthuis, Mary

[ATC:]{.underline} Shen, Jennifer

**Excused absences:** Krista Zanetti, Bethesda; Renuka Sivendran, ATC

**New members:**

[Fredrick:]{.underline} Misrtee, Tashan; Wenderler, Michaela; Haiyan,
Qin; Baker, Rosalyn

[Bethesda:]{.underline} Paul, Thomas

**Agenda Items:**

[Approval of June Minutes]{.underline}

June minutes were approved by the committee.

[2007 Retreat Survey Update]{.underline}

Gonzalo presented the results of the retreat survey. The following
points were made:

Overall 95% of people completing the survey were satisfied with the
retreat. Many of the survey participants were in the last year of their
fellowships and, thus, would not be attending further retreats.

With regard to the workshops, many people did not score them. Other
surveys had all the workshops scored. It is not clear how accurate these
results can be since some workshops were run simultaneously so either
some people attended only a small portion of each workshop or they
ranked workshops they did not attend. A suggestion was made to have a
survey of each workshop given to attendants at the end of the workshop.
It was also suggested that we could have a simple ranking system at the
end of the workshop where attendants write a number from 1-5 ranking the
usefulness of the workship and place the number in a box when leaving.
No commitment was made towards implementing either idea.

Some survey participants felt the poster session was too short. The
retreat committee has already committed to making the poster sessions
longer. The retreat committee is also going to look into extending the
hours of the mini-bar service that is provided during the poster
presentations.

A fourth point raised by the surveys was too few companies attending the
career fair. Notifying companies earlier was suggested as a method to
combat this problem but it is unclear whether or not this will help. The
retreat committee is open to any suggestions (or help with organizing
the career fair).

Gonzalo stated that he will be writing an article pertaining to the 2007
survery results for the CCR-FYI newsletter and asks you to email him if
you want to look at any of the results yourself.

[2008 Retreat Survey]{.underline}

Christian stated that the scientific/survey committee is still having
problems with the computer service and Survey Monkey program that are
used for designing the survey. Christian plans to approach Jonathan
Wiest for assistance. They are planning to keep the same format for the
survey as used in previous years. Christian and Gonzalo welcome any
suggests via email regarding changing the survey questions or format;
however, these would not be implemented until the 2009 retreat survey.

[2008 Retreat Update]{.underline}

Tim Chan from the Retreat Subcommittee presented information regarding
the date and location of the 2008 retreat as well as details of invited
keynote speakers and the career fair.

The 2008 retreat will be held from March 3-5 at the Clarion Hotel in
Ocean City MD, the same location as the previous two years. Based on
rankings received for suggested keynote speakers, the following
invitations were sent out:

Dr. Sydney Brenner (Salk Institute)

Dr. Laurie Glimcher (Harvard)

Dr. John Schiller (NCI)

Dr. Patrica Steeg (NCI)

Drs. Schiller and Steeg have already accepted their invitations. In the
event that a speaker(s) declines, the speaker with the next highest
number of votes will be chosen. Letters to Drs. Wiltrout, Helman and
Niederhuber have also been sent out but not yet received replies. The
possibility of filling Dr. Niederhuber's slot with Dr. Zerhouni has also
been suggested under if Dr. Niederhuber declines.

Tim also reported that the retreat committee has decided to extend the
career fair over two days and hold it concurrently with the poster
sessions. The retreat committee has already begun to contacting
participants.

Tim brought forth the need for a committee to select the Outstanding
Postdoctoral Fellow for the 2008 retreat. Michael Rosu-Myles, Swati
Choksi, Veronica Hall and Arti Santhanam agreed to form the committee
with Arti acting as chair. The committee will select an awardee based
upon supervisor nominations, defined selection criteria and oral
presentation. Swati and Arti, who participated in the process
previously, are familiar with the selection criteria.

Jonathan Jacobs presented the results of a survey regarding potential
workshop topics for the 2008 retreat. The survey of 43 respondents
ranked potential workshop topics based on a points system. The six
topics chosen based on points total were; "Grant Writing for Young
Investigators & Postdoctoral Fellows", "How to Set Up a New Lab",
"Interviewing & Negotiating Skills", "Academia, Institute or Industry:
Which Destination is for You", "CV & Resume Critique" and "International
Career Opportunities". During discussion of these topics, it was decided
that CV critiquing should be set up as a booth at the Career Fair. In
place of this workshop the committee decided that a "Scientific
Management" workshop should be added. It was noted that there are some
opportunities on campus to receive training in scientific management
(ie. recent 1 day course offered, but they occur infrequently and thus,
this workshop could be quite beneficial.

Jonathan Jacobs requested more help in organizing the workshops and will
be sending an email over the committee listserv requesting volunteers
for organizing individual workshops.

[FELCOM Representative Report]{.underline}

Fredrick requested a volunteer to take the place of Gillian Walker as
FELCOM representative. New member Karen Walker took up the task and Arti
agreed to send an email to Jennifer with Karen's information.

[Letter To Dr. Wiltrout]{.underline}

Mary Velthuis presented a request from Jonathan Wiest that the letter to
Dr. Wiltrout not be sent. The CCR Office of Training and Education (OTE)
directed by Jonathan is currently reviewing the letter and is
identifying mechanisms by which the office can alleviate some of the
problems and establish some of the programs outlined in the letter. This
may take some of the pressure off Dr. Wiltrout and make the letter
easier to receive. In particular OTE are already establishing a program
regarding exit surveys and are currently handling the annual reviews
program. Jordan Irvin will be further communicating with Jonathan Wiest
regarding the letter to Dr. Wiltrout.

[Other Business]{.underline}

The editors of the newsletter requested an article about the Spring
Research Festival in Frederick. Also the newsletter is looking for any
new potential articles. These articles should be submitted hopefully
before the end of August.

Margaret will be bringing a camera to the next meeting to take a more
recent picture of the committee for use on the CCR-FYI website so please
show up!

Next meeting will be held on Thursday August 30^th^ and will be a joint
meeting located in Fredrick.

MEETING ADJOURNED.