80th Penn Biomedical Postdoctoral Council Minutes, December 04, 2006

Eightieth Meeting December 64 2006, 5:00 PM (Stellar-Chance 104) 1. Welcome / Attendance: BPC: Stacy Gelhaus, Mikolaj Pawlak, Tiangang Zhuang, Ying Xu, Lindsay, Dave Hokey, Arindam BPP: Yvonne Paterson, Kryste Ferguson Absent: Mark Lee, Janice Young, Africa Wallace, Fiona McGillicuddy, Hedi Schelleman, and Yuko Kimura 2. Update from Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs: Dr. Yvonne Paterson, Associate Dean for Postdoctoral Research Training, Director, BPP a. Visiting Scholar Policy—has been approved. It distinguishes a visiting scholar from visiting faculty, visiting students, and postdoctoral appointees and states that the visiting scholar must hold a position at home that they may or may not return to, they must hold a terminal degree, the visiting period is 2 weeks to 1 year and they must not be eligible to be a postdoc or hold the position of faculty or student at the home institution. This policy will be monitored at the department level in the school of medicine. An appointment letter must be provided which documents criteria and financial support. b. “The Scientist” Article—Best Places for Postdocs to Work in 2006—Penn was not listed in the top 35. A discussion was had about the bias of the survey, who received the invitation, etc. It was decided that the BPC would contact The Scientist to see if the survey included postdoc appointees at Penn. 3. Major BPC and BPP projects: Kryste Ferguson and Subcommittees a. Symposium: The letter inviting Stanley Prusiner to be the keynote speaker at the 2007 Symposium has been written and will be going out shortly. Rooms were reserved on the 10th and 17th of October 2007 to give him several options. b. Gift for Luana—a gift card from the bookstore and card were purchased and mailed to Luana. Luana has left Penn and was in editor in chief of PEC. c. Budget—we have not spent any money yet for this year. Discussions on upcoming expenses included funding for the postdoc soccer team, seminar speakers, and the NPA meeting in April. d. December Orientation—will be on the 14th from 2:30 to 5pm. It is expected to be smaller than the September orientation. e. Editor’s Club—Lindsay and Jack have taken over for Luana. There are two focuses of the club at this point in time—writing reviews along with Dr. Weiner and formatting journal abstracts. f. Diversity—no update

g. Seminar Series— more discussion on seminars for the upcoming year focusing on how to write journal articles. It was suggested that we might want to contact scientists from the NIH. h. Social Activities—Tiangang is in the process of organizing a schedule for the upcoming year to better organize these events. i. Sports—it was proposed at this meeting that we fund the postdoc soccer team, pay for the intramural fee for the year and donate money for soccer balls and a pump. j. Foreign National Committee—Arindam has taken over FNC and the seminar on November 30th was a great success. It covered visas, what one would need for a green card, etc. About 70 people were in attendance. There are still booklets on this type of information left in the BPP office. k. Medical/Dental Insurance: New insurance email went out. Open enrollment will begin around January 15, 2007 and coverage will start March 1, 2007. The new Aetna insurance will include medical/dental/vision/disability/life insurance for the individual postdoc at 12% reduction in cost for the PI. Family plans will be slightly higher, but they will include vision and dental along with the medical. No disability or life insurance. 5. Next meeting: January 8, 2007, 5pm Stellar Chance Room 104