86th Penn Biomedical Postdoctoral Council Minutes, July 02, 2007

Eighty-sixth Meeting July 2, 2007, 5:00 PM (Stellar-Chance 104) 1. Welcome / Attendance: BPC: Stacy Gelhaus, Mikolaj Pawlak, Dave Hokey, Arindam Basu, Hedi Schelleman, Ying BPP: Kryste Ferguson Absent: Yvonne Paterson, Mark Lee, Janice Young, Fiona McGillicuddy, Yuko Kimura, Dave Chimento. 2. Update from Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs: Dr. Yvonne Paterson, Associate Dean for Postdoctoral Research Training, Director, BPP a. IRACDA—Funded for 5 postdocs/year 3. Major BPC and BPP projects: Kryste Ferguson and Subcommittees a. Penn Editor’s Club: Dave Chimento is now in charge of PEC. Said that PEC would help out with the symposium abstracts, editing. Also, great opportunity from JCI—Journal of Clinical Investigation to intern as an editor. b. Diversity—Still no one in charge of diversity, Eugenia wasn’t interested, but maybe we could contact her about being on the BPC in general, not specifically for diversity. c. Recruitment—Miku has discovered that most postdocs are apathetic and nerdy (shocking as that may be!!!). We are going to try to devise emails that will recruit postdocs by using tactics that may appeal to them—leadership skills, looks good on CV, get to know faculty and administration, etc. d. Budget—Money left is budget is no longer available for use. Commented that we should pay more attention next year and if there is money that needs to be spent we should have a BPC strategic planning dinner. e. Seminar Series—Debbie Gilead may come and talk—possible to incorporate this into a HH/reception type deal, maybe the week of September 10 th or the 24th. Also Victoria McGovern will come and speak in the spring about grant applications for Burroughs Wellcome. f. Social Activities—Next happy hour is July 12th at 4pm on the top floor of BRB. Need some volunteers to man the door and make sure those who are coming in free are postdocs. Arindam and Yuko are in charge. Yuko is calling about food/drink and Arindam has been in contact with vendors for money. Stacy is going to send him the list of vendors from the Scripps vendor show website. Maybe this way we can contact different companies. g. Sports—badminton tournament was a success, all day event. Prizes were given out for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in all divisions. Soccer team wants money for t-shirts.

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Stacy and Miku suggested that they have one or two team members on council to represent the sports committee instead of us just giving them money. They need to make a contribution to the council. Foreign National Committee—haven’t had a meeting since February, but Arindam and Kryste agreed that they should schedule these for once a month except when there is an orientation that month. Two meetings, one for July and August have been tentatively scheduled for Stellar Chance, Room 104 on the last Thursday of the month from 1-2 pm (July 26th and August 23rd) Insurance: Dave, Stacy, Kryste, Mary Anne, and Yvonne met with those who had concerns from the SOM and then also with “reps” from Chemistry, Biology, and the Vet school. We discussed the general concerns of the postdoc body, which all seem to focus on more choice—adding a PPO and also a better prescription plan. A teleconference with Dave, Stacy, Mary Anne, and Garnett-Powers is set for Monday, July 9th at 1pm EST. National Postdoc Assoc. 2010 Proposal—A meeting was held on Thursday July 5th by phone—Kryste, Stacy, Lisa (Jeff), Wendy and Dave (CHOP), and Rick (Drexel) to start forming a proposal to host the NPA meeting in 2010. We are also going to contact Temple, UofD, and Princeton to see if they are interested. Fox Chase is also going to participate, but did not attend the meeting. Symposium—The first symposium meeting was held on Monday, July 2nd and 4pm in Stellar Chance Rm 104. The abstract deadline was set for August 17 th and the extended deadline (if needed) will be August 24th. Ron Germain is still coming and travel arrangements are being made. The schedule was set for the day and shifted up by 30 minutes to accommodate for the Memorial Lecture, which will take place before the keynote speaker. The format will be the same as last year with oral presentations and poster sessions in the morning and afternoon, pizza for lunch, then memorial lecture, keynote speaker, and reception. After the abstracts are turned in by August 24th the committee will meet again to go through abstracts and choose oral presentations. This will also give Mary enough time to put the abstract booklet together. Arindam and Yuko will need to send letters requesting funding for the symposium so we have money to use for our Lisa Marshall prizes. Three were given out last year and the responses were positive. Upcoming Events—Orientation on Tuesday, September 18th, HH on July 12th, Etiquette Course beginning of Septmber.

5. Next meeting: August 6, 2007, 5pm Stellar Chance Room 104