The annual Winter Board meeting of the ABRF was held March 5-6 and was hosted by Dan Marshak at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. In addition to the six members of the Executive Board, the meeting was attended by Ray Paxton, immediate past member of the EB; John Crabb, ABRF Scientific Director; Audree Fowler and Beth Fowler, this year's annual ABRF meeting organizers; Ken Williams, Newsletter Editor; and Al Smith, Beckman-ABRF Award Coordinator.
The meeting consisted of extensive discussions regarding the present state and future of the ABRF. The general consensus reached was that the situation is very favorable in both areas. This year we have gained 97 new members but so far approximately 80 previous members have not yet renewed. These previous members will be contacted and it is expected that many will renew their membership for a positive and healthy net gain in membership. As we increase our annual activities, as we have been doing for the last several years, expenses also continue to increase. Thus, it was decided that a modest increase in dues, to $150/year for directors and $35/year for associates, was in order. We hope this increase, which is the first since ABRF initiated dues in 1990 will not represent too great a burden on our members and will give us the means to keep the quality and diversity of our programs strong.
Other major decisions that were reached were to publish a directory of facilities that offer resources to outside users, investigate the services of a public relations consultant to increase the visibility of the ABRF in the scientific community, and establish an independent meeting in 1995 that would focus on techniques in all areas relevant to our membership. We will also continue our efforts to call attention to the crisis in instrumentation funding and will initiate efforts to promote the visibility and perception of the value of Resource Facilities and their personnel. Plans for several workshops which will be presented in conjunction with major meetings this year were also discussed. These include the annual meeting of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry in late May, the ASBMB meeting in May, and the Methods in Protein Structure Analysis meeting in September. The establishment of the Beckman-ABRF Award was a major topic this year. We feel fortunate that a company of the stature of Beckman Instruments has enthusiastically endorsed this award with their sponsorship. This marks the first time that direct recognition will be given to accomplishments that directly affect techniques and instrumentation in resource facilities and that have significant impact on the research of those who use these facilities as integral and important parts of their research efforts. The meeting concluded with unanimous re-affirmation of the values and goals of the Association and its dedication to the benefit of its members. We are the only professional association that also has a research program. This is considered to be one of our strengths and is one that we hope members will continue to strongly support.
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