MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE BOARD

The recent proposal to change our ABRF By-Laws to extend voting membership beyond the core facility directors to all individuals has been resoundingly approved. This vote is a recognition of a philosophical change that has taken place in the ABRF over the past several years. When the ABRF was formed 10 years ago, it was a group of just over 100 resource laboratories, some of which were very large. Because there was concern that these few large laboratories would dominate the organization, our current structure of one laboratory, one vote was chosen. As the ABRF grew and thrived, these concerns no longer seemed appropriate. We reached the untenable situation where many who worked with great dedication on behalf of the ABRF membership could not themselves vote. Even though there were many more resource laboratories, 284 this year, many scientists with goals similar to ours did not work in traditional core laboratory environments. Furthermore, most similar laboratories outside the United States are organized differently, so that many of our international members could not vote for representatives on the Executive Board or for By-Laws changes. Among the disenfranchised were two members of the current Executive Board, many research committee members, and several who organized or spoke at ABRF-sponsored symposia or workshops.

Because this was such an important step for the ABRF, the Executive Board took a personal interest in ensuring that the results of this vote were unambiguous, with as close to a full vote as possible. Joined by Ken Williams, we telephoned, E-mailed and faxed colleagues whose vote had not been received by the ABRF Business Office in Bethesda. Your response was warmly positive, with very few displeased at our reaching out to you. As a result, more than 200 resource laboratory directors voted essentially to dilute their vote so that all could participate as full voting ABRF members. There will still be a category of ABRF associates who are interested in our focus on technology and methodology, but either do not work in laboratories or work for vendors or manufacturers. Other issues voted upon dealt with details of the quorum requirements for ballots on elections, business matters, and By-Laws changes. We wish to assure those few who voted against these measures, perhaps concerned that the ABRF will abandon its focus, that this is not our intent. Our goals, as delineated in the mission statement (page 9), remain to support those scientists who keep learning, applying, and refining advanced technologies, and who also have the management and human skills to make science work in an interactive environment.

Our independent meeting and affiliated symposia comprise one of the important ways that we learn and evaluate current and emerging technologies. This summer Paul Matsudaira organized a half-day symposium, Dissecting Genetic Networks, held the day before the Protein Society Symposium in Boston. This thought-provoking session dealt with future technologies and the changing nature of experimental science in the next millennium. Al Smith, Mike Rohde, and the ABRF'98 Program Committee have made great progress in recruiting speakers and organizing sessions for next year's independent meeting, "From Genomes to Function: Technical Challenges of the Post-Genome Era". This meeting is designed to appeal both to our pragmatic nature, with many workshops and tutorials, as well as to our need to familiarize ourselves with cutting-edge technologies and their applications. Lowell Ericsson has agreed to chair the committee which will design and implement the new travel award program announced in June's ABRF News. We hope that this experimental program will enable as many ABRF members as possible to attend this exciting meeting.

Ruth Hogue Angeletti

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