Created: 1st June 2000, last updated: 30th August 2000, © 2000 ABRF
ABRF Annual Meetings
ABRF 2000 was a big success, with a total of 965 attendees. The scientific program was outstanding thanks to organizers Ruedi Aebersold and Ulf Landgren. Paul Tempst and Dave Schwartz are busy preparing for ABRF 2001: "The New Biology: Technologies for Resolving Macromolecular Communications." They are also planning a course on analysis and interpretation of gene array data. Mark your calenders for February 24-27, 2001, for the meeting in San Diego, CA, a favorite of many of our members.
JBT and the Publications Committee
Efforts are under way to establish electronic publishing for the Journal of Biomolecular Techniques. Ralph Bradshaw, chair of the Publications Committee, highly recommends an affiliation with Highwire Press. Highwire is a nonprofit organization based at Stanford University that facilitates electronic publishing of academic journals. The journal would appear online 2 to 4 weeks before the printed version. The submission process would also be online. The lag time in the regular printing process will be considerably diminished. The date an article appears online is the "published" date. The electronic version of JBT would still be linked through ABRF's website. It was decided that JBT is not ready for the electronic review process at this time. The committee and Molly Connors of Copperplate Press (formerly MEDedit) are investigating indexing options for JBT. Molly reported that advertising revenue for JBT is increasing. Generating sufficient content for the journal is still a concern. Editorial Board members serve a 3-year term and during their term are responsible for an article and for soliciting one or two additional articles for JBT. Members are also requested to submit their best work to JBT.
Web Page Ad Hoc Committee
Ted Thannhauser has accepted the position of chair of the Web Page Ad Hoc Committee; present members include Len Packman, Paul Morrison, and James VanEe. The committee is still recruiting prospective members. The charge to the committee is to evaluate the present website and determine what is necessary to increase its functionality.
Updating the Yellow Pages
Listing your laboratory in the online ABRF Yellow Pages is one of your benefits of membership. As such, the listing will now expire annually and can be updated/renewed upon renewal of your membership. Therefore, all Yellow Pages entries will be updated with the coming fall membership registration.
ABRF Participation in Other Meetings
Roger Bumgarner will be presenting the current study of the Microarray Research Group at the 2nd International MicroArray Meeting on Standards Annotations, Ontologies and Databases, May 2000, in Heidelberg, Germany. Duane Bartley will be presenting the Fragment Analysis Research Group study at the DNA2000 meeting in Boston, MA, June 1-2, 2000. Ted Thannhauser is organizing a group composed of a representative from each of the four DNA research groups to present at the GSAC, September 11-14, 2000, in Miami, FL. A joint session of the ABRF with ASBMB, March 31-April 2, 2001, in Orlando, FL, is being organized by Ron Niece.
New President-Elect Clause in Executive Board Policy
The Executive Board has instituted a new policy to prepare new nominees for the positions of President and Treasurer with the creation of an "Elect" position (ie, President-Elect and Treasurer-Elect). These officers will work closely with the President and Treasurer for one year and then hold the official office for one year. Laurey Steinke will be the Treasurer-Elect for 2000 and the Treasurer for 2001, and Mark Lively will be the President-Elect for 2000 and the President for 2001. We look forward to Mark's leadership and Laurey's "handling of the purse strings"!