Minutes of the Virus Division Business Meeting – 2002

XXXV Annual Meeting of SIP, Foz do Iguassu, Brazil - Monday, August 19, 2002

Opening:

The Virus Division Business Meeting was attended by 45 people, including 40 members of the Division. The meeting was chaired by Chair-Elect, John Burand, as the Chair, Ian Smith, was unable to attend.

The slate of nominated candidates for the “open” positions on the Virus Division Executive was announced and each nominee given an opportunity to introduce themselves.

Chair’s Report (Ian Smith & John Burand):

John reported that at this meeting there will be 87 virus-related presentations including two Symposia (Arthropod-Borne Viruses & Prospects for the Use of Viral Pesticides) and one Plenary Session (Baculoviruses and the Bonus of Biotechnology). SIP Council again made US$1,000 available to support invited Symposia speakers. The Division split this amount evenly between two invited speakers, one each in the “Arthropod-Borne Viruses” symposium and the plenary session “Baculoviruses and the Bonus of Biotechnology”.

The SIP Council has decided to continue its support of each division with US$1,000.00 per year for invited symposia speakers at the SIP meetings. These moneys can be carried into a second year. The Council will also allow the use of these moneys to support Student Travel Grants if they are not used for Invited Speaker support. The Divisions are also able to do additional fund raising for support of Invited Speakers but only in coordination with the SIP Fund Raising Committee.

The increase in Division dues to US$10.00 for regular members that was passed at the 2001 Virus Division meeting was approved by the SIP General Council. Please see the following comments from the Chair’s (Ian Smith) Virus Division report to SIP General Council.

“Members present at the Division's Business Meeting at Noordwijkerhout in 2001 voted to raise our annual dues from US$3.00 to $10.00; the student rate was to remain unchanged at $2.00.  The increase was not implemented as planned at the beginning of 2002 because subscription renewal forms for this year were printed before the Executive Secretary was notified of the change, an oversight on the part of the Chair.

The validity of the decision to increase Divisional dues has since been questioned, and discussion and resolution of this issue at the 2002 Council Meeting is hoped for.  The intention of the dues increase is to enable the Virus Division to provide more support for student virologists who wish to participate in SIP meetings; we feel that the single $200.00 Student Travel Grant currently available is inadequate.

Approximately 60 members of the Division have expressed an opinion on the proposed increase, either by voting at the 2001 Business Meeting or by responding to a Division-wide e-mail sent out by the Chair at the end of 2001.  None rejected the proposal: two members were equivocal but the remainder supported it.”

The Virus Division Student Travel Grant for 2002 was awarded to Elisabeth Herniou of the Department of Biological Sciences, Imperial College, London. Elisabeth will be awarded her US$200.00 prize at the Banquet on Thursday, August 22, 2002. The Virus Division received five applications for the Travel Grant in 2002. The announcement of the winner was delayed as applicants for Divisional support who are giving oral presentations at the SIP meeting are automatically eligible for the more prestigious Martignoni Student Travel Award.  This meant that the Virus Division winner  could not be announced until Martignoni Award applications were judged.

The SIP General Council is considering reissuing the original SIP slide collection on CD-ROM. The input of each division is requested.

Secretary/Treasure’s Report (Martin Erlandson)

            The Virus Division's membership has fallen from 138 in July 2001 to 107 in July 2002.  This drop, while disappointing, is comparable, in percentage terms, to the decline in membership of the Society as a whole during the same period.

Financial Report for Fiscal Year 2002

(May 1, 2001 – April 31, 2002)

Information provided by the SIP Treasurer, Mickey McGuire, and the Executive Secretary, Peg Rotstein.

Comparative Statement of Fund Balance

The Division Web Site was converted to the SIP standard format through the assistance of Peg Rotstein. The minutes, virus division photos and announcements were placed on the Web Site during the year. The Virus Division E-mail Group List was updated and used for several Group Mailing announcements.

The Chair’s and Secretary/Treasurer’s reports were approved.

Items for Discussion

a) Research Award: There was a discussion of the executive’s recommendation that this Award proposal be shelved as a financial award. There was a consensus among the membership that there is still interest in a Meritorious Research Award but not on an annual basis.

b) Symposium/Workshop Titles: The following list of potential Symposia and Workshop titles was established by suggestions from the floor. The general consensus was that “Tritrophic Interactions” should be put forward to the Organizing Committee of SIP 2003 as a potential cross division symposium topic. The membership voted as to their preferred topics  and #2 “Baculovirus Genomics and Evolution” as well as #3 “Virus-Host Interactions (Comparative Virus Pathology)” were selected as symposia topics for next year. A second round of voting selected #4 “Resistance Mechanisms to Virus Infection” as a third option.

Symposium/Workshop Titles

1.      Tritrophic Interactions – (Potential Cross Division Symposium)

2.      Baculovirus Genomics and Evolution  {21}

3.      Virus-Host Interactions (Comparative Virus Pathology)  {16}

4.      Resistance Mechanisms to Virus Infection {*}

5.      Viruses of Aquatic Invertebrates

6.      Cell Culture: Serial Passage Effects and Virus Production

7.      Virus Ecology

8.      Field Performance of  Insect Viruses

9.      Invertebrate Virus Proteomics

10.  Invertebrate Virus Genomics

11.  Emerging Diseases of Invertebrates

12.  Insect Genomics [Future]

13.  Genomic Analysis Methodology – Workshop

Election of Officers

            Two nominations (Bryony Bonning, USA & Jim Maruniak, USA) were received by the Chair for the position of Chair Elect. Jim Maruniak was elected.

            One nomination (Jim Slavicek, USA) was received by the Chair for the position of Secretary/Treasurer. Jim was unanimously elected.

            Two nominations (Bob Possee, UK & Kelli Hoover, USA) were received by the Chair for the position of Member-at-Large. Kelli Hoover was elected.

New Business

            Just Vlak reminded members of the Division that individuals can make recommendations for Honorees and Speaker in the Founder’s Lecture series by contacting the Chair of the Founder’s Lecture Committee (Dudley Pinnock, Australia).

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned by the Chair.

Submitted: Martin Erlandson (Virus Division Secretary/Treasurer) August 28, 2002.