Northern California Chapter
 

 

 

Chapter Report:  Spring 2008                                                     March 6, 2008

 

Board of Directors

The election for the 2008 Board of Directors was done through SurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.com) and voting was open from October 8 – 22, 2007. We had a great turnout with more than twice as many people—60 people—voting as in the last two yearsŐ elections. All nominees were elected:

 

President: Catherine Magill, PhD

Vice President (and president-elect): Elizabeth Matovinovic

Secretary: Barbara Boughton

Treasurer: Sunny Bishop

Membership Liaison: Rene McCabe

Programs Chair: Paula Zimlicki

Newsletter Editor: Fred Gebhart

 

Non-elected positions

Immediate past-president: Laura Singer

Web-mistress: Mimi Wessling, PhD

ByLaws

Additionally, we voted on amending the bylaws, to bring us into compliance with the National Bylaws.  The amended bylaws were approved, and have now been sent to national for their approval. Once the amended bylaws are finalized, theyŐll be posted to the Web site, and weŐll have a notice in the newsletter regarding the changes.

 

The amended Bylaws are as follows:

Add to Section VII, Meetings:

"The Chapter will comply with the national AMWA policy regarding the scheduling of major meetings in the specified time period before or after the annual conference. Specifically, chapter conferences where workshops are offered or seminars lasting more than one-half day will not be held within 30 days of the annual conference."

Article VIII, Amendments, section 2:
Change "Proposed amendments to these Bylaws shall take effect immediately on approval by the Chapter membership and the AMWA National Board." to "If proposed amendments (to the bylaws) are approved by majority of chapter members who cast votes, the proposed amendment shall be forwarded to the National Board of Directors. Any amendments to chapter bylaws require the approval of the National Board of Directors as indicated in the National Bylaws."

 

Membership

The Northern California Chapter currently has about 250 members, with 42 new members since July.

Financial status

Between the beginning of the fiscal year (July 1, 2007) and February 2008 the chapter had $5165.60 in expenses and $5621.57 in income. The chapterŐs bank balance was $13,869.30 on February 11, 2008.

 

Note: Although the chapter sponsors/hosts the Pacific Coast Conference this year (and does so every other year), the monies for that event are handled separately from the chapter funds.

Programs

Our chapter programs are generally held during the day on a weekend, and we rotate between San Francisco, the South Bay and the East Bay, thus encouraging attendance from members in various regions of Northern California.

 

Since the last report (September 15, 2007), the chapter has held 2 events with educational content and 1 social: 

 

October 27, 2007
Brunch in San Francisco followed by a presentation titled "Computer Health and Well-Being" This event was very successful, with 22 people attending.  The cost was $30.00 for members and $35.00 for non-members.

 

December 1, 2007

We purchased 15 tickets to the Body Worlds 2 exhibition at the San Jose Tech Museum (the exhibit of human bodies preserved by a new method of plastination and displayed very artisticly).  Ten people purchased tickets at $19.50, but only 6 attended at the time specified.  Several people went out for happy hour together afterwards.

 

January 28, 2008
Lunch and bocce ball social at Campo di Bocce in Livermore.  The cost was $40.00 and nine people attended. 

 

Note: We have discussed concerns regarding the low turnout at the last two events, as both these events were widely advertised by e-mail and in the newsletter, and posted on the website.  Apparently, our members are more willing to spend their time and money on events that have an educational component than purely social events.

 

We are continuing with our plan of offering a program roughly every other month, alternating between a Ňlearn-a-skillÓ event, a science event and a social event.  We had done a survey of members last year, regarding what events they would be likely to attend and will continue to try to offer those suggested events, as well as other interesting events that arise through monitoring other chapterŐs event suggestions.

 

Ideas for upcoming meetings:

MOST LIKELY TO ATTEND

á       Mary Roach (14)

á       Ethics and medical writing (13)

á       Effect of market research on drug development (13)

á       Project management (11)

á       Alternative/complimentary medicine (11)

á       Writing for medical device companies (11)

á       The female brain (9)

á       Patient management & communication in diabetes (9)

 

Top Alternatives

á       New developments in asthma

á       Autism

á       Health and disability insurance

á       Communications in clinical trials

á       Issues in translation

á       Desk-bound yoga

 

Communications

Newsletter

We have come close to our goal of publishing a newsletter every other month, publishing issues in September, December and February, and expect to have another issue out before the end of April.

 

Email lists

In mid-September we discovered that the email distribution system we had been using no longer worked, probably due to the change in website hosts. This has been solved through working with the new website host.

 

AMWA Pacific Coast Conference

We are hosting this yearŐs Pacific Coast conference at the Asilomar Conference Center, in Pacific Grove, CA, which will be held March 30 to April 2, 2008. We currently have 54 paid registrants and 6 guests, as well as 6 committee members and 14 speakers.  The conference includes 4 AMWA curriculum workshops and 9 open sessions.

Board meetings

The new board has held one full board meeting, a teleconference on February 11.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Catherine Magill, PhD