IPS 2002
Board Meeting Minutes, Stratford

The minutes of the Halifax meeting were approved with minor changes.

Secretary's report: the Office of the Secretariat is costing less due to electronic communications. The expenses for the past two years were $1461.30. We will update our e-mail list at this meeting so that we can do more communication electronically. Southwest Data was hired to digitize the first twelve volumes of the Proceedings. They came in on budget and did an excellent job. The University of Iowa was hired to make copies of the CD. Paid members should have received their CDs.

Treasurer’s report: We had $11,743.98 in the treasury before the Halifax meeting. The total meeting expenses were $203,957 (CAD). The meeting revenue was $247,380 (CAD), which left us with a balance of $43,423 {approximately $29,000 (US)}. Dues income has decreased substantially but we are printing fewer copies of proceedings and did not give reprints. The society is in reasonably good financial shape. Dues paying membership currently number 71. In addition, 53 are current through last year. Dr. Mills expected many to pay at the meeting. Dr. Mills guessed we would have 100 members. Therefore, about $13,000 will be collected in dues for the next two years.

A discussion ensued of whether to continue the Proceedings in the current format. Dr. Wild outlined the underlying problems we currently have. The most pressing issue is the decline in our membership. We asked what benefits do we have as a member? The sole tangible item currently is the proceedings. The number of people publishing in the Proceedings that are in the “premier league” is declining. The majority of papers this year come from non-members. Putting on a conference like this is becoming more difficult. Dr. Wild stated he has raised about 80K U.S.

Dr. Heijl discussed a proposal whereby we could publish the top-- approximately 25-- papers in Acta Ophthalmolgica Scandinavica. Dr. Heijl is the chief editor of Acta. He said the Gonin Society (retina) is moving their publications to Acta. Acta is the scientific journal of the Nordic countries. It has a circulation of 2600. This includes 800 mailings outside the Nordic countries. The Journal provides full text on the Web.  Six issues are published per year; this amounts to 750 pages. He said that all IPS members would receive Acta at a discounted rate. The IPS abstracts would be printed as a program booklet. Dr. Heijl suggested that he would open a position for one IPS board member on the Acta board. Acta would print 25-30 papers from each meeting. Acta could do this based on 150 members paying 70 dollars per year. He suggested we could look for a sponsor. Dr. Henson suggested not getting the hard copy. Dr. Heijl said this would not work because the cost is not much different and the advertisers would not like this. Blackwell is the publisher. The Acta review process could be moved to the IPS or the IPS could do it internally and work with an Acta board member. Dr. Heijl suggested, though, that the IPS board member to use the Acta process. If we do this it would start at the next meeting. Dr Schiefer suggested this be presented to the membership at the business meeting. Dr. Kitazawa thought the Japanese members would favor this. The suggestion was made if you are a paid member you could have copies of old proceedings. Drs. Sample and Schiefer suggested the Acta option might increase the membership.

Reports from Board Committees:

Scientific: Standards, Dr. Casson, head of the Standards Committee notified us that she wished to resign from the Board. Dr. Dannheim said the ISO standards have incorporated the IPS standards from the working meeting of 6 years ago. Dr. Wall suggested the document be completed and put on the website and possibly published. Drs. Sample, Schiefer and Wall volunteered to finish the document.

Communications: Dr. Schiefer stated that he had heard comments that the web site was not very attractive and is difficult to find some information. It was suggested we redesign the web site and possibly obtain sponsorship for the web site. Dr. Wall will look into a redesign of the sponsorship and will proceed if it can be done for less than $1000. Gaining membership in IPS should be made easier. We should have a meeting schedule on the web page. We should also request to be linked from other national societies. Dr. Iwase reported on the Japanese web site. She is working on the contents and will send us the url. 

Dr. Dannheim suggested we develop an Internet-based education program in glaucoma. Mario Zulauf has set up an IPS Listserve Group and has looked into minimizing virus distribution. One will need to be an IPS member to participate. Dr. Zulauf will supervise this. He plans to go online next week. He stated the costs would be minimal.

Development: no activity

Membership: We agreed we needed to attract new members; enhancing our web site would help this as would giving away old Proceedings.

A request by Dr. Sampaolesi for membership dues extension due to the Argentinian economy was discussed. We decided to defer his dues for now.

Nomination of Officers and New Board Members: Dr. Wild is stepping down as President. Drs. Kitazawa and Heijl are completing their terms as Vice-Presidents. Dr. Wall is completing his term as Secretary.

Dr. Wall was nominated as President by Dr. Wild and seconded by Dr. Henson. David Henson was nominated by Dr. Sample, and Bal Chauhan was nominated by Dr. Heijl for Secretary, but Dr. Chauhan declined. Dr. Iwase was nominated as Vice-President as was Dr. Schiefer. Dr. Kitazawa nominated Yoshio Yamazaki as a Board member. Dr. Heijl was nominated as a Board member under Development. For at-large members, the following members were nominated: Ron Harwerth and Yoshio Yamazaki. The site of the next meeting was discussed:, Finland with Dr. Vesti volunteering to host the meeting in Helsinki; Barcelona was also suggested; Portland; and the Canary Islands. The importance of fundraising tied to the meeting was discussed. The Development Committee under direction of the President will head the fundraising.