2004 NATIONAL DROSOPHILA BOARD MEETING

 

March 24, 2004, Washington DC

Maryland C, Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, 2 – 6 p.m.

 

 

		Report
INTRODUCTION & APPROVAL OF THE 2003 MINUTES	2:00 – 2:10	1
MEETING ORGANIZATION	2:10 – 2:40
2004 PROGRAM COMMITTEE    (Paul Lasko, Howard Lipshitz)	10’	2
2004 PROGRAM COMMITTEE   (Kavita Arora, Rahul Warrior, Frank Laski)
SANDLER LECTURESHIP COMMITTEE  (Ross Cagan)	5’	3
REPORT OF THE GSA MEETING COORDINATOR  (Marsha Ryan)	10’	4
2004 MEETING SITE SUMMARY
2007 MEETING SITE SELECTION
TREASURER’S REPORT    (Rick Fehon)	2:40 – 2:50 10’	5
DROSOPHILA BOARD COMPOSITION	2:50 – 3:00
ELECTION REPORT (Trudi Schüpbach)		6
PROPOSAL ON PRESIDENT’S TERM  (Trudi Schüpbach)	10’	7
NOMENCLATURE COMMITTEE REPORTS     (Scott Hawley, Kevin Cook)	5’	8
COMMUNITY RESOURCE REPORTS & PROJECTS I	3:00 - 4:00
BLOOMINGTON STOCK CENTER  (Kathy Matthews, Kevin Cook)    REPORT OF ADVISORY COMMITTEE (Hugo Bellen)	10’ 10’	9 10
KYOTO STOCK CENTER (Yoshi Yamamoto)	10’	11
P ELEMENT COLLECTION (Allan Spradling)	20’	12
TUCSON STOCK CENTER  (Teri Markow)
SPECIES SEQUENCING PROJECT (Markow, Clark, Langely, Gelbart))	10’	13
DIS (Jim Thomson)		14
BREAK & SNACKS	4:00 – 4:15
SPECIAL GUEST  Judith Plesset (NSF)	4:15 – 4:45	15
COMMUNITY RESOURCE REPORTS & PROJECTS II	4:45—5:30
NIH/NSF OUTREACH (Bill Gelbart/Ruth Lehmann)	20’	16
FLYBASE (Bill Gelbart)	10’	17
IMAGE AWARD (David Bilder)	5’	18
GSA POSTER AND TALK AWARD (Lynn Cooley)	10’	19
	5:30

 

 

 

 

2004 Drosophila Board Meeting Minutes

March 24, 2004, Washington D.C.  Marriott Wardman Hotel

 

Present: Kavita Aurora, Michael Ashburner, Hugo Bellen,  David Bilder, Amy Bejsovec, Ken Burtis, Ross Cagan, Kevin Cook, Lynn Cooley,  Claude Desplan, Rick Fehon, Bill Gelbart, Scott Hawley, Yash Hiromi, David Ish-Horovitz, Henry Krause,  Frank Laski, Chuck Langley, Ruth Lehmann,  Dennis McKearin, Brian Oliver, Susan Parkhurst,  Laurel Raftery, Marsha Ryan, Rob Saint, Trudi Schupbach, Allan Spradling, Jim Thompson, Barbara Wakimoto  and Toshi Yamamoto

 

1.  2003 BOARD MEETING SUMMARY

2003 Board Meeting Minutes were approved.  This report can be found on flybase.

 

2.  REPORT OF THE 2004 PROGRAM COMMITTEE (Howard Lipshitz and Paul Lasko)

Howard Lipshitz and Paul Lasko extended thanks to Marsha Ryan and GSA staff for their excellent support in organizing this year’s meeting.  They reported that everything went smoothly. They agreed with previous organizers that the workshop are still the most time consuming part since their success depends on the organization talents of the workshop chairs.  Their philosophy was to accept all proposed workshops and they had a record number of workshops.  Suggestions for next year include:  1) asking authors to provide full first names on their abstract submissions so the organizers can more easily monitor gender balance; 2)  we should continue to check on the availability of internet connections for people wanting to present database development.  Although we would like to offer this option, feasibility and costs will be site dependent.  The Board asked Marsha to check on a room for the next meeting in Houston set aside to be used just for computer presentations. It may be possible to buy a block of computer time rather than service throughout the entire conference to save money.  Another concern is the added costs for security for the computers.  Contributions for covering these expenses may come the presenters and it was suggested that at least some presenters may be willing to pay.  The question of whether to provide for this new service in Houston will have to be settled soon since Marsha needs a budget for the 2005 meeting by June.

 

Registration:  Pre-registration for the meeting continues to be strong, as detailed in the report from Marsha Ryan.  1540 people have registered for the meeting.  An additional ~100 participants are expected to register at the meeting itself.  The strong attendance continues even with the increased accommodation expenses and registration fees. 

Plenary Speakers:  Twelve plenary speakers were invited for the two plenary sessions on Thursday and Sunday morning.  Plenary speakers were chosen for their excellent science and for their ability to communicate in talks.  We made efforts to cover a broad range of current topic areas, to include investigators at different stages in their careers, and to achieve gender and geographical balance to the greatest extent possible: 4 junior and 8 senior; 7 male and 5 female; 8 from the US, 2 from the UK, 1 each from Canada and Israel.  At Bill Gelbart's suggestion, we took advantage of the fact that the conference is in Washington DC to invite Francis Collins to give a plenary talk on "Biology in the era of complete genomes".  Peter Lawrence was invited to be the keynote speaker for the opening night, and will speak on “Pattern formation: from flake to avalanche”.  An updated List of Plenary Speakers is appended to this report, which includes the year 2004 invited speakers.

Abstract Submission: Abstracts were solicited under thirteen areas of primary research interest (same as last year).  The list of 2004 topics is appended to the end of this report, including the number of abstracts submitted in each area.  In total, 982 requests were received for posters and platform talks (910 + 72 late).  This compares with 1016 in 2003, 1003 in 2002 and 966 in 2001.  There were 361 requests for platform presentations for 153 available slots, allowing accommodation of 42% of the requests (12% more than last year).

The choice of session topics worked well, although there is definitely a higher chance of being chosen for a platform presentation in some areas relative to others (see Table II below).  This is because of the constraints placed on the number of talks per session, which vary from 14 to 7.  The number of speakers for each sub-topic was roughly in proportion to the number of abstracts requesting platform talks in each sub-field, insofar as possible without combining different topical areas into a single platform session.  The most popular submission topics were Regulation of Gene Expression and Signal Transduction, followed by Neurogenetics/Neural Development, Neural Physiology/Behavior, Pattern Formation, and Cytoskeleton/Cellular Biology.

Posters:  We maintained, as much as feasible, the policy of the 2003 organizers in having a great deal of time devoted to poster sessions (15 hours in 2004 versus 17 hours in 2003). As in 2003, we devoted a large percentage of the time early in the meeting to blocks of poster time with author attendance.

Slide Sessions:  Initial selection of abstracts for platform talks was carried out by the platform session chairs from among the pool of submissions requesting consideration.   The primary criteria were novelty and scientific interest.   As program chairs we then reviewed the selections and made minor alterations to the list of selected speakers in order, as much as possible, to avoid choosing multiple speakers from the same laboratory (in some rare cases, we felt that selections from the same group were appropriate if the topics covered were truly distinct).

Workshops:  A total of 14 workshops were organized: 12 during the conference and 2 on the Wednesday, before the conference officially begins. This is over twice the number of workshops scheduled for the 2003 conference but similar to the 2002 total (13).   Reasons for this fluctuation are not obvious (but see below).  The organizer of the 'ecdysone' workshop (acting on behalf the 2003 attendees) requested a return to the traditional format of an all-day workshop preceding the meeting, and we acceded to this request.  The 'GPCR signaling' workshop was also scheduled for all day Wednesday; however, it had to be held off-site because the workshop organizer had misunderstood the timing and logistical requirements. Responsibility for organizing the program and content of each workshop was delegated to the workshop organizers.  Input from the conference organizers was limited to scheduling and other logistical issues (e.g. insuring against redundant talks etc.).   Previous organizers felt that issues related to the workshops were “the most time-consuming and vexing problems …. encountered”.  The 2004 organizing committee experienced similar pressures.  The solution to these problems is not altogether clear: one solution to misunderstandings about scheduling would be to notify workshop chairs at the outset of the approximate time and day on which the workshops will be held.  Tardiness on the part of some of the workshop organizers in sending details to the organizing committee remains a problem.

Previous organizers felt that “A choice needs to be made: are the workshops meant to be workshops (informal groups of people meeting to discuss relevant issues), or are they meant to be another form of platform session, with the topic suggested by the community?”  This organizing committee adopted a “hands-off” policy: all workshops suggested by the community were approved except where a particular topic would have been duplicated (in those cases, the first proposal was accepted). The atmosphere of each workshop will reflect the attitudes adopted by the individual workshop organizers.   This year we made abstracts for each workshop mandatory; these are listed in the Program and Abstracts book.  Lists of speakers were not mandatory for the workshop sessions; only two chose to list speakers in the book.  It should be noted that, this year, there was no proposal for a 'techniques' workshop.  Future organizers may wish to ensure that there is a stand-alone workshop dedicated to techniques (i.e., by identifying an appropriate workshop organizer if none comes forward spontaneously).

Suggestion to consider a new presentation format:   For several abstracts, the content features novel databases, software-mining tools and other computer based material, etc.   These abstracts were submitted either for platform talks or posters yet neither format seems entirely satisfactory in light of the uniquely interactive nature of the material and the benefits from “hands-on” exchange with the developers/presenters.   The 2003 organizers pointed out that, as needs to present web-based content will certainly increase in future meetings, the board should consider a new presentation option for future meetings.  This could be an elected format option chosen by presenters - in addition to the standard platform talks and posters - and could modeled after the computer station format developed by the presenters of Flybase.  Important considerations, beyond the obvious logistics of adding computer-based presentations, include the high cost of providing additional lines for Internet access.  The costs are very high (for 2004, Flybase, for instance, will pay for 4 STSN High Speed Internet Connections for 4 days @ $750/day for the first connection plus $125 flat for each additional connection, for a total of $3,375).  An additional problem is scheduling of such presentations given the already over-loaded conference program.  We agree that this is an issue that the board and future organizers need to consider.  However, for the reasons listed above, we did not attempt to implement this suggestion in 2004.

Policies regarding registration, travel and accommodation expenses:  In general, the policies followed were similar to those for the 2003 meeting.  With board approval, travel expenses were covered for the 'historical' speaker and all overseas plenary speakers (1+3 persons).  Complimentary hotel rooms were reserved -- as traditionally -- for GSA personnel, the meeting organizers, and foreign scientists who indicated critical fund shortages. Registration fees were waived for participants who made such a request on the basis of serious financial need.  While there are many deserving domestic scientists, the critical nature of fund shortages presented by foreign colleagues and the limited supply of complimentary rooms made it difficult to justify extending this courtesy to scientists from historically affluent countries.

Contrary to the 2003 organizers, we have received no reports of visa difficulties that have resulted in delays or cancellation by foreign registrants.  This may be due in part to the posting of information on the conference website from the outset.

Interactions with the GSA office:  Interactions with the GSA office and staff were excellent again this year. Although the organizers are new each year, the GSA is now very experienced with respect to this meeting, and most issues were dealt with efficiently and expediently. Marsha Ryan in particular is outstanding at ensuring that the organizers do the right thing at the right time.  Thank you Marsha!!  The 2004 organizers met with the 2003 organizers in Chicago to discuss planning of the conference; similarly, we will meet with the 2005 organizers in Washington to provide advice and information.  We also periodically contacted the 2003 organizers for advice during the planning process, and will be available in a similar capacity to the 2005 organizers.

AV/Computer-based presentations:  As computer-based presentations are now the dominant media for talks, a professional AV contractor was hired to handle the IT demands of the meeting, as was done very successfully in 2003. Certain frustrating issues arose in this regard, and were dealt with efficiently and successfully by Marsha Ryan.  These issues, the high cost of AV services as well as other issues regarding the Washington DC meeting site are considered in Marsha's report and deserve significant discussion by the board.

 In summary, everything went fairly smoothly this year and attendance continues to be stable or even to increase.  We look forward to an enjoyable meeting.

 

Acknowledgements:  This report used the report of the 2003 organizing committee as a template, and includes text from that report.

I. Updated Plenary Speaker list

 

Susan Abmayr                          1995

Kathryn Anderson                  1999

Deborah Andrew                    1997

Chip Aquadro                           1994

Spyros Artavanis                     1994

Bruce Baker                              1996

Bruce S. Baker                         2002

Utpal Banerjee                         1997

Konrad Basler                          2003

Amy Bejsovec                          2000

Phil Beachy                               1998

Hugo Bellen                              1997

Celeste Berg                              1994

Marianne Bienz                       1996

Ethan Bier                                  2002

Seth Blair                                    1997

Grace Boekhoff-Falk             2003

Nancy Bonini                           2000

Juan Botas                                  1999

Andrea Brand                           2001

Vivian Budnik                          2000

Ross Cagan                                1998

John Carlson                             1999

John Carlson                             2002

Sean Carroll                               1995

Andrew G. Clark                     2002

Tom Cline                                   2000

Francis Collins                       2004

Claire Cronmiller                    1995

Ilan Davis                                    2001

Rob Denell                                 1999

Michael Dickinson                 1995

Chris Doe                                   1996

Ian Duncan                                2001

Bruce Edgar                              1997

Anne Ephrussi                          2001

Mel B. Feany                            2002

Martin Feder                              1998

Janice Fischer                           1998

Matthew Freeman            2004

Minx Fuller                             2003

Elizabeth R. Gavis               2002

Bill Gelbart                             1994

Pam Geyer                              1996

Richard Gibbs                       2003

David Glover                          2000

Kent Golic                               2001

Iswar Hariharan                    2003

Dan Hartl                                 2001

Scott Hawley                          2001

Tom Hayes                              1995

Ulrike Heberlein                   1996

Ulrike Heberlein                   1998

Martin Heisenberb               1998

David Hogness                      1999

Joan Hooper                           1995

Wayne Johnson                    2000

Timothy Karr                         2003

Thom Kaufman                     2001

Rebecca Kellum                   1999

Christian Klambt                  1998

Thomas B. Kornberg          2002

Mark Krasnow                   2004

Henry Krause                      2004

Ed Kravitz                             2004

Mitzi Kuroda                          2003

Paul Lasko                              1999

Cathy Laurie                          1997

Ruth Lehmann                      2002

Maria Leptin                           1994

Mike Levine                           2003

Bob Levis                                1997

Haifan Lin                               1995

Susan Lindquist                    2000

John Lis                                    2001

Liqun Luo                               2003

J. Lawrence Marsh          2004

Erika Matunis                     2004

Dennis McKearin                1996

Mike McKeown                   1996

Jon Minden                             1999

Denise Montell                      2002

Roel Nusse                              1997

David O’Brochta                    1997

Terry L. Orr-Weaver                 2002

Linda Partridge                       2004

Mark Peifer                                   1997

Trudy MacKay                            2000

Nipam Patel                                  2000

Norbert Perrimon                       1999

Leslie Pick                                     1994

M. Ramaswami                           2001

Robert Rawson                           2003

Pernille Rorth                               1995

Gerry Rubin                                 1998

Gerry Rubin                                 2001

Hannele Ruohola-Baker         1999

Helen Salz                                     1994

Babis Savakis                               1995

Paul Schedl                                   1998

Gerold Schubiger                       1996

Trudi Schüpbach                    2004

Matthew P. Scott                        2002

John Sedat                                     2000

Amita Sehgal                               2003

Allen Shearn                                1994

Marla Sokolowski                      1998

Ruth Steward                               1996

Tin Tin Su                                      2002

Bill Sullivan                                  1996

John Sved                                      1997

John Tamkun                               2000

Barbara Taylor                            1996

Bill Theurkauf                              1994

William Theurkauf                     2002

Tim Tully                                       1995

Talila Volk                                   2004

Barbara Wakimoto                    2001

Steve Wasserman                       1996

Kristi Wharton                             1994

Kevin P. White                          2004

Kristin White                             2004

Eric Wieschaus                           1996

Ting Wu                                         1997

Tian Xu                                           1997

Philip Zamore                              2003

Susan Zusman                             1998

 

 

II.                    Number of applicants and speakers in different topical areas

	Session Title	# abstracts (excl. late)	# requesting talk	# selected for talk
1	Meiosis, Mitosis, and Cell Division	61	21	8
2	Cytoskeleton and Cellular Biology	78	32	14
3	Genome and Chromosome Structure	66	22	8
4	Regulation of Gene Expression	101	31	14
5	Signal Transduction	98	49	21
6	Pattern Formation	81	35	14
7	Gametogenesis and Sex Determination	72	24	14
8	Organogenesis	46	20	8
9	Neurogenetics and Neural Development	81	32	14
10	Neural Physiology and Behavior	80	33	14
11	Evolution and Quantitative Genetics	63	25	8
12	Immune System and Cell Death	42	19	7
113	Techniques and Genomics	41	18	8

 

 

 

3. REPORT OF THE SANDLER COMMITTEE (Ross Cagan)

 

2004 Committee members:

Ross Cagan, Washington University (Chair)

Amanda Simcox, Ohio State (2003 Chair)

Susan Abmayr, Stowers Institute

Tom Clandinin, Stanford

 

Mechanism of Committee Selection: The current year’s chair selects next

year’s chair (during summer), and also stays on for one year for

“continuity”.  The chair selects the other members; a list of recent

members is pasted at the end of this document.  You need to have the

committee chosen by early Fall.  Membership numbers have varied; we had no

problem with a committee size of four.  One should pay attention to

gender, geographic region and perhaps specialty / area of expertise.

 

Key Contact at GSA: Marsha Ryan mryan@genetics.faseb.org

Please contact Marsha as early as possible with the name and address of

the chairperson so the information is included in the Fly Meeting

Announcements.  The deadline for nomination should be given careful

consideration, given the fluctuation in Fly Meeting dates.

 

Selling points for committee work: Not much work; really fun to read what

is going on in fly field; an excuse to chat with other fly people;

responsibility to the meeting, which is FOR the students and postdocs,

really. Most faculty members I approached agreed without any question.  In

past years faculty have been “let off the hook” for good reasons (grant

due Feb / March 1, but were asked to give two names as suggested committee

members.

 

Operation of Committee: Because there were no major disagreements during

both phases of the selection process (see below), the committee was able

to correspond by email with no conference calls necessary.

 

Initial Nomination / Application: (thesis abstract, student's CV, Letter

of support from Advisor):

Nominations arrived by mail throughout December and a total of 8 were

received. This is somewat less than the previous year (12). I do think

given the number of spectacular theses that were not submitted that, e.g.,

an email notice would improve submissions.  Some applications arrived as

email attachments, others as hard copies through the mail.  I mailed

copies of the nomination materials to committee members in January and

sent them to the committee members.

 

I acknowledged receipt of all applications. I strongly recommend the

process be by email only; Word or PDF files would be appropriate, much as

most journals now prefer.  This is more convenient in terms of forwarding

quickly (and cheaply) to committee members and would avoid the worry that

an application was lost in the mail somewhere.

 

Nominee         Advisor

Richard Benton          St. Johnston

Jennifer Dorman         Berg

Marie Gottar            Ferrandon

Elizabeth Grevengoed    Peifer

Sean McGuire            Davis

Mala Murphy             Schwartz

Grazia Raffa            Gatti

Carlos Ribeiro          Affolter

Patrick Versticken      Bellen

 

 

Initial round of selection:

Each member of the committee ranked the applicants using 1-5 to identify

their top four candidates based on the quality and impact of the research

and the independence of the applicant.  Four of the eight applicants—

Benton, Gottar, McGuire, and Verstricken— were clearly identified as the

top candidates.  They were asked to send copies of their completed thesis

(figures and text), on CD ROMs, posted electronically, or as PDF

attachments, which I mailed or emailed to the committee.  All committee

members were happy to read the theses electronically.

 

Final round of selection:

Each member of the committee read the theses and ranked the three

finalists.  The standard was very high but Sean McGuire was the winner.

One issue that arose was whether it was worth determining a third-vs.-

fourth (Benton vs. Gottar), as they were ranked identically yet

potentially our ranking determined the amount of financial help provided

to both. One suggestion was to stick with just a winner and runner-up, and

pay for the entire registration-plus-hotel for those two. I am mixed on

this suggestion.

 

The Award:

Opening talk of the Drosophila Research Conference April, 2003.

Chairperson introduces speaker; summarizes why the award exists, perhaps

briefly mentions some things about the selection process.  Steve DiNardo,

gave me his PowerPoint slides from last year to form a base for the

introduction.  Steve also advised me to read Dan Lindsley’s “Perspectives”

about Larry Sandler (Genetics 151, 1233-1237) as people serving on the

committee are not necessarily directly connected to Larry.

 

1.  Sandler Award Plaque (see entry on "Plaque", below)

3.  Lifetime membership in the GSA (Arranged wholly by Marsha)

4.  All expenses to attend the meeting (Arranged wholly by Marsha).

5.  Runners up.  This year the GSA also offered to pay for the three

runners up to travel to the meeting and covered their registration.  Their

hotel costs were not covered. At least one runners-up will be attending.

 

Plaque:  Once I knew the winner, I emailed the full name, award date, and

Marsha's email to Brinks Trophy.  The company contacted me to confirm

details and shipping address.I received the plaque in plenty of time.

 

The history: Lynn Cooley (2001) arranged for 10 plaques to be made by

Brinks Trophy Shoppe in Santa Cruz, CA (831-426-2505;

staff@brinkstrophies.com).  Bill Sullivan laid the groundwork for this in

2000. Marsha Ryan paid for the plaques and the silk-screening of the name

/ date of the winner $690.00 total), and she has all the information on

how to contact them.  The selection committee chairperson simply needs to

contact Brinks Trophy so that the name of the winner and the date of the

award can be silk-screened on one of the plaques. The only additional cost

will be shipping of the completed plaque to the committee chair; sent by

UPS ground, which Marsha is billed for.

 

Outstanding expenses:  I do not know.

 

Previous Committee Members: This is the list of past committee members to

help future chairs select new people for the task.

 

2000 Committee:

Amy Bejsovec

Tom Cline

Joe Duffy

Chris Field

Janice Fischer

Scott Hawley

Bill Saxton (Chair)

Bill Sullivan (1999 Chair)

 

2001 Committee:

Laurel Raftery

Haig Keshishian

Susan Parkhurst

Bill Saxton (2000 Chair)

Lynn Cooley (Chair)

 

2002 Committee:

Steve DiNardo, UPenn (Chair)

Lynn Cooley, Yale Med (2001 Chair)

Chip Ferguson, U Chicago

Helen Salz, Case Western

 

2003 Committee:

Amanda Simcox, Ohio State (Chair)

Steve DiNardo, UPenn (2002 Chair)

Celeste Berg, University of Washington

Jin Jiang, UT Southwestern

 

2004 Committee:

Ross Cagan, Washington University (Chair)

Amanda Simcox, Ohio State (2003 Chair)

Susan Abmayr, Stowers Institute

Tom Clandinin, Stanford

 

 

 

4. REPORT OF THE GSA MEETING COORDINATOR (Marsha Ryan)

 

45^th ANNUAL DROSOPHILA RESEARCH CONFERENCE

 

Registration:

Total registrations for 2004 as of the advance cutoff date of 3/8/04, totaled 1540. Though the number of individuals registered is very close to the number in 2003, total registration income will be greater than in 2003 because the registration fees were raised by $10 in every registration category. However, registration income at this point is about $16,000 below the total projected registration income of $299,270. The number of individuals registering as GSA members, paying the lower member rate, appears to be about the same as last year (928 in 2004 and 953 in 2003). It is possible that on-site registrations may bring in enough additional income to make up the shortfall in the actual registration income.

 

Hotel Rates and Pick-up:

Hotel room rates for singles and doubles in 2004 ($217 single or double) were noticeably higher than in 2003 ($180 single or double). Pick-up this year reflects the fact that the group continues to be very rate sensitive since peak night room pick-up was approximately 703rooms compared to last year’s 748. Note that though the Marriott Wardman Park was approached to hold the 2007 Drosophila Conference in tandem with lowering the 2004 room rates to be more inline with the current economy, they would not present any offers for lowring the 2004 rate until after a contract for 2007 was signed. In spite of the single/double rate of $217, room pick-up has exceeded the block, which was smaller than the previous years because it was known that rates would be higher. This strategy has been quite successful with pick-up exceeding the block every year since 1997.

 

Exhibitors:

Twenty-five exhibit spaces were sold this year—2 more than in 2003. Represented are 17 commercial companies and 2 not-for-profit organizations.

 

Donors:

There was one exhibitor donation this year of $1000 from Genetic Services, Inc.

 

Advertisers: Two exhibitors each purchased a full page ad in the Program book.

 

2005 - 46^TH ANNUAL DROSOPHILA CONFERENCE – March 30-April 3 – Town and Country Resort & Conference Center

Room rates are set at $150-$170 single or double, depending upon the room location. Meeting, poster and ancillary space will be the same as in 2002, which was quite adequate. A preliminary budget will be presented for the Board’s approval by the end of June 2004, after all the final bills to 2004 vendors have been received and paid and prices have been confirmed by 2005 vendors.

 

2006 - 47^th ANNUAL DROSOPHILA CONFERENCE – March 29-April 2 – The Hilton Americas, Houston

The Hilton Americas was chosen for 2006 over the Sheraton Chicago, for a number of reasons, but primarily due to room rate—which is already set at $149 single or double—and the quality of meeting and poster space. The Hilton is located in downtown Houston next to the George Brown Convention Center.  Shuttle service at a minimal cost, runs between the hotel and Old Houston where shopping and a wide variety of restaurants are located—just minutes away. Eateries are also located within 1-3 blocks walk from the hotel.

 

2007 – 48^th ANNUAL DROSOPHILA CONFERENCE – March 7-11 – Philadelphila Marriott

A comparison among the east coast cities of Washington, DC, Boston, MA and Philadelphila, PA, convinced the FlyBoard to host the 2007 conference in Philadelphia at the downtown Marriottt, located in the city’s center. Room rates, meeting space, vendor costs all were significantly more economical in Philadelphia. By contract, room rates will not exceed $185 single and $195 double. Meeting and poster space is more than adequate and match or exceed the quality of the Marriott Wardman Park’s space. Immediately adjacent to the Marriott are the famous Reading Market Terminal, historic city landmarks, including Independence Hall, as well as countless restaurants—all in easy walking distance.

 

2008 – 49^th ANNUAL DROSOPHILA CONFERENCE

The 2008 conference will be the western rotation. Currently the Town and Country is holding dates for this meeting of April 2-6. They are quite anxious to have the contract signed and have asked that a contract be reviewed and signed within this quarter.

2004 REGISTRATION STATISTICS – GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION

 

US Registrations

 

US registrants = 77.2%

 

 

Foreign Registrations

 

Foreign registrants = 22.7%

REGISTRATIONS – COUNT AND INCOME

3/8/04

 

 

 

 

 

5. REPORT OF THE TREASURER (Rick Fehon)

 

Rick Fehon reminded the Board that we increased registration $10 across all categories this year.  This was a needed increase.  He estimates that we will be in the red $20K, probably less, at the end of this meeting.  This will put us slightly under our cap for the reserve but overall, we are in good shape given that we are now absorbing the high costs of computer A/V service which began last year and because we expect San Diego to be a money saver.   There is concern that the Sandler Fund is being depleted since the Board decided to charge A/V costs for the Sandler lectureship to the fund. Because the A/V expense exceeds the profit the fund is making by $1K-2K, Rick recommended that we reverse the earlier decision.  The Board approved his recommendation.  The Sandler Fund will pay out only what it earns each year and the excess costs be covered by the general meeting fund.  There was a brief discussion that we might further increase the Sandler Fund by adding a line to request donations on the meeting registration forms.

 

 

A.  ANNUAL DROSOPHILA CONFERENCE INCOME/EXPENSE

(Data are from the GSA [Marsha Ryan], 5/16/03 and 2/21/03)

 

                                                                                                                                            Estimated                          Projections

                                                                                                                                                      2003[1]                                        2004

Revenue

Registration                                                                                                                       283,270                              $299,270[2]

Exhibit Fees                                                                                                                         22,600                                     24,400

Mailing Fees & Program Book Sales                                                                         1,855                                        4,335

Advertising                                                                                                                               1000                                        1,500

Donations                                                                                                                                 2,500                                       1,000

Miscellaneous (Flybase expense payment, Reg Cancells)                               4,419                                        2,000

 

TOTAL REVENUE                                                                                                                                                    $315,644                                                                                                                                                                                                  $332,505

 

Expenditures

Fixed Expenses:

Hotel and Travel-Staff                                                                                                         1855                                    $ 1,590

Plenary and Historical Speaker Travel                                                                        1425                                        3,155

Sandler Runners-Up (airfare)                                                                                                                                             1,500

Printing/Web Site (Call, Program Book)                                                                32,039                                     34,000

Computer Services (Web site)                                                                                           920                                        2,000

Mailing, Addressing, Shipping, Freight                                                                  13,260                                     12,000

Duplicating/Copying                                                                                                              123                                            150

Telephone - FlyBase room computer lines                                                              5,510                                        5,800

Telephone & Fax - Other                                                                                                     937                                        1,000

Office Supplies (badges, signs, misc.)                                                                          3995                                        4,000

Sound & Sound techs (hotel charges)                                                                                                                            6,000

Projection & Sound                                                                                                          60,550                                     67,500

Exhibit/poster hall rent/cleaning                                                                                    5,000                                        1,000

Masking, poster boards, tables, chairs                                                                      22,885                                     23,000

Poster Hall Carpeting                                                                                                         7,300                                        6,000

Exhibits                                                                                                                                     4,451                                        4,500

Contracted Services (Registration, security)                                                            5,881                                        6,600

Miscellaneous                                                                                                                               75                                            100

Subtotal Fixed Expenses:                                                                                     $166,205                                $179,895

 

Variable Expenses:

Salaries/Wages/taxes/benefits                                                                                      63,062                                  $65,000

Catering: (Based on 1600 registrants)

              Coffee/Soda Breaks/FlyBoard                                                                       38,695                                     50,545

              Catering - Reception                                                                                          40,306                                     44,980

              Catering - Fly Base                                                                                                2,706                                        1,856

              Catering - 1 Continental Breakfast                                                              21,899                                                   

Catering subtotal                                                                                                             103,606                                     97,381

 

Credit Card Expense                                                                                                          8,862                                        9,500

Miscellaneous                                                                                                                            407                                            500

Sub-total Variable Expenses:                                                                             $175,937                                $172,381

 

TOTAL EXPENDITURES                                                                                 $342,141                                $352,276

 

NET REVENUE (EXPENSE)                                                                       ($26,498[3])                                ($19,771)

 

 

[1] These numbers are based on estimates from M. Ryan from 5/16/03.

2 Assumes 1600 total registrants. Currently (2/17/04), there are 1474 paid registrations with a total registration income of  $270,160. Although overall attendance looks similar to last year, projected income is up ~$16,000 due to the $10 increase in registration fees.

3 According to latest GSA Statement (3/18/04) this amount is actually $20,614.

B.  MEETING ATTENDANCE

 

Pre-registration 2004 (Wash DC)                                              1470                         $266,110

              Total registration 2004:                                              (1,600)                        $299,270

 

Pre-registration 2003 (Chicago):                                               1,488                         $256,130

              Total registration 2003:                                                1,603                          $283,270

 

Pre-registration 2002 (San Diego):                                          1,219                         $211,000

              Total registration 2002:                                                1,552                          $290,170

 

Pre-registration 2001 (Washington):                                       1,372                         $240,240

              Total registration 2001:                                                1,627                          $297,915

 

Pre-registration 2000 (Pittsburgh):                                           1,083                         $131,075

              Total registration 2000:                                                1,183                          $167,005

 

Pre-registration 1999 (Seattle):                                                  1,142                         $156,350

              Total registration 1999:                                                1,366                          $191,425

 

C.  ACCOUNT BALANCES

 

Drosophila Main Fund
Meeting Year	Net Income	Fund Balance*	# Meeting Attendees
1993	$17,105	$ 25,146	1,165
1994	2,800	27,946	1,222
1995	8,417	36,363	1,103
1996	15,035	51,398	1,423
1997	31,663	83,061	1,382
1998	21,894	104,955	1,378
1999	(6,053)	98,530	1,366
2000	(56,060)	42,470	1,183
2001	71, 656	114,126	1,627
2002	62,284	176,410	1,454
2003	($26,497[4])	$149,913	1,603
2003-04 NIH Project Expenses	($15,000)	$134,913	N/A
2004 (projected)	($19,271)	115,642	1600 (projected)

 

Drosophila Board reserve target is $150,000. The cap is $200,000.

Estimated reserve is $34,358 less than the target, and $84,358 less than the cap.

 

Sandler Lecture Fund
Year	Net Income	Balance	Excess to Reserve ($8,000)
1993	1417	25,964	17,964
1994	(451)	25,513	17,513
1995	1,595	27,108	19,108
1996	1,142	28,250	20,250
1997	1,119	29,369	21,369
1998	1,385	30,754	22,754
1999	877	31,631	23,631
2000	257	31,888	23,888
2001	(234)	31,654	23,654
2002	(846)	30,808	22,808
2003	(2431)	28,377	20,377

 

 

D.  SUMMARY AND REMARKS

This year it appears that again we will incur some losses due to the high costs of projection and catering in Washington DC. However, the loss will likely be smaller than currently projected, and with last minute registrations we could break even. Although overall attendance appears roughly equal to last year, our income was increased by the $10 increase in registration fees, and we were able to bring catering costs below last year’s level by omitting a breakfast. Overall, we appear to have a stable 3-year cycle in which we lose moderate sums at the expensive venues (Chicago and Wash DC) but then make back the losses in San Diego where expenses are considerably lower. However if the San Diego meeting does not recover the losses of the past two years then the Board will need to consider alternative venues or means of cutting costs or raising income.

 

One situation that is not stable is the Sandler Fund. Two years ago the Board voted to bill the projection costs for the Sandler lecture (estimated to be $3,551 in 2004) to the lecture fund. It is becoming clear that in the current economic climate the Fund cannot keep up with this added cost, resulting in a decreasing balance for the past three years. I suggest that starting this year the Board adopt a policy that any expenses over income to the Fund be billed to the general meeting account, guaranteeing that the Fund will not drop below its current level.

 

 

 

6. REPORT OF THE ELECTIONS COMMITTEE (Trudi Schupbach)

 

Trudi Schupbach introduced our three international representatives whose appointments were arranged informally since this is our first year of having international reps.   She reminded us that there is no formal mechanism for selecting these individuals.  Although several possible mechanisms were discussed but they are cumbersome given that the job requires that the representatives attend the National Fly Meeting and cover  their own expenses. A major goal is to have representatives to help us disseminate information about community resources.  To facilitate communication among groups of colleagues internationally, Ashburner noted that  FlyBase could generate a user list of researchers for any one give geographical region.  Yash Hiromi noted that a list exists for Japan already.  Robb Saint suggested that the Australia insect meeting serves as a good vehicle for advertising among his colleagues.  He also suggested that Singapore can be included in his purview so this will be changed.   The European Drosophila Conference is a good meeting for the area covered by David Ish-Horovitz.  Since we want the International representatives to rotate with 3 year terms, there is time for the groups to decide how to best handle selecting the next replacements for 2007.  There was some discussion of changing Canada to international status also, but in fact, the Fly Meeting are the North American Fly Meetings and it is more efficient to elect Canadian colleagues as we are currently doing on the regular elections. 

 

The Board approved to make the following changes to the Drosophila board charter:

Regional Representatives

 

The Board consists of one elected Representative from each of the following

regions of the U.S. and Canada:

 

New England (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut,

Rhode Island)

Mid-Atlantic (Downstate New York, New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania,

Delaware, West Virginia, Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia)

Southeast (North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama,

Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Puerto Rico)

Midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri)

Great Lakes (Upstate New York, Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, Michigan)

Heartland (Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, New

Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas)

Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska)

California (California, Hawaii, Nevada)

Canada (Canada)

 

In addition, there will be three International Representatives from each of

the following regions:

Australia/Oceania

Asia

Europe

These delegates will be appointed by the communities in these regions.

 

Regional Representatives serve on the Board for a period of three years.

Terms of office for the Officers and the Regional Representatives begin and

end in the spring, coincident with the annual meeting.

 

 

Election Report

 

The Elections Committee consisted of Trudi Schupbach (Chair), Debbie Andrews, Ulrike Heberlein, Steve DiNardo, Eric Wieschaus and the three new members Mariana Wolfner, Celeste Berg, and Jeff Simon.  We met virtually and chose the nominees listed below.  People were nominated by the committee as a whole, based on previous involvement in the fly community, and our perception of their ability to perform the job.  We also asked the outgoing delegates for their input, which was very helpful. From a larger list of potential candidates we then selected by vote the following election slate:

Candidates for Board Elections 2004

 

President:

Lynn Cooley (Yale University)

Rick Fehon (Duke University)

Scott Hawley (Stowers Institute)

 

Mid-Atlantic

Claude Desplan (NYU)

Jim Kennison (NIH)

Ruth Steward (Rutgers University)

 

Northwest:

Sarah Smolik (Oregon Health & Science University)

Barbara Taylor (Oregon State University)

 

California

Ken Burtis (UC Davis)

Jim Posakony (UC San Diego)

 

International delegates

At the last board meeting it had been decided that we should try to have some international delegates attending the meetings. We therefore contacted, and finally enlisted the following international delegates who will be serving for three years:

Robert Saint/ Australia/Oceania

Yasushi Hiromi/ Asia

David Ish-Horowicz/ Europe

 

During the next three years the delegates will try to figure out a fair way to elect or appoint their successors. Obviously the choice is limited by the fact that the international delegates have to be willing to travel overseas on their own money. Nevertheless, hopefully, this will start a new tradition with new and diverse input into matters discussed by the Board that concern all fly people.

 

 

The following letter was emailed to all flypeople in the FlyBase rolls.

 

Dear Flyperson,

 

Enclosed you will find a ballot on which to cast your vote

for a representative from a geographical region and/or the president-elect

for the National Drosophila Board.  The Board administers the

finances for the annual North American Drosophila Research

Conference and the Sandler Lecture Award, chooses the meeting

organizers, provides oversight for the community resource centers,

and addresses issues affecting the entire fly community.  There

are nine regional representatives on the Board, eight from the

United States and one from Canada.  The Board also has a President

and Treasurer, as well as individuals representing Drosophila

community resource centers, including the BDGP, Flybase and the

Bloomington Stock Center. The Board has a business meeting once

a year, just before the start of the annual meeting; during the

year business is regularly addressed with e-mail discussions and

voting.  Further information about the Board can be found at:

 

http://flybase.net:7084/docs/news/announcements/drosboard/

 

Starting in 1999, the Board instituted community elections for regional

representatives and for the President-Elect.

 

Please participate in this election, it is your opportunity to choose

the people that will determine the scope and organization of the national

meetings, as well as help set priorities and garner support for community

resources.

 

Please vote for one of the following people in each category.  In order

to record your vote delete this upper portion of the ballot and simply

reply to this email indicating your selection of one individual in each

category.  You may vote for candidates in all categories even though

you do not reside in that candidates region of the country.

Balloting will end JANUARY 20, 2004.

 

*****REMEMBER*****

Vote for only ONE candidate in each category

Return ONLY the ballot portion of this message

Reply to the sender of this message NOT to the people below

 

 

The election ballots were tallied by Thom Kaufman, and the winners were:

Lynn Cooley for president elect,

Claude Desplan, for Mid-Atlantic,

Barbara Taylor, for the Northwest

Ken Burtis for California.

 

DROSOPHILA BOARD COMPOSITION

Drosophila Board Master List                              Spring 2004 - 2005                                                                  

flyboard@morgan.harvard.edu

 

Year indicates the last spring through which Board Members will serve as Officers or Regional Reps.

Officers:		Spring
Ruth Lehmann	President	2004	lehmann@saturn.med.nyu.edu
Lynn Cooley	President-elect	2004	lynn.cooley@yale.edu
Barbara Wakimoto	Past-President	2004	wakimoto@u.washington.edu
Trudi Schüpbach	Past-past President & Elections Chair	2004	gschupbach@molbiol.princeton.edu
Rick Fehon	Treasurer	2006	rfehon@duke.edu
Regional Representatives:
Henry Krause	Canada	2006	h.krause@utoronto.ca
Sean Carroll	Great Lakes	2005	sbcarrol@facstaff.wisc.edu
Susan Parkhurst	Northwest outgoing	2004	susanp@fhcrc.org
Barb Taylor	Northwest	2007	taylorb@bcc.orst.edu
Amy Bejsovec	Southeast	2005	bejsovec@duke.edu
Judith Lengyel	California outgoing	2004	jlengyel@ucla.edu
Ken Burtis	California	2007	kcburtis@ucdavis.edu
Dennis McKearin	Heartland	2006	dennis.mckearin@utsouthwestern.edu
Laurel Raftery	New England	2005	laurel.raftery@cbrc2.mgh.harvard.edu
Denise Montell	Mid-Atlantic outgoing	2004	dmontell@jhmi.edu
Claude Desplan	Mid-Atlantic	2007	claude.desplan@nyu.edu
Lori Wallrath	Midwest	2006	lori-wallrath@uiowa.edu
International Representatives:
Robert Saint	Australia/Oceania	2007	robert.saint@anu.edu.au
Yasushi Hiromi	Asia	2007	yhiromi@lab.nig.ac.jp
David Ish-Horowicz	Europe	2007	david.horowicz@cancer.org.uk
Ex Officio:
Bill Gelbart	FlyBase		gelbart@morgan.harvard.edu
Gerry Rubin	BDGP & FlyBase		gerry@fruitfly.berkeley.edu
Thom Kaufman	B’ton S.C.& FlyBase		kaufman@sunflower.bio.indiana.edu
Kathy Matthews	B’ton S.C.& FlyBase		matthewk@indiana.edu
Kevin Cook	Bl’ton S.C. & Nomenclature Comm.		kcook@bio.indiana.edu
Teri Markow	Tucson Species S.C.		tmarkow@arl.arizona.edu
Jim Thompson	DIS		jthompson@ou.edu
Michael Ashburner	Europe & FlyBase		ma11@gen.cam.ac.uk
Hugo Bellen	B’ton S.C. Adv. Comm. & P element project		hbellen@bcm.tmc.edu
Allan Spradling	P-element project		spradling@ciwemb.edu
Ross Cagan	Sandler Comm.		cagan@molecool.wustl.edu
Scott Hawley	Nomenclature Comm		rsh@stowers-institute.org
David Bilder	Image competition		bilder@socrates.berkeley.edu
Toshi Yamamoto	Kyoto stock center		yamamoto@ipc.kit.ac.jp
Larry Goldstein	At-large		lgoldstein@ucsd.edu
Chuck Langley	At large		chlangley@ucdavis.edu

 

Past-Presidents serve as Members at large with terms ending:
Steve Wasserman		2004	stevenw@ucsd.edu
Trudi Schüpbach		2005	gschupbach@molbiol.princeton.edu
Barbara Wakimoto		2006	wakimoto@u.washington.edu
2004 Meeting Organizers:
Paul Lasko			paul.lasko@mcgill.ca
Howard Lipshitz			lipshitz@sickkids.on.ca
2005 Meeting Organizers:
Kavita Arora			karora@uci.edu
Rahul Warrior			rwarrior@uci.edu
Frank Laski			Laski@ewald.mbi.ucla.edu
GSA Representatives:
Elaine Strass	Executive Director		estrass@genetics.faseb.org
Marsha Ryan	Sr. Mtg. Coord.		mryan@genetics.faseb.org

 

 

 

 

7. PROPOSAL ON PRESIDENTS TERM (Trudi Schupbach, Ruth Lehmann and Barbara Wakimoto)

 

Trudi Schupbach, Ruth Lehmann and Barbara Wakimoto presented a proposal to the Board to change the election time and term of the President in order to provide more continuity and experience for those serving.   The proposal is to name a President-elect the year prior to the year as service as President.  This will allow the President-elect to be in the loop and attend the Board meeting prior to the year that she/ he will be presiding.  The proposal was passed unanimously.  Rather than wait one year to implement this change, the Board decided to solve the immediate need for a President-elect by holding a special election early.  Election Committee will work on a ballot immediately.

 

The Board approved to make the following changes to the Drosophila board charter:

Instead of:

The Drosophila Board will have a President, elected by the community, who will serve for one year.

We would suggest :

The Drosophila Board will have a President, elected by the community, who will serve for one year as President elect and for one year as President.

 

 

8. REPORT OF THE NOMENCLATURE COMMITTEE (Kevin Cook and Scott Hawley)

 

Kevin Cook and Scott Hawley discussed the input they received from the community on nomenclature policies.  There was no strong consensus reached except to change the ways we designate the ~200 “confusable pairs” such as b for black and B for Bar.  The Board endorsed this change.  Kevin and Scott concluded that it was too hard to change history of gene naming otherwise and that for all other aspects of nomenclature, we would do best to keep the current designations in place, but prohibit bad nomenclature from this point forward.   The changes include preventing the use of Capital letters even for allele designations, and the use of “d” or D as the leading letter for Drosophila gene orthologues for proteins known in other organisms.  While there are no standard rules now for naming orthologues, there are many different opinions.  It was pointed out that naming using a protein name for an assumed orthologue can be problematic since it is not always clear that the gene in question is really an orthologue.  It was generally agreed that the less “loaded” a gene designation is, the safer the name will be, in spite of the fact that it may make the Drosophila gene names less accessible to non-Drosophilists.  This will become a stickier problem in the future as genes will be named in additional Drosophila genomes.  However, Kevin noted that gene names are not always set in stone.  For example if a group of workers present a strong argument for changing a gene name to something more useful, it will be considered by the Nomenclature Committee. 

 

Bill Gelbart pointed out that the expenses involved in implementing nomenclature changes can be extensive and include computational and curator times.  Kevin and Scott expressed thanks to the FlyBase curators, especially Rachel Drysdale for helping with the nomenclature project. 

 

Report of the Ad Hoc Nomenclature Committee

 

The committee, consisting of Scott Hawley and Kevin Cook, was charged with assessing current nomenclatural practice and assisting FlyBase is resolving nomenclatural disputes.  In particular, the committee was asked to evaluate the need or desirability of changing capitalization of gene names.  We included Rachel Drysdale in our discussions to lend nomenclatural expertise and to represent the concerns of FlyBase.  We focus on our findings on this issue here.

 

We opened a public discussion of capitalization by posting a draft proposal on the Stock Center website (http://flystocks.bio.indiana.edu/Caps.htm) and soliciting comments.  Comments were posted publicly to engender further discussion. 

 

There was consensus concerning three issues.  We propose the following nomenclatural changes to address them:

 

Issue:  Most participants agreed that capitalization should not be the only way to distinguish gene symbols.  There are approximately 210 gene symbol pairs or triplets distinguished only by capitalization.

 

Proposal:  Change gene symbols for these confusable cases.  With the FlyBoard’s approval, we will proceed to solicit public suggestions for new lowercase symbols for these genes.  Once consensus is reached, we will ask FlyBase to change these gene symbols in the appropriate entries.  Gene symbol changes will propagate to Suppressor and Enhancer loci.  For example, if tor changes to torso, then Su(tor) loci will become Su(torso) loci.  Changes will not automatically propagate to aberration or transgene construct names, but may be propagated where there is a clear benefit.

 

Issue:  Most participants agreed that the practice of capitalizing gene names and symbols should be eliminated in the future.

 

Proposal:  FlyBase would no longer create gene entries with capitalized names.  Certain pragmatic exceptions will be allowed such as new “CG” loci, cytological designations within gene names, etc.  Additionally, the use of other elements in gene names will be codified, e.g. no superscripts or subscripts, no non-Roman characters, etc.

 

Issue:  Precedence currently works to preserve capitalized gene names.

 

Proposal:  Precedence should not be followed in the future for genes named for gain-of-function phenotypes when they are found to be allelic to genes named for loss-of-function phenotypes.  For example, Tufted (Tft) was recently found to be allelic to absent MD neurons and olfactory sensilla (amos).  The gain-of-function Tft¹ allele is now called amos^Tft, despite the historical precedence of the Tufted gene name.

 

These three proposals are conservative in their scope.  Eliminating other instances of capitalization was much more controversial and we found a wide variety of opinions, ranging from “Don’t change anything” to “Eliminate all capitalization”.  We identified four recurring themes in public comments:

 

1.  Changes in nomenclatural practices may make the fly literature more accessible to scientists working in other model systems.

 

2.  The practice of capitalizing gene names for loci with common visible marker alleles such as Cy¹, Ser¹, Sb¹, etc. is convenient for geneticists in diagramming crosses.

 

3.  Precedence in gene names assures nomenclatural stability and continuity within the scientific literature.

 

4.  Drosophila nomenclatural practices have changed with changes in the field of genetics and, despite the fact that it results in internal inconsistencies, this historical perspective has value.

 

Respondents judged the importance of these points differently, and came to different conclusions about the desirability of more extensive changes to capitalization.  We did