MINUTES OF THE FIRST BUSINESS MEETING
PACIFIC COAST OBSTETRICAL & GYNECOLOGICAL SOCIETY
THE HOTEL CAPTAIN COOK, ANCHORAGE ALASKA
11:15 AM SEPTEMBER 18, 2003
The meeting was called to Order by President Emmet Lamb at 11:15 AM.

President Lamb asked for a moment of silence in memory of those members who died since our last meeting. Ted Loring Past President and a member since 1972, George Macer Past President and a member since 1959, Fred Ostermann a member since 1994, Kenneth Scales a member since 1959, and Ernest Watermann a member since 1976.

President asked for approval of the minutes of the First Annual Business Meeting 2002, Second Annual Business Meeting 2002, the Second Board of Directors Meeting 2002, and the Interim Board of Directors Meeting 2003 that had previously been mailed to the Fellows. The motion was passed unanimously.

MINUTES OF THE 1ST BOARD OF DIRECTORS WAS:

REPORT OF MEMORIAL FUNDS
The Memorial Funds have all increased in value since the last meeting along with the stock market. We have realized a gain of 107.1% over last year and the total value of the funds is now down $22,000 from the peak in January of 2001. We had total contributions of $3100 this year so the actual negative is about $18,000. The Funds are still managed by the CMA and approximately 25% remains in mutual funds. We did not pay any of the expenses for last years Ted Adams scholarship or Frank Lynch winners from the funds. The CMA has expressed a willingness to discuss having a different arrangement with PCOGS but a follow up meeting has to be scheduled. We need to decide if we want to pay the 2002 and 2003 costs out of general funds or the memorial funds this year.

The Board discussed the options of keeping the funds with the CMA or assuming more direct control. Russ Laros made a motion seconded by Don Barford to leave the funds as they are currently invested with the CMA while working with the CMA Foundation to have the Society assume more control allowing us to chose a more conservative investment strategy in desired. The motion was unanimously passed.

REPORT OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY
The 2001 Transactions are currently available on the PCOGS Website saving approximately $10,000 this year. The personal newsletter went out with 24 submissions received. Marilyn attended the Advisory Committee of the AJOG on April 27th, 2003 and gave the following report:

One third of all AJOG manuscripts are submitted by the 7 affiliate Societies
The maximum pages to be printed for the Societies is 115 with a few pages leeway
In 2002 PCOGS had 17 articles with 119 pages published
In 2001 PCOGS had 20 articles with 146 pages published

The AJOG has made some changes in the requirements for submission of papers that will be sent to prospective authors.

The Board discussed options to reduce the number of pages to make sure we stay within the current guidelines. We have the option of eliminating the informal and formal discussions or limiting the number of papers. The Board requested that the Program Committee review the options and make recommendations at the 2nd Board meeting on Saturday.

Tom Garite and Moon Kim will be taking over as Editors in Chief as Dr. Zuspan is retiring.

REPORT OF THE 2003 PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Program Chair Don Barford advised the Board that although there were some last minute changes we will have a full program for the meeting with presentations from 14 Society Guests and 8 Fellows as well as the Frank Lynch. We will have Beth Baker, M.D. as guest speaker to replace Governor Hickel who was called Washington for a meeting and regrets he will not be able to attend.

Chairman Barford expressed some concern about the process for obtaining CME credit through the ACOG but other Board members felt that the alternatives in the past were more complicated than the present system.

The Board also discussed the problem of awarding the Frank Lynch Memorial which under the current standing rules should be chosen from a completed manuscript chosen as the best of the Ted Adams Scholarship contestants. In the past few years we have not had completed manuscripts to make a decision on and this year the winner was not able to attend the meeting. The Board outlined that there are several issues that need further clarification. One is whether we should continue to require a completed manuscript, two if we should consider this as a resident or perhaps a fellow in training award, and three if the winner must be present at the meeting. The Board requested that the Program committee discuss this and make a recommendation to the Board at our second meeting.

REPORT OF THE 2003 ARRANGEMENTS COMMITTEE
Arrangements Chair Hanson reported that the attendance at the meeting is expected to be around 200 and the weather has cooperated fabulously. Because of the short time allowed for lunch on Thursday we will have some deli sandwiches available for members.

REPORT OF THE SCIENTIFIC EDITOR
Phil Patton reported that we had a total of 25 papers submitted for the 2002 meeting of which 10 were Fellows, 14 Society guests and the Frank Lynch.

He reported that we are in compliance with most of the new recommendations of the AJOG already so no new processes were needed. However we will need to encourage the authors to keep their articles concise in order to allow most of the papers to be published.

We will have a more detailed section on the Website instructing the authors on the new requirements

REPORT OF THE 2004 PROGRAM COMMITTEEM
Program Chair Rizkallah is ready to start the process for 2004. He has 11 Society Guests who have agreed to present at this time.

He made several recommendations to the Board for consideration. He suggested that we consider an Associate Fellow status that would not require a paper and those members could choose to present a paper at a later time to become a Fellow. He also suggested that Fellows could be asked to present as guest speakers rather than using outside sources. President Lamb asked him to make a formal proposal to be discussed at the Interim Board meeting.

REPORT OF THE 2004 ARRANGEMENTS COMMITTEE
Bill Clewell announced that he is working with the hotel for the 2004 meeting and will report to the Board later about the options.

REPORT OF THE INDUSTRY LIASON
This was a very difficult year to solicit funds. To date we have pledges of $12,500 that includes $2500 from Organon and Richard Wolf, $2000 from United Surgical and Wyeth, $1000 from Ortho-McNeil, Philips Medical, and $1000 from Karl Storz, and $500 from Cooper Surgical We expect to have exhibits from Organon, Philips, and Wolf. Bob Israel, assisted by David Adamson, are responsible for our success in this difficult year.

REPORT OF THE MEMBERSHIP
The current membership stands at 241 with 148 Fellows, 84 Retired Fellows, 7 Non Resident Fellows, and 2 Honorary Fellows. We had 5 Fellows retire since our last meeting, Donald Lee, Richard Allen, Miles Novy, Wayne Heine, and Douglas Der Yuen. We had 2 members resign, Vivian Dickerson and Paul Morrow. We have had 2 deaths since the last meeting, Ted Loring, Fred Ostermann,

The membership break down by Caucus is as follows: Los Angeles 77, Portland 37, San Diego/Arizona 27, San Francisco 45, and Seattle 46. The Society as a whole has a ratio of 64.22 % Fellows and 35.78% Retired Fellows with a range of 55% to 70% in the Caucuses.

The minutes were approved.

INTRODUCTION OF THE 2003 ELECTED FELLOWS
Fellows Melanie Plaut and Emmett Branigan were present and given their certificates.

REPORT OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY
Marilyn discussed the meeting with AJOG that she attended and answered questions from the fellows. There was considerable discussion around the 115 page limit.

Marilyn advised the membership that the final determination on extending the number of pages would be made by the editors although the number of extra pages would likely be small.

REPORT ON THE SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS
Gainer Pillsbury reminded the members that the Frank Lynch award went to a person who was never seen by the Society. The current approach was intended to introduce young prospective members to the Society. Jeffrey Jensen agreed but was concerned that since many resident projects are not completed until late in the year they could not have a completed manuscript in time. Many other Fellows expressed an interest in remaining flexible in order to encourage more interest in participation by the residents and fellows in training. Secretary Shefren asked for a straw vote of members who would be interested in allowing a Fellow in training to be the Frank Lynch essayist. The vote was unanimously in favor. President Lamb commented that the Program Committee would meet later in the meeting to discuss this issue and report back to the Board.

REPORT OF THE INDUSTRY LIASON
Bob Israel emphasized that this was a difficult year to obtain support despite having started very early in the year. He and David Adamson had moderate success but we need to continue to look at all avenues to increase funding.

AUDIT COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS
Chairman Roger Hoag
Buck Peters

NEW BUSINESS
Roger Hoag read a letter from Retired Fellow Don Minkler expressing his best wishes to the Society and describing his difficulties with Alzheimer’s.

PHOTO ALBUMS
Lyman Rust advised the Fellows that we have a large number of picture albums from past meetings that has now become to large to bring to the meetings. The 2001 meeting album was converted to a DVD at the cost of $600 and the Board will need to decide if they like the format and how many albums should be converted. Since we can now have the pictures taken automatically put in digital format the cost of creating a DVD should be less than $200 and we could even make copies for all the fellows at a very low cost. We will have the 2001 DVD available for viewing in the Hospitality room.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:30 pm by President Lamb.

Respectively submitted,
Jerry Shefren
Secretary/Treasurer