Fairmont Hotel, Chicago, Illinois
March 11, 1993
(Excerpted from the AAOB Newsletter, Volume 1, Number 1 - September 1993)
Item 1: Dr. Robert Boackle, President of the AAOB, opened the meeting by extending the Society's appreciation to Dr. Jerry Pollock for serving as its Secretary/Treasurer and welcoming Dr. Thomas McNamara as the new Secretary/Treasurer. He also extended the appreciation of the Society to Drs. Ken Etzel and Joseph Kanapka who were the outgoing Board Members.
Item 2: Dr. Boackle read the report submitted by Olav Alvares, Editor for the Society's Journal, Critical Reviews in Oral Biology & Medicine, giving the present status of the Journal and recommendations for future consideration. A letter from Dr. Alvares to the AAOB membership is included in this Newsletter. Dr. Boackle opened the discussion on the topic by suggesting that it be made mandatory for all members of the AAOB to subscribe to the Society's Journal. In a lively discussion which ensued, the following points were made:
- The current dues for the AAOB are low and should remain so to encourage members to join.
- The Society's publication is an excellent publication and should be one Journal to which all members should want to subscribe.
- It was further suggested that it might be possible to obtain some level of industrial support which would help to bring down the present cost of a subscription to the Journal.
Motion
The subscription to the Critical Reviews in Oral Biology & Medicine be made part of the membership dues for all Full Members and that students members would have the option of subscribing to the Journal.Motion by: Dr. Alvares (by letter)
Seconded by: Dr. Suddick (by proxy)
Motion: Passed unanimously
Item 3: Dr. London suggested that the Society institute the publication of a Newsletter. This Newsletter could be issued twice a year, would contain minutes of the Society's meetings, a section on By-laws and could be used to provide notices for the AAOB membership. It was suggested that such a Newsletter would give greater visibility to the Society and that in addition to sending the Newsletter to members, it could also be sent to other Dental Schools and specialty schools, inviting all who are interested to become members of the Society. Circulation of the Newsletter to schools where they currently are no members of the AAOB would contain an open invitation for interested parties to accept membership. Drs. Steven London and Gill Blackburn agreed to take the responsibility for putting together such a Newsletter and mailing it out to members should the Society decide to do so.
Motion
Adopt the idea of a Society Newsletter with no limit on the life of the Newsletter. However, each year at the Annual Meeting, there would be an evaluation of its effectiveness and how the Newsletter format may be changed or the Newsletter continued or discontinued.Motion by: Dr. Dabbous
Seconded by: Dr. H. Kaufman
Motion: Passed on a vote of 29 in favor, 1 opposed
Item 4: Dr. Kathleen Dobrosielski-Vergona submitted the report of the AAOB National Board Assessment Committee. Dr. Vergona reported that in the Committee's survey of National Board Examinations, 37% of questions in Anatomy; 6% of the questions in Biochemistry/Physiology; and 13% of the questions i Microbiology/Pathology were considered to satisfy the definition of an Oral Biology question. Based on these results, it was felt that the number of Oral Biology questions in Anatomy were satisfactory. However, there is a great need for an increase in the number of qualified Oral Biology questions to be placed in the Biochemistry/Physiology Section and possibly in the Microbiology/Pathology section. To that end, it was agreed that members should prepare questions of high quality and submit them to Dr. Vergona who could possibly see that they are incorporated into future Board Examinations. Questions prepared for the Biochemistry/Physiology section were to be prepared by Drs. Dabbous, Kleinberg and Kaufman. Questions of an Oral Biology nature to be included in the Microbiology/Pathology section of National Board Examinations were to be prepared by Drs. Boackle, London, and McNamara. Mr. David De Marais, Director, Department of Testing Services for the American Dental Association, has offered to consider any proposals from the AAOB on this matter. The AAOB National Board Assessment Committee plans to review the basic science component in the revised part 2 section of the National Boards before making any further recommendations.
Item 5: Dr. Frank Dowd, Program Officer for the AAOB reported on the preparation for the 1994 IADR Meeting in Seattle, Washington. The suggested topic for the AAOB Program in Seattle was generally agreed upon as being "What does an ideal curriculum of Oral Biology look like?"
Item 6: Dr. T.F. McNamara reported that the current balance of Society funds is approximately $5,100.00. There are some membership dues checks which have not yet been deposited and the Society's balance will be slightly higher.
Item 7: The following members were elected officers for 1993-94:
| President: | Barry Rifkin (New York University) |
| President-Elect: | Kathy Vergona (Univ. of Pittsburgh) |
| Secretary/Treasurer: | Thomas McNamara (SUNY, Stony Brook) |
| Elected Directors: | Michael Dodds (1992-1994) (Univ of Texas, San Antonio) |
| Ken Izutsu (1993-1995) (Univ. of Washington) |
|
| Appointed Directors: | Richard Suddick (1993-1994) (Univ. of Texas, San Antonio) |
| Steven London (1993-1994) (Medical Univ. of South Carolina) |
|
| Past President: | Robert Boackle (Medical Univ. of South Carolina) |
| Editor, CRC Press: | Olav Alvares (Univ. of Texas, San Antonio) |
With no further business items to be discussed, the meeting was adjourned at 6:00 PM.
Prepared and submitted by: Dr. T.F. McNamara, Secretary/Treasurer.
