1. The minutes of the previous meeting in Prague were considered. There were two modifications. In items 3 and 4 the spelling of the honorary lectureship and lectureship fund was corrected to Geoffrey Dawes. The prize winners for trainees presentations were inadvertently omitted. The prize for the best oral presentation went to Vanessa Murphy (abstract number 34), and the prize for the best poster presentation was awarded to Josine Quaedackers (abstract number 149).

2. The Society Coordinator Dr. Laura Bennet thanked the local organizing committee and in particular Dr. Bryan Richardson for putting on a superb meeting in Banff, a fine venue to celebrate the Societies 30th birthday. In addition profuse praise was rendered the committee for their fund-raising efforts and the fact that they were able to offer our trainees such a generous reduction in the annual meeting fee. This was confirmed by loud and prolonged acclamation from the membership.

3. The Society coordinator Dr. Laura Bennet reiterated the presence of the Society website at www.fnps-society.org. She stated that it is at an early stage of development and urged all members to make use of it. She thanked the extraordinary efforts of Carlos Blanco and Vincent Roelfsema in getting the site up and running. The Society duly acknowledged their fantastic work.

4. There was discussion regarding the preferred duration of the meeting. In the past it had been a three day meeting, but many members felt that a four day meeting was more efficient considering the distant travel of many members. This is particularly desirable if a separate meeting such as occurred in Banff for could be attached to the FNPS meeting. Future program organizers are urged to take this into account.

5. Dr. Parer announced the imminent solution to the problem of placing the Dawes found in a tax-free interest bearing account. He has met with Paul Dryden, the head of the Development Fund at the University of Southampton (UK) and has been assured that our fund would be in accordance with their aims, and that they would be pleased to administer the fund for minimal cost to the Society. In addition the fund will be placed in a safe interest-bearing account which should yield approximately 4%. Their fund already has U.S. 501C category meaning that the money could be transferred from the U.S. bank without penalty. Mr. Dryden believes that our mission statement and regulations for the Dawes fund will be appropriate for their needs. However there will need to be some modifications, which we hope will be available for presentation and voting upon at the next business meeting.

6. Future meetings were discussed.
- The 2004 meeting will be held from September 11th-15 Castelveccio Pascoli in Tuscany. Drs Emanuela Marinoni and Romolo Di Iorio will organize this meeting.
The 2005 meeting his scheduled to be held in of the Barossa Valley near Adelaide, South Australia, from September 25th to 28th. Doctors Cathy Coulter and Caroline Macmillan will organize this meeting.
- The 2006 meeting has been scheduled for Cambridge, UK, and Dr. Dino Giussani is prepared to host this meeting.
- The 2007 meeting is being planned by Dr. Kunihiro Okamura at Sendai in Japan. Doctors Bennet and Okamura will discuss potential budgets for this meeting. There have been requests from both Chile and Maastricht (the Netherlands) for the 2008 meeting. Final decisions will be made at later meetings.

7. There was a discussion about associating the FNPS annual meeting with other meetings of interest to the membership. This was generally agreed to be a good idea, but details of the other meetings and proximity of the meetings would be at the discretion of the local organizers.

8. A discussion was held regarding the desirability of associating with a specific journal, particularly since the demise of the Journal of Developmental Physiology. Dr. Harding mentioned the fact that Reproduction Fertility and Development, an Australian journal, had expressed interest in receiving papers from members of the Society and filling the role of the JDP. However the feeling was expressed that a more broadly available journal would be more acceptable. Because there were both positive and negative feelings about the issue it was decided to form a subcommittee to look into the subject further, consisting of Richard Harding, Alistair Gunn, Bill Parer and Bryan Richardson. This committee will meet electronically.

9. Trainees prizes were awarded as follows: Shathiyah Kulandavelu received the award for the best oral presentation for abstract number 34, concerning cardiovascular responses in the pregnant eNOS knockout mouse. Marie Laurie Baudet received the award for the best poster presentation, abstract number 50, regarding the effects of growth hormone on the visual system in the chick embryo. Each of the recipients was awarded a certificate and an appropriate gift with a local flavor.


Respectfully submitted,

JTParer, Scribe
 

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