Chair Rod Carter (Minnesota) called the meeting to order at 3:35 pm in the Regency Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in San Antonio, Texas.
Quorum Committee ReportQuorum committee members, Kimberly Plake (Purdue) and Charles Taylor (St Louis), reported that more than twenty-five (25) individual active members representing more than fifteen (15) regular institutional members of the Association were present, thus constituting a quorum.
Report of the ChairChair Carter welcomed members and thanked those present who were serving on committees on behalf of the Council. He also introduced two new staff members, Melinda Colon and Sarah Matthew.
Report of the SecretaryBarbara Sauer (California-SF) reported that the minutes of the 2005 COF Business Meeting held July 11, 2005 in Cincinatti, Ohio were distributed to all members electronically and published in AJPE (Volume 69, Issue 5). The minutes were received and approved.
Report on the Board of Director's (BOD) Activities from the COF Immediate Past ChairTerry Schwinghammer (West Virginia) presented highlights of the February 25 Board of Directors (BOD) meeting.
Awards. The Board received the reports of the Awards committees and affirmed selections. Recipients were being contacted and names would be announced at a later date. A new awards program resulting from the Academic Practice Partnership Initiative was approved and would recognize exemplary practice sites and schools of pharmacy. The Board also voted to give a Distinguished Service Award to Roman Byrdeder, producer of the video Unsung Heroes, which was aired by PBS last fall.
Membership. The Board approved Lebanese American University for regular membership. The University of Charleston and University of the Incarnate Word were elevated to Associate membership and The University of Hawaii at Hilo was granted Affiliate status.
Financial. The Association remains in sound financial shape. There is a search underway for a new headquarters building, with a goal of identifying a site by the end of the calendar year.
April Retreat. The Board reviewed the Argus Commission report to plan for its April Retreat, which is devoted to strategic planning. On the last day of the Retreat, Section chairs, chair-elects, and chair-elect designates will join the meeting to participate in the strategic planning and coordinate activities and plans for the Annual Meeting.
Chair Carter reported for Amy Allison (Mercer), Chair of the ASCC. The Sections were engaged in planning programs for the Annual meeting, with some Sections collaborating on programming. The deadline for submission of poster abstracts for the meeting had passed. There was a record number of abstracts submitted, about double that of the previous year. The new procedure of having the first author's Section review the abstract was in place and the reviews were scheduled to start the following week. The ASCC was also working on a preliminary list of Round Table topics for the meeting. Several Sections also had Ad Hoc committees working to further refine the CAPE Outcomes.
Committee UpdatesChair Carter reviewed the charges and progress of committees whose chairs were not able to be present.
Faculty Affairs. Chair Carter reported that the committee, chaired by Jeanne Van Tyle (Butler) was examining sabbaticals and would look into the barriers that seem to result in underutilization.
Resolutions and Standing Rules. Chair Carter reported that the committee, chaired by Todd Brown (Northeastern), was working with staff to develop a chat room/bulletin board feature for the AACP web site that would facilitate generation of ideas for policy development.
Nominations. Chair Terry Schwinghammer (West Virginia) reported that his committee would identify two (2) candidates for the office of Chair-elect. Candidates' names will be announced at the July meeting.
Joint COF/COD Task Force on Interprofessional Education, Research and Patient Care. Chair Carter reported that this committee, chaired by Tim Tracy (Minnesota), was working to define, identify literature and best practices, and articulate the competencies needed for interprofessional education, research, and patient care.
Joint COF/COD Committee on ACPE Scholarship Metrics. Chair Carter reported that this on-going committee was charged with developing metrics for schools and colleges to use for accreditation purposes and promotion and tenure decisions. Its work would probably not be completed until the next Interim Meeting.
Joint COF/COD Committee on Faculty Workforce. Gary Matzke (Pittsburg), a member of the committee, reviewed the charges and committee progress thus far. The committee determined that additional data were needed and planned a survey, which would soon be beta tested. The committee was also looking at curricular trends that would impact faculty needs as well as training programs that could increase the supply of graduates going into academic careers. He reported that this committee would continue over several years.
Legislative Update. Will Lang, Vice President for Policy and Advocacy, reported that he was shifting away from how we have done advocacy in the past, which was to target very specific issues. This was necessitated by the huge erosion in programs providing support to schools of pharmacy over the past four years as a resulted of budgetary thresholds and reduced funding of various federal agencies. He would now take a more global approach to direct our advocacy efforts to the budgetary process itself. He reported that he had placed information on the AACP website and urged members to contact their elected official s to ask them to fully fund the range of programs across the public health continuum before the budget bills go to the House and Senate.
In response to questions, Will restated that the budgetary process had not changed, only that we were changing our strategy. He also clarified that the best method for communicating with legislators was via the AACP web site, which goes directly to congressional staff members. He suggested avoiding the public web sites of elected officials, because of communication delays.
New BusinessAcademic Leadership Fellows Program. Todd Sorenson (Minnesota) reported on his experiences as an Academic Leadership Fellow. He described activities of the leadership development program and stated that it was directed toward grooming leaders for all levels of academic administration, not just CEO deans. He encouraged members to consider applying. Arlene Flynn added that the application cycle for the following year would soon be closed, so members should talk to current fellows at this meeting if interested. Rod asked the current Fellows to stand and be recognized.
Round Table Topics. Rod facilitated discussion of proposed topics for the Round Table sessions at the Annual Meeting. More than twenty topics were suggested and would be forwarded to ASCC Chair Amy Allison.
Other New Business.
a. Gayle Brazeau (Buffalo) asked about the need for a resolution from the COF regarding developing metrics for faculty service. Rod reviewed the resolutions process and suggested it might be more expeditious for 5 individuals to submit the resolution rather than the COF.
b. Gayle also urged members to go to the AACP website and update their profiles to list their names for reviewers for AJPE.
c. Tom Lemke reflected on his academic career and indicated a concern that fewer faculty members were taking sabbaticals. He also encouraged members to become involved in the organization for professional growth.
d. Gary Matzke (Pittsburg) stated that his sabbatical as the AACP/AAAS Congressional Fellow was invaluable and urged members to consider applying for the program. He also mentioned that the VCU website now has information about a new program on association advocacy.
e. Kenneth Skau mentioned that he and others were developing an on-line guide for faculty development, similar to Wikipedia. He indicated that Pat Chase (Butler) is doing something similar for deans.
f. Rod Carter extended an invitation for members to volunteer for committee service via the AACP web site.
Chair Carter adjourned the meeting at 5:00 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Sauer
COF Secretary