April 19, 2011

Location

Conference Room D, Penn Tower 21

Present

Drs. Asbury, Edwards, Goldfine, Hess, Heyner, Kefalides, MacGregor, Meadows, Myers, Nachmias, Saunders, Schleyer, Steinberg, Winegrad; Administrative Liaisons Rachael Berget and Julian Pugh

Absent

Drs. Dalinka, Heppenstall, McCarthy, Selzer, Stinnett

The meeting was called to order by Dr. Kefalides at 12 noon. The minutes of the previous meeting March 15 were approved.

Presentation by Vicki Mulhern Vicki Mulhern asked the Council for input on the subject of retirement planning. The University has good programs but they are poorly attended. She outlined a project focusing on younger faculty that would encourage them to plan for retirement earlier. Topics such as Having fun after retirement and Investing in a shaky economy were two suggestions. It is important also to know what to do when family events, such as putting a person into a nursing home and other life crises, hit. Vicki is open to suggestions regarding topics and means of presenting them. She suggested that two to three people from ASEF, PASEF could assist her office in selecting appropriate speakers from among the faculty and topics.

Naming Opportunity Fund Dr. Goldfine told the group that Lisa Katz from Development will meet with him on May 5th to plan a campaign for early Fall, to solicit funds from the membership for the Educational Building project. It will be important for people from Development and Medical Education to come and talk about the building and plans.

Biomedical Library workshop Dr Kefalides reported on a workshop he attended at the Biomedical Library. It was very informative and he urged members to take advantage of these offerings. Spouses will be able to attend, and can obtain temporary passes for the library by submitting their name in advance to Barbara Kountouzi. Dr. Schleyer commented very favorably on the workshop he attended at Van Pelt.

Committee Reports

Service

Dr. MacGregor has sent out an explanatory letter to ASEF members 55 years and older, in which he explained the project of visiting faculty and faculty family members after admission to the University hospital. He received 5 e-mails thanking him. It is difficult to get information regarding faculty admitted and Patient Relations only passed on information about 8 admissions. The program is a pilot to run for a year and careful records will be kept to see how successful it is. Dr. Myers will make contact with the Almanac to get some publicity. Dr. MacGregor was asked about a speaker’s bureau, and there was discussion of other activities; suggestions should be sent to Dr. Meadows.

Luncheon Seminars

Dr. Kefalides report that these have been very successful; Dr. Labov's lecture was very well received, with eighteen people attending and has been taped by Dr. Myers using the new equipment. Dr. Winegrad has three speakers lined up for Sept., Oct. and Nov.

Program

Dr. Meadows reported that ASEF retirement program is on May 19th, while PASEF's is on 12th. She suggested that we announce that if people missed the 12th, they can come on the 19th. Dr. Steinberg urged that faculty read The Hitchhiker’s Guide before attending these seminars. Dr. Steinberg outlined the upcoming programs for the next academic year: 2011-12: The Dean will speak on the 1st or 2nd of November. He’ll speak for thirty minutes or so, followed by the presentation of the new emeriti by the President. The President may also speak briefly. There will be a reception to follow. There will be two retirement presentations by Vicki and Hilary; one in fall and one in spring, a holiday party in December and an end of season party in June. (Dr. Winegrad proposed changing the winter party to February because there are a lot of December parties.) In March there will be the spring symposium; open for suggestions for a topic. Send suggestions to Dr Steinberg. End of season party in June.

Retirement Community

Dr. Saunders reported that everything is on hold while Craig Carnaroli reviews their statement. After getting approval, he will canvass the alumni.

Membership

Dr. Steinberg thanked Rachael Berget and Julian Pugh for doing such a great job with the membership.

Communications and Website

All the luncheon seminars have been taped so far, and the most popular was the presentation by Dr. O'Malley, which has had 500 hits.

Nominations

Dr. Kefalides began the discussion of nominations by noting that several people have declined to be candidates for President-elect. The executive committee considered several options that had been proposed. He presented the following recommendation by the executive committee: that he continues as President until June 30th 2012, while Dr. Meadows would continue as President Elect and Dr. Goldfine as Past President. After some discussion, this was moved and approved unanimously. Dr. Saunders expressed the feeling that our underlying problem is that we are not engaging sufficient active members. Dr. Meadows said that we need to articulate our mission better. Discussion on ways of increasing visibility resulted in the suggestion that we run a monthly column in the Almanac and send it out to members to increase awareness of our activities.

In addition, two new Executive Council members were presented and approved: Dr. Peter Bloch (Radiology) and Dr. Leonard Warren (Wistar). The nominations will be sent out to the membership. The current and outgoing members will also be listed.

New Business

Dr. Hess suggested that the Council thank Dean Rubinstein for the support he has provided to ASEF. It was decided that a letter would be appropriate and should be signed by all members of Council.

Respectfully submitted Susan Heyner, Ph.D Secretary Treasurer