May 17, 2011

Location

Conference Room D, Penn Tower 21

Present

Drs. Kefalides, MacGregor, Meadows, A. Myers, J. Myers, Saunders, Schleyer, Steinberg, and Winegrad; Rachael Berget and Julian Pugh

Absent

Drs Asbury, Delinka, Edwards, Goldfine, Hess, Heyner, McCarthy and Seltzer.

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

Nominations

The slate for the 2011-12 academic year was approved with the officers unchanged: Dr. Kefalides, president, Dr. Goldfine, past-president and Dr. Meadows, president-elect. New Council members are Peter Bloch and Leonard Warren. An email will be sent to the membership.

Naming Opportunity

Drs. Kefalides and Goldfine met with Lisa Katz from Development and agreed to begin the ASEF campaign to support the New Medical Education Center (NMEC). We will attempt to raise a total of $50,000; pledges of $25,000 have already been received from Council members. There will be a general ASEF meeting in October to discuss this with Ms Katz and Dr. Gail Morrison explaining the need for the NMEC and the naming opportunities. Development will provide refreshments. We are exploring other ways of advertising this campaign in the Almanac and Penn Medicine with or without a more substantial piece describing the Center. Dean Jameson will also be asked to mention this during his remarks at the Fall event.

Budget

See Programs below – Dr. Kefalides received confirmation from Vicki Mulhern that the budget for FY12 will remain the same as last year in the amount of $11,000.

Dean Rubinstein received a letter from Council expressing our appreciation to him for his support of ASEF. He replied graciously, and noted that he looks forward to his retirement from the office.

Service Committee

Dr. Myers filmed a video of Dr. MacGregor describing the advocacy program. They were complimented by the Council members and this will remain on the web site. However, Dr. MacGregor reported little has come from the Admissions Office and Patient Relations regarding Penn faculty admissions. He will explore this further and try to correct problems. Dr. MacGregor also reported that he and Dr. Goldfine are going to reactive attempts to develop a “speakers’ bureau” of ASEF membership.

Luncheon Series

Dr. Saunders' talk on hearing was the last one for this academic year and it was extremely well attended; SRO and people were turned away. We will try to reserve the larger room in the future if we feel there might be such a large attendance. Dr. Winegrad has already recruited 3 talks for the fall: Dan Biddle and Murray Dubin on September 22nd about the Civil rights movement in the 19th century; Garrett Fitzgerald on October 17 or 18 about the Vioxx affair (academia vs big pharm); and in November someone speaking about the history of Microbiology in Philadelphia. Ms Berget suggested Beatrice Hahn and George Shaw, recent Penn recruits, to talk about the origin of HIV.

Programs

There will be an end-of-the year event next month, June 14th. We will make special efforts to draw more ASEF members. The meeting will be from 2-3:30 and this will be followed by a reception honoring Dean Rubinstein, as well as the departing and new Council members. All ASEF members, as well as the PASEF Council will be invited. Dr Steinberg reviewed the plans for programs for next year: 2 retirement talks with PASEF, alternating information (as the Vickie and Hillary show) with brief retiree talks, two major programs (fall and spring), and two receptions (holiday and end-of-the-year). It was suggested that for the spring program, the topic should be rather broad to attract more attendees. Dr. Kefalides suggested that we get Dr. Becca Levy from Yale to be the speaker for the spring program, as her scheduled didn't allow her to be the guest this year. Dr. Steinberg questioned the amount available in the budget for these programs and it was decided to follow the current year based on the probability of getting the same total from the dean.

Retirement Community

Dr Saunders reported that he and Neville Strumpf have done all they can to present the faculty needs and mission to the administration. They are awaiting a decision of the real estate council before moving further.

Membership Committee

Keeping a roster of new ASEF members with email and other addresses has been the main function of this committee. Rachael is usually able to get the names from the Dean or Department Chairs. It was suggested that we request that the Chairs appoint someone in their departments to keep track, acquire, and submit the necessary information.

Communications and Website

Dr. Myers described a program ("Final Cut") that would enable him to edit his wonderful videos. The Council approved the cost ($175).

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:30pm.