October 13, 2009

Present

Drs. Goldfine, MacGregor, Dalinka, Myers, Steinberg, Hess, McCarthy, Schleyer, and Rachael Berget

Dr. Goldfine said that he has sent the passcode to the ASEF office space to three people and has gotten request from 7 more people today for that information. There are currently no plans to try to track how many people are entering the passcode for the ASEF offices. There are also no plans to have someone "sign people up" for the space because there are 3 rooms in the suite and the assumption is that people will always find at least one room free.

Dr. Steinberg brought up the fact that, according to ASEF's bylaws, faculty must be emeriti to participate in ASEF. We would need to change the organization’s bylaws to officially include retired faculty, in general. We also need to revise the bylaws to reflect the increase in the number of Executive Council members. Dr. Goldfine asked Dr. Steinberg to examine the bylaws and then circulate the proposed revisions.

Dr. McCarthy asked if the bylaw change has to be approved by the membership; Dr. Goldfine replied that they would have to be approved by a vote of the membership.

Current PASEF president Dr. Neville Strumpf sent Dr. Goldfine an e-mail saying that people are confused by the similar-sounding names of the School of Medicine’s senior and emeritus faculty organization (ASEF) and her organization, which is for University of Pennsylvania's senior and emeritus faculty (PASEF). Dr. Strumpf suggested that ASEF’s name be changed to MASEF (Medicine's Association of Senior and Emeritus Faculty). Dr. Steinberg commented that PASEF should change their name because ASEF existed first. He also said that they should choose a name that doesn't sound like "ASEF". Dr. MacGregor commented that, when ASEF first started, he and others went over to the University Senate to ask if they wanted to join with the Medicine organization that was being created. There was no interest from the University Senate at that time, so that is why ASEF has the name it has.

There was a brief discussion of plans for the upcoming Fall 2010 ASEF Emeriti Dinner, scheduled for October 27, 2009.

Philadelphia Orchestra Promotion

Dr. Goldfine discussed the promotion that the Philadelphia Orchestra is offering to ASEF members. Rachael reported that she had sent an e-mail announcing this promotion to the ASEF membership on October 9, 2009.

Data Collection Committee Report

Dr. Steinberg suggested that the name of his committee be changed from the "Data Collection Committee" to the "Membership Committee" because his duties for this committee had changed. Dr. Steinberg said that he believes that it gives ASEF more flexibility to have a "Membership Committee".

Dr. Dalinka made the motion to change the name of this committee; Dr. McCarthy seconded the motion; the motion carried with a unanimous "Aye".

Dr. MacGregor commented that ASEF needs a better system for tracking what happens to emeritus faculty once they leave the institution (for example, when one of them moves to a new city and eventually passes away). The Executive Council wants to have emeritus faculty obituaries posted on the ASEF website to keep their members informed of this kind of information. ASEF will pause to remember those members who have passed away at this Spring's general meeting.

Dr. Goldfine wants to make sure that any obituaries we post that are linked to The Almanac or The Inquirer stay active and do not contain broken links. He asked Dr. Schleyer to look into this.

The format for obituaries on the ASEF website should be:

Name
Degree
Title
Link to URL (from Almanac or Inquirer)

Delaware Valley Community Health

Dr. Scott McNeil is the Medical Director of this organization. Dr. Steinberg mentioned that this is another potential service site for ASEF members. He will try to get more information on this and report back to the Council. He also stated that if ASEF provides more convenient locations at which members can volunteer, we may see an increase in the number of people who do so.

ASEF Patient Advocacy Program

Dr. MacGregor talked about his proposal for establishing an ASEF Patient Advocacy Program. He discussed the possibility of emeritus faculty members who are doctors acting as patient advocates, or translators for medical terminology, for patients. Dr. Steinberg said that he thought that this was a good idea and might be a win-win for the patients and for ASEF. He suggested that perhaps this service should be restricted to PASEF members, however. The ASEF patient advocates would naturally have to work in their own medical specialties. Additionally, the ASEF patient advocates would only be able to recommend physicians at the hospitals where they worked because they won't know physicians at other hospitals. Dr. MacGregor also said that he had to talk to more people to get additional information, like about liability and/or malpractice coverage. This topic will be discussed in more detail at the November 2009 meeting.

Dr. Goldfine announced that Dr. Nicholas Kefalides would be doing a presentation on his book at the Penn Bookstore on October 21, 2009, at 6:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Rachael J. Berget