ABRF E-Brief
September 2023
ABRF Members,
I'm pleased to share this summary of the recent ABRF Executive Board meeting:
- 2024 Annual Meeting plans. The Program Committee has developed a full outline of the meeting content and is in the process of recruiting session organizers to complete the identification of program topics and speakers. Attendee and sponsor registration will be launched by the end of October.
The Education Committee is moving from physical posters to requesting abstracts to present short, lightning-style talks (5-7 minutes), with access to electronic versions of research posters. Examples of these types of presentations will be posted to the meeting web site.
- Finance/Budget. Preliminary estimates for the 2024 annual budget, based on requests for support from ABRF Research Groups, the DEIB Council, including a possible update of the ABRF Strategic Plan, suggest a potential 2024 deficit of more than $130,000.
The Board agreed that this deficit was not acceptable and discussed the need to report management and operating costs more clearly as well as to continue to pursue new sources of revenue. The ABRF Finance Committee will meet later this month to evaluate additional options to balance ABRF revenue and expenses. The Board will review the estimated 2024 budget in detail at the October in-person meeting, including the feasibility of obtaining new grant funding, as well as other revenue and expense options.
- 2023 Executive Board Election. The Nominating Committee has distributed the call for nominations to identify candidates to fill the two upcoming vacancies on the Executive Board. Nominations will be requested by the end of September to identify a slate of four (4) nominees to participate in the election.
- Draft ABRF/ATCC Research Collaboration Agreement. The Executive Board agreed to request that the Proteomics Standards Research Group (sPRG) review the draft document to revise it to be more suitable for the planned transfer of ABRF standards information to be distributed by ATCC. The Board will review the updated draft agreement at a future meeting.
- ABRF Collaboration with Universities in Africa. Andy Chitty will be asked to organize a Member Town Hall to review current and planned activities between ABRF members and universities in Africa, including the University of Ghana. Potential goals include the design and launch of a Research Group-type study within Africa in 2024 with possible budget resources to support continued collaboration in 2025.
- ABRF Strategic Plan. The Executive Board discussed the timing of the current Strategic Plan and agreed that it will continue through the calendar year 2024, with the goal of creating an updated plan by the 2025 Annual Meeting. Consideration of proposals from outside experts to assist in the development of a new plan will be deferred until later in 2024, based on available resources.
- ABRF Land Acknowledgement Policy. The Board reviewed and approved a proposal to require a land acknowledgement at each ABRF meeting. ABRF Chapters and Annual Meeting Committees will be asked to work with local authorities and relevant groups to share their established acknowledgement statements at the outset of each meeting.
We hope sharing this information is helpful and gives greater insight into how the EB is working for the ABRF membership. Feel free to contact me or any member of the Executive Board if you have any questions or suggestions.
Thank you for your continued support for ABRF.
Marie Adams
President