October 26, 2023
ABRF EBrief
October 2023
The ABRF Executive Board met in person over 2 days this month, following the successful 2023 NERLSCD chapter meeting. We've included the key outcomes of the discussions from this extended meeting below.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions.
Thank you.
Marie Adams
ABRF President
1. ABRF NSF ATE Grant Application Follow Up
The Executive Board discussed the lessons learned from the denial of the NSF ATE grant application, including the need to develop more complete and accurate information on ABRF's financial management capacity, and whether ABRF is eligible for similar types of grants in the future. The role of grants to support ABRF programs and services will be included in the update of the Strategic Plan.
2. Strategic Plan Progress Report
The Board engaged in an exercise to review the strategies for one of the plan's goals, Recognizing the Expertise in Core facilities, to focus the range of planned activities, identify the ABRF group to lead the efforts, and suggest ways to measure success.
The results of this exercise will be shared with other ABRF leaders, to invite their input and confirm the groups that will be responsible for implementing the strategies. A similar review of the strategies in the balance of the Strategic Plan will be planned shortly.
3. Meetings Committee Criteria Review
Results of the Meetings Committee's detailed review of the decision-making criteria used to plan and organize the ABRF Annual Meeting were discussed, which included revising the registration fee schedule, setting a schedule for a regional rotation of meeting locations, updated budget parameters, and program planning to identify the intended audience for meeting content. These recommendations, including an updated description of the roles and responsibilities for the Meetings Committee and AMR, will be posted to the Core Community and ABRF web site, and reviewed annually.
4. 2024 Annual Meeting
The Education and Program Committees are collaborating to confirm plans for the transition from physical posters to flash talks. Plans for pre-meeting workshops will be finalized by the end of October. Early response to the 2024 Sponsorship options has been strong. Meeting registration will open by November 15.
5. ABRF Regional Chapters
All Chapters hosted successful meetings, with strong attendance sponsor support. Several chapter meetings were held at host institutions in their regions, which enabled more Core personnel from the host institution to attend and learn about ABRF.
6. ABRF 2024 Budget
Justine Kigenyi led a review of the draft ABRF 2024 Budget, including the recommendation to allocate management expenses to their relevant program areas (e.g., Membership, Annual Meeting, Research Groups/Committees). The draft budget shows a small level of net revenue ($13,000), with some proposed activities not yet funded (DEIB leadership training; freelance web site writer; consultant to update strategic plan).
The Board will review these proposals in more detail during the follow-up discussion on the 2024 budget.
7. 2023 ABRF Executive Board Election
The Nominating Committee has identified a preliminary set of candidates for the 2023 Board election, which will be finalized by early November. The election will be completed by the end of the year, with new Board members invited to attend the Executive Board meetings as observers beginning in January.
8. AMR Workplan
DeLaine Bender presented an overview of the range of support AMR provides to ABRF, as well as the roster of individuals who have worked on ABRF activities in 2023. The scope of services provided to ABRF has expanded since the start of the partnership with AMR in 2020, in light of the requirements for the hybrid/virtual annual meeting and special projects each year, including expanded support for ABRF Chapters beginning in July 2023.
9. Research Group/Committee Updates
Kym Delventhal led a discussion of how to engage more members as technical reviewers for ABRF Research Group studies, including posting a call for volunteers in the ABRF Update newsletter and on the ABRF web site, highlighting the professional benefits of serving as a reviewer. Members may also be invited to provide comments on future proposed Research Group studies.
The Board also discussed options for support for an expanded study proposed by the Metabolomics Research Group, including approaching applicable corporate partners.
The Board agreed to merge the Proteomics Research Group (PRG) and the Proteomics Standards Research Group (sPRG) as one Proteomics Research Group. The current Proteomics Informatics Research Group, (iPRG), will remain in place. The PRG will follow up with ATCC on the status of revised agreement to transfer standards materials to ATCC for future distribution.
The January Technology Town Hall will feature Proteomics discussion topics.
10. 2024 Budget Follow-Up
The Board continued its review of the draft 2024 budget, focusing on options for proposed activities that are not presently included in the draft budget.
Some of these options will be reconsidered based on the results of the 2024 annual meeting or revised to span 2024 and 2025.
11. ABRF Strategic Plan Review
The Board reviewed a summary of the previous day's discussions to update strategies in support Goal 1 of the ABRF Strategic Plan, including identifying potential success measures and ABRF groups that would take the lead in implementing these strategies. A similar review of the remaining three goals will be undertaken at a future meeting.
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Ken Schoppmann
ABRF
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