Notes of the Council meeting held on Sunday 10th September 2006 at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.
Negotiations continue with the webmaster on developing a formal contract and a flat monthly fee.
HTA have accepted in principle the joint proposal prepared by Drs Desai and Turnbull and a final decision is expected by Christmas.
The draft illustrated document is almost complete and it will be circulated to the BSCC Terminology 2002 moderators for comment and then for information to the relevant professional groups and the NHSCSP.
Dr Herbert advised Council that she had spoken to her local screening commissioner and made a few alterations to the previously circulated draft paper. Unfortunately this has been rejected by the BMJ. Dr Herbert has responded and the initial editorial decision is currently the subject of an appeal.
The draft FNA and the exfoliative COPs would be presented at the ASM with a final date for comments form the membership at the end of September. It was agreed that we should investigate publishing both in future editions of Cytopathology.
Council unanimously supported the recommendation to the AGM that Dr Elizabeth MacKenzie and Dr Blanche Butler be offered honorary membership.
A small group, including Mr Dudding, Dr Desai, Dr W Young from the Northern & Yorkshire Region, and a statistician from Dr Desai's unit had met to discuss the possible options. Following this the statistician had put some possible protocols together but these would require substantial numbers of both slides and screeners and the next step was to try and secure some funding from the NHSCSP.
The Society has set up a new account with British Telecom to facilitate cost effective meetings of the sub-committees and officers of the Society.
Dr Smith informed Council that the copyright for the video and accompanying booklet was shared between Creation Video and the Society, both of whom will have to agree to the use of any part of the publications. Any request should be addressed to the Chairman of Council.
Dr Anderson reported that the Society should have a small financial surplus from this current year. Administration costs remained about the same.
The income from the previous two ASMs had been invaluable but it was expected that the 2006 ASM would make a loss.
Council fully supported Dr Anderson's proposal to the AGM to appoint new auditors.
Dr Young had attended the NAC Council held the previous week. Alison Springall was the new chairman.
The City & Guilds - VRQ level 3 is now close to being signed off and it is expected that there will be about 100 candidates each year. As yet there was no indication of costs. A meeting will be arranged shortly to brief training school managers.
The ASM in York had gone well. In 2007 the conference will be held at Keele University on 6th - 8th July.
Dr Kocjan gave a summary of the previously circulated Publishers report.
Potential author campaigns carried out in 2005, including an insert at the ASM in Newcastle, were deemed to have been successful with a subsequent increase in submissions to 167. Average time to online publication was 104 days and 113 days for print publication.
Circulation had increased by 35% to a total including consortia access of 5715. Institutional subscribers now total 230, individual subscribers 77 and BSCC members 518. By the end of the year there were 604 e-tocs subscribers, a 16% increase from 2004. Top user was the WHO, but users were now represented throughout the world from Korea to the US. The top 10 downloaded articles included molecular diagnostics; atypical glandular cells and endoscopic ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration of the pancreas.
Unfortunately the impact factor had fallen to 0.829 a drop of 20% and compared with the median for our subject of 1.624 gave a ranking of 135/153. The impact factor of Diagnostic Cytopathology was 0.987 and Acta Cytologica 1.022.
Blackwell's had agreed to allow the journal to expand to 104 pages at no extra cost.
Income was £152,055.00 resulting in a royalty payment of £14,957.00 to the Society.
An organising committee had been established and professional conference organisers, Meeting Makers, appointed. A limited company would be formed to manage the finances. The draft budget has been prepared and required 970 delegates to break even.
The conference would be officially launched at the XVI IAC Congress in Vancouver in 2007 and the website www.cytology2010.com would go live immediately thereafter.
Dr Herbert suggested that we should write a formal response to the Carter report and ensure that we were had input into any subsequent developments. Dr Herbert and Dr Smith will draft a response and circulate to all members of Council for comment.
Dr D Rana (vice Dr Thomas) was elected unopposed as BSCC representative to the NCCETC.
Subject to acceptance at the AGM of the proposed changes to the statues the next meeting would be 31 January 2007.
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