CALL TO ORDER

After a tour the Museum, the meeting was called to order at 7:40 PM in the Adirondack Hall at the new York State Museum in Albany, by President Jodi Reeves. The meeting was held during dinner, which was catered by Lo Porto's Sign of the Tree restaurant. The participants were welcomed and the meeting agenda was presented. Thirty-five participants were in attendance.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT

Reeves opened a discussion about changing the annual business meeting from December to January, the rationale being that members have less crowded schedules in January. Upon a MOTION duly carried, the By-Laws were modified to specify that the annual business meeting be held in January rather than December. This MOTION included the clarification that the December 2004 business meeting is to be considered as the 2005 business meeting under the new plan, so that an additional meeting in January 2005 is not needed.

VICE-PRESIDENT'S REPORT

Vice-President Sutliff could not attend, so president Reeves recaped our three previous meetings in 2004: April 1 at UAlbany with Brad Thiel of UAlbany speaking on ESEM of food, July 7 at the M&P lab with a talk by Richard White of CERAM on materials production and testing, and November 9 with TMS at RPI including a dinner, a poster session, and a talk by Toni Maréchaux of The National Academies on materials policy and research. Sutliff declined to continue as Vice-President citing increased professional responsibilities.

TREASURER'S REPORT

Treasurer Dunn thanked the current corporate sponsors. Special thanks went to GE for a generous donation of $500 for this annual business meeting.

Income:

Total 2003 income $3700

Expenses:

SECRETARY'S REPORT

There were 49 paid-up members at the end of 2004. There are 111 names on the e-mailing list and 93 individuals listed on the website. The website list includes affiliation, professional interests, and membership in national societies, and indicates if dues have been paid. Suggestions on improving the Society website were solicited.

ANNUAL DUES

Upon a MOTION duly carried, the current dues of $25 for professional members and $10 for student members will continue for another year.

FUTURE MEETINGS

There was some discussion about changing the number of meetings per year, but no decision was made. Ernie Hall pointed out that the CDMMS meetings take the place of the national meetings for some members, and symposia taylored to local interests would be valuable. These symposia could profit from involvement with local institutions as hosts. He invited CDMMS to have a mid-year 2005 meeting at the newly-renovated GE Global R&D center. The idea of having a full- or half-day meeting with several speakers was discussed, and examples of such meetings held by other societies were described. Jodi Reeves will work with the officers to generate a survey of members' current preferences on meetings. She invited interested members to join the officers at meetings of the steering committee.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

The meeting was turned over to Ernie Hall, filling in for Nominating Committee Chairman Jim McGee. There was only one nominee for each position. Ernie gave a brief biography of Laurie LeTarte of GE Research, who was nominated for Vice President, to replace retiring John Sutiliff.

The following slate of officers below was unanimously elected.

Upon a MOTION duly carried, the Nominating Committee consisting of Jim McGee and Ernie Hall will continue for another year.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business, the business meeting was adjourned at 8:15 PM and the members attended an excellent talk by Dennis Ward of the FBI entitled "Microanalysis: A new tool in combatting terrorism". We thank the FBI and the MAS touring speaker program for supporting Dr. Ward's expenses.

last update 22 December 2004