ISCB Student Council History

The first describes "International Society for Computational Biology Student Council (SC)" Minutes of SC Meetings & Events held during ISMB/ECCB 2004 Glasgow, Scotland, UK

30 July 2004, 19:00 ISCB Board of Directors Meeting Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre Glasgow, Scotland

Present: Manuel Corpas (Chair), Debra Goldberg (Vice-Chair), Michael Hoffman (Secretary-Treasurer), Amonida Zadissa (Outreach Rep)

Manuel and Debra gave a talk to the Board of Directors regarding ISCB-SC. Board members asked whether Manuel thought ISCB-SC membership would help members' careers. One board member was dismayed about segregating junior from senior members of ISCB, saying he did not see the necessity. Some members were enthusiastic about mentoring programs. ISCB President Michael Gribskov suggested that a senior ISCB member help apply for grant support to run some of the ISCB-SC programs.

Gribskov said he thought the ISCB-SC was one of the best things to happen in ISCB for a while. As "interested parties" the SC members were asked to leave the meeting before they discussed the SC further.

31 July 2004, 20:00 ISCB-SC social Soba Glasgow, Scotland

Present: Shweta Bansal, Manuel Corpas, Toni Gabaldon, Debra Goldberg, Michael Hoffman, Sarath Chandra Janga (Events Rep), Kyle Jensen (Business Relations Rep), Shaun Mahoney, Nandita Mullapudi (Ballot Officer), Peter Oledzki, John Pinney, Mike Sierk, Amonida Zadissa, Lan Zhang

Informal discussions were held. Social organized by John Pinney.

1 August 2004, 12:30

ISCB Education Committee Meeting Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre Glasgow, Scotland ISCB-SC members were invited to attend an open Education Committee meeting and help support their efforts to catalogue computational biology courses. Amonida will serve as a liaison to the Education Committee's task force for this, led by Lisa Mullen (EBI).

2 August 2004, 11:30

Meeting with ISCB Executive Officer B. J. Morrison McKay Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre Glasgow, Scotland

McKay related some opinions of ISCB directors. Many were very enthusiastic about ISCB-SC. However, some had concerns about an unnecessarily bureaucratic structure, self-aggrandizement by members, the possibility of mentors in the mentorship program "stealing students." Some also felt that the ISCB-SC was presented as a done deal, rather than as a proposal which made them uncomfortable.

McKay said the Board asked for elections to elect ISCB-SC officers after the new ISCB membership year starts in January. The Board declined to approve any of the student nominations to the Board of Directors. Instead they asked that a voting liaison to the Board also be elected with the other officers. Manuel would serve as an observer on the Board in a non-voting capacity until the elections.

McKay also said that the Board didn't necessarily require the ISCB-SC to fit into an ISCB committee structure, so we could elect a President instead of a chair if we desired.

Some discussion regarding the points from the Board of Directors followed.

2 August 2004, 12:30

ISCB Open Student Meeting Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre Glasgow, Scotland

Present: Shweta Bansal, Manuel Corpas, Toni Gabaldon, Debra Goldberg, Michael Hoffman, Sarath Chandra Janga, Kyle Jensen, Shaun Mahoney, Nandita Mullapudi, Peter Oledzki, John Pinney, Mike Sierk, Amonida Zadissa

Almost 100 students attended this meeting. Manuel opened the presentation. Gribskov and ISCB Board member Phil Bourne both mentioned the importance of involvement for students, as well as the importance of doing well in research. Other SC members delivered parts of the presentations. Students signed up to volunteer for ISCB-SC, and then engaged in small informal discussions.

4 August 2004, 12:30

ISCB-SC Birds of a Feather Meeting Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre Glasgow, Scotland

Present: Manuel Corpas, Debra Goldberg, Michael Hoffman, Sarath Chandra Janga, Peter Oledski, John Pinney, Amonida Zadissa, Lan Zhang

New students present: Sarah Kummerfeld, Monika, Suraj(sp?), Nevun(sp?), Lena, Anna Badimo

Manuel discussed the idea of having each subcommittee accomplish one task by the next ISMB and do it well. There was no dissent from this. Due to the short time available, it was decided to do task assignment only at this meeting, and let subcommittees discuss implementation details later.

John said that 37 people signed up to help the ISCB-SC, mostly in the Outreach, Events, and Business area. Peter spoke in favor of having new recruits sign up for tasks, not committees. Manuel asked if we need five subgroups and Sarath says we do.

Peter was unhappy with the Marketing Subcommittee's name, and there was a consensus that the subcommittee's could choose their own names freely with approval of the larger.

Sarath asked about dealings with local and similar societies. Peter said he would be a liaison.

The following tasks were assigned:

EVENTS #1. Organize a social event for ISMB 2005 Saturday night (the only night where the conference gets out relatively early.

EVENTS #2. Michael was uncomfortable with only having a social event next time, so the group agreed on some kind of basic skills discussion panel or workshop. Topic ideas included: how to write an effective paper, how to make an effective poster, how to write an effective grant, how to get job. The events group aims to do one and do it well.

OUTREACH #1. Set up a mentoring lunch program for ISMB 2005. Amonida thinks this is very important. Manuel said we should set a goal for how many mentors to involve, but Peter said we would have to get as many as we can for this first time and be satisfied with whatever the number is.

OUTREACH #2. Accumulate links about educational programs in coordination with the ISCB Education Committee.

MARKETING #1. Produce some material advertising ISCB-SC events/programs by ISMB 2005.

MARKETING #2. Perform a survey about what junior members find important.

MARKETING #3. Peter suggested to start contact similar societies (e.g. Indian Society for Bioinformatics) to set up a liaison.

OPERATIONS. Produce a menu of choices for how elections will work to ISCB-SC in very short order. Then draft the Constitution and decide what is elected by the beginning of the next ISCB membership year (January).

BUSINESS RELATIONS #1. Gribskov said many companies are interested in posting internships. Sarah says a mailing list would be better. John says it is fixed cost and needs to be open to everyone. Michael Hoffman will do technical setup but needs other people to help with moderation duties, perhaps business relations subcommittee members. Sarah Kummerfeld volunteered to start the ball rolling on this.

BUSINESS RELATIONS #2. Create a database of internships in coordination with the Website Management Team.

WEBSITE MANAGEMENT TEAM. Create a web page for each subcommittee, possibly starting with the contents of the ISMB presentations, as well as the minutes, and a volunteer form.

JOHN PINNEY. John specially volunteered to contact all the new recruits after sending a draft of his e-mail to the officers per Debra's request. The group decided that the recruits should be given the opportunity to join the ISCB-SC decision-making body as well as task forces, until the Operations Subcommittee comes up with the Constitution and restructuring occurs. New recruits at the meeting were unhappy at the suggestion that they might be excluded from the decision-making body.

The group thanked Manuel and Debra for all their work and John for organizing the social earlier.

Respectfully submitted,
Michael Hoffman.
European Bioinformatics Institute
Email: hoffman@ebi.ac.uk

Part 2: ISCB Student Council Announcements and Updates

1) How to Join the ISCB Student Council (SC)

If you are or plan to become a student or post doc member of ISCB, signing up for the Student Council is a very simple process. Within your membership registration form just mark the check box for Student Council on the list of committees you are interested in serving. If you already registered for 2005 ISCB membership but neglected to mark that checkbox, or cannot remember if you did or not, simply login on the membership page and select Edit Personal Information to update or verify your record. Once your checkbox is marked you will be enrolled as an SC member within seven days. It’s that simple!

2) SC Leadership Elections

The current SC has had a successful inaugural year outlining plans and activities of interest to our student and post doc community of members. Now it is time for our SC members to hold their first elections for the coming year. Simultaneous to the ISCB Board of Directors nominations that are currently in progress, the SC is also seeking nominations for all of its leadership positions. These include Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Operations Representative, Events Representative, Outreach Representative, Business Relations Representative, Marketing Representative, and Representative to the ISCB Board of Directors. One person can be elected to more than one position, provided they can commit to performing satisfactorily to the multiple tasks involved. Nominations close April 15th, with online elections planned for May 20-June 3, 2005. All terms will begin June 20, 2005 and end January 21, 2007. The full call for nominations is posted at http://www.iscb.org/nominations05.shtml and all SC members are urged to submit self nominations if interested in serving any of these positions, or nominations of their peers who have an interest in leading the SC.

The new SC leadership will be introduced at ISMB 2005 where they will begin to assess past activities, assume responsibility for implementation of initiatives of the past year, and carry forth the SC activities planned for ECCB 2005.

3) SC Travel Fellowship Award Availability

The ISCB is pleased to announce that a travel fellowship award to defray the costs of attending ISMB 2005 in Detroit has been designated for one outstanding contributor to the SC from among its most active members during this past year. If you have been an active member of the ISCB-SC and would like to apply for this award, please contact the acting Operations Subcommittee Representative, Venkata Pardhasaradhi (venkata.satagopam@embl.de) for an application form. Submission deadline is March 31, 2005, so act now to ensure you will be considered. And if you have not been active but would like to be considered for such awards in the future be sure to get involved and volunteer your time and talents (there are plenty of opportunities for such right here in this newsletter article).

4) Website Dedicated to the SC

The SC is currently developing a website dedicated to matters of the ISCB student and post doc community. This website will include a survey evaluating the SC membership program to gather suggested changes and improvements to attract and retain more members. If interested in serving our community by volunteering to help finish the website and the survey, please write to Manuel Corpas (protein_bioinformatics@yahoo.co.uk) immediately and you will be notified of a URL to access the prototype website. The final website will be released to the public in early April, 2005 so final revisions are needed by the end of March.

5) ISMB 2005 Events

The SC is finalizing the agenda of SC events during ISMB 2005 in Detroit. The line up of events will include sessions of scientific and career relevance, as well as social networking activities to help expand each student’s and post doc’s circle of influence and support. Volunteers are needed to contact prospective speakers and to help coordinate and implement a planned mentorship scheme. Please send an email by March 31, 2005 to Manuel Corpas (protein_bioinformatics@yahoo.co.uk) if you would like to volunteer to help out in this way.

6) ECCB 2005 Events

The ISCB Student Council is organizing an International Symposium to be held on Wednesday, September 28, immediately preceding ECCB 2005 in Madrid. This Symposium is targeted to young computational biology researchers who are keen to develop their research communication skills, want to meet like minded colleagues, network with accomplished scientists and learn about career opportunities available in Europe and globally. Please be sure to register for ECCB 2005 at http://www.eccb05.org/ and sign up for the symposium at the same time.

Selection of ECCB Abstracts

Students planning to attend this ISCB-SC Symposium on the 28th of September are encouraged to submit an abstract. The best abstracts will be selected for oral presentation at the Symposium. All submitted abstracts for the Student Council Symposium will also be presented as posters at the main ECCB 2005 event, and included in the poster abstract book.

Email your abstract to bioinspiration@gmail.com no later than the deadline of August 15, 2005.

ECCB Best Student Presentation Award

Oral presentations on the SC Symposium day will all be eligible for the best student presentation competition if the main contributor is a student. The process for selection of the best presentation will be based on the quality of the research presented, the clarity and style of the ideas and on originality. All in attendance at the SC Symposium will be asked to submit a paper ballot to select the winner, so get those abstracts in soon and start brushing up on your skills to deliver the winning presentation!

Please check the ECCB 2005 website for updates http://www.eccb05.org/student.htm and register for the conference to capture the advantageous registration rates for ISCB student members before the early registration deadline of July 20, 2005.

Submitted by
Manuel Corpas,
Chair(2004-05), ISCB Student Council