Activities

FDAAA Annual Meeting Held in Conjunction with FDLI

FDAAA members gathered on April 22, 2010, to review the Association’s accomplishments during the last year and to welcome the newly elected Board members.

After he welcomed members , Association President Alan Andersen commented on the tremendous positive response from the FDLI audience to the Harvey W. Wiley Lectureship Award winner, Richard A. Merrill who had summarized key points in FDA’s legislative history from the time he served as General Counsel to the recent present, Dick Merrill played an important role in the early years of our Association when he served as General Counsel and member of the Executive Committee. Alan thanked the Co-chairs of the Activities Committee, Ann Marie Finley and Nancy Myers for the work on this award selection.

Due to the unusual air travel restrictions caused by volcanic ash, Alan explained that the FDAAA Treasurer, Flo Houn, was marooned in London. Certain other FDAAA’ers were absent due to illness and schedule conflicts, such as chairing sessions at FDLI.

Vice-President Steve Niedelman announced the election of Bob Sauer as Board Chairman and Voyce Whitley as Vice-Chairman. Congratulations also were offered to Dr. Charles Hoiberg, Betty Jones and Nancy Myers for their appointments to the Board of Directors. Dr. Hoiberg and Ms. Jones were elected to fill the seats held by Burton Love and Wayne Pines. Bob Eccleston has resigned as FDAAA Secretary. The Nominating Committee will make a recommendation to the Board on a successor.

In the absence of the Treasurer, Alan Andersen summarized the financial report. The balance on 12/31/09 was $39,382.89. Membership as of April 20, was 831 members. Additionally Alan announced the two (2) newest members Susan Winkler and Maxine Fritz who joined during our meeting.

Alan thanked Susan Winkler, for supporting the continuing relationship between FDAAA and FDLI. Susan thanked the FDAAA for the Harvey W. Wiley Award presentation as a part of the Annual meeting. She said it was a very important award to happen at the annual FDLI meeting.

Communications Committee Chair Ed Steele introduced the new FDAAA Annual Report of the Association’s highlights. He focused on the Committee’s efforts to engage the field members in FDAAA activities and recruitment efforts, mentioning the new display booth that has been set up at the FDLI conference area. He thanked Lois Beaver for compiling the Annual Report and acknowledged his Committee’s efforts on the publication of the report and the creation of new FDAAAA promotional materials which includes posters, lapel ins and flash drives. Ed discussed the photo subcommittee and thanked Bob Becker for chairing it.

Ed Steele introduced the representative of the Field Sub-Committee (FSC) of the Communications Committee, Elaine Messa, who presented the FSC’s past and future outreach activities. The Association anticipates increased emphasis on collaborating with the field to fortify FDA’s programs. A good dialogue was held among members providing suggestions for the FSC to pursue. Andy Bonanno offered to assist with organizing activities in the Chicago area. A suggestion was made to try to work with RAPS to organize FDAAA meetings in the regional areas where RAPS meetings are held. The FSC will consider all suggestions during their next call.

Through Alan, Bob Sauer provided an update on the FDAAA Centennial Scholarship Fund at Temple University's School of Pharmacy established in 2006. to provide partial scholarships to students enrolled in Master of Science program in Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs.

Current Status of the Program:

  • In 2009, Temple generated profits through sponsorship of their FDA/Industry Conference and donated all profits (approximately $17,000) to be used to support FDAAA Centennial Scholarships
  • Peter Doukas, Dean of School of Pharmacy, and Wendy Leibing, who runs the QARA program, approached the FDAAA Board about the possibility of increasing the number of awards to be made. Because of the difficult economic times, many companies were cutting back on education funds for their employees and Peter and Wendy thought there would be even more competition for the scholarship funds than ever before. The FDAAA Board agreed.
  • In the fall of 2009 Temple awarded three scholarships rather than the one awarded in the past and for the first time an FDA employee was a recipient

Current Financial Status:

  • The fund has received total contributions of $51,069 (that is never touched)
  • There is currently $3,635 of discretionary funds (interest derived from the principal)
  • There is a balance of a little less than $9,000 from the donation made by Temple last year

Alan closed the meeting by thanking members for their participation and wishing everyone good health.