Proposal for 2008-2009 VanWorm Meetings

 

[1] Introduction:

 

The goal of this proposal is to re-structure the organization of the VanWorm meetings in the hopes to make them more consistent and improve their content.  VanWorm is a student run initiative that brings the Vancouver Worm Community together to discuss on-going research in our large collective of labs.  Besides providing an opportunity for networking, collaborating and learning about each others research, we believe an important part of VanWorm is giving students an opportunity to give a scientific talk during their graduate and post-doctoral training to better prepare for the many talks they must give for their future careers.  This proposal has been created by the VanWorm Organizing Committee which consists of Marco Gallo, Andrew Giles, Andreas Steimel, Tiffany Timbers, Thomas Unsoeld and Adam Warner (more information regarding their specific roles is located later in the proposal) and has been revised by Dr. David Baillie, Dr. Jack Chen, Dr. Nancy Hawkins, Dr. Harald Hutter**, Dr. Michel Leroux, Dr. Don Moerman, Dr. Cathy Rankin, Dr. Don Riddle**, Dr. Ann Rose, and Dr. Eve Stringham (**will act as PI advisors to help the organizing committee when necessary).  The committee will adapt the following proposal before the end of the year into a more general ‘constitution-like’ document for organizers in the future.

 

 

[2] Participating Labs:

 

UBC                                        SFU                                        TWU

Moerman                                Baillie                                      Stringham

Rankin                                     Chen

Riddle                                      Hawkins

Rose                                        Hutter

                                                Leroux

 

 

[3] Tentative Schedule for 2008/2009 Season:

 

       Date                     Meeting Type                        Location                       Presenters

Oct. 1st, 2008                  VanWorm                    SFU             Riddle, Moerman, Leroux

Nov. 26th, 2008               VanWorm                    UBC              Stringham, Baillie, Hutter,

Jan. 28th, 2009                 Worm-Fly                   UBC                 Hawkins, Rankin, Chen

Mar. 4th, 2009                 VanWorm                    SFU              Leroux, Rankin, Moerman

Apr.29th, 2009                VanWorm                    TWU           Stringham, Riddle, Chen

May ??, 2009                    Sea-Van                     UBC                 Hutter, Baillie, Rose

Jun. 17th, 2009              IWM Practice                SFU                               TBA

 

**NOTE: Please let the organizing committee know by August 19th, 2008 if the dates that they have been assigned in the schedule will work for them. 


[4] Format of Regular VanWorm Meetings:

 

Meetings will consist of introductory comments, three 20 min talks (with 5-10 min question periods), followed by pizza, drinks, and discussion/social.  They will begin at 4:30pm on the scheduled day and last approximately 2.5 hrs.  The talks will come from three different labs.  There will be a no-cancellation policy (however, with this format, even in extreme circumstances the meeting will go on with 2 speakers).  Members of the organizing committee will take turns timing the talks and moderating the question periods.

 

[5] Format of Special Meetings:

 

We will need to meet with the appropriate counterparts in the Vancouver Fly and Seattle Worm communities in order to plan these details.  We will ask the PIs for help in putting us in contact with the right people. We plan to advocate for the following format:

 

The Seattle-Vancouver meeting will begin with introductory comments, followed by a PI talk (to be invited by organizing committee) that will last 50 min with 10 mins of questions.  This will be followed by 3 student/post-doc talks each will be 15 mins with 5 mins of questions.  There will be a 30 min coffee break.  The second session will mirror the first, opening with 3 student/post-doc talks followed by a PI talk to finish the session.  The event will conclude with a poster session with pizza, drinks, discussion and socializing.  It will begin at 1 pm and last approximately 6 hrs.  In the case of the Fly-Worm Meeting, it will be similar; however, since there will not be inter-city travel, we may include a morning session if there is a lot of interest from the fly community in order to make room for additional talks.  The morning session will be structured similarly to the other two sessions.  We would look into organizing lunch between the morning and afternoon sessions in this case (this would obviously depend on funding).

 

If interest for these special format meetings is not high enough then they will be held as regular VanWorm Meetings.

 

Depending on interest, a VanWorm Meeting will also be organized for people interested in practice for the 2009 International Worm Meeting.  Its format will be similar to a regular VanWorm meeting, but the number of talks will depend on the number of Vancouver-based researchers who are accepted for talks at the IWM next summer.  The length of the talks will depend on the format of the session for which the presenter is practicing.  The meeting will also give members an opportunity to present drafts of their posters during the pizza and drinks portion of the meeting (note: this ‘practice’ meeting has not been included in the budget).

 

[6] Sign-up for Talks:

 

It is up to each lab to decide which students/post-docs will give talks.  The speakers will be assigned two months ahead of the meeting to give the speaker lots of preparation time. There will also be a no-cancellation policy.  If a speaker can no longer give the talk, then one of their labmates or their PI must fill in for them; alternatively, they could trade slots with another lab if the other lab is willing to give a talk with short notice.  In any case, please contact the organizing committee immediately with details of a switch.  Speakers must submit the abstract for their talk two weeks before the meeting, to give the organizing committee enough time to create the program, which will be emailed out the the VanWorm membership list one week prior to the meeting.

 

[7] Lab Contacts:

 

The role of the lab contact will be to help promote the meetings as they approach, and help us coordinate speakers and collect abstracts from their lab before the appropriate deadlines.  They will also be responsible for making sure their current lab members are on the VanWorm mailing list and adjusting this when new members arrive and old members move on.  Their performance will be evaluated regularly by the organizing committee and this will be communicated to the PIs.

 

Current Lab Contacts:

 

Baillie: Shu Yi Chua                Chen: Maja Tarailo                 Hawkins: Kyla Hingwing

Hutter: Thomas Unsoeld        Leroux: Swetha Mohan           Moerman: Adam Warner

Rankin: Tiffany Timbers        Riddle: Marco Gallo               Rose: George Chung

Stringham: Nancy Marcus

 

[8] Budget:

 

Expenses

Pizza                                       ($200 x 4) + ($300 x 2)           =            $1400

Drinks                                     ($60 x 4) + ($100 x 2)             =              $440

Liquor License            ($25 x 6)                                  =              $150

Serving it Right Permit            ($35 x 2)                                  =                $70

Website                                   ($30)                                       =          +    $30

Total                                                                                                     $2090

 

Current Sponsor**

Macrogen (Pizza)                   ($200 x 6) + ($300 x 2)           =           -$1400

Total                                                                                                   -$1400

 

NET TOTAL                                                                                         $690

 

Total per Lab (10 participating labs)                                                    $69

 

**NOTE: PIs have agreed to help with funding by contributing up to $200 per lab a year.  With Macrogen as a sponsor currently we will ask the PIs for $69.  Since this is the first time we have worked out an annual budget, corrections may need to be made.  Also, we are currently searching for more sponsorship, which might modify the budget.  Depending on how this impacts the budget, PIs may be asked to contribute more than the $69 dollars requested currently, or be appropriately refunded their excess contribution.  For now, the $69 amount can be sent to Thomas Unsoeld (please contact him at: tunsoeld@sfu.ca) or given to him in person at the first meeting of the season (Oct.1st).
[9] Organizing Committee:

 

Chair – Andrew Giles acgiles@interchange.ubc.ca

Role: Responsible for all communication between the organizing committee, the PIs and the VanWorm community.  The committee email address will now be for internal use only.  To contact VanWorm, directly contact the Chair.  The Chair will also be the only person (other than the Vice-chair) to have access to the VanWorm community email list to avoid spam and miss-use of the list.  If you would like to send a message to the entire VanWorm community then you can send it to the Chair and if it is deemed appropriate it will be forwarded to the VanWorm Community List.  The Chair is also responsible for making critical immediate decisions when necessary.  If time permits then important decisions will be communicated with the rest of the organizing committee, the committee will contribute their opinions and the chair will then make a decision based on this feedback.

Vice-chair – Tiffany Timbers tiffany.timbers@gmail.com

Role: Responsible for taking on the role of the chair if the chair is unavailable.  Organizes committee meetings and acts as secretary.

Treasurer – Thomas Unsoeld tunsoeld@sfu.ca

Role: Responsible for handling VanWorm’s expenses.  Responsible for maintaining contact with sponsors.  Responsible for looking for additional sponsorship.

Advertiser – Adam Warner warner@zoology.ubc.ca

Role: Responsible for collecting abstracts from speakers no later than two weeks before the meetings.  Responsible for publishing the meeting programs.  Responsible for making sure the VanWorm Website is accurate and up-to-date.  (Adam has also volunteered to obtain a “serving it right” license and will be the drink server at VanWorm meetings held at UBC).

SFU Organizers – Thomas Unsoeld tunsoeld@sfu.ca

(with Andreas Steimel andreass@sfu.ca)

Role: Responsible for booking the rooms for SFU meetings.  Responsible for the liquor license for all SFU meetings.  Responsible for booking social room for pizza and drinks.  Responsible for making sure the doors of building are unlocked for entrance during the meetings.  Responsible for ordering the pizza the day of the meeting for all SFU meetings. (Thomas has also volunteered to obtain a “serving it right” license and will be the drink server at VanWorm meetings held at SFU).

UBC Organizer – Marco Gallo mgallo@interchange.ubc.ca

Role: Responsible for booking the rooms for UBC meetings.  Responsible for the liquor license for all UBC meetings.  Responsible for booking social room for pizza and drinks for all UBC meetings.  Responsible for making sure the doors of building are unlocked for entrance during the meetings.  Responsible for ordering the pizza the day of the meeting for all UBC meetings.

 

**Note: At the moment the organizing committee is comprised of student volunteers, but if VanWorm is to continue indefinitely in the future it may be necessary to devise a system for replacing the current members as they move on.  This is currently being discussed and will be part of the more general ‘constitution-like’ document that is currently being written.