AFDAA MEETING MINUTES
August 5 - 6, 2004
DAY 1
The meeting was opened by Chair George Schiro who introduced Cassie Johnson from Orchid Cellmark as the first speaker. Cassie presented research she had done on the utilization of Y-STRs in casework. The second speaker, Joseph Bessetti from Promega Corporation, gave us information about taking the mystery out of the PowerPlex Matrix. Joe Warren of the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth spoke about the master's degree program at the university. Graduates are well prepared to enter a forensic laboratory. Melba Ketchum of DNA Diagnostics encouraged us to use new techniques to get results from degraded DNA on casework samples. Applied Biosystems' Laura Post gave us an update on the development of the Yfiler PCR amplification kit that is now in beta testing. John Krebsbach of the Albuquerque Police Department Crime Lab went over the changes in the discussion sections of the Quality Assurance Audit Document. The validation results of Promega's Y-Plex kit was the presentation by Erin Donovan of the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. The first day ended with an open forum discussion of processing evidence to maximize DNA results.
Day 2
Dennis Loockerman, CODIS Program Director for Texas, gave us strategies for searching mixtures in CODIS to open the second day. Texas has almost 180,000 offender profiles and 7100 forensic profiles in the database. NDIS has around 1.7 million offender samples and 85,000 forensic profiles. The latest information on the Texas Missing Persons Database was presented by John Planz of the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. To date 430 samples have been processed including 160 unidentified remains. 6 remains have been identified with one cold match. Texas is the only state utilizing the new CODISmp (missing persons) software that combines STR and mitochondrial information.
The AFDAA business meeting began at 10am and was called to order by Chair George Schiro. A motion to accept the minutes of the January meeting was made by Joe Warren, seconded by Gary Molina and approved by voice vote. The treasurer's report was deferred until the next meeting. Vice-Chair Wil Young presented 13 persons who met the requirements for membership. He made a motion to accept these persons as members that was seconded by John Planz. The motion was approved by voice vote. Under old business, the proposed changes to the by-laws were discussed. An e-mail vote will be conducted by the Chair.
The sparse attendance at the business meeting prompted discussion about the definition of active and inactive members. A requirement for meeting attendance by members at least once e very three years in order to remain active was suggested. Also suggested was a prohibition against inactive members being allowed to vote on organization issues. It was noted that the meeting attendance requirement was presented at the July 2002 meeting but was not followed with a change to the by-laws. Wil Young and Pam Smith were asked to draft changes to the by-laws regarding meeting attendance.
George Schiro will send e-mail ballots to all members regarding the ethics addition to the by-laws.
The following individuals were voted into membership of AFDAA:
-Jason Richard Hitt, FDLE
-Laura Gahn, Identigene, Inc
-Laura B. March, University of Nebraska Medical Center
-Elizabeth Ballard, Harris County Medical Examiner's Office
-Kimberly A. Forsberg, Bexar County Criminal Investigation Laboratory
-Kevin Noppinger, Broward Sheriff's Office Crime Laboratory
-George Duncan, Broward Sheriff's Office Crime Laboratory
-Brent Hester, Texas Department of Public Safety - Lubbock
-Henry R. Hollyday, Bexar County Criminal Investigation Laboratory
-Jennifer Petrash, Harris County Medical Examiner's Office
-Dixie Hybki, University of North Texas Health Science Center
-Shane Lumpkiins, Texas Department of Public Safety - Austin
Elections were held with Brady Mills selected as the new vice-chair and Catherine Caballero re-elected as treasurer. Thanks to Wil Young for his service as past vice-chair.
Kerry Bernal of the University of Nebraska announced that they will have a DNA analyst position opening in the near future.
A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Joe Warren and was approved by voice vote.
Minutes respectively submitted by Aliece Watts, Secretary