Attending Chairs and Co-Chairs:
Jennifer Wenzel, Director of Research
Karen Rose
Debra Lyon
Sarah Kelly
Elizabeth Thomas
Vallire Hooper
Pat Patrician
Marianne Baernholdt
Lora Beebe
Laurie Stark
Kimberly Adams Tufts
Staff:
Ann Mehan Crosse, Executive Director
Welcome/Call to Order
1. Dr. Jennifer Wenzel welcomed everyone to the call, especially the new RIG leaders. She urged everyone to review the leadership list to be sure that contact information is accurate, and to forward changes to Ann Mehan Crosse. Jennifer asked for corrections to the minutes from the last RIGs Leadership meeting; there were none.
2. Leadership contact information is maintained by Ann Mehan Crosse, so if there are any updates, please forward to her.
3. The IT Department will have the RIG Leadership dedicated Web page up within next couple of weeks. This will enable the leadership to be able to communicate more easily, share resources, post documents of interest and resources for the leadership. Ann Mehan Crosse polled the group regarding their preference for a listserv versus a LinkedIn presence. List servs generate a lot of email; LinkedIn seemed a better option. She will look into creating a private page for RIGs Leadership on LinkedIn.
4. Jennifer urged leaders to keep their Web pages updated. Linda Pocsik is the staff member who can manage all updates. Asked if it was acceptable to post post-doc employment opportunities to the RIG Websites. Ann Mehan Crosse reminded the group about the SNRS Job Bank on the Website. It was agreed that it did not appear to be a problem with posting pre- or post-doctoral positions to the RIG Websites. The Student Network might be very interested and perhaps work with the Communications Committee to accomplish. Anything that brings people to the RIG pages is good. E-blasts are another great way to communicate with the membership at large. Jennifer reminded everyone that e-blasts should go directly to Ann Mehan Crosse; updates to the RIG Website go directly to Linda Pocsik.
RIG Handbook Development
Please send changes directly to Jennifer Wenzel so that the handbook can be ready for approval by the Annual Conference
SOJNR
There will be discussion about the future of SOJNR at the Annual Conference Reference Hearing scheduled for Thursday, 2/17 from 3:30-4:45 pm. Maren Coffman reported that the Minority Health RIG has received 17 manuscripts for review for the January/February issue of SOJNR, will likely not select all of these to publish. Elaine Marshall reported in 2010 there have been 3 publications of SOJNR; first issue was in May was the research conference abstracts; second was August was Parent/Child-sponsored issue; November will be psychometrics-sponsored issue. There is a Biobehavioral issue slated for next August; and an issue for November sponsored by Research in Clinical Settings. The journal has experienced an average of more than 1,000 hits per month.
Dedicated RIG-Sponsored Symposia
Aging/Gerontology is the featured RIG symposium for the 2011 Annual Conference.
RIG Awards
Contact is Ann Malecha, SNRS Awards Chair. If you have any issues, please liaise with Jennifer Wenzel and Ann Malecha. Jennifer asked the group to be aware of all of the awards that are housed within the RIGs. Please report any awards that you have generated within the individual RIGs and send an update to both Jennifer Wenzel and Ann Malecha. There currently is no information in the handbook regarding development of an award. Maren Coffman will forward the guidelines created for student poster awards to Jennifer to add to the handbook.
Chair Announcements
Jennifer indicated that she would like to create a handbook/guide for new RIG leaders; asked for volunteers to contribute ideas/tips/lessons learned to be included in the guide.
There are no longer guaranteed spots in the annual conference program for RIGs. No proposals to reinitiate the RIG symposia have been received to present to SNRS Board. President Marti Rice suggested that we might want to have symposia that relate to the RIG-sponsored SOJNR issues. It was pointed out that most symposia have four presenters, where issues may have as many as ten – how would presenters be determined?
Jennifer indicated that this would be her last RIG Leadership teleconference, as her term as Director ends at the 2011 Annual Conference. She thanked all the RIG leaders for their effort, and requested that any suggestions for better support for the leadership moving forward be sent to her.
Adjourned at 3:00 p.m. EDT
Appendix A
Minority Health RIG
Student Poster Award
The Minority Health Student Poster Award is sponsored by the Minority Health Research Interest Group. This award will recognize the research of a student presenting a poster at the SNRS Annual Conference.
Purpose: To recognize an exceptional poster presented by a student investigator promoting research that has significance for promoting the health of racial/ethnic minority individuals and groups.
Eligibility: Entrants must be members of SNRS, students, and presenting research with a primary focus on a racial/ethnic minority group. The student must select the Minority Health RIG category when submitting their poster abstract.
Award: The RIG poster award winner will be announced at the SNRS Awards Luncheon and honored during the RIG meeting. Following the conference, a certificate and monetary award (based on availability) will be sent to the participant.
Procedures: Each year the RIG may choose to offer a student poster award. If an award is sponsored, the RIG Chair will notify the Awards Chair (Ann Malecha) ONE MONTH prior to the SNRS conference. The judging for the RIG award will be done by the SNRS Awards Committee. Poster award winners will be chosen from the pool of posters which receive the highest abstract scores.The poster with the top score from the Minority Health RIG will be that RIG's award recipient. If the RIG does not have ANY posters among the "top scorers" of all SNRS student posters, the RIG award will not be given that year.
For the 2010 conference, the Minority Health RIG will fund one student poster award.The award amount will be $100. The poster award has been funded by Dr. Debra Wallace of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro 2010 through 2012.
Appendix B
SNRS Web Site RIG Information Form
RIG NAME ______
Welcome from ______Chair and ______Chair-elect of the ______Research Interest Group. The purpose (Our MISSION perhaps) of the ______RIG is to: ______
We offer networking opportunities, peer support, and inspiration to others interested in this area of work and research. We encourage all members to participate. We welcome all interested parties in our area of work--researchers, clinicians, academicians, and students to our RIG. Be sure to “sign-up” by logging in to the Members-Only section and choose which RIG(s) to join. There is no fee to participate and you can join up to three RIGs as part of your membership benefits. Just “click” on the topic and the Resource Center will do the rest!
We met at the 2009 Annual SNRS Conference in Baltimore. We discussed the following: 1), 2), 3), and 4)
Our recent activities and/or current projects and/or opportunities include______
______
Are you giving any awards for posters or presentations within your RIG? What about sponsoring a symposium or preconference? What about sponsoring an issue of SOJNR you’re your RIG scheduled to sponsor an issue? Contact Elaine Marshall, Editor at if interested.
Appendix C
Resources for RIG Leaders
RIG Web page & blog information:
There is a free blog service (that also has additional options that you must pay for). Here is a link to their tutorial on setting up a blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWYi4_COZMU. Here is the link to Word Press, to sign up for a blog: http://wordpress.com/.
Doctoral students within SNRS have set up their own blog using WordPress: http://snrsdocstudents.wordpress.com/.
We also have another research association that uses a different service, here is a link to their blog: http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/.
Please take a look at these links and let me know what you think. If this is something you are interested in, you can set up the blog then send me the link to post on the website. There are really no space constraints as far as the web is concerned. Typically, pages simply link to other pages or documents such as pdf’s or the like.Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks!!!
Linda Pocsik,
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For those interested in conference calls within RIGs:
Here is the conference call service I use (see link below). There is no charge for the service (everyone calls in just as when using a conference service), but people do have to call in to a main # which is not toll-free (however, with cell phones & University calling plans, we have not found this to be insurmountable an issue). It has worked quite well for my study team and for other study teams here on campus as well. It's possible to have calls recorded, andwhoever sets up the account as host willreceive a record of each call & information re: who dials in.
http://www.freeconferencecall.com/loginaccount.asp?accesscode=&phonenumber=&passcode=&redirected_page=new-account-web-content.asp
Jennifer Wenzel,
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