Minutes of the 1998 Annual AAOB Business Meeting

Board Room 2 of the Minneapolis Hilton Hotel
March 5, 1998

(Excerpted from the AAOB Newsletter, Volume 7, Issue 1 - January 1999)

The 1998 Annual AAOB business meeting was held on Thursday, March 5, 1998 from 5:00 - 6:30 P.M. in Board Room 2 of the Minneapolis Hilton Hotel. Dr. Frank Oppenheim, AAOB president, opened the meeting and extended his appreciation to the AAOB officers for their input during the preceding year. He then set the agenda and led the membership in their discussion of the following items of business.

Item 1: The minutes of the AAOB business meeting on Thursday, March 20, 1997 at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando, Florida were accepted as presented in the January, 1998 issue (Volume 6, Issue 1) of the American Association of Oral Biologists Newsletter.

Item 2: Dr. Steven D. London, AAOB Secretary/Treasurer reported that the balance of Association funds as of December 31, 1997 was $8,162.11. There were 129 members in good standing for the 1997 calendar year. Dr. London reported that 1998 Dues will be $12.00. $55.00 dues for the 1998 issues Critical Reviews in Oral Biology and Medicine will be handled directly with the publisher (IADR). Subscription to Critical Reviews in Oral Biology and Medicine will remain optional for associate (student) and retired members. Dues Notices were sent out in January 1998.

1997 marked the third year that all full association members were required to subscribe to Critical Reviews in Oral Biology and Medicine. Dr. London reported that he collected and forwarded $4,039.00 in subscription fees for 1997 issues of Critical Reviews in Oral Biology and Medicine to the IADR/AADR. Dr. London thanked Mr. Bobby Phipps (IADR Membership Dues Coordinator) for his help in the coordination of the Journal subscriptions for AAOB members and for allowing international members to pay their dues by credit card to the AADR.

Item 3: Dr. Frank Dowd reported the results of the 1998 AAOB election. Of 129 ballots mailed, 60 responded (46%). The following members were elected or appointed officers for 1998-1999:

Item 4: Dr. Olav Alvares, Editor of Critical Reviews in Oral Biology and Medicine, reported that there were 515 subscriptions to the journal in 1997, that there were 59 manuscripts in various stages of preparation which would take the journal into the year 2000, and that subscriptions to the Journal would cost $70/year for AAOB members starting in 1999. He reported that the IADR was concerned with the viability of all of its journals and that a consultant firm was being hired to evaluate association publications. Dr. Alvares commented that he was concerned with the long-term outlook for the journal and said that he wanted to take a proactive role in trying to increase the journal's circulation. In this regard, he reported that the association's board of directors approved seeking subscriptions to the journal by other oral biology or dental education associations. To initiate this process, Dr. Alvares said he would contact the Japanese Association of Oral Biologists.

Item 5: Dr. Steven London, Councilor of the AADS Oral Biology Section reported on the status of the AADS initiative on competency based dental education. At the March 1997 AADS meeting, the AADS House of Delegates accepted a clinical competency document. Dr. London reported that the importance of Foundation Knowledge as a means to integrate the basic sciences and oral biology with clinical competencies received attention in the form of a workshop held in the fall of 1997 at the AADS Council of Sections interim meeting. Nine competency statements were selected and developed as examples of how foundation knowledge relates to clinical competencies. Dr. London reported that this initiative would continue to be an emphasis of the Oral Biology section in the coming year. He encouraged AAOB members to join the AADS Oral Biology Section and to support its efforts in emphasizing the critical role of the basic sciences and oral biology in dental education.

Item 6: The revised AAOB Bylaws, which were presented at the 1997 annual meeting in Orlando, Florida and which were further revised based on comments received at that meeting, was presented to the membership in the January, 1998 issue (Volume 6, Issue 1) of the American Association of Oral Biologists Newsletter. A ballot was mailed to all AAOB members in January 1998 and 100% of the ballots returned approved of the amended Bylaws without comment. Andrew I. Spielman also presented the revised Bylaws to the membership in Minneapolis and these were accepted without comment. Andrew I. Spielman and Firoz Rahemtulla were acknowledged for their work on this project.

Item 7: Dr. Frank Dowd reviewed discussions held at the 1997 meeting in Orlando to initiate an AAOB award in Oral Biology which would honor graduating senior dental students who have been involved in research in Oral Biology during their dental school career. The award will be presented by the AAOB to a graduating senior student who has been nominated by the dean upon recommendation of the faculty. Dr. Dowd reported that he contacted the deans of all dental schools in the US and Canada and solicited them to nominate one candidate for the AAOB Oral Biology award from their institution. Dr. Dowd, with the help of Dr. Steven D. London, is in the process of making certificates and plans to distribute them to the dental schools for presentation to students this spring (1998) at their graduation ceremonies.

Item 8: Dr. Olav Alvares reported that he had contacted the Japanese Association of Oral Biologists to co-sponsor a joint symposium at the 1999 IADR/AADR meeting in Vancouver, Canada. The JAOB approved a joint symposium at its board meeting on January 5, 1998. The proposed title is "Cytokine Biology in Oral Disease". Dr. Alvares and Dr. Dana Graves (Program Officer) will continue to work on the symposium this year. Dr. Alvares received approval from the membership to seek corporate support of the symposium.

Item 9: Dr. Frank Oppenheim, AAOB President, initiated a discussion of a number of items of New Business. They included:

1. The members discussed of the role of the AAOB and it was agreed that the focus of the AAOB should be on educational, as opposed to research issues. Since there are a number of other associations of oral biology or dental education (British, European, Japanese, etc.), a resolution was passed to explore the possibility of forming an International Association of Oral Biologists. The role of an International Association of Oral Biologists was envisioned to be similar to that performed by the International Association for Dental Research in providing support and an umbrella organization for its national affiliate organizations.


2. Dr. Frank Oppenheim, AAOB President, appointed a committee to evaluate oral biology in the predoctoral dental curriculum. The committee will report its finding at next year's business meeting in Vancouver. Members of the committee are Drs. Frank Oppenheim (chair), Frank Dowd, Andrew Spielman, Mustafa Kh. Dabbous, Israel Kleinberg, Solomon Amar, Kenneth Etzel, and Kenneth Izutsu.

With no further business items to be discussed, the meeting was adjourned at 6:30 P.M. Prepared and submitted by Dr. Steven D. London, Secretary/Treasurer.