The Microcirculatory Society, Inc.
Newsletter

Volume 28, Number 3

Winter, 2000/2001

We are approaching the final steps of the preparation for our Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida on March 30-31, 2001. The final details are to be worked out at the meeting with the American Physiological Society's Joint Program Committee in mid-December. The program promises to be exciting for all members. In addition to our Poster Sessions to be held on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, we will have a workshop on "Clinical Applications of Intravital Microscopy", a "Young Investigator Session", the "MCS President's Symposium" and the "EM Landis Award Lecture". We are grateful to Cytometrics, Inc. for sponsoring the workshop and their contribution to the MCS President's Symposium. The schedule of the program is posted on our web site (http://microcirc.org/48thPROGRAM/Prgm2001.html).

As we have made a commitment to meet with APS and EB for the immediate future, we should consider the possible benefits of integrating more our Poster Sessions with the EB program, and in particular we may interact in a mutually beneficial manner with the APS-Cardiovascular Section. At present we have sessions on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. We may negotiate with APS and its CV Section to move one of our poster sessions to Sunday morning. We would retain the present time slots for the Young Investigators Session, the President's Symposium and the Landis Award Lecture. Possible benefits include: savings of one-day away from home/office (for those who attend both MCS and APS/EB meetings), increase in poster attendance, enhanced exchange of ideas with scientists in related fields, and opportunity to attract new members to MCS. Possible disadvantages are loss of small group ambiance and immersion in EB business. Please let the members of our Program Committee know your thoughts on this subject. The Program Committee and the Executive Council need your input before March 1, 2001. Their names and addresses are listed on our web site at http://microcirc.org/ABOUT/MCS_Committees.html

We need to address again the issue of membership. As reported by Deborah Damon, Chair of the Membership Committee, our growth in new members is positive but small. Ann Baldwin, MCS Treasurer, reports that only a fraction of our membership is "active" - as defined by dues payments. We should challenge ourselves to a campaign goal so that each active member would bring a new active member to the Society. Simple arithmetic would predict that success of such campaign would result in doubling the active membership. Our membership drive should target the entire spectrum of scientists with special emphasis we should target new young members (postdoctoral fellows, instructors and junior assistant professors) to insure the future of our discipline and scientific endeavors. Please make an effort to stimulate your colleagues, including faculty members in clinical departments, to become members of MCS. I invite again to contact the members of the Executive Council and Committees to share your ideas on initiatives that would make MCS more attractive to junior and established scientists in academia and industry.

As important as our present and future are, so is our past. Gene Renkin, Chair of our Historical Committee, is working on updating the charge of the Committee and on organizing our records, archiving valuable microvascular films and tapes, etc. Please contact Gene directly at emrenkin@ucdavis.edu if you have elements that may be considered of historical value for our Society.

If you have ideas on improvements to make our web site friendlier, more informative and more attractive to scientists, please contact Bob Gore, our webmaster. The MCS web site at http://microcirc.org is an excellent mechanism for updating the membership on events and for insuring timely communications.