The North American Drosophila Board

The Drosophila community has held an annual research conference for more than 30 years. In the early days of the group, the community was small and less than a hundred individuals would attend these meetings, which could therefore be organized in an informal fashion. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, the community had grown to such an extent that attendance at the conference was typically over 1000 individuals. Consequently, organization of the conference became an overwhelming task for any one individual, and the University dormitory housing traditionally used for the meetings became inadequate. Furthermore, meeting registration fees exceeded expenditure, and moneys began to accumulate. As the number of conference attendees and as the fund increased, and when the housing for the conference was moved to commercial hotels, questions of personal liability began to trouble the individual organizers. It was at this point that Linda Hall and Dan Lindsley suggested the creation of a Drosophila Board and drew up an agreement with the Genetics Society of America's administrative offices to run the annual meetings. The agreement with the GSA offered two advantages: (1) the administrative details would be handled by professionals, and meeting cancellation insurance could be more readily obtained, (2) the Drosophila fund could be held in trust by the GSA to help defray meeting costs, while avoiding IRS problems for individual scientific program organizers. When, following his untimely death, the Larry Sandler Memorial Lecture Fund was established, the GSA agreed to set up and manage a separate account for this fund.

During the first few years, the Board was made up of individuals who had been actively involved in organizing previous conferences with an attempt to include members from across the U.S. and Canada so that the board would represent the interests of the entire North American Drosophila research community.

The Drosophila Board is a representative group of working scientists who use Drosophila as their primary model organism.

The Board meets once a year in conjunction with the North American Drosophila Research Conference. Additional business is conducted by email, FAX, and, if necessary, by telephone conferences.

Officers

The Drosophila Board will have a President, elected by the community, who will serve for one year as President elect and for one year as President. To ensure long-term memory of the Board, the President will serve three additional years, as "past-President", "past-past President" then "Member-At-Large" in sequential years.

The Drosophila Board will have a Treasurer who will serve for three years. The Treasurer will nominate a successor who must be a current or past member of the Board. The nominee must be approved by a vote of the Board.

Regional Representatives

The Board consists of one elected Representative from each of the following regions of the U.S. and Canada:

In addition, there will be a representative for:

as well as International Representatives from each of the following regions:

Australia/Oceania

Asia

Europe

Latin America

These delegates will be appointed by the communities in these regions. Regional Representatives serve on the Board for a period of three years. Terms of office for the Officers and the Regional Representatives begin and end in the spring, coincident with the annual meeting.

Ex officio members

The following individuals from the research community (or their designated representative) will serve on the Board as ex officio members:

The Board's discussion of community issues benefit from input from the entire community. It is the responsibility of the Regional Representatives to canvass Drosophila researchers residing in their regions so input can be obtained on major issues of concern. Advice from the ex officio members is invaluable and will be solicited on all Board issues. However, the Officers, including the Treasurer, and Regional Representatives, as the elected officials of the Board, constitute its voting body.

The "past-past President" will be responsible for organizing the election of the President and the Regional Representatives. A nomination committee will be formed to name two or three delegates for each position to be elected. Delegates living in the different regions are chosen to ensure diversity and broad representation on the Board, but everyone in the Drosophila research community may vote for the all candidates, including any of the regional representatives who are on the ballot that year. Elections will be held in December. The newly elected Representatives will participate in the Board Meeting and begin their term in the following spring, coincident with the annual meeting.

The primary functions of the Board are:

The site of the annual Drosophila Research Conference will rotate in the following order: East, West, Center of the U.S.

This charter was prepared for the Board by Th. Kaufman and J. Lucchesi and was revised by the Board at its meetings on March 31, 1993, at the Town & Country Hotel, San Diego, CA, on April 5, 1995, at the Westin Peachtree, Atlanta, GA, by an electronic vote in February 2003, on March 20, 2003 at Chicago and on March 23, 2004 at Washington D.C.