2008 Board, Committees, Sections & Focus Group Meetings - Alphabetical
2008 Board, Committees, Sections & Focus Group Meetings - Chronological

2007 Family and Health Section Minutes (pdf document)

Family and Health Section
Annual Business Meeting Minutes
NCFR – November 8, 2007

Meeting was called to order by Sharon Denham, Section Chair, at 8 PM

Introduction of Current Family and Health Section Officers

• Sharon A. Denham – Chair
• Deborah P. Coehlo – Chair-Elect
• B. Jan McCulloch – Secretary/Treasurer
• Jeremy B. Yorgason – Student/New Professional

 Additional introductions included:

• Susanne Roper – Chair, Chronic Conditions in Families Across the Life Course Focus Group
• Whitney Brosi – Chair, Issues in Aging Focus Group

Introduction of Family and Health Section Members

Annual Business Meeting Minutes
Minutes from the 2006 Annual Business Meeting were distributed, reviewed, and unanimously approved.

Treasurer’s Report (Figures as of 9/30/2007)

• 2007 Income = $1,076.00
• 2007 Membership Income = $306.00
• Costs for the 2007 Program Meeting  = $518.76
• Student/New Professional Award 2006 (Michael Merton) = $225.00
• Net Loss ((Income vs. Expenses) = $332.24
• Family and Health Section Reserve Fund Balance = $7,521.92
• Total Balance = $7,854.16

Focus Group Reports

• Susanne Roper – brief report on the Chronic Conditions in Families Across the Life Course Focus Group
• Group
• Jeremy Yorgason – provided a brief report for Whitney Brosi on the Issues in Aging Focus Group
• Group is sponsoring a session at the annual with Steve Zarit, Penn State, on caregiving
• Jeremy led a discussion on the growth of the Issues in Aging Focus Group and the possibility of it becoming a section. The group currently has about 90 members and 100 members are needed for the group to become a section.

President’s Report

• For the 2007 annual meeting, the Family and Health Section sponsored:
• 2 workshops
• 3 symposia
• 5 paper sessions
• 1 special speaker
• and a number of poters
• The section remains one of the largest in NCFR
• Sharon thanked reviewers for their efforts in making sure abstracts were reviewed in a timely manner for the meeting
• She also encouraged members to volunteer to serve as reviewers for the 2008 meeting as well as volunteering to serve as a moderator.
• Reviewers of abstracts will take place sometime in February
• There was no student paper award for the 2007 annual meeting. For next year, we need to insure that e-mails are sent to students/young professional members early. Jeremy indicated that he was working with other students/young professional representatives to come up with ideas. Ideas were also brought up in the meeting:
• Targeting the upper quartile of student/young professional abstract scores and contacting them to encourage their submission for the award
• Abstract reviewers could identify students/young professionals work and notify the chair
• Sharon then updated the members regarding NCFR items:
• NCFR has hired a new director, Diane Cushman
• Saturday, November 10th (8:00 – 10:15 Dwight Jewson will be leading a town hall meeting with the purpose of re-visioning NCFR – where do we want to go as an organization
• N CFR now has three journals: Journal of Marriage and Family, Family Relations, and a new journal entitled Family Theory and Review
• The 2008 NCFR Annual Meeting will be held in Little Rock. Arkansas. The theme for the meeting will be “Lenses on Family”
• Sharon also provided information on new NCFR policies regarding sections
• Beginning in January, when you join NCFR – you will not pay to join a section. NCFR members can join multiple sections if they wish, but all members will be asked to join at least one section
• Each section will be provided with $2,500/year for expenses. From this $2,500, the section will expend funds for items such as the section chair’s travel to the NCFR program meeting, awards, special speakers, and refreshments for the section meeting. If funds are not spent in that current year, they will be returned to the organization. Sections may collaborate with other sections to co-sponsor events.
• Under current policies, any funds left over go into a residual account. We will not lose the dollars we now have in our Family and Health Section account. The reserve fund could be added to in the future if the section chose to mount fundraising efforts (in the past, for example, syllabi packets have been sold).
• After listening to the discussion, Sharon believes that this change in policy will be a good thing
• NCFR dues will not be going up as a result of this change in policy
• Members asked questions about:
•  how the section would still have a “face” if NCFR members could join multiple sections
•  How section membership would be counted
• Sharon indicated the first year would be a trial run to see how things will work. If changes are needed, revisions could occur
• Section budgets for the upcoming year are to be to NCFR by December 20th.
• The NCFR website will be revitalized after January 1st. With this revitalized site, we will be able to many different new things including setting up a section blog if we wish.
• Sharon introduced Glen Palm, newly elected NCFR Board Member, who attended our section meeting
• Sharon also introduced Jason Samuels from the NCFR office who spoke about new on-line networking
• Jason noted that:
• The new service in getting internal testing now
• The public can access the portal now – one example of work is Nancy Gonzales’ blog
• This new networking system will allow WICKI pages, discussion boards, document sharing if the documents are Microsoft based
• NCFR is adjusting to this new technology and taking the hurdles as they come. Jason reported that they are not quite ready to make it available yet to the full NCFR membership.
• If you have any questions about this networking system, you can contact Jason at NCFR (Jason@ncfr.org)
• Sharon announced that the NCFR Board is seeking nominations for the coming year. Self-nominations are accepted.
• The Family and Health Section will nominate the following new officers during the coming year:
• Chair-Elect
• Secretary/Treasurer
• Student/New Professional
• Self-nominations are accepted for these section leadership positions
• Sharon led a discussion regarding the submission of the Family and Health Work Plan including goals and outcomes. Ideas included:
• Develop a mentorship/sponsorship program for the section. Issues included:
• What would this look like?
• Volunteer mentors could contact potential mentees prior to the meeting and have a conversation and meal with them
• Increase communication around specific subject matter – meaningful conversation via technology
• Partner with other sections to provide speakers
• Author of The Missing Class was suggested as a potential speaker for next year
• Speak with journal editors about the possibility of a special issue focused on families and health
• It was reported that a special issue of Family Relations focusing on families and health was underway.
• Developing a way of nurturing section members to assume leadership roles
• It was determined that these ideas were outcomes and that goals were more clearly stated as:
• Continued growth of the Family and Health Section
• Developing a stronger presence of the Family and Health Section in the annual program
• A discussion took place to generate ideas for the 2008 program in Arkansas. These included:
• Session on Hurricane Katrina and Health
• Mike Huckabee, governor of Arkansas and Presidential candidate, was suggested because of his work on diabetes and lifestyle changes
• This session or another could be jointly sponsored by Public Policy and Family and Health Sections
• Session on methods – something sophisticated and invigorating
• Could compare large datasets with randomized trials
• Symposium on a health topic with each participant approaching it differently
• Session on evidence-based practice

Sharon thanked everyone for coming.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 PM

Respectfully Submitted,