2021 Winter Executive Meeting

Rocky Mountain Neurosurgical Society

January 16th, 2021

Virtual Meeting via Zoom

 

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 1:17pm PST by Dr. Michael Seiff. Also present at the meeting were Dr. Joel MacDonald, Dr. Joseph Sramek, Dr. Kelly Schmidt,Dr. Brad Lega, Dr. Brad Duhon, Dr. Erik Parker, Dr. John Clough and Dr. Justin Davis.

 

Report of the President:Dr. Michael Seiff welcomed everyone. The first order of business was to take a vote on whether or not to move forward with the 2021 annual meeting in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Seiff made a motion to continue with plans for the meeting. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously. Nino Chiocca, MD, PhD will be one of the guest speakers for the 2021 meeting in Jackson Hole. Linda Liau, MD, PhD has committed to be a speaker for the 2022 meeting in Coeur d’Alene. (Dr. Sramek indicated his approval and appreciation of this). Dr. Seiff is planning a trip to Jackson Hole soon to scout the area and look at possible venues for the President’s Dinner.

 

Report of the Vice President: Dr. Kelly Schmidt will be working with vendors this year. Tiered sponsorships were discussed and  its was decided that we would use this system at this years meeting. In addition, we have decided to offer a “COVID sponsorship” level for companies unable or unwilling to send representatives due to the coronavirus. This “COVID sponsorship” would consist of a static display of a vendors marketing materials. Additional vendor sponsorship opportunities were discussed as well. These included: name badge lanyards, registration portfolios, welcome reception, resident fund grants, and advertising in the meeting program. It was decided that we would give the vendors a deadline of 4/15/21 for including advertisement in the meeting program. Dr. Schmidt will send an email to the board with a copy of the proposed vendor letter as well as the breakdown of the various sponsorships.

 

Report of the Website Administrator: Dr. MacDonaldshared his screen and took us through the website, both from an administrator view and end user view. Prices for the various tiers of sponsorship and social events were edited in real time as we discussed them. The registration process should be more user friendly this year, especially for the vendors/individual reps.

 

Report of the Treasurer:

 

As of 1/16/2021, Brad Duhon and Kelly Schmidt are no longer key executives. Erik Parker will be taking over as key executive of the Rocky Mountain Neurosurgical Society

 

Current Account Balances

    1. Checking Accounts
  1. Wells Fargo$110,135.39
    1. Resident Fund$11,587.26
    1. PayPal                                      $    3,744.60
    2. Total Assets                              $113,879.99
  2. Membership Dues
    1. 69 Active Members
    2. Resigned
  1. Naina Gross (paid 4 yrs back dues)
  2. John Rolston
    1. Converted to Senoir status
  1. Wayne Wittenberg
  2. Lee Krauth
  • Christopher Covington
  1. Howard Morgan
  2. Joseph Zabramski
    1. Moved out of region – converted to inactive
  1. Bryan Wohlfeld
  2. Justin Whitlow
    1. Members 3+ years behind in dues
  1. Joseph Beshay
  2. Stephen Campbell (wrong address)
  • George Cravens
  1. Bradley McGowan
  2. Timothy Wirt
  3. Mark Robinson
  • Thomas Kopitnik Jr
  • Mark Gardon
  1. Brett Gentry
  2. Paul Elliott
  3. Michael Finn
    1. 37 members paid dues
  1. 2020 Dues collected $6,150 (including back dues)
    1. PayPal active on website.  $150 membership fee is down to $145.35 due to $4.65 service fee
  1. 12 members paid by PayPal
    1. New applications:

 

  1. Resident Fund
    1. 2020 Donations:                        $600 
    2. Resident Talk Awards                $0
    3. Program Reimbursement          $0

 

  1. 2020 Annual Meeting Cancelled

 

  1. Overall Financials
    1. January 2019                                        $155,023
    2. January 2020                                        $113,879
    3. Net                                                      $  41,144

 

 

  1. Miscellaneous
    1. AANS NREF funding
  1. $2500 annually x 10 years (Pd 2017-2020)

Taxes

  • Taxes filed through 2019 fiscal year
  • 2020 taxes in preparation

 

Report of the Secretary:  The Fall Newsletter went out in November of 2020 and contains preliminary information for the upcoming 55thannual meeting in Jackson Hole, WY.  I am planning on putting together another “Save the Date” postcard and sending it out in February. I will use our current list from the AANS for this. I will plan on completing and sending out the spring newsletter by April.

 

Report of the Historian: Dr. MacDonald has not yet been able to get the historians book from Dawn Capanna, the wife of the late Dr. Capanna, but is planning on doing so soon.

 

Report of the Membership Committee:Discussion was had regarding new member applications. There have been 9 new applications since the last annual meeting. They are: Robert Lynagh (St. Vincent Healthcare, Billings, MT); Kali Abdullah (UT Southwestern); Owoicho Adogwa (UT Southwestern); W. James Thoman (CPMG Neurological Surgery); Peter Syre (Colorado Brain and Spine Institute); Nicholas Hensley (Rocky Mountain Neurosurgery Center); Michael Raber (Kootenai Health); Wissam Asfahani (Neurosurgery One Parker, CO); Fotis Souslian (Neurosurgery One Lakewood, CO). These applicants have the support of the executive committee and will be voted on at the annual meeting this year.

 

2021 Annual Meeting: The 55thAnnual meeting will be held at The Snow King Resort in Jackson Hole, WY from Saturday, June 19thuntil Wednesday, June 23rd.

 

Local Arrangements Report: Dr. Joe Sramek will be helping with planning this meeting.Snow King Resort is the meeting location and is approximately a 20-minute drive from the Jackson Hole airport.Additionally , the resort offers a complimentary shuttle from the airport. Contracted rooms are 5 on Friday, June 18th, 76 each night from Saturday, June 19 to Monday, June 21 and 64 on Tuesday, June 22. The room block closes 21 days prior to the event. We can reduce the number of contracted rooms by 10% up to 21 days out from the event. Further details regarding social activities were presented in a PowerPoint by Dr. Sramek. President’s dinner location still needs to be finalized.

 

Scientific Program Report: Dr. John Clough is the scientific program director. Things will likely start to pick up around April and May.The abstracts and presentations of the upcoming meeting will focus on the topics discussed and will include topics on cerebrovascular, spinal deformity, metabolic treatment of malignancy, and other topics discussed to meet the educational requirement of our membership.

 

CME Accreditation Report: Dr. Mark Mahan is not present but the CME accreditation has been confirmed.

 

Future Sites:

 

            2022    Coeur d’Alene, ID – Dr. Brad Duhon

 

2023    Alaska. Dr. Kelly Schmidt has looked into some options preliminarily.

 

2024    La Cantera, San Antonio, TX —Dr. Brad Lega

 

2025 Punta Mita?—Dr. Joel MacDonald?

 

2026 Flagstaff, Sedona, Big Sky?

 

Old/New Business: No old  business was discussed. The new business that was discussed included future meeting sites and a way to honor Dr. Al Capanna. Possibilities of honoring him that were discussed were naming a lecture after him or attaching his name to the golf tournament in some manner. No final decision was reached as of yet.

 

Meeting ended at 3:27 pm PST.

 

Respectfully Submitted

Justin Davis, MD

Secretary, RMNS