Rocky Mountain Neurosurgical Society
Executive Meeting Minutes
January 29, 2022

The meeting was called to order by RMNS president Dr. Joseph Sramek at 12:51pm. Present in person were Dr. Joseph Sramek, Dr. Justin Davis, Dr. Erik Parker, Dr. Joel MacDonald, Dr. John Clough, and Allie Whipple. Present via zoom were Dr. Brad Lega, Dr. Brad Duhon, Dr. Mark Mahan, and Dr. Kelly Schmidt.

Report of the President: Next annual meeting will be June 18-22, 2022 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Guest speakers will be Dr. Linda Liau and Dr. Richard Byrne. There was discussion of asking Dr. Byrne to give talks on Political Advocacy and/or Neurosurgical History. We will cover travel and lodging for these guest speakers and their spouse as well as a $1,000 honorarium. The local speaker will be Jeff Meldrum, a professor of Anatomy and Anthropology at Idaho State University and renowned Sasquatch expert. We will cover transport and 2 nights stay as well as a $500 honorarium for him.

Report of the Vice President: Dr. Clough has received a list of email addresses from Dr. Schmidt and will be sending a letter out to the vendors soon requesting support for the meeting. We will continue with the Gold, Silver, and Bronze levels of sponsorship as we did last year. There will also be opportunities for lanyard/name badge and opening reception sponsorship. There are also prices for ads in the program. We will again have a “raffle prize” for those that fill out there vendor contact card. Specific prize will be decided later.

Report of the Secretary: Save the date cards will be sent out soon. There was discussion about having an up to date address list and the issue with having multiple people on the board having multiple different lists. We will plan on setting up a google doc that all board members have access to. This will help everyone to have the same up to date list.

Report of the Website Administrator/Historian: Dr. MacDonald just tweaked the website a little bit, adding a few features. Links for the annual meeting and abstract submission or up. Instead of the picture book that has been brought to all the meetings, there was talk of purchasing a laptop that would be set up like a kiosk to display pictures at the meetings. Also, there is an effort being made to create a digital archive. There was also discussion about having a virtual presentation option for residents as it could be more difficult for them to get approval to travel. However, the plan would be to encourage in person participation, likely with a stipend for presenting in person. Dr. MacDonald made a motion to offer a virtual presentation option for residents at the upcoming meeting. Dr. Davis seconded the motion, and it was passed unanimously. Dr. Elliott would like to start giving a history talk at the annual meetings.

Report of the Membership Committee: There has been one new member application since the last annual meeting, Dr. Michael Karsy. He was spoken highly off by both Dr. MacDonald and Dr. Mahan.

2022 Meeting:

Local Arrangements Report: Meeting will be in Coeur d’Alene, ID June 18-22. Slide show presentation is attached to this email.

Scientific Program/CME Report: Application for CME approval has been submitted to the AANS, however the contact person at AANS has changed yet again and Dr. Mahan is trying to get in touch with whomever has taken over that position.

Future Sites:
2023: Alyeska resort in Girdwood, AK. Dr. Schmidt gave a presentation about the basic layout of the meeting and options for social events. Golf and tennis are not feasible events at this location. The Sunday night dinner will likely be a Glacier cruise. Dr. Schmidt is going to work on finalizing some details in the contract about how the room block is being booked/paid for.

2024: La Cantera resort in San Antonio, TX. An initial deposit has been made, but there is not much more detail at this time. Dr. Lega will visit to start getting more details nailed down.

Old/New Business: No old or new business was discussed.

Dr. MacDonald made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Dr. Parker seconded the motion. Meeting was adjourned at 3:45pm

Respectfully submitted,

Justin Davis, MD
Secretary, RMNS