Rocky Mountain Neurosurgical Society

2026 Summer Executive Board Meeting

June 20th, 2026

Grand Hyatt Deer Valley

Park City, Utah

The meeting was called to Order by RMNS President, Dr. John Clough at 1330.

In attendance was John Clough, Erik Parker, Justin Davis, Joel MacDonald, Shervin Rahimpour, Allie Whipple and Jessie Tarnow.

A motion was made for approval of  the winter meeting minutes and this was passed unanimously. 

Report of the President:  Dr. Clough has secured 3 guest speakers for the meeting – Dr. Paul Camarata, Dr. Bob Thompson and Dr. Pete Konrad. Unfortunately, Dr. Konrad has had a family emergency and will no longer be able to attend the meeting in person. He will present his talk virtually. The future viability of the meeting and group was discussed extensively. Membership numbers are down, which was felt to be multifactorial and largely due to generational changes. Resident attendance has not recovered from COVID and program participation is not a priority as it once was. Multiple options were discussed, including winding down the meeting, changing the format of the program (vendor trade show, symposium, travel group), or shorten the meeting length to 2 days. Alternatively, changing the time of year of the meeting was also discussed as resident graduation ceremonies are now in June, when they were historically in July. More discussion will be had with other members of the organization and will also be discussed at the business meeting Tuesday. 

Report of the Vice President: Dr. Shervin Rahimpour reported there was great vendor support with 22 companies registered and a revenue of $73,500 for the meeting. Payment from three companies is still pending, but should be received shortly. 

Report of the Treasurer: Dr. Joel MacDonald reports the financial standings of the group is stable and he is hopeful for a $10k net for this year’s meeting. The meeting will roughly cost $68,000-$70,000 with some outstanding commitments that need to be paid still. He anticipates having around $40,000 in the bank account at the end of the meeting. The cost of the CNS joint providership costs $8,250. Unfortunately, there was a fraud incident with the wire transfer for the payment to the CNS. A fraud investigation was opened but the funds could not be recaptured. The CNS was contacted and lowered the payment to half. Dr. MacDonald has also asked for consideration of a lower cost for joint providership for future meetings. He does not feel that the financial standings are stable enough to host the winter meeting in person again next year. He is considering putting some cash in a short term banking investment depending on final numbers of the meeting. 

Report of the Secretary: Dr. John Clough reports the paper historical documents have been scanned and digitized for electronic record keeping. A few of the original founding documents were kept and given to Dr. MacDonald to keep with the scrapbook.

Report of the Website Administrator: Dr. Joel MacDonald reports the web site is in good shape. There was a hiccup with the website domain name, which was resolved and ownership of the website has been transferred to Dr. MacDonald. Eventleaf continues to work well for the registration portal, but the abstract center did not work as smoothly this year. He plans to continue utilizing both portals at this time, but would consider a different abstract center portal if there are further issues.

Report of the Historian: Dr. Joel MacDonald reports that most of the scrapbook has been digitized and is available on the website. 

Report of the Membership Committee: No new membership applications were submitted this years.  

2026 Annual Meeting: Dr. Erik Parker provided a run down the week’s meeting and events. The 

 reception will be held in the empire room tonight. The president’s dinner will be held at Riverhorse with 2 shuttles arranged at 5:30 for pick up and dinner scheduled at 6pm. The golf tournament will be held at Soldier Hollow and pickleball will be held at Kellsey pickleball in Heber. The closing banquet will be held in the same room as the meeting. We were able to meet the room block minimum to avoid attrition. There was some annoyances with the facility and coordination of the meeting and Dr. Parker expressed that it would be beneficial to have a planner involved in future meetings who know the ins and outs of the nuances associated with planning the meeting. 

Scientific Program Report: Dr. Shofty has put together an exciting scientific program this year. We will plan to change the schedule slightly to accommodate Dr. Konrad moving his talk to Monday. 

CME Committee Report: Allie reported that the meeting was approved for 16 CME hours through the CNS. The moderators will be receiving an email from the CNS to complete after each scientific session. 

Future Sites: Potential future meeting sites were discussed – Whistler, Kelowna, Denver, Colorado Springs, Garden of the Gods, Denver and Colorado Springs. It was felt that an international meeting next year may not be the best option with concern for potential low attendance. Jenny Alcebo is a travel agent that has been helping investigate potential options for the next meeting. Unfortunately, she has had continued issues with booking any venue greater than 1 year out from the event date. The impact of this issue was discussed as it strongly affects the dynamic for advertising and planning ahead for the next meeting. 

2025-2026 Executive Board: Potential members for the board were discussed. Unfortunately, given low new member participation the past few years, there are limited options available at this time. Open positions will be discussed at the upcoming business meeting to determine next year’s executive board. A suggestion was made to hire an individual to manage positions that could not be filled. 

    • President: Dr. Justin Davis
    • President Elect
    • Vice President 
    • Secretary: 
    • Treasurer: 
    • Historian: Dr. Joel MacDonald
    • Member at Large: 
    • Scientific Program: 
    • CME Committee:
    • Local Arrangements (2027):
    • Nominating Committee: Dr. John Clough, Dr. Erik Parker, Dr. Mark Mahan
    • Membership Committee: 
    • Website Administrator: Dr. Joel MacDonald

Old/New Business: Ongoing discussions will be needed this week to determine the future of the society as well as locations for next year’s meeting if the group decides to move forward. 

Dr. Clough made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 1515 which was agreed upon by all present.