Chris Goodall opened the meeting, which started with a review of the 2002 meeting minutes. The minutes were reviewed and accepted with no comments from any MATT members present. The current meeting is progressing smoothly and financially it is expected to break even. Watch for the updated MATT budget in an up coming newsletter. The balance as of 5/5/03 is $14,366.00. The fall 2002 newsletter was distributed to 110 members with no returns at a total cost of $92.40. The possibility of distributing the newsletter by e-mail was discussed at last years meeting; this option needs further exploration and will be revisited at a later time. Also as proposed at last years meeting, corporate sponsorship will be a future membership option for sponsors. Christine Moore will draft the guidelines to present to the executive board. The guidelines will outline the benefits and obligations of the corporate sponsorship.
The Charter Award Committe, which includes Adam Negrusz, Barbara Rowland and Christine Moore was create to draft guidelines for the Charter award. The award is designed to encourage student participation in the meeting, such as best poster or platform presentation. Meeting guidelines will reflect that an honorarium of no more than $ 500.00 dollars will be offered to guest presenters at future MATT meetings. Additional monies would have to be approved by the board. This would be in place of reimbursed expenses. The current MATT membership is down to approximately 60 members from 88. The membership chair will coordinate a membership drive, update the membership list and work to get the list put on the MATT website if it can be password protected and it is not cost prohibitive. Please tell all of your colleagues who are not yet members of MATT that they should join. It was decided that 2004 membership dues would be raised to $25.00. The membership also approved the new bylaws as written.
The new slate of officers were presented by the nominating committee and approved, they are as follows;
- President – Laureen Marinetti,
- Vice President – Barbara Rowland,
- Secretary – Don Frederick
- and Treasurer – Tim Caragher.
MATT is currently accepting proposals for 2006 and beyond for future meeting sites. The 2004 meeting will be in Arlington Heights, IL hosted by Christine Moore and Adam Negrusz and will be a joint meeting with the Society of Hair Testing. Barbara Rowland has offered to host a MATT meeting in Kansas City for 2005. Visit the MATT website for current meeting information www.midwesttox.org and let one of the MATT officers know if you have ideas or suggestions. Chris Goodall was presented with a token of appreciation for all her hard work as MATT president. The 2003 annual MATT general membership meeting concluded at 1:20 pm. See you in Arlington Heights in 2004 where we can all learn more about the wonderful world of hair testing in addition to all the excellent clinical and forensic toxicology information.
Submitted by Laureen Marinetti