By: Dr. Bruce Sells
CFBS Executive Director

INTRODUCTION

The 2000-2001 year witnessed a number of positive events that have been encouraging to the members of the CFBS. These included:

1) The second Strategic Planning Session held in November 2000, to discuss issues that would improve the role of CFBS in Canadian Life Sciences, attracted a large number of participants.

2) New societies discussing Federation membership.

3) New contracts signed.

4) The May 2001 advocacy visits with "decision-makers" was one of our more successful meetings and included a total of 17 visits over a 4-day period.

5) The new thematic format for the 2000 and 2001 CFBS Annual Meetings has proved successful and many complementary comments have been received. From a financial perspective the income derived was not only satisfactory but better than would have been expected, given the costs of putting the new format in place.

6) Financial Situation

7) CFBS Office

8) Website Functions

I STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSION AND FOLLOW-UP

With 23 attendees at the November 2000 strategic planning meeting, a very active discussion took place. The major accomplishments this year were:

1) Obtaining a positive response to the Thematic Format of the Annual Meeting.

2) Acceptance of the concept of a "contract" for those societies that wished to move away from an annual arrangement of fees based on the number of ordinary members, graduate students and post doctoral fellows.

3) Development of a partnership arrangement in which CFBS would, when financially able, provide assistance to Federation Societies for their scientific meetings. In 2001, we provided speaker support for the Canadian Physiological Society and Biophysical Society of Canada Meetings.

4) The CFBS' strategy is to increase the number of Societies within the Federation. As part of this exercise several non-member societies were approached. Representing a larger number of life scientists will provide CFBS with greater impact on "decision makers" regarding the issues important to our community.

II SOCIETIES APPROACHED

a) The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology joined CFBS officially on January 1, 2001. We are pleased to welcome them as part of the Federation. They will play an active role in one of the Themes "Physical Activity, Nutrition and Chronic Disease" planned for the CFBS-2002 Annual Meeting at the Palais des Congres de Montreal.

b) Active discussions have taken place with the Canadian Society for Immunology. It is our hope that this Society will rejoin CFBS. A "draft contract" has been sent to them for consideration.

c) Discussions with the Canadian Society for Zoology have resulted in their joining CFBS as participants in our Advocacy activities.

d) The ED was invited to meet with the Ag/Vet Deans again this year.

e) We have had communication with the Agricultural Institute of Canada (AIC) who appears interested in our "advocacy" activities. A draft contract was sent to them.

f) The Life Sciences Society was established mainly as a Society to accommodate those individuals who would like to support CFBS but whose Societies are not members of CFBS. For those individuals the only fee is the CFBS levy. For those individuals not members of a Canadian Society they may join the Life Sciences Society by paying the Life Sciences Society Fees in addition to the CFBS levy.

g) American Ecological Society/Canadian Chapter. A meeting was held with one of their representatives in Ottawa. CFBS would welcome their expertise in developing approaches to environmental issues.

III CONTRACTS SIGNED

Following last November's Board Meeting and Strategic Planning Session, a document was developed for communicating to Societies how the money received from them, by CFBS, was employed. Contracts have been drawn up and signed with three life sciences groups. In general, the contracts outline the various services provided by CFBS and the individual societies choose those that are most appropriate to their needs. After 3 years the contract can be renegotiated. The following are some of the developments on this front.

1. Canadian Society for Biochemistry Molecular Cell Biology (CSBMCB) - signed.
2. Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP) - signed.
3. A contract with Canadian Council of University Biology Chairs (CCUBC) has been in operation for several years to deal with additional needs of their organization.
4. Canadian Society for Immunology (CSI) - pending.
5. Canadian Society for Zoology (CSZ) - contract agreed to.
6. Agricultural Institute of Canada (AIC) - contract being examined.
7. Ecological Society of America (ESA) - discussions initiated.

IV ADVOCACY ACTIVITIES

During the past year, CFBS' role has continued in meeting with parliamentarians and government officials. The ED has worked on the steering committee of the Canadian Consortium for Research (CCR) and was asked to serve as symposium chair, by the Partnership Group in Science and Engineering (PAGSE).

The PAGSE symposium, to be held October 17th, 2001, is directed at MPs and senior bureaucrats. Its purpose is to provide information on how basic research develops the underpinnings for commercialization and/or application of ideas. The title of the symposium, which will be held in the West Block on Parliament Hill, is "Research- Key to Canada's Well-Being. Attendance is open to scientists wishing to attend. Further details are available on the PAGSE website: WWW.PAGSE.ORG

Below are some of the other advocacy activities of the CFBS office:

1. A "Brief" was written and forwarded to various MP's, cabinet ministers and government bureaucrats: Creating A Research Environment. We were pleased at the responses from cabinet ministers to our brief.

2. Invited Article for CHR Newsletter "Mining for Gold: Building A Future", see www.cfbs.org

3. May 2001 Visits to Decision-Makers

i) Canadian Council of University Chairs (CCUBC): Six members of the Executive (from 6 different provinces) met with 9 parliamentarians/bureaucrats/granting council officials over a two-day period. CCUBC represents approximately 50 different biology departments across Canada.

ii) CFBS: Representatives from 5 different Societies met with 8 individuals over a two-day period to press for action on issues of importance to the Life Sciences community.

iii) Prior to each of the above meetings, the "lobby teams" took part in a briefing session organized by the CFBS Executive Director to consider the issues and develop the strategies to be used with each of the "decision-makers".

We have been gratified to read in the letter (May 2001) from Peter Adams, Caucus Chair, Post-Secondary Education and Research, to the Minister of Finance the emphasis on four major items which have been underlined in our "Creating Research Environment" Brief and discussions with various "decision-makers" over the past two years. These include:

1) Concerns related to high tuition costs and access to higher education, at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

2) Support for indirect costs of research as one mechanism for relieving strains on university operating budgets.

3) A national vision for post-secondary education and research.

4) The concept that research and post-secondary education are intricately linked.

V ANNUAL MEETING

A. Thematic Approach

CFBS continued last year's approach for the 2001 Annual Meeting by developing a Thematic Format. The 2001 CFBS Meeting themes were: 1) Genetic Basis of Disease and 2) Health and the Environment. This year's program exhibited the same high quality of speakers as last year and resulted in a financially successful conference.

For the past two years the CFBS Annual Meetings were held at the Ottawa Congress Centre which we found to be an excellent venue for our conference sessions. We were fortunate also to have the very able assistance of Local Organizing Committees (from Health Canada, NRC and the two local Universities), without whose help the meetings would not have been the success they were.

The themes for the 2002 Annual Meeting will be 1) Neurological Development and 2) Physical Activity, Nutrition and Chronic Disease. The Meeting venue will be the Palais des Congres de Montreal and will take place on June 12-16, 2002. We are fortunate to have two of the Directors of the Institutes of the CIHR involved in the program. Again we have provided a generous budget to the Program Organizers to ensure that international recognized speakers are invited.

CFBS is open to suggestions that will more effectively stimulate our scientific communities to develop ownership in the CFBS meeting. Society organizers and Executives should network with colleagues and encourage them to attend when the meeting themes are in their area of interest.

B. Employment Fair

To attempt to provide a greater service to students and post-doctoral fellows, CFBS established an "Employment Fair" at the June 2001 Meeting. Eleven booths were sold to companies and government departments and 125 students registered to be interviewed. Many positive comments were received and we expect the "Fair" attendance will increase and become prominent part of the CFBS Annual Meeting.

VI FINANCIAL SITUATION

The budgetary situation of CFBS continues to improve. Our financial situation is healthier now in view of the generous support of many of our sponsors. Exhibitors have continued to be supportive. This year (2001) 39 Scientific Exhibitors and Employment Fair booths were purchased. Also contributing to our cash flow has been the addition of a new Society, the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP). With the prospect of other groups joining the Federation we would expect to expand the services that we deliver. The CFBS office is using its website for job postings and advertisement.

To encourage on-line registration a preliminary brochure, instead of the Call for Abstract, was sent out the beginning of January. This action resulted in printing and postage savings. More than 95% of our registration were on-line.

VII CFBS OFFICE

The year 2000-2001 was a busy one for the CFBS office as it attempts to responds to the needs of the various Societies within the Federation. One result has been the office taking on, temporarily, more of the work that was previously performed by committee. We have tried to maintain contact with our membership through the CFBS Web Alerts and through a summary sheet, "What CFBS Is Doing For You" which is posted on our website. You will note that an updating of our website has occurred and we hope that this version will be more user friendly. We should all be grateful to Mrs. Wafaa Antonious for her dedication to the work of CFBS.

VIII WEB-SITE FUNCTIONS

At the beginning of September 2001, we redesigned the CFBS website to make it more appealing and user friendly. The 2001 Meeting pictures were posted, check it out.

CFBS makes extensive use of its Website for:
i. On-line registration for both the Annual CFBS Meeting and Employment Fair.
ii. Advertising positions available.
iii. Posting brief Résumés of individuals seeking employment.
iv. CFBS has begun to advertise in its Abstracts Proceedings Publication. CFBS has posted the cost of advertising on its website.
v. Organizations/Companies can advertise by placing 2- page advertisement in the Meeting Registration Packages or on our website.
vi. Provide information regarding current advocacy issues and the responses of "decision-makers".

CFBS has appreciated the increased support of its life sciences community and is working to increase the services which it provides.