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CONFERENCE CALL MINUTES:
INTERIM MEMBERS (Note: there is one member from each of the current working committees, plus one at-large member and the interim coordinator.)
AGENDA
1. Communications
Over 50 people have joined the ATAC list-serve. The word on ATAC is getting out in various ways, including a recent article by Matt Sharp, and Michael Marco participating on the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group (PACTG) Community Constituency Group (CCG) conference call.
Bob discussed that he is working on a list of acronyms, and will put links on the web page to glossaries of AIDS terms. Readers will also be able to cross reference specific drug info individually and together with notes of respective drug companies.
2. Bylaws
Mark Baker & Claire Rappoport sent out the 2nd draft bylaws and are awaiting feedback. There are lots of blanks/question in the draft because the various committees must supply the bylaws committees with pertinent information.
The Research, Development & Access (RDA) committee is having a call on the 15th and will discuss many key issues.
For now, Claire asked that the committees keep to general issues
and not get overly technical in deciding their organizational
framework.
The Steering Committee proposed that there be the 2 co-chairs
of the each committee. The chairs will be elected by committee
member within a certain time after the bylaws being ratified.
The chairs will be elected by the committee members each year.
At this time, the Steering Committee did not feel that that there
should be term limits, but some thought that individuals should
not be able
to serve more than 2 terms consecutively.
The issue of how many votes per organization was discussed. Should it be just one per organization or all members getting one vote? The majority were in favor of all individauls getting a vote. Note: Treatment Action Group (TAG) members Michael Marco and Yvette Delph thought that it should one vote per organization. Others thought it would be impossible to implement such a rule because many people have multiple affiliations.
3. Fundraising
No discussion.
4. Membership
The committee proposed two categories of mebership, "working" member and "supporting" members, with two tiers of working members. The two tier might simply be "junior" members and "senior" members. A junior member would have to choose a committee and would be assigned a mentor. A review committee (not yet fully defined) would look at the junior member/mentee's progress twice a year. This review committee might be a subcommittee of Mentorship Committee.
The RDA discussed how a junior member/ mentoree would move up to a senior/full member. Some suggested there be an RDA comprehensive exam.
5. Mentoring
Larry Diaz sent out a 10-step questionnaire on mentoring. He is working with Luther Brock and Parrish Crosby. Larry wanted to make sure that the "institutional memory" of AIDS treatment activism is not lost. He thought that we needed to pass along a history of our work and maybe even a who's who in the community and in industry.
We discussed getting seasoned activists, such as Julie Davids, involved in the mentorship committee. Claire Rappoport and Larry Diaz will contact her. Michael Marco offered to have TAG host the next call and asked that Larry Diaz get lots of people together - with an agenda -- and chair the call.
6. RDA
Yvette Delph sent out notes of the latest RDA call. She did discuss breaking into subgroups but the committee thought that at the present time, membership of the RDA was too small break things us. This could happen later as it grows.
Lynda Dee volunteered to be the interim chair.
There was some talk of having an HCV subcommittee and Lynda Dee asked Brian Klein to be chair.
7. Progress and Next Steps
We discussed the need to have a presence at NATAF. There are three things that could happen: 1) a meeting with the Houston 21 to ratify the ATAC bylaws; 2) a big event to introduce new people to ACAC; and 3) an staffed ATAC table for people to meet members and ask questions.
8. Any Other Business
9. Next Call: 18th Thursday 3:00 Eastern
Minutes Prepared by Michael Marco
Present:
Parrish Crosby (At-large)
Yvette Delph (RDA)
Larry Diaz (Mentorship)
Mike Donnelly (Membership)
Gregg Gonsalves (Development)
Michael Marco (Point Person/Acting Secretariat)
Bob Munk (Communications)
Claire Rappoport (Bylaws)
Minutes:
1. Communications
Bob said that ~38-40 people are officially registered on the ATAC listserve. That accounts for the "Houston 21" and those that have written expressing interest in ATAC. Not all of the ~29 people invited to Houston but didn't attend have joined the listserve. Maybe some people don't realize that there is a process to signing up. We may send out an e-mail soon with an update on ATAC which reminds people how they can officially join the listserve.
2. Bylaws
Bylaws will have a call next week. Claire said that the committee has been working hard and that all are grateful for Mark Baker's hard work. He recently sent out of draft bylaws but only got a few comments. We were not sure if the lack of comments meant that people read them and were fine with the document, or that the e-mail draft went completely ignored? The draft ATAC Bylaws are missing the membership section because they have not received a draft document from the Membership Committee. Mark will send the draft bylaws out again and each committee is expected to look them over and sign off. Comments are welcome from all of the "Houston 21."
3. Fundraising
Gregg discussed ATAC development issues. As soon as all the sections from each committee are in, Gregg and Billy can submit a grant to various foundations for seed money. Gregg hopes that he and Billy can write and send out a grant in the 3-4 weeks.
4. Membership
Mike discussed the membership committee's progress in coming up
with membership categories and criteria. For now, he said that
two types of membership may work: 1) working members & 2)
supporting members. It will not be a three-tiered structure as
originally discussed in Houston. That seemed just too complicated.
All "working members" must belong to a committee within
ATAC.
It was suggested that we discuss categories of membership with the ECAB leadership. They have been asked to send information to the Steering Committee.
We also discussed representation on the Steering Committee. It was suggested that the Steering Committee be made up of the chairs of each committee and 2 at-large representatives who are voted on by the membership. These at-large reps might serve as the chair and vice-chair of the Steering Committee. There are some who feel that the committees have co-chairs and that one member act as the liaison to the Steering Committee.
Mike wrote all of this out in a draft discussion document which was e-mail to the "Houston 21." Please send him your comments.
5. Mentoring
Larry Diaz has been doing research into different types of mentoring programs. He has read a number of books and done many web searches. He discussed the 10 steps to setting up a mentoring program. Larry will send this material out for all to read.
We discussed the needs of new members and believe that there will need to be 2 different levels of membership. Some may need a basic self-help course using a training manual to learn HIV basic and clinical science (i.e., viral load testing, randomization, CD4 & CD8 cells) while others will need personal mentoring (individuals or pairs) on how to be an effective advocate/activist. This would be anything from writing a press release, memo, or letter to meeting with government officials and drug company representatives.
6. RDA
Yvette mentioned that notes are on the ATAC website from the BMS August meeting and that the notes from the Schering and Roche meetings are forthcoming. Since ICAAC is canceled (serious postponed), the ATAC RDA will need to get together for as a call and discuss future action plans.
7. Progress and Next Steps
Committee have been encouraged to have conference calls during the next two weeks.
8. Any Other Business
Bob discussed the need for RDA subcommittees (i.e., hepatitis/OIs, vaccines/IBTs). Since most new members will want to be part of RDA, it will be necessary to let people choose what are they are most effective in. It was generally agreed to be a good idea and Yvette said she would discuss it with the RDA committee on the next conference call.
9. Next Call
Scheduled for the week of Oct. 8th.
Revised October 18, 2001