VUS Annual Business Meeting Minutes Thursday, 6 August 1998,7:30-8:30am Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta, Canada

The meeting was called to order at 7:40am by Robert O’Brien, president-elect in the absence of Mark Saunders, president, and Chuck Pugh, past-president.

The minutes of the 1997 meeting were unanimously approved (previously sent via e-mail). The previous meeting was held in Chicago, on Dec. 4, 1997

Nominations for officers of the society were opened to the floor and an election was held. The new officers are: President-elect: Ron Sande

Secretary: Joan Regan At-large members: Chuck Root (2 yr. term)

Kathy Spaulding (3 yr. term)

In accordance with the resolution agreed upon at the 1997 meeting, the Executive Council will consist of the past president, president, president-elect, corresponding secretary, and two at-large members.

New Business The ACVIM has requested that 2 VUS members present 4 hrs. of CE at their meeting in Chicago in May, 1999. Rob

O’Brien asked if there were any members who were planning to go; Sue Finn and Kathy Spaulding volunteered that they were. (Note: suggested program sponsored by the VUS was rejected by the ACVIM Program Committee)

Old Business A large portion of the meeting was spent discussing Ultratalk. The question of why it had been deleted from VR&U was

raised. There was some disagreement about whether the directive had come officially from ACVR Council, as Chuck Farrow seemed to feel, or whether some members of Council had expressed private reservations about the feature. Neither Tom Nyland nor Mike Bernstein could remember an official discussion/resolution in council. Chuck Farrow expressed his willingness to continue as editor/clearinghouse for information to be published if the members want to see the feature continued. Because of the time lag between submission and publication of printed material in VR&U, someone suggested that perhaps it would make more sense to put Ultratalk on the ACVR website, maybe through a link to Chuck Farrow’s page. Tom Nyland expressed willingness to structure the site to best suit member’s needs and said that he’d welcome input. Most of the questions members receive are about continuing education opportunities in ultrasound for practicing veterinarian. If Ultratalk were on the website and was, therefore, more current, members could refer veterinarians with an interest in CE to the website. (Members decided, after some discussion, that listing commercial CE courses would not constitute endorsement of these courses.) Other suggestions for content included case reports, including large animal and production medicine cases, and book reviews. Apparently, reviews of new ultrasound books as have come out have been much appreciated by veterinarians in general. Norm Rantanin, who knows many of the authors, agreed to help coordinate reviewers.

Treasurers Report Rob O’Brien reported that the VUS has approximately $15,000 in the bank and opened the question of what to do with it.

It was generally agreed that the VUS should sponsor a special event for members, such as inviting a speaker to come for 3-4 hrs. session at the next ACVR meeting, pehaps from the ranks of those attending the RSNA meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30am.

VUS Members attending: Bob Bahr, Howard Dobson, Mike Metcaff, Ian Robertson, Joan Regan, Anna Revenaugh, Linda Homer, Chuck Root, Jennifer Lowrey, Tom Nyland, Brett Kantrowitz, Chuck Farrow, Ron Green, Beth Partington, Robert Kirberger, Norm Rantanin, Loren Shaiken, Pam Green, L.E. Hartzband, Ron Sande, Kathy Spaulding, Patty Hogan, Judie A. Schultz, Linda Konde, Liz Watson.