Present:

Arámburo, Carlos (IFCES Member); Bernier, Nicholas (IFCES Secretary/Treasurer); Broeck, Jozef Vanden (IFCES Member); Carr, James (IFCES Member); Chang, Ching-Fong (AOSCE President); Denver, Robert (IFCES Past-President); Dow, Julian (IFCES Member); Dufour, Sylvie (IFCES Member); Encarnacion, Capilla (IFCES Member); Eppler, Elisabeth (IFCES Member); Guitierrez, Joaquin (Special Member); Habibi, Hamid (IFCES Member); Hyodo, Susumu (IFCES Member); Lange, Angela (IFCES Member); Malaivijitnond, Suchinda (IFCES Member); Power, Deborah (IFCES Vice-President & ESCE President); Richardson, Samantha (IFCES Member); Shi, Yun-Bo (NASCE President); Takahashi, Akiyoshi (JSCE President); Takei, Yoshio (Special Member); Yoshimura, Takashi (IFCES Member)

Regrets:

Dores, Robert (Special Member); Hunt, Kathleen (SICB-DCE Chair); Langlois, Valérie (IFCES Member); Parwez, Iqbal (ISCE President); Seong, Jae Young (IFCES Member); Sheridan, Mark (Special Member)

1. Welcome and Introductions

a) Vice-President Power welcomes Council Members to this extraordinary meeting of IFCES and asks members for a minute of silence to honour the memory of IFCES President, Professor Kazuyoshi Tsutsui.

b) The agenda is accepted without change.

2. Actioning of the bye laws (5. Officers and Council, d) If the President should die, the Vice-President shall accede to the Presidency, for the balance of the term; the Council shall elect a new Vice-President from the membership as in e).

a) Vice-President Power informs Council that she will comply with IFCES bye law 5e and assume the presidency of IFCES. Council unanimously approves.

b) The newly appointed IFCES President, Power, proposes that Council elects a new interim Vice-President from within Council to fully constitute the leadership of IFCES and requests nominations. The interim Vice-President will serve until a new Vice-President is elected by the Society in 2022.

c) Lange volunteers to become the interim Vice-President of IFCES. Council unanimously approves.

3. Appointment of a Nominations Committee, to present a slate of nominees for the position of Vice-President of the society.

a) IFCES President, Power, proposes that a Nomination Committee be appointed from within Council to present a slate of nominees for the position of Vice-President and for the renewal of IFCES Council Members and asks Council for volunteers.

b) Arámburo, Carr, and Takei volunteer to be members of the Nomination Committee. There is unanimous approval for the composition of the Nomination Committee.

c) The newly formed Nomination Committee will present a slate of nominees for the position of Vice-President and for the renewal of IFCES Council Members in 2022.

d) Habibi suggests that the nomination process should take into consideration regional representation and EDI. The presidency after Denver (2013-2017; North America), Tsutsui (2017-2021; Asia), and Power (2021-2025; Europe), should normally be expected to come back to North America.

4. Proposal in the event of the delay of the 19^th International Congress of Comparative Endocrinology for hosting the IFCES award lectures in 2022.

 a) Takahashi, Chair of ICCE19 LOC, summarizes current COVID19 restrictions for entering Japan which prevent the LOC from opening registration for the meeting. ICCE19 was originally planned for 2021 but postponed until 2022 because of the COVID19 pandemic. As a result of ongoing COVID19 entry restrictions, the LOC has reached the conclusion that the ICCE19 meeting should be postposed once again and proposes that the meeting should be held in Sendai in 2025 based on the original quadrennial cycle. Council agrees unanimously to postpone the Sendai ICCE19 meeting until 2025.

 b) The ICCE19 LOC also proposes that the IFCES award lectures for the Pickford Medal Lecture (Deborah I. Lutterschmidt), the Bargmann-Scharrer Lecturer (Yoshio Takei), and the Barrington-Kobayashi Lecture (Hiroko Nishimura) be presented during a special IFCES session to be hosted by the European Society for Comparative Endocrinology meeting in Faro, Portugal in 2022.

 c) Power welcomes Council to attend the 2022 CECE Faro meeting in person but confirms that the meeting will have a hybrid format, and that arrangements will be made for the IFCES award lectures to be given via teleconferencing if need be.

 Matters arising

 a) No matters arising. The President closes the meeting and thanks all for their participation.

Present:

Bernier, Nicholas (IFCES Secretary/Treasurer); Carnevali, Oliana (IFCES Member); Chang, John (IFCES Member); Denver, Robert (IFCES President); Dores, Robert (NASCE President); Habibi, Hamid (LOC Chair); Iguchi, Taisen (IFCES Member); Korf, Horst (ESCE President); Lange, Angela (IFCES Member); McCormick, Steve (SICB-DCE President); Powers, Deborah (GCE); Richardson, Samantha (IFCES Member); Sheridan, Mark (IFCES Member); Tsai, Pen-San (IFCES Member); Tsutsui, Kazu (IFCES Vice-President); Takahashi, Akiyoshi (JSCE President); Takei, Yoshio (IFCES Member)

1) Welcome and introductions, Robert Denver

a) The President welcomed the Council members and the LOC Chair of the 18th ICCE, Hamid Habibi.

b) The agenda was accepted without change.

2) Reports

a) Report of the Secretary-Treasurer, Nick Bernier

IFCES Treasurer’s Report was presented and accepted unanimously (encl. IFCES Treasurer’s report, May 30^th, 2017).  Bernier also presented reports on the Status of Membership Fee Payments by IFCES Constituent Societies, and on the Status of Active Membership by IFCES Constituent Societies (encl. IFCES Treasurer’s Report – Appendix I, June 2^nd, 2017).

b) Report of the Awards Nomination Committee, Kazuyoshi Tsutsui

On behalf of the Members of the ICCE18 Awards Nomination Committee (Kazuyoshi Tsutsui, Hubert Vaudry, Lynn Riddiford, and Jae Young Seong), Tsutsui (Committee Chair) mentioned that calls for nominations for the Bargmann-Scharrer Lecturer and Pickford Medallist were published in all key endocrine journals, briefly described each award lecture, and reviewed the criteria used in deciding on the nominees.  Tsutsui reported that Stacia Sower was the nominee retained for the Bargmann-Scharrer Lecture and Kataaki Okobo was the nominee for the Grace Pickford Medallist Lecture.  The report was accepted unanimously.

c) Report of the Local Organizing Committee for the 18th ICCE, Hamid Habibi

Habibi (LOC Chair) reported that 329 delegates had registered for the 18^th ICCE including 30% as trainees/students.  Delegates originated from 31 countries with most of the students coming from Canada’s Western Provinces and the United States’ Northwest.  As a result of generous funding provided by IFCES and NASCE, the large majority of trainees/students who applied for financial support received on a competitive basis reimbursement for the registration fees.  Habibi thanked all members of the LOC for their excellent work, especially John Chang for his efforts in coordinating the joint IFCES/NASCE program and the selection of student awards, Suraj Unniappan for his important role in obtaining sponsors/fundraising ($21,000 CDN), and Matt Vijayan for coordinating the judging of the 5 students awards (2 oral presentation and 3 poster awards; $200 CDN / award).  Habibi also thanked the International Program Committee (IPC) for their excellent work in providing suggestions for plenary speakers, symposium topics, co-chairs, and associated state-of-the-art speakers, as well as suggestions for workshops.  The LOC appreciated the fact that this information was provided well ahead of time and the LOC took suggestions from the IPC in preparing the final program. Habibi predicted a balanced budget for ICCE18.  The report was accepted unanimously.

3) Vote on proposed modifications to the IFCES Bylaws

Section 2 of the IFCES Bylaws (Membership) was modified to reflect the fact that NASCE is now a member of IFCES.  Section 3 (Membership Fee) now specifies when constituent societies of the IFCES shall pay their annual dues and that the payment shall be accompanied by a current membership list. In section 5 (Officers and Council), subsections 5b, 5c and 5d were modified to better define the membership of the IFCES Council.  In Section 6 (ICCE), a new subsection was added (6h) encouraging each participating society to sponsor and organize one symposium of the ICCE.  The new bylaws were approved unanimously.

4) Report of the Nominations Committee, Horst Korf (Robert Dores and Yoshio Takei, members), and vote on new officers and Council members

Korf reported that after communication and discussion between the Nominations Committee, President and Vice-President, a slate of candidates was put together.  The ESCE unanimously supported the proposal that upcoming IFCES Vice-President be Deborah Power.  The Nominations Committee proposed to re-elect Secretary/Treasurer Nick Bernier.  The Committee requested the constituent societies for names to sit on IFCES Council.  The European (input from Horst Korf), North American (input from Robert Dores), and Asian and Australian societies (input from Yoshio Takei) each put forward four nominees.  The Committee also recommended that IFCES Council be composed of the following Special members: the GCE Editor-in-Chief, the Organizer of the 17^th ICCE, and two members from the Nomination Committee.  Finally, the President from all constituent societies should be IFCES Council Members.  Nominations were accepted.  Motion passed with one abstention (Robert Dores).

5) Matters Arising

McCormick proposed that IFCES Bylaws be modified to specify that current Presidents of all Constituent Societies be elected as Special Member to IFCES Council.  Section 5b was re-written to clarity membership of IFCES Council. A motion was tabled to accept Bylaws as amended.  Motion was passed unanimously.

Present:

Aramburo, Carlos (IFCES Member); Bernier, Nicholas (IFCES Secretary/Treasurer); Capilla, Encarnacion (IFCES Member) Carnevali, Oliana (IFCES Member); Carr, James (IFCES Member); Chang, John (IFCES Member); Denver, Robert (IFCES President); Dores, Robert (NASCE President); Habibi, Hamid (LOC Chair); Hyodo, Susumu (IFCES Member); Iguchi, Taisen (IFCES Member); Korf, Horst (ESCE President); Lange, Angela (IFCES Member); Langlois, Valerie (IFCES Member); McCormick, Steve (SICB-DCE President); Powers, Deborah (GCE); Richardson, Samantha (IFCES Member); Sheridan, Mark (IFCES Member); Tsai, Pen-San (IFCES Member); Tsutsui, Kazu (IFCES Vice-President); Taisen, Iguchi (IFCES Member); Takahashi, Akiyoshi (IFCES Member); Takei, Yoshio (JSCE President); Yoshimura, Takashi (IFCES Member)

 1) Welcome new Council Members and Introductions, Robert Denver

 On the basis of the slate of candidates put together by the Nominations Committee, a new council was elected.  Denver will be Past-President and succeeded by Vice-President/ President–elect Tsutsui.  Power will be the new Vice-President/President–elect.  Secretary/ Treasurer Bernier was re-elected. Members at large for Europe that had fulfilled two terms (Carnevali, Schoofs, and Schulz) were replaced by Capilla, Dow, Dufour, Eppler, and Broeck.  Members at large for Asia and Australia that had fulfilled two terms (Kim, Iguchi, and Takahashi) were replaced by Hyodo, Seong, and Yoshimura.  Member at large for Asia and Australia that had fulfilled their first term (Malaivijitnond and Richardson) were re-elected.  Members at large for North America that had fulfilled two terms (Chang, Tsai, and Sheridan) were replaced by Aramburo, Carr, Habibi, and Langlois.  The member at large for North America that had fulfilled their first term (Lange) was re-elected. Power is succeeded by Sheridan as the GCE representative. Special member Gutiérrez was re-elected.  Other special members appointed were Dores and Takei.  The society representatives of SICB (Romero), ESCE (Korf) and ISCE (Gupta) were re-elected. The society representatives of JSCE (Takei) and AOSCE (Tsutsui) are succeeded by Takahashi and Ching-Fong Chang, respectively. The society representative of NASCE will be John Chang.  Denver will join Society of Presidents as IFCES Past Presidents.  The President welcomed the new council members followed by introductions.

2) Acceptance of the minutes of last Council meeting (ICCE17 Barcelona) (encl. ICCE17 Draft Minutes)

The minutes of the 17^th ICCE in Barcelona are unanimously accepted without change. Thanks are to the Past-Secretary/Treasurer Korf.

3) Acceptance of the International Program Committee (IPC) for ICCE19

Tsutsui will be Chairman of the IPC and Takahashi will be Vice-Chairman. All 2017-2012 council members will be on the IPC committee. The composition of the IPC for ICCE19 is accepted unanimously.

4) Election of two members for the Awards Nomination Committee (Chaired by the IFCES Vice President)

The new Vice-President (Power) will chair the Bargmann-Scharrer Lecturer and Pickford Medallist Nomination Committee for the 19^th ICCE.  Power nominates Stacia Sower and Yoshi Yagahama as members of the Awards Nomination Committee.  Nominations are accepted unanimously.

5) Presentation and acceptance of the venue for ICCE19 (Akiyoshi Takahashi) (encl. ICCE19 Proposal)

Akiyoshi Takahashi (LOC Chair) presented a detailed account of the preparations for the 19^th ICCE, including financial details regarding to the venue and housing.  The 19^th ICCE will be held at the Sendai International Center in Sendai, Japan, June 21^st-25^th 2021.  The 19^th ICCE will be held jointly with the 10^th International Symposium on Amphibian and Reptilian Endocrinology and Neurobiology (ISAREN).  Takahashi answered questions from Council Members regarding the size of the venue and the price of hotels in the vicinity of the conference center.  A motion was tabled to accept the ICCE19 proposal.  The motion was passed unanimously.

6) Matters Arising

a) List of Pickford Medal Previous Recipients.

Members of the LOC prepared a poster for the ICCE18 that celebrated previous recipients of the Bargmann-Scharrer Lecture and the Pickford Medal.  Council Members noted that the names of two previous recipients of the Pickford Medal were missing from the commemorative poster.  In collaboration with Council and LOC Members, Secretary/Treasurer Bernier to update list of previous Pickford Medal recipients on IFCES website.

b) Description of the Bargmann-Scharrer Lecture

Council Members suggested that the description of the Bargmann-Scharrer Lecture should also recognize the distinguished contributions of Dr. Berta Scharrer to the field of comparative neuroendocrinology.  Secretary/Treasurer Bernier to change the description of the Bargmann-Scharrer Lecture and add bibliographic information regarding Dr. Berta Scharrer on IFCES website.

c) Proposal for New Award Lecture, Robert Dores

Given the specific focus of the Bargmann-Scharrer Lecture to recognize the life-long achievements of a prominent comparative neuroendocrinologist, Dores proposed that IFCES should consider also having a career award that celebrates distinguished contributions in the general field of comparative endocrinology.  A motion was tabled that Vice-President Power help name and describe a new career award, propose and seek approval from Council Members for bylaw amendments via e-mail, so that a new career award can be presented at ICCE19.  The motion was passed unanimously.

7) Closure

The President closed the meeting and thanked all for their participation.

Present: Abe, San Tsai, Roubos (President), Korf (Secretary/Treasurer), Habibi (guest), Denver (Vice-President), Sheridan, Coast, Larhammar, Kim, Capilla (guest), Gutiérrez (LOC Chair), Dores, Danks, Lange, Kah, Wei Ge, Takei, Nagahama, Chang, Schoofs, Carnevali, Sower, Trudeau (guest)

Absent with notification: Tsutsui

1) Opening

a) Welcome to the Council members, to the organizer of the 18th ICCE, Hamid Habibi, and to the representative of the North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology, NASCE, Vance Trudeau.

b) Kazuyoshi Tsutsui is absent because of the passing away of his wife. All participants of the meeting express their deep condolences and wish much strength in these very sad circumstances to Kazuyoshi and his family.

c) The agenda is accepted without change.

d) The President thanks Vaudry and Takei for rearranging the Bargmann-Scharrer Lecture.

2) Minutes 16th ICCE 2009 Hong Kong (encl. 1: Draft minutes 16th ICCE)

The minutes of the 16th ICCE in Hong Kong are unanimously accepted without change. Thanks are to the secretary.

3) Reports

a) Report from President about Council affairs over the past 4 years
– According to its decision made during the 16th ICCE, the Council has been strongly involved in the activities of the IFCES and the ICCE, such as the preparation of the draft for the modified bylaws, discussing the policy of IFCES for the coming years, acting as members on the International Programme Committee, and the decision by electronic vote of the venue of the 18th ICCE
– The next, 18th ICCE, will be organized by Hamid Habibi and his team in Chateau Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada.
– Juries have been appointed to nominate two winners of the best poster awards: Danks (Chairman), Takei, Schoofs and Chang, of the best oral communication awards: Larhammar (Chairman), San Tsai and Wei Ge, and of the best abstract award (kindly provided by General and Comparative Endocrinology/Elsevier): Dores (Chairman)
– The organizers have received 45 applications for student scholarships. The Officers have appointed Dores (Chairman), Lange and Kim on the Scholarship Election Committee.

b) Report from Secretary-Treasurer, Horst Korf (encl. 2: IFCES treasure).
Korf reports on the financial situation of IFCES as per June 1, 2013. The report is accepted unanimously, with thanks to the Secretary/Treasurer.

c) Report from Pickford and Bargmann-Scharrer lecturers committee. The report is accepted unanimously, with thanks to the Vice-President.

d) Report from International Program Committee (IPC)
Roubos (Chairman) mentions that the IPC consisted of the Officers, Councillors and additional members, and thanks them all for their excellent work, especially the extensive inputs from the officers Denver and Korf, and from the Local Organizing Committee via its chairman and Gutiérrez, who did an enormous amount of work, supported in particular by Capilla. The President thanks and congratulates them with the great result.

e) Report from 17th ICCE LOC
Gutiérrez reports about the well-running congress. However, due to the financial crisis that has hit the 17th ICCE disproportionally hard, there is a deficit. The Council decides unanimously to pay for invited plenary speakers, awards (4) and scholarships (10) €8.000 from the IFCES budget. This decision forms no precedent for future meetings, when the financial situation of the ICCE has to be discussed on itself.

f) Report from editors-in chief of General and Comparative Endocrinology
Dores reports about the impact and future plans of GCE, funding and selection of the GCE Award (€ 500), the funding of the ICCE (€ 2.500), and the publication of the Proceedings of the 17th ICCE. Invited manuscripts should be submitted before December 1, 2013. He was thanked for all he and his colleagues at GCE/Elsevier are doing for the ICCE. Special thanks are also to Ian Henderson, who has been Editor-in Chief for many years, and has now been succeeded by Deborah Power.

4) Membership IFCES

Trudeau mentions that NASCE is very active and growing and might take a decision to join IFCES in about two years.

5) Modification IFCES bylaws (encl. 4: Draft IFCES bylaws)

In addition to minor changes, the original text of the IFCES has been extended as to role and responsibilities of the LOC and the rules for selecting the Bargmann-Scharrer Lecturer and the Pickford Medallist. The new bylaws are approved unanimously.

6) Officers and new Council members (Tuesday)

On Tuesday a nomination committee is formed, consisting of Minoru Uchiyama, Lange, Danks, and Kah, to produce a slate of candidates for the vice-president ship, the secretary-treasurer and councillors for the forthcoming 4 years.

7) New Council (Thursday)

On the basis of this slate of names, a new council has been elected in meeting on Thursday. Roubos will be Past-President ex officio and be succeeded by Vice-President/President–elect Denver. Tsuitsui will be invited by mail by the new President to be the new Vice-President/ President–elect. Secretary-treasurer Korf is succeeded by Nick Bernier. The representatives of SICB (Sower) and JSCE (Tsutsui), are succeeded by Steve McCormick and Takei, respectively. Except for Abe, all councillors who have fulfilled their first term are re-elected. Six members at large have fulfilled two terms: Kah, Larhammar, Danks and Wei Ge. They are replaced by Korf, Rüdiger Schulz, Suchinda, Samantha Richardson, Taisen Iguchi, Takahashi; all by majority of votes. (For new Council composition, see enclosure). Dores and Henderson resign as GCE-representative and are succeeded by Deborah Power. Other special members are Hamid Habibi, Organizer of the next ICCE and Joaquim Gutiérrez, Organizer of the current ICCE.

8) Preparations 18th ICCE 2017 Lake Louise, (encl. 4: Financial information 18th ICCE)

Hamid Habibi gives a detailed account of the preparation of the 18th ICCE, with financial details as to housing, and a preview of the website (link: http://www.icce18.ca/). He is confident that the ICCE will be organized without a financial deficit.

9) Election international programme committee ICCE 2017

Denver will be IPC chairman, and Habibi vice-chairman. All council members will be on the committee, with three additional members: Kah, Trudeau and Dores. (For new IPC composition, see enclosure xx).

10) Nomination Committee Bargmann-Scharrer and Grace Pickford Medallist Lecturers ICCE 2017

The Vice-President will chair the Bargmann-Scharrer and Pickford Medallist Lecturers Nomination Committee for the 18th ICCE. The Nomination Committee (see ad 6) has proposed Hubert Vaudry (France), Lynn Riddiford (USA) and Yae Young Seong (Hong Kong SAR) as members of the nomination committee. They are appointed.

11) Venue ICCE 2021

The 19th ICCE has to be organized in Australo-Asia. Roubos asks all members to send suggestions to the President and Secretary-Treasurer. Takei suggests that Japan may be willing to organize.

12) Logo(s) IFCES, ICCE

The Officers have organized a contest for a new IFCES logo. The winner, Francesca Panatta (niece of Carnevali) received a certificate of achievement and financial award of € 200. A certificate of appreciation and financial award of € 100 is for Leif Saul (husband of Pei-San Tsai).

13) Preparation agenda’s Assemblee and Closure meeting ICCE 2013

The agenda of the Assembly will be concerned with IFCES matters (announcements and conclusions). The agenda of the Closure session will focus on the present and future ICCE’s.

14) Other matters arising

There are no other matters arising

15) Closure

The President closes the meeting and thanks all for their participation.