SCIENTIST PROFESSIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Office of the Surgeon General

United States Public Health Service

Minutes of 5 December 2002 Meeting Number 89

I. LOCATION/DATE/TIME

Parklawn Building, Surgeon General's Conference Room 18-57

1300 HOURS

II. ATTENDANCE

A. MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE

CDR	Joseph Despins	FDA Chairperson
LCDR	Tom Hendricks	FDA (Recording Secretary)
LCDR	John Mosely Hayes	CDC, Treasurer
CAPT	Bryan Jones	OS/OPHS
CDR	Pamela Ching	CDC
CDR	Jon Daugherty	FDA
CDR	Kevin McGuinness	DIHS
CDR	Clement Welsh	CDC
LCDR	Boris Aponte	SAMHSA
LCDR	John Eckert	FDA
LCDR	Daphne Moffett	ATSDR
LCDR	Artensie Flowers	EPA

B. GUESTS ATTENDING

CAPT		Susanne Caviness		SAMHSA
CAPT		Gil Sanders		HRSA
	CAPT		Armen Thoumaian		CMS
LCDR		Nelson Adekoya		CDC
LT		Martin Sanders		NIH
LCDR		Mark Seaton		EPA

C. MEMBERS EXCUSED OR ABSENT

CAPT	Lireka Joseph	FDA (CPO)
LCDR	Kathleen McDuffie	CDC
CDR	Douglas Thoroughman	CDC, Vice-Chairperson
Dr.	Dalton Paxman	OS/OPHS
CDR	Charles "Bo" Kimsey	CDC
CDR	Angela González Willis	SAMHSA (Past Chairperson)
CDR	Richard Troiano	NIH

III. STANDARD AGENDA ITEMS AND REPORTS

A. CALL TO ORDER

CDR Joseph Despins called the meeting to order at 1300 hours.

B. GREETINGS FROM THE CHAIR

1. Surgeon General reception 15 January 2003

The Commissioned Officers Association, the COA Foundation, and the PHS Anchor and Caduceus Society are sponsoring a welcome aboard reception in honor of the Surgeon General and Mrs. Carmona on Wednesday evening, 15 January 2003.

Wednesday, January 15, 2003

6:00 - 8:30 p.m.

Bethesda Marriott Hotel

5151 Pooks Hill Road

Bethesda, MD 20814

The reception is by reservation only. RSVP by 10 January 2003 by mail or call (301) 731-9080.

Uniform: Service Dress Blue/Service Equivalent

Civilian Informal

Price: $35/per person

C. REPORT FROM THE CHIEF PROFESSIONAL OFFICER

The Promotion Task Force report should be delivered this month.

D. OLD BUSINESS

There was discussion regarding developing collaborative relationships with agencies outside of the PHS OPDIVs for response to disasters, natural or manmade. The American Psychological Association and the American Society for Microbiology were identified as potential agencies.

CDR McGuinness discussed the establishment of a chat room on the Scientist Category Website for improving communication between Scientist Psychologists. CDR McGuinness stated the software has been tested and is operational. Ten users maximum may use the chat room at any given time (Reference URL: http://usphs-scientist.org/chat/chat.html).

1. REPORT FROM THE TREASURER (LCDR JOHN MOSELY HAYES)

No activity to report. The treasury has a balance of $2,115.11, and the balance in the Music Ensemble account is $2,470.31.

2. COA---SCIENTIST SESSION (LCDR DAPHNE MOFFETT)

Deadline for identifying and having speakers in place is Jan. 21st. Some monies are available for honorarium and expenses for non-government speakers

Recommend at least 50% of speakers be Commissioned Corps officers.

The theme for the next COA conference is "Weaving Tomorrow's Public Health Infrastructure" and it will be held in Scottsdale/Phoenix, AZ in June 2003. Scientist Category Day will be Tuesday, June 17, 2003.  One of the proposed goals for the COA conference is to develop an agenda that will bring to life the new SG's vision to integrate and align public health agencies and officers in future priorities.

CDR Welsh and CAPT Thoumaian have generously agreed to help and we are "looking for a few more good men and women. "LCDR Moffett is requesting ideas from the PAC and other Scientist officers for a theme which compliments the overall conference theme. Email suggestions to LCDR Moffett for possible themes at her email address: (Dmoffett@cdc.gov).

LCDR Moffett suggested that given the conference theme and the Surgeon General's goal, perhaps having panel discussions presented by scientist officers collaborating on projects across agencies (or health departments) or within agencies, but across Scientist disciplines or Divisions, etc. might be appropriate.

Upcoming COA conference planning deadlines are the following:

Dec 13th........follow up meeting with category representatives/conference planners

Jan 28th.........finalize Category Day presentations and speakers (send letters confirming Category Day arrangements)

Feb 10th.........deadline for receipt of speaker info (bios, financial disclosures, etc.)

Feb 28th..........moderators confirmed

April 25th.........travel arrangements for speakers confirmed

May 2nd...........confirm all conference volunteers

May 15th..........cutoff date for room reservations at the Westin

3. SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIR REPORTS

Visibility

Scientist Category Poster project (CAPT Susanne Caviness)

Pictures of Scientist wearing their uniforms and in action on the job are needed for the 2003 Poster. An original photograph is desirable, but a high-resolution digital image is acceptable. Send your photos and/or (short) summaries of interesting projects you have been part of in 2002 to CAPT Susanne Caviness. Final submissions are due by February 20, 2003.

Rules (LCDR Daphne Moffett)

No report from the Rules Subcommittee. LCDR Moffett said as a goal for this year was to improve attendance and participation of Scientist officers at the COA meeting.

Mentoring Subcommittee (LCDR Kathleen McDuffie)

LCDR McDuffie provided her report as follows:

My priority for the year is to compile a list of officers who are willing to serve as contacts based on their previous work history.

The purpose is to connect incoming officers with current officers from a similar previous work background. For example, many psychologists that have been referred to me have questions on how to get a job when coming out of the Army, straight out of graduate school, or civil service. I am not able to answer from experience. I was accepted in the CDC EIS (Epidemic Intelligence Service) program and given the option to join. However, an officer who has experience with transferring from another uniform service or coming out of the academic world, even if they are a biologist may be a better source of assistance for individuals with those questions. An e-mail reply or a short phone conversation and a follow-up will usually be all that is needed.

Other areas that may have a need for special contacts are in the areas of appropriate uniform wear (even after BOTC there is still a need here), awards, special assignments (i.e. Foreign duty, 3 month TDYs), and organization participation (COA, AMSUS, ROA and others).

There have been no formal meetings of the committee. I will contact members after the first of the year and schedule a telephone conference.

Identified mentor committee members are:

Bryan Jones CAPT----Emergency Coordinator Region III

Bo Kimsey CDR-----Physical Activity Nutrition -CDC

Mark Seaton LCDR----EPA

Possible supporting members:

LCDR John Mosely Hayes—AL Health Department

CDR Lisa Colpe-NIH-Rockville

CDR Jon Daugherty-Recruitment and Retention

Recruitment and Retention Subcommittee (CDR Jon Daugherty)

CDR Daugherty provided his report:

My goal for the subcommittee in the upcoming year is to try and help each new applicant find a position.

Regarding recruitment, I mentioned that I gave out about 30 of the Scientist category brochures at the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene Annual Meeting in Denver from November 10-14th. LCDR Hayes stated that he also put out an additional 100 or so copies of the brochure, but obviously there was a fair amount of interest in the category/PHS because the brochures were gone by the end of the day. The number of brochures taken by attendees was roughly 10% of the number of expected participants (~1400).

Associate Recruiter Program (LCDR Nelson Adekoya/CAPT Susanne Caviness)

Officers are encouraged to become Associate Recruiters.

The Associate Recruiter Program (ARP) has been given a budget for recruitment opportunities. In order to better fulfill the mission of this program for recruitment of Scientist Officers, please provide to LCDR Nelson Adekoya a list of the professional meetings that you attend in your local travel area. Deadline for request: January 3, 2003. The ARP will prioritize the meetings for funding of tables in the Exhibition areas for recruitment materials.

If you are uncertain what the ARP is and its functions, further information may be found at the Scientist Category web site at the following URL: http://usphs-scientist.org/ARP/ARP.htm

Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee (CDR Kevin McGuinness)

Inaugural Meeting - 20 November 2002

Minutes:

In attendance: CAPT Bryan Jones, CDR Joseph Despins, CDR Pamela Ching, CDR Kevin M. McGuinness, LT Martin Sanders, Ph.D.

Excused: CDR Rick Troiano (Excused)

Agenda

1) Introduction of the members

CAPT Bryan Jones, CDR Joe Despins, CDR Pamela Ching, CDR Rick Troiano, CDR Kevin M. McGuinness, LT Martin Sanders, Ph.D.

2) Member ideas regarding the service this subcommittee can provide to the SciPAC and SG.

a) Gather and provide information on the specialties and special skills of Scientist Officers.

b) Scientists can serve as subject matter experts with respect to Emergency Preparedness issues.

c) Elaborate mechanisms for Scientist Officers to support operational functioning of the Emergency Preparedness system during planning, training and actual emergency response situations.

3) Meeting times

a) In order to have the greatest possible member availability it appears that Fridays is the best meeting day, for the time being.

b) Next meeting is tentatively set for January 17, 2002, 1400 hrs EST/1200 hrs MST.

c) The subcommittee will likely meet every other month coinciding with the month that SciPAC Executive Committee meets.

4) Communications between meetings/ e-mail and phone numbers. Communication of subcommittee members between regular sessions is encouraged via telephone or e-mail

Career Development Subcommittee (CDR Richard Troiano)

CV Review Initiative:

We had 15 officers volunteer to review CVs (2 O-6, 8 O-5, and 5 O-4).

We had 22 officers request reviews (7 to T O-6, 2 to P O-6, 6 to O-5, 7 to O-4)

Because of the generosity of our officers, each CV was able to be reviewed by 2 reviewers and each reviewer had no more than 3 CVs to review. Several reviewers expressed their satisfaction with the process and volunteered to serve in the future.

Many thanks to those officers who volunteered to review CVs. A poll will be conducted of those officers who received reviews for their feedback on the process.

Awards Subcommittee (CDR Douglas Thoroughman/LCDR John Mosely Hayes)

LCDR Hayes is coordinating with CDR Gonzalez Willis for transfer of subcommittee files. An announcement will be made to the category in the next month or two regarding the SciPAC Scientist (Career Scientist and Young Scientist) of the Year Awards.

V. NEW BUSINESS

Recruiting issues - initial placement of officers/improving networking. A system will be developed by which new applicant officers who have been medically-cleared and board-approved will be assisted by the SciPAC, headed by the chairperson of Recruitment and Retention Subcommittee, in locating positions.

A potential source for employment was identified by CAPT Joseph, with the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), Department of Agriculture. Point of Contact information is as follows:

CAPT D. W. Chen, M.D., M.P.H., Deputy Assistant Administrator

Food Security and Emergency Preparedness

Telephone: 202-690-6418

FAX: 202-690-6414

Email: DW.Chen@fsis.usda.gov

VI. ANNOUNCEMENTS

The next scheduled meeting: Executive Committee - January 23, 2003

No meeting in November 2002

The next scheduled meeting: Full SciPAC - February 27, 2003

Schedule of Executive and Full SciPAC meetings

1/23/2003	Executive Committee
2/27/2003	Full SciPAC
3/27/2003	Executive Committee
4/24/2003	Full SciPAC
5/22/2003	Executive Committee
6/2003	Meeting date to be determined
7/24/2003	Full SciPAC
8/28/2003	Executive Committee
9/25/2003	Full SciPAC

VII. ADJOURNMENT

The SciPAC meeting was officially adjourned at 1515 HOURS.

Submitted by:

MTH	JLD
LCDR Tom Hendricks	CDR Joseph Despins
Recording Secretary	Chairperson
Date 12/31/2002	Date12/31/2002