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MINUTES:  1999 MEMBERS' MEETING, FRIDAY, JUNE 4TH, 1999, DELTA HOTEL, MONTREAL, CANADA
 


Chair:  Henk Garretsen, Vice President.

Apologies:  Marja Holmila, Harald Klingemann

1) The agenda was approved.

2) Reports from Working Groups:
a) International Research on Gender and Alcohol (IRRGA).
Richard Wilsnack reported that the work of IRRGA had been going well.  It was proposed to produce a standard and comprehensive set of questions about drinking and the positive and negative effects of drinking which could be used in future national surveys of drinking behaviour.  This will facilitate much better comparisons between different survey data sets.  Researchers from, several countries are collaborating to produce these questions.
b) Consortium of European Alcohol Research Centres (CEARC).
Christoffer Tigerstedt reported on discussions related to CEARC.  A booklet is available from him listing all CEARC.  A number of activities are being planned for 2001 onwards, details of these will be circulated.  Se the CEARC webstite.
c) Unrecorded Consumption & Measurement Error.
Norman Giesbrecht reported that this working group met on Saturday and Sunday before the main Montreal symposium to present and discuss draft papers.  Nine papers were presented on the two themes of this working group.  The authors of these papers included Gerhard Gmel, Sturla Nordlund, Paul Lemmens, Scott Macdonald,  Esa Österberg,  John Rogers & Tom Greenfield, Anders Romelsjö & Maria Banting, Ingeborg Rossow, and Norman Giesbrecht. Papers are at different stages of development and will be revised and submitted for publication over the next few months.  Another workshop focusing on emerging issues and new findings on unrecorded consumption will be held in Oslo in June 2000.  This workshop will be open to all.
 Gerhard Gmel indicated that he is planning to organize a workshop in Oslo in June 2000 focusing on measurement error, particularly with regard to surveys.
d) Ethics of Receiving funds From Alcohol, Tobacco and Gambling Industries. There was no formal report on this working group, though several people commented that it had aired some useful issues.

3) Results of the 1999 KBS Committee Elections:  The Nominations Committee consisted of Salme Ahlström, Norman Giesbrecht and Ronald Knibbe.  The election results were announced by Norman Giesbrecht as follows:

President:  Moira Plant was elected.
Vice President: Harald Klingemann was elected.

The President and Vice President are elected to serve a two-year term.

The following new members of the Co-ordinating Committee was elected: to serve for four years:

 Allaman Allamani, Andrée Demers, Tom Greenfield and Marja Holmila.

In addition the following existing members of the Co-ordinating Committee will continue in post until 2001:

Kim Bloomfield,  Kaye Fillmore, Sturla Nordlund, Martin Plant and Robin Room.

Henk Garretsen handed over the task of chairing the meeting to the newly elected President, Moira Plant.

4) Reports from the Co-ordinating Committee

a) Guidelines for Organisation of KBS Meetings in Relation to Outside Influences and Funding:  Marja Holmila, Martin Plant and Robin Room had been asked in Florence last year to compile draft guidelines for the co-ordinating committee.  These had been drafted and were discussed in detail.  Four consensus points were presented for consideration by the KBS membership.  These were as follows:
 

  • The established KBS convention is that the core funding of host organizations is acceptable.  This was reaffirmed by the Co-ordinating Committee.
  • All sponsorship should be acknowledged.  Even so, such acknowledgements must not be intrusive.
  • All sponsorship or proposed sponsorship should be considered by the Co-ordinating Committee.  Only sponsorship which has been so approved is acceptable for the support of KBS meetings.
  • The programme for KBS meetings should be arranged solely by KBS members.  Sponsors or other outside forces should not influence such programmes.


These points can be discussed by KBS members using the internet.

b) New Secretary and Treasurer:  Esa Österberg was thanked for his long and invaluable work in discharging these two roles for KBS.  It was announced that the following had kindly agreed to act as Secretary and Treasurer respectively for a period of three years:

Alan Ogborne, Centre for Addition and Menatl Health, ARF Division, 100 Collip Circle, Suite 200, London, Ontario N6G 4X8, Canada. Tel: 001 519 858 5000. Fax: 001 519 858 5199. (e-mail: ogborne@julian.uwo.ca) (Secretary).

Trygve Ugland, National Institute for Alcohol & Drug Research,  Dannevigsveien 10, Oslo, N-0463 Norway. Tel: 47 22 040888. Fax:  47 22 719059 (e-mail: trygve.ugland@sifa.no). (Treasurer).

The issue of encouraging people to pay their membership fees on time was discussed.  Suggestions included the introduction of dated membership cards, reminders by e-mail and letter.  It was agreed that people should be encouraged to join or rejoin and to pay for several years in advance.

c) KBS Website/Homepage Manager:  Ron Roizen agreed to assume this responsiblity.  His address and contact details are as follows:  Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, Box 0612, Laurel Heights, San Francisco, California, 94143-0612, USA.   Tel: 001 208 753 7009.  Fax: 001 415 476 6552. (e-mail ron@roizen.com).  The KBS ‘list serve’ is managed by Nancy Vogeltanz, who is willing to continue to perform this role.  Her telephone number is 001 701 777 3790. (e-mail:  vogeltan@badlands.nodak.edu).

d) Thematic Meetings:  Robin Room announced plans to hold a meeting on "Measuring drinking patterns, problems, and their connection:  an international research conference”.  This is due to take place in Stockholm from April 10-13, in the year 2000.  Those who are interested in presenting papers are requested to contact Robin at Centre for Social Research on Alcohol & Drugs,  Sveaplan,  Stockholm University,  S-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden.  Tel: 46 8 674 7047.  Fax:  46 8 674 7033.  (e-mail:  robin.room@socarb.su.se).

Harald Klingemann may arrange a follow-up thematic meeting on “Natural Remission Studies”.  There may also be a meeting on “Community Response” in Ontario in the years 2000 or 2001.

5) The 1999 Meeting in Montreal:  Andrée Demers reported that deadlines dates for future meetings should be brought forward to encourage potential participants to submit abstracts and registrations early and to help organisation. She also suggested the compilation of a ‘kit’ to help future meeting organisers. She and her team have kindly agreed to set this up. It was agreed unanimously this event had been exceptionally well organised. Andrée,  Louise Nadeau and their team, were thanked for all of their hard work in making this event such a success.

6) Annual Meeting in the Year 2000:  Sturla Nordlund reported that plans were in hand for next year’s KBS meeting to take place in central Oslo from June 5-9, 2000. There will be pre-meeting sessions on June 3rd and 4th.  There were already three workshops planned: These will be on alcohol and traffic accidents,  measurement error and unrecorded consumption. In the following discussion, it was emphasised that cheap accommodation is needed as a high priority to enable many people to attend, since Oslo is an expensive place.  Deadline dates for the submission of abstracts and registration will be two weeks earlier than hitherto.

6) Venues for Future Annual Meetings:
The following have been suggested as venues for future events by researchers based in the respective host countries:  Israel (Tel Aviv),  (for the year 2001), Finland (Helsinki), France (Paris), Germany (Munich), Poland (Krakow) and Sweden (Göteborg).  The likely Israeli organisers, Giora Rahav and Meir Teichman, were asked to provide the Co-ordinating Committee with further details fairly soon since the 2001 annual event was the next priority to arrange after the Oslo meeting.

MARTIN PLANT, Acting as temporary Secretary

 


 
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