Board of Directors Meeting – 10 June 2005

The FAS Annual Board of Directors Meeting was held on 10 June 2005, at Smith & Wollensky in Washington, DC. The FAS directors reviewed recent developments and shared thoughts on the future of the organization.

During the official business meeting, the directors voted unanimously to expand the maximum number of Board members from 18 to 25. FAS President Henry Kelly explained that this change to the bylaws was a continuation of the recent merger of the Federation of American Scientists and the FAS Fund.

The directors also increased the scope of responsibilities of the Director of Operations. The board members endorsed new check signing procedures, allowing the operations director the ability to sign checks for less than $500.

The FAS directors welcome Lee Fikes to serve a three-year term as a distinguished member of the FAS Board. Fikes is the President and CEO of the Leland Fikes Foundation in Dallas, Texas, which concentrates on advancing medical research, health services, education, and scientific integrity.

A review of FAS programmatic activities was presented by staff. Mark Schleicher, Learning Technologies Project Manager, provided updates for the Learning Technologies Projects, with specific focus on training against terror with the Mass Casualty Incident Response model. Vice President of the Strategic Security Project Ivan Oelrich gave a brief overview of recent initiatives before introducing Anne Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick recently joined the FAS staff from Los Alamos National Laboratory, and spoke to the board about issues regarding nuclear testing. The Housing Technology Project presentation was made by Henry Kelly.

The luncheon keynote, Legislative Director and Chief Counsel to Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) William B. Bonvillian, spoke on how science and technology projects are organized. His comments highlighted the discoveries made in Menlo Park and Bell Labs, and innovations developed through DARPA.

The afternoon focused on the future direction of FAS, with presentations made by Barbara Silby on expanding the vision and building revenue for the association. FAS board member David Foster, provided an overview of his experience working with direct mail campaigns and presented a project to support future development goals. Monica Amarelo proposed several ideas for improving communications between FAS and its various audiences. One new development is the monthly e-newsletter to the Board of Directors.

We thank all of the FAS Board of Directors for their time and continued support, and look forward to working with them throughout the year.