All,
I have advocated for changes in SAFS structure for years. That bitching has earned me the opportunity to Chair the By-laws Revision Committee.

As a dinosaur, I have watched numerous Presidents try to improve the level of training we provide at meetings. We have established the Workshop Review/Suggestion/Request/and Recommendation Committees to try to create a list of workshops to pass on to the meeting program chairs. Each Committee has died with change of officers. We modified our meeting format to do plenary sessions in the Fall and workshops in the Spring. That died a cruel death when we went to a single meeting every year. I took to opportunity to PDF the meeting minutes from 1995 to present and forwarded them to our Past-president and President last fall. Both admitted this fall that they had not reviewed them. We keep reinventing the wheel because we don’t know our history and we have no continuity. My soapbox position is that we need continuity in our leadership to gain some forward momentum.

I am an open admirer of MAFS. They have a very active membership and provide excellent workshops every spring. The membership is advised on the following Spring workshops at the Fall meeting giving scientists and administrators time to plan attendance. Officers serve as the Chair of various Committees and therefore have a direct involvement with activities rather than just an oversight function. I would suggest reading the MAFS by-laws, particularly Articles 3 and 4 and their Administrative Rules document. Bob Ollis will be contacting MAFS to ask if we can post these documents on SAFS website for review.

My intent is to start the discussion. Any input will be received with an open mind. Should we change our membership categories and requirements? I know folks in our lab who don’t ever have the opportunity to testify in their first 2 years. Some folks have a real problem with getting to a meeting (budgets) and therefore don’t qualify to apply for membership. Should the President appoint all new Committees every year or should we mandate some carryover of experience? Should we establish new standing committees? Why do we have an ethic committee and no code of ethics? Is the registration fee of $5 for student still realistic?

Anyone want to volunteer to join this committee? Tell me what your thoughts are. It’s just like an election; if you don’t offer input, you can’t complain about the outcome.

I just created the SouthernForensic@gmail.com account for everyone to use. I have access to it, but I will utilize this account and page for you to share documents amongst each other.

Jesse

I've been made aware that the file may not be viewable to for everyone as it was saved in a .docx format. If you have a version of MS Word that is older than MS Word 2007, this may prove to be a problem. I'll will convert the file over to a standard .doc ASAP.

Jesse

One of my main priorities during my presidency was to change the membership requirements so that people did not have to attend a meeting before they could join. Current budgets do not make that easily attainable for most. I am in favor of allowing new people to join on a provisional basis and perhaps setting a window in which they must attend a meeting to achieve the next level of membership.

I like that idea.

Jesse