Society of Nuclear Medicine
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SNMMI Board of Directors Meeting Saturday, April 25, 2020 REMOTE – Virtual Meeting via Web-Ex Minutes – APPROVED Members in Attendance: Vasken Dilsizian, MD; Alan Packard, PhD; Richard Wahl, MD, FACNM; Cathy S. Cutler, PhD; Satoshi Minoshima, MD, PhD; Mark Crosthwaite, CNMT, FSNMMI-TS; Twyla Bartel, DO, MBA, FACNM; Norman E. Bolus, MSPH, MPH, CNMT, FSNMMI-TS; Tina Buehner, MS, CNMT, NMTCB(CT)(RS), RT(N)(CT), FSNMMI-TS; Ryan Niederkohr, MD; Giuseppe Esposito, MD, MBA; Sarah Frye, MBA, CNMT, PET, CCRP; Suzanne E. Lapi, PhD; Dusty M. York, CNMT, PET, RT(N)(CT); Munir Ghesani, MD, FACNM, FACR; Frederick Grant, MD; Frances K. Keech, DHSc, RT(N), FSNMTS; Umar Mahmood, MD, PhD; Michael L. Middleton, MD, CPE, FACNM; Virginia Pappas, CAE; Todd E. Peterson, PhD Staff in attendance: Sukhjeet Ahuja, MD; Angela Boyd; Linda Budzinski; Bonnie Clarke; Sharon Gleason; Ali Haidar; Paul Hamel; Ann Latham; Rebecca Maxey; Vince Pistilli, CPA; Amy Schull; Nikki Wenzel Lamb, MBA, CAE 1. Welcome and Call to Order Vasken Dilsizian, MD, SNMMI President, called the meeting to order at 10:01am (ET). Dr. Dilsizian thanked the board members for participating on the weekend calls as it is important that we continue to make progress. a. Establishment of a Quorum Cathy S. Cutler, PhD, Secretary/Treasurer, reported that a quorum was present. b. Approval of Agenda and Standing Rules Dr. Dilsizian reviewed the agenda and asked the members to approve the agenda. It was moved, seconded and voted to approve the April 25, 2020 SNMMI Board of Directors virtual meeting agenda. c. Approval of Meeting Minutes Cathy S. Cutler, PhD, SNMMI Secretary/Treasurer presented the minutes from the last virtual Board of Directors meeting. A motion was made to approve the April 18, 2020 Board of Directors Virtual Meeting Minutes. Frederick Grant, MD requested that the minutes be updated to show him in attendance as he was present for the meeting. It was moved, seconded and voted to approve the April 18, 2020 Board of Directors Virtual Meeting minutes as amended. 2. President Updates a. Update on BB&T Dr. Dilsizian reported on the Payroll Protection Plan that Vince Pistilli, CPA, SNMMI Chief Financial Officer applied for on behalf of SNMMI. SNMMI’s application was for $777,610. Last week, Mr. Pistilli reported that initial information from BB&T indicated that SNMMI may only receive $617,000, however Mr. Pistilli requested a reconciliation from the bank to determine why the reduction in funding. Mr. Pistilli reported to the board that on Thursday, April 23, SNMMI received the loan documents from BB&T to sign, confirming that the loan had been approved. The approved loan amount was $777,300 – or $310 less than the original request. The documents were subsequently reviewed and signed and have been returned to BB&T. The funding has not yet arrived in SNMMI’s bank account, however, BB&T indicated that it could take 10 days to arrive (it was unclear whether that was 10 days business days and/or 10 days from the return of the loan paperwork). 1 b. Update on UBS Dr. Dilsizian and Mr. Pistilli further reported that on Thursday of this week, SNMMI received the loan documents from the UBS legal department. Upon review, Mr. Pistilli identified several items that will needed to be corrected. Once these changes are made, then The SNMMI Secretary/Treasurer will be asked to review the documents. Once completed, they will be signed and notarized and returned to UBS. As a reminder, the loan amount is approximately 75-80% of value of assets in capital fund. The capital fund is approximately $7 million with the loan amount being around $5 million. This amount will fluctuate based on value of assets in capital fund. 3. Annual Meeting a. Update on New Orleans Dr. Dilsizian provided board members with an overview of the information that has been disseminated to-date from New Orleans. • April 6, 2020 - The convention center in downtown New Orleans was built out as a hospital out of concern that the COVID-19 could overwhelm healthy facilities in the metro. The cost was $90 million to fit, equip and staff the convention center and convert it into a massive field hospital. COVID-19 patients who no longer needed treatment in hospitals could be transferred to the convention center to continue receiving care and remain isolated from the public. The Governor also said the facility could treat patients from surrounding regions. • April 22, 2020 – Governor John Bel Edwards said he plans to leave the makeshift health facility built for COVID-19 patients at the New Orleans Convention Center “as is” for the time being. The Governor said the facility – currently not fully staffed – will remain in place because of potential concerns for an uptick in cases in the fall or winter. • April 27, 2020 – The Governor will make a highly-anticipated announcement regarding the next phase of Louisiana’s coronavirus restrictions following the expiration of his current stay-at- home order, which is slated to end on April 30th. The Governor said his office is following White House guidance on how to reopen, but not entirely. He noted that Louisiana has higher rates of obesity and other serious health conditions that have given the state one of the highest death rates per capita. SNMMI staff and leaders will be closely monitoring the announcement and news from Louisiana on Monday and will act promptly should information and/or guidance become available that would negatively impact the SNMMI 2020 Annual Meeting. It was noted that while SNMMI submitted a notice to the insurance company regarding the possibility of a claim, should the annual meeting need to be cancelled, no further notifications have been received. Board members noted their concern over recent data showing that HVAC systems can facilitate the spread of the virus and the need to make keeping members and attendees the number one priority as we move forward towards the impeding meeting dates. b. Virtual Meeting Non-Member Pricing Umar Mahmood, MD, PhD, SNMMI Scientific Program Committee Chair started his update by thanking the SNMMI Staff and members of the Scientific Program Committee, specifically, Heather Jacene and Donna Cross. Dr. Mahmood reported that everyone has been working very hard to make this contingency plan a solid plan should SNMMI have to move forward with another option for the annual meeting. Dr. Mahmood proposed the following non-member registration rates for the virtual meeting. The virtual meeting will be free to members and non-members will be charged a fee slightly higher than the prorated membership dues amount for May 1. It was noted that corresponding member pricing would remain at 80% of the member dues rate (and would therefore be cheaper than the pricing noted below). 2 Board members discussed whether or not to charge for the virtual meeting and/or whether to charge for CE for the meeting and ultimately agreed that considering the current economic client, the difficult financial decisions that are being made by hospitals, and furloughs/lay-offs that are happening, SNMMI should offer the virtual meeting as a member benefit. In addition, the board agreed to suspend prorated dues beginning June 1 and set a flat fee, per dues category, for individuals wishing to join the SNMMI. Ex. SNMMI Full member dues would be set to $200 + chapter dues as of June 1. SNMMI staff will make this update for all membership categories beginning June 1. c. Virtual Meeting Dates Mr. Mahmood informed the board that while the original contingency planning assumed that SNMMI would keep the original annual meeting dates, June 13-16, it is not feasible at this time as the virtual meeting companies need, at a minimum, 8-weeks from the time the contract is signed. Considering SNMMI has not signed a vendor contract and the annual meeting has not been cancelled, the earliest dates available would be June 20-23. The board reviewed the three proposed virtual meeting dates as outlined below. 3 A motion was made to approve Option C – June 27 – June 30 as the final virtual meeting dates. It was moved, seconded and voted to approve Option C – June 27 – June 30 as the final virtual meeting dates. Virginia Pappas, CAE, SNMMI Chief Executive Officer, further clarified that governance meetings would NOT be held during the virtual meeting. Rather, SNMMI staff will be working with committee members to identify the best date/time for the meeting based on availbility of members. d. Company Sponsorship & Virtual Booth Progress Sharon Gleason, CFRE, ACFRE, SNMMI Senior Director of Development and Marketing, reported that to-date $1,867,424 had been collected from exhibitors and sponsors. Through the contingency planning process, Ms. Gleason and her team has started outreach to companies to determine their level of support of a virtual meeting. To-date, 24 calls have been completed, focusing on the largest sponsors and exhibitors. Of those contacted several companies have verbally agreed to some type of virtual meeting commitment. Ms. Gleason reported that Advanced Accelerator Applications has agreed to transition to be the Title Sponsor of the Virtual Meeting with Progenics coming in at the Gold Sponsor level. There are several big companies that have not yet committed to transitioning to a virtual sponsorship should the annual meeting be cancelled. Board members express their concern over the pricing of the options for the virtual meeting. Mrs. Pappas clarified that all companies could participate with a booth for $1,500. Then companies have other opportunities to support the meeting (ex. scientific hall, signage, etc.) Dr. Dilsizian asked that Ms. Gleason reach out to the SNMMI Leadership if there are larger companies who are not yet committed to supporting if the virtual meeting is scheduled.