Tuesday 8 April 2008
University of Oxford

1. Apologies for absence
   None received.
   
   
2. Minutes of the 2007 AGM
   The minutes have been circulated and posted on the website.   These were approved as an accurate record.
   
   
3. Chairman's Report
   Feedback from the 2007 meeting at the University of Nottingham. 54 responses were received. Virtually all responders rated the meeting as excellent or good. There was continued support for the Skin Club and guest speakers, with most rating these events as successful.

   BSID Membership and Annual Meeting 2008. The membership stands at 337, compared to 313 in April 2007. Over 200 individuals registered for the 2008 meeting, compared to 120-130 for previous conferences. There are 28 oral and 58 poster presentations, as well as keynote, local, trainee and educational speakers, 4 Skin Club lectures and a British Photodermatology Group (BPG) guest speaker. The following companies are involved in the BSID 2008 meeting: Schering Plough, Janssen-Cilag, MerckSerono, Wyeth, Beckman Coulter, Unilever, Abbott Laboratories Ltd, MEDA Pharmaceuticals, Typharm, Dermal Laboratories Limited, CellSystems and Astellas.

   Association with other societies. We are currently within a five year agreement with the BPG (2004-2008) to offer a guest lectureship slot during the meeting. Feedback for this lecture has typically been good. It was agreed with the membership to extend an invitation for a further five years (2009-2013) to the BPG.

   Publication of BSID abstracts within the British Journal of Dermatology (BJD). Dr John English and the editorial team at BJD and Blackwell have worked extremely hard to include the BSID abstracts within the BJD, so that they are available online at the time of the meeting. Dr Graham Ogg expressed his thanks to the BJD team for their continued support.

   Location of future meetings. Many universities are no longer offering student accommodation during the Easter vacations and so we may become slightly limited in options. The University of Bristol cannot now provide accommodation during Easter and the possibility of holding the 2009 meeting at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester was discussed and agreed by the membership.   The BSID meeting in 2010 will be in Edinburgh and 2011 it will be held in Cardiff.

   BSID life-time achievement award. The possibility of creating a life-time achievement award for contribution to skin research was discussed and supported by the membership. The award would be offered annually initially or in alternate years.   Nominations would be received from the membership and a decision on the successful recipient would be taken by the committee.   It may be possible to link the award with a talk at the BSID annual meeting.

   Travel awards. For the 2008 meeting, these were awarded to: Elaine Agius, Rita Cabral, Chris Ford, Muzlifah Haniffa, Rosalind Hannen, Ralph Jans, Emmanouil Papdakis, Monika Saha, Manuraj Singh, Gillian Talbot and Catherine Wright.

4. Treasurer's Report
   This was presented by Dr Edel O'Toole. The Nottingham BSID 2007 meeting had a total income of £35,520.00 (£16,720 from registration and £18,800 from sponsorship [including £1,000 from the BAD]) and a total expenditure of £25,788.98 giving a profit of £9,731.02. £7,500 of the profit was used to fund 6 BSID travel fellowships for IID 2008 and £1,500 was reserved for the 2008 Young Investigator awards, as no Young Investigator award was presented in 2007. 
   
   
5. New Members
   Thirty four individuals applied for membership during the course of the year.   The nominations were exhibited to the membership and were accepted.
   
   
6. Committee Membership
   Dr Rachel Watson and Dr Richard Weller have completed their first three years' tenure on the committee and have applied to stand for a further three years. There were no other applicants. Dr Watson and Dr Weller were duly elected for a second three year term.
   
   
7. International Investigative Dermatology Conference (IID)
   Awards of £1,250 were granted to six BSID members to attend the IID meeting in Kyoto in May 2008. The successful applicants were: Antony Black, Muzlifah Haniffa, Penny Lovat, Vera Martins, John Mee and Chris Pickard.
   
   
8. Any Other Business
   None raised
   
   
9. Date of Next Meeting
   The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 31st March 2009 at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.