We have posted a
recap of the July Board meeting on the web for your information. As always if you have any questions, please
contact me,
Vicki or one of the
Board members.
As you'll see in the Board meeting recap, we're increasing member dues by $35 in 2012. This is the first dues increase since 2009. Student memberships will be reduced from $112.50 to $50 in 2012, so if you know of any students who would benefit from AUTM membership please let them know. We're launching a new incentive for offices that plan on increasing the number of AUTM members in their ranks in 2012; be sure to check your inbox for more information from AUTM in the coming weeks.
I recently returned from attending the Central Region meeting in Louisville. A good time was had by all. Great networking, workshops, venue, and sponsors. I met many new members who will be the future face of the organization as well as members I have known thru my entire career (you know who you are!). I continue to be proud and honored to be the first President from the Central Region in 10 years (last Central Region President was Terry Young and, yes, this was a question on the Trivia Contest). Speaking of the Trivia Contest, with some trepidation I elected to join a team. I know some may have thought having me on a team was an unfair advantage, but my team members can tell you that my main/only contribution was knowing who beat Zenyatta in the Breeders Cup (it was Blame). My team partners were much better at answering questions about baseball, boxing, and license plates than I ever could be. The meeting confirmed that region meetings are alive and well; I want to affirmatively state that while there have been changes to the Board structure for strategic reasons, there is no interest at the Board level to end regional meetings.
Upcoming AUTM Meetings
For those of you in the Western Region, we hope to see you at the
Western Region Meeting, which takes place September 19-20 at the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Seasoned AUTM members will not want to miss the
AUTM Leadership Forum for Advancing Discoveries, which takes place November 7-8 at The Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa, California.
International
The Latin American technology transfer scene is on an upswing in areas of policy, practices, professional development, and formation of new networks. Brazil, Columbia and Chile are great examples and where the technology transfer offices and organizations are exploring the idea of an AUTM in Latin America 2012 conference.
Chile's technology transfer community is evolving with AUTM's assistance. This year there are 39 AUTM members from Chile and 25 participated in the 2011 Annual Meeting. They know professional development is important and AUTM has been their "go-to" partner. Thirty-one attended the courses at the Annual Meeting. And AUTM delivered nine basic and advanced courses to 198 attendees in Santiago, Chile in July and August.
AUTM Executive Director Vicki Loise just returned from a visit to several universities in Brazil. She will post a blog next week to fill everyone in on the details.
CLP/RTTP
On the professional front, I am pleased to announce that I will be joining the Certified Licensing Professional (CLP) Board at the upcoming Licensing Executives Society (LES) meeting. I look forward to working with the Board to further advance the CLP certification nationally and internationally and ensuring that the exams continue to represent questions relating to both academic and business licensing. In addition, I have become a Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP). AUTM continues to work with both CLP and the Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals (ATTP) on these certification and registration programs. Please look for a survey to our membership so we can better gauge how you value these programs and how you wish AUTM to participate in the future.
Nominations
The Nominations Committee is on track to provide proposed nominees to the Board for its September Board meeting. I heard a number of concerns at the Central Region meeting about nominations primarily related to the time required to participate as an AUTM volunteer. I cannot tell you that being an AUTM volunteer is easy, but I CAN unequivocally state from my many years of service that the value you will receive in networking with new people, developing new (often lifelong) relationships, learning new professional strategies and gaining new understanding of the overall profession, (not to mention giving back to the profession) can be invaluable to you as a licensing professional but also to you as an individual.
Techno-L
As you'll see in the July Board meeting update, AUTM has been working with innovaro on an arrangement that will allow AUTM to take over the Techno-L listserve. AUTM plans to maintain the Techno-L listserve for the community and will not make any changes to how the listserve functions, nor do we have plans to limit participation to AUTM members or use Techno-L as a platform for promoting our agenda. We see it as a great resource for the community and plan to keep it that way. The transition of Techno-L should be complete by September 2. If you are a Techno-L subscriber, look for an announcement sometime next week.