February Update from the AUTM President

By Robin Rasor posted 02-01-2012 12:10

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The January Board meeting recap has been posted to the AUTM website. Be sure to read the recap and let me or Vicki Loise know if you have any questions or comments. You can also post your comment here.

I'd like to call your attention to two important things the Board discussed in January. First, the Board viewed a demo of AUTM's new Global Technology Portal (GTP). The Global Technology Portal will be a one-stop shop for corporations to find university technologies available for licensing and to identify specific research facilities and capabilities of individual institutions. The GTP will help facilitate license agreements, collaborative research agreements and investments or partnership arrangements. If you'd like the inside scoop on all the GTP has to offer, don't miss the free webinar February 7, where you'll see all of the features of the GTP and learn how to make this powerful tool work for you. Beginning February 6 universities will be able to setup their profiles which will, in turn, automatically upload your technologies. The GTP will officially open to the public at the Annual Meeting.

We also discussed the Board election process, and the need to make a small adjustment to the nominations language in the Bylaws. Primarily this change is related to the nominating committee ATTEMPTING, but not being required to, identify two candidates for every position. Soon, I will become Immediate Past President (in about 6 weeks, not that I am counting the days...) and the nominating process will fall under my purview for the 2013 Board. I ENCOURAGE you to send me any and all comments related to additional improvements, potential candidates, etc. I strongly believe this is YOUR organization and YOU should have control over how its leaders are selected and elected. This change to the Bylaws will require a vote by the AUTM membership, so be sure to check your inbox later this week for instructions on how to view this change and how to cast your vote.

A few other items to note: The Board recently received our end of the year (un-audited) results and I am very pleased to report that we were able to finish 2011 with significantly higher net income than budgeted. Through continued efforts to reduce expenses without reducing member benefits the Board has, over the past year, greatly enhanced the financial stability of AUTM. The numbers also told us that we didn’t make all of our revenue goals (we came very close however!), but by moving quickly to constrain expenses, these shortfalls were not harmful to the bottom line. As you know, AUTM had a couple of difficult years financially when the recession began. Both 2010 and 2011 were great recovery years and we remain on solid financial footing. I want to expressly thank all of our Board members and their associated committee chairs for their excellent work all year to enable the organization to reach these goals. The future is bright and we will share more details with the membership at the Annual Meeting.

Please also watch the Directors Discussion Group and AUTM Techno-L for additional information on a number of issues coming out of Washington; most notably the Start-up Act and a request for information from the USPTO on genetic testing. There will also be information about a hearing on Prior User Rights. The University compromise is at risk; we will keep you informed and may call on you for action. Vicki, Andy, Todd and I will be in DC in mid February to meet with representatives on the Hill, in the Department of Commerce and at the USPTO. Andy is looking for additional participants in a number of Public Policy Committees, so if you are interested please contact him at cohn@warf.org. For our international members – this also means YOU. We are working to develop a variety of groups/committees that can also give us information on initiatives/issues internationally that AUTM should be tracking.

And last, but of course not least, our Annual Meeting is on the near horizon. The Annual Meeting committee and the Professional Development committee (thank you Alan Bentley and David Gulley) have developed a stellar group of speakers, networking events, workshops and professional development sessions for all of our members in industry and academia as well as our visitors checking out AUTM for the first time. Texas Hold 'em is back as is a wine tasting event on Saturday afternoon. For more information, please go to www.autm.net/2012. We are looking forward to seeing all of you in Anaheim.

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