The minutes shown below were noted from the 2020 MidWinter Meeting Business Meeting that took place on Sunday, January 26, 2020. Please see the minutes below for your consideration. You may also find the minutes in a PDF format HERE.
ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH IN OTOLARYNGOLOGY
Business Meeting Minutes Sunday, January 26, 2020
San Jose Convention Center
San Jose, California
President Dr. Keiko Hirose called the 43th Annual ARO Business Meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.
Dr. Hirose introduced the ARO Council President Elect Ruth Litovsky, Secretary-Treasurer Gabriel Corfas, Past President Karen Steel, Communication Chair Donna Fekete, Councilors Lisa Cunningham, Gwen Geleoc, and Mark Warchol.  Dr. Hirose also thanked all the ARO Committee Chairs and Committee members for their work on behalf of the Association. Dr. Hirose introduced ARO Staff Executive Director Haley Brust, Meeting Manager Wendy Stevens, along with the rest of the staff.
Dr. Hirose awarded the following Presidential Citations to Donna Fekete, Communication Chair for being at the heart of ARO Communications, designing the website, and managing our historical archives. Carolina Abdala and Chris Shera, MidWinter Meeting Scientific Program Co-Chairs for all their hard work on the program committee.
Dr. Hirose gave a brief memorial for the passing of Robert Dobie MD, Jay Goldberg, PhD, Shig Kuwada, PhD and Fred Linthicum, MD.  Dr. Hirose asked all for a moment of silence for the deceased ARO members.
Dr. Hirose encouraged meeting attendees to visit the exhibits as the exhibitors add to the programmatic and financial success of the meeting.  She thanked our 2020 exhibitors, Audioptics Medical, Inc. Charles River, CILcare, Cortech Solutions, ENT Clinical, Etymotic Research, Inc., Intelligent Hearing Systems, Interacoustics, IstoVisio, Inc., NIDCD, NeuroNexus, Shenzhen Ju'An Technologies Company, SutterLinstrument, Tucker Davis Technologies, Turner Scientific and ViewPoint Life Sciences. President Hirose also thanked the NIDCD for continuing grant support of the MidWinter Meeting (now in its 36th year) as well as the other sponsors of the meeting: Action on Hearing Loss, Akouos, American Hearing Research, Charles River, Frequency Therapeutics, IOS Press, Karger Publishers, NeuroNexus. Lastly, Dr Hirose thanks all the companies that supported our travel awards in 2020 - Cochlear Americas and Cochlear Limited, Corlas,  Grace Medical, Hearing Health Foundation, Hearing Research (Elsevier), Knowles Hearing Center, Med El , and Springer.
Dr Hirose also thanked the Mrs. Henderson for the continued support of the Henderson Fund. This fund helps provide additional travel awards for the meeting.
Prizes for those that participated in the Science Fair were distributed. First prize went to - Learn to be an Ear Surgeon Nicole Black, Stephen McInturff, Eva Cai, Jennifer Zhu, Marta Pawluczuk, Dhrumi Gandhi, Sam Barber from Harvard University, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and University of Arizona College of Medicine. Second prize went to Seeing Sound: Real Time Spectrograms of Varying Sounds James, Foss, Alexandria Hudson, Coty Jasper from Washington State University. Third prize went to Auditory and Visual Illusions Richard McWalter from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Prizes for those that participated in the Exhibitor Scavenger Hunt were distributed.
Dr. Hirose recognized Lynne Werner, PhD this year’s Award of Merit for her signification contributions made to the field. She mentioned that Dr. Werner is a professor at the University of Washington in the departments of Speech & Hearing Sciences.  Dr. Hirose invited everyone to attend the Award of Merit session and reception in honor of the 2020 Award of Merit Recipient, Lynne Werner, along with the Young Investigators award winner, Christopher Cederoth, PhD. Â
Next, Dr. Hirose reminded everyone that the ERC will host “Musae on the Brain: Women in Voice and Science” starting at 7:30pm to 9:15 right after the business meeting and NIDCD update at the Montgomery Theater.
Dr. Hirose informed the group that the abstract deadline for the 2020 meeting is September 1, 2020.  She told all to look for more information coming soon. She reminded everyone that the 2021 meeting will be hosted in Orlando, Florida at the Renaissance Hotel February 19 - 24, 2021.  This is a new location or ARO.Â
Dr. Corfas presented the Secretary/Treasurer’s report. He first asked for approval of the February 2019, business meeting minutes.
Dr. Corfas then highlighted the Mid-Winter Meeting. He stated that abstract submissions for 2020 were 1328, which was a slight decrease for 2019. Â
Dr. Corfas shared the last 10 years of registration numbers.  As of 1/29/20 ARO has 1819 attendees registered, which is a slight decrease from 2019. ARO will continue to accept registrations and hopes to see the numbers of registrations continue to increase.
Dr. Corfas reported that ARO has 1535 members for the year of 2020. He reminded everyone that we are still early in the membership year and hopes to equal or beat 2019 number, which was 2013.   He reminded the group of the givebacks to membership that ARO provides - $10,000 towards childcare, each year; $10,000 towards the travel awards each year and $10,000 to the External Relations Committee for public outreach.
Next, Dr. Corfas continued with the financial report and reported on the finances year to date. The current total revenue for the year is as of December $974,886.97 for 2019. The current total expenses for the year were $872,129.55. Net gain as of December is $102,757.42. The investment account had a nice gain of $162,757.42 for an overall gain of $265,461.92.    Dr. Corfas reported that ARO has total assets of 1,505,289.98.
Dr. Paul Manis provided an update on JARO activities.
Dr. Hirose l thanked out going ARO Council members, Gabriel Corfas, Secretary Treasurer and Gwen Geleoc, Council Member for all their time and dedication to ARO. Dr. Hirose then welcomed incoming President Elect – John Oghalai, Barb Shin-Cunningham, Secretary/Treasurer; Matt Kelley, Program Chair and John Brigand, Council Member, along with the 2020-2021 Committee Chairs.  Dr. Hirose then welcomed Ruth Litovsky, PhD, as the new President of ARO. Â
Dr. Litovsky presented a Certificate of Appreciation to Dr. Hirose for dedicated service as the 45rd President of the ARO.
President Litovsky adjourned the meeting at 6:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Haley J. Brust, Executive Director for
Barbara Shinn-Cunningham, PhD
ARO Secretary/Treasurer