NCAB News

Would you like to meet new people and earn some continuing education credits at the 69th National AALAS Meeting? The Local Arrangements Committee is seeking people to staff the welcome booth. The typical time commitment is two hours; volunteers will hand out bags to registrants, welcome them to the meeting, and answer questions. You will earn 1 CE for each hour worked.

One of our primary responsibilities will be to help first-time attendees - first impressions of the NM can be just a bit overwhelming! Our role will be to help new attendees figure out how to interpret the program and navigate throughout the conference center, and even help with Baltimore-related questions if we can.

The Baltimore NM is always well attended - Saturday morning we will need a handful of folks to prep the bags, and Saturday afternoon, all day Sunday and Monday morning are likely to be busy, so we are recruiting more volunteers for those time slots. 

Sign Up to Volunteer

Please make sure to include your full name, email address, and a phone number where you can be reached. If you have any questions, please contact Donna Tignor.

The Nominations Committee is currently accepting nominations for President-elect and Treasurer-elect for 2019. If interested, or you know someone who would be perfect for one of these roles, please provide the following to Dr. LaTesa Hughes (latesahughes@yahoo.com) by August 3, 2018:

• a biography
  
• a statement of interest detailing your/their background, experience within NCAB, qualifications and why you/they are the best candidate for the job
  
• a high – resolution photograph (jpg)
  

President-Elect

1. Terms of Office: The President-elect serves for a three year obligation: President-Elect, President and Immediate Past-President. Each term is one year.
2. The President-Elect shall assume the office of the President at the expiration of the latter's term or upon the President's resignation or inability to continue to serve as determined by the Council. It shall be the President-Elect's duty to preside at all general and scientific meetings of the Branch and meetings of the Council in the absence of the President and to appoint the Seminar Chairperson for the Seminar to be held during his/her presidential administration. The President-Elect will review and revise the Constitution and/or By-Laws as necessary.
3. The President shall preside at general and scientific meetings of the Branch, and at meetings of the Council. The President shall convene the Council at least twice each year, and as often as the business of the Branch may require its action. He/she shall appoint the Chairperson of each standing committee. The President shall be an ex officio member of all committees and shall be the principal Branch officer to which all committees shall be responsible.
   

Treasurer-Elect

1. Terms of Office: The Treasurer shall be elected for a three-year term, first year is a year in training with the existing treasurer and the final two with full treasurer duties. They shall be eligible for no more than two consecutive terms.
2. The term of office shall be for three years. The Treasurer shall be responsible for all financial matters of the Branch and be bonded during their term of office as deemed necessary by vote of council. A licensed accounting firm will manage the receipt of monies and payment of bills. The Treasurer shall report to the Council at each meeting thereof a statement of the current income, expenses and balance, and the January meeting report to the Branch the balance sheet of funds and income for the year.
   

All nominees must be active NCAB members -- have you renewed your Membership for 2018? Please visit the Membership section to renew today!

The Spring 2018 NCAB Newsletter is now available.

This spring, Charles River will be hosting biomethodology workshops for people working with mice and rats on their research projects. When working with animal models, proper handling, restraint, injection, and blood collection techniques are important steps in reducing animal stress and providing consistent data to support a research study.

These biomethodology classes will teach basic handling and restraint and include various injection and gavage techniques. The advanced program will include the most common blood collection techniques and takes place shortly after the basic class that same day. Please follow the links below to our website for the dates, times, and locations of the upcoming labs.

• Biomethodology of the Mouse - Basic Techniques
  
• Biomethodology of the Mouse - Advanced Techniques
  
• Biomethodology of the Rat - Basic Techniques
  
• Biomethodology of the Rat - Advanced Techniques
  

Welcome to the new NCABAALAS.org! Our website, registrations, and membership tools are all in one place now. We've moved our members' accounts over from our old provided. but to log in you'll need to reset you password. 

Our Institutional Members should use these instructions

Charles River will be hosting a 20-week virtual LATG exam prep program beginning July 19th.

Learn More

Volunteers are needed to staff the AALAS Foundation and Americans for Medical Progress booth at the USA Science and Engineering Festival.

To sign up, enter your name in one or more time slots (see below) in the Volunteer Signup sheet.

• Friday, April 6th, 9am – 3pm
  
• Saturday, April 7th, 10am – 6pm
  
• Sunday, April 8th, 10am – 4pm
  

As reported by NABR earlier this month, two bills introduced in the Maryland General Assembly will be up for consideration very soon. Simply put, Senate Bill 675 and House Bill 732 would require research facilities to provide former research animals to animal rescue organizations for adoption. Because research programs already adopt out animals themselves with great effectiveness, this bill would effectively create a "middleman" in the process of finding homes for former research animals. Both bills also carry an overly burdensome and duplicative reporting requirement on animals in research. S.B. 675 has been scheduled for a hearing next week on Feb. 27 at 1:00 p.m. in the Senate Committee on Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs. H.B. 732 is slated to be heard on March 13 at 1:00 p.m. in the House Appropriations Committee. 

We need your help! If you or someone you know is a resident of Maryland, please send this pre-formatted letter to members of the House and Senate urging them to oppose S.B. 675 and H.B. 732. It only takes a few minutes, but sending this letter may have an impact on the future of biomedical research within the State of Maryland.Also, if you are able, please consider signing-up to deliver in-person testimony in Annapolis. 

Research animal adoption bills are a solution in search of a non-existent problem. They would add an unnecessary middleman to existing research animal adoption processes, heightening the compliance burden faced by researchers. Should the bills become law, they would open the door for amendments that could introduce even more arduous restrictions on animal research.

S.B. 675 and H.B. 732 are lobbied by the Beagle Freedom Project (BFP) (now the Rescue+Freedom Project, or RFP), an organization that has previously advocated for an end to all animal research. The group has very publicly vilified animal research and targeted specific institutions regarding their adoption policies. Read this POLITICO story to learn more about this controversial organization.

Again, if you or someone you know is a Maryland resident, please send this pre-written letter to Annapolis ASAP urging them to OPPOSE S.B. 675 and H.B. 732. Using NABR's letter writing module is simple, quick, easy, and very important in the effort to push back against this bill. 

Send a Letter of Opposition to Members of the Maryland General Assembly

Congress is considering legislation that targets important canine studies at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). AALAS President, Paige Ebert has submitted a letter to ranking members on the Senate Appropriations Committee to voice our concern for this amendment.

The National Association for Biomedical Research (NABR ) has an easy to use comment portal. Click below to learn more and let your voice be heard!

https://www.votervoice.net/NABR/campaigns/54425/respond

AALAS has emailed the entire membership with a request to use the NABR Capwiz system to support HR 3136. This legislation will help improve transparency at the USDA. AALAS has already signed onto the coalition letter. Please send a pre-written message to their representatives. According to NABR, AALAS members have generated approximately 100 emails to the Hill already. Hopefully that number can grow once we reach out to branch members as well!

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