They are on the Society's website and copies were distributed at the meeting. The minutes were unanimously approved without any discussion.

a) Currently, the Society is again in a good shape. The Administrative office is functioning smoothly. The Journal has impressively improved its impact factor and paying membership is steady with a slight growth.

b) The new By-laws were approved at the beginning of 2001 by a majority vote of 82 in favor and 2 against.

According to the new By-laws, the Society can have National affiliates and for this purpose, the two Societies that applied are: the Russian Society of PsychoNeuroEndocrinology and the Romanian Society of PsychoNeuroEndocrinology. Both Societies have been accepted by the Executive Committee and are recommended for acceptance by the membership. Negotiations are going on with the Publishers for group subscription rates. Guidelines for affiliation and dues are being finalized per the International Rules for Developing Countries, or countries with distressed economy.

Following a motion, the Russian Society was unanimously accepted as a National member of the ISPNE.

Following a motion, the Romanian Society was unanimously accepted as a National member of the ISPNE.

c) There was a discussion about the venue of the 2003 ISPNE Congress since the Organizer-designate at Yale has moved to a different location. Dr. Rachel Yehuda of New York City offered to arrange the meeting at New York. The offer was accepted with thanks.

Following a motion, the membership empowered the Executive Committee to take necessary steps to finalize the 2003 ISPNE Annual Meeting.

d) The President informed that the ISPNE Regional Meeting held at St. Petersburg, Russia in June 2001 was a grand success. Almost 350 delegates from 16 different countries attended the meeting. A regional meeting previously proposed for 2001 in Argentina has been delayed.

e) The Regional meetings under active consideration are: a) In 2002 meetings are being considered in Romania and Israel; and b) there is an inquiry to hold a meeting in Brazil.

f) Lifetime Achievement Award for 2000 to Seymour Levine was presented in the current meeting. The Lifetime Achievement Awardees for 2001 are Bruce McEwen and Etienne Baulieu and the Richter Award was presented to Serge Rivest. 2001 Awardees presented plenary lectures at the meeting.

g) According to the new By-laws, Corporate Memberships will be accepted. The Secretary-General will approach candidates. These members will each be requested to contribute $5,000-10,000 per year.

h) The financial issues of the Society were discussed. Finally, the accountant received the IRS reports for 1997, 1998 from the previous accountant. He is still working on the continuity for 1999, 2000 and hopes to submit the report to the IRS within the extension period. The importance of a Financial Committee was stressed.

i) The publisher increased the Journal subscription fees for 2002 to $63. The Executive Committee recommended to increase annual dues for 2002 to $110. Following a motion, this was approved.

j) There was a discussion regarding the Society's affiliation with the International Brain Research Society (IBRO). There had been earlier suggestions that the Society should not continue affiliation. However, the President had several phone discussions and correspondences with the new Secretary of the IBRO and it seems that they are taking some positive steps to involve smaller societies like the ISPNE in the government of the IBRO. They also gave financial support to the ISPNE Regional meeting in St. Petersburg. Following suggestions by the President and a motion, it was approved to postpone secession from IBRO.

Following a motion, the President's Report was accepted by the meeting.

Since the Secretary-General could not attend the meeting, he sent a written report. According to this report, 20 new members joined the Society this year. 283 members have paid their dues and 121 have not. The total funds of the Society stand at over $50,000. The report was unanimously accepted.

Robert Dantzer, Editor-in-Chief presented the report. The Journal is doing very well as assessed by the indexing services (impact factor ñ 3,008). It takes about three months to arrive at a decision after a manuscript has been submitted. About 30% of the manuscripts from the U.S. and 50% manuscripts submitted from Europe were rejected. He appealed to the audience that they should consider this journal as their primary publication media.

In reply to questions from the floor, Robert Dantzer informed the members that 60-70 manuscripts are submitted every year and that since there are now eight issues per year, once a manuscript has been accepted, it takes much less time to publish it. Steps are being taken by the publishers so that the Journal is on-line in Science Direct.

The Editor's Report was accepted unanimously, following a motion.

Nicholas Barden, Chair of the Quebec ISPNE Congress, summarized the Congress. So far, about 200 are in attendance, about 60% are not ISPNE members. Preliminary impression is that over 50% of attendees are from North America and the rest are from 21 other countries. The Congress seems to financially break even.

A full report will be submitted once all data are in. The President applauds Dr. Barden and the Local Organizing Committee.

The President announced the new committees, according to the newly approved By-laws, and called members to volunteer to be members of these committees, especially the Education Committee, Development Committee and Finance Committee.

Dr. Kumar chairs the Education Committee and planned activities were briefly noted.

Next elections of President-Elect and Secretary-General should be conducted very shortly ñ the term of the current officers expires by the end of the next Congress ñ in September 2002.

The President called for suggestions for the Nominating Committee and nominations of candidates for office.

The 2002 ISPNE Congress will be in Cagliari-Sardinia, Italy on September 10-14, 2002.

The issues of high registration fees and travel expenses, especially for trainees and young investigators were raised. The President promised to discuss that issue with the organizers and the Executive Committee.

No additional points were raised.

The President asked for any new business; no points were raised.

Since there was no more business from the floor, the President asked for a motion to adjourn; the motion was unanimously approved and the meeting adjourned sine die, at 1:00 P.M.