November 2009 Elections and Meeting to discuss TIA Business

Elections held! November is when the TIA holds their annual elections of officers and board members. The officer positions were all uncontested. Tom Kulaga was elected President. Joe Martin was elected vice-president. Joe Martin is our past-president. Anne Alexeff was elected treasurer. Joseph Angelini was elected recording secretary. Marin Skinner remains corresponding secretary.

We had one nominee for one vacant board position. The incumbents were AJ Beal, Steve Levy, and Steve White. The vacant position was filled by Igor Alexeff.

Left to right: Steve White, Joe Martin, AJ Beal, Tom Kulaga, Joseph Angelini, Anne Alexeff, Steve Levy, Martin Skinner, Igor Alexeff

AJ Beal discussed last year's seminar. He had a list of things to address for the future chair of the seminar committee. First, AJ said the purpose of the seminar was to educate and recruit new members. After determining the purpose of the seminar, the next thing to do was to determine who will attend. That is, the marketing aspect of who is the customer was considered. In our case, it was like minded persons.

AJ identified other issues that the seminar committee had to address, including the speakers, the responsibilities of the various TIA members, and who would be the master of ceremony for the seminar. He made a checklist to ensure he addressed everything.

Martin Skinner said that he would like to ask someone from the Patent and Trademark Office to speak at the next seminar.

Steve Levy discussed the TIA sponsoring a peer review program of inventions. The peer review would have a panel of reviewers. Each inventor would make a presentation to the panel of his invention and how he plans to commercialize it. The peer review would consider whether the invention is worth pursuing, what additional steps are needed, help identify the market for the invention, help with the business plan, and help identify sources of funding, if needed.

Steve said that the panel should consist of representatives from SCORE, Tennessee Small Business Development Centers, Technology Transfer, a bank, and a small business. Steve said he has a list of possible reviewers. The panel would be available for peer review for one day and would review multiple inventions. Steve discussed that the peer review could be incorporated as part of a seminar. Also, the peer review could be a public review and be video recorded.

Steve identified the benefits of a peer review to the TIA. He thought it would help with recruiting by providing exposure of the TIA. He said it would also help focus the TIA toward a common goal.

A show of hands indicated that the members in attendance thought that the TIA should pursue a peer review program. Steve was volunteered to chair the peer review committee and solicit the panel members.