Before the CNS meeting 2001 in Asilomar, CA, Jim Bower announced that he would resign as the organizer of the CNS meeting after 2001. Under the leadership of the existing program committee as well as the organizing committee, a number of scientists present at the Asilomar meeting formed an informal "CNS futures committee" with the goal to discuss how the continuation of the annual meetings could be assured. The group held daily discussion meetings, open tall attendees of the meeting. These discussions were continued via a list server after the Asilomar meeting. The list server was open to all interested parties and all those that had been previously involved in the meeting were explicitly invited to participate in the discussions. A brief meeting was held during the 2001 Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego. It became clear during these discussions that a concise plan, laying out a number of goals, were needed for further discussions. The discussants agreed that one of the goals was to decide on the nature and function of a future organization to organize the annual meetings.
During the 2002 CNS meeting in Chicago, open discussion sessions were held daily. All those present at the meeting were invited to attend. The discussions were focused on deciding on a structure to organize the meeting and handle finances, obtain grants etc. During these discussions, the following points were decided unanimously:
(1) A foundation will be established as a formal body to organize the annual CNS Meetings.
(2) The foundation will not have members.
(3) The foundation will be governed by a board headed by an executive committee.
(4) The executive committee will consist of (a) President, (b) Vice-president, (3) Secretary, (4) Treasurer, (5) Chairman of grants committee, (6) Chairman of program committee and (7) Chairman of local organizing committee.
The members of the executive committee (except the chairman of the local organizing committee) will be initially appointed for 2 years, after the initial two years they can be reappointed for 1 year terms. After 5 years, reappointment has to be confirmed by a 2/3 majority of the board. The Chairman of the local organizing committee will be appointed for a whole year preceding the CNS meeting.
(5) The board will consists of at least 15 members not including the Executive committee. Board members (with exception of the members of the Executive committee) will be initially appointed for 5 years (by simple majority of the board). They can be immediately reappointed for another 5 year term. Board members that have not attended the CNS meeting for more than 2 successive years will automatically resign from the board at the time of the 3rd unattended meeting.
(6) The Executive committee will be appointed during the 2002 CNS meeting in Chicago. The immediate goals of the Executive committee will be include:
(a) appoint a board in a joint effort with the existing program committee
(b) incorporate the Computational Neuroscience (CNS) Foundation.
(c) Participate, with the local organizer and the existing program committee in the organization of the CNS 2003 in Spain
(d) Discuss and create budgetary goals for the next 5 years.
(e) Secure grant money for the continuation of the meeting.
On July 24th, 2002, a group of meeting attendees met to appoint the first Executive Committee. The following people were present during this meeting: Upi Bhalla, Victoria Booth, Albert Compte, Erik DeSchutter, Alain Destehexe, John Herz, David Horn, Robert Kozma, Linda Larson-Prior, Christiane Linster, John Pezaris, Manesh Sahani, Steven Schiff, Todd Troyer, Phil Ulinski, James Winslow.
The group unanimously appointed the following executive committee:
President: Christiane Linster
Vice-President: Todd Troyer
Secretary: Erik DeSchutter
Treasurer: Linda Larson-Prior
Chair of the Program Committee: Erik DeSchutter
Chair of the Grants Committee: Phil Ulinski
Chair of the local organization Committee: Albert Compte