The meeting was called to order by Dr. Ricardo Lloyd, President.

The agenda of the meeting was adopted as printed on page 224 of the program book. Minutes of the previous business meeting held in Vancouver on Tuesday, March 9, 2004 were approved as printed in the 2005 program book.

Dr. Lloyd recognized the international dignitaries in attendance. The President's Report began with a welcome to all registrants to the meeting. This is the first time the USCAP Annual Meeting has been held in Texas, and it has record attendance. The USCAP continues to be a vibrant Society and continues to grow . He extended thanks to Council, Committee chairs and the Augusta office for their unflagging support of the Academy during his time as president.

Those persons receiving Recognition Awards from the Academy for service rendered during the year 2004 were then recognized and thanked.

The Secretary-Treasurer's report was presented by Dr. Fred Silva. He expressed gratification that the Academy continued to flourish during another very successful year and thanked the membership for making it such a vibrant organization and is very proud of all who help make it so. Membership in the Academy is approximately 9800, almost 2000 of which are junior members. He announced the total registration for this meeting at approximately 3300 which set a record for the largest registration of any physician pathologist meeting in the world, ever! There are new things at this year's meeting which includes Fellowship Fair, Housestaff Hospitality Room, and Specialty Conference for Housestaff. At its meeting last Saturday, the Council confirmed the admission of 853 new members, of whom 232 were Regular Members and 621 were Junior members, and 50 were granted Emeritus status - these first two are an all-time record. Membership on committees is to be commended. Dr. Silva mentioned that what we do when "no one is looking" betrays the "heart and soul" of a person or an organization like the USCAP. The Altruistic endeavors of the USCAP have been going on, courtesy of Jo Ann Johnson, Jim Crimmins and the central Augusta office for over 25 years. He presented a slide presentation of the Altruistic endeavors of the Academy which included educational offerings which have been mailed to over 26 countries for the last 26 years including 8 countries in South America, 4 in Central America, 10 in Europe and 5 in Asia. Much time, effort and money have been invested in our USCAP Website (www.uscap.org) which now has approximately 1000 free educational offerings/modules and an overall Table of Contents (with 19 organ systems/subspecialties) searchable by key words; also included are the last 3 years of scientific abstracts (approximately 4500) which are searchable by topic, author, disease, technology. Presently, the USCAP website is getting from 2-4 million hits/month, with about 10-16,000 unique visitors/month. These free offerings are for pathologists throughout the world. Other International efforts include the USCAP's involvement with the International Association of Chinese Pathologists and at this meeting for the first time The Friends of Africa. Over 40 subscriptions to our Academy journal and the Nature Publishing Group (NPG) Website have been sponsored for university pathologists in mainland China by colleagues in Hong Kong (through the efforts of Drs. HK Ng and David Hardwick) and the USA and already almost 50 pledged for pathologists in Africa. The NPG Website has many advantages including free abstracts of all articles, integrated searches across the NPG portfolio, online archives (all full-text articles from 2000 on), author index across all articles, Table of Contents e-mail alerts, supplementary online materials, reference linking and links to other NPG resources including nature events, news, nature.com site index and naturejobs (pathologyjobs). "Sustaining the Academy" continues to be successful with over $130,000 invested for funds for underserved pathologists and of course the Dr. Leland Stoddard will contributing $50,000 for the education of underserved pathologists. Recently, by action of the USCAP Council $75,000 was set aside for travel funds for a young pathologist from each of the 50 or so IAP Divisions to attend the IAP Centennial Congress in Montreal in 2006. Lastly, Dr. Silva acknowledged the many important contributions of the French and British Divisions of the IAP to many underserved pathologists in underserved countries.. He then asked the audience to stand in remembrance of the deceased members while he read their names as follows: Edward Ackerman, Victor Arean, Wagih Bari, Morgan Berthrong, Woodward Burgert, James J. Butler, Sheldon Epstein, Joseph Hansagi, William T. Hill, Phillip Holsten, Kamal Ishak, Katherine Kagan-Hallet, Saul Kay, Nathan Lane, Martha Madsen, Lowell Martin, Thomas Micolonghi, Fergus Murphy, Harold Oberman, Frances K. Patterson, Philip Pizzolato, Leopold Reiner, Donald A. Senhauser, James W. Spindler, and Benjamin Sturgill. The Secretary-Treasurer's report was adopted by motion, second, and vote.

Dr. David Hardwick, presented the Finance Committee's report on behalf of Dr. Jack P. Strong, Chairman of the Finance Committee. He stated that all financial documents for FY 2004 have been examined by the Finance Committee and Council. The audited financial statement for the year ending June 30, 2004 has been reviewed by the Finance Committee and Council. The investments and investment policies of the Academy have been reviewed by the Finance Committee and reported to Council. Net assets of the Academy increased by approximately $300,000. The budget for FY 2005 was approved by Council with no changes in dues. All financial reports are available for review. The report of the Finance Committee was accepted by motion, second, and vote.

Dr. Hardwick also reported on "Sustaining the Academy." He encouraged all members of the Academy to become a Sustaining Member of the Academy. Please contact the Academy office to become one, and forms have to been changed to remind "Sustaining" members. He thanked those who are "Sustaining Members".

Dr. Jeffrey Myers, Chairman of the Education Committee, presented the report of the Education Committee. He thanked the 18 members of the committee for their hard work to provide a superior and diverse educational program and stated that the committee members are appointed for four-year terms, are diversified, meet twice a year, and are present members of the Academy. He recognized and thanked the staff at Augusta. He stated the important and dynamic role this committee plays in the Academy. The Diagnostic Pathology Course will be in Santa Barbara July 9-15, 2005. The Education Committee has the operational responsibility for the annual meeting abstracts; Short and Long Courses; Short Course selection at the Interim meeting, the summer Diagnostic Pathology Update Course, Special Courses, Specialty Conferences, Companion Meetings, platform and posters. What's new this year is the Fellowship Fair plus Housestaff Specialty Conference and Housestaff Hospitality Room. The first Cytopathology Diagnostic Pathology Course was offered in January 2005 and was successful. The Education Committee remains very committed to the electronic media to enhance our educational product. He presented a powerpoint presentation which included an implementation of the Strategic Plan of the Education Committee. The report of the Education Committee was accepted by motion, second, and vote.

Dr. Allen Gown presented the report of the Publications Committee. He reported the Committee members of which consists of himself as Chair, Drs. Jose Costa, Henry Frierson, Harvey Goldman, John Pfeifer, and George Mutter, were very active this year (joined by the Executive CommitteeDrs. Ricardo Lloyd, Sylvia Asa, Henry Appelman, Virginia LiVolsi and Fred Silva). This is the second year with Nature Publishing Group for the Academy journals Modern Pathology and Laboratory Investigation with dramatic improvements. The report of the Publications Committee was accepted by motion, second, and vote.

As Chairman of the Nominating Committee, Dr. Virginia LiVolsi submitted the following slate of nominees: President-Elect, Dr. Henry Appelman, Vice-President, Dr. Christopher Crum. There being no nominations from the floor, it was moved to close nominations and adopt the slate. This was done by unanimous vote. By ballot of the membership, Councillors: Drs. Cheryl Coffin, Gregory Fuller, and Bruce Smoller were selected.

Dr. Sylvia Asa was introduced as the Academy's new President, to take office April 1, 2005. Dr. Lloyd presented a new gavel to Dr. Asa. Dr. Lloyd recognized Dr. Virginia LiVolsi and her many accomplishments as President by a presentation of the Academy's Past-President's medal.

Dr. Beverly Nelson reported from the AMA. She stated there are two AMA House of Delegates Meetings per year. She indicated some of the endeavors the AMA helped physicians with. She encouraged all USCAP members to become a member of the AMA and that many benefits could be reaped.

Dr. Hardwick had the pleasure to announce the three winners/awardees of the Gold Medal of the IAP for their service to the IAP. He presented the Gold Medal to Dr. Ronald (Roc) Kaschula, South Africa and Dr. Raymond Yesner, Yale University. He announced Dr. Shinichiro Ushigome, Japan who was not in attendance that he will present the Gold Medal to him in Beijing in August.

Other business was reported by Dr. Silva of the future congresses. The IAP will experience the first Centennial September 16 - 21, 2006 in Montreal, Quebec hosted by the USCAP. This meeting will celebrate Maude Abbott and will be spectacular.