John Challis
John Challis, PhD, FRCOG, FRSC
SRI President, 2002-2003
I have always wondered if there was a miscalculation in the timing for the Presidency of SGI in 2003; but there it was, a dual British Canadian citizen and basic scientist had the honour of serving as SGI President on this 50th anniversary and memorable year. This was also the 50th anniversary of the report from Watson and Crick on the structure of DNA; a report that would have huge implications for reproductive biology and for our Society.
During the year, we started having more frequent meetings of Council; the regular mini meeting in the fall but also bi-monthly phone meetings at which I would fly down to Washington from Toronto to meet with the staff and Council members come on-line. I had felt that it was important to do this, as the momentum of Society activities was beginning to increase.
We began the sensitive issue of changing the logo of SGI from the crest with the baby, scalpel and Erlenmeyer flask to something more abstract reflecting women’s health. I had been working with a graphic art company in Brantford Ontario on branding for the new CIHR institute of human development, child and youth health, and they developed a number of original designs that we tested on Council. I moved slowly; I was very concerned not to offend senior members of the Society with this change. The following year, Jerry Strauss was able to develop the work we had done to produce a new and more modern logo, not dissimilar to the one in use in 2018.
We formed a separate Membership Committee so that Council would not have the task of reviewing a large pile of curricula vitae of prospective members. Les Myatt was Chair of the committee. It developed a shorter application form for membership, easier terms of reference and made recommendations to Council. As always, Les did a brilliant job. We also began to try and change the philosophy of membership, to make it less elitist, a more open process to encourage in-training members (as Naftolin and others had tried earlier), and to broaden membership particularly to Europe and Australasia. If SGI was an international society then it should draw an international membership. My own thinking on this matter was influenced by my understanding of requirements for joining organisations like the Endocrine Society. Having overseas members was a not a new idea, but sowing the seeds of having international meetings and a greater proportion of international members was consistent with the need of the Society to grow. I should add that the idea of holding meetings outside the continental North America was hotly debated. Eventually we held a mini- conference in Siena and the first annual meeting (both under Felice Petraglia leadership) in Glasgow. I had the privilege of serving as Felice’s program Chair for the Glasgow meeting. We got the idea through Council, I think, with the belief that the Scottish people spoke English; it was only later that many folk discovered that the broad Glaswegian brogue was not easily comprehensible or even recognisable as being of English origin!
We also changed the timing when Council met during the Annual Meeting. I had been frustrated that I was sitting through Council, when there was some great science being presented in the various workshops. So we asked Council to meet on Tuesday and the workshops were held on Wednesday. Others must have felt the same; this arrangement has persisted. At the time there was controversy about the workshops themselves and whether they should be autonomous or should be advertised as part of the main meeting. We reached a happy equilibrium. Undoubtedly the high quality of presentations at the workshops has seen them incorporated enthusiastically into the annual program, but with complementary organisation.
We also began the difficult task of moving from a paid Executive Officer who worked with pharmaceutical companies to a more effective fundraising approach. John Grossman had served the Society for several years, but it was time to change. John Tyson served in an interim role but eventually it was Les (some years later) who took over that role.
Our 50th meeting was held at the time of the invasion of Iraq, leading to a surreal experience of sitting in the hotel lobby watching this terrible war beginning in the Middle East in real time. Steve Lye was our outstanding Program Chair; Wylie Vale was the Presidential speaker (Wylie repeated with Felice some years later). Fred Naftolin and Sandy Davidge were winners of the Distinguished Scientist and Presidents’ Achievement Awards, respectively. Both gave wonderful 30 minute accounts of their work in a special session of the meeting. Fred reinvested his prize to start funding of the Fred Naftolin Award for Mentorship; a terrific idea that focussed attention on the importance of trainees and the role of the Society in their career development.
Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of SGI was delayed by one night, because Diana Ross was occupying the room designated as the Presidential Suite! But soon the party was in full swing. At the banquet, we gave Inuit statues to Ava Tayman, Jelte de Haan and Norman Gant in recognition of their contributions to the Society and we held a sit down banquet dinner to cheer in our 50th birthday; perhaps the last sit down banquet at the annual meeting. As I recall, Charlie Lockwood and Nanette Santoro were co hosts of entertainment, Sir Brian Heap FRS, the foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, gave a speech on the internationalisation of science, and my Presidential address chronicled the five decades of the SGI. I wanted to have live dancers on stage, but Ava said the budget wouldn’t stretch that far, so we had movies of dancing and popular songs according to the decade, starting with Bill Hayley and Rock around the Clock. The Presidential speech was prepared for projection onto two screens, and run off a small bank of computers backstage. We worked closely with Pivot, an advertising and promotional company from Toronto. The presentation required fine timing between computers, co-ordinated dancing and singing on the two screens and my few spoken words. In rehearsal we had never managed to get everything to work synchronously. Fortunately, the presentation finally flowed properly, but just once; the actual performance before around 600 guests at dinner. It was make or break, a huge potential for a complete and embarrassing disaster. I have never been so nervous before a stage presentation before or after that time!