Government Relations Committee

The Government Relations Committee, chaired by Dr. Chip Price, held their first meeting at the AALAS national office April 18-19. One of the reasons why this committee was formed was to monitor federal legislative and regulatory issues that might impact the field of laboratory animal science.

The OLAW Checklist

The OLAW checklist is a great tool "as is" or customized to meet an institution's specific needs. It is used by many institutions to help facility Program Review and Facility inspection. However, it was developed prior to the publication of the 1996 Guide and therefore fails to include "IACUC training" and "Animal Facility Emergency/Disaster Plan" in the Program Review portion of the checklist.

I strongly suggest that if you use the OLAW checklist "add" these two very important (and required) program components so that they are not missed in the semi-annual review.

From Mary Lou James, BA, LATG, Consultant, Regulatory Compliance via CompMed.

More Services for Journals Coming

AALAS is transitioning to Dartmouth Journal Services for the printing of its journals, Comparative Medicine and the Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science. Here's what this means for authors and readers:

1. Articles will be online as HTML. Currently, AALAS only has the capability for PDF articles.
2. Authors can take advantage of Dartmouth's DigitalExpert system for automated feedback on producing technically correct figures.
3. Authors will receive free ePrints.

In other journal news, AALAS will soon have available an updated End Notes template for authors.

Register Online for National Meeting

You can now register online for the AALAS National Meeting in Charlotte.

Postal Rates Going Up

The U.S. Postal Service approved an increase in the price of a First-Class stamp to 41 cents, authorized the issuance of the Forever Stamp, approved shape-based pricing, and set May 14 as the date for implementation of these changes. More details here.

AALAS General Services Specialist Joe Fraser explains the upcoming postal rate increase to coworkers.

165 miles per hour...

...that's how fast AALAS staff members went at the Richard Petty Driving Experince in Charlotte. Betty Cartwright, Carolyn Simonton, and Ann Turner were in town for the AALAS Program Committee meeting.

Animal Legal & Historical Web Center

There are over 700 full text cases (US, Historical and UK) and 975 U.S. statutes fully available on the site, with Michigan and California being very comprehensive. There is also a number of legal articles addressing a wide variety of animal topics.