By Dr. Angel Abuelo - Coordinator of 2025 Student Award Competition

During the 2025 Conference of Research Workers on Animal Diseases, 6 graduate students received awards for their oral and poster presentations. A total of 18 graduate students entered the graduate student competition this year. An ad-hoc panel of 12 AAVI members assisted with the judging. The written abstracts were evaluated by all judges in advance of the conference, and each presentation was scored by 3 judges on site. Please join me in thanking all the judges for their service to AAVI:

The judges commented on the overall excellent quality of all the students. The awards were very competitive, with average scores being usually within 1-2 marks (on a 1-100 scale) from each other.

CRWAD is always a great place to blend in with like-minded immunology enthusiasts. The AAVI Board wants to continue to enhance networking opportunities during CRWAD. The 2025 AAVI Business Luncheon will occur in Labriola (across from the Marriott Hotel). This is a ticketed event with limited capacity. Please book your tickets ASAP before we run out of them: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-aavi-luncheon-tickets-987346338477. When buying your luncheon tickets, please indicate your choice of first and second course. The purchase of tickets will close on January 12, and no additions will be possible after that time. Please plan ahead!
 
The Board has approved a tiered system for lunch tickets, where graduate student members will have a reduced fee (subsidized by AAVI):

• AAVI general member: $45
• AAVI student member: $30
• Non-members: $60

We hope this helps increase their attendance and become more active in AAVI. We also encourage senior scientists to pay for their students' tickets (and membership). If your graduate students are not yet members, they can become members today by filling out the membership form (they can indicate in the form if you'd like the invoice for their membership dues sent to you): https://forms.gle/WWrudvh5j9ma1mHu9

During 2024, we reviewed AAVI’s current Bylaws. In the process, we noted that the existing Bylaws were outdated –last changed in 2007– and no longer reflected the organization's practices. Furthermore, the Bylaws lacked uniformity and clarity about when certain processes (e.g., elections) needed to happen, creating inconsistencies as the Officers turned over. Due to the extensive changes required, the Bylaws Committee has proposed to the Board that AAVI adopt newly written Bylaws. For this, the Committee drafted new Bylaws using existing Bylaws from other national scientific organizations as a template and adapting them to AAVI’s organizational structure, size, and goals. 
 
Adopting new Bylaws is a lengthy process, and the Membership must approve those new Bylaws. Throughout this process, there will be opportunities for the Members to provide feedback and suggest modifications before the actual vote. An email with more details about this consultative process will go out to voting Members in January/February 2025. Below is a summary of the steps included in this Bylaw review process: 

1. The Bylaw Committee drafts proposed Bylaws and sends them for Board discussion and endorsement. 
2. The Board discusses proposed Bylaws and approves a version to send to the Membership for feedback. 
3. The Membership provides feedback and requests modifications to the proposed Bylaws. 
4. The Board reviews Members’ feedback and modification requests and adopts a final version of the proposed Bylaws. 
5. An electronic vote is carried out among voting Members on adopting the proposed Bylaws. 

When we send out the proposed Bylaws, we will include the current Bylaws and a document explaining the rationale for the major changes included in the new Bylaws. If you have questions about this process, please reach out to any of the members of the Bylaws Committee (Laura Miller, Ignacio Correas, and Angel Abuelo).