History of SIRS

Early History of the Founding of SIRS as compiled from notes, emails and documents now archived by Lynn E. DeLisi, MD. March 18, 2018

1. 1998: At a Schizophrenia Research Board meeting., chaired by editors-in-chief LE DeLisi and HA Nasrallah, open discussion ensued about having a society associated with the journal and this idea was favored by those in attendance.
2. Shortly afterwards, in 1998-1999 Herb Meltzer, who was in attendance at the above Board meeting, took the lead and sponsored a gathering at the 1999 CINP congress of interested parties. Many of the schizophrenia research community leadership were opposed to creating a new society, particularly strongly against were the 2 sets of partners who ran schizophrenia research meetings in alternating years, one in Europe since 1981 (The Winter Workshop) and one in the USA beginning in 1987. Dr Meltzer had, however, already incorporated an initial society with the help of Oakley Ray, the Secretary of ACNP.
3. After much discussion, the above society was not supported by many leaders in the field and ultimately abandoned.
4. Still wanting to see something done to bring investigators together, DeLisi established the Psychosis Network in 2000. This was accepted by the leadership of meetings in the field. It primarily gave people who joined the network discounted subscriptions to Schizophrenia Research, and a newsletter was being developed. She advertized for membership at each meeting and had about 100 subscribers, but most people were not actively participating, the newsletter was difficult for her to maintain on her own, and she received very little support from colleagues for expanding this concept.
5. In the early 2000's, DeLisi worked with the Winter Workshop organizers to help plan their program. In January of 2004, at the Winter Workshop in Davos, Switzerland, DeLisi met with colleagues, John Kane, and Wolfgang Fleischhaker at the Steigenberger Bellvedere to discuss the wish to progress beyond meetings organized by private entities to having a democratically run not-for-profit transparently run society.
6. No movement toward developing the society, however, was organized until December 2004 when L DeLisi and H Nasrallah met at the annual ACNP meeting, and entered into discussions about how to move forward to establish a society. Oakley Ray, the secretary of ACNP, with vast experience in professional society organization, was approached by Nasrallah/DeLisi and asked for guidance.
7. Immediately following that ACNP meeting, the concept developed into reality. Elsevier contributed $5000 for establishing the society. A Board of Directors was formed, initially consisting of 14 People: Philip Harvey, Patrick McGorry, Herbert Meltzer, Robin Murray, Henry Nasrallah, Lynn DeLisi, Daniel Weinberger, Jeffrey Lieberman, Wolfgang Fleischhakker, Shitij Kapur, David Lewis, and Eve Johnstone. This list later grew to 19 colleagues, consisting of a Founding Board of: W Deakin, LE DeLisi, R Freedman, PD Harvey, R Kahn, S Kapur, P McGorry, H Meltzer, HA Nasrallah, WW Fleischhaker, RE Gur, EC Johnstone, JM Kane, JA Lieberman, J McGrath, R Murray, Si Tianmei, J Waddington, DR Weinberger. The WW and ICOSR representatives did not initially join the Board.
8. January 18, 2005: Official Announcement was made and published in Schizophrenia Research of the formation of the society, SIRS:
   The initial Mission Statement:
   • Exchange the latest advances in biologic and psychosocial research in schizophrenia.
   • Facilitate international communication to discover the causes and better treatments for schizophrenia and related (spectrum) disorders.
   • Promote educational programs to effectively disseminate new research findings related to schizophrenia
   • Expedite the publications of new and newsworthy research on schizophrenia.
   • Increase the understanding of the personal, familial, and society impact of schizophrenia
   • Support increased research funding for schizophrenia research around the world.
9. January 19, 2005 1st incorporation of SIRS occurred in Tennessee. Oakley Ray assisted as administrator. H Nasrallah assumed the role as first president and L Delisi took over the secretarial functions to further develop the society. Bylaws were written. January 19, 2005: The Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) was thus incorporated as a nonprofit organization in The State of Tennessee (Attorney Warner McNeilly III, incorporator). This initial incorporation was dissolved in July of 2007. See below.
10. February 1, 2005: Conference call held with C Tamminga, SC Schulz, T Crow, S Hirsch, L DeLisi and H Nasrallah to invite the participation in SIRS by the 2 sets of existing meeting organizers in Europe and The USA. The organizers of the WW agreed to join in and become members of the SIRS Board; the organizers of ICOSR preferred to wait at that time.
11. February 7, 2005: 1st Board meeting took place by conference call and minutes recorded. See attached minutes.
12. February 15, 2005: Website established as www.schizophreniaresearchsociety.org
13. February 2005: Advisory Council Formed to consist of: Arvid Carlsson, Tim Crow, William Carpenter, Michael Davidson, Martha Shenton, Antonio Vita, Dan Javitt, Joe Coyle, Heinz Haffner, Jim Van Os, Jean Addington, Robin Emsley, Veronica Larach-Walters, Wagner Gattaz, Alex Miller and Steve Marder
14. March 1st, 2005: Contract signed between SIRS and The Winter Workshop on Schizophrenia (WWADMIN, LTD). In this agreement, SIRS was to name the WW as "an official international scientific Conference for SIRS. The term of agreement was to be 6 years and SIRS had the first right of refusal to purchase the WW should it come up for sale.
15. March 9, 2005: Nasrallah, DeLisi, Tamminga and Schulz have conference call whereby Tamminga and Schulz proposed three options: 1. that the organizers of ICOSR form their own society; 2. That SIRS becomes an affiliate of The Society for Biological Psychiatry and work under their umbrella; or 3: a limited contract be developed for a relationship between SIRS and ICOSR. Option 3 was chosen and
    Schulz and Tamminga were invited to join the SIRS Board. They agreed to send a representative to Board meetings.
16. March 20, 2005: SIRS dues paying membership total 192.
17. April 3, 2005: Lunch Board Meeting at The Mansion in Savannah, Georgia during the time of the biennial ICOSR meeting for the Founding Board members. At this meeting, DeLisi and Nasrallah appointed John Kane to moderate a later discussion that evening with leaders in the field and the organizers of both the Winter Workshop and ICOSR that was organized by the SIRS secretariat. At the evening discussion, the consensus of the majority of leaders in the field present was to support the newly developed society and to have it move quickly toward election by the Board of officers. See attached summary.
18. April 5, 2005: A Society Sponsorship agreement was signed with Elsevier BV with an initial term of 3 years, renewable thereafter. The journal would affiliate with the society, and the society in turn would have 3 free pages in each issue for society announcements. It would also be paid 10% of royalties on supplemental issues to the journal.
19. June 2005: The Board held its first election and John Kane became the first elected president, Wolfgang Fleischhaker, vice-president, Rene Kahn, treasurer, and Lynn DeLisi, secretary.
20. June, 2005: Board meeting took place in Vienna during an international congress.
21. September 8, 2005: Officers terminated Oakley Ray's affiliation with the society as its secretariat and moved the secretariat office to that of LE DeLisi in New York City, using her NYU Medical School office. The decision to re-incorporate in the State of NY was made.
22. October 6, 2005: SIRS is incorporated as a Non-Profit Corporation in the State of New York with 3 directors: Lynn E DeLisi, MD, John Kane, MD and Rene Kahn, MD with the address of attorneys Ballon, Stoll, Bader and Nader, NY, NY and registered with the State of New York Education Department on 12-13-2005.
23. October 19, 2005 was the first official filing with the IRS in the USA as The Schizophrenia International Research Society with EIN# 20-3585630
24. October 29, 2005: A Board Retreat was held at the Garden City Hotel, LI, NY to refine the Bylaws and discuss the future of the society.
25. April, 2006--A Board Meeting held in Chicago during the CINP congress. At that meeting, a decision made to hold a first SIRS international congress.
26. July 2006--Contract was drawn up with Westin Excelsior in Venice to have the first Inaugural Conference of SIRS June, 23-26, 2008.
27. January 1, 2007, Document of Agreement between The Schizophrenia Bulletin and Schizophrenia International Research Society was executed with Schizophrenia Bulletin to be an official journal of the
    society, initially through December 2007 and renewed annually by mutual consent; signed by William Carpenter, Shelley Andrews (Oxford U Press) and Lynn DeLisi :
28. June 8, 2007: A contract with Newtours, Inc, Florence, Italy was signed to administer the first conference in June of 2008.
29. June 18, 2007: IRS 501c (non-profit) status achieved.
30. July 9, 2007: John Kane negotiated a memorandum of understanding with C Tamminga and SC Schulz to affiliate with SIRS, but remain their own entity to conduct meetings.
31. 1st Schizophrenia International Research Society meeting held in Venice June 21-25, 2008. Newtours was local organizing company. DeLisi, Kahn, Kane and Fleischhaker were the conference organizers and program committee. Approximately 850 registrants were in attendance.
    See: Abubaker, R., Alaerts, M., Allman, A. A., Barnett, J., Belujon, P., Bittner, R. A., ... DeLisi, L. E. (2008). Summary of the 1st Schizophrenia International Research Society Conference oral sessions, Venice, Italy, June 21-25, 2008: The rapporteur reports. Schizophrenia Research, 105(1-3), 289-383. DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2008.08.015
32. October 26, 2008: Hong Kong Regional Meeting held to understand the needs of Asian colleagues.
33. Fall 2008, L DeLisi discussed options for professional administration of the society with Ronnie Wilkins, executive secretary of the ACNP. He then developed a new company specializing in professional society administration, called Parthenon Management Group (owned by ACNP) and proposed to take on the administration of SIRS.
34. The SIRS Board and Officers reviewed proposals from other companies for administrating the society and interviewed all candidates. Parthenon was chosen, and a contract drawn between SIRS and Parthenon signed on November 1st, 2008.