MEMBERSHIP NEWS

April 21, 2011

Today, we are very pleased to announce a partnership that will allow us to offer our monthly networking event on a more regular and consistent basis, something that many of you have asked us to do. Their help in promoting our event and aligning it with other biotech-related happenings will lead to more frequent and active meetings.

Our new partner in the Biotech Happy Hour is BioForward, the state association that is the voice of Wisconsin's bioscience industry. This partnership is a perfect fit and a great step forward for the happy hour. BioForward shares our commitment to continuing our great monthly networking event, encouraging camaraderie among our area’s biotechnology stakeholders. Our partnership with BioForward will allow us to reach even more individuals in our industry interested in expanding their personal network.

In addition, we will continue to solicit corporate sponsorships in order to showcase local companies in our industry; sponsorships that are necessary to pay the costs of these events. Without sponsors, we would not be able to hold these happy hour events.

We are also introducing a new membership card starting in May 2011. The membership card will cost $50, is valid for ten [10] individual attendances [3 staff from one compnay = 3 attendances], and will not have an expiration date. The card will be good until all 10 attendances have been stamped on the back of the card. The card will be kept by the BTHH in a rolodex file and brought to each event.

These new cards will be required to attend our events.

All the proceeds from their sale will be donated on an annual basis to worthwhile charitable organizations that support science education for children in various programs from elementary through high school. Our goal is to help make sure that our local budding young scientists have an opportunity to explore their interest in science and biotechnology in particular.

We will continue to allow UW faculty and students who are in a biotech related disciplines to attend without any membership card expenses. To attend each event they need to present their student or faculty ID card.

For everyone else, these proceeds will fund the scholarships we intend to award on our member’s behalf to programs that promote science education. Minimal funds will be used to offset some of the administrative costs and office supplies needed (name tags/accounting costs/etc.) We are eliminating company memberships to make accounting easier. For companies that want to cover their employees cost to attend, we are suggesting they purchase four member cards and get a fifth membership card free. This will give companies a chance to pay for their employees to attend the events.

We hope you're as excited about our new partnership as we are. We look forward to seeing you at a happy hour soon and, as always, if there's anything you think we can do to make them better, please let us know. Remember to check out either www.biotechhappyhour.org or www.wisconsinbiotech.org for dates and times to come! One change that many of you will notice is we will now be posting the entire calendar for planned events in 2011 and for each subsequent year as we move forward. Note, we will be hosting events in 10 of the 12 calendar months each year.

In conclusion, the only changes you will see as a result of our new partnership with BioForward are even better attended events and a more robust scholarship program that you support through your membership.

Reminder, the next happy hour will also be back at The Vintage on May 12th from 5 PM to 8 PM. The sponsor for next month is Aberdean Consulting. Aberdean will have a tech exhibit up during the event allowing you to see and experience a virtual Windows 7 desktop computer on a tablet device. (iPAD and Android).

Sincerely,

Alex Vodenlich – Gentel Biosciences
Jim Blair – Aberdean Consulting
Rod Hise – The Luminis Communications, Ltd.