Minutes of the General Assembly of SSP, The Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, 6th October 2001
Number of members present (see enclosure): 30
1. Opening of the meeting: President Tellervo Valtonen opened the General Assembly.
2. Election of chairperson of the General Assembly: Jørn Andreassen was elected.
3. Election of Secretary of the General Assembly: Anssi Karvonen was elected.
4. Election of two members to approve the minutes of the General Assembly: Tor A. Bakke and Hans-Peter Fagerholm were elected.
5. Report of SSP activities over the last two years: The President presented the report (see enclosure). The report was accepted without comments.
6. Report of the editor of the Bull. Scand. Soc. Parasitol: Jorun Tharaldsen reported that Bulletin is missing input from the members of the Society. She also mentioned that the editorial Board of the Bulletin is inactive and there is a need to consider the composition of the Board members. The need for a web page for the Society was stressed also to publish the abstracts from the SSP meetings.
7. Report of the Treasurer: The Treasurer Tor Atle Mo presented the report (see enclosure). The report was accepted by the General Assembly without changes.
8. Election of Board members: The following persons were elected as new Board members of SSP: Karl Skirnisson (Iceland) was elected as President , Maria Vang Johanssen (Denmark) was elected as Vice-President, Charlotte Maddox-Hyttel (Denmark) was elected as Secretary, Katja Pulkkinen (Finland) was elected as Treasurer and Cecilia Thors (Sweden) was elected as Board Member.
9. Election of Deputy Board members: The following persons were elected as new Deputy Board members: Einar Strömnes (Norway) and Mats Wahlgren (Sweden).
10. Election of the Auditors and Deputy Auditors: The following persons were elected: Matthias Eydal (Iceland) as Auditor, Tor Atle Mo (Norway) as Auditor, Dag Atle Lysne (Norway) as Deputy Auditor.
11. Membership fee for the next two years: It was decided that the membership fee is unchanged i.e. 25 Euros for regular members and 10 Euros for student members. It was also decided that the new Board should consider the proposal by Jørn Andreassen that the membership fee should be reduced and the Society should get more money from the registration fee at future SSP symposia.
12. Nomination of Honorary Members: The following persons were presented by the Board and nominated as Honorary Members of the Society (in alphabetical order): Jørn Andreassen (Denmark), Göran Bylund (Finland), Odd Halvorsen (Norway), Sven Nikander (Finland) and Jorun Tharaldsen (Norway). A brief history of each Honorary Member will be published in Bull. Scand. Soc. Parasitol.
13. Time and location of the next SSP meeting: The Baltic Society for Parasitology (BaSP) had in writing to SSP offered to hold the next biannual meeting (2003) of SSP in Vilnius, Lithuania. The General Assembly discussed this proposal but according to the SSP rules, the General Assembly has to meet in one of the member countries. The Board decides where to hold the congress, however, it is practical to keep these events together (to hold the General Assembly in a non-member country would require changes in the rules of the Society). Based on an offer by Arne Skorping to organize the SSP meeting in Bergen, the General Assembly decided (for the Board) that the next SSP meeting will be held in Bergen, Norway, in May or June 2003.
14. Other issues:
Co-operation with neighbouring parasitological societies was discussed. The Vice-President of BaSP, Gediminas Valkiunas, gave a talk and presented the wish from the BaSP to join SSP. BaSP has 30 active members. The suggestion of a fusion of these two Societies was strongly supported by several members of the General Assembly. The new Board was asked to start processing this issue and present a plan for discussion and decision at the next General Assembly meeting in Bergen (2003).
Local organisers of the XX SSP Symposium, Prof. Mats Wahlgren, Dr. Johan Lindh, Dr. Staffan Svärd, Dr. Inger Ljungström and Dr. Jens Mattsson, were acknowledged for their excellent work in organising this biannual meeting at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.
Jørn Andreassen, chairman,
Anssi Karvonen, secretary
Tor A. Bakke & Hans-Peter Fagerholm, scrutinisers of the minutes