Minutes of the General Assembly of The Scandinavian Society for Parasitology, Bergen, June 14th 2003
Number of persons present (see enclosed presence list).
1. Opening of the General Assembly:
President Karl Skirnisson opened the meeting.
2. Election of the Chairperson of the General Assembly:
Tellervo Valtonen was elected.
3. Acceptance of the agenda:
Agenda of the General Assembly was accepted.
4. Election of the Secretary of the General Assembly:
Jadwiga Winiecka-Krusnell was elected.
5. Election of two Members to approve the minutes of the General Assembly:
Qijun Chen and Ewert Linder were elected.
6. Report of the SSP activities during the last two years:
Karl Skirnisson presented the report on the activities of the Board during the past period. The Board held two ordinary meetings, one telephone meeting and frequently communicated by e-mail. The main issues discussed were the future of the SSP Bulletin, a campaign to recruit new members, establishing of a Home Page for the Society, fusion of the SSP and the Baltic Society for Parasitology and the preparation of new statutes for the joined Society. For details see enclosure.
7. Report of the Editor of the SSP Bulletin:
Jorun Tharaldsen informed that no more regular issues will be published of the SSP Bulletin. In the future the Bulletin will only publish proceedings from meetings of the Society and workshops arranged on behalf of the Society. Jorun Tharaldsen continues as editor-in-Chief.
8. Report from the Treasurer:
In the absence of the Treasurer (Katja Pulkkinen), Karl Skirnisson explained the financial report which was prepared by the Treasurer. The Society has 164 members and a fortune of 7290 Euro. For details see the attached Treasurer's account.
9. Approval of the Business and the Treasurer's reports:
Both reports were approved by the General Assembly and the Board was released from its responsibility.
10 a. Fusion of the Scandinavian and the Baltic Societies for Parasitology:
Karl Skirnisson reported that work on the joining of the Scandinavian and the Baltic Societies immediately started after the Stockholm meeting in 2001. The name of the new Society proposed by the Board is Scandinavian-Baltic Society for Parasitology (SBSP). The new statutes are based on the statutes of the SSP with some necessary adaptations, which were made in collaboration with the Board of Baltic Society for Parasitology. Gediminas Valkiunas reminded that the idea of joining the Societies was already raised by Peter Nansen 10 years ago. Contacts between the Societies were traditionally close and their fusion should have a beneficial effect on the new Society resulting in exchange of information and experience and in interesting meetings.
10 b. Acceptance of statutes for the SBSP:
The new statutes were presented by Karl Skirnisson and explained.
Both the fusion and the new statutes were unanimously accepted by General Assembly.
11. Election of Board members:
Karl Skirnisson-President (IS), Charlotte Maddox-Hyttel-Secretary (DK), Katja Pulkkinen-Treasurer (FI), and Cecilia Thors (SE) and Einar Strømsnes (NO)- remain on their posts as Board members. Gediminas Valkiunas (LI) was elected as a Vice President and Romualda Petkeviciute (LI) as a Board member.
12. Election of two Auditors:
Matthias Eydal (IS) and Tor Atle Mo (NO) were re-elected as Auditors.
13. Membership fee for the next period:
During the next period annual membership fee will be 25 Euro for ordinary members and 10 Euro for students and retired members.
14. Time and location of the next Symposium:
The first SBSP Symposium and the next General Assembly will be arranged in Vilnius in 2005. The Board will decide the exact date in autumn 2003.
15. Other issues:
Tor A. Bakke (NO) informed the GA that he and Kurt Buchmann (DK) would like to arrange a "Gyrodactylus workshop: present status and future challenges" on behalf of the SBSP either in Oslo or in Copenhagen, in 2004. Further information will be available on the SBSP Home Page.
Bjørn Berland reported about his activities on scanning old parasitological literature in order to make it accessible on the Internet and stressed that this needs a person who would start the process.
Karl Skirnisson acknowledged the local organizers of the XXI SSP Symposium for excellent work. He expressed also his gratitude to Maria Vang Johansen and Mats Wahlgren for being members of the Board during the past period and invited all members to the first meeting of SBSP in Vilnius.
Tellervo Valtonen Chairman
Jadwiga Winiecka-Krusnel Secretary
Ewert Linder Scrutiniser
Qijun Chen Scrutiniser