Minutes of the General Assembly of The Scandinavian-Baltic Society for Parasitology, Rovaniemi, Finland, August 31st 2007
Agenda
a) Election of a meeting Chairman
b) Acceptance of the agenda
c) Election of Secretary of the meeting
d) Election of two Members who shall ratify the minutes of the General Assembly
e) The Board's Business Report for the previous period
f) The Treasurer's Report of the financial situation and the Auditors' Report
g) The General Assembly's approval of the Business Report and Accounts, and to release the Board and the Auditors
h) Election to the vacant posts on the Board
Member from the Baltics: Muza Kirjushina
Member from Finland: Juha Laakkonen
i) Election of two Auditors
j) Establishment of annual fees for the next period: Same i.e. 25 euro for ordinary members and 10 Euro for students and members who have retired
k) Establishment of the place and time for the next General Assembly: The Board suggests: Riga, Latvia, - organised by Muza Kirjushina and colleagues.
Because of considerable overlap in attendees it is suggested to be aware of the timing of the WAAVP 2009 meeting and to place the SBSP symposium at a different time if at all possible. The next WAAVP meeting will be in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Aug 9-13, 2009
l) Other matters, which must be sent to the Board at least six weeks prior to the General Assembly.
SBSP Board business report
The board of the SBSP has met in Vilnius, 2005, and in Rovaniemi, 2007, and in-between the board has communicated successfully by email. The SBSP Webmaster, Arni Kristmundsson (IS), has successfully managed the SBSP homepage. For example information on the past and future SBSP Symposia as well as future meetings of other parasitological societies are announced - And links are provided, if Arní Kristmundsson is given the relevant information. Please supply Arní Kristmundsson with any suggestion you might have for added information to the SBSP members on this SBSP homepage!
SBSP has local treasurers in all countries and this functions very well. The finances will be further presented in the Treasurer's report by Jurijus Komisarovas.
Regarding the membership, the number of SBSP members has increased from approx. 211 in 2005 to 220 in 2007. The society has 7 members from Iceland, 31 members from Norway, 53 members from Sweden, 32 members from Denmark, 23 members from Finland, 42 members from the Baltic countries and 32 members from other countries. In total, 19 new colleagues joined the Society, while 10 have quit their membership.
Charlotte Maddox-Hyttel has represented SBSP at ICOPA in Glasgow (August, 2006) and was elected as member of the Executive Committee of the World Federation of Parasitologists (WFP) for the SBSP. Charlotte Maddox-Hyttel expressed her sincere gratitude to the board members (Heikki Henttonen (FIN), and Gediminas Valkiunas (LIT)), who are now leaving the board, and the members of the Scientific. We all wish to thank the Local Organising Committee (Heikki Henttonen and colleagues) for an excellent Symposium here at the Arctic Circle in Rovaniemi in Northern Finland with a very interesting scientific programme and a lovely social programme as well.
The Board decided, somewhat late in the preparation for this 2nd SBSP Symposium, to offer student grants to eligible student members of the SBSP. Selection criteria included evidence of studentship within the past year of application and submission of an abstract for presentation at the Symposium. In total 5 applications were received, and all applicants were granted the sum of 500 Euro to aid their participation in the meeting. The successful recipients were: Daniel Benesh (Fi), Asta Krizanauskiene (Lt), Olga Novokhatskaya (ru), Vaidas Palinauskas (Lt), and Tuula Sinisalo (Fi).
After the Symposium, the Bulletin of the SBSP will be published presenting the proceedings of this meeting, and Jorun Tharaldsen has once again been kind enough to act as the editor.