MINUTES of the EUROPEAN MICROSCOPY SOCIETY Business Meeting at EUREMXII




held in the lecture hall C of pavillion E of the Brno BVV Trade Fair Area, Brno, Czech Republic on Tuesday July 11th 2000, 16.30 - 19.30 hrs.

Attendance:

Members of the EMS Executive Board:
P. Hawkes (President), J.L. Carrascosa (Acting Vice-President), E. Wisse (Secretary), H. Gross (Treasurer), J.R. Günter, I Herrera Calvet, K. Kovacs, W.M.A. Hax (FEI)

Members of the IFSEM Executive Board:
A. Howie (President), A. Maunsbach (Past President), D.J.H. Cockayne (Secretary), A. Engel,

Societies represented (number of votes in brackets):
Austria (2): H.P. Karnthaler, Belgium (2): D. Schrijvers, D. Van Dyck, Bulgaria (1): -, Croatia (1): -, Czech Republic and Slovakia (2): L. Frank, P. Schauer, France (2): P. Hawkes, Germany (2): H. Rose, R. Reichelt, H. Kohl, J. Zweck, W. Probst (LEO), Greece (1): -, The Netherlands (2): L. Ginsel, Hungary (1): K. Kovacs, Ireland (1): -, Israel (2): R. Sperling, R. Coleman, E. Skutelsky, Italy (2): M. Vittori Antisari, L. Dini, Latvia (1): -, Poland (1): A. Czyrska-Filemonowicz, Portugal (1): -, Rumania (1): -, Russia (2): T. Sukhanova, Scandinavia (2): H. Hebert, Slovenia (1): M. Ceh, Spain (2): J.M. Carazo, J. Gonzalez Calvet, Switzerland (2): K. Pulfer, R. Guggenheim, Turkey (1): -, United Kingdom (2): J.L. Hutchison, Lynne Joyce, Yugoslavia (1): J. Vukovic.


Agenda of the meeting:

  1. Confirmation of the agenda of this business meeting.
  2. Confirmation of the representation and voting.
  3. Minutes of the CESM business meeting, held during ICEM-14 in Cancun, Mexico on Thursday September 3, 1998.
  4. Financial report and appointment of auditors.
  5. Report on the organization of the EUREM XII meeting in Brno.
  6. The Ernst Ruska Prize.
  7. Venue of the next European Congress for Microscopy.
  8. Proposal for the EMS constitution (distributed by email and available at the web site).
  9. Election of a General Council and Executive Board.
  10. New members.
  11. Prospect on EMS activities.
  12. Any further matter to be discussed.
  13. Closing of the meeting.

The business meeting is chaired by P. Hawkes.

  1. The agenda is accepted as proposed

  2. The presence of representatives of 17 societies is recorded, 8 societies are not represented, the number of votes per society is approved.

  3. The minutes of the CESM business meeting held during ICEM-14 in Cancun on September 3rd 1998, are approved without discussion.

  4. The financial situation is described by the Treasurer. He reports that the amount of money received from the Secretary is still in the bank, a total of SF 2242 or Euro 1450.

  5. A report on the Brno meeting was presented by L. Frank. He reports that 1984 pre-registrations had been received, that were effectively followed up by real registrations of 754 scientific participants, 35 accompanying persons and 220 exhibitors. During the congress, 303 new registrations were recorded. 163 participants belonged to the group of invited speakers, chairmen and invited guests, not paying the registration fee.

  6. The Ernst Ruska Prize is awarded every four years to a young electron microscopist at a European Congress for Microscopy. The Prize money is provided by Leo (Germany), FEI/Philips-Germany and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Elektronenmikroskopie. Two prizes of DM 5,000 each are awarded, one to a physicist, one to a (bio)medical candidate. Unexpected difficulties prevented the prize announcement from being made before January 2000. Nevertheless, nine candidates with very good dossiers were proposed. A jury of 10 colleagues, composed of members nominated by the Ernst Ruska Preis Förderverein and the Executive Board of EMS selected three candidates, one for the physics prize, whereas the (bio)medical prize was shared by two winners. The names of the winners are: Marian Mankos, Bettina Boettcher and Stephen Fuller. They gave plenary lectures at the opening session.
    There is general agreement that the next Ernst Ruska Prize should be announced at least two years in advance and that the prize should be announced in many European journals in the area of microscopy and also in periodicals of microscopy societies in Europe. The procedure laid down by the Ernst Ruska Preis Förderverein and the Executive Board of EMS should be exactly followed.

  7. With regard to the next EMS congress in 2004, the chairman reports the receipt of a proposal by the Israel Society for Microscpy. He invites Ruth Sperling, chairman of the society to present the proposal to the delegates.

    The proposed date of June 27 to July 2nd 2004 elicits a discussion on clashes with semester activities (examination period) in some universities and leads to alternative proposals, one to start on July 18, the last one starting on August 22nd.
    The chairman proposes to vote for the proposal and the delegates unanimously support the proposal of the Israeli Society. With regard to the date, a second vote of 14 in favour decides to start the conference on August 22nd 2004.
    The chairman thanks R. Sperling for her efforts and those of the Israel Society for Microscopy.

  8. The chairman introduces the final proposal to change the Constitution of the European Society for Microscopy, and proposes a point to point discussion on the different paragraphs of the proposal. These points include:

  9. The discussion mainly concentrates on the payment of a yearly membership fee of Euro 5, which seems to be a large amount of money in the eyes of some societies. Other societies consider it to be quite impossible to ask that type of contribution from their members.
    Another point is the support to be given to local organizers, the sharing of profits and losses by conference organizers, the involvement of professional congress organizers, etc.
    The chairman asks the representatives whether they could support the general outline of the proposed constitutional draft and the audience unanimously approves of the proposal.
    A working party consisting of P. Hawkes, J. Carrascosa, E. Wisse and H. Kohl will translate the proposal into a point by point legal document, which will be distributed as soon as possible.

  10. Owing to the advanced hour of the meeting, the chairman proposes that the other points on the agenda should be dealt with by email contact with the delegates and secretaries of the European societies for microscopy within the shortest possible time, and closes the meeting.




This page was prepared by
Petr Schauer,
ISI ASCR, Brno, Czech Republic
updated on February 20, 2001
(transfer to the CSMS home page)