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
Minutes from the SSP Board Meeting, Stockholm, 6th October 2001
Present: Tellervo Valtonen, Karl Skírnisson, Mats Wahlgren, Jorun Tharaldsen, Jørn Andreassen, Gediminas Valkiunas from the Baltic Society and Tor Atle Mo.
Tellervo welcomed the Board to its last meeting that mainly focused on the agenda for the General Assembly later on the same day:
1) As chairperson of the General Assembly the Board will suggest Jørn Andreassen (DK).
2) As Secretary of the General Assembly the Board will suggest Ansi Karvonen (FI).
3) To approve the minutes of the General Assembly the Board will suggest Hans P. Fagerholm (FI) and Tor A. Bakke (NO).
4) The report of the SSP activities over the last two years will be presented by Tellervo.
5) The report of the Editor of the Bulletin will be presented by Jorun. There was a discussion about the future of the Bulletin. As very few scientists publish their results in the Bulletin, Karl suggested that the Bulletin should be reduced to cover the abstracts of the biannual meetings only.
6) The report of the Treasurer will be presented by Tor Atle.
7) The following persons will be suggested to the new Board: Karl Skírnisson (IS) as President, Maria Vang Johansen (DK) as Vice President, Charlotte Maddox Hyttel (DK) as Secretary, Katja Pulkkinen (FI) as treasurer and Cecilia Thors (SE) as Board member. The number of Board members was discussed. It was agreed that the number of Board members should be increased to 6, which would make it easier to have at least one Board member from each Scandinavian country. The new Board should suggest changes of the statutes of the Society.
8) As new Deputy Board members the Board will suggest Mats Wahlgren (SE) and Einar Strömnes (NO).
9) The Board will suggest Matthias Eydal (IS) and Tor Atle Mo (NO) as Auditors and Dag
Atle Lysne (NO) as Deputy Auditor.
10) The membership fee for the next two years was discussed. Karl suggested that the fee
should be reduced. Tor Atle argued that the Society needs the income from the fee. The
Board will suggest to keep the fee unchanged for the next two years.
11) The following persons will be suggested as Honorary Members of the Society: Jorun
Tharaldsen, Jørn Andreassen, Göran, Bylund, Odd Halvorsen and Sven Nikander.
12) Gediminas Valkiunas from the Baltic Society for Parasitology (BaSP) was invited to the Board meeting to discuss a joint meeting between the BaSP and the SSP in Vilnius in 2003. Unfortunately, the statutes of the SSP do not allow that the biannual meeting and General Assembly can be held outside Scandinavia, and thus the next meeting cannot be held in Vilnius. The new Board should suggest changes of the statutes at the General Assembly in 2003 and then a joint meeting could be held in Vilnius in 2005. The next meeting in 2003 will be held in Bergen. Arne Skorping will be asked to take the responsibility.
13) Other business.
a) The German Society for Parasitology, the American Society for Parasitology and the Baltic Society for Parasitology have send letter to SSP declaring that they would like to cooperate with us.
b) It will be suggested to establish a working group to identify and make a list of old literature. This list should be available for all SSP members. Bjørn Berland (NO) will be suggested as Chair of the group and Mats Wahlgren (SE) and Göran Bylund (FI) as Members.
c) It will also be suggested that the Society establish a Web Group that is responsible for an Internet homepage for the Society.
d) All non-Scandinavian should receive a letter telling them that they can send their fee in cash to the Treasurer to avoid the high bank transfer costs.
6.10.2001 - Tor Atle Mo, reporter in absence of the SSP Secretary
Minutes from the SSP Board Telephone Meeting, 19th September 2001
Present: Tellervo Valtonen, Jorun Tharaldsen, Tor Atle Mo, Ingela Krantz, Karl Skirnisson, Mats Wahlgren, Eskild Petersen and Maria Vang Johansen.
Agenda for the Meeting:
1. Election of chairperson of the General Assembly
2. Election of Secretary of the General Assembly
3. Election of two Members to approve the minutes of the General Assembly
4. Report of SSP activities over the last two years
5. Report of the Editor of the Bulletin
6. Report from the Treasurer with the Auditors' comments
7. Election of Board members
8. Election of Deputy Board members
9. Election of Auditors and Deputy Auditors
10. Membership fee for the next two years
11. Honorary Members
12. Time and location of next Symposium
13. Other business
Tellervo welcomed all to the Board meeting.
Ad 1- 3) Tellervo asked for suggestions to the first three points on the agenda. Jorun suggested Jørn Andreassen as chairperson of the General Assembly. Maria volunteered to ask Jørn. (Following, Maria informs that Jørn has accepted to be the Chairman)
Ad 4) Maria went through the points on the drafted biannual report of SSP (1999 - 2001).
On the 26th October, 1999 Professor Peter Nansen, one of SSP's most prominent and honoured Members passed away. It was agreed to have one-minute silence in honour of late Professor Peter Nansen at the General Assembly.
Three Board meetings have been held during the past period and the minutes of the two meetings held in 2000 have been published in the Bulletin (Vol. 10, no. 1 and 2).
Karl Skirnisson represented SSP at the Board meeting of European Federation of Parasitologists (EFP) in Poznan, Poland in 2000. At the meeting, Tor Bakke was elected as SSP's new representative in EFP's Board.
SSP and the Russian Society of Parasitology jointly organized a meeting in St. Petersburg in July 2000. A total of 121 persons from 25 countries participated. The abstracts from the meeting were published in the SSP Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2000. The meeting was financially supported by The Russian Academy of Sciences, Nordic Academy for Advanced Studies (NorFA), The Russian Foundation for Basic Research, "Ekteparet Soerlies Fond for Viltlevende Fulger", Norway, The Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, The St. Petersburg State University, "Nevatrans", Russia and "IRVI" Ltd., Russia.
Professor Christian Kapel has been appointed to take over the task after late Professor Peter Nansen as Editor of The Bulletin of the Baltic Society of Parasitology.
Number of members of the SSP Society 2001 are 125.
Tellervo suggested that Karl should say a few words about the meeting in St. Petersburg at the GA, which he accepted to do.
Ad 5) Jorun reported that she had got the Congress Abstracts from Sweden. Volume 11of the Bulletin will be a combined issue of 1 and 2 of about 48 pages. It was decided to have it printed in approximately 250 copies, as SSP at the moment has 125 members and around 100 have signed up for the congress of which probably half are members of the SSP. Jorun will bring some of the Bulletin with her to Sweden and Karin Andersen and Tor Bakke will assist with the rest.
Ad 6) Tor had received financial reports from Denmark and Finland but is still waiting to hear from Sweden and Iceland. Tor will prepare the treasures report for the GA. Tor informed that the Society has approximately 40.000 NOK at the moment.
Ad 7 - 8) It was accepted by the Board to suggest the nomination of Karl Skirnisson as new President, Maria Vang Johansen as Vice President, Katja Pulkkinen as Treasurer, Charlotte Maddox Hyttel (former Christensen) as Secretary and Cecilia Thors as Board member from Sweden. Mats Wahlgren was suggested to remain as Deputy Board member. Tor accepted to try and find a Norwegian candidate, as the Board agreed that it is important to have representatives on the Board from all Nordic countries. Norway would also need to find a new local Treasurer, which Tor will look for.
Ad 9) Election of Auditors and Deputy Auditors will be decided in Stockholm.
Ad 10) The Board decided to suggest that the membership fee will continue to be 25 EUROS for ordinary members and 10 EUROS for students.
Ad 11) Six candidates were suggested to be Honorary Members: Jørn Andreassen, Sven Nikander, Göran Bylund, Odd Halvorsen, Jorun Tharaldsen and Clive Kennedy. For each of the candidates there needs to be a promoter and the suggested persons have to be asked if they accept to become Honorary Members of the SSP. Tellervo and Maria will take care of this.
Ad 12) The suggestion of joining the Baltic Society for Parasitology (BaSP) and the SSP was discussed. It was agreed that this suggestion should be addressed at the General Assembly for the members to discuss. Depending on the reaction from the members, the new Board should take action to proceed according to the conclusions. Any formal decision will have to wait until the next General Assembly, most likely in 2003.
The proposal from the Baltic Society for Parasitology to make a joint meeting in 2003 in Vilnius was also discussed and will also be put forward at the General Assembly in Stockholm.
Mats informed that about 100 participants have registered for the meeting and funds have been raised to support all invited speakers.
Ad 13) It was decided to have the next SSP Board Meeting in Stockholm on Saturday 6th October from 12.00 - 13.00 (during lunch). Points to be discussed will be: Status and future for the Bulletin, Set-up of a web page for the SSP, Meeting announcements and Candidates for General Assembly meeting according to point 2-3 in agenda. Tellervo ended the Board Meeting by thanking Jorun, Mats and Johan for their efforts and significant contributions.
20.09.01 - Maria Vang Johansen, Secretary of SSP