ESN Council Meeting, Athens, 30 th August, 2011 Minutes The First ESN Council Meeting took place at Athens (Greece) on Tuesday 30 th August, 2011 from 12:45 to 14:30 h, with the following agenda: 1) Welcome, apologizes and approval of the Minutes from the previous Meeting. 2) President's report. 3) Secretary's report. 4) Treasurer's report. 5) Officers renewal. 6) New ESN Council members. 7) 2013 ESN Conference. 8) Any other business. Participants Dusan Dobrota (President) Juan Bolanos (Secretary) Ralf Dringen (Treasurer) Jackie de Belleroche Frode Fonnum Ursula Sonnewald Alessandro Prinetti Joâo Laranjinha Ago Rinken Reinhard Schliebs Not participants Excused attendance: Simon Heales Not present: Max P.E. Recasens 1) Welcome, apologizes and approval of the Minutes from the previous Meeting. The President welcomed the Meeting and excused the attendance of Simon Heales. The Secretary read the Minutes of the last ESN Council Meeting (2 nd ESN Council Meeting held in Leipzig in 2009), which was unanimously approved. 2) President's report. The President read the following report. a) The new ESN Council started its tenure with a very successful 4 th ESN Conference on Advances in Molecular Mechanisms of Neurological Disorders, held in Leipzig, July 11-14, 2009 organized by Professor Thomas Arendt, Chair of the Organizing Committee. During the ESN Business Meeting held on July 13, 2009 five new ESN Council members were unanimously elected in alphabetical order of surnames as follows: Simon Heales (UK), João Laranjinha (Portugal), Ago Rinken (Estonia), Reinhard Schliebs (Germany) and Alessandro Prinetti (Italy). b) During the ESN Business Meeting the new constitution was approved and based on this the Second Council Meeting held on July 13, 2009 in Leipzig, Professor Gianfrancesco Goracci asked the Council to elect the ESN President from amongst the Treasurer, the Secretary, and then either the new Treasurer or the new Secretary. Eventually, Prof. Dusan Dobrota was unanimously elected to become the President of the European Society for Neurochemistry. Prof. Dringen was proposed and unanimously elected to become the new Treasurer with Prof. Bolanos continuing to serve as ESN Secretary. 1
c) The work of the ESN Council and especially the communication between ESN officers continued during the past two years very effectively, mainly via E- mails. We focused on different issues. One very important problem was to open the ESN bank account in the Euro-zone to facilitate and improve ESN Membership Fee collection. After a few years effort of the previous ESN President and Treasurer, the new ESN treasurer, Prof. Dringen, succeeded in opening the ESN-Eurobank account in Germany. d) The ESN is an associate member of the FENS but without voting rights. The ESN President continued the communication with FENS. After the discussion between the officers I was nominated by the European Society for Neurochemistry to concurr to the position of NENS ordinary member, at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) in May 2010, though finally I was not elected. I accepted also an invitation to participate in FENS Governing Council Meeting in Stockholm held on December 6-8, 2010. Unfortunately due to cancelation of many flights, due to bad weather, I was unable to arrive in Stockholm in time. e) I myself will terminate my office at this Conference after the General Business Meeting having served ESN for 2 years as President and before for 4 years as Treasurer. f) I would like to express my sincere thanks to all ESN Council members for their cooperation. Special thanks go to the ESN Secretary Prof. Juan Bolanos, to ESN Treasurer Prof. Ralf Dringen and to the ESN Company Secretary Prof. Jackie de Belleroche for excellent communication, very effective solving of any kind of issues from the ESN business. g) I would like to congratulate Alessandro Prinetti for his achievement in becoming a new ISN Council member. h) I would also like to stress that I am willing to continue any work for the benefit of ESN in any position in the future. The President s report was unanimously approved. 3) Secretary's report. The Secretary indicates that both the update of the membership list and country of origin will be reported by the Treasurer in view that applicants do not become new ESN members, officially, until the annual fee is fully paid; hence, the most updated membership list is on the hands of the Treasurer. The Secretary reports that several flyers and newsletters have been sent to all former ESN members and to the list of the previous ESN Conference attendants in order to recruit more members. The Secretary informs the Council that a new ESN stamp has been made with the ESN logo after agreement within the officers. Four copies of this were made, which should always be on the hands of the officers and the Company Secretary. The Secretary also informs that, since the 2007 ESN Salamanca Conference, when the ESN official web site (www.neurochemsoc.eu) was launched, it has been maintained and updated by the administrator of the University of Salamanca Foundation. The only payment made for this job was done in 2007 ( 1,500 plus VAT), out of the Salamanca ESN Conference surplus, both for the establishment and one more year management (i.e., until December 2008). Therefore, the management of the web site has been maintained for free since 2009. The Secretary asks the Council whether to 2
continue with the management in Salamanca after arrangement a reasonable price; it is unanimously approved this option. The Secretary asks, following the query made by several ESN members, whether the Council considers appropriate to publish on the web site a list of the ESN members. After discussion, it is adopted the agreement that we should not publish this information to preserve the privacy of the members and to prevent the high cost of implementing an online search system. The Secretary raised the problem that came along with the apparently unclear list of current ESN Council members, as posted at the web site. In this, both Jackie de Belleroche and Frode Fonnum appear as ESN Company Secretary and Historian, respectively, but it remains unclear their ESN Council member status. As a result of this, the ISN Secretary used the incomplete list of ESN Council members to be published in the Handbook of the Athens ISN-ESN Conference, therefore missing the names of these two Council members. The ESN Secretary apologized for any inconvenience that this might have caused, in spite that all efforts were done to amend this issue once it was known, just one week before the start of the Conference. In the context of this issue, the question as to whether the ESN Company Secretary and the Historian are Council members, ex-officio, is raised; Jackie de Belleroche pointed that she was elected as council member, therefore not being by ex-officio. However, Frode Fonnum would be council member by ex-officio. It is also clarified in the context of the discussion that, in opposite to the situation of the elected or co-opted ESN Council members, the Company Secretary and the Historian should maintain their position as council members as far as they maintain the Company Secretary and Historian positions. The Secretary states that there is a document, sent by the former ESN President, Prof. Gianfrancesco Goracci, to the Secretary, indicating the ESN Council composition during the period 2000-2009. This document is distributed within the attendants and discussed. Some members found inconsistencies and it is decided that this document will be revised for validation by the next ESN Secretary. Finally, the Secretary suggests that we should consider to equilibrate the gender of the ESN Council during the proposals of possible new ESN Council members under point 6. The Council unanimously approved the Secretary s report. 4) Treasurer's report. The Treasurer distributed and commented a summary of the updated list of ESN members by country, which is attached to this document. The Treasurer commented the bank accounts situation and the total balance, a summary of which was distributed to the attendant. The Treasurer suggested to accept in future payment of ESN membership fees by making use of Paypal, at least for ESN members from non-euro-countries. The cost of a Paypal transfer will lower the income by membership only by a reasonable low amount, but will avoid the high money transfer costs for members from non-euro countries. The council approves this request and asks the treasurer to open a Paypal account for ESN. Finally, the Treasurer commented the benefits of having a surplus out of the ESN Conferences, which will be useful for the current expenses of the ESN, such as web site management, trips of some of the officers to FENS meetings, Young Scientists awards, etc. 3
The Council unanimously approved the Treasurer s report. The final financial statement of the Treasurer is attached. 5) Officers renewal. The President proposed Alessandro Prinetti to become the next ESN Secretary, who accepted; however, Alessandro Prinetti commented that he would be willing to accept this position, after approval by the Business Meeting, as far as there is no concern by the ISN in view of his new position as ISN Council member. The Council unanimously approved to nominate Alessandro Prinetti as the next ESN Secretary. 6) New ESN Council members. The President commented that the ESN Council could be increased in size by proposing new possible members, to be approved at the Business meeting, with the need to balance the gender. The President proposed two names, Natalia Nalivaeva (UK, Russia) and Illana Gozes (Israel), whereas Ursula Sonnewald proposed Helle S. Waagepetersen (Denmark). The Council unanimously approved these proposals. 7) 2013 ESN Conference. The ESN President informs that when the deadline of the Call for Proposals was closed, the Secretary received one proposal for the organization of the next 2013 ESN Conference, by Prof. Marcus Rattray and Prof. Jackie S. de Belleroche. The summary of the main points of the Conference, received by the Secretary, was distributed within the Council and is attached to this document. The date of the Conference was proposed to be from 23 rd to 26 th of June, 2013, in Bath (UK). Jackie de Belleroche also distributed further information containing a preliminary budget estimate and a preliminary scientific content of the Conference; she also commented the wonders of Bath for celebrating this event. The Council discussed the proposed budget and the scientific proposal. It was concluded that these should be approved by an International Scientific Program Committee, the composition of which will be discussed between Jackie de Belleroche, Marcus Rattray and the ESN Officers in the very near future. The Council also discussed the appropriateness of maintaining the same Conference Title as for the past four Conferences; after a short discussion it was approved that the Program Committee should decide, after receiving proposal for symposia and workshops, whether the title of the conference should be maintained. The Council acknowledged Jackie de Belleroche and Marcus Rattray their initiative to organize the next ESN Conference in Bath (UK) next 23-26 June, 2013, which was unanimously approved by the Council. 8) Any other business. Ursula Sonnewald suggested that the invited speakers of the ESN Conferences should be waived their ESN membership fee for one year, as the ASN does, in order to increase the presence of prestigious scientists in the ESN. This issue was discussed and the Council approved this issue to be considered by the next Conference organizers. Juan P. Bolaños ESN Secretary 4
Members of ESN (June 2011) Country total number new members (June 2011) since 2010 Australia 1 1 Brazil 2 1 Czech Republic 3 1 Denmark 3 Estonia 2 Finland 3 France 2 Georgia 1 Germany 22 10 Greece 7 6 Hungary 5 Israel 1 Italy 13 1 Malta 1 Netherlands 1 1 Norway 2 1 Pakistan 1 Poland 1 Portugal 3 Russia 12 4 Serbia 7 7 Slovakia 16 4 Slovenia 2 South Korea 1 Spain 19 3 Sweden 2 1 UK 20 9 USA 3 1 total 156 51
ESN Financial Report 2009-2011 Ralf Dringen Treasurer of ESN
Accounts of ESN UK-Account Euro-Account ESN as Beneficiary of the Fricke-Neuhoff-Foundation (support of the ESN-YSLA)
UK-Account 2009-2011 2009 Income: 382.37 Pounds (447 ) Expenses: -666.27 Pounds (-780 ) 2010 Income: 151.00 Pounds (177 ) Expenses: 0.00 Pounds (-0 ) 2011 (till June 30) Income: 149.16 Pounds (174 ) Expenses: 0.00 Pounds (-0 ) Current Balance (June 30, 2011): 23,583.51 Pounds (+27,587 )
Euro-Account 2010 (since May) Income: Membership fees 3,381.00 Loan return (Leipzig Meeting) 7,000.00 Donation (Max Recansens) 879.66 +11,260.66 Expenses: Bank Account -14.90 Reimbursements (Officer Meeting 2009) -956.62-971.52 Balance 2010 + 10,289.14
Euro-Account 2011 (June 30) Income: Transfer from 2010 10,289.14 Membership fees 2,375.00 +12,664.14 Expenses: Bank Account -0.80 Current Balance (June 30, 2011) +12,663.34
Neuhoff-Fricke-Foundation (Earnings are available to support ESN-YSLA) Balance December 2008 +5,516.65 (Earnings 2009: +1,272.30 ) (Expenses: ESN-YSLA 2009-2,591.81 ) December 2009 +4,197.14 (Earnings 2010: +1,272.30 ) December 2010 +5,469.44