MINUTES

 

Attendants: David Alderman (President), David Bruno (Vice-President), Steve Feist (Meetings Secretary), Roy Palmer (Publication Officer), Lone Madsen (General Secretary)

Absent: Sven Bergmann (Treasurer)

The EAFP council met at Cefas, Weymouth, hosted by the meetings secretary, for a one-day meeting.

 

Council reports

Vice president:

The vice-president reported on the hacking and defacing of the website in August 2008. Consequently the website had to be reconstructed and hosting moved from Verio to Squarespace, The vice-president regards this as an easier system to run and has a higher level of security for our site. The council appreciates the work done by Graham Bruno in reconstructing and developing the new EAFP website. It was agreed that the slightly higher payment (30 $ compared to 20 $ per month) to Squarespace would be useful as we could include the possibility of form design on the site that can collate conference information (e.g. electronic submission of abstracts). This was agreed by the council. The domain name eafp.org will be transferred from Verio to a company called Godaddy. The suggestion by the vice-president of moving away from hosting the software on Verio and letting a company manage maintaining and upgrading the message board software was supported by the rest of the council. It was also agreed that the EAFP sustaining members should be highlighted on frontpage of the website.

Actions: The vice-president will change the package with Squarespace as well as take steps to move the maintaining and upgrading the message board software to the new company. The vice-president will change the frontpage of the EAFP website giving the sustaining members list a more prominent place. The contract with Verio will cease. Members who have registered for the message board will be contacted with new passwords to ensure they can access the new site.

The president agreed to provide PDF file from the bulletin articles published in volume 11-19 to the vice president to upload onto the web site.

 

General secretary:

The general secretary reported on the current membership status, this being 968 members. 132 members have resigned this year, whereas there are 59 newcomers. It has taken some time to update the membership database as updated lists from branch officers in some cases have been delayed. Members not having paid by July 2008 were contacted by email by the EAFP secretariat and that gave some positive responses. Thereafter membership cancellations were completed. Updated lists from SWETS and EBSCO on library members have been received. It was discussed within the council that cancellation of membership should be done earlier in the year, as there are no reasons for sending out the EAFP bulletin to members who do not want to be members of the association.

Actions: The general secretary will send out letters for branch officers concerning membership fees early November (after the 2009 membership fees have been calculated by the treasurer). Members paying directly to the EAFP as well as sustaining members and libraries will be contacted by email in the same period. Final payment will be 1 February – otherwise membership as well as the sending of the EAFP bulletin will be cancelled. This will be specified in the letter from the general secretary to the branch officers.

 

Publications officer:

The publications officer presented the bulletin status. From October 2007 to October 2008, 85 manuscripts have been under review. There has been a 21 % rejection rate, 26 % are on-going, and 48 % has been printed at this stage. Manuscripts are being submitted from many countries. The average time from submission to print is around 9 months, that is primarily due to time used by reviewers (the publication officer allows reviewers 3 weeks to do the review but usually more time is required), and authors also take some time before they answer back. For the past year the publications officer has received 765 emails regarding the Bulletin and 320 emails regarding council correspondence. The publications officer presented data from SCOPUS regarding e.g. total citations, as well as comparisons with other journals such as Journal of Fish Diseases, Diseases of Aquatic Organisms Journal of Aquatic Animal Health.

The publications officer would like to acknowledge the work done by subject editors (generally anonymous to-date).

Actions: The publications officer will ask people to volunteer to act as referees to speed up publication time. The publications officer will be strict with authors so they follow instructions for publication in the EAFP bulletin. The publications officer will sort out subject editors as well as look into reproducing the SCOPUS data. If possible it will be a good idea to present figures regarding comparison of the bulletin with other journals on the EAFP website.

 

Treasurer:

The vice-president presented the report sent by the treasurer. Questions were raised regarding the costs on the bulletin as well as the costs for administration.

Actions: The treasurer is to present a more detailed budget regarding the costs for the EAFP bulletin as well as the costs for administration. The council authorized the treasurer to change the bank accounts from Norway, but noted that the treasurer makes sure that there will not be any problems when another person takes over as treasurer – it should be possible for other people (including people from outside Germany) than the current treasurer to have access to the EAFP accounts. At least one account in the current bank used by the EAFP should be left open in Norway until membership payment for 2009 has been achieved.

 

Meetings secretary:

The meetings secretary reported on the progress with the EAFP conference in Prague next year. The first announcement is due to be printed in the next edition of the Bulletin and will be placed on the EAFP website. The second is in preparation and will need input from the local organising committee and the conference company in the Czech Republic. The abstract submission changing into an electronic format will also require work in drafting the templates. Keynote speakers were discussed and names agreed. Until now there are three suggested workshops on: histopathology, myxozoans and zoonotic pathogens. These were supported by the council.

Action: the meetings secretary will draft the second conference announcement for the end of December and contact the agreed keynote speakers.

 

Council communication

The Council discussed continuity of communication, where there is unavoidable absence of individual Members.

 

Statutes: voting, outcome and revision

The vice-president reported on the results of the electronic voting via the message board on the EAFP website (a summary of the voting results are available on the message board). Taking into account the results of the voting on statutes revision, the new statutes will now be published on the web.

Action: the vice-president will revise the statutes according to the statutes voting results, circulate to the council, and add the revised statutes to the webpage.

 

 

Web page update

Dealt with under vice-president report.

 

Legal status of the association

The meetings secretary had approached solicitors and explained the nature of the EAFP, showed the members handbook and statutes and explained our concerns. The EAFP has 3 options: form a company; seek charity status; stay as we are. The first is probably expensive but also not appropriate for the EAFP. For the second option this will be investigated by calling the Charity Commission – the benefit of this option is that the EAFP obtain a “charity number”. The final option was considered to be preferable, but with further actions needed. The actions include appropriate statements to reduce or eliminate liability concerning provision of scientific information via the website and the Bulletin and a disclaimer for conference attendees. Any personal or other liability should be avoided where possible or at least limited to the assets of the EAFP. Text relating to this will be added to the web and the membership application form.

 

Actions: Insurance status for publisher as well as conference companies should be checked. The Charity commission should be approached by the meetings secretary who will also draft a liability clause for consideration by the council.

 

EAFP Secretariat from 1^st January 2009

The current secretary for the EAFP secretariat retires in 2009, and a replacement is needed for helping with typesetting the Bulletin, keeping the membership database as well as helping the treasurer and meetings secretary. The meetings secretary will use the agreement between the institute of the current EAFP secretary and EAFP to decide if Cefas will support this work. The current secretary has used 300 hours in 9 months, but will probably use around 500 hours over the whole year.

Action: Meetings secretary to contact Cefas for agreement on support.

 

Membership fees for 2009

Due to higher expenses on the Bulletin printing and postage it was decided to raise the membership fees for next year.

Membership fees (in Swiss franc) for 2009:

Regular member: 70 to 75

Student member: 35 to 37

Library member: 120 to 135

Sustaining member: 490 to 555

Action: The general secretary to contact the treasurer to fix conversion rates for membership fees for 2009.

 

 

Bank accounts

The treasurer is authorised to change banks – see Action under the Agenda point concerning Council report treasurer.

 

Discrepancies of old year accounts

 

This matter is closed – former treasurer Brit Hjeltnes answered by mail that to her knowledge it was a minor discrepancy.

 

Council election planning

In 2009 the following posts will be on election: president, treasurer, meetings secretary. Announcement for nominees will be out in issue 1 of the 2009 EAFP bulletin as well as placed on the website. Voting will be done on line. The possibility of meeting with the new council prior to September will be discussed at the spring council meeting.

Action: This announcement for the Bulletin will be drafted by the general secretary.

 

Progress on Prague conference

See council report from the meetings secretary.

A clarification of the facility for the banquet is required.

The EAFP 30 year celebration was discussed. It was decided that the president will highlight the 30 years at the opening ceremony. Further suggestions included a photographic competition (members to send in EAFP-related pictures beforehand), a “light-hearted” presentation on EAFP in general and 30 years celebration as well as a toast on the celebration. An increase in the number of student awards was also suggested. The council will discuss this further at the next council meeting. The members are being asked for ideas concerning the 30 years celebration at the EAFP conference in Prague.

 

Actions: The programme for the 30 year celebration will be finalised at the next council meeting.

Publicise our conference as well as EAFP in for example other journals, websites (the American association etc.)

 

Future EAFP conference venues

 

Future conference venues under discussion are Croatia, Greece, Portugal (2011) and Finland, or Portugal (2013). Other countries are encouraged to prepare a bid for the council to review.

 

Action: These will be discussed at the next council meeting.

Spring meeting dates

Friday 17^th April - location Split, Croatia

 

Actions: Meetings secretary to contact local organizer in Croatia. The general secretary to update the treasurer concerning meeting date.

 

 

Any other business

Concerning membership stagnation:

It was decided that more should be done for the sustaining members, which will include their names on the front page of the EAFP website as well as the new statute change that will allow sustaining members to take 5 to the conference for membership registration fee. The sustaining members will be approached by the council to hear what EAFP can do for them.

Publish information on the conference as well as EAFP details in for example other journals, appropriate scientific association and society websites.

Contact trade organisations with an interest in fish health. Contact CRL’s (including reflabnet), ICES, branch officers (suggesting them to make inquiries for new members in their country).

Brief articles for Fishfish News, Shellfish News and Fish Farmer should be produced as well as a short folder has to be prepared – for sending to possible new members (or societies).

 

Action: The president or the vice president to contact e.g. sustaining members. The meetings secretary to prepare a draft for a “circular” on EAFP.

 

 

 

18^th November, 2008

General Secretary