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Attendants: David Bruno (Vice president), Steve Feist (Meetings secretary), Roy Palmer (Publications officer), Lone Madsen (General secretary), Sven Bergmann (Treasurer) (absent on 17 April)
Absent: David Alderman (President)
The EAFP council met at Split, Croatia, for a two-day meeting. The minutes of the council meeting held on 24 October 2008 were approved.
AGENDA 17 April
This day included visits to possible future conference locations, including the conference hotel as well as potential locations for gala dinner/banquet, reception. It also included meetings with members of a local organising committee and a local agency.
AGENDA 18 April (council meeting)
1) 2009 Conference updates
2) 30 year celebration
3) Honorary memberships
4) 2011 conference planning
5) 2013 conference bids
6) Treasurer: detailed information for 2007-2008 (especially administration costs)
7) Validation of the account 2005-2006-2007-2008
8) Change of bank
9) Fees 2008-2009 (membership fee in Swiss francs or Euro)
10 Online payment of membership fees
11 Council elections updates
12 Membership database
13 Attracting new members – including sustaining: writing of a circular on the EAFP
14 EAFP Bulletin
15 Changes to the appearance and format of the Bulletin and EAFP logo
16 EAFP website
17 WSID freshwater
Reimbursement (in Euro), council meetings
Any other business
1) 2009 Conference updates The Meetings secretary reported on the conference in September. Thanks to David and Graham Bruno for the online abstract submission system which has been put in place for the Prague conference. Registrations were 21 and around 45 abstracts on 10 April. An extension on the deadline for abstracts was discussed. It was decided to extend the deadline to 1 May. Flavio Corsin, one of the keynote speakers, has due to a lack of own funding, asked the council for funding to come to the conference. It was decided that due to former decisions as well as current budget this is not possible. Letters of invitation for the Prague conference will be dealt with by the local organizing committee. The council discussed liability clauses regarding the risk if less people than expected attend the Prague conference. The agreement with Czech-in will be checked. Clear guidance is needed on what will happen in the case there is a loss. For the future it a liability clause is important that every agreement is added. The publications officer suggested insurance. This will be discussed in Prague. Action:The Vice-president to extend the deadline and contact the local organizing committee as well as the agency regarding the matter. The Meetings secretary to write to Flavio Corsin that it is not possible for the EAFP to fund his travel. Contact other possible keynote speakers. The council agreed on that one additional keynote for the conference would be appropriate. The Meetings secretary to contact the loc and agency for them to confirm the venue for the banquet. The Treasurer and the Publications officer to check what consequences there will be if less people than expected attend the Prague conference. The Vice-president to contact the American Fisheries Society to get an advert for the Prague conference on their website. The Vice-president to ask for feedback from loc regarding the sponsorships for the Prague conference including the histopathology workshop 3 30 year celebration A session for a 30 years celebration was agreed on by the council. The council will ask Barry Hill to take the lead on this. Action: The Meetings secretary to contact Barry Hill on taking a lead on this action. This special session should be separated and not running together with other sessions. 3) Honorary memberships The council discussed possible new honorary members. 4 2011 conference planning The venue for the 2011 conference will be revealed at the general assembly 5) 2013 conference (as well as future conferences) bids The council welcomes bids from countries regarding future conferences. 6) Treasurer: detailed information for 2007-2008 (especially administration costs) 1 October 2007 to 30th September 2008: Albion Press 30,000 EURO (5,000 EURO per issue) – covering 5 or 6 issues?? Cefas administration 1,440 EURO (for helping out with the EAFP conference 2007) Council expenses 9,941 EURO EAFP administration at DTU, Denmark: (paid later than 1.October 2008) Expenses in total: 48,000 Income in the same period: 43,000 On the accounts per 1 October 2008 103,000 EURO on the three accounts by 1. April 2009 1 October 2008 to 1 April 2009 Albion press: 1 issue 6,900 EURO DTU for EAFP administration 16,400 EURO Actions: The Publictions officer to contact Albion press on how the figures on the invoices from them arise (bulletin printing, bulletin sending etc.). The Treasurer to circulate expenses and income in a detailed budget to council members, deadline June 2009. The Treasurer to cash checks from branch officer, deadline June 2009. 7) Validation of the account 2005-2006-2007-2008 Skipped – was written off (small amounts due to exchange rates) in the last minutes. 8) Change of bank The treasurer contacted 17 banks in Germany – 7 banks have answered. Three banks were willing to have others than private costumers. The treasurer was most confident with the Commerz Bank. The council proposed to have two accounts, a high interest rate account and an operating account. Actions: The treasurer to take action for changing the EAFP bank to Commerz Bank as soon as possible. 9) Fees 2008-2009 (membership fee in Swiss francs or Euro?) The main currency will be changed from Swiss francs to Euro. A conversion table will be fixed at a date in October 2009. The fees will be fixed by the new council following the Prague conference. 10 Online payment of membership fees Action:The Vice-president to check the procedure and fees for online payment of membership fees before next council meeting. 11 Council elections updates One nomination for president and two nominations for meetings secretary have been sent by April 18th to the General Secretary. Deadline for nominations is 1 May. Actions: An electronic voting will be set up on the message board at the EAFP website by the Vice-president. The General Secretary will contact the candidates and ask for short CV’s. 12 Membership database Primo April, 766 EAFP members had paid their membership fees. In 2008 EAFP had 968 members. The General Secretary had contacted branch officers regarding membership fees for 2009 primo November 2008. The branch officers not responding had been contacted with regular intervals since then. At this stage only branch officers in Chile and Iceland had not responded to the mails. Action: The General Secretary to contact the branch officers that have not been responding at this stage before 1 May. General Secretary to judge when to stop sending bulletin issues to members. 13 Attracting new members – including sustaining: writing of a circular on the EAFP Draft a circular on the EAFP Actions: The Vice-president and Meetings secretary to draft a circular on the EAFP before the next council meeting. This circular should be placed in Shellfish News and Finfish News, OIE collaborating webpage, different websites, send to branch officers. 14 EAFP Bulletin The Publication officer presented details on manuscripts for the EAFP Bulletin. Fifty-one manuscripts have been sent to the EAFP during the last 6 months. There has been a rejection rate on 25 %. Out of 30 ms submitted for the last 6 months 22 of these were on parasitological topics. In overall it takes 10 months to take a ms from submission to print. The Publications officer told that he has emailed Elsevier regarding the use of Scopus data (comparisons between journals) in the Bulletin as well as the EAFP website – he was told that he had to approach each journal getting their approval of doing so. It was agreed on that it could be stressed on the website and in the bulletin that members are encouraged to look for themselves if they have access to Scopus. More subject editors are needed. The Publications officer asked for possible candidates, and names were put forward by the fellow council members. The Publications officer has prepared a note asking for new potential referees for the 2009 issue 2 of the Bulletin. It is acknowledged by the EAFP council that Cefas took their time (and money) to send two persons to visit Lis Knudsen at the former EAFP secretariat at the National Veterinary Institute in Denmark for making the overtaken of the EAFP administration as smooth as possible. Actions: The Publications officer to contact Albion press regarding timeline for printing the Bulletin and the possibilities of cutting down on this timeline before the next council meeting. Publication officer to find additional referees. Council members to investigate the possibilities of a new printing company (maybe in another country). 15 Changes to the appearance and format of the Bulletin and EAFP logo Council will look into suggestions on changes to the appearance of the Bulletin. It was discussed if the logo used on the website (more colours than 2) could be used in the Bulletin. 16 EAFP website The Vice-President reported on the work been undertaken with the EAFP website. Access to 8 old issues of the EAFP bulletin has not been cleared. The treasurer will find a possibility to get these issues scanned. Actions: The Treasurer to investigate the possibility of scanning the missing issues of the Bulletin before 1 June. The Vice-president to put these scanned versions on the EAFP website. 17 WSID freshwater The possibility of updating the current version of the WSID freshwater has been raised several times. Action: The Treasurer to approach the European commission regarding the possibility of financial support, deadline July 2009 (contact to Dr. Pedro Rosado-Martin). 18 Reimbursement (in Euro), council meetings The council agreed on that reimbursement will be paid in Euro – for this trip it will be 50 euro for this 3 day trip. 19 Any other business General Assembly (GA): Council documents should be available at the message board for the members before the General Assembly. Histopathology workshop: Discussed the format of the histopathology workshop. Agreed on a payment of 25 Euro for attending the workshop, lunch as well as production of the cd. 4 May 2009 General Secretary
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 1st 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 17th 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.
18th November, 2008
General Secretary
]]>Monday April 21st Subject: EAFP conference 2009
The council met at the Clarion Congress Hotel Prague with the local organising committee for the EAFP Prague conference in 2009 represented by Iva Dykova, as well as the conference organising company Czech-In represented by Alexandra
Chroma. First the hotel conference centre facilities were visited. Thereafter project management director Tomas Maxa and project manager Alice Trägerová, both from Czech-In, joined the meeting. A conference budget draft (based on 400 delegates attending the conference) as well as a conference agreement draft was presented by Alexandra Chroma. The two drafts were discussed and amendments were suggested. The following morning the amended conference agreement and the budget were discussed within the council. After further adjustments together with Czech-In the agreement was signed in the afternoon. The revised budget will be checked by the council members shortly after this council meeting.
Possible facilities in Prague for the reception as well as the banquet were visited Monday late afternoon. It was agreed to use the St. Agnes Convent for the reception. Further discussions will be undertaken with the local organisers regarding the
banquet venue.
Tuesday April 22nd Subject: Routine council business
Name of the EAFP conference:
Changing the conference name from “14th International conference of the EAFP” to the name “14th International conference on diseases of fish and shellfish” (organised by the EAFP) was discussed. A vote in the council (4 votes to 2) was in favour of the latter name
Statutes:
At the General Assembly in Copenhagen 2005 it had been decided that a revision of the current statutes for the EAFP should be considered. A statutes review committee with specific terms of reference was established. Their review and suggestions for statutes amendments were presented at the General Assembly in Grado 2007. The work done by the statutes review committee is very much appreciated by the council.
Since then EAFP members have had a possibility of stating their point of view concerning the proposed revisions. Based on the work done by the statutes review committee, input from members as well as discussions within the council, the President presented a written document on Council proposals for updating of Statutes 2008, divided in two parts, part two being the Council’s proposed statute revision and part one being comments and explanations for these statutesproposals. Within the next month this document will be finalised. All documents concerning the statutes review will be made available to the members on the EAFP webpage through the message board. The documents will include statutes review committee proposal and background information as well as the council proposal and background information. The old statutes are already available on the webpage. The different suggestions relating to amendments of the statutes will be made as clear as possible and it was agreed that a single document should be made, where the old statutes are presented together with new suggestions. The timeline for having all documents on the internet is 1st June. Voting on statutes will be done electronically and will be possible at the EAFP webpage at the member pages. Members will have to register for the message board, before the documents are accessible as well as voting on the relevant statute changes. Voting electronically on the internet should be done within a limited time span. A draft text for the Bulletin (number 2 is going to the printers shortly) on the statutes revision will be provided by the President and Vice-President.
Branch officer elections:
It was emphasized that branch officer elections shall be arranged by the general secretary and not conducted without an open democratic process.
Bank accounts:
The Treasurer proposed to change the bank. The communication between the Norwegian Bank and the Treasurer has been poor since the current non-Norwegian Treasurer took over. The council decided that the Treasurer should investigate the possibility of the EAFP using a bank in the home country of the current Treasurer.
The Treasurer needs to make sure that when another treasurer takes over (maybe from another country) then this person will also be able to use this bank. Bank arrangements need to be clarified in dialogue with other council members before the next council meeting in September.
Account used for credit card payments:
The possibility of paying the membership fee by credit card is currently not available and missed by a number of members. The Treasurer will take this into consideration while negotiating with possible banks.
Discrepancies of old years accounts (2004, 2005, 2006):
The President has been in contact with the former general secretary and treasurer Paul Midtlyng, who has promised to look into the matter. The current Treasurer will contact former treasurers Kristin Thorud, Paul Midtlyng and Brit Hjeltnes to ask about the amount of the error (the approximate figure). If this sum is confirmed to be small the council will consider the matter closed.
EAFP 30 years in 2009 - awards/celebrations at the Prague conference:
It was suggested that a note on the subject will be put on the EAFP website, asking for celebration suggestions from members. A note in the EAFP bulletin will lead members to the webpage. Suggestions from members should reach the council before the next meeting in September. The Meetings Secretary suggested a memento due to the 30 years celebration (maybe Bohemian glass, pen or equal) in the bags for all delegates attending the EAFP conference 2009.WSID Marine version in Spanish - ideas for use: It was decided that if members will pay for postage they can get a copy for free. The Vice-President will put this on the webpage.
EAFP Secretariat:
The current secretary for the EAFP secretariat retires in 2009. The President recognises the need for a replacement – helping with typesetting the Bulletin, keeping the membership database as well as helping treasurer and meetings
secretary. This was agreed by the council members. The Meetings Secretary will investigate the possibility of Cefas managing such a job before the next council meeting. Other possibilities will also be considered.
Locations for future EAFP conferences:
EAFP council received a formal request from Greece which is much appreciated by the council. This proposal will be considered along with one from the Croatian branch which is in preparation. The Finnish branch has expressed the interest of hosting the EAFP conference in 2013.
Council elections next year:
In 2009 the following posts will be on election: President, Treasurer, Meetings Secretary. Nominations are invited – it is emphasized that nominees for President should either serve or have served in the council. The call for nominations will be
advertised in issue 4 or 5 of the Bulletin 2008 (at the same time it will be advertised on the website).
Any other business:
The EAFP status was discussed. There is a need for seeking professional advice with regard to legal status and its implications, wherefore a professional accountant should be contacted. The President together with the Meetings Secretary will report before the next council meeting.
Currently all branch officers have not settled this years membership payment. The General Secretary will contact these branch officers after having compared payments to the EAFP accounts together with the Treasurer.
A point was raised about online access to members list. The Meetings Secretary was worried about having member details such as email addresses on the web. The Publication Officer suggested locking the list so it cannot be saved from the web.
The Vice-President (being the webmaster) advised that it is easier to have a members area only and this will be included in the message board area. The files will go onto the message board where only members will be able to access this
particular area. Other non-EAFP people can use the message board but will not see the statutes or the members handbook.
Next council meeting is scheduled for September. The President will contact the council members concerning dates. A one-day meeting was suggested at an easy accessible site like Stanstead, Manchester or Southampton.
May 8th
2008
General Secretary
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