Thoughts of a New President

Our annual Euroson meeting, held in Geneva last September, saw a major change in the composition of the Executive Bureau (ExB) of EFSUMB. Both Michel Claudon from France and Niels Juul from Denmark retired from the board after serving for nine and six years respectively, and Norbert Gritzman from Austria and Pietro Pavlica from Italy joined us. The three other members, Kurt Jaeger from Switzerland, Lucas Greiner from Germany, and I remain on the board, with Kurt becoming Past-President, Lucas continuing in his role of Honorary Secretary and myself becoming President. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of the "old" board and welcome our new members.

The past three years have been a very busy time for all of us, but also a very fruitful period due to the tremendous energy and enthusiasm of each and every member. I would like to record my thanks for their work, but particularly for their great friendship over the past three (and in the case of Michel, Niels and Kurt six) years. In welcoming our new members I know that the new board will continue in the tradition of friendship, which not only makes it a pleasure to work together, but also allows important progress to be made (I would not however want to give the impression that there is not, at times, 'vigorous' debate amongst the ExB, but such debate is both healthy and constructive).

Before leaving the subject of the ExB, I must record the thanks of all of us to our 'sixth member', Gianna Stanford, our General Secretary, who continues to work tirelessly both for the ExB, and the whole of EFSUMB. All of our jobs would be very much more difficult if it were not for Gianna's dedication to EFSUMB. Much of the work of EFSUMB is of course carried out by our various committees, and I would also like, on behalf of EFSUMB, to thank the retiring members of those committees, and welcome the new members. In particular I would like to thank Lil Valentin who has chaired our Education and Professional Standards committee for the past six years.

"The scientific programme was extremely strong"

The most important date in the EFSUMB calendar each year is of course the Euroson meeting, and the Swiss Society, and Jean-Yves Meuwly in particular, did an incredible job in organising a most excellent meeting in Geneva last September. The scientific programme was extremely strong, and the meeting greatly enjoyed by the large number of participants from throughout Europe, and indeed from the rest of the world. We now look forward to the 2006 meeting, being organised by the Italian Society, which is to be held in Bologna in September. Those of you lucky enough to have attended the joint EFSUMB/WFUMB meeting in Florence in 2000 will know what a treat we have in store. I hope to see you all there!

"We need to continue to define our role, and to adapt to changing circumstances"

So what of the future? EFSUMB is now in a very healthy state with an ever increasing membership and a stable financial base. We need to build on this. Remaining static in a more and more rapidly changing world is not an option, and there are many challenges that we have to face. We need to continue to define our role, and to adapt to changing circumstances. Kurt, in his capacity of President, like Michel before him, made a tremendous contribution to the organisation, so that EFSUMB in 2006 is certainly a much stronger, more coherent organisation than when I originally joined the ExB in 2000. I do hope that I can maintain the tradition set by previous Presidents, so that I too can look back in two years time and feel that further progress has been made.