FEMS Annual Report 2015 - Page 8

GOVERNANCE Succession FEMS is a UK Registered Charity and Not-for-Profit Company1. It is governed by an Executive Committee that is elected by the FEMS Council. Our Council in turn, consists of elected representatives from each of our Member Societies and Affiliated Organisations. Both of these can elect and send a representative to our general meetings, but differ in that the Member Societies have voting rights whereas Affiliated Organisations do not. During our Council meetings in September, we saw a number of changes to the Executive Committee: Our Registered Office is in the UK, while our Business Office, managed by our chief executive, is based in Delft2 in the Netherlands. In 2015 the Executive Committee included a total of seven Directors along with two co-opted Executive Members. Succession takes place in September at our Annual General Meeting. • Roland Koerner stepped down as Treasurer, and was succeeded by Colin Harwood. • Bauke Oudega retained his position as Vice-President but stepped down as interim Grants Secretary to be succeeded by Jozef Anné. • Hilary Lappin-Scott was elected as our new Vice-President-in-Waiting and will take her position as Vice-President in September 2016 We would like to thank Roland for his incredible work as Treasurer and wish him all the best for the future. We also welcome new arrivals Jozef and Hilary. Meetings In 2015, the Executive Committee met three times: in January (Delft, NL), May (Aberdeen, UK) and September (Linköping, Sweden). The 2015 Council Meetings – Council consultation and AGM – were held in September at the Scandic Frimurarehotellet in Linköping, Sweden. We welcomed 25 Member Society representatives and were very kindly hosted by the Swedish Society for Microbiology (Svenska föreningen för mikrobiologi, SFM). Dr Jean-Claude Piffaretti PRESIDENT (SWITZERLAND) Dr Stefano Donadio Dr Jim Prosser SECRETARY-GENERAL (ITALY) PUBLICATIONS MANAGER (UK) We had a really productive meeting, receiving valuable input from our Members. We are very grateful to the SFM for organising such a wonderful event, and would like to thank the organisers, Per-Eric Lindgren and Åsa Sjöling, for their great hospitality. Boards Our Executive Committee has been supported by a number of Member Society representatives serving on our Grants, Awards, Meetings and Publications boards over the year: Dr Bauke Oudega Dr Roland Koerner Dr Colin Harwood VICE-PRESIDENT (THE NETHERLANDS)3 TREASURER TO 09/2015 (UK) TREASURER FROM 09/2015 (UK) Our chief executive is Catherine Cotton Dr Jozef Anné Dr Per-Eric Lindgren Dr Joanna Verran Dr Catherine Cotton GRANTS SECRETARY FROM 09/2015 (BELGIUM) MEMBER-AT-LARGE (MEETINGS) (SWEDEN) MEMBER-AT-LARGE (EDUCATION) (UK) CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (THE NETHERLANDS) 1 Limited by Guarantee and Not Having a Share Capital. 2 the home of microscopy’s founding father, Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek. 3 Interim Grants Secretary to September 2015 Dr Ricardo Guerrero Dr Antonio Ventosa Dr Helge Holo Dr Vaso Taleski PUBLICATIONS TO 09/2015 (SPAIN) PUBLICATIONS FROM 09/2015 (SPAIN) GRANTS (NORWAY) GRANTS (MACEDONIA, FYROM) We would like to thank all of our Delegate representatives for their hard work in helping us to support both our membership and the microbiology community. Dr Alexander Netrusov AWARDS (RUSSIA) 8 Dr Beate Averhoff AWARDS (GERMANY) Dr Gianfranco Donelli MEETINGS (ITALY) 9