ICUMSA News 36

Webmaster:

Luca Bani

May 1999

Editor: Rud Frik Madsen,

Strandpromenaden 38,

4900 Nakskov, Denmark

Tel: +45 54 92 1675

Fax: +45 54 95 1675

E-mail: rud@post5.tele.dk

Message from the President

 The first year "after Berlin" is almost over, and the organisation of ICUMSA for the next four year term is coming together. You can see below the final list of the Referees for the various subjects, and I apologise for the errors in the table printed in ICUMSA News No. 35.  

The preparation of the Proceedings is being completed and I hope to be able, in my message for the next ICUMSA News, to inform you that the Proceedings have already been distributed. Thanks to Philip Atherton, Chairman of the Publications Committee, and the cooperation of the Referees of the last session, we hope the Proceedings will be available before the next summer. Of course, when the time comes, we will include such news in our web page on the Internet (http://www.unife.it/icumsa). With regard to the Internet, we have received many messages of encouragement, and various suggestions such as the one from Mary An Godshall who suggests we retain within the ICUMSA News the messages of the last additions to the Internet, so as to give a more complete picture of the activities of our Commission.

We have recently started the distribution of the page dividers for the ICUMSA Methods Book, but, although they can facilitate its use, we have only received a limited number of requests. Such page dividers can be obtained by requesting them either by e-mail (vcg@dns.unife.it) or fax (+39 0532 291 168).

As usual, at the beginning of the year following the General Assembly, the Treasurer Clive Shelton has invited all the National Committees to pay their fees, which are set depending upon the amount of sugar produced in the various countries. We have decided not to modify the fee per unit in comparison with that of the last session although the funding of the Braunschweig Centre has now been concluded. The reasons for maintaining the fees unchanged are as follows:

·         many changes in the organisation have occurred, and in particular as far as publications are concerned; in fact, although the decision to adopt a less expensive edition of the Proceedings was taken, it is difficult to exactly estimate the new costs;

·         many copies of the Methods Book were sold during the last four years so therefore such a large income will not be repeated in this session;

·         we have to decide on the question of the General Secretariat, the cost of which is not yet very clear;

·         the possibility of having at our disposal a certain amount of money could allow us to realise in the near future some other initiative such as the one carried out at Braunschweig;

·         it is the first time since 1978 that ICUMSA has not asked the National Committees to increase the fees.

Last month, attending the 23^rd ISSCT Congress in New Delhi, we had the opportunity to meet our Indian friends and in particular Mr Patil and Mr Kumar, who will organise our next session in 2002. We have discussed some points, and we realise that, for climate reasons, we have to change the time of year if we intend to maintain New Delhi as the venue for the Congress, or move to another town, such as for instance Bangalore. Any suggestion or comment on this subject will be welcome.

At the end of this short message I would like to give some information about the change to our Constitution if we decide to set up the General Secretariat. The Associate Referees of Subject Sl - Constitution and By-Laws - in general agree with the first draft I have recently sent them, although some found the matter somewhat puzzling. We will carefully evaluate the various opinions before sending to the Chairmen of the National Committees the final proposal to be voted upon.

Unfortunately once again I have to close my message with sad news. At the beginning of this year, Prof. Erich Reinefeld, Honorary President of our Commission, passed away. Bearing in mind that the Proceedings of the Berlin Session are not still printed, we will publish an obituary on the Proceedings themselves as we have decided for the late Dr. Margaret Clarke. This is the least we can do towards a person who devoted a great part of his activity to ICUMSA, and who presided with enthusiasm and great authority the sessions of Dublin (1981) and Cannes (1986).  

From the Editor

Computer programs can sometime give you troubles. This is what happened to the list of Referees in ICUMSA News 35: Every time I read the file for the news into my computer a new line was formed in one side of the table. I don't know why, and I didn't realise the error.

I apologise for the errors in the table printed in ICUMSA News No. 35.

The first year after a meeting it is rather difficult to be the editor of ICUMSA News. In January and February I asked 8 different Referees, if they could help with a paper for the News. I got 4 answers with apologies telling they were not yet ready to write a paper.I am still waiting for the rest of the answers..