ICUMSA News 53

Webmaster:

Luca Bani

January 2005

Editor: Mr. C. J. Shelton
Clive Shelton Associates
Provident House – Burrel Row
Beckenham – Kent BR3 1AT - UK
Tel.: +44 (0)20 8249 6524
Fax: +44 (0)20 8249 6554
E-mail: cliveshelton@toysafe.co.uk

Message from the President

Thanks to the hard work and diligence of John Dutton and Dr. Jurgen Bruhns, the Proceedings of our Atlanta Meeting are ready. The book may be ordered by mail and also via the internet using the website www.bartens.com. The price of the Proceedings book is € 90.00.
As I mentioned in a previous ICUMSA News, Dr. (Mrs.) Keskar has moved her Refereeship from Subject 13 – Reducing Sugars – to the new General Subject GS9 – Plantation White Sugar. The new Referee of Subject 13 is Mrs. M.F. Kavas (Turkey). The new Referees are now listed on our website www.unife.it/icumsa . We thank very warmly Mrs. Kavas and we wish the best for her future work in ICUMSA.
Now that Referees have been found for all the General Subjects and Subjects, I hope that the they are now working towards our next meeting planned to be held in 2006 in Brazil.

As decided in Atlanta, we have conducted a ballot for changing Article V of our Bye-Laws – Languages. We aim to have only one official language.

Article V - Languages

Old The language to be used shall preferably be English but simultaneous translation will be conducted in French and/or German.

New The language to be used is English.

We collected votes of the National Committees and the proposal has been accepted. 77.7% of the votes cast were positive. In fact we received answers from 24 of the 30 National Committees all in favour of the proposal with the exception of the Mexican National Committee. As a result of this decision, starting with the next General Meeting in Brazil, we will have only one official language during our meetings. This represents a significant saving to the Commission.

The French National Committee, who voted in favour of the proposal, suggested that a full discussion should be organised two months before the opening of each Session by electronic mail in order to reduce the effort during the meetings. In addition, the final decisions should be prepared in advance for adoption at meetings.

The British National Committee supported the suggestion of the French National Committee and would like to see all reports circulated to National Committees well in advance of the next (and subsequent) meetings. The reason for this (in addition to supporting people who may need translation) is that it gives an opportunity for people who cannot attend the meeting to contribute to the debate for all topics. The BNC believe that the number of people interested in ICUMSA activities but who may not attend the meetings will rise due to the shorter, two-day format. The circulation of all subject reports etc. will ensure that these people remain involved in ICUMSA and can continue to contribute.

Of course as your President, I agree with these suggestions and I can assure you that I will try to encourage Referees to send their Reports and Recommendations, to be posted on the ICUMSA website, well in advance of the meetings.