Message from the President
Arrangements for the 31st Session of ICUMSA
It is just under a year until the next (31st) Session of ICUMSA will take place. This will be hosted by the South African National Committee and Stephen Walford has been busy making preparations for the meeting.
It will take place between the 26th and 28th August 2018 and the venue is the Protea Hotel Kruger Gate https://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/travel/mqpkg-protea-hotel-kruger-gate/
Arrangements for the Session will appear on the ICUMSA website and therefore we ask you to visit the website regularly for updates www.icumsa.org.
New Articles and By-Laws for ICUMSA
At the Executive Committee Meeting during the 30th Session draft Articles and By-Laws were presented for consideration. These had been prepared in order to reflect the change in legal status of the organisation which had taken place previously.
Following the meeting a period of time for comments was observed and then the draft documents were put to the vote. All votes received were in favour of the draft documents and therefore the Officers can state that ICUMSA now has new Articles and By-Laws which replace the previous Constitution and By-Laws. Details will be available on the website.
Further, By-Law 8 introduces a new membership category for ICUMSA for those people who reside in a country without a National Committee. They will be classed as “Affiliates of ICUMSA” and the wording of the By-Law is:
By-Law 8; Affiliates of ICUMSA
By-Law 8.1
Any person involved in the field of sugar analysis and residing in a country without a National Committee may apply to become an Affiliate of ICUMSA. Such applications shall be made to the General Secretary and shall be approved by the Executive Committee (usually by correspondence). A National Committee shall be formed on the application of a second individual from the same country at which time the normal rights and duties of full ICUMSA Members will be assigned to the Committee.
By-Law 8.2
Affiliates will pay a subscription to ICUMSA based on 50% of the subscription rate paid by a National Committee with only one vote. Subscriptions will be invoiced by the Treasurer on acceptance of the Affiliate and on a pro-rata basis for payments due part way through a particular Session.
Affiliates are expected to contribute to the work of ICUMSA (usually as Associate Referees). They shall be permitted to attend ICUMSA Sessions and have access to the Members’ section of the ICUMSA website.
Affiliates shall not be permitted to attend Executive Committee meetings, be elected as an Officer of ICUMSA or vote at ICUMSA Sessions.
Referee’s reports for the forthcoming Session
In line with the protocols adopted at previous ICUMSA Sessions all Referee’s reports need to be submitted to the General Secretary two months before the Session begins. Therefore the deadline for receiving reports for the 31st Session is Friday 22nd June 2018.
Referees can present work to the Session that is not contained in their report but this will only be reported in the Proceedings following that Session.
30th Session Proceedings and 2017 Methods Book Supplement
Both the Proceedings for the 30th (2016) Session and the 2017 Methods Book Supplement have been published and are available to purchase from Bartens. Please visit the Bartens website for more details www.bartens.com
Guidance for ICUMSA Method Authors
A review of the progress towards re-writing the ICUMSA Methods Book took place at the Officers Meeting in June. It is clear that this will be helped by ensuring all new methods conform to the standard required and therefore the General Secretary is creating a guidance document for method authors.
This guidance will follow ISO method format, ISO nomenclature, include a glossary and definitions and also use of subscripts. The target is to produce this by the end of the year and send to National Committees to gain feedback by end of February 2018. This will then allow for a training session to be provided to Referees and method authors at the 2018 Session.
General Subject 7 and General Subject 8
We have received feedback that some people find the subject names for GS7 and GS8, namely “Cane Sugar Processing” and “Beet Sugar Processing” confusing. It has been suggested that it would be clearer to change these to “Cane Sugar Manufacture” and “Beet Sugar Manufacture”.
We will decide at the 31st Session whether this change is required.