Protocol of the EuSSS meeting, Siofok (Hung), 4 September 2003, 17.30 h

Agenda

- Representation of the national societies;
- Modus operandi; structure, potential affiliation of EuSSS with FECS and CEGSS;
- Web-site organisation, links, and presentation of national societies;
- Financial structure, financial contribution of national societies (e.g. 2 € per person);
- Sponsoring, industrial memberships;
- Future organisation of EuSSS conferences, symposia;
- Europe-wide workshops on selected, important topics;
- PhD programmes, EU-wide advertisement of open positions.

Participants

Representation of the national societies
For legal purposes, EuSSS has to become an association. HF will find out where to go and how to proceed, starting with Germany: “what is the ‘best’, i.e., the most flexible country?”.
Membership: Wherever national societies exist, they are/will be the EuSSS member. Every country/national society will be represented by one (voting) delegate in EuSSS meetings. For other countries, individual memberships will be possible. However, EuSSS will try to help individual members to set up an organisation in their own country. Individual members from one country can elect their (non-voting) representative to EuSSS meetings.

Modus operandi, structure, affiliation with FECS/CEGSS
The present Steering Committee will remain in office for 24 months, starting September 2003. One main task of the committee will be to get the organisation off the ground, set up a secretariat and propose a sound financial structure, initiate discussions about funding and financing, formulate rules regarding ‘EuSSS hallmarking’ of conferences, workshops and seminars, and organise one annual EuSSS meeting (see below).
Election of the next – i.e., the first official – board of EuSSS will be by all national representatives (cf. above), by means of an as yet non-specified procedure. The procedure may involve rotation.

Website: organisation, links, etc.
The EuSSS website is presently being organised, upgraded and extended (the assistance provided by Innsbruck is gratefully acknowledged). Special attention is devoted to creating links with the websites of all national societies, and to a direct connection with the Californian Separation Science Society (CaSSS).
In the near future, a platform for discussions between individual members on topics of scientific, educational, social, etc. interest will be created. Hot topics mentioned during the discussion are ‘Education in Chemistry’ and ‘Comprehensive GC’. It is emphasised that the tasks, rules and strategy of the website master will have to be properly defined.

Financial structure and national contributions
For a start, the annual fee per member organisation has been suggested by HF to € 2 per individual member of each national society; the Norwegian Chromatographic Group has already by letter of T. Greibrokk committed an amount of  € 500 corresponding to their 250 members. After some discussion, is was decided to leave the annual fee at the discretion of each member country with a minimum set at  € 100 (** Decided after the meeting: or at € 2 per individual member for small societies – whichever is lower**). It is understood that some of the representatives present at the meeting will have to seek approval of this decision from their societies.
Finding industrial (specifically, pharmaceutical) sponsors will be high on the agenda of the Steering Committee as well as of all national representatives (in the latter case, HF should be informed to prevent undue overlap/confusion). Such sponsors will become non-voting members if they so desire. It is indicated that, instead of direct EuSSS funding, ‘labelled’ awards (but: by EuSSS decision) or travel grants will also be much appreciated. For Switzerland, which is not yet on the EuSSS list, F. Erni is mentioned as an excellent ‘messenger’.
Wiley has agreed to sign a 2-year contract which amounts to providing three J. Separ. Sci. pages per issue to announce EuSSS activities, etc., two or three free subscriptions to the journal (**Later Steering Committee decision: to be handed out to societies in the less affluent member countries**), while the EuSSS logo will be printed on the outside front cover of the journal. Because of the non-exclusivity clause in this generous contract, the Steering Committee is urgently requested also to approach other journals/publishers, specifically J. Chromatogr. A and B, Anal. Bioanal. Chem., Chromatographia and LC.GC Eur. (**UAThB: first contacts successful**).

EuSSS conferences and symposia
It is not the intention of the new organisation to substantially add to the number of conferences, symposia, etc. annually held throughout Europe. Rather, EuSSS will help with harmonizing the ‘European meeting calendar’, rotating and/or merging (smaller) conferences if this is requested by the national societies involved, helping with the organisation of specialised workshops, etc., and hallmarking selected conferences by the EuSSS logo (cf. above; appropriate rules will be presented in the near future). Hallmarked activities should, if possible, also get some financial support, preferably as travel-grant or award money.
In addition to the above, the society will organise one ‘EuSSS symposium’ per year; this will also be the venue of the annual plenary assembly of the national representatives. Different hosts will be invited for each new conference. The next plenary assembly, at which the legal foundation of EuSSS shall take place, is planned for the 25th International Symposium on Chromatography, 04–08 Oct. 04, in Paris.

Miscellaneous
Other topics on the agenda, such as organising workshops, and EU-wide advertising of PhD or post-doc vacancies, will be discussed at the next meeting.
National societies/countries that will be approached in the near future, will include: Slovenia and Croatia (formal invitation), Finland (invitation already forwarded), Belgium (discussions to be started; probably with R. Smits), Switzerland (discussions to be started with F. Erni; cf. above) and Sweden (discussions to be started, probably with D. Westerlund as intermediary).
The position of CEGSS inside EuSSS and the mutual cooperation have been discussed. It was concluded that there will be no overlap or interference in scientific activities between both societies. The logo of EuSSS will be shown on the official documentation of the 25th ISC to be held in October 2004, in Paris, and also on the materials issued for the CEGSS symposium to be held in October 2004, in Opatija.

Closure
After having thanked all participants to the meeting for their cooperation, and our Siofok host, S. Nyiredy, for providing the facilities, the chairman closed the meeting at around 19.00 h.



U.A.Th. Brinkman