Presidents’ letter
Dear members, colleagues, friends,
With a view of a possible time without COVID and planning of an hybrid BioEM 2021 event in Ghent in September, it is time to update you about the merging process and a provisional time-schedule for achievement.
The merging committee1 worked hard the past two years, in close connection and cooperation with the EBEA Council and the BEMS Board, to design the principles of a new society which would best serve members of both BEMS and EBEA and the entire bioelectromagnetics community, and to generate the main documents which could define the governance of this new society.
After getting your suggestions from a previous survey, it has been proposed to name the new society simply BioEM, as this is already the name of our common scientific Meeting since 2013.
The main principles of the society have been discussed, and the objectives have been reconsidered and updated. Then, the composition of the board and the governance of the society have been further elaborated. New Articles of Association and By-Laws chapters have been written, inspired by those previously existing. An information document explains how main choices have been made for a consensus.
It is proposed:
- To inform the members before mid-April, of the documents that will define the new society (Articles of Association and By-Laws of BioEM).
- To get comments by the members of each society for 2 months, with a forum made available for discussions between members of each society.
- Comments will be examined between June and July 2021 and taken in consideration for writing a final version of the Articles of Association and By-Laws of the new society.
- Open an electronic vote for the dissolution of each society on the first day of the BioEM Meeting, 2021. Discussions about the new society will be possible for some days between members of both societies, if possible, physically, or online if not.
- The vote will end on the penultimate day of the BioEM meeting, 2021.
- The results will be announced the last day of the BioEM meeting, 2021.
- If the dissolution of each society is agreed upon, then a nominating committee will be defined, the new society will be established in October 2021, and the dissolution of the societies will be achieved soon after.
- Membership of each society will automatically be transferred to BioEM, if agreed by the members.
- Then, elections will be held for the President, the President-elect and the board members of the new society. For the first term, two experienced members of BEMS BOD and EBEA Council will be selected by the current Presidents to be member of the BioEM board.
The terms of these documents have been reviewed by a lawyer, and they will be brought to your knowledge together with this letter, on the website of each society, in the first week of April 2021.
We wish you a better year 2021, with a new future for our societies,
Micaela Liberti, EBEA President
René de Seze, BEMS President
1 Phil Chadwick, Guangdi Chen, Niels Kuster, Isabelle Lagroye, Alexandre Legros, Micaela Liberti, Luc Martens, Rich Nuccitelli, René de Seze, Marnus Van Wyk