The European Association of Science Editors (EASE) is an internationally oriented community of individuals from diverse backgrounds, linguistic traditions and professional experience who share an interest in science communication and editing.
The next AGM will take place during the meeting in Blankenberge, Belgium, on 23rd September 2013.
President's Report to 2012 AGM describing activities carried out in 2011.
The Eleventh Annual General Meeting of the Company was held on Friday 8th June 2012 at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. The President reported on activities during the preceding year, most of which have been described in the Journal, including the Seminar at the Facultat de Biblioteconomia i Documentacio Melcior de Palau in Barcelona in June 2011. Edward Towpik hosted an EASE Science Writing workshop run by Elisabeth Heseltine in April 2012 for members of the Polish Oncology Society.
Sylwia Ufnalska has continued to develop the EASE Guidelines for Authors and Translators, which are now available in 20 languages and have been printed or described in several journals. An online survey regarding European Science Editing was completed by 62 readers: the results were summarized in the Journal and on the website.
EASE has collaborated with the International Society for Technical and Managing Editors,
NECOBELAC (through Reme Meleros and Paola de Castro) and the European Center for Disease Control (Paolo de Castro). Joan Marsh represented EASE at the Gender Summit in Brussels in November. We participated in funding bids with a DG XII Research Tender and with Atomium Culture but these were unsuccessful. A collaboration with sTANDEM (Standardising English for Medical Purposes) has been funded and EASE will be an active partner in this project through to October 2014.
This year, EASE celebrates its 30th Anniversary. We have a new version of our logo and several articles on the history of EASE have been published in the Journal and on the website.
Council passed an amendment to the Bye-laws in September 2011 to simplify the conditions for serving on Council. Essentially, members serve terms of three years and may now serve up to four consecutive terms in any position.
The Treasurer presented a statement of income and expenditure for the year ending 31 December 2011. Rigorous cost control, particularly the use of teleconferencing rather than face-to-face meetings has enabled us to report a small surplus for the first time in several years. Our membership, which is our main source of income, fell from 538 at the end of 2010 to 462 at the end of 2011. As before, we continue to attract new members but also to lose old ones, particularly corporate subscriptions. [Fortunately, the membership for 2012 has stabilised at this level.]
The Secretary described the improvements to the EASE website and the new criteria for the Sponsored members scheme.
For the new Council, to serve from 2012-2015, the President, Joan Marsh, and Vice-Presidents, Ana Marusic and Eva Baranyiova, were elected unopposed, as were the five Ordinary Members of Council: Paola DeCastro, Shirin Heidari, Izet Masic, Chris Sterken and Sylwia Ufnalska.
An Honorary Life Fellowship was awarded to Elisabeth Heseltine for her services to EASE and the scientific community in teaching science writing.
The President announced the launch of Regional Chapters of EASE to facilitate interaction among editors within countries or groups of countries. The Chapters may organize formal seminars, workshops, a lecture and/or panel discussion or an informal social exchange of ideas. Each Chapter may have its own page on the EASE website to present information on local activities, training and funding opportunities, etc. Each Chapter should be self supporting as no central funding is available. Each Chapter should have a nominated Secretary who would report activities to the EASE Council. Anyone interested in establishing a Regional chapter should contact Ana Marusic or Eva Baranyiova.
The President also announced the launch of a freely available online Author Toolkit. The first elements are already on the website and it is planned to add more materials in due course. Tom Babor and Kerstin Stenius were thanked for their efforts in this initiative.
Joan Marsh