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President's Message Updates on IAEMS Submitted by
The IAEMS has undergone some changes, and more are likely to occur in the coming year. For the first time since it was founded, we have incorporated the IAEMS as a tax-exempt, non-profit organization—in this case, in the state of North Carolina in the United States. Also for the first time, IAEMS has hired a management company (AIM in Reston, VA), and for the first time, IAEMS has an Executive Director, Dr. Betty Eidemiller. AIM manages a number of other scientific societies, including the Society of Toxicology, the Environmental Mutagen Society, and the Teratology Society. We are pleased to have Dr. Eidemiller and the staff of AIM to assist us, and one of the first tasks that they undertook was to work with Dr. George Douglas, the previous Treasurer of IAEMS, to transfer the bank accounts and financial records to AIM. For this effort, we especially thank George for maintaining good records and putting in all of the time and effort necessary to accomplish the complex task of transferring all the documents and closing out the previous accounts. All of the financial holdings of IAEMS are now contained in 2 accounts in a U.S. bank: a checking account and a money market account, and they are managed by AIM and the IAEMS Treasurer, Lutz Muller. The current net worth of IAEMS is approximately U.S. $120,000, and a financial report will be sent to the membership in June. In addition to dues, the IAEMS has received foundation support, as well as a portion of the profits from the 9th International Conference on Environmental Mutagens (ICEM) in San Francisco in 2005. IAEMS has engaged the help of a foundation grant-finding company, with the goal of writing grant proposals to foundations later this year to garner more support for IAEMS activities. AIM has also helped to establish and design a new Web site for IAEMS, which I encourage you to see at www.iaems.net. The resources of the IAEMS (U.S. $37,000) have been used to help support a number of conferences and training programs during the past few years, including the Alexander Hollaender Courses in Concepcion, Chile in 2006; Cartegena, Colombia in 2007; and Kolkata (Calcutta), India coming up later in 2008. In addition, IAEMS helped to sponsor the 5th International Conference on Environmental Mutagens in Human Populations (ICEMHP) in Antalya, Turkey in May 2007; first meeting of the Asian Association of Environmental Mutagen Societies (AAEMS) in Kita-kyushu, Japan in 2007; the 9th International Conference on Mechanisms of Antimutagenesis and Anticarcinogenesis (ICMAA) in Jeju Island, South Korea in December 2007; and the upcoming Pan-African EMS meeting in Cape Town, South Africa in November 2008. IAEMS will also provide support for the 10th ICEM in August 2009 in Firenze, Italy. The next ICMAA will be organized by Dr. Lucia Ribeiro in September 26–30, 2010 at Guarujá, Brazil, in conjunction with the International Neurtigenomics Conference. I want to thank Lucia and the organizers of all of the IAEMS-sponsored events listed above for their hard work and dedication to help disseminate information and training in the field of environmental mutagenesis worldwide. We ask for any suggestions and ideas regarding how IAEMS may help in this ongoing task. IAEMS will be busy this year with grant writing to foundations for support and with communications with its membership to discuss changes in the IAEMS constitution, a possible name change for the society, the establishment of a nominating committee for new officers, and the selection of the organizer and location for the 11th ICEM in 2013. We look forward to hearing from the membership on these and any other issue, so please see us at our new Web site at www.iaems.net and let us know what you think. Thank you.
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