ESE meets Affiliated Societies

Sunday afternoon saw the annual meeting of the ESE President and the ESE Affiliated Society Presidents. This invitation-only get-together was instituted by ex-President Professor Eberhard Nieschlag, as a way of building bridges between the ESE and other European and affiliated societies – as Professor Philippe Bouchard, the current ESE President, said, it’s an “opportunity to catch up and build good relationships”.

Professor Bouchard introduced the meeting, saying that this was a forum which would allow societies to work together, share projects, and avoid duplication, something which is especially important at this time when funding and sponsorship is tighter than it had been in the past. He then opened the meeting to questions and a wide-ranging discussion, which included some direct questions to the ESE. Following a question on numbers from Professor Joerg Gromoll (Germany) the secretariat highlighted the increased number of purely basic scientists who have attended. Normally this runs at around 7 to 8% of delegates, but the Florence meeting has seen this figure rise to 12%.

There was some discussion of the various activities which the ESE can offer, including the new website, the 5 journals, the news reports, and so on. Professor Bouchard also described proposed e-learning initiatives with UEMS, and ESE plans to reach out to North Africa and Russia. There was also some discussion of next year’s elections, with 2 Executive Committee positions, and the post of Vice-President becoming available.

After the meeting, Marija Pfeifer of the Slovenian Endocrine Society told the ESE Press Office:

”It was a really good meeting. Philippe is very enthusiastic, and he has lots of ideas to increase collaboration between national and international Societies. He also realises the need to increase membership of the ESE, and so it is very important that endocrinologists throughout Europe know what it is that the ESE does: for example many members probably are not aware of the access to journals, or of the up-to-date news which the ESE distributes, which we sometime get before it reaches our national press. I think that the example we see here, where the Italian Society is hosting the European and International societies, is a good model, and I'd like to see more of this"

To find out more about ESE’s Affiliated Societies, visit the all new ESE website and our interactive map, providing information on Affiliated Society members from around Europe: http://www.ese-hormones.org/membership/affiliated/map.aspx