Message from the President

Arrangements for the 32^nd Session of ICUMSA

The 32^nd ICUMSA Session will take place from 15^th-17^th June 2020. Please, mark these dates in your calendars. The Austrian National Committee, Dr Jürgen Bruhns and the ICUMSA Board of Directors have already made preparations for this meeting. The meeting will take place at the Raiffeisen Forum in Vienna, Austria. Further details on the arrangements for the Session will appear on the ICUMSA website soon.

31^st Session Proceedings and 2019 Methods Book Supplement

The Publishing Committee has been busy with the completion of the Proceedings of the 31^st Session in South Africa (2018) and the 2019 Methods Book Supplement. Both will be published shortly and will be available to purchase from Bartens. Please visit the website from Bartens for more details www.bartens.com.

New Referee for S6 (Microbiological Methods)

Dr Maritta Jacobs will retire next year and therefore she will resign as S6 Referee. Dr Jacobs has been Referee for the microbiology subject for more than 12 years. During her refereeship, several new microbiological methods have been published in the ICUMSA Methods Book. Furthermore, she has organised regular meetings with the Associated Referees of S6. I would like to thank Dr Jacobs for her valuable contributions for ICUMSA. I am pleased to report that Dr Michael Klingeberg is willing to take over the lead of this subject.

Board of Directors and Publisher meeting

On 13^th June, the ICUMSA Officers and Publisher had a meeting in Vienna. The first part of the meeting was also attended by Dr Florian Emerstorfer and was dedicated to the preparations for the 32^nd Session in Vienna next year. A preliminary program has been made and possible venues have been visited. In the second part of the meeting, ongoing matters were discussed, such as the financial report, the status of publications and the Methods Book revision project. It was also discussed how to protect the ICUMSA Trademark and which actions to take in case of copyright infringements. Recently, several copyright issues had to be addressed. Other business that was discussed included an update of the National Committees, plans for engaging new countries and scientists in ICUMSA, modernisation of the ICUMSA website and how to define the scope of ICUMSA. Further updates on these items will be presented during the Executive Committee meeting during the next Session.

New ICUMSA Method numbering system

All ICUMSA Referees and National Committee Chairs have been informed recently about the plans for introduction of a modified Method numbering system. In future, when Methods are published the existing Method number will be retained. However, the font size of the General Subject references other than the first reference will be reduced. For example, Method GS1/2/3/9-1 will become GS1/2/3/9-1. After a suitable transition period, the smaller font part of the new numbers will be removed completely. At this time, ICUMSA Methods will be numbered using the shortened form.

ICUMSA membership and subscriptions

Countries that have not yet established a National Committee, but are interested in doing so, are most welcome to contact one of the ICUMSA Officers to receive more information on