President's Report



8th February 2001


At the 2000 AGM last August the ANZSMS Constitution was altered to reduce the quorum from 20 to 10. This will greatly assist the operation of our future meetings. We also need to seriously look at the future of our Society in terms of membership. To this end it would seem that maintaining a central register of Australian and New Zealand mass spectrometrists is essential. At present the Society membership is largely based on conference attendance, which is not an accurate indicator. One proposal is to completely separate the membership fee from the Conference and have it operate on an annual basis. In this way it would be much easier to keep track of people who may have been unable to attend a conference and have been subsequently lost from our data base. This is an agenda item for discussion at the ANZSMS18 general meeting.

The Society continues to support young research students to attend and present their work at mass spectrometry conferences. This year we will be assisting 13 students to participate at ANZSMS18. The total amount that the committee has allocated for this purpose is $5,500.

As in previous years, the ANZSMS is committed to offering financial support to eminent overseas mass spectrometrists who undertake lecture tours around the country. We are fortunate to be able to help with the visit of Professor Nico Nibbering this month. Apart from ANZSMS18, he will also be presenting lectures in several other states; local correspondents will be advertising the dates and venues for these.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the work of Richard O'Hair who will be retiring as Secretary after this year's AGM. His efforts are greatly appreciated. Richard will however continue to serve on the committee as Convenor for the next ANZSMS conference.


John Traeger

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