President's Report

April 1995

Dear Members and Non-members,

Greetings from your new-look ANZSMS Committee. At the ANZSMS Conference at La Trobe University in February last year, the General Meeting endorsed a motion to change the constitution of the Society so that a Central Committee could be set up separate from the Conference Organising Committee. Nominations for the office bearers were called for at that meeting and these were elected at the Annual General Meeting held at La Trobe University on 17 August 1994. The following is the composition of the central Committee:

President		John MacLeod, ANU
Vice-President		Michael Guilhaus, UNSW
Secretary		Margaret Sheil, U.W'gong
Treasurer		Ray Lidgard, UNSW
Convenor ANZSMS-15		Mark Duncan, UNSW
Public Officer		Roger Summons, AGSO
Member		John Traeger, La Trobe Univ.

To date, the Central Committee has convened once, at The University of New South Wales on 20 January this year, to discuss a wide range of issues. Because our Committee members are spread around the country, most communications have been carried out at a distance, by e-mail, fax or telephone. One of the items that we discussed was the production of a newsletter which would be sent to members about twice a year. This will be designed to keep members informed of decisions taken by the Central Committee, as well as acting as a forum for your views and ideas, instrument news, job vacancies, conferences, etc. Other matters that we covered at the meeting included the following:

Support for graduate students

The Committee agreed to use some of its reserves to provide financial support for graduate students to attend the 15th ANZSMS Conference at UNSW, conditional on their presentation of a scientific paper. It is one of the aims of the Society to foster mass spectrometry research in Australia and one way of doing this is to encourage more graduate students to enter the field. ANZSMS support for graduate students to attend International MS Conferences was also considered and a paper on how this might be implemented is being prepared for discussion at the next Committee meeting.

Links with other MS societies

I am a member of an international working group, set up at the International Mass Spectrometry Conference in Budapest last year, which is looking at the formation of an International Mass Spectrometry Society. This should lead to much closer links between National MS Societies and the possible fostering of an Asian MS Society (similar to the recently formed European MS Society) to include those countries who have too few people interested in mass spectrometry to have their own National Societies.

1995 survey of MS facilities

The Central Committee, with support from the Australian Standards Commission, has undertaken to initiate a survey of MS instrumentation throughout the region. The purpose of the survey is to create a contact database for scientists working with mass spectrometry. With the registry it will be possible to locate other laboratories with similar equipment and share "know-how". Completion of the survey should take no more than five minutes and submission of a response will entitle your organisation to a copy of the registry for the cost of postage, handling and a computer disk. Please take a few moments to complete and return the survey, which is enclosed with this letter, to Michael Guilhaus.

Regional Correspondents

These members of ANZSMS will serve as contact points for the Central Committee and provide local opinions on matters of importance that arise between General Meetings, including possible future Conference venues. We also hope that the regional Correspondents might help to re-establish local MS groups which could be affiliated with the ANZSMS. Invitations have been sent to members elected by the Central Committee. So far the following members have accepted positions as Regional Correspondents:

ACT		Mike Lacey
Qld		Les Johnson
Tas.		Noel Davies
Vic.		John Traeger
WA		John Watling

I look forward to seeing many of you at the Sydney meeting in September. Mark Duncan and his Committee have done a great job in attracting overseas and local speakers who cover a broad range of mass spectrometry.


John MacLeod