SEB Bulletin October 2007
From the President's Desk
As I write this in mid-September St Andrews is enjoying its third week of blue skies and warm sunny weather. Shorts have been the order of the day as temperatures have soared to the mid-twenties centigrade banishing memories of several months of unusually changeable and cool summer weather. This summer the SEB organised the 14th International Congress of Photosynthesis on behalf of the International Society of Photosynthesis Research at the Scottish Exhibition Centre at Glasgow from the 22nd-27th July. Christine Foyer, our Education and Public Affairs Section Committee Secretary, chaired the national organising committee of this very successful meeting that attracted 846 delegates. In addition to more than 350 Abstracts to be published in Photosynthesis Research there will be several Journal Special Issues arising directly from the Congress, including one in our own Journal of Experimental Botany. It has been some time since we organised two major scientific meetings in the same year. The Photosynthesis Congress exposed the SEB to considerable financial risk and I am pleased to report that due, in no small part, to the hard work of Chris Trimmer in obtaining sponsorship, as well as the general efforts of all the SEB staff, the meeting to a first approximation broke even.
For many years the SEB rented somewhat cramped accommodation at the Linnaean Society's offices in London for its headquarters. In 2003, our Society purchased its own office building in the centre of Southampton on the South coast of England. We occupied the ground floor as offices and as a venue for committee meetings and leased the upper two floors to a firm of tax consultants. This summer our tenant terminated their lease and the SEB has moved to the top two floors giving us more space and additional meeting rooms. The ground floor has now been leased to the Badger Society. The property in Southampton is an appreciating asset which helps diversify our investment portfolio which is so important for underpinning the continuing development of the Society. Travel links to Southampton by rail are excellent and the airport is served by frequent flights by low cost carriers to all parts of the UK and many European destinations. Although the move of our headquarters to Southampton has been very successful this summer I have been having a series of discussions with the Biosciences Federation and the Presidents and CEOs of several other leading UK learned Biological Societies about the possibility of our organisations sharing premises in central London. The SEB Council at its meeting on the 29th August considered that this could potentially offer the Society enormous benefits including the provision of some shared staff and services such as Human Resources support which we currently lack. There is also the possibility of greater co-operation in Education and Public Outreach programmes and greater day-to-day contacts would undoubtedly facilitate more joint scientific meetings to the benefit of SEB members. Of course there are also down-sides to such a proposal including disruption to staff, the cost of leasing offices and the poor transport infrastructure of the UK's capital city, particularly Heathrow which is notorious for delays and lost luggage. However, there is always the possibility of leasing the Southampton building to offset the costs of renting accommodation again. It is likely that these issues will continue to be actively explored in the coming months and I will keep you fully informed of any developments as well as the thinking of Council in response to any specific proposals.
Another major development this summer has been the launch of the new SEB website at http://www.sebiology.org/ and I thank Kate Steel for her hard work and enthusiasm in getting this done. The new website has many more functions and is more interactive than the one it replaced and it will, for example, allow for on-line voting for vacancies on committees and Council. Later in October we will announce opportunities for a member to serve as Deputy Publications Officer with special responsibility to Council for the Journal of Experimental Biology edited by Jerry Roberts. Mike Burrell our publications officer is currently exploring new opportunities for the SEB in both book and Journal publishing. Income from our publications businesses supports all the charitable works of the Society and these developments will be very important to the future of the Society. We will also be seeking a member for election to Council. Applications from early career academics and women would be particularly welcome to help balance the composition of Council. The SEB has an international membership with ~40% of members now resident outside the UK. We would like to encourage more overseas members to participate in the various committees of the Society, including Council.
Plans for the next Annual Main Meeting to be held 6th-10th July at Parc-Chanot, Marseille France are now well advanced and I hope many of you are planning to attend. It has been decided after considering 5-6 venues that the 2009 Main Annual Meeting will be held from the 28th June - 1st July at the SECC Glasgow. Our experience at the 2007 meeting was very positive and Glasgow once again offered the Society excellent value for money. The 2009 event will move to early summer to preserve a 12 month gap between the main meetings.
I hope you have all enjoyed this summer and I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible next summer at the historic port of Marseille for some excellent scientific sessions, social and networking events.
Ian A. Johnston
Honorary President
