Dear BioBrillouin Board:
I wanted to give you an end of year wrap up on the status of society, some news, and some other things I would value your opinion on.
Society Status:
We have had some difficulty with registration of society because our “statute” (which is the declaration paper of society policies I shared a while ago) is apparently not in line with Austrian legal requirements for an Association (which we want to register as). So, we now hired a lawyer specializing in this, which took a while to find, and she has fixed it so that it is, will submit it and deal with everything. I will talk with her again in coming week on final details and will share with you the final version. The main relevant issue was that: “…decisions concerning society stuff/spending/.. cannot be made by unelected persons (un-elected Board), the elected positions should be limited to a handful, and all major decisions should be decided by vote of the general assembly (i.e. all members)…” Now, I am sure the Americans among you are thinking “typical central European socialism” 😊
As such things have to be rephrased. In particular the Board will need to be renamed to something like the “Steering Board” or “Advisory Board”. My idea is then that the Steering Board together with the elected Executive Committee meet e.g. bi-annually per Zoom, and discuss what we want to do with society, spend money on, etc. in an informal brainstorming like session. The executive committee then either implements these if it is within their power and they agree, or presents these to the general assembly for a vote. In regard to how things play out (in terms of society policies) this I think will make no difference, provided one does not have a rogue Executive Committee that chooses to ignore the Steering Committee (we will try and put a clause in that the Steering Committee can remove Executive Committee by vote in this case if we can). Again upcoming American politics comes to mind 😊
Sorry for all this politics, no less on Christmas day, but I wanted to share so all are clear on where we are at and can voice opinions…
I am told by lawyer all the founding documents (including PIC # for Society) will most likely be done by mid-January, and bank account can then instantly be created for society funds (membership, sponsorship, etc.). From this point the society will exist as a legal entity (basically on the same legal basis as a football/soccer club). This means it is eligible as a partner/legal entity in grant applications (may be relevant for some grants, and funding activities?), and can hire/pay staff from its funds (we could theoretically even sign Messi to play for us).
The official society address will be that of the Medical University of Vienna (it took a bit of footwork to make this possible), but its operational reach is fully international, and there is no need for e.g. President or members of the Executive Committee to be based here, although it would be good if one person of latter is (it is in practice simply where the paper mail gets delivered). Annual tax fillings are as per Austrian Law for any company/association, and the idea is to have an accountant take care of that so we don’t have any problems (at a fee that we should be able to recoup from membership fees and sponsorship).
You will hear from me before end of year with another update on this, and related information.
Society Sponsorship:
Membership fees are good, but will certainly not be able to cover most things. I was talking with the company CellSense (https://www.cellsense-technologies.com), who many of you are probably familiar with, and they would be very interested in sponsoring society on the order of 5.5K/year with a 3 year commitment. Precisely what they get for this I said I had to discuss with board, but they needed some kind of idea what they would get for their money on short notice. In discussion with Robert (Prevedel) came up with following proposal (pasted at end of this email) for potential sponsorship packages. We think this is reasonable and doable, and secures us an income that can cover basic running costs for the next 3 years. Please express your opinions. Hopefully, other companies will also come on board and if there is no major objection, we will contact them with proposals of this sort (offering to amend specific points to best fit their desires). If you have good connections to specific companies (spectrometer, laser, optics, electronics,..) or any other sources that might want to sponsor would be great and please also contact them. Sponsorship can also be institutional (which may look good for you/Department/University). The more we can get from sponsorship the more we can offer/do/grow, and also reduce membership fees. I think it would be great to eventually reduce membership fees to negligible amount (to just make sure that no random people sign up, and that they are not prohibitive to membership if they need to be covered personally vs. some institute/grant budget).
Mailing lists, newsletter, social media,…:
You should get a “Newsletter” shortly from an email newsletter@biobrillouin.com that goes out to a mailing list info@biobrillouin.com which is broad scope of people that have been involved in BioBrillouin COST Action in the past and/or attended annual meetings. This is a first incarnation developed by a Pierre (postdoc here) and Lucie (postdoc in lab of Thomas Dehoux). In future we hope to include opinion pieces, interviews and other fun things. If you would like to include announcements in next newsletter please send to newsletter@biobrillouin.org . Also if you would like things posted on social media or on website by BioBrillouin Society please send to socmedia@biobrillouin.org and website@biobrillouin.org respectively. In future we would like to restrict privilege of posting to members or sponsors (see above and below).
All the best,
Kareem
PS. Instead of clicking reply if you want to post to all of board (listed here: https://www.biobrillouin.org/about ) post to board@biobrillouin.org and your email should go through without any moderation (if you are using the same email address that this is sent to).
Proposed Society Corporate Sponsorship Packages:
Platinum
Talk at annual BioBrillouin Meeting
Logo with link on BioBrillouin Society Home page + Logo on homepage of BioBrillouin Meeting website
Nomination to Board of the International BioBrillouin Society (acceptance to Board is subject to board approval vote)
Announcement of new product releases on website, news feed and Society social media channels
Feature article on new products in News Letter
Post job openings on website + News Letter
Access to BioBrillouin Mailing lists (receive and able to post)
Listed and acknowledged as sponsorer (with company logo) for BioBrillouin Society best Poster and Talk awards at annual meeting
Company profile/info listed on website
Full Society Membership for 3 persons
6000 EUR/ year (1 year commitment)
5500 EUR / year (3 year commitment)
5000 EUR / year (5 year commitment)
Gold
Logo with link on BioBrillouin Society Home page
Access to BioBrillouin Mailing lists (receive and able to post)
Post job openings on website
Announcement of new product releases on news feed and Society social media channels
Listed and acknowledged as sponsorer (with company logo) for BioBrillouin Society best Poster awards at annual meeting
Company profile/info listed on website
Full Society Membership for 2 persons
4000 EUR/ year (1 year commitment)
3750 EUR / year (3 year commitment)
3500 EUR / year (5 year commitment)
Silver
Logo with link on BioBrillouin Society website sub-page listing Society Sponsors
Access to BioBrillouin Mailing lists (receive and able to post)
Post job openings on website
Announcement of new product releases on news feed and Society social media channels
Company profile/info listed on website
Full Society Membership for 1 person
3000 EUR/ year (1 year commitment)
2750 EUR / year (3 year commitment)
2500 EUR / year (5 year commitment)