It’s time to vote!

Every few years, members of the EMBL Alumni Association are given the opportunity to elect representatives to the Association’s board. These alumni have been hard at work organising activities and initiatives to help support the network of nearly 1,000 association members; they also play a vital role in promoting scientific exchange and collaborations across Europe.

Elections for new members to the board will be held online during September 2005. Members of the Association are invited to cast their vote. Currently the Alumni Association has two layers of organisation: the nearly 1,000 members who have joined the association so far, and the board, which was elected in 2003.

Present members include Angus Lamond (Chair), Albert Stegmüller (Treasurer), Colin Dingwall, Daniel Louvard, Konrad Müller, Annalisa Pastore, Renata Stripecke and Juan Valcárcel. With these elections, Giovanna Bergamini, Sabine Hentze, Noreen Murray, Lennart Philipson and Marino Zerial will be stepping down.

Members of the board will be asked to contribute actively to building the EMBL Alumni Association. Responsibilities will include attending board meetings twice a year, suggesting ideas for alumni activities and events and helping to organise them, taking an active role in promoting alumni activities and networks, and deciding on policies and actions.

Board members will be elected for a term of four years. At each election (to be held at least every three years), half of the board seats will be renewed to ensure turnover. The Association aims to form an enthusiastic and resourceful board that will be as representative as possible of gender and nationality, as well as fairly reflecting the different categories of EMBL alumni, including all EMBL Units, different fields within molecular biology, scientists at different levels of their career, non-scientific staff, and alumni working in industry as well as in academia.

Voting will take place online from 7-30 September 2005 at www. embl.org/about us/alumni/elections.html
Registered association members will need their password to access the ballot form.