Annual report from the BFS IOA Chairman

Dear BFS member,

We are quickly approaching the end of 2006, and it is with some pride the Board and myself are looking back at a successful year. In past years, and especially in the dark ages of 2003/2004, the Association went through a phase with decreasing number of memberships, mainly due to company mergers, but the slow economy also made industry prioritise harder when e.g. sending people to conferences and paying membership fees. We had to write off a significant bad debt during 2004, but since then, with joined efforts, the trend has changed. The results presented by Jesper at this years Annual General Meeting in Strasbourg showed a healthy status. We are currently, in 2006, back in “growth mode” and I must say that the interest for the Association has been great during all of our meetings this year.

A very tangible result of this interest has been an unprecedented number of people asking to become more active and sign up as candidates for the board at our upcoming election at the next Annual General Meeting (AGM). In January, we intend to post all candidates on our homepage for your review. It is very important that you take an active role in the election, since this will ensure a well-functioning democracy in these important decisions. Remember, the people you elect will represent you and the BFS industry e.g. in discussions with health authorities. Also remember that the membership is a company one, and that you need to agree with your fellow colleagues where to cast the company vote. You can do this either by sending a representative to the AGM, or via proxy (letter) vote. Jesper will send out more detailed info to you all in the New Year.

We have also continued our collaboration with the new PDA board under Robert Myers, and we intend to help each other at meetings also in the future. Look out for a very interesting PDA/R3-Nordic/BFS meeting in Stockholm, late 2007. Our next big meeting, the AGM, will be in Brussels, Belgium on March 27-28, 2007. Pfizer Belgium will help us in the arrangments and we will soon present a very interesting program on the homepage.

Separetly, our Technical officer, Eric Dewhurst has reported on the meetings held this year (read more>>).

With this, I wish you all Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings. I do hope to see you at our meetings in 2007.

Best personal regards,
Anders Löfgren
Chairman of the Board, BFS IOA
December 2006