• ESVV Statutes
  • EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR VETERINARY VIROLOGY

    STATUTES

    The following text summarises the main points of the Society's statutes, the official version of which is published in French in Le Moniteur Belge

    I. Name, location and objectives

    1. The European Society for Veterinary Virology (ESVV) is an international association with scientific and pedagogic objectives.

    2. The registered office is at the Veterinary and Agrochemical Research centre, located at 99, groeselenberg in Uccle, Brussels, Belgium

    3. The society is non-profit making and has the following objectives:

    (a) To further scientific progress in veterinary virology.

    (b) To provide an organisation for those who are professionally involved in research, teaching or the practical applications of veterinary virology.

    (c) To promote improved methods of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of animal viral diseases.

    (d) To promote veterinary virological education.

    (e) To encourage the exchange of information in the field of veterinary virology.

    In support of these objectives, the Society may take all related initiatives and collect funds which will be placed in a special account opened in the name of the Society. The activities of the Society will comprise the organisation of meetings, the formation of specialist working groups and the publication of scientific documents.

    4. The Society is constituted for an undetermined period of time.



    II. Membership

    5. The number of members is unlimited. The minimum number of members is seven. Corporate membership is permitted. Members are admitted by the Executive Council, in three categories

    (a) Full members who pay the membership dues.

    (b) Associate members who pay reduced or no membership dues at the discretion of the Executive council .

    (c) Honorary members who are individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of veterinary virology. They pay no membership dues.

    Only full members have the right to vote.

    6. Members may resign at any time by written notice to the Executive Council.

    7. Members shall pay tri-annual subscriptions (according to their category of membership) as decreed by the General Assembly on recommendation of the Executive Council.
    It shall not exceed the sum of 50,00€ and covers the period starting after a tri-annual meeting until the next tri-annual meeting, which is included (maximum of 3 years).



    III. General Assembly

    8. The General Assembly is the controlling body of the Society. It comprises all full members. Associate and honorary members may act in a consultative capacity.

    9. The following activities are reserved for the General Assembly:

    (a) Approval of the budgets and accounts.

    (b) Election and dismissal of the administrators.

    (c) Modification of the statutes.

    (d) Dissolution of the Society.

    (e) Expulsion of members.

    10. The General Assembly shall meet under the chairmanship of the President of the Executive Council or his deputy, at least every 3 years. Written notice of the location and agenda of the meeting must be sent to all members at least 8 days in advance.
    An extraordinary General Assembly may be called on the demand of at least one fifth of the full members or on the demand of the Executive Council. A written or electronic procedure can also be used in this case.

    11. Except where decreed by law or by the present statutes, all decisions of the General Assembly shall be by simple majority of full members present or represented.

    The president or his representative shall have the casting vote. All members shall be informed in writing of the decisions made.

    No decisions may be made on matters which are not on the agenda for the meeting, except if all members present at the assembly accept that an additional point is added at the agenda.

    Any full member may act as proxy for up to 2 other full members provided evidence of authorisation is carried. Subject to legal provisions, the deliberations of the General Assembly shall be considered valid however many members are present or represented.

    A written record of the resolutions of the General Assembly shall be signed by the President of the Executive Council and kept at the registered office, where it will be available for consultation by the members.

    Any decision affecting third parties will be brought to their notice by postal letter.



    IV. Administration

    12. The Society shall be administered by an Executive Council of at least 3 and no more than 6 (six) full members, one of whom must be of Belgian nationality, one must be the local organiser of the tri-annual meeting and at least three should be veterinarians.

    They shall be elected by the General Assembly.

    The Council members are elected for a 3 year period of office. No more than 3 may be elected for a second term. Each candidate for election must present himself to the General Assembly. In the event of resignation or death of a member of the Council, the remaining members may replace him by co-option until the nomination of a new member by the general assembly. The appointments may be revoked by a 3/5 majority of the Genera1 Assembly.

    13. The Council shall appoint among its members a president, vice president, secretary, local organiser and treasurer. The president, the secretary and the treasurer constitute the sensu stricto administrative body in charge of the budget of the Society.

    14. The Council shall meet (or have a teleconference) as and when the needs of the Society demand but at least once a year. One member may act as proxy for up to 2 other members. A minimum of 3 members (present or represented) constitutes a quorum.

    The president or two members of the council convene the board.

    Written notice of the location and agenda of the meeting must be sent to all members at least 8 days in advance.

    No decisions may be made on matters which are not on the agenda for the meeting, except if all members present at the assembly accept that an additional point is added at the agenda.

    15. The Council is responsible for the direction and administration of the Society except for matters reserved for the General Assembly. The Council may delegate its powers to one or more of its members. The Council may, at its discretion, appoint a full member from any European country to represent the Society, co-ordinate membership records and collect dues from members in that country.

    16. The decisions of the Council shall be made by majority vote. The president or his representative has the casting vote. Resolutions of the Council shall be recorded in the register of minutes of the Society signed by the president of the Council, and kept at the registered office of the Soci¬ety for consultation by the members.

    17. The president or other administrator has the right to sign on behalf, of the Society without obligation to justify such right to third parties.

    18. The society shall he represented in any legal actions by the president or other designated member of the Executive Council.



    VI. Internal rules

    19. The Executive Council may establish an internal regulation, taking into consideration all arrangements that are not defined in the statutes. All members must be informed about this internal rulebook.



    VII. General matters

    20. Following the election of the Executive Council the General As¬sembly shall nominate two members to act as auditors. Retiring auditors are eligible for re-nomination. They may consult any of the Society's records which they consider necessary. They shall report to the General Assembly.

    21. The dissolution of the Society must follow the articles 18 to 25 of the Belgian law of the 27/06/1921 registering the non-profit associations.

    22. The official language of the society is English, except for the official statutes which are in French. All matters not expressly covered by the present statutes shall be regulated according to Belgian law (namely law of the 27th of June 1921).

  • SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR VETERINARY VIROLOGY
  • SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR VETERINARY VIROLOGY- DRAFT MINUTES



    Held at the Faculdade de Medicina Veterinaria, Lisboa, Portugal at 1415 hours on Tuesday 26th September 2006

    The meeting was chaired by the President of the Society, Dr. Peter Nettleton. The other members of the Executive Board ( A. Jestin, I Capua, K. Van Reeth, S. Vilcek) were present on the platform and 58 members attended.

    Agenda
    The items were (1) Presidential address (2) Secretary’s report (3) Treasurer’s report (4) Auditor’s report (5) Appointment of auditors (6) Board elections (7) Future Congress venues (8) Any other business. A Notice of the meeting and copy of the Agenda had been published in the August 2006 Newsletter, which had also contained Minutes of the last General Assembly in St Malo, a financial statement for 2003-2005 and details of Board nominees.

    Presidential Address
    The President welcomed members to the Seventh General assembly of the ESVV and spoke of the 5 scientific meetings supported by ESVV since the last Congress in St. Malo.

    The first was the 2nd European Congress of Virology held in the medicine faculty of the Complutense University, Madrid from 5th to the 9th September 2004. There were 750 delegates and 28 keynote lectures of which two given by Ab Osterhaus and Esteban Domingo were on animal viruses. Veterinary virology was represented in the oral and poster sessions where 15% of 514 contributions were related to animal disease. This is a big conference and the 3rd European Congress of virology will be held in Nurnberg 1-5 September 2007 and is being organised by Otto Haller and Bernard Fleckenstein. We have been asked to provide studentships for this meeting.

    The second veterinary herpesvirus meeting was held in Ghent from 2nd-4th March 2005, and was a very successful meeting with a hundred participants. Especial thanks to the local organisers and the scientific committee particularly Hans Nauwynck and Herman Favoreel. Also to the long list of sponsors which were reported in the Newsletter. The Proceedings have been published in a special issue of Veterinary Microbiology 113 (2006) v-vi. We are grateful to Thomas Mettenleiter who has agreed to host the third veterinary herpesvirus meeting at Insel Reims in 2008.

    I was lucky enough to attend the ESVV International Congress on Comparative and Emerging Virus Infections of Dogs and Cats at the University of Liverpool, Leahurst 20th-22nd June 2005 in glorious sunny weather. There were 79 delegates from 14 countries who enjoyed 12 excellent state-of-the-art overviews. There were 30 other presentations with important contributions from Japan, South Korea and Australia. It was a superb meeting and we thank the virologists that organised it namely Ros Gaskell, Susan Dawson and Alan Radford. Research on dog and cat viruses is dominated by the commercial companies who generously supported the meeting. We are particularly grateful to the organising committee who kindly donated €10,000 to the Society after finalising the accounts. Of the organisers Alan Radford is at this meeting so please thank him for this contribution.

    In September 2005 we had back-to-back meetings on circoviruses in Belfast and pestiviruses in Thun. The second circovirus meeting was kindly hosted by Brian Adair, Gordon Allan and Danny Todd of the Northern Ireland Veterinary Research Institute at Queen’s University. There were over 200 delegates from 19 European countries, Brazil, Canada, Israel, New Zealand and USA. The majority of the papers were on porcine circoviruses with papers also on avian circoviruses and 5 on the novel anelloviruses. Andre Jestin represented the ESVV Board and again we are extremely grateful to the local organisers Brian Adair and Danny Todd who are here at this meeting for their excellent organisation and to the sponsors for their generous support.

    I attended the 6th ESVV pestivirus symposium in the beautiful town of Thun which was a charming location. There were 140delgates from 16 European countries, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Iran, Japan, South Africa and USA. There were some lively discussions and we are very grateful to local organisers Ernst Peterhans, Ruth Parham and Matthias Schweizer of the Institute of Veterinary Virology at the University of Bern, to the scientific committee members Martin Hoffman and Jon-Duri Tratschin, and to our sponsors. Several awards were made and a PDF version of the abstract book is available on the University of Bern website.

    We had plans for a Central European Workshop on Application of Molecular Genetic Methods in Veterinary Diagnostic Virology at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Kosice. Stefan Vilcek kindly agreed to host this and put a lot of work into it. This was a new venture for ESVV and one which we believed was worthwhile. Regrettably we failed to attract sufficient delegates but learnt enough lessons to convince us to try again. As well as this proposed workshop and the 3rd herpesvirus meeting in Insel reims we have plans for the 7th pestivirus meeting in Sweden and preliminary ideas for another coircovirus meeting. We are always looking to help with the organisation of meetings so please contact one of the Board members with ideas. You will have noticed that there are more and more meetings being organised, several by commercial companies with dubious motives and suspect operating practices. ESVV I believe still has an important role in arranging low cost meetings to allow important scientific interchanges on veterinary viruses. This meeting is an excellent example and I would like to thank on behalf of all ESVV members Carlos Martins and his team for their fantastic organisation of our meeting in Lisbon. I would like to finish by thanking my fellow Board members for their help and support which has made my 6 years on the Board fly past and be very enjoyable. Also my colleagues at Moredun for their support and encouragement, and many of you in the audience who are always there as a comforting source of wisdom, expertise and experience. Thank you.

    Secretary’s report.
    Ilaria Capua, ESVV Secretary, obtained a show of hands from the meeting by way of approval of the Minutes of the Sixth General Assembly held in St. Malo.

    The secretary outlined the activities of the Executive Board since the last General Assembly. They had met in St.Malo (2003) and during September in 2004 and 2005 at FWO in Brussels. Board members had been mostly involved in the preparation for scientific meetings, travel scholarships and society finances. The website is the most important way of publicising the Society and ways of outsourcing website updating and membership details have continued to be explored. An annual newsletter has been put on the website and also mailed to members.

    Treasurer’s report
    Society Treasurer, Kristien Van Reeth, presented the annual accounts for the three year period 2003-6. There was a healthy growth in assets thanks to income received from the Cambridge Pestivirus meeting and the Liverpool Cat and dog virus meeting and the 147 members paying subscriptions. Major outgoings were travel scholarships to enable young members to attend meetings and costs associated with meetings. The membership subscription covers the three year period between Congresses and there are three categories: Individual (€50), Institute (For 5 members €200; each additional member pays €40. For 10 members €340 and each additional member pays €34), and honorary (No fee). The Board were of the opinion that these subscription rates should also apply for the next three years.

    The rise in assets prompted a question from a member about how the money should be used. The Board felt that reserves of approximately €30,000 were appropriate for the society given the possible risks associated with putting on scientific meetings. It was apparent that some expenditure on membership recruitment and details would be a worthwhile investment, and the money would also allow the granting of more travel scholarships to allow young scientists to attend meetings.

    Auditor’s report
    The treasurer’s statement has been examined by two auditor’s: Professor Steven Edwards, UK and Dr. Martin Hoffman, Switzerland. They agreed that the statement appeared to be accurate. The financial statement was accepted unanimously by the General Assembly on a show of hands.

    Election of Auditor’s
    One of the Auditor’s, Professor Steven Edwards had asked to step down. He was the first Secretary of ESVV and had kindly been an Auditor since leaving the Board. He has been a committed supporter of ESVV since its inception and given a lot of time and energy to the Society. The Board thanked him for his invaluable contribution as an auditor and all present showed their appreciation of his past service.

    It was proposed that Dr. Kristien Van Reeth would replace Professor Edwards and she and Dr. Martin Hoffman were elected as auditors by a show of hands from assembled members.

    Board Elections
    Three members of the Board, Peter Nettleton, Andre Jestin and Kristien Van Reeth, were standing down after serving for six years. The other two Board members had completed 3 years and were standing for re-election for a further 3 years. Three new members, Sandor Belak, Thierry Van Den Berg and Stephan Zientara had been proposed for election to the Board. The President asked all the candidates to leave the hall before inviting the General Assembly to comment on the nominees. Since no comments were forthcoming the candidates were called back and appointed by acclamation.

    Future Congress Venue
    On behalf of the Veterinary Medical Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Professor Maria Benko kindly invited members to attend the 8th International Congress in Hungary in 2009. Professor Benko was thanked for her kind invitation and members unanimously accepted her generous proposal.

    Any other business
    The format and content of future Congresses was discussed. For the Lisbon meeting the Board had sought to attract a wider audience by emphasising the epidemiology and control of European Virus diseases. While it was felt that this had met its desired objective and generally met the approval of members, two members expressed their concern that Congress was the showpiece for the latest developments in Veterinary Virology and this should always be pre-eminent at future congresses.

    There being no other business the Chairman thanked his fellow retiring Board members for their support and presented each with an engraved hip flask for whisky which he described as essential equipment for outdoor pursuits. In turn he was presented by Ilaria Capua with a unique ceramic plate depicting stylised viruses.

    The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to the Board by Steven Edwards.

    Ilaria Capua, ESVV Secretary