I would like to take this opportunity to once again congratulate the Adelaide LOC and Scientific Committee on the success of the Society’s recent annual meeting. We have received excellent informal feedback from delegates on both the scientific program as well as the organisation of the meeting itself. Particular thanks go to Chris Ossowicz as Chair of the LOC and Phil Giffard as Scientific Chair for their tireless efforts in bringing this successful meeting together. The smooth running of the conference owes much to the expert guidance of our new National Office team and PCO, ASN Events – thanks to Maree Overall and Hamish Hill. A post-meeting survey was sent out to all delegates and we will be providing a summary of the feedback in a forthcoming eNews. We now turn our attention to Melbourne in July 2014. The Melbourne organising committee has already put in place a stellar line-up of overseas and local speakers to form the core of what will be an exciting program. We will also be trialling some new initiatives in the format of the meeting including more cross-disciplinary sessions to help foster a little Divisional cross-fertilisation. I look forward to seeing you all there!

There have been a few recent changes on ASM National Executive with Professor John Turnidge, Immediate-Past President rolling off the Committee and Professor Jon Iredell joining us as President-Elect. Farewell John and welcome Jon! The role of President involves a 4-year commitment to the Executive and John’s term coincided with substantial upheaval in the Society. His stewardship through those troubled times has been acknowledged previously so I won’t elaborate again, but suffice to say that we all owe him and his team a huge debt of gratitude for seeing the Society through to a time where we can again focus on our core business of promoting microbiology. Professor Iredell has already brought fresh enthusiasm to the Executive and I look forward to working with him over the next 2 years. Also new to the Committee is Dr Jack Wang who joins us as the Society’s first VP Communications. Welcome Jack! Dr Wang has already brought many new ideas for promoting the Society more broadly among our membership, stakeholders and the wider community so watch this space for developments over the next 6 months or so.

I would like to draw your attention to a number of Society awards that are currently open for applications and which close during the next quarter. These awards are open to our postgraduate and ECR membership and I strongly encourage you to apply. All are to support attendance at overseas microbiology society meetings and to visit a collaborating research laboratory in that country (NZ, the UK and US). Attending meetings such as these and engaging with the overseas research community is a very important part of your early career development. You never know where a casual conversation at one of these events might lead! Please visit the Society web page for further information and instructions on how to apply.

Finally, I would like to share with you some of the thoughts and discussions we have been having on the Executive and Council over the past year with regards to governance of the Society. I outlined much of this at the AGM in Adelaide recently and propose taking a raft of constitution changes to the next AGM in Melbourne in 2014 after a series of further discussions with the wider ASM membership. It is now more than 10 years since the Society underwent a re-structure. The outcome of a Strategic Planning meeting held in Adelaide in 2001 and subsequent consultation with members was the establishment of four Divisions that currently make up the discipline base of our Society. With the Society now on a solid administrative footing, we have the opportunity to reflect on how this structure has worked for us over those 10 years and to consider ways to further functionalise the Divisions. Presently, the role of the Division Chair is as a member of NSAC (Chairs for both the current and next year’s meeting sit on the Committee) and to contribute to the development of the scientific program of each annual meeting. The Chairs don’t have a say elsewhere, despite being the Society’s discipline leaders. Indeed, the Division Chair position itself is not mentioned in either the Society By-Laws or Constitution. Under these Divisions sit the SIGs, although in most cases the Division Chairs don’t take any role in SIG oversight. For their part, the SIGs have no role in the governance of the Society at all.

The key assumptions and proposed model for the re-structure were clearly outlined in a position paper by Professor Julian Rood, commissioned by then President, Professor Lyn Gilbert and published in the July 2001 issue of Microbiology Australia. It is worth reading this document – you can find it in the online Microbiology Australia archive. Many of the targeted objectives have come to pass but some of the outcomes expected of a Divisional structure have not been advanced as much as hoped, for example, the desire for a greater role for ASM in national issues that are impacted by microbiology. One of the major limitations of the current system, at least in the way that it is organisationally framed, is that the Divisions don’t have any terms of reference or clearly defined responsibilities within the Society that could help to advance the disciplines they represent. A return to the national appointment of Divisional Chairs and for a longer term would help this process. The absence of Division oversight of the SIGs who comprise their membership is also an anomaly that is worth addressing.

A position paper is being drafted that will outline the proposed changes that meet the original expectations of the Divisional Chairs and goes further in defining a more robust governance structure for the Society. The concepts behind the proposed changes were discussed at Council in February this year and we wish to now open the debate to the membership for wider discussion and input. The intention is for these changes to ensure that the ASM voice is the one that is sought and valued in all national matters dealing with microbiology. We are hoping to engage as many members as possible in this process so expect to hear from us soon.