President's ColumnDues of national societiesDuring the last meeting of the IFMBE officers that took place in Singapore, we discussed the dues that national member societies pay to IFMBE. It was pointed out that the present dues have not been increased since 1993 while at the same time the cost of living has gone up significantly. The current fee structure is as follows. For societies with less than 500 members the annual dues are £0.75 per member or approximately 1 US$. For societies with more than 500 members the dues are £0.75 per member for the first 500 members and £5 per 100 members thereafter. This fee structure favours larger societies while placing smaller societies at a disadvantage. If anything, large societies should partially subsidise smaller societies which generally tend to come from less affluent countries, although this is not always the case and "larger" does not always mean "richer". More importantly, this has made it very difficult for IFMBE to provide adequate services to its national members and practically impossible to initiate important projects that would benefit our profession. The officers are recommending a modest increase as well as a revised fee structure. This is likely to result in small increase for smaller societies (maybe 15-20% per individual) and somewhat larger overall increase for larger societies with membership of over 500 as the fee will likely become linear with the number of members. This will be discussed during the next Administrative Council Meeting to be held in Pula in June 2001. I urge you to consult your membership and be prepared to discuss it at the National Secretaries meeting in Pula. The Administrative Council wants to make sure that all of our members understand the reasons behind the suggested fee increase and that the societies support the Federation in providing improved services to the profession. I would also welcome comments sent to me directly prior the June meeting of the Administrative Council.
Dov Jaron
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