Annual Meeting Guidelines

Please press the link for the draft for a revision of the rules for organising our Annual Meeting. The Annual Meeting of Society in Europe for Simulation Applied to Medicine (SESAM) is the single most important activity of the society and the largest post in SESAM’s annual budget.

The aims of the re-written rules are to make the organisation of the Annual Meeting easier, more cost-effective, and less risky for the society and the local organiser – while at the same time preserving the local flavour of SESAM meetings. The society works together with the local organiser to avoid costly and unnecessary double organisational structures by standardising relevant administrative aspects. Compared to the existing rules, this document is more complex, but thereby better reflects the complexity and importance of the Annual Meeting for SESAM, and its long- term position in the world of simulation. The local organisers can benefit from the guidance of these rules with clear definitions of the task, roles, and responsibilities before, during and after the meeting. The local organiser, as the producer of the meeting, will get more support, while at the same time also getting the recognition for their service for the society.

Our intention with the revision of the meeting guidelines is to select the path into a future for our society that has a clear profile, an effective and efficient organisation, and fulfills its mission and vision.

*Why is this necessary?*

The current situation is ambiguous. Besides the SESAM EC, elected to steer the society, the local organisers have a strong position and represent the society, for example, in the contact to keynote speakers and industrial partners. By default the interest of the local organisers and the society as a whole do not fully overlap. From the perspective of the local organiser, “their” meeting should be marvellous and be remembered (a great goal). As the Annual Meeting is also the biggest source of our income, however, this can create a problem on the mid-term and long-term basis. From the societies´ perspective, it is needed to see the long term strategy and financial matters differently. Where the Local Organisers will always tend to buy the best cookies, the society might be better off to buy the second best sort and save some money to support the other activities within the society. In terms of the contact to the industrial partners, a more stable relationship with less changing contact points will be beneficial for all sides.

With the rules attached the EC and the scientific committee have clearer responsibilities, SESAM as society gets stronger and the job for the local organisers gets easier. In order to avoid double work, currently necessary, SESAM will provide much of the services needed for the organisation of the meeting. Those services will be part of the budget for the meeting. Currently the local organisers rightly budget “production costs”. Part of those costs can be spend more effectively via a central office for SESAM, getting more and more experienced in the meeting organisation each year.

While we want to facilitate the harmonisation of the organisation of the meeting, there is still need and room for much local flavour: like the meeting site, by representatives of the local organisers in the scientific committee and by locally flavoured social activities.

*Provide your opinion*

We invite you to provide feedback to this document within the next four weeks (until May 20) via email to contact@sesam-web.org. We will compile the final version based on your feedback and send it around by June 5. During the General Assembly during the 2010 Annual Meeting (June 16-18), we will then vote on these rules and put them into place, if they are accepted. So, please plan to attend the Meeting and the General Assembly (Thursday, June 17 from 16:30-18:00).

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dieckmann (SESAM President)

Ronnie Glavin (SESAM Vice-President)

Helge Lorentzen (SESAM Secretary)

York Zausig (SESAM Treasurer)

Doris Østergaard (SESAM Immediate Past President)