Association Council
At work in 2010-2014
What are the roles and responsibilities of your new Council? The one decision already taken by our membership at the Council meeting held last month on 13 October, was that Barrie Margetts (left in the picture strip) continues as our president, until 2014. The Council has powers to co-opt three additional members, and its first such decision was to invite Sabrina Ionata de Oliveira (next to Barrie in the picture) to work with him as executive assistant to the president, and as such a voting member. So no more quips please about Council all needing to be kitted out with zimmer frames. But would Sabrina agree to come on to Council? At the time she was in Norway where she now lives, on honeymoon. Then her email arrived: 'let's start now!' For a while, Barrie and Sabrina will also combine the work of Association general secretary and treasurer.
Now for conferences, and specifically the Association’s coming conference, Rio 2012. Next to Sabrina is Maria Daniel Vaz de Almeida. Fresh from the presidency of the 2010 Porto public health nutrition congress, Maria Daniel was voted in as conference secretary. She will work closely with Barrie, and also with Inês Rugani, pictured next to her. Council also has powers to co-opt up to six non-voting members, and as such Inês comes onto Council at least until this time in 2012, as representative of our partner organisation the Brazilian national public health body Abrasco, and as Rio 2012 general secretary responsible for the congress as an event.
Next membership. Fabio Gomes, well-known to members for his monthly column celebrating the delights of fresh tropical foods, is co-opted on to Council as a full voting member responsible for membership. Geoffrey Cannon was asked and agreed to continue as publications secretary, and likewise Roger Hughes, on the right of the line-up above, as professional affairs secretary.
Other Council and Association members have been asked to and have agreed to take on specific responsibilities. For Rio 2012, Barrie, Maria Daniel, Inês and others will be supported by Philip James. More on the governance of Rio 2012 later. Fabio is being supported by Council members Agneta Yngve and Lois Engleberger in Western/Northern Europe and the Pacific region, and by Association member Andoniki Naska in the Mediterranean region, and is looking for more support.
Publications, includes this website and also World Nutrition. The new WN publishing and editorial Board includes Barrie as chair, Geoffrey and Roger Hughes, and Council or Association members Ted Greiner, Urban Jonsson, Harriet Kuhnlein, John Mason, Carlos Monteiro, and Walter Willett. Its assistant editors now include Fabio, and columnist Reggie Annan. Again, more on our website and WN developments later. Professional affairs now also includes, working with Roger Hughes, Council members Nahla Hwalla on certification, and Roger Shrimpton on capacity development. So practically everybody on Council now, is fixed up.
‘Asia’ says Barrie Margetts. ‘The Association has plenty of members from Asia. Around one-quarter of all the sessions on our website are from Asian countries. But nobody from India, China, Thailand, Indonesia, or indeed Russia east of Moscow, or other Asian countries, has yet come forward to work on Council and to spread our word. Shy, or sensible? This is my invitation to you now, please.
‘We also need more capacity in our governing Council from Africa, in addition to Reggie. There again, we need more members from professions allied with public health and with nutrition, such as epidemiology, and more members from civil society organisations. And…’ Well, we have made a new start.
