Dear Member, Chairperson and Participant in an ICAR Group,
In the three weeks since my appointment as the Acting Secretary General on June 18th there have been a number of activities which you may find of interest. The purpose of this communication is to provide a short summary of these activities.
ICAR Board Meeting – 24th June
The ICAR Board is meeting at monthly intervals by telephone conference with the most recent meeting being on Tuesday 24th June. Decisions taken at that meeting included:
- To ask the staff to develop a proposal for ensuring effective communication between the Board, Secretariat and Groups.
- Approval of all changes in the membership of ICAR Groups as reported by Chairpersons in Berlin.
- Approval of the formation of a Breed Association Working Group with terms of reference along the lines recommended by the Breed Assn & ICAR Task Force.
- To request further work by the Future ICAR Group. Approval of the application for associate membership from Wageningen UR Livestock Research.
- Awarding of the Certificate of Quality to: Vaxa (Sweden), CMBA (Czech Rep.) and PSSR (Slovak Rep.)
The next Board meeting will on Tuesday 29th July.
ID Conference in Moscow – 26th & 27th June
This conference was attended by 115 delegates from eastern European and central Asian countries. ICAR was represent at the conference by the President (Hans Wilmink), Ole Kleis Hansen and Pieter Hogewerf. In summing up at the Conference, Pieter Hogewerf on behalf of ICAR:
- stressed that this large international identification conference was a great success, with many participants from many countries
- that a good identification system is the basis for good animal production and disease control
- that implementation is a long process and we can learn from all who have already undertaken this task, and
- this access to others experience is one of several ways that ICAR can help.
I would like to express my appreciation for the support provided by the Russian organisers and the sponsors of this conference.
We plan to have the presentations available for access from the ICAR website in the next week or two.
Move to New Office – 7th July
On Tuesday 7th July the Rome based ICAR staff commenced working from our new offices in Rome. The office address is:
Via Savoia 78 sc. A, int. 3, Ufficio 87, Rome I-00198, Italy.
The new office phone numbers are:
- Elena Couto +39 06 8523 7231
- Cesare Mosconi +39 06 8523 7237
- Fax +39 06 2331 5553
The office is located in an office sharing facility which provides reception, security, phone and internet services as part of the monthly office rent. This facility has been secured on favourable terms. The Board will be reviewing these interim arrangements next month.
The ICAR Board has expressed its appreciation to Elena and Cesare for facilitating the smooth transition to the new office facilities at short notice.
Service-ICAR General Assembly – 9th July
A General Assembly for Service-ICAR, a Company wholly owned by ICAR and established some time ago for the purpose of providing services, was held on 9th July. The outgoing President of Service-ICAR, Uffe Lauritson, chaired this meeting from Rome with others participating via tele-conference. The Assembly appointed a new Council for Service-ICAR comprising; Hans Wilmink who will also be the president of Service-ICAR, Jay Mattison, Laurent Journaux, Kaivo Ilves, and Marco Winters. These appointments were decided by the ICAR Board at its meeting in Berlin and each is for a one year term. The assembly also approved the change of address for Service-ICAR.
Other
I have received messages of support from a number of you over the last three weeks. Many thanks for these. My task is a short term one and I am working with the rest of the ICAR Team to ensure a smooth transition to a more independent ICAR which is focused on better meeting the needs of members and service users. If you have any concerns about the process we are going through please feel free to email or phone me.
Yours sincerely
Brian
Dr Brian Wickham
ICAR Acting Secretary General. Email: brian@icar.org, Phone: +353 86 826 9911, Skype: “consultwickham”.