President's Message

September, 19 2008

This is the second of regular updates from me as your new President to keep the membership as informed as it can be of activities of the board and other developments of interest to the TIAFT members.
The recent election we had to amend the constitution has been approved by the membership. Thank you for those who voted. These changes were approved almost unanimously from members of 30 Countries. These three changes were to:
a) include the immediate past-president onto the board
b) to include that the dues are waived for members from developing countries (DCF countries) and that the list of countries that qualify for DCF status is determined by the board. Furthermore, that members from DCF countries are full members, but they do not receive a printed version of the Bulletin, and finally that
c) only full and honorary members carry speaking and voting privileges but speaking privileges may be granted to other attendees by the Chairperson.
More details can be found on the TIAFT web page.
I will asking members to provide feedback to the board by way of a survey. Feedback can be on any activity of TIAFT, or suggest future activities, and will help the board better serve its members. All comments will be considered at the next board meeting (early next year) and will form part of the boards planning for the next 3 years. Responses can be sent through the web page, by sending in the completed responses to the secretary Heesun Chung or directly by e-mail to me or the secretary. The survey will be advertised on the web and the next edition of the Bulletin.
As mentioned in my inaugural letter we have commissioned a number of scentiifc contributions for the next editions of the Bulletin. The Bulletin editor Anya Pierce and her editorial team will be contacting a number of you for future articles. Of course anyone is welcome to send in short papers, analytical methods or interesting cases for publication in the Bulletin. I am quite keen to increase the scientific content of the Bulletin, but it does need your support.
The next Latin American meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina is approaching. It will be held November 3-7, 2008. I would like to encourage as many of you as possible to attend. Dr Oscar Locani and his team have been working very hard to make this a success. Please see the web site for details of the program.
See you soon.

Olaf H. Drummer
TIAFT president.

Olaf H. Drummer PhD(med) ARCPA MRACI CChem
Head (Forensic & Scientific Services)
Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine
Adjunct Professor,
Department of Forensic Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine
Monash University, 57-83 Kavanagh Street, Southbank, 3006, AUSTRALIA
e-mail: olaf@vifm.org