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Klinisk Biokemi i Norden
conferences to organize. The Secretary supervises the
office and gives guidance when needed.
The Secretary is in charge of organizing the trien-
nal IFCC Council meeting. We just had one in For-
taleza in connection with the WorldLab 2008. The
Secretary sends invitations to National Societies,
Corporate Members and Affiliate Members as well
as IFCC officials. The Secretary also organizes the
voting process for the election of the new Executive
Board members, which is always a challenge. I pre-
pared the voting process for Fortaleza very carefully,
considering all the possibilities which could happen
during the voting process, and I wanted to have a very
transparent process. All the steps of the voting took
place in front of the whole Council and all the votes
for each candidate were announced after every round
of the voting. I was very satisfied with this procedure
and I believe everybody present was as well pleased.
During the Council meeting the Secretary takes the
notes and writes again the Minutes of the Council
meeting.
One more conference is organized by the Secretary,
the General conference. This conference is organized
in co-operation by the President, the Secretary and
the IFCC office. The program and the schedule of the
General Conference are planned by the President and
the Secretary and the IFCC office takes care of other
arrangements, like hotel, transportation, and social
program.
These are the main duties of the IFCC Secretary,
but every week there are other issues which the Secre-
tary needs to take care. As you see there are many
different kinds of tasks, which make this job very
interesting. Even though there is a lot to do every
day, I dedicate at least one day of the week during
the weekend totally for family issues. And during my
vacations I read my emails only occasionally.
The new Executive Board had its first meeting in
the beginning of March in Windsor, UK. The meeting
place was very near Heathrow airport, so I did not
actually need to go to London at all. Instead we visited
Windsor Castle on a Saturday afternoon, before the
meeting. The Castle was a magnificent place, huge
and beautiful; actually it seemed to be like a small vil-
lage. We were lucky to get into the section which was
damaged by a fire over 10 years ago. The rooms were
so fantastically renovated. I recommend you to visit
the Windsor Castle if you have plans to visit London.
Winsor Castle. Foto Päivi Laitinen.
