Greetings IDS members! About 10 months ago we last assembled in Miami to attend an outstanding IDS-9 meeting, thanks largely to the efforts and wisdom of Mark Atkinson and Des Schatz and their team. At that meeting, I was appointed as the new IDS President together with a terrific new IDS Council, whose members are Careeni Sanjeevi (Secretary), Matthias Von Herrath (Treasurer and IDS representative to FOCIS), Bart Roep, David Harlan and Corrado Cilio (Councillors at-large), and Jerry Palmer (Past-President). Our newly appointed Workshop Chairs/Spokepersons are: Autoantibody (DASP) – Peter Achenbach, T Cells – Roberto Mallone, and Transplantation – Norma Kenyon. Mamata Tripathi, who resides in Chennai, India, was recently appointed as the Administrative Assistant to Careeni Sanjeevi; her responsibilities include correspondence with Councillors and members, maintenance of the website, and maintenance of a quarterly newsletter. Matthias’ terms both as Treasurer and rep to FOCIS officially ended on June 30, 2008, as will Corrado’s term as Councillor at-large. Both have accepted to remain in their positions for a short time longer. Elections will be held in October 2008 to appoint new IDS members to these positions on Council, and the election ballots will be emailed by Sanjeevi and Mamata to all members in the near future. The Council recently elected Bart Roep to replace Matthias as the IDS representative to FOCIS for the next 3 years.
	Terry L. Delovitch
Owing to the concerted and considerable effort of Sanjeevi, it is with much excitement and pride that we can now enjoy an outstanding new IDS website that was launched together with this letter. For more information, please log onto the IDS web site at www.immunologyofdiabetessociety.com You will note many new and interesting features. We welcome your feedback and suggestions on the composition of this site. To better sustain the finances at IDS, IDS Council recently approved an increase in the annual membership fee from $58.00 (USD) to $75.00 (USD). It is the aim of Council to maintain a financial balance of about $60,000 per year, which will enable us to continue to hold high quality IDS meetings and also contribute to the travel expenses of the younger members of our Society who wish to attend these meetings. IDS Council has proposed that an “Action Committee” be formed to address the future fund raising need and efforts of our Society, and is seeking four IDS members who are interested to join this Committee. Please email me (del@robarts.ca) if you are interested. IDS Council also approved an increase in the reimbursement to those investigators who contribute samples to the DASP workshop from 50.00 to 60.00 (USD) per sample. In collaboration with the International Society of Neuroimmunology (ISN), IDS held a very successful Satellite Symposium on June 4, 2008 at the recent FOCIS meeting (June 5-9, 2008) in Boston. The theme of this Symposium was “ Dendritic Cells and B Cells in MS and Type 1 Diabetes: From Basic Research to Clinical Trials”. Our special thanks to Matthias von Herrath and Bart Roep for their wonderful organization of this Symposium. Please mark your calendars for May 17-20, 2009 , when the IDS-10 meeting will be held in Malmo , Sweden under the organization of Ake Lernmark and Corrado Cilio. The last several months at IDS have been extremely busy, productive and enjoyable, and I look forward to even more productive and enjoyable times during the next year. Hope to see you all at IDS-10.
Thanks, Terry L. Delovitch, Ph.D. Senior Scientist in Immunology/Diabetes, Robarts Research Institute Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Western Ontario Chief Advisor Research, JDRF Canada President, Immunology of Diabetes Society Tel: 519/663-3846 (Robarts) Fax: 519/663-3847 Email:del@robarts.ca Website: http://www.robarts.ca/gateway.php?id=60