AGM NSCMID 2024 (31 august 2024 Oslo, Norway)

Annual General Meeting of NSCMID
Saturday 31 August 2024, 08:30-09:00
Clarion Hotel The Hub, Biskop Gunnerus gate 3, Oslo, Norway


1.    Chairman´s welcome

The Chairman of the NSCMID board, Asko Järvinen, welcomed the 22 members that were present at the meeting. The agenda of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) was posted on the NSCMID website (nscmid.org) ahead of the meeting.

2.    Appointment of meetings chairman and secretary

Arnfinn Sundsfjord was elected as the chairman and Lena Rós Ásmundsdóttir as the secretary of the AGM.

3.    Chairman’s report

Asko Järvinen, Chairman of the NSCMID Board, gave an oral presentation where he summarised the main content of the report. The report was also available in print at the AGM for the attendees (appended in this PDF). The members accepted the report.

4.    Honorary Treasurer’s report

The treasurer’s report was presented by Ole Schmeltz Søgaard, Honorary Treasurer of the NSCMID board. The net result for the financial year 2023-2024 was 122.305 DKK. The equity (assets minus debt and liability) was 3.545.331 DKK which was a net increase from the previous year. The increase was mainly driven by a surplus from the Örebro 2023 meeting (approx. 256.000 DKK) and profit from the NordicAST working group (approx. 85.000 DKK). The trend in equity for the past 9 years, 2015-2023, was shown in a graph demonstrating that following a decline in equity from 2018/19 up to the pandemic years 2020/21, the organisation has had a healthy economic recovery. This has mainly been driven by surplus from the NSCMID annual meetings. Currently, the organisation’s equity of 3.5 million DKK is the highest in a decade. This means that the organization is well situated to abide by its commitment to cover all costs in the unlikely event of a failed conference and presents an opportunity to support new activities related to NSCMID. It was noted that last spring the board donated 40.000 EUR to the SSAC foundation to support Nordic research projects in the field.

5.    Release of responsibility of the board

The members released the board from responsibility.

6.    Membership dues (annual fee)

The treasurer and the board proposed that the yearly membership fee (100 DKK) and the 10-year membership fee (1.000 DKK) should remain unchanged. The proposal was endorsed by the assembly.


7.    New members of the board

a)    Nominations from national societies of clinical microbiology (CM) and infectious diseases (ID)

  • Magnús Gottfreðsson (ID, Iceland) had announced he would be leaving the board at the end of his term at this AGM after many years on the board, including being Chairman 2018-2021 and Past Chairman 2021-2024. The Icelandic ID society has appointed Valtýr Stefánsson Thors, paediatric ID consultant, as his replacement.
  • Hanna Jarva (CM, Finland) is resigning from the board and Antti Hakanen, clinical microbiologist from Turku, has been nominated by the national societies as her replacement.
  • Annika Ljung (CM, Sweden) and Truls Leegaard (CM, Norway) have been renominated by national societies as their representatives on the board. Furthermore, Truls Leegaard will take over from Asko Järvinen as Chairman of the board. 

b)    Election of new members of the board

  • Anders Johansson (ID, Sweden) had announced he would be leaving the board at the end of his term at this AGM after many years on the board, including being General Secretary until 2023. Magnus Rasmussen, ID consultant at Skåne University Hospital in Lund and professor of infection medicine at Lund University, was presented as a candidate for the board position to be elected by the members at the AGM. No other candidates were proposed by the members at the AGM. The assembly elected Magnus Rasmussen by applause as NSCMID board member for the period 2024-2027.
  • The following board members were proposed for a new 3-year term: Ole Schmeltz Søgaard (ID, Denmark), Honorary Treasurer, Lena Rós Ásmundsdóttir (CM, Iceland), General Secretary, and Asko Järvinen (ID, Finland), board Chairman 2021-2024. No other candidates were proposed by the members at the AGM. The members at the AGM supported the proposal and all three will therefore continue as board members for the period 2024-2027.

Asko Järvinen thanked the board members that are leaving the board for their greatly appreciated work and contribution to the society during the past years and they were applauded by the member assembly. New members on the board were also warmly welcomed.

8.    New NSCMID members

Asko Järvinen reported that on 29 August 2024 there were 331 active NSCMID members, i.e. 50 with a 1-year membership, 43 with a 10-year membership and 238 with a lifetime membership (an older type of membership that is not available anymore). There are 44 new members since the last AGM (23 September 2023).

9.    Report from the webmaster

Erik Forsblom, who took over from Nina Stærke as NSCMID’s webmaster last year, gave the report and showed a brief overview of the activities of the past year. A major update of the NSCMID website was performed last spring, which included a comprehensive technical update to a new platform (the older version of the website was from 2017) and an update to fulfil GDPR requirements. Other minor website updates have also been performed.

10.    Reports from working groups

The Chairman’s report included reports from the working groups (appended). Furthermore, Arne Broch Brantsæter, chair of the Working Group for High-Level Isolation Units, and Valtýr Stefánsson Thors, member of the NORDPID (Nordic Research Network for Pediatric Infectious Diseases) working group, were present at the AGM and gave short oral presentations summarising the main activities of the two groups in the past year.

11.    Report from the SSAC Foundation

Magnús Gottfreðsson, Chairman of the SSAC Foundation, gave the report. The report is also included in the NSCMID Chairman’s report (appended). In summary, this year there were 21 grant applications. Two applications were no eligible as the applicants were not members of NSCMID. Overall, 19 applications were reviewed and scored, focusing on scientific quality and Nordic collaboration. The SSAC foundation board had a meeting at Svenska Läkaresällskapet in Stockholm on 11 March 2024 and decided to award grants to 7 applications for a total amount of 1.039.495 SEK.

12.    The upcoming NSCMID scientific meetings

Antti Hakanen invited all NSCMID members to the upcoming NSCMID annual meeting that will be held in Mariehamn in Åland on 28-31 August 2025. Antti will be the meeting’s president and a 10-member organising committee has been formed. Preparations for the meeting are already well underway, and Antti presented preliminary symposium ideas, a pre-course on tick-borne infections, plans for the venue and travel options as well as the social programme. The organising committee has prepared flyers advertising the upcoming meeting that will be handed out at the current annual meeting in Oslo.

13.    Any Other Business

There was no other business.

The meeting’s chairman Arnfinn Sundsfjord closed the meeting and the NSCMID board Chairman thanked him for having chaired the NSCMID AGM.


31 August 2024

Lena Rós Ásmundsdóttir, Secretary        Arnfinn Sundsfjord, Chairman of the AGM