Message from the Secretary

Dear LATS colleagues,

We are pleased to contact you to share some important information concerning the activities of our Society.

First of all, we strongly encourage all of you to take part in the next XIV LATS Congress in Lima, Peru, August 4th – 7th, 2011.

We would like to let you know that important efforts have been made by the Local Organizing Committee coordinated by its chairman, Dr. Eduardo Pretell with the collaboration of Dr. Eduardo K. Tomimori to achieve the arrangements for the XIV LATS Meeting.

The Scientific Committee chaired by the LATS President-Elect, Dr. Marcos Abalovich elaborated a very well-balanced scientific program that is attractive to clinicians, biochemists and basic scientists. It includes the participation of outstanding Foreign and Latin American speakers. Interesting Pre-Congress activities have been programmed.

You can find complete information on the XIV LATS Congress website: http://www.lats2011.com. It can be easily accessed through LATS web page https://www.lats.org.

We would like to highlight some points about our next LATS Meeting in Peru:

1) The deadline for abstract submission is March, 28th (Monday).

2) You can be benefited with reduced registration fees until May 31st, 2011. The preferential discount for LATS regular members and students (who also should be LATS members) is only applicable to LATS members who are not in debt with the Society. You can find the registration procedure as well as information on all aspects of this relevant event at the Congress website.

3) Two Young Investigator prizes (Merck Prize, 1.000,00 USD each) will be awarded during the meeting, one to the best clinical paper and one to the best basic paper. Authors who want to be considered for the prize must indicate this in their abstract submission

You can find detailed instructions for abstract submission and LATS Young Investigator Prize on the Meeting website.

4) LATS will give Travel Grants of for the best papers presented at the Congress.
- Applicants should be members of LATS younger than 40 years
- They must present the work at the XIV LATS Congress as first authors
- The work presented must have been done totally in Latin America.
- The candidates will be selected at the Congress, based on the quality of the paper and his presentation.

Please, remember that only members in good standing with the Society are eligible for Young Investigator Prize and Travel Grants.

You can find instructions for online payment in the October-November-December 2010, LATS Newsletter.

Another important point to emphasize regarding our Society is that a new election process was approved in the last LATS Assembly in Gramado, 2009.

The following rules have been established:

IV- DIRECTION

Sec. 11. Active members attending the general Assembly held during LATS meetings elect the President-Elect, Secretary, Treasurer and Directors together with the votes of active colleagues on good standing with LATS Society, who voted through internet for the candidates of elective positions.

Sec. 12. Pre-Meeting Nominations

(a) Three members of the Executive Committee will compose the Electoral Committee.

(b) Candidates for offices (President-elect, Secretary, Treasurer and Directors) shall submit the nominations by petition for elective office to the Electoral Committee at least forty days before the LATS Meeting. The President elect shall serve as vice-president and shall automatically become the president after two years following his or her election.

(c) The Electoral Committee shall notify the membership of the proposed candidates for elective positions after receiving the nominating of candidates for the offices of President-Elect, as well as candidates for Secretary and Treasurer and each director position available, at least thirty days before the LATS Meeting

The deadline to submit the nominations to the Electoral Committee is Friday, June 24th (forty days before LATS Congress).

In a short time, you will be informed about the composition of the Electoral Committee and the nomination process.

We are very glad to announce that a notice concerning the founding of the World Thyroid Federation (WTF) last September at the 14th International Thyroid Congress in Paris will be published by Thyroid in the April, 2011 issue, on the bases of material supplied by Drs. Hugo Niepomniszcze (Founder Coordinator) and Martin Schlumberger (Current Coordinator).

We want to announce some other upcoming Thyroid related events:

American Association of Endocrine Surgeons
April 10-12, 2011
Houston, TX
Website: www.endocrinesurgery.org

American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE)
20th Annual Meeting and Clinical Congress
April 13-17, 2011
San Diego, CA
Website: www.aace.com

The Endocrine Society Annual Meeting (ENDO 2011)
June 4-7, 2011
Boston, Massachusetts
Website: www.endo-society.org/

Our best regards,

Hans Graf
LATS President

Ana Maria Masini-Repiso
LATS Secretary

Marcos Abalovich
LATS President-Elect

Eduardo Tomimori
LATS Treasurer

	News from the Secretary