Dear ISH Member,

The inspiring XVIII International Congress in Rome, with a very rich and well attended program has been an intense opportunity to meet colleagues, friends and ideas. We were glad so many of you were able to attend. We had 540 participants at the congress, and many were promising young students, who will one day be full members of ISH.

Immediately after the congress, at the beginning of a new year and a new decade, we are dealing with the transfer of the Central Office from The Netherlands to Rome. As always happens with these administrative passages, we have encountered a series of problems which we are now solving.

ISH is gradually moving toward its new mandate, with all the dedication that such a prestigious society deserves and with the new energies and the expectations of a new and intercontinental Board of Directors and with the projection toward the future given by Julie Linden, new President-Elect.

We thank Eric Vermetten, who after the crisis following the last Central Office relocation from Australia, has had the courage to face all the organizational and financial problems. With him the entire outgoing board put an enormous quantity of energy in the difficult task of overcoming this rough transition.

The newly elected Board can now work in a relatively more quiet and promising situation. As happened in the previous 3 years, the Board will be using Skype meetings, which allows us to overcome distances and work together as a unique body.

I am planning direct personal meetings, as well, possibly with some scientific and didactic relevance, so that ISH may have some life even in the time that separates the large international congresses. So we appeal to some of the many ISH Constituent Societies to consider inviting in their country a board meeting to which we might provide some workshops or conferences.

Cultural exchanges and shared programs of research are another item on our agenda. We would like to have as much intersection and cross-fertilization of ideas as possible in the field of hypnosis that, at this specific moment, is in an unexpected key position in the development of a scientific revolution within the sciences of mind. As you know this was the reason for the chosen theme of the XVIII Congress in Rome.

We have as well the project of some small and effective commission to place more attention on some major aspects of the life-blood of a scientific society, which include, for example: training, research, publications, getting the journal on-line, and ethics.

Intense work is waiting for us in the next three years, that will conclude with an exciting event that will take place in Australia: the XIX International Congress. This will take place August 7-11, 2012 in Melbourne.

In order to make all these projects real and to uphold the tradition of a great Society, we need help and support by individual members and constituent societies. We count on your close and constructive participation.

Camillo Loriedo, MD, PhD, ISH President