About FEMS
Mission Statement
FEMS is a Federation of European Microbiological Societies, with its main mission to advance and unify microbiology knowledge. FEMS brings together 46 member societies from 36 European countries, covering over thirty thousand microbiologists. Members can apply for research fellowships, visiting scientist grants, young scientist meeting grants and/or support when organizing a meeting. These benefits are restricted to members only. FEMS facilitates exchange of scientific knowledge to all microbiologists in Europe and worldwide by publishing five microbiology journals.
FEMS Logo
The logo of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) may be downloaded from here:
GIF-format (high resolution; 81 KB)
GIF-format (lower resolution; 6 KB)
JPEG-format (286 KB)
PDF-format (587 KB)
(for downloading 'right' click with your mouse-pointer on the hyperlink, and then select 'Save Target As...'.)
FEMS PowerPoint Presentation (Slide Show)
A slide show (in powerpoint) presenting the objectives and activities of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) may be downloaded from here:
Full presentation with 26 slides in PDF-format
Abridged presentation with 10 slides in PDF-format
(for downloading 'right' click with your mouse-pointer on the hyperlink, and then select 'Save Target As...'.)
Statutes
The governance of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies is described in four documents that together constitute the FEMS Statutes.
FEMS is registered in the United Kingdom (in actual fact in England and Wales) as a Company (a Company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital; incorporated on 1998 May 18; No. 3565643), and as a Charity (No. 1072117). FEMS' registered office is situated in Reading, UK.
For this reason the statutes adhere to UK format.
The two main statutory documents are the 'Memorandum of Association' and the 'Articles of Association', together referred to as the 'MemArts'. These two documents are fairly rigid in that they may only be amended after approval by FEMS Council and the relevant UK-authorities (like the Charity Commissioners). Besides the 'MemArts', two further statutory documents come in the form of two Standing Orders, one for 'Company Administration' and a second one for 'Conduct of Council Meetings. The Standing Orders may be amended upon Council approval only.
The four statutory documents are available in PDF format under the following links:
Memorandum of Association (pdf-version 2001 September 8, 112 kb) with the following sections:
- Company name
- Registered office
- Objects of the Company
- Powers of the Company
- Income and property
- Liability
- Members' undertaking to contribute
- Transfer of property on cessation
Articles of Association (pdf-version 2001 September 8, 210 kb) with the following sections:
- Interpretation
- Members
- General meetings
- Notice of general meetings
- Proceedings at general meetings
- Votes of members
- Number of directors
- Powers of directors
- Delegation of Executive Committee powers
- Disqualification and removal of directors
- Remuneration of directors
- Directors' expenses
- Directors’ appointments and interests
- Proceedings of Executive Committee
- Minutes
- Accounts
- Notices
- Winding up
- Indemnity
- Standing Orders
Standing Orders for Company Administration (pdf-version 2005 November 11, 42 kb)
Standing Orders for Conduct of Council Meetings (pdf-version 2004 September 25, 55kb)
FEMS also established a foundation in the Netherlands, as the legal entity needed to employ staff working at FEMS Central Office. The 'Stichting FEMS Central Office' (abbreviated as FEMS-NL) has been registered in Delft on 2004 November 4 (Chamber of Commerce number 27.27.15.12). This foundation is governed by a separate set of statutes. The legally binding document is written in the Dutch language, of which an English translation is available as the FEMS-NL articles (pdf-version 2005 November 11, 61 kb)
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