With the annual CSM conference on the horizon, and my term as CSM President coming to a close, I wanted to provide you with a number of updates, and ask for your input on items that we will be discussing at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Sherbrooke.

With respect to the updates:
• Our annual Conference will be taking place in Sherbrooke from June 10-13th. Conference chairs Vincent Burrus, Louis-Charles Fortier and Pascale Beauregard, together with their Local Organizing Committee have put together an outstanding programme. On behalf of the CSM Executive and all CSM members, I'd like to thank them for their excellent work, and look forward to seeing many of you in Sherbrooke!  

• In advance of the annual Conference, we would like to congratulate everyone who was nominated for a CSM award - there are outstanding microbiologists working at all levels across the country! The evaluation committees had a challenging job in selecting their top candidates. Enormous congratulations go out to this year's winners:

Murray Award for Career Achievement: Dr. Yves Brun, Université de Montréal

Thermo Fisher Scientific Award: Dr. Joe Harrison, University of Calgary

Armand-Frappier Outstanding Student Award: Dr. Yogesh Hooda, University of Toronto

We are very much looking forward to their award lectures that will be given in Sherbrooke at the annual Conference in June.

• Following on from the elections held earlier this year, we are delighted to welcome new members to both the CSM Executive and the Council:

1. 2nd Vice President: Alex Ensminger, University of Toronto
2. Section Vice Chair, AEM: Laura Hug, University of Waterloo
3. Section Vice Chair, II: Georgina Cox, University of Guelph
4. Section Vice Chair, MGCM: Alex Hynes, McMaster University

Their terms will officially commence at the annual Conference in June. Many thanks go out to those whose terms on the Executive/Council are ending: Andrew Lang (Past President) and Shawn MacLellan (MGCM Chair).

• We have expanded our CSM membership options to include a Lifetime membership for Emeritus faculty members. Please contact Wafaa Antonious if you are interested in this option.

• CSM has funds available to help support and advance microbial science in Canada! CSM members (faculty, post-doc and graduate students) are eligible to apply to CSM for funds to support member-organized events that advance all aspects of microbiology, and facilitate the exchange of ideas between microbiologists. Please see our website for details on the application process.

• As part of the annual Conference, the CSM Annual General Meeting, which will be held on Wednesday, June 12th. Links to the meeting package will be sent out to members in the week before the conference; however, there are a few points where we would appreciate your input, so wanted to send these to you in advance (for those who are not able to attend the conference, but would like to provide input, please send your thoughts to Wafaa Antonious:

1. We would like to work to make the annual Conference more family/parent friendly. There are limits to what we can do financially, but we would very much appreciate hearing about challenges that people have faced, and suggestions for things that we could consider doing to help alleviate some of these challenges.

2. We are considering doing away with Faculty Representative positions for each institution. But we are very open to any ideas on ways that we could be better engaging these representatives if we were to keep them in place.
I hope you have an excellent spring, and hope to connect with many of you in Sherbrooke!

Sincerely,
Marie Elliot, Ph.D.
Professor
McMaster University

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