There has been a slight decrease in membership from 94 in 2007 to 84 in 2007. This showed a decreasing tendency from 118 in 2006. A discussion was held as to what actions could be taken to increase membership. Two proposed actions were: (a) give members a discount in their inscription fees to the Sensometrics Meetings, and (b) Allocate funds to the Sensometrics Meetings to thus allow special discounts for members. It was agreed that these measures would be elaborated on at our next Committee meeting in Florence in 2009.

There is still a considerable surplus so the finances of the Society can be considered sound. Tom Carr would look into transferring money from the actual Dutch account which earns no interest to an interest-earning account in the Netherlands.

The Treasurer's report was approved and the Chairman recognized the important and well done job Tom Carr had done during his second year in office.

Change of Rules. Guillermo Hough explained that he had been reading the existing Rules of the Society with care and considered that some minor changes were called for. These proposed changes had been circulated with anticipation among the Committee members and after explaining what the proposed changes were, a vote of approval was called for. Nobody objected and thus they were approved. Basically the changes consist of:

• The vice-Chairman is to be elected for a period of 4 years instead of 1
  
• The ordinary members are to be elected for a period of 4 years instead of 2
  
• Officers and members shall not be eligible to be voted for consecutive periods. They can be re-elected on the committee if they have not been on it for a four-year period.
  
• The position of "honorary auditor" has been removed.

Considering the change in rules approved above, the General Meeting approved the motion presented by Guillermo Hough to elect a Vice-Chair for a period of 4 years, two ordinary members for a period of 4 years, and 2 ordinary members for a period of 1 year (2009-2010). This last proposal was in order to alternate the election of ordinary members every two years. Election of new Committee members would coincide with the bi-annual General Meeting of the Society which would be held at the Sensometrics Meetings.

The new Committee members were elected and the Committee now stands as follows:
Chair: Per Bruun Brockhoff, DK, till 2010
Vice-Chair: Michael Meyners, Ger, till 2012
Honorary secretary: Guillermo Hough, Arg, till 2010
Honorary treasurer: Tom Carr, USA, till 2010
Ordinary members:
Pieter Punter, NL, till 2010.
Pascal Schlich, Fr, till 2010.
Sebastien Le, Fr, till 2012
Isabelle Lesschaeve, till 2012

The Chairman, Per Brockoff, recognized the important contribution of out-going Committee members: Mostafa Qannari, Hal MacFie, Garmt Dijksterhuis and Hildegarde Heymann; and he also welcomed the new members chosen on to the Committee.

Isabelle Lesschaeve and Chris Findlay informed the meeting about some details of the current 9th Sensometrics Meeting:

• They chose not to apply discounts to members of the Society in their inscription fees, and preferred to make the meeting as accessible as possible to all participants.
  
• There were 151 participants, 27 poster presentations, 1 mini-symposium and 3 workshops.
  
• The finances of the meeting broke even.
  
• They were inviting participants to accept having their presentations posted on the Sensometrics website.

Future Sensometrics Meetings:

• 10th Sensometrics Meeting in 2010 (Rotterdam, Netherlands. Pieter Punter, OP&P Product Research)
  
• 11th Sensometrics Meeting in 2012 (Rennes, France. Sebastien Le)

These venues were confirmed.

A proposal for the 12th Sensometrics Meeting to be held in Chicago in 2014 was put forward. Tom Carr would consider this proposal and it would be discussed at our next Committee meeting in Florence 2009.