Dear Working Time Society Members and Friends,

I am pleased to report that at the ICOH meeting in Dublin during May, Frida Fischer was duly elected to the ICOH board (congratulations, Frida!) and Claudia Moreno and I were formally appointed to the ICOH Scientific Committee on Shiftwork and Working Time as its Secretary and Chair. We are all very enthusiastic about our new appointments and are committed to making a difference to worker health, safety and well-being.

Next year our symposium, and indeed our purpose, will turn 50 years old, with our first symposium being held in Oslo, Norway in 1969. However, far from being a relic or antique of by-gone days and needs, shiftwork and working time has become all the more prevalent and concerning during the intervening years. In response, our society has grown to not only accommodate but embrace an ever-broadening set of professional backgrounds and academic disciplines, all of which focused on improving the lives and safety of shiftworkers. This is clearly seen by looking back at our own conferences and the increasing multidisciplinary papers and collaborations represented. Even at the ICOH Dublin meeting, at least four other scientific committees besides our own had sessions focused on shiftwork. Clearly an important area, and one in which we are a leader.

The past seven years under Frida’s leadership has provided WTS with significant improvements, including our incorporation as a non-profit organization, strong connections to ICOH and Chronobiology International, and initiating several special projects, such as the effort to publish consensus statement on important working time topics. This strong foundation she and her forbearers have provided WTS allows your new board the opportunity to think strategically about how our society can best serve its purpose and its members. To this end, the new board and officers have begun an analysis of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and will be using the outcome of this work and some other data to inform our work plan for the next three years. We hope to provide this to our members by the end of the summer.

In the interim, please feel free to contact Claudia, Anna, or me with any specific concerns or wishes you have for WTS to address in the coming days. This is your organization, so the more we hear from you, the better we will be.

Best regards,

Steve Popkin 

WTS Officers and Executive Board in Place

Steve Popkin – Chair/President

Claudia Moreno – Secretary

Anna Arlinghaus – Treasurer

Phil Bohle - Board

Anne Helene Garde - Board

Kimberly Honn - Board

Elaine Marqueze - Board

Kyriaki Papantoniou - Board

Greg Roach - Board

Mikael Sallinen - Board

Céline Vetter - Board

Masaya Takahashi – Co-opted Board