Minutes of the 34th (125th) General Assembly of the SCS
April 24, 2025, 13:45-14:14h, University of Bern, Freiestrasse 3, 3012 Bern. The minutes are published in CHIMIA 5/2025 and on the website.
1. Welcome, Approval of the Agenda
During the lunch break of the SCS Spring Meeting, Christian Bochet, President, and David Spichiger, Executive Director, opened the assembly. The agenda was approved.
2. Election of the Vote Counter
At the beginning of the meeting, 36 SCS members were present and by the end of the meeting, about 60 participants attended the meeting. The assembly unanimously confirmed Yves Auberson and Richard Smith as vote counters.
3. Minutes from the 34th GA from June 7, 2024
The minutes were published in CHIMIA (2024, 78, No. 7-8, A569f).
The minutes were approved unanimously and without abstention.
4. Annual Report 2024
The annual report was published in CHIMIA (2025, 79, No. 1-2, A115ff). It was approved unanimously.
5. Financial Report 2024 and Audit Report
Operating incomes of CHF 1’775’237 and operating expenses of CHF -1’902’361 result in an operating loss before taxes of CHF -127’124. The portfolio at Bank von Graffenried followed the trend of the financial markets and contributed a surplus of +305’397. Considering taxes, non-periodic income, cost allocation to the funds and the building of 200’000 asset fluctuation buffer an operating loss of CHF -21’569 resulted.
The assets of all SCS funds increased by CHF +46’035.
As of 31.12.2024 the total assets summed up to CHF 4’944’562.
Audit Report: In report provided by BDO, no inconsistencies are mentioned, and the financial statement fulfills the legal requirements according to the SCS bylaws and the Swiss Civil law.
The assembly approved the financial statement 2024 and the audit report unanimously with no abstention.
6. Discharge the Organs of the Society
The assembly discharged the board members and the financial audit unanimously with six abstentions (board members).
7a. Elections: Executive Board (ExB), Board of Directors (BoD)
All members of the ExB and the BoD are elected at least until the General Assembly 2026. No elections took place.
7b. Elections: Financial Audit.
The assembly confirmed BDO AG, Bern unanimously as audit instance for the financials 2025.
8. Membership Fees
The annual membership fees 2026 were approved unanimously:
- Regular member CHF 00
- Student member CHF 00
- Retired member / unemployed members CHF 00
- Institutional member (institutions) CHF 00
- SCS Partnership (institutions) CHF 3’000.00
Additional Fees for Divisions
Industrial & Applied Chemistry
- Regular CHF 0.00
- Company CHF 100.00
Photochemistry Section -
- Regular CHF 0.00
- Student CHF 20.00
15% discount on collective memberships for academic research groups.
9. News and Strategic Projects
The Board of Directors and the Head Office will focus on the following, strategic initiatives:
- Review event portfolio
- Finalize digitalization CHIMIA journals 1947-1989
- Collaborate with Aprentas for non-formal education curricula
- Replace SCS membership database and SCS business software
- New SCS Head Office location as of fall 2025/beginning 2026
- Personnel changes: Successors for Gillian Harvey, Catherine Housecroft and Hans Peter Lüthi
- Prepare activities for the 125th anniversary of the SCS
10. Event Outlook 2025
- In 2025, twenty-one conferences and symposia took place or will take place under the direct organization of the SCS. In addition, the SCS is an active partner of seven conferences or summer schools organized by third parties.
- Under the auspices of the DFR four SCS Lectureship take place and a dozen of smaller, local, events will be organized.
- The list of SCS events is available on https://scg.ch/events.
Planned Events 2026
- Swiss Snow Symposium, Saas-Almagell, Jan 15-17, 2026
- 6th Swiss Industrial Chemistry Symposium, Basel, Jan 30, 2026
- DMCCB Basel Symposium, Basel, Feb 5, 2026
- CHanalysis (DAS), Beatenberg, Mar 18-19, 2026
- SCS Spring Meeting, Fribourg, Apr 2026
- Bürgenstock Conference, Brunnen, May 3-7, 2026
- SCS Seminar on FlowChemistry, Fribourg, Jun 2026
- Peptide Therapeutics Forum, Basel, Aug 2026
- Summer School, Haute-Nendaz, Aug 16-20, 2026 (topic tbd)
- SCS Fall Meeting, Bern, Aug 27-28, 2026
- Summer School on Electrocatalysis, Aug 30-Sep 3, 2026
- EFMC-ISMC 2026, Basel, 6.-10. Sep 2026
- Swiss Chemistry Science Night, Bern, Sep 18, 2026
- Ilmac Lausanne, Beaulieu Lausanne, 23.-24. Sep 2026
- Zentralkurs Chemie, Gymer Lebermatt, Köniz, Oct 2026
- Swiss Course on Medicinal Chemistry, Leysin, Oct 2026
- SCS Syngenta Symposium, Stein, Oct 2026
- SCS Seminar on Intellectual Property, Oct/Nov, 2026
11. Varia
No requests to speak were requested from the audience. The President thanked for the confidence and closed the meeting.
Bern, April 23, 2025
David Spichiger
Executive Director
Prof. Christian Bochet
President
David Spichiger, SCS
07.05.2025
Open SCS Mandate as of 2027 (starting in 2026): CHIMIA Editor-in-Chief
The CHIMIA Editorial Board is looking for an Editor-in-Chief to replace Prof. Catherine Housecroft from 2027.
The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for planning the special topic issues on an annual basis, inviting and supporting Guest Editors and ensuring the scientific quality of the articles. He/she has the final say in whether to accept a submission. The Editor-in-Chief is also directly responsible for one issue a year that presents the work of the SCS major prizewinners, and for one issue every other year introducing young faculty in chemistry in Switzerland. The Editor-in-Chief is also responsible for handling the small number of spontaneous submissions of manuscripts to CHIMIA which may be considered for the ‘Notes’ section.
This role would suit someone who is well embedded in the Swiss chemistry community and is interested in scientific publishing and supporting the activities of the Swiss Chemical Society. The role takes an estimated 1-2 hour per week.
See https://www.chimia.ch/chimia/announcement/view/2 for more details or contact Catherine Housecroft () or David Spichiger ()
Gillian Harvey, CHIMIA and David Spichiger, SCS
04.05.2025
Open SCS Mandate as of 2026: Chair of the CHIMIA Editorial Board
The CHIMIA Editorial Board is looking for a new Chairperson of the Editorial Board to replace Dr. Gillian Harvey from the beginning of 2026.
The Chairperson of the CHIMIA Editorial Board has a range of administrative duties and is involved in the strategic development of the journal. The administrative duties include running the Editorial Board meetings (3 p.a.), preparing the editorial programme for each issue, checking invoices from external service providers and supporting the technical editor.
The Chairperson is an ex officio member of the SCS Board of Directors and Executive Board where he/she represents the interests of CHIMIA and is also involved in all other Board business.
In addition, the Chairperson is involved in the strategic development of CHIMIA, most importantly collaboration with other diamond open access journals in Switzerland to ensure recognition of this publishing format and to secure sustainability and funding. This includes active participation in the newly formed association Diamond+ that was formed to fulfil these aims.
This role would suit someone from the Swiss chemistry community who is interested in open access publishing and supporting the activities of the Swiss Chemical Society. The role takes an estimated 1 day per month.
See https://www.chimia.ch/chimia/announcement/view/2 for more details or contact Gillian Harvey () or David Spichiger ().
Gillian Harvey, CHIMIA and David Spichiger, SCS
04.05.2025
Complete archive of CHIMIA volumes from 1947 to present day now available online
Thanks to a generous grant from the SCNAT Platform Chemistry and the hard work of Martin Brändle, David Spichiger and Raphael Witwer, the complete archive of CHIMIA from 1947 to the present day has been digitalized and is now available on CHIMIA.ch (https://www.chimia.ch/chimia/issue/archive). The archive is open access and use of the search function will help you to locate subjects of interest and articles from well-known Swiss authors.
Take a look!
Gillian Harvey, CHIMIA and David Spichiger, SCS
04.05.2025
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