Dear Members

The plans for the next year are now being done and as autumn greetings, you will find some issues that are important during 2010.

The next RIMS Conference will be organised as a joint ECTRIMS-RIMS Gothenburg, Sweden, 13-16 October, 2010. The RIMS topics with two major RIMS sessions will concern “progress in MS rehabilitation” and “cognitive and behavioral aspects in MS”. The preliminary program for ECTRIMS-RIMS 2010 was launched during this year´s ECTRIMS, Dusseldorf, September and the finalizing process regarding the program will be done by the end of this year.

-        Abstract dead line is 27 May 2010.

-        Early Bird registration dead line is 18 August 2010.

Please note that RIMS members will get a reduced price for registration fee. You have to be able to show your membership at the time of filling up your registration form.

It is a pleasure to inform that the first fellowship visits are just about to start. The first fellow in RIMS history will be an occupational therapist from Italy and the center she will stay for one fellow week is Masku Neurological Rehabilitation Centre, Finland. Also, two physiotherapists from Spain have sent their applications wishing to stay one week at Masku in 2010, which naturally pleases me very much and we all are happy to have them.

In order to attain the fellowship, the fellow needs to fill in the Application form. In addition, the centre the fellow intends to visit should show that they willing to organize the visit for at least one week. RIMS naturally wishes to get more centres involved, just let us know.

All application forms can be downloaded from www.rims.be. So far the following centres are happy to meet fellows: MS Centre Ry and Haeslev, Denmark, Masku Neurological Rehabilitation Centre, Finland and Centre neurologique et de réadaptation Fraiture, Belgium

As RIMS annual conferences traditionally occur in May, it means that

the following conference, the RIMS 16^th Annual Conference will follow quite “rapidly” after Gothenburg.  Already at this phase it might be useful to make a note on your calendar that in 2011, RIMS conference will be organised in Finland, 13-14 May 2011. The local organiser will be Dr. Juhani Ruutiainen from Masku Centre. Also, as having its 40 years anniversary, the Finnish MS Society will act as a partner in organising the conference.

Enjoy this colourful autumn time!

Eija Luoto