The EAACI Newsletter aims to disseminate information about everything that is going on in the life of our Academy. The volume of EAACI activities grows day by day: as you can see from the EAACI events calendar, we keep our members busy throughout the entire year! Many exciting events followed the EAACI Congress in Warsaw last year, and more meetings and events are scheduled for 2010.  Thus The Newsletter can offer the best opportunity for EAACI members to stay informed about the busy and exciting life of the Academy, and become a tool for information exchange.

When I was first assigned as editor of the EAACI Newsletter I wondered what I could offer my readers. I had a bout of writer’s “stage fright” as I stared at a blank computer screen, thinking, “I don’t have anything special to say.” However, after I visualized my extended EAACI family and all my EAACI friends and mentors, I realized that I should just be myself, since they have all known me for so many years already.  I decided that this Newsletter should address needs and solve problems, and at the same time be informative, educational, entertaining, and save readers lots of time.

With the help and support of an enthusiastic team from the EAACI Headquarters (Panthea Sayah and Cristina Achiaga), of a great Vice-president for Communications (Victoria Cardona), of the JMAs and of all my friends I started working for the May issue of the Newsletter having in mind 4 goals: to introduce the Newsletter in the centre of information flow; to keep the content interesting, useful, and brief; to “speak the same language” as the other platforms of communication of EAACI and to use the Newsletter as a promotion tool targeting audiences outside our Academy, inviting other readers to join an organization that promotes excellence and the best science in the allergy field

I hope that my readers will appreciate the new format with its important contact info, news, upcoming events, and info nuggets bringing us as much up-to-date news as possible about all our activities. Nevertheless there is room for improvement at any time so, right from the start I would like to invite all EAACI members to become much more actively involved as contributors. Please send your ideas, opinions, short descriptions of activities and accomplishments on a regular basis – and why not, any criticism and suggestions for improvements. This link with all you readers is essential for us to provide the information you need.

As an active EAACI member for more than 10 years now, amazed by the extraordinary changes happening these days around us (the biggest Allergy Event ever – EAACI Congress in London, the newly launched Allergy News Portal, a dynamic EAACI website, EAACI Face book, highly rated allergy journals published by our society, EAACI focused topic meetings, Allergy Schools, Task Forces, EAACI knowledge test, dual membership with other societies, etc.) I cant help asking you: “Doesn’t it feel remarkable to be a member of our Academy?”

Ioana Agache
Editor of the EAACI Newsletter