We are pleased to announce the recent election results for Vice President-Elect as well as four Board members, who will be installed at our upcoming business meeting on Wednesday, 14 May 2014, in Milan, Italy, during the Joint Annual Meeting ISMRM-ESMRMB.  We extend our sincere thank you to all the candidates for their participation in this important process and our warm congratulations to our new Vice President-Elect and four Board of Trustees members.

Vice President-Elect Garry E. Gold, M.D. Stanford University Palo Alto, CA, USA
Clinician from outside North America Jeanette Schulz-Menger, M.D. Charite Campus Buch/HELIOS Clinics Berlin, Germany	Clinician from within North America Patricia Ellen Grant, M.D., MSc. Children's Hospital Boston Boston, MA, USA
Scientist from outside North America Michael Bock, Ph.D. University of Freiburg Freiburg, Germany	Scientist from within North America Joseph J. H. Ackerman, Ph.D. Washington University St. Louis, MO, USA

Members also passed a bylaws amendment that enables the introduction of a new procedure for conducting our elections. Historically, ISMRM has been obliged by the laws of Pennsylvania (where ISMRM is legally incorporated) to conduct a postal vote to elect members to the Board of Trustees and to the office of Vice-President Elect. This has proved slow, and increasingly cumbersome and expensive. Henceforth we also have the option of electronic portal voting, and this will be the preferred approach adopted. The hope is that the participation rate in our elections will be increased, thus better engaging our broad membership base.

Another reform that is currently under discussion is to harmonize the governance structures of our study groups. At present ISMRM has 19 study groups, and a rather bewildering number of leadership structures for those study groups. This makes it difficult for study group members to understand the roles of their elected study group leaders, and also makes it confusing for people who are nominated to stand for election (many of whom are anyway members of more than one study group).

Following consultation with study group leaders at the Salt Lake City Annual Meeting, the ISMRM Executive Committee has drawn up a proposal to harmonize on a common study group leadership structure that consists of the serial progression of each elected leader through a series of roles. These would consist of Secretary in Year 1, followed by Vice-Chair in Year 2, followed by Chair in Year 3, followed by Past-Chair in Year 4. Each role has specific duties that cover the operations of a typical study group. As such, once the new governance structures are in place there would be an Executive Committee for each study group that consists of these four positions, with only one election (to the role of Secretary) each year. In addition, it is recommended that all study groups have a Trainee Liaison Representative who would serve as a bridge to the student and trainee members, and for relevant study groups there should also be a SMRT Liaison Representative.

Study groups are being encouraged to discuss these proposals between now and the Milan Meeting (and/or at their business meeting during the Milan Meeting), so that study group members can vote on the proposals. It is understood that it may take 2-3 years for study groups to transition towards these new arrangements, a process that would be up to the study groups to decide.