Dhaka,  December 29, ‘12. On behalf of GNOBB and on my own behalf we wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year. May the coming year 2013 bring more and more laurels to you and fulfill all your cherished desire in the academic and personal life. To old and new members, we wish to tell how much we depend on you for all round success of this web based organization which is slowly but surely gaining popularity among its members and well-wishers. Pl remember that GNOBB is your site and any improvement of this medium is our combined effort and  NOT any individual’s.

Last year our desire was to make the website more user-friendly and attractive and we succeeded to fulfill that objective mainly because we were able  to introduce payment of membership fee through PayPal and received enough revenue  to pay for the changeover to the Interactive site.  However, so far we have received payment only from 15 out of 366 members  (click users in the left hand side of the panel website to see the list of members) and we do hope that the remaining expatriate members will take advantage offered by PayPal.

The membership fee of $10 was initially fixed in 2006 because the founder members felt that the amount would not be difficult for the members to pay annually. However, if the members feel now that the amount should be reduced to $ 5 for expatriate members and   Tk 400/- for local members, it can be done. After all it is your site and it’s your wish that the present GNOBB management must respect.  If the payment is made by all members @ $5,  the amount would annually come to $1830  which in terms of local currency will  amount to much above one lakh  annually. With that budget we may launch  a number of activities such as

• We can introduce the two best biotechnologists of the year, one for junior group for scientists of 35 years or below and the second category among scientists above 35 years of age.
• We may hold biennial conference i.e. every alternate year like the one we had three years back at ICDDR,B. The two Biotechnologists may be honored by the award with a citation at a function in the Centre of Excellence auditorium at Dhaka University or any other suitable site. Both the Ministry of S&T and Academy of Sciences may be invited to co-host the biennial event. The S&T Minister  and the President of BAS may be invited as the Chief and Special Guest, respectively. Both Senior and Junior recipients may be invited to deliver a lecture in the area of their specialization.
• In the backdrop of so many private TV channels, we may request, say for instance, Channel i or সময় to telecast the function inviting the viewers to put biotech-related questions  for the solution of the country’s pressing problems, such as salt resistant crops, biofuel, transgenic crops and their impact in the economic uplift of the country.
• Last but not the least is the urgent necessity to elect a new GNOBB Coordinator. I have served the organization over 6 years and it’s high time that a new Coordinator is selected in my place and I am confident that my successor will be able to  discharge his/her responsibilities much better than than I.

Again we convey to you all Godspeed and all the best for the coming New Year, 2013. May your research output turn out to be more innovative and enrich the biotech world making us all proud of you?

Kind regards.

ASIslam

GNOBB Coordinator