As the ESTSS moves to establish itself as a truly pan-European trauma organisation, Poland has become one of the first countries in formerly communist Eastern Europe to establish its own national Polish Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (PSTSS).

 After a discussion concerning the benefits of becoming part of the ESTSS, plus voting procedures, candidates for the board and a basic constitution, 19 Polish trauma specialists committed their signatures and support to become founding members.

 As well as establishing the Society and agreeing its Statutes, the founding meeting also agreed on the optional step of electing a Board, a Chairperson (President), and a so-called Revision Committee.

 Maya Lis-Turlejska PhD, Professor at the Faculty of Psychology in at Warsaw University, reports that six colleagues were elected to the Board. Maya herself was elected President, joined by two Vice-Presidents, three further Board members and also three members for the Revision Committee.'

 The next step is for all the necessary documentation to be approved in court. Allowing for revisions and corrections, the whole procedure from application to approval should take about three months.

Maya and her colleagues also discussed the proposed new ESTSS structures, unanimously agreeing to the proposal that for each member of the new organisation, 10 Euros go to the ESTSS.

 "It was a most pleasant meeting," said Maya. "I am particularly happy that many of the persons present at the foundation meeting were my own MA students who have written theses on traumatic stress."

ESTSS congratulates Maya Lis-Turlejska (President), Malgorzata Dragan (Vice-President, Psychologist) and colonel Jerzy Patoka (Vice President), and sends a warm welcome to all Polish colleagues involved in this brand-new society.

Brigitte Lueger-Schuster

European Trauma Bulletin 14 Number 1– 2007
ESTSS: http://www.estss.org