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Assembly of National Sleep Societies
The assembly of national sleep societies (ANSS) is a grouping of scientific societies from different European nations, whose primary mission is to develop sleep medicine and/or sleep research. The ANSS is currently a formal body of the ESRS and represents the associate members from the different European national sleep societies. The ESRS admits national sleep societies as associates to the assembly. Individual members of associate societies who are not full ESRS members constitute the associate membership of the ESRS.
The first congregation of European national sleep societies was organised by Prof. Irene Tobler, former president of the ESRS. The meeting took place in Mallorca (ES) on April 2-4, 2004. Delegates from 20 national sleep societies presented recent developments in their respective countries. There was an unanimous demand for a coordinated endeavour to further develop sleep medicine in Europe at an international level. It was proposed to introduce European standards for education and accreditation. Furthermore, a need was perceived for the institution of a body that would stand for the interests of the sleep community in the EU. An international consortium could increase the visibility of sleep science and exert impact at the political level. It was obvious that the ESRS could play a role as an umbrella organisation for such a project. A change of the bylaws was envisaged to secure the establishment of an international assembly and to include ‘sleep medicine’ as a key objective. It was proposed to introduce ‘associate’ membership in addition to the individual ‘regular’ membership. Each national society willing to be part of this venture would have to apply for associate membership. To implement these new ideas, a steering committee of five individuals was appointed, each being president of a national sleep society at that time. Their primary tasks were to prepare guidelines in consensus with all societies that were interested, to coordinate the future interactions between the ESRS and national sleep societies, and to prepare an annual meeting between delegates of the ESRS Board and the presidents of national societies. Subsequent 
meetings of the ANSS took place in Bayrischzell (DE) in 2005 and 2006, Mallorca (ES) in 2007 (
see minutes) and Split (HR) in May 2008. The minutes of the last meeting of the ANSS are available for review. The next meeting of the ANSS will take place in Valencia (ES) on May 1-3, 2009.
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The steering committee started working on a regular basis. The first product of the group was the guidelines paper on the accreditation of sleep medicine centres. Furthermore, the committee prepared the annual meetings of the ANSS, made enquiries to the national sleep societies and made an inventory of their history and ongoing activities. The committee made recommendations to the ESRS regarding full integration of sleep medicine in the mission statement of the society.
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Year of foundation of European national sleep societies |
At the general assembly of the ESRS in Innsbruck, September 2006, an important adjustment to the society’s bylaws was made. By vote, the ANSS became an official body of the ESRS. The steering committee was transformed into the executive committee of the ANSS. The committee appointed one of its members to the ESRS board. The role and activities of the ANSS are described in the constitution and standard operational procedures of the executive committee.
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| ESRS General Assembly, Innsbruck, September 2006 |
Thus, the ESRS has been successful at creating a dynamic structure for interaction with European national sleep societies. Currently 26 scientific sleep societies have been admitted to the assembly. It is to be expected that from this platform new task forces, guidelines and common educational programmes will be launched to serve the further progress of sleep research and sleep medicine in Europe.
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© 2007-2010 European Sleep Research Society (ESRS)
email: esrs@esrs.eu
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