Within the
past year, a fundamental discussion has taken place within the
Efamro ranks as to how Efamro has performed in the past within the
framework of its mission statement.
The most important conclusion of the
taskforce spearheaded by David Barr was that further
professionalisation was an urgent necessity.
The main focus among
the ideas centred on ensuring a more pro-active stance regarding the
formation of European legislation in Brussels on behalf of Efamro.
In addition, the communication with member associations needs to
be improved.
As the budgets allocated for this purpose are not
sufficient, it was decided that a stronger appeal be made to enlist
the expertise already available among the individual member
associations, and to outsource certain Efamro task modules.
The
promotion of the ISO 20252 quality standard represents a separate
task module.
The standard is becoming increasingly widespread
throughout various nations, but Efamro realises that it will take a
number of years before its integral global acceptance. The
generation of mandatory directives will have a decidedly lower
priority in the future.
In order to pave the way for this new policy,
the existing executive team, which consists of: Erich
Wiegand-Germany (President), Wim van Slooten – The Netherlands (Vice
President), and Enrique Domingo – Spain (Vice President) have
decided to step down collectively as of April 1st, 2009.
Their tasks will now be carried out by:
Stig Holmer – Sweden (President), David Barr - UK (Vice
President), and Antonio Salvador – Portugal (Vice President).
Lex
Olivier will retain his connection to Efamro as Director General,
and will direct his attentions in the future towards co-ordinating
and monitoring outsourced activities.
The Executive Board has expressed the hope
that this will motivate a number of European market research
associations into following the example set by Finland and joining
this renewed Efamro.