Dear fellow members and colleagues:

This letter is a friendly reminder that your Society membership is due for renewal, and provides details of 2005 membership fee payment (see attached from).  Memberships are usually due prior to registration for each annual scientific meeting and are valid from July 1 to June 30 the following year. If you head a lab, we ask that you also encourage your students to join and attend ISHR meetings. ISHR promotes supporting new researchers and their training by giving them opportunities to present and to get travel support.

For those who are currently not members, we encourage you to join the Australasian section of ISHR.  The ISHR was established in 1968 and currently includes approximately 3,000 members worldwide. By bringing together members with multidisciplinary backgrounds and interests, ISHR strives to promote the advancement of cardiovascular biology and medicine through the publication of the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology (JMCC) as well as in the Society newsletter Heart News and Views and by organizing regular national and international conferences. 

The society is composed of seven Sections, each of which holds an annual meeting. Every three years all Sections meet for the World Congress (the next will be in Bologna, Italy on June 22-26, 2007). Membership is open to any individual (with or without MD or PhD) who is actively interested in any aspect of experimental or clinical research in the cardiovascular system. Advantages of membership include:

• Reduced registration fee at Section Meetings and World Congresses (this alone more than pays for the annual membership fee).
• Student travel support and prizes for best oral and poster presentations
• Reciprocal membership privileges with other ISHR sections.
• Reduced personal subscription rates to the JMCC (Impact factor 4.95).
• Free subscription to the ISHR bulletin, Heart News and Views.
• Eligibility for the Outstanding Investigator Prize, the Peter Harris Award, the Research Achievement Award, the Richard Bing Young Investigator Award, Travel Awards at World Congresses, and for the newly-established Fellowship of the ISHR (a distinction bestowed to a select number of outstanding scientists).
• Being listed in the worldwide ISHR membership directory.