Welcome to your January update from the World Muscle Society

A Happy New Year to WMS members everywhere. 2024 already promises to be another great year of real progress. We are proudly supporting SMAfrica in March and funding the attendance of physicians from Africa involved in spinal muscular atrophy care. These funded places will cover both SMAfrica and SMA Europe and are a part of our ongoing efforts to support the growth of knowledge in the field of neuromuscular disorders all over the world. 

When it comes to our own Congress, we're preparing to open registrations for WMS 2024. Look out for the email in the next couple of weeks for the registration link. Once again, we will be offering generous fellowships to remove the financial barriers to in-person attendance for those least able to afford it and doing all we can to make the meeting as accessible and welcoming as possible for all attendees.

The WMS Executive Board met for the first time this year on 11th January. During the meeting we heard from our equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) consultants, Utopia, who presented the feedback from our recent member survey. While there was much to be encouraged by in the findings, it was clear we still have a way to go to make sure everyone feels welcome and represented by our society. We will be meeting again to discuss how we achieve this and will share our plans with our members. 

One of the things that was clear in the feedback is that not all members know about the work we have done in the last few years to improve equity and inclusion, particularly for members in the early stages of their careers and from lower income countries. These initiatives include: 

• Our Early Career programme
• Membership grants
• Project proposals
• Reduced membership and congress attendance fees
• Fellowships and caregiver grants (the 2024 information will be available very soon)
• Ongoing virtual access to our Congress

We always welcome feedback on what we currently offer and suggestions of how we could go further, so please do get in touch if you have more ideas. 

I hope you enjoy this month's newsletter, which is packed with news and features about what's happening across the WMS. As always, if you have news you would like to see featured in a future newsletter, please email communications@worldmusclesociety.org. We welcome the opportunity to showcase the efforts of our members.