Dear fellow sociologists,

The Romanian Society of Sociologists (RSS), founded two years back in Bucharest and structured on different sections at the 2009 General Assembly in Brasov, has proved, through the International Conference organised in December 2010 in Cluj, that it represents a significant support network for the Romanian sociological community. The high number of participants, of over 350, the very wide- spread geographical, institutional (in terms of universities and research centres) and generational turnout as well as the high number of foreign participants and English-language sessions are all testament to that. Towards the success of the Conference and towards our progress in institutional management (organising the RSS sections, the Conference sessions, the online subscription payment system etc.) have contributed the Organising Committee in Cluj, the RSS Secretariat in Bucharest and the coordinators of RSS sections and Conference sessions; for this, we own them all our thanks, especially Dan Chiribucă, Cristina Raţ, Cosima Rughiniş and Ileana Bădănău.

My election as President of RSS for the following 2 year cycle, to which I thank all voting members, comes, I believe, as recognition of the contribution of the Department I run and of my colleagues in Bucharest to the founding and consolidation of RSS. The trust I have been offered obliges me, as well as my Department which will be in charge of organising all major events in the following 2 years and especially the 2^nd International Conference in 2012. At the end of the cycle, the honour and responsibility of leading RSS will extend, for the next cycle, to another university centre.

The successes of the first year of RSS activity in institutional construction require consistent future efforts for consolidating the organisation and for affirming Romanian sociology at an international level.

Keeping in mind the recommendations of the members gathered at the General Assembly in Cluj, I believe the most important objectives of RSS for the next cycle to be the following:

1. Institutional consolidations; to this end, we need to activate our coordination and leadership mechanisms but mostly all our sections, which represent the main networks for information, cooperation and connection to social and sociological problems as well as the international science community.

2. Strengthening communication, debate, consultation and collective decision-making (including electronic voting for future decision-making and elections) capacity, as well as our capacity to react to problems and public debates bordering our professional interests. We also need to coordinate events organised by universities and research centre and promote them through RSS.

3. Promoting the sociological professional, the collaboration between universities, employers, students and alumni, high professional standards at a national level and the mechanisms to sustain them. To these ends, curricula, internships, the presence of the sociological profession in the Romanian Occupational Classification System and in other official documents, the evaluation of under- and postgraduate programmes as well as the management of research grants in sociology and the instruments for the validation of the social impact of research must all be subject to debate and decision-making in the sociological community.

4. Consolidating sociological research in Romania along with methodological quality and consistency, scientific and social relevance and public visibility at a national and international level.

5. Promoting Romanian sociology at an international level; becoming part of the International Sociological Association and European Sociological Association, participating constantly to international conferences and research teams, promoting Romanian presence in international publications and databases.

I am asking for your support towards formulating the specific aims of RSS for the following years and for achieving the institutional and professional results we aspire to.

December 2010