Étienne Soudant
Premium Beauty News - March 1951, marks the creation of the French Society of Cosmetology, March 2011, marks your nomination as a President of the SFC, March 2012, is the date when you will be stepping down, already! SFC boasts having 1500 members, and that has been going on for 60 years! Quite a good example of sustainability in time!
Étienne Soudant - There are several questions to answer! I will start with the last one. The SFC was indeed created in 1951 and has continued to grow and fulfil its missions, namely to disseminate in the cosmetic field the knowledge related to Science and Technology and group members of different backgrounds such as chemists, biologists, physicists, dermatologists, toxicologists and perfumers who have as a matter of fact contributed to the development of cosmetology since the second half of the twentieth century.
My time as President, for a period of one year, was planned that way from the onset. The next President will be fully operational in 2014 and for the big meeting of the IFSCC’s [1] International Congress that we will have both the privilege but also the responsibility of organizing in Paris.
As for the sustainability of our organization, we owe it, of course, to the dedication and volunteer work of hundreds of people who contribute to its reputation but also, of course, to all the activities that generate daily flows of contacts and of information feedback. The proof of this is for example our monthly lectures the "Jean-Paul Marty Days", which are held on the last Thursday of each month, the last one which just took place on the theme "Interactions Formulation and Skin", the Cosmetagora show which has become, in just four years time, a ideal friendly place to foster encounters between all the actors operating in cosmetology. Not to mention our training sessions, our newsletter, our directory, our website and the many prizes we award to personalities in the cosmetic field for their contribution, including the "Prix Pierre Velon", awarded every two years to the author of the best lecture given during the previous two years, and the Award of the SFC, who singles out, every two years, one or two key figures in our trade.
Another example is the distribution to each of our members of the six annual issues of the International Journal of Cosmetic Science (IJCS) indexed in Medline dedicated to research work on the skin and cosmetics as well as the IFSCC’s magazine.
This continuity is certainly also due to the grouping of all the national (47 societies including the SFC) in a single International Federation the IFSCC whose idea of creation dates back to 1956 in Paris for an effective birth in 1959 along with The Belgian federation. It acts as a link between all societies and every 2 years chooses a society to organize its annual conference.
Premium Beauty News - How does the SFC operate?
Étienne Soudant - Like any association, the Society is managed by a Board composed of 21 members of French nationality elected for three years by secret ballot by the General Assembly, plus the outgoing president and two delegates from the Committee of Wise Men. The elected members of the Board are renewed by thirds every year. To note that to seek to become a member of the Board you must be a active member for more than two consecutive years. Each year, after the renewal of one third of members, the Board elects a President by secret ballot and also chooses among its members the Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, an Assistant Secretary, a Treasurer, an Assistant Treasurer.
Within the honorary members, there are also personalities who render or have rendered exceptional services to cosmetology. Among the so called "active" members, we find any natural person belonging or having belonged to trades in connection with cosmetology as well as any person taking an interest in it or who can justify of its interest for it. Finally, are "associate members", any natural person who is or has belonged to a company in connection with cosmetics, but who carrying on business abroad provided she can prove her membership in the Society of her country of origin, if one exists.
