The Swedish group started in 1976, two years after Sonia Vanular had initiated the European Association for Professional Secretaries, EAPS, as the association was called at that time.

As the members are geographically spread (approx 1800 km between the most northerly and the most southerly member) EUMA Sweden is organized in four groups: North, East, South and West, working with their own programmes and organizing events for their regional members. Each activity group has one representative in the EUMA Sweden Board.

Every spring, EUMA Sweden organizes the Annual General Meeting, starting with a one-day seminar that is open also for non-members. The venue varies every year as the groups do the organizing in turns. In 2006 Group North arranged the meeting in Kiruna far up in nothern Sweden, in 2007 the event was held on a cruiser in Stockholm and in 2008 at a famous museum in Lund in southern Sweden. The 2009 conference and Annual General Meeting was hosted by Group West, in Gothenburg, with the theme Interior and Exterior Environment.

EUMA Sweden has arranged the European AGM three times; in 1984 in connection with EUMA's 10 year anniversary, in 1993 and last time in 2006. This meeting was held in Malmö and EUMA's 32nd Annual General Meeting focused on the theme: Social Responsibility - How can Business and Organizations Contribute to Society in the Future?

EUMA Sweden has initiated a number of activities working towards EUMA's aim to focus on the members' personal development and on the future of their profession.

During the past years EUMA Sweden has regularly arranged Open House activities at different locations in Sweden, on themes connected to our profession. At the same time we have taken the opportunity to present and market EUMA to prospective members. The purpose has been to attract new members and to stimulate the development of our present members.

In 2008 a survey was carried out among the members of EUMA Sweden. The outcome of the survey gave a lot of good and useful feed-back on how we can develop EUMA for the future and confirmed that we need rejuvenation to keep EUMA alive. It was also gratifying to note that 90% of the members feel that they benefit from EUMA's network. The aim is to carry out a members' survey every second year.

EUMA Sweden has also run a number of mentorship projects where older, more experienced members, have been mentors to younger members. These projects have been very appreciated and successful. The last mentorship project, which was launched end of 2008, has ten participants - five mentors and five mentees.

In the work to create external visibility, EUMA Sweden has a close co-operation with the professional magazine DS for administrators, coordinators, assistants and secretaries. On several occasions, the EUMA association and/or EUMA members have been mentioned in articles in the magazine. Also, the National Chairman of EUMA Sweden is part of the DS Mentor Panel, which has the task to answer questions from the readers about the concern regarding career paths, titles, coaching, etc.

For detailed information on EUMA Sweden's events and projects, please visit www.euma-sweden.se (in Swedish) or contact EUMA Sweden PRO eva.borg@alfalaval.com.