Election of the 30 members of the 2015-2019 IPA Council is underway, following the procedures specified in our by-laws. In December 2014, all IPA members were able to vote in the first round. Thanks to the use of online voting, 70% of members voted, almost twice the 38% participation in 2010. Twenty-one members were elected in the first round, and the second round of the election, in which the already-elected members choose 9 additional members, is now underway. The members elected in the first round are: A. Arvaniti, M. Ashby, P. Ashby, W. Barry, P. Beddor, G. Docherty, J. Esling, J. Fletcher, C. Fougeron, J. Harrington, K. Johnson, P. Keating, I. Maddieson, A. Ní Chasaide, K. Nicolaidis, F. Nolan, J. Ohala, D. Recasens, A. Simpson, M. Solé, J. Wells.

Following the launch of the new website on 1st January 2015, we are excited to announce that we are now on Facebook and Twitter! Please visit us on our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter @IPAphonetics.

In December 2104, seven IPA-elected representatives to the Permanent Council for the Organization of ICPhS were elected for the period 2015-2023. The 7 elected members are:

• Anne Cutler, the Netherlands
• John H. Esling, Canada
• Daniel Hirst, France
• Patricia Keating, USA
• Ian Maddieson, USA
• Katerina Nicolaidis, Greece
• Masaki Taniguchi, Japan

Their term will begin at the August ICPhS meeting in Glasgow. Congratulations to the new members.

The Gösta Bruce Memorial Fund was established by the family of the late Gösta Bruce, previous President of the IPA, to provide travel awards to student members of the IPA presenting their work at International Congresses of Phonetic Sciences. The IPA will offer these Gösta Bruce Scholarships for the next Congress, in August 2015.

The Gösta Bruce Memorial Fund depends on continuing donations! IPA members (and others) are asked to consider contributing to the Fund in order to increase the number of Gösta Bruce Scholarships that can be awarded to students in 2015. Information about how to contribute to the Fund is under "Grants – How to contribute to the Fund".

The cost of renewing IPA membership for 2015 (for our Full and Student members, who renew each year) will remain the same as in the past – 45 EUR for Full and 22.50 EUR for Student members.

As always, a benefit of membership is a subscription to the Association’s Journal. For 2015, all members will receive print issues of the Journal, as before. In addition, all members will have online access to the Journal – not only to the 2015 volume, but also to all the back issues, back to 1971. Many members already have this access through their institutions, but now all members will have it, via the members-only part of our forthcoming new website. This combination of print+online access at no extra charge will be offered only for 2015; beginning in 2016, we plan to introduce different membership fees for different kinds of Journal subscriptions.

Another benefit of membership in 2015 is a reduced registration fee for the upcoming International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, to be held in Glasgow 10-14 August. While the registration fees for the Congress have not yet been announced, IPA members will receive a discount of 30 GBP for Full members and 20 GBP for Student members. In order to receive this discount, membership dues for 2015 must be paid by February 1.