EUropean Paediatric Surgeons’ Association
Protocol of
General Assembly - Graz, June 19th 2009

Approval of the Agenda
The president of EUPSA (Juan Tovar) is opening the GA.
The secretary (Jürgen Schleef) is presenting the agenda of the GA, which is approved by the audience. The protocol of the General Assembly in Istanbul (2008) is accepted by the assembly.

Minutes of the Protocol of the previous General Assembly (Istanbul)
The minutes of the General Assembly in Istanbul (2008) is accepted by the assembly.

Report of the President
The president of EUPSA gives his report. He welcomes all EUPSA members being present at this general assembly. EUPSA became in the last two years one of the biggest scientific paediatric surgical societies. Members are coming from Europe and outside Europe. He gives his best regards and thanks to the organisers of this Graz meeting. It is the first time that the two biggest organisations in Paediatric Surgery (EUPSA and BABS) are having a joint meeting. This meeting has more participants than any other previous annual congress. Juan Tovar explains that the scientific value of this meeting has an outstanding quality and the number of excellent abstracts is growing from year to year. He concludes his report with thanks to the local organisers of the Graz meeting and wishes a good meeting to everybody.

Report of the Congress Chairman
The congress chairman (Michael Höllwarth) is presenting some data about the 2009 annual joint congress. He thanks the organising committee and all co-workers including the BAPS secretary and president for the organisation. The number of participants is exceeding 800 from more than 40 countries. The meeting is running up to know without any major problems. All courses are fully booked. The main hall is usually well filled. The preliminary response is excellent. The social programme is well attended. Michael Höllwarth thanks all the co-workers and persons helping to organise this event and wishes to all visitors a successful annual congress.

Report of the Chairmen of the Offices

Scientific Office
Prof Prem Puri gives a short report of the activity of the scientific office and of the preparation of this year’s joint meeting. More than 850 abstracts were submitted, generally of high quality. The selection process was finished on time. Equal number of representatives from EUPSA and BAPS constituted the committees which scored abstracts. Prem Puri expressed his thanks to all members of EUPSA who were involved in the selection process. No major problems with the abstract registration process (using the Oxford system) were reported. The number of abstracts was higher than for any other meeting before and the quality was very high. Prof. Benno Ure took over as the new Chairman of the Scientific Office. A detailed report of the scientific office meeting can be obtained from the chairman.

Education Office
Prof. G.M. Guys gives a report concerning the educational office activity. He reported that Hans Skari from Norway was elected new Chairman of the office. Some members had to leave the office since their term had expired. There are new members, entering the office. Prof Guys explains that the general activity of the office members is good. There are more and more requests from organizers of workshops and seminars to the EUPSA for accreditation process. He informs that this accreditation can only be offered to meetings with a clear educational intention (i.e. not for national congresses etc.). The educational office organised a very successful low budget course in Bosnia, sponsored by EUPSA.

Media Office
Prof Udo Rolle reports from the last meeting of the media office. There were only three participants. According to the decisions of the EB in Venice the media office is abolished. The web master will take responsibility in future of the activity of the web site in collaboration with the secretary and the office chairman. Prof Rolle reports that the new web site is functioning. The database functions are now separated and there is no more any direct access through the website. The new design of the EUPSA web site, which can already be seen, will be online shortly after congress in Graz.
The problems with the Dutch company are resolved, especially thanks to the mediation and efforts of Paul Broens. Prof Rolle explains the future plans for the web site. These include closed sections for the offices and an E-mail server to facilitate the communication and sending of E-mails to members.

Funding and Financial Office
Prof Z. Zachariou gives a brief report about the financial results of the Istanbul meeting. The detailed numbers are available from the secretary. The overall congress balance was 39022,63 € (70 % - EUPSA; 30 % - local organizer). All changes which were discussed concerning funding rules and expenses (lunches, courses) are already included in the new manual, which is availably from the treasurer. The actual financial situation of EUPSA is basically good. The funding and financial office was closed according to the decision of the EB as prposed by the treasurer.

Report of the Internal Auditors
The accounts were audited by Aigars Petersons and G.B. Parigi and the Treasurers accounting was cleared to the General Assembly. The term of both auditors ended and the president expresses his gratitude to them. Two new auditors are elected by the GA. Both, S. v. Bismarck (Berlin, Germany) and G. Ricepettitoni (Milan, Italy) excepted.

Intercontinental Office
Prof. Alayet is not able to attend the meeting. Prof. Tovar informs the GA that the office is closed as requested by the chairman and confirmed by the EB.

Election of the new treasurer
The EB proposed Dr.Massimo Rivosecchi from Rome, Italy, for the position of the treasurer. There were no other candidates. The GA accepted a voting by hand sign. The vast majority voted for the candidate. Prof. Tovar wishes all the best to M. Rivosecchi for the up-coming three years

Election of the president elect

The EB proposed Prof. J-M. Guys from Marseilles in France. Since there were no other candidates, the GA elects by hand sign with great majority Prof. Guys, who accepts the nomination and election. Prof. Tovar congratulates in the name of all EUPSA members.

Approval of modified bye laws
J. Schleef presents the major points of the modified bylaws, which were submitted to all members by mail in advance and which are available on the web site. The audience votes for these changes.

Report of the Secretary
Dr Schleef gives a brief report about the actual situation of EUPSA administration. In the meantime a new web site strategy is developed which lead to a division between database and web site. The database information could be partially recovered from the former database, but all single information has to be controlled and verified to avoid major errors in the database for the future. The member situation is stable, while about 25 new members were registered during the last year. In the next months by letter all members who didn´t pay for more than 3 years will be contacted again, and if there is no response, or incoming payment, these persons will be deleted from the EUPSA membership database.
A further step is the transfer of all membership fee management from the treasurer to the secretary’s office to facilitate the control of payment and membership administration.

Other business
No other business.

Closure of the President - Hand over of presidency
The president Prof. Trovar is closing the assembly. He expresses his gratitude to all members and the EB for the excellent work and collaboration. He is handing over the signs of presidency to the new president Prof. Prem Puri, who is going to close the assembly.


Jürgen Schleef
Secretary of EUPSA