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Minutes General Assembly |
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Minutes of the General Assembly of EUPSA Barcelona, 2011 Welcome The President of EUPSA, Prof. Prem Puri, welcomes all members of the European Paediatric Surgeons Association for the Annual General Assembly. He presents the agenda, previously circulated to all members, which is approved by the GA without changes. Minutes of the previous EUPSA General Assembly (Bern) The minutes of the GA in Bern, published on the EUPSA web site, are accepted and approved by the GA. Report of the President The president of EUPSA, Prof. Prem Puri gives his report to the members of the GA. He thanks Prof. Ibanez and his team for the organisation of this meeting and his outstanding efforts especially in the difficult economic conditions. The numbers of participants and submitted abstracts have never been as numerous in the history of EUPSA apart from the combined meeting in Graz. He reports on the efforts to reorganise the congress planning. Planning could be put in the hands of professional staff to reduce the financial risk for EUPSA in the future. He mentions the difficult financial situation which required an increase in the annual fee. This was decided to be 50,00 € from now on and there will be no difference between trainees and full members. Prof. Prem Puri explains that this fee is still one of the lowest contributions members of international organisations have to pay. Finally Prof. Prem Puri explains the decision of the Executive Board not to use internal auditors in future for controlling the budget but to appoint a professional auditor. Report of the Congress Chairman Prof. Ibanez gives his report on the current 2011 meeting of EUPSA in Barcelona. He thanks all members who were involved in planning and organising the event. More than 500 participants are registered. He reports that all courses are fairly well booked. To date, the meeting is running well without any problems. Ibanez thanks especially the president of EUPSA, the treasurer and Prof. Zachariou for their assistance and help in resolving major unexpected financial problems. Report of the Chairmen of the Offices Scientific Office Professor Ure informed the Committee that 763 abstracts had been submitted for the EUPSA meeting. The abstracts had been sent anonymously to abstract selection sub-committees. Out of the 763 submitted abstracts, 300 were accepted (137 six and three minute papers, 20 short poster presentations, 143 posters). The total acceptance rate was 39%. He advised that it had been decided by the Scientific Office that abstracts which have been submitted to EUPSA and at the same time to other congresses will be rejected. The following rules for abstract submission were then set up: · Abstracts must not have been published · Abstracts must not be withdrawn unless relevant personal reasons occur · Double submitted abstracts will be rejected · Senior authors of double submissions will be banned from EUPSA programme for 2 years · Presentation of a paper by a co-author is possible; the chairman should be informed about the name of the presenter in time. Membership Changes of the Scientific Office of EUPSA: Professor Paul Losty and Doctor Igor Sukhotnik have finished their term according to the statutes of the Office. New members elected for the Scientific Office included Professor Ciro Esposito from Naples and Professor Mikko Pakarinen from Helsinki. Education Office Dr Hans Skari informed that Dr Cornelia van Tuil has been elected as a new member of the Education Office due to the fact that Prof Azad Najmaldin has finished his six years term in the EO. He thanks him for all the work done. The following courses and EUPSA workshops were approved in 2011: • CDH postgraduate course. Rome, Italy. Feb 01, 2011. Prof. Francesco Morini. • CDH: more questions than answers. Rome, Italy. Feb 02-03. Prof. Francesco Morini. • Advanced minimally invasive paediatric surgery. Berlin, Germany. Feb 2011, Prof. Benno Ure, Hannover. • 4th Central & Eastern European Postgraduate Course of Pediatric Surgery: Minimal access surgery. Maribor, Slovenia. March 31-April 02, 2011. Prof. Amulya Saxena, Prof. Silvo Lipovsek, and the EO. • Paediatric Endoscopic Surgery Workshop: hands on skills. Leeds, England. July 26-29, 2011. Consultant A. Najmaldin • Advanced course of videosurgery: hands on course. Naples, Italy. July 07-08, 2011. Prof. Ciro Esposito. • STEPS 2011 seminar. Reconstructive surgery. Florence, Italy. Oct 06-08, 2011. Prof. Amulya Saxena, Graz. • Advanced minimally invasive pediatric surgery. Berlin, Germany. Nov 18-19, 2011. Prof. Benno Ure, Hannover Dr Skari gave a brief report on the Central & Eastern Course of Pediatric Surgery 2011, Maribor. It was a successful meeting with a theoretical and an operative part. The local organizers and the invited faculty did a great job, and the evaluation scores were favourable. Dr Skari also advised that the 5th Central & Eastern European Postgraduate Course of Pediatric Surgery 2012 will be held in Cracow, Poland. The course will be a collaborative effort between the EO and the local organizing committee under the leadership of Piotr Wojciechowski and Prof. A.I. Prokurat. This course will be held on March 30-31, 2012. The 6th Central & Eastern European Postgraduate Course of Pediatric Surgery in 2013 will be held in Timisoara, Romania. Network Office Prof Pierro advised that the composition of the EUPSA Network Office should be expanded and that there was space for two additional members to join. These new members will be Dr J. Kuebler, Germany and Prof. Juan Tovar, Spain. Prof Pierro advised that a census of centres participating in the Network has been prepared and distributed among the members of the EUPSA at the general assembly. He thanked Dr Simon Eaton who has done considerable work on this issue and liaised with Dr. Udo Rolle on upgrading the website. The original questionnaire is being added to the website. It was agreed that the EUPSA Network Office would be introduced to the EUPSA members following the General Assembly. The structure of this meeting was the following: (a) Prof. A. Pierro introduced to the audience the EUPSA Network; (b) Mr. Nigel Hall and Dr. Tomas Wester on the potential for a multicentre trial on medical versus surgical treatment of acute appendicitis; (c) Prof. Risto Rintala and Prof. R. Wijnen talked about prospective evaluation of treatment and outcome of esophageal atresia and acquisition of database. Prof Pierro informed members that he had attended an EU Collaborative Grant Meeting in Rotterdam and also an FP7 Meeting in London where he had received an updated FP7 Draft Version. The Draft Version will be published on 20th July 2011 and the closing date will be in October 2011. Prof Pierro informed members that it was necessary to firstly develop a Platform and emphasized that funding would initially be for the Platform rather than the study. There would therefore be no restriction to the actual disease and looking at ‘Oesophageal Atresia’ would be the long-term objective. The Platform should be generic and not be restricted to particular groups of rare diseases. If the application is successful the amount awarded could be up to EUR 2 000 000 and the same Platform could be used for other future studies. Webmaster Prof Rolle reported that the EUPSA website is functioning well but stated that most of the website traffic was related to the EUPSA Congress. Prof Rolle also mentioned that he is in discussion with the Education Office to offer online teaching. Report of the Treasurer Prof. Rivosecchi reported on the financial activity of EUPSA. He advised that the income and balance is comparable to 2010. The income from the paid EUPSA membership is more positive than in the previous years. Data are available from the treasurer on request. Report of the Internal Auditors The accounts were audited by the internal auditors and the treasurer‘s accounting was cleared to the General Assembly. Election of the President Elect The EB presents as candidate for the position of president elect Prof. Zachariou from Berne. There are no other candidates. The GA votes by show of hands with a vast majority for Zachariou. Prof. Puri congratulates Prof. Zachariou, who accepts the decision, on his election. Election of the Secretary The EB presents as candidate for the position of secretary Prof. G. Riccipetitoni from Milan. There are no other candidates. The GA votes by show of hands with a vast majority for her. Prof. Puri congratulates Prof Riccipetitoni. She is very grateful for her election, and expresses her thanks for the GA’s and EB’s confidence in her. Report of the Secretary Dr Schleef informed the members that the EUPSA Secretary, Ms Tamaro is ready to help all the members who can contact her concerning questions and information regarding their membership status and matters relating to EUPSA. Dr Schleef advised that the actual paid membership of EUPSA is now 848 from over 70 countries. He also advised that in 2010 there were 53 new members enrolled for EUPSA and in the first six months of 2011 there are already 45 new members. Dr Schleef explained the difficulties encountered in relation to obtaining information when a trainee becomes a full member. Proposition of the EB is to have a single membership fee of €50,00 per year for all active members. EUPSA Financial Aid for Education courses: the financial support for the annual Education Course is € 5,000. The organizers should provide a clear business plan in order to run this type of course. The EB decided to increase the registration fee (which has not increased since the beginning of our association): early registration fee for trainees will be € 220,00 and for full members € 320,00. Concerning the decision on future meetings Schleef explains that the EB decided to create a new guideline for future organisers. The president on behalf of all the EB thanks very much Dr Schleef for his contribution to EUPSA over 6 years: he did an enormous amount of work and participated very actively in the development of our association. Any Other Business No other business is presented. The president, Prof. P. Puri closed the GA; it was the last General Assembly under his presidency: Prof. Jean Michel Guys from France will at the end of this 2011 EUPSA congress become the new president of EUPSA. |
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| Date Last Edited: 2011-12-19 10:41 | ||