EWAS GENERAL ASSEMBLY . FESSH Budapest 2017
GENERAL ASSEMBLY of EWAS held Friday June 23, 2017
at 12:30 – 13:25 during the FESSH meeting in Budapest The Secretary General Jan Haugstvedt opens the assembly and informs that the outgoing President Guillaume Herzberg could not make it to be in Budapest in time for the EWAS General Assembly due to cancellation of his flight from Munich. Toshiyasu Nakamura introduces the report from the Journal of Wrist Surgery having taken over for DavidSlutsky as new Editor in Chief from issue 4, 2016. He reminds members that the Journal of Wrist Surgery has been affiliated with EWAS since 2013, indexed in PMC (Pubmed) and DOAJ. Up to now, the JWS has included four issues per year: in 2018 the issues will increase to 5 per year and the plan is to increase to 6 issues per year in 2019. Submissions have been increasing steadily: Toshiyasu Nakamura highlights the need for more reviewers to cope with the work. Last but not least, the Geographic Author Spread is constantly expanding.
Christophe Mathoulin underlines that when the JWS was started the intention was to grow to six issues per year. Maurizio Calcagni underlines that the Impact Factor is very important and is the key point to increasecontributions. There is a need to speed the reviewing process and the impact factor process, so articles can go on line faster than now: when articles are “pending” they cannot be published and included in the Author’s CV. The question is raised about a form to suggest courses, that does not exist but could be considered.
Christophe Mathoulin updates on meetings, courses, and future directions, underlining that the aim of EWAS right from the start was to create courses. High-level courses with good conditions for the practical part of the course are being organized, 18 in 2017.The courses in Strasbourg are three with the intention to add an “expert course” in October and bring the total to four. The same should happen in Singapore in 2018. St Petersburg has been a very good course with many participants, so the course will be repeated. Jan Haugstvedt would like to develop the same expert approach in Singapore. Bengalore will be in February 2018, Taiwan in April, Shanghai in May, the Hong Kong course will probably be in December. The course in Cape Town was a success, people were interested, the location is very convenient and the course will be continued. In South America the course in Chile will be in May 2018, the course in Brazil in August.
Christophe Mathoulin introduces the new website http://www.ewascourses.eu: a world map that includes all the future courses with clear indications on who should be contacted for information on that specific course. How the new website will be linked to the official website is something to be discussed. Christophe Mathoulin thanks Storz who has been a partner of EWAS for a long time for the continuous support, trying to solve problems together. Newclip is also mentioned as co-sponsor in many occasions. Jane Messina introduces a very detailed report from Internet committee and illustrates the EWAS official website visitor statistics that are very promising.Paola Valerio gives a short report on the activity of the Secretary Office and updates on the number of members who have actually settled their dues by June 2017 (398 in 2017 compared to 334 in 2016). She informs that the problem of incorrect addresses for Thieme should soon be solved: J.F. Pannas, our webmaster, has prepared a for that includes fields for the address where the Journal should be sent: the form is compulsory for new members and will be sent to old members very soon, so addresses can be sentto Thieme. New members from the IRCAD course who have been offered a FREE EWAS MEMBERSHIP for one year are now 34. Nicole Schmelzer-Schmied is unfortunately unable to be present. Jan Haugstvedt presents her report and the main feature is the expected Tax Payments for 2015, probably the Swiss tax office will remit the taxes for the first working year of EWAS in Switzerland. If not, the expected tax payments are about 830 Euro As regards the decision on the EWAS yearly membership fee (including subscription of JWS) Jan Haugstvedt proposes to keep it unhanged. There is the proposal for a new position as International coordinator for EWAS. Andrew Chin is the candidate and he is unanimously approved. The role is to work with International connections and it is underlined that it is wise to have someone from outside Europe, so as to promote courses and sessions.There is also a proposal to include the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Wrist Surgery as a member of the EWAS Board. This is unanimously approved. Following the two new above-mentioned positions Jan Haugstvedt suggests a change of By-laws. In the current By-laws, the Secretary General, the vice Secretary General, the President, the first Vice President, the past President, the treasurer, the chairperson of the teaching committee, the chairperson of the future developing and scientific committee, the chairperson of the IT committee, and the Advisory Board are included. In the suggested change of By-laws, it is suggested to include the International Coordinator of EWAS and the Chief-Editor of JWS as members of the EWAS board. This is unanimously approved Jan Haugstvedt thanked Guillaume Herzberg as the outgoing President and welcomed Gustavo Mantovani as the new incoming President. The next General Assembly will be in Copenhagen during the next FESSH meeting in June 2018. Jane Messina presents a histological study of wrist ligaments she is willing to perform and asks for economical support from EWAS. There is a small discussion and the Secretary General suggests discussing this at the board meeting in November; however, it seems it would be too late. He also questions if this would be within what EWAS should do (support research), but the conclusion is that the Board should discuss the issue using emails to reach a conclusion.
Perhaps a grant for research could be created. Paco del Piñal gave EWAS a lot of money after the last FESSH Congress to support young surgeons: young surgeons are the ones to be supported because they arethe surgeons of the future. Jan Ragnar Haugstvedt Secretary General, EWAS
