Minutes from Strasbourg Council Meeting- nov 2016
Minutes from Council meeting,EWAS, Strasbourg November 27, 2015
Room: Michael Bayley, 5:30 pm
Present: PC Ho, Henk Coert, Andrea Atzei, Nicole Schmelzer-Schmied, Jane Messina, Philippe Liverneaux, Max Haerle, Christophe Mathoulin, Jan Ragnar HaugstvedtAbsent: Francisco del Piñal, Riccardo Luchetti1.
Presidential report.
1.PC Ho gave a brief update of the different activities that have taken place sincehe took over the position as the President of EWAS at the FESSH meeting in Milan. He then presented an overview of EWAS’ activities for 2016. Some minor corrections and additions were made. The list of activities will be (is) put on our website.
2.Financial report.Our treasurer, Nicole Schmeltzer-Schmied, reported on the financial status of EWAS. We have approximately € 40,000 in our bank account, however bills are pending to be paid (expenses for different courses, payment to Thieme for JWS, etc).
3.Report from Studio ProgressPaola Valerio was unable to attend and the Secretary General presentedthe report. Studio Progress has helped working on the website to make the onlineregistration smooth and thepayment system for membership easier. We are as of November 2015,approximately 430 paying members.
4.Nomination of next president and vice-president. There has been a “tradition” in EWAS to elect Presidents from different parts of the world (Europe-Asia-Europe-America-Europe-Asia-Europe-America, etc). There was a discussion if this should continue; nobody spoke up to say they were against it. Thus asuggestion of going back to America was approved. The proposed candidates for our next President and our next Vice-President(to be elected at the upcoming FESSH meeting in Santander) will be Guillaume Herzberg (President) and Gustavo Mantovani Ruggiero(Vice-President).
5.The Internetreportand the report on the Web-siteweregiven by Jane Messina who reported on the work to constantly improve our website. Lots of improvements have been made to keep the website updated. Jane Messina encouragedto shareinformation regarding new courses/meetings in order for her to post the information on our website.
6.Whipple Prize. There was one proposed candidate for the Whipple Prize; A Lee Osterman. His candidacy was approved by everyone.
7.There was only one applicant forthe EWAS grant; Dr Judit Réka Hetthéssy, from Budapest, Hungary. She applied for the grant to visit Markgröeningen and Santander. A recommendation letter from Professor Haerle followed the application. Dr Hetthéssy was accepted as the winner.Comments were made that the EWAS grant should be announced in a better way to stimulate young colleagues to apply for this grant.
8.Upcoming courses were reviewedby Christophe Mathoulin. (Most of these courses/activities are mentioned in the list referred to in # 1.) There iswork being done to try to establish a course in South-Africa, the details are still not ready. A potential new course in the US is pending the final approval;if, however, EWAS will be involved is yet to see. There are other new courses being established in Asia and a collaboration with APWA seems to be the way to go.
9.EWAS has signed a “Sponsorship agreement”with Storz, the reason for thisis to promote the technique of Hand-and Wrist Arthroscopythroughout the world. With thesupport from Storz EWAS has been given the possibility to sponsor courses and to support the teaching and the presence of experts at the different courses. The first “Sponsorship agreement” has been signed for 2015, however there are plans for a continuation of anagreement if both parts find the collaboration to work well.10.As a result of the above mentioned Sponsorship agreement, a Travelling committeehas been formed to come up with suggestions and proposals for a budget involving the different meetings and courses. Thiscommittee has been formed with the following members: Christophe Mathoulin, Michel Leveadoux, Henk Coert and Jan Ragnar Haugstvedt. The members of the committee were approved. Reimbursement will take place according to the budget. Francisco del Piñal was appointed as a “Supervisor”of the committee to help solving problems that might come up as well as audit the budget/expenses in cooperation with our Treasurer and StudioProgress.
11.Rules for Reimbursement(travel expenses) have been proposed and were presented. These rules are based on the same rules as approved and used by FESSH and EFORT. There were no comments to this.
12.Symposium at upcoming courses; EFORT, FESSH, IFSSH, were reviewed. (The activities are shown in the list presented earlier #1)
13.Report on book projects. There are (at least two) ongoing book-projects involving EWAS members. One is on Arthroscopic management of Radial sided Wrist Pain, while the other is on Examination of the Wrist. Andrea Atzei will be the editor of the first mentioned book while PC Ho will edit the second book. The status of both projects were reviewed.
14.Our current President, PC Ho, has suggested to establish EWAS Training centers. This is based on the idea that certain clinics/hospitals host “students” for the French “tour” that takes place every year. There should be some “rules” or “requisites” for these “training centers” (number of surgeons performing wrist arthroscopy,number of procedures being performed every year, etc). We will work further on this idea.
15.Changes of By-laws. At our last General Assembly (in Milan) we decided to combine two committees; Future development and Scientific committees. This calls for a change in our by-laws.As it has turned out, the number of members of the Executive Committee has proven to be too high to be efficient. Thus we should consider to reducethe members of the Executive Committee. The Secretary General will propose Changes of the By-laws before the General Assembly in Santander.
16.Several issues were brought up for discussion: a.We need to understand who is the responsible part for whatever happens at an EWAS organized course; insurance, tax,and legal aspects.The existing structure of the EWAS Courses, such as EWAS endorsed coursesand/or EWAS sponsored courses,should be brought up for discussion. In the future there couldbe only EWAS courses (with EWAS being the responsible part) and the rest of the courses could be supported byEWAS, however allresponsibility should stay with the local organizer. For IRCAD courses special rules will apply. We need to develop a system to organize this and to control the scientific content and the money flow. b.Should EWAS sign a contract with the different Congress organizers and whatis the role ofStudioProgress. c.The council has understood that lack of information and structureis a potential risk for EWAS; thusthe council will act in the near future to restructure the course organization. d.The names of the former Whipple Prize winnersshould be posted on our website.e.EU has a medical chamber, The European Union of Medical Specialties(UEMS). EWAS should try to beinvolved in the work done by this chamber. If EWAS as an organizationfor any reasoncannot participate,EWAS will cooperate with FESSH to bring our opinion forward.Oslo,
January 4, 2016JanRagnar Haugstvedt
Secretary General,
