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GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF EHS - Baveno 5th June 2002

MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES & ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE EUROPEAN HIP SOCIETY

WEDNESDAY 5TH JUNE 2002,
GRAND HOTEL DINO
BAVENO, LAGO MAGGIORE, ITALY

Present at Executive and National Representatives Meeting

Roberto Giacometti Ceroni, President
Martin Krismer, President Elect
Gordon Bannister. Secretary General
Kjeld Soballe, Treasurer
Present at National Representatives Meeting
Bart Van Backle, Belgium
Emmanuel Dretakis, Greece
Herve Olivier, France
P Bulstra, The Netherlands
Jacques Tabutin, France
Reiner Gradinger, Germany
Soren Solgaard, Denmark
Tuomo Visuri, Finland
Pal Benum, Norway
Gosta Ullmark, Sweden
Jose Proenca, Portugal
Eduardo Garcia Cimbrelo, Spain
Ilker Cetin, Turkey
Georg Blatter, Switzerland

Apologies Executive Meeting and National Representatives

Reg Elson, Past President – (Executive Meeting)
Gary Fenelon, Eire Representative - (Nat Reps Meeting)

1. Minutes of the Last Meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were approved.

2. Financial Report

The Society ran into a deficit of € 31,331 compared with the previous year’s income of € 10,0452, the reason being that only 35 members had paid their subscription. Following this the National Representatives updated their membership lists and 200 members paid their subscriptions this year. The income from the Society’s reserves pays approximately half the running costs. The principle expenditure is on Hip International which costs the Society € 32,987. A new software programme has been introduced to manage the financial side of the Journal. This particular programme registers payers, non-payers and sends out bills. The reserves of the Society have fallen from € 126,406, in the financial year 2000, to € 95,541 this year. It was concluded that the principle problem was failure to collect subscriptions. This had largely been overcome by updating of addresses and particularly e.mail, but the Society still needed to pursue the lost income.

Action.

1. Treasurer to send out reminders.

2. Failing that National Representatives to contact the non-paying members of their own Country and verify their status.

3. New Members

The following have been elected to Full membership

Dr Antonio Coscujuela, Spain
Mr Peter Kay, UK
Mr Derek McMinn, UK
Mr Jason Webb, UK
Dr B Schreurs, Netherlands

3. New Members Cont’d

The following have been elected Associate members.

Dr Agathoklis Schizas, Cyprus
Dr Joan Giros Torres, SpainProf Emre Togrul, Turkey

4. Changes to the Constitution.

The Constitution, as formulated by the Founder Members no longer represented the workings of the Society. In particular there were a number of areas where revision would be a clearer reflection of the Society’s activities. The issues were:-

Membership
Subscriptions
Constitution of the Executive Committee
Election of the Executive Committee
Tenure of Office

Duties of the individual officers.

Membership.

The ambiguity of the membership had resulted in an application from a Korean who was not known to any members of the Society. The applicant was invited to present a paper but had not elected to do so and nothing further had developed. The feeling amongst the Society’s members is that this a European and not an international society. The natural membership is orthopaedic surgeons but the Society welcomed other doctors, Rheumatologists, Paediatricians and bio-engineers, and the appropriate section was re-worded to reflect this (see amendments).

Subscriptions.

The original Constitution has required two years subscription on election, thereafter annual payment. This had changed to biennial payment and it was decided that the payment should be annual.

Constitution of the Executive Committee.

The Constitution of the Executive Committee was originally the President, Vice President, Secretary General, Archivist, Treasurer and Editor. In practice the Society was run by the Secretary General, Reg Elson, who held the post for seven years with input from the President. The first three Presidents were Founder Members of the Society.

The Presidency has now changed, being awarded to the country in which the next Domestic Meeting is taking place. The President had normally been drawn from the ranks of the National Representatives, but Herve Olivier had been the French National Representative when the Domestic Meeting of 1998 took place in Beaune and the French President was Jacques Witvoet. For the Italian Domestic Meeting of 2002, Roberto Giacometti Ceroni had been elected as a Presidential Candidate although not currently their National Representative.

The Constitution needed to reflect this and the decision was that before a nation submitted an application to hold a Domestic Meeting, its members should internally agree the candidate for President.

Having served a term of Presidency there was valuable experience that should not be lost to the Society. The recommendation was therefore that the President, having served two years, should serve a further two on the Executive Committee as Past President.

The term ’Vice President’ referred to the future President elected at the Domestic Meeting two years before it was held in his own country. The term ’President Elect’ seemed to be a more appropriate title.

The work of the archivist in fact has been undertaken by the Secretary General and the Editor was responsible for submitting national activity accounts to the Society’s page in Hip International. It was felt that neither of these were generally involved in the day to day running of the Society and that the Executive Committee should consist of the President, Past President, President Elect, Secretary General and Treasurer.

The Editor’s of Hip International, currently Ian Learmonth and Aldo Toni, were making an increasing contribution to the Society’s affairs and the recommendation was that they joint the National Representatives Committee.

Tenure of Office

There had been various debates in the past as to the duration of office. This should not be so long as to deny the Society new input but equally needed to give the incumbent time to make a lasting contribution to the Society’s affairs. It was therefore recommended that the President Elect, President and Past President each serve for two years and the Secretary General and Treasurer two years renewable. In practice both the Secretary General and Treasurer would serve for four years to avoid a new Secretary General and President taking office at the same time.

Duties of the Individual Officer.

The duties of the individual officers were that:

i. The President should organise the Domestic Meeting to take place at the end of his two years of office.

ii. The President Elect should commence preparation for the next Domestic Meeting after election.

iii. Either the President of Secretary General should act as an official public representative of the Association and the Secretary General should be responsible for the running of the Society, its records and documentation.

In practice the day to day running of the Society has been shared between President and Secretary General during the last Presidency and this is likely to occur during the next.

iv. The Treasurer should be responsible for the finances of the Association and collection of members subscriptions.

5. Election of New President, Secretary General and Treasurer.

There were two offers to host the Domestic Meeting of 2006. These were from Turkey and Spain. Both offered attractive, well tried venues with substantial experience in conference organisation. Both Turkey and Spain could offer Istanbul or Antalya or Madrid or Marbella respectively. It was felt that the seaside locations would be more attractive to members as they would be cheaper, have potential access by chartered flight and both could offer a high standard of course organisation and a wide variety of additional activities for those wishing to explore the area. Both offers were excellent and a vote of the National Representatives recommended that Turkey hold the Domestic Meeting for 2006 and Spain 2008. All parties were happy with the arrangement. Thus the President Elect will be Ilker Cetin for 2004/2006 and Eduardo Garcia Cimbrelo from 2006-2008.

National Representatives were asked whether they would be prepared to serve as New Secretary general. One very senior and able representative will be discussing matters with his secretary and will respond. If he is not able to take on the duties the present Secretary General will circulate for nominations and hold a ballot.

The Treasurer had installed a new and modern computer system which allowed easy monitoring of payment of subscriptions and billing. This has been a time consuming and difficult exercise, now coming to fruition. It was recommended that the Treasurer continue in his current post for a further four years.

6. Financial Balance of the Baveno Meeting.

In Baveno the meeting had cost in the order of € 220,000 and the President anticipated a profit of approximately € 10,000.

7. Hip International.

Hip International had undergone an exercise in indexation. Indexation depends on how frequently articles in Hip International are cited in indexed journals. Insufficient articles from Hip International have been cited in indexed journals and thus it was not indexed. The easiest way to get Hip International indexed is for Members of the Society to cite papers from Hip International in articles published in indexed journals or to submit articles of sufficient quality to merit citation.

8. European Implant Register.

The current President, Roberto Giacometti Ceroni, had been involved in the plans for the European Implant Register and it was recommend he continue to represent the Society in this endeavour.

9. Instructional Courses.

Instructional courses starting at 7.45 have been introduced to the Conference on this occasion. These were aimed at junior delegates. It was noted that three of the five sessions of the Conference were devoted to invited lecturers and two sessions, in three rooms, to simultaneous presentation of papers from members of the Society. It was agreed to review this balance at the end of the meeting.

10. Fellowships.

The Society’s aim was to promote education in hip surgery throughout Europe and Fellowships within the continent had been proposed. Martin Krismer, President Elect, had experienced of Spinal Fellowships in mid-Europe and offered to take this matter further.

11. Endorsement of Meetings.

Some meetings had approached the President asking for endorsement by the European Hip Society. It was agreed that endorsement could be given provided the meetings were not purely commercial and had an educational content. The Executive Committee would discuss the criteria for this.

12. Presidential Commitments.

The President commented that he had been asked to lecture to some five national societies. It was agreed this was good publicity for the Society and should be encouraged.

13. Relationship with Special Societies with EFORT and Participating in Specialist Societies and Speciality Day at the Helsinki Congress 2003.

There was long-standing resentment that Members of the Society should have to pay to attend these societies meetings at EFORT. The Society did not wish to make any charge to either its own members or other delegates who wish to attend the Society’s meeting. This will be communicated to EFORT.

14. E.Mail Communication.

The 2002 Italian Meeting had been arranged almost entirely by e.mail. This was cheaper and quicker than by surface paper mail. The Society has a web-site and it was agreed that the aim would be to make the Society’s communications paper free over the course of the next four years.

GCB/se/23/6/02

U.K.: G. BANNISTER

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