SPINE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA

Transcription

1 SPINE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA MINUTES OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (FIRST BUSINESS MEETING) Hyatt Hotel, Canberra Saturday 26 April hours 1.0 PRESENT N. Jones (President), P. Turner (Secretary), B. Ashman (Treasurer), Ian Farey (President Elect) and 33 Members as listed in the Attendance book. 2.0 APOLOGIES John Tuffley, Richard Vaughan, Peter Robertson, Sue Liew, Bill Turner, Jim Taylor, J. Govind 3.0 CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING It was proposed that the Minutes be accepted as a true and accurate record of the Annual General Meeting held at the Hilton Hotel in Melbourne (Victoria) on Saturday 27 April Proposed: Bob Dickens Seconded: Orso Osti This motion was passed 4.0 BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES 4.1 Secretariat - Rob Moore reported that the Secretariat commenced formal operation on 1 September Since then it had been functioning satisfactorily. They have identified a number of gaps in the official records of the Society, but were exploring a number of avenues, including with the current Secretary, to finalise this matter. 4.2 Website - Ian Torode reported that Kevin Singer had been doing a lot of work in the continued development of this Society activity. The website now had its own direct address (spinesociety.org.au). The results of the membership survey related to information to be included on the website will be passed on to Kevin Singer. Those members who had not completed their survey were strongly encouraged to do so at their earliest convenience. Members were advised that once the privacy issues had been resolved, it would be necessary for them each to sign an opt in consent related to how much information they were prepared to have incorporated into a database on the website. Members were again

2 reassured that this information would be password protected and not open for public scrutiny. 5.0 REPORTS FROM COMMITTEES 5.1 Rules Committee - Gary Speck reported that there had been no matters under consideration over the preceding 12 months. He indicated that the changes suggested to the wording of the constitution were related to an already redundant copy, but the committee would recheck the document and report back to the Society at the meeting in Scientific Program Committee - Rob Moore reported that a record 65 abstracts had been offered for presentation at the meeting and therefore 28 had to be declined. On the encouragement of the Editorial Secretary, 16 of these had accepted an offer to make a poster presentation. To reinforce this encouragement a $1,000 prize had been secured from EBI-Biomet. It was intended that the poster display be further developed for the next meeting. In conjunction with the Friday evening cocktail party, presenters of posters would be encouraged to stay with their presentations and engage in discourse with other delegates as they peruse these presentations. The spinal research award had received 11 papers that had been checked by four reviewers. Their efforts were acknowledged and the membership advised that the winner would be announced at the end of the Scientific program. The Chairman acknowledged that this would be Rob Moore s last meeting as the Editorial Secretary. He moved a motion of thanks for Rob s great efforts over the past three years. This was passed with acclamation. 5.3 Site Committee - Peter Wilde reported that arrangements were already well advanced for the 2004 meeting to be held in Coolum. This would be from April and Paul Licina would be the local convenor. Auckland had been recommended for 2005, with Peter Robertson to be the convenor and Sydney would be explored as the likely venue for Peter Wilde moved a motion for formal acceptance of Auckland as the venue for This was seconded by Barrie Slinger and passed by a show of hands. Peter Wilde confirmed that this meeting would be held in April, with the final dates to be confirmed closer to the time. 5.4 Membership Committee - Mark Pearcy reported that seven applications for membership had been received. Two of these applications (Richard Williams, Paul Licina) were seeking an upgrade of their membership from its current Associate level to Active. Bruce Walker, Tim Geraghty, Arnold Bak and Andrew Danks were seeking Active Membership. Ralph Stanford was seeking Associate membership as he is

3 still currently only an Associate member of the AOA. All applicants met the criteria for these levels of membership and it was the commendation of the Membership Committee that these applications be accepted. There being no discussion on any of these applications from the floor, it was determined that the final vote on these applications be held over to the Second Business Meeting. 6.0 REPORTS FROM SUBCOMMITTEES 6.1 Quality Assurance - Bruce McPhee admitted that this subcommittee had not been particularly active in recent years. While not questioning the importance of this activity, he felt that it would not be appropriate for the Spine Society to attempt to duplicate those activities already being undertaken by the AOA, NSA and College of Surgeons. He pondered on the possibility of running longer term outcome studies, or perhaps more specific area studies. He indicated that this subcommittee would consider the issue in the coming 12 months and report back to the AGM in Screening Procedures in Spinal Disease and Disorder - Tom Taylor declined to make a public statement. He had, however, indicated to the Secretary that this subcommittee was still active, although it had nothing new to report as at this time. 7.0 DEPUY SPINAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP Peter Turner confirmed that Rebecca Walters from Adelaide had been the successful applicant for 2002/03. DePuy had confirmed in writing that the funds had already been drawn and it was anticipated that Ms. Walters would be presenting her work at the AGM in Coolum. Written confirmation had also been obtained of DePuy s continuing support of this initiative and on that basis appropriate advertisements would be placed in June 2003 seeking applicants for the Fellowship of 2003/04. It would be intended that the closing date be 31 August 2003 and the successful applicant would be notified within four weeks. 8.0 SPINAL RESEARCH AWARD (MEDTRONIC/SOFAMOR DANEK) As advised earlier in the meeting, 11 papers had been submitted for judgement. The panel had reviewed all papers and their decision would be announced at the completion of the Scientific Meeting. The award is to the value of $8, THE ROB JOHNSON AWARD This is for the best presentation by a Trainee or Fellow at the Annual Scientific Meeting. The funds raised from the endowment fund would be increased to

4 $1,000 by the Society. The winner to be announced at the completion of the Scientific program BEST PRESENTATION AWARD (MEDTRONIC/SOFAMOR DANEK) This is for the best presentation by a member of the Society at the Scientific Meeting. It is to the value of $2,000 and the winner will be announced on completion of the Scientific program BEST POSTER PRIZE (EBI-BIOMET) This is a new initiative given the decision by the Editorial Secretary to strongly encourage poster presentations as part of the Scientific program. The prize will be to the value of $1,000 and the winner will be announced on completion of the Scientific program ELECTION OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE The ex officio Chair of this committee is Barrie Slinger as the Immediate Past President. Peter Woodland and Owen Williamson were nominated as members of this committee. There being no other nominations, a formal vote was not required CORRESPONDENCE 13.1 Peter McCombe - Letter concerning the difficulty experienced by orthopaedic surgeons working exclusively in spine to obtain appropriate CPD credits on the basis of meetings held within Australia. He was seeking support from the Society to encourage the AOA to offer maximum credit for attendance at major overseas spinal meetings. This had been discussed at length at the Executive Meeting and at their recommendation Peter McCombe moved the following motion: The Spine Society of Australia believes the continuing professional development required by the Australian Orthopaedic Association of orthopaedic spinal surgeons should recognise the high quality and appropriateness of meetings of overseas, national and international spine societies. Meetings of the groups listed below should be routinely accepted as Category 1 meetings (ie. equivalent level to the AOA Annual Scientific Meeting) for the number of hours accredited by the appropriate local body: 1. North American Spine Society (NAS) 2. International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine (ISSLS) 3. Cervical Spine Research Society (CSRS) 4. Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) 5. Eurospine Proposed: P. McCombe

5 Seconded: G. Speck Motion passed on a show of hands Chris Cain spoke in his capacity as convenor of the AOA Annual General Meeting in Adelaide He indicated that the spine component of this meeting would be one full day and in addition there would be a COE type meeting in the Barossa Valley shortly after. He encouraged all orthopaedic surgeons in particular to attend these aspects of the meeting, to demonstrate to the AOA that orthopaedic spine surgeons are willing to support the local association if they provide sufficient quality content. Charles New felt that this motion may not get much support, particularly as the AOA is very concerned at the moment about potential fragmentation of its organisation as the specialist societies attempt to become increasingly independent George Sikorski - re Spine Society participation in continuing orthopaedic education meetings. Following some general discussion of the merits of this concept, the Secretary advised the Society that he would write to Dr. Sikorski offering the Spine Society s support and assistance in this initiative. We would welcome whichever model was determined to be best, but overall would lean towards the model of providing a general presentation to the community at large, dealing with issues that should be brought to the attention of a general orthopaedic surgeon John Stephen - re his continuing concern about the level of involvement of the industry in the conference dinner on the Saturday evening. Barrie Slinger confirmed the details for this year and it was suggested that we should hold over any discussion of this matter until after we could assess Saturday night s events OTHER BUSINESS 14.1 Constitutional Changes - Members were advised that these motions had been withdrawn as on reflection by the Executive it was deemed that these changes were not necessary Michael Johnson spoke of his concerns about a diminishing number of orthopaedic trainees wishing to go on and do additional training in spinal surgery and practice within our discipline. He wondered whether there was anything that the Society could do to redress what might well be an increasing problem in the future. Barrie Slinger mentioned that the Society had been asked to review the syllabus for orthopaedic trainees and in doing so we should ensure that an appropriate emphasis is being given on matters of a spinal nature.

6 Meeting closed at hours.