australian gynaecological endoscopy society ltd 2008 ... - AGES

AUSTRALIAN GYNAECOLOGICAL ENDOSCOPY SOCIETY LTD2008 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGMELBOURNE EXHIBITION & CONVENTION CENTRETHURSDAY 13 MARCH 2008MINUTES OF MEETINGThe Meeting was declared open at 5.35pm.PRESENTJason Abbott, David Baartz, Fariba Behnia-Willison, Richard Bellingham,Stephen Cattanach, Timothy Chang, Danny Chou, Jennifer Cook, MichaelCooper, John Cullen, Andrew Day, John Doig, George Finikiotis, RobertFord, Martin Healey, David Healy, Alex Hubczenko, Mark Insull, TalJacobson, Mark Jalland, Hilary Joyce, Krishnan Karthigasu, Akram Khalil,Hanifa Koya, Alan Lam, Robyn Leake, Peter Maher, Christopher Maher,Michael McEvoy, Kate McIlwaine, Harry Merkur, David Munday, HaiderNajjar, Robert O'Shea, Lucinda Pallis, Emma Readman, Geoff Reid,Vedprakash Singh, Gary Swift, Philip Thomas, Jim Tsaltas, Michael Wynn-Williams, Anusch YazdaniAPOLOGIESAdrian Guest, Michael East, Neil Johnson, Michael Laney, Ian Pettigrew,Christine ThevathasanPRESIDENT’S REPORTAlan Lam welcomed members to the Annual General Meeting. His reportfollows:This year, as a result of our joint ASM with WCE 2008, the AGM is heldtoday, 13 March, instead of at the usual time in May.AGES activities May 2007 – March 2008I am pleased to report that we had a solid performance in 2007 with over800 delegates attending our 3 scientific meetings. We had 552 financialmembers in November 2007.2007 began with the VXII Annual Scientific Meeting at the Westin Hotelfrom May 17-19 2007 in Sydney. The theme of this meeting was ‘RiskManagement In Gynaecology and Endoscopic Surgery’. Ourinternational faculty included Professor Javier Magrina from the MayoClinic, Scottsdale, and Dr. Alfred Cutner, vice-president of BSGE.

These two outstanding speakers, complimented by the large Australia and NZfaculty, covered a whole range of topics ranging from ‘informed consent’ to how tocommunicate and care for patients after adverse outcomes. The highlight of thisASM was in the last session. John Allen and Alan Kaye’s personal experiences andadvice brought tears and fears to most people in the audience. I would like to thankthe co-chairman, Greg Cario, and all members of the local organising committee fortheir tremendous efforts in making the XVII ASM an outstanding success, and thenursing staff at the Mater hospital for the live surgery component to this meeting.The second meeting in 2007 was a joint meeting with NASOG at the SheratonMirage, Gold Coast with the focus on ‘Strategic Business Planning In Obstetrics &Gynaecology’. The meeting was well attended and underpinned the importance ofAGES as a broad organisation. Although the financial profit from this meeting wasmeager, the real benefits to our members were the advice and tips from experts onhow to develop strategies to run successful medical practices. Our gratitude goes toGeoff Reid, Hilary Joyce, David Molloy and the members of the organisingcommittee for their great input into this meeting.The year finished with record attendance to the AGES ‘Pelvic Floor In Perspective’November 8-9 at the Adelaide Convention Centre. The two international invitedspeakers, Professor Linda Cardozo from the UK, and Professor Peter Sands fromChicago, USA, were outstanding, and well supported a distinguished panel ofnational experts. The AGES Prolapse Survey gave everyone a snapshot of howAustralian/NZ gynaecologists manage common prolapse problems. The livesurgery session was both stimulating and instructive. We thank Rob O’Shea, ElvisSeman and the local organising committee for a superb conference.2008 activitiesOur Annual Scientific Meeting is the WCE 2008. With record attendance of 973delegates, record scientific submissions, a large gathering of many of the world’sleaders in endometriosis, this is the largest AGES ASM in the history of this society.Congratulations and gratitude to David Healy, Jim Tsaltas, Luk Rombauts, PeterMaher, Michele Bender and all the support staff, for the massive efforts which havegone into the organisation of this world event.The second meeting for the year will be the Ages IX Pelvic Floor Meeting andWorkshop to held at the Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney, in August 8-9, 2008. ChrisMaher will be the chair, Harry Merkur co-chair, and Robert Ford, scientific chair,for this meeting. The international faculty includes Professor Mark Walters and DrMaria Fidela Paraiso. The theme of this meeting is ‘Cleveland Clinic Downunder’ asboth speakers are from the Cleveland Clinic, USA. A great program which includespractical management of pelvic floor dysfunction, comparison between commonsurgical devices, video sessions analysing the role of hysterectomy in pelvic floorsurgery, and reports from the 3 rd International Consultation of Incontinence.Our 3 rd meeting will focus on ‘Endoscopy For Fertility’, to be held in Perth fromNovember 20-21, 2008. Krish Karthigasu, the chair for this conference, has begunworking on the program with the local organising committee.2009 activitiesIn 2009, the AGES ASM will be a joint meeting with the AAGL in May in Brisbane.Anusch Yazdani will co-chair this meeting with me. Chris Maher is the scientificprogram chair. There will be a pelvic floor meeting in Melbourne and a focusmeeting in Adelaide towards the end of the year.

• We conducted an anonymous survey of consent practices amongst ourmembers both before and after the Sydney risk management AGES meeting.There appears to be a reasonable consent standard but there is clearly roomfor improvement. The results were published in Scope November 2007 aswas a separate article on consent for new procedures in March 2008.• The committee has also been liaising with RANZCOG medico-legalsubcommittee, its Expert Witness Panel and RANZCOG leaflet publishers inan effort to reduce the exposure to litigation of our members• We are in strong support of the concept of encouraging risk managementpractices and will be reinforcing this at the RANZCOG/AGES traineesurgical workshop held annually.• AGES is open to any input and advice from our members as to how toimprove our service to them in this very important area that affects us all.Thank you to the Michael and the medico-legal subcommittee for your great work.Awards Committee – chair Krish KarthigasuThe awards committee has embarked on its largest task to date:- The marking of WCE 2008 with over 300 presentations to be assessed and 9prizes to be awarded by AGES. We will report on the outcome at the nextAGM..- New changes to improve the marking and ranking of scientific submissionsto AGES conferences – free communications, video presentations and posterpresentations.- The new system will now be used in future AGES meetings.- The travelling fellowships will be judged at the pelvic floor meeting in themiddle of the year.I would like to acknowledge the enormous work by Krish and the team.Scope – editor Harry Merkur, subeditors – Rob Ford, Michael McEvoySCOPE continues to provide a forum of keeping members up to date on importantmatters relevant to AGES.These include:1) notification of scientific meetings of interest to members2) provision of practice review articles3) notice board for workshops for members and trainees4) reports of recently held AGES meetings5) Presidential messages informing members of AGES activities6) And a new innovation, circulating the journal to “trade” companies.Thank you to Harry, Rob and Michael for your efforts in putting together three tofour SCOPE publications a year.PR/CRM & Continuing Professional Development Porfoliio – Rob FordAGES provides its members with an opportunity to attend three meetings each year,and every effort is made by the Board to ensure that the educational content isdiverse and relevant to clinical practice.RANZCOG is ultimately responsible for the allocation of CPD points for appropriateattendance at these meetings.Rob Ford’s role is to maintain the good relationship which exists between AGES andthe educational arm of RANZCOG so that the receipt of points is an added attractionfor those attending. This is especially important in the essential points category ofPractice Review and Clinical Risk Management. The RANZCOG Guidelines forawarding these points is very specific and demands completion of a pre and post

meeting questionnaire, relevant to topics covered by speakers. This PR and CRMmechanism will be continued.WebsiteThe mammoth task of improving the AGES website has been in the hands of JennyCook. Jenny has spent an enormous time researching and obtaining professionaladvice to redesign our website and make it:1. More user friendly – especially for public and overseas membership2. A more modern look – introduce breadcrumb navigation to facilitate accessaround site. NB: AAGL website is an older website and does not have this.3. More dynamic – current information which is updated constantly4. Increase usage – information and services which members require – a ‘mustgo’ destinationJenny has kindly agreed to stay involved to help Fariba continue this work.AGES Pelvic Floor Committee – Chris MaherThe AGES pelvic floor committee continues to go from strength to strength. I wouldlike to thank Chris Maher for academic input, clinical expertise, industry contacts tothis committee. Under his chairmanship, I am sure AGES Pelvic Floor relatedactivities will continue to flourish.SponsorshipI would like to announce and acknowledge that Strtjer has just signed another 3-year agreement to continue as our Platinum Sponsor. We are continuing a dialoguewith existing and potential major sponsors, Johnson & Johnson Medical, Covidien,Conmed Livatec and others. We are grateful to all the industry partners in theirsupport of AGES.Executive Directorship and Conference ManagementI would like to congratulate Michele Bender and Stephen Johns on their recentwedding and on behalf of all members of AGES wish you happiness for the future.I would like to congratulate Michele in her role as executive director of AGESthrough out the year. The society has continued to be a professional and efficientbody because of your tremendous and tireless effects. I would like to pay specialacknowledgement and gratitude for the fantastic and enormous effects which youand your team have put in to ensure the success of WCE 2008.Finally, I would like to congratulate every one for attending and support ourorganisation.CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGThe minutes of the meeting held on Friday 17 May 2007 were confirmed.Proposed: J TsaltasSeconded: P MaherBUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTESThere was no business arising from the minutes.

TREASURER’S REPORTAnusch Yazdani’s report follows:Dear Colleagues,The financial statement for the Australian Gynaecological Endoscopy Society(AGES) Limited for the year ending December 31, 2007 was prepared by ourindependent auditors, Einfeld Symonds Vince, and approved by the Board of AGESon February 26, 2008. The Financial Statement is a public document available to allmembers on our website or from our secretariat.2007 has been a lean year from budgetary point of view with our society posting anet loss of almost $17000.However, this result is explained by a number of factors.The overall operating revenue has reduced significantly compared to the previousfinancial year as a result of a reduction in conference and sponsorship income. Thisreduction partly reflects sponsor commitmentsin 2008 and partly a board decision to maintain membership subscription value.Significantly, revenue and conference expenses have remained fixed, resulting in anet increase in the cost of conferences per member.Our asset base has increased significantly (by over $1 million) but, simultaneously,liabilities have also increased. Again, this reflects the cash flow in relation to themajor meetings in 2008.Finally, members can be reassured that our overall bottom line remains healthywith an overall equity approaching $500000. Financially, this maintains us in astrong position to weather any financial turmoil.While our expenses have remained identical in line with returning value to ourmembers, our income has gone down. We have made a loss of $16,000 in 2007compared with a profit of $77000 in 2007, attributable to lower income from ourconferences. The bottom line remains healthy.There were no questions. The financial report was accepted as correct.Proposed G ReidSeconded R O’SheaNEW BUSINESSThere being no new business the meeting was closed at 6pm.