ATHENS HILTON HOTEL ATHENS, GREECE

FEBRUARY 19, 2000

CALL TO ORDER

The meeting was called to order by Professor J. Philippe, President of FEO at 1.25 p.m., Saturday, February 19, 2000, in the Galaxy conference room of the Athens Hilton Hotel in Athens, Greece.

1. Absences.

Those present were:

Members of the General Assembly

Observers

Apologies were received from Prof. Valentina Dorobat, President of the National Romanian Association of Orthodontics who was unable to attend due to the examination period at her university.

2. Approval of the agenda.

By consensus, the agenda for the meeting was approved as presented, with the President authorized to alter the agenda as needed to expedite the business of the General Assembly. The agenda as published prior to the meeting was:

1.       Absences

2.       Approval of the agenda

3.       Report of activities of FEO since last general assembly

4.       Promotion of National Journals/Reviews and National Meetings

5.       FEO website

6.       Proposal by SIDO for partial revision of the Internal Rules of FEO

7.       Treasury and fees

8.       Elections of the new Board of Directors

9.       Miscellaneous

10.   Adjournment

 

3. Report of activities of FEO since last General Assembly.

Prof. A.E. Athanasiou thanked Prof. J. Moss, Honorary Secretary of EOS and Dr. P. Karvelas, Treasurer of EFOSA for accepting the invitation to attend as observers. He also welcomed Prof. N. Erverdi as the representative of the Turkish Orthodontic Society and Prof. D. Dreshner as the representative of German Orthodontic Society.  He regrets that the German Orthodontic Society, which was one of the signatories of the “Letter of Venice” in October 1997 has not joined the FEO yet. He hopes that Germany and Turkey will decide to join the FEO in the near future.

Since the last meeting in June, the Russian Association of Orthodontists has joined the FEO.

4. Promotion of National Journals/Reviews and National Meetings.

Prof. J. Philippe congratulated Mr. C. Kettler on the production of the 2000-2001 Reports of FEO Meetings and Journals. Mr. Kettler regretted that the Reports had come out so late and that some of the meetings had already taken place before the Reports were published. Although he had sent out the requests for information in September replies from some members had not been received until January and then only after a reminder was sent in December.  He urged members to be more prompt in future.

Prof. J. Philippe said these Reports were central to the purpose of FEO. He asked how members distributed the information to the members of their societies. He would like to see this information published in every national journal. It is important to include the message that the meetings of FEO societies are open to all members at the same rate of registration fee as a home member. 

Dr. A. Carano said that the Internet is the best medium for this information and SIDO publishes the FEO Reports on its own website. SIDO has also produced a new English language journal “Progress in Orthodontics” which is published once a year. It is an Italian journal aimed at an international readership. 

Prof. V. Moutaftchiev said that every national society has to decide for itself the best way to publish information to its members. He has sent copies of the Bulgarian “Orthodontic Review” to all FEO members.

Prof. J. Moss said the EJO would publish this information if it were sent to the Editor, Dr. Fraser McDonald.  Prof. A.E. Athanasiou said it has been agreed that the FEO will not publish its own journal.

5. FEO website.

The Web Committee of Prof. J. Dahan, Dr. G. Fiorelli and Mr. C. Kettler, appointed by the General Assembly in October had appointed Giorgio Fiorelli as the Webmaster.  Giorgio Fiorelli has set up the FEO Website. [www.sido.it/feo]. He showed this to the General Assembly by projection from his lap top computer. Although he is using the same server as SIDO, it will soon be entirely independent of the SIDO Website. This server has given excellent service to SIDO, which is why he chose them. It is simpler for the Webmaster to be geographically close to the server. 

So far he has included everything on the website that was agreed: the Letter of Venice, the Bylaws, Members of the Board, Minutes of Meetings, Member Societies and details of their Journals and Meetings.  He has still to include a “Links” page with links to members’ websites. The members who already have websites are the BOS, GOS, SFODF and SIDO. Jim Moss said the EOS has pages on the Oxford University Press Website for the EJO.

Giorgio Fiorelli will provide links to all existing members’ sites. All members are encouraged to develop their own sites. To assist members without their own sites he can provide pages for individual member societies until they have their own sites. Members must write their own pages. He does not want to be webmaster to thirteen societies. Andre Horn advised every member to appoint his or her own officer with responsibility for the Internet. 

Prof. Athanasios Athanasiou gave thanks to Giorgio Fiorelli for his splendid work in writing the website.  Members of the General Assembly gave applause.  Giorgio Fiorelli acknowledged the help he had received from Jose Dahan and Chris Kettler. He does require help. The General Assembly should formally constitute the Web Committee today, define its functions and agree the membership. It was agreed to defer this decision until the new Board is appointed.

Jose Dahan said he has proposed a lot more that could be put on the Website but execution would be more difficult. Giorgio Fiorelli thinks the content of the site should not be expanded much more for the time being. This was agreed.

6. Proposal by SIDO for partial revision of the Internal Rules of FEO.

SIDO tabled a modification of the document previously tabled at the Strasbourg meeting but with changes to the proposals for alteration of Article 3.  The new document proposed the same fairly modest increase in votes for the largest societies and a change to the subscription with a fixed payment of 150 Euro whatever the size of the society plus 1 Euro per member up to 1000 members and 0.85 Euro for all additional members. Currently the subscription is simply 1 Euro per member. The document states: “Even if we appreciate the intent to give a large weight to orthodontic societies with a small member number, we feel that such a difference in the vote “price” is exaggerated. We therefore propose modifications of article 1 and 3 of the internal rules.” 

Dr. Giorgio Fiorelli said he is asking the General Assembly to help SIDO with a potential problem at home.  It may be that members of SIDO will want to know why they pay so much more than other members do for such a relatively small number of votes.  At present SIDO pays 36% of the total subscriptions and has only 21% of the votes. He wants to be able to tell SIDO members that they have been able to improve the relative proportions. 

Dr. Thierry De Coster said it is impossible to achieve a balance, which satisfies every member. Three big societies voting together can outvote all the small societies together. Valentin Moutaftchiev said the present rules are well meaning. Small societies do not have large funds. He is only able to come to meetings by financing himself. 

Chris Kettler said that SIDO were trying to deal with the perceived imbalance by altering both Articles 1 and 3. The main objection by other members relates to Article 3 and the smaller societies simply cannot afford the proposed increase in subscriptions. He proposed an amendment to drop the proposal to change Article 3.  After some further debate, SIDO agreed to withdraw the proposal to amend Article 3.

It was agreed to vote on the amended proposal by a show of hands. Prof. Athanasios Athanasiou established the membership of each society and their vote entitlement as follows:

Britain             1,615     22
Belgium              200     12
Bulgaria               52     10
Cyprus                 22     10
France            1,500     22
Greece               322     13
Italy                3,015     26
Luxembourg         12     10
Yugoslavia          241     12

In favour of the amended proposal were Britain, Cyprus, and Italy.  Against were Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Luxembourg and Yugoslavia.  Greece abstained.  The votes in favour were 58 and against were 66.  The amended proposal was therefore lost and no changes were made to the Internal Rules.

7. Treasury and fees.

The Treasurer, Prof. Roberto Giorgetti reported that he had had problems arranging a transfer of funds from the bank in Belgium to the account he has set up in Italy. 

Jose Dahan said that as Administrator his responsibility was for the law. The bank in Belgium had requested a copy of the Bylaws and the membership of the Board. He discovered that when the FEO was set up the lawyer had failed to publish the Bylaws in the official “Monitor Belge”. The Federation was not therefore officially established. The lawyer submitted details for publication in December 1999. Until the relevant document is published, the bank will not transfer funds. The current deposit is 371,500.90 Belgian Francs.

Prof. Athanasios Athanasiou said that subscriptions for 1999 have been received from five societies.  Several societies have not been able to pay, as they need a bank account number or an invoice to be able to transfer funds. He has been also informed that a 1,500 Euro have been recently transferred by the French Society to the Treasurer.

8. Election for a new Board of Directors.

Prof. Julien Philippe said the Board must be elected every two years and officers may be re-elected three times except the President cannot be re-elected and there is no limit on how many times the Administrator may be re-elected.  The General Assembly in London on 18^th October 1998 agreed that the Board should be re-elected in February 2000.

The following nominations were made and approved.

President                     Prof. Athanasios Athanasiou             Greece

Vice President              Dr. Thierry De Coster                     Belgium

Secretary General         Mr. Allan Thom                                Britain

Treasurer                    Dr. Aldo Carano                                  Italy

Administrator               Prof. Jose Dahan                            Belgium

Assistant Secretary       Dr. Odile Steil-Hutereau            Luxembourg

Prof. Athanasios Athanasiou gave thanks to Prof. Julien Philippe for his service as the last President of FEO.  His kind personality and great capabilities had done much to contribute to the growth of FEO.

Following appointment of the new Board, the General Assembly agreed to formally constitute the Web Committee. Giorgio Fiorelli will be the Webmaster.  Thierry De Coster, Jose Dahan and Chris Kettler will assist him.

9. Miscellaneous.

Dr. Andre Horn said that Dr. Olivier Mauchamp has written a report on the Paris 2005 meeting in Paris in November. The next meeting will be in Chicago. There will be a further meeting in Paris in November 2000.

Athanasios Athanasiou said that FEO has established good relations with EFSOA and EOS. FEO officers have been invited to EFSOA General Assembly meetings including the next EFOSA meeting in Crete. He thanked Jim Moss for attending today’s meeting. The FEO wishes to work closely with EOS in future. The FEO had been invited to attend the Forum of National Societies in Strasbourg.  Jim Moss said the FEO will be invited to attend the Forum in Crete. 

The date of the next meeting of the General Assembly was discussed.  The BOS invited the FEO to attend the BOC at Harrogate 29^th September to 3^rd October 2001. It was agreed that this was too far away in time and that a meeting should be held at the end of this year. The alternatives discussed were the SIDO meeting in Florence on 4^th November 2000 or at the meeting in Paris 11^th-13^th November 2000. It was agreed to hold the next General Assembly in conjunction with the SIDO meeting in Florence at 1 p.m. on Saturday 4^th November 2000 and also to accept the invitation to hold the following General Assembly at the BOS in Harrogate in 2001.  The BOS representatives were asked to identify the most suitable day.

Dr. Andre Horn said that he and Oliver Mauchamp will attend the meeting in Florence, which is one week prior to the Paris 2005 meeting in Paris. Members of the General Assembly who are not attending the meeting in Paris will have a chance to make their views known.

Athanasios Athanasiou defined the obligations of the host society towards a General Assembly meeting.  The minimum requirements are to arrange and pay for a meeting room and to make hotel reservations for all the delegates but not to pay the hotel bill. Any other concessions are up to the host society. Members noted with thanks that the GOS had provided free registration to the GOS 6^th International Symposium and had invited delegates to dinner on the day prior to the General Assembly meeting.

10. Adjournment.

There being no further business, the General Assembly adjourned at 5.45 p.m. The next General Assembly will be in Florence, Italy on Saturday, 4^th November 2000 at 1.00 p.m.

Mr. Allan R. Thom

FEO Secretary General

5 March, 2000