MINUTES OF EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF ORTHODONTICS (FEO) GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Invited representatives:

There were no invited representatives.

GOS = Greek Orthodontic Society

SFODF = Société Française d’Orthopédie Dento‑faciale

SEDO = Sociedad Española de Ortodoncia

SIDO = Società Italiana di Ortodonzia

SPODF = Sociedade Portugeuesa de Ortopedia Dento-Facial

SLODF = Société Luxembourgeoise d’Orthodontie

The Agenda as published prior to the meeting was:

1. Call to order.
2. Welcome to observer.
3. Apologies for absence.
4. Approval of the agenda.
5. Approval of minutes of meeting 19^th February 2000 (Athens) previously circulated
6. Matters arising from minutes not in agenda.
7. Report on FEO activities.
8. Treasurer’s report including subscription rates.
9. Vice-President’s report on communication with member societies concerning meetings and journals
10. Webmaster’s report

(a)     Appointment of website representatives

(b)     Publication of non-FEO organisation activities on FEO website

(c)     Website costs

(d)    Updating, new sections (FEO’s history and past presidents)

11. Secretary General’s report and membership applications.
12. Report on EFOSA’s General assembly 2^nd June 2000 (Crete)
13. President’s report to include future proposals:

(a)    Presentation of awards to best papers of  FEO journals

(b)    Postgraduate training programmes directory

(c)    Speakers directory

(d)    Others

14. Report on “Competencies in Orthodontics”  [Mr. C. Kettler]
15. 2005 World Conference [Dr. A. Horn]
16. Date for election of new Board.
17. Any other business.
18. Date and place of next meeting (Harrogate, England, Saturday September 29^th, 2001).
19. Close of meeting.

The meeting was opened at 1.35 p.m. by Prof. Athanasios Athanasiou, President of FEO.

1.      Call to order 

The President, Prof. Athanasios Athanasiou welcomed delegates to the General Assembly.  He thanked Dr. Massimo Ronchin, the President of SIDO, and the whole Board of SIDO, for their hospitality.

2.      Welcome to observer

Prof. Athanasios Athanasiou in particular welcomed Dr Gino Madone, President of the Swiss Orthodontic Society, who was attending an FEO meeting for the first time as an observer.

3.      Apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Prof. Dr. Mirjana Sasic of Yugoslavia, Prof. Dr. Valentin Moutaftchiev of Bulgaria and Prof. Valentina Dorobat of Romania.  All three will be attending the meeting in Paris next week to discuss the 2005 World Congress and are limited to how often they may leave their respective countries.  Allan Thom said that each of them has asked the FEO President to cast their votes on their behalf.

4.      Approval of the agenda. 

The agenda was approved.

5.      Approval of minutes of meeting 19^th February 2000

Allan Thom said that the Minutes of the previous General Assembly have been circulated to all members in English and in French.  He has received no corrections.  He moved that the Minutes be accepted as a true record of the last meeting.  The Minutes were approved.

6.      Matters arising from minutes not in agenda.

There were no matters arising.

7.      Report on FEO activities

Athanasios Athanasiou said that Giorgio Fiorelli, the Webmaster, wishes to leave early to attend another meeting and has asked for the discussion of the website to be brought forward.  He will take this item next.

8.      Webmaster’s report

Prof. Athanasios Athanasiou said that members would know that the FEO Website has been functioning since January 2000.  Giorgio Fiorelli has constructed the site with assistance from Jose Dahan and Chris Kettler.  In order for the website to function properly there needs to be regular input from the members.  He proposes that each society should appoint a website representative who will be responsible for feeding up to date information to the webmaster.  It is proposed to add two more pages to the website.  There will be a page of links to members’ own sites and to the WFO, EFOSA and EOS sites.  There will be a new page for non-members in which the activities of non-member societies will be reported.  Jose Dahan is writing a history of the FEO and this will be included on the website.  It has been agreed that the website will not carry commercial advertisements. 

Giorgio Fiorelli said he has had difficulty updating the website because of a lack recent of information from members.  The best course is for members to give their updated information on meetings and journals directly to the webmaster.  He said that he is very willing to help members to set up their own website either independently or within the FEO website.  It is best for members to have an independent website with links to the FEO.

At present the FEO website is still within the SIDO domain.  He still wishes to change to the address of http://www.feo-online.org and is waiting for the owner of the address, who is in Belgium, to agree to release it.  There will be a cost but he does not expect this to be unreasonable. 

9.      Treasurer’s Report

The Treasurer, Aldo Carano, tabled a copy of the accounts.  Funds have been transferred from accounts in Belgium and Siena into a new account in his home town of Taranto to a total of 14,202 Euros.  Membership subscriptions have also been received so the current balance in the account is 21,834 Euros. 

Athanasios Athanasiou thanked Aldo Carano for putting the FEO finances in order. 

Aldo Carano said that he would start collection of the 2001 subscriptions next month.  He did not propose a change in the subscription level.  He asked that members should be prompt in making their payments.

10.  Vice-President’s Report

Thierry De Coster said it is important that members supply him with updated information on their meetings.  He asked members who have not done so yet to give him their information before the end of the year.  He asked that they should send their information to the webmaster at the same time.  A principal goal of the Federation is the exchange of scientific information and this cannot be realised if members do not supply information on their meetings and journals.

11.  Secretary General’s Report

Allan Thom presented his report.

Jose Dahan has published the legal status of the FEO in the Belgium Gazette.  A copy has been sent to all members.  The bylaws of all the members’ societies have been received and filed.  An informal meeting of the FEO Board took place at the AAO Conference in Chicago when future developments were discussed.

The President and Vice-president represented the FEO at the General Assembly of EFOSA in Crete on 2^nd June. 

The Secretary General gave thanks to the webmaster, Giorgio Fiorelli, for his continuing work on the FEO Website.  The Vice-president has been collecting information from members on their future meetings.  Jose Dahan is preparing a resume of the history of the FEO. 

Expressions of interest in membership have been received from Turkey, Israel and the Lebanon. 

The President, Athanasios Athanasiou, thanked Allan Thom for his hard work.  The FEO is privileged in having Allan Thom as Secretary General.  He said that Turkey would make a decision on FEO membership next week.  Whereas part of Turkey is in Europe, Israel and the Lebanon are not.  However there is no need to consider the question of the membership of these two countries until they make a formal application to join. 

12.  Report on EFOSA’s General Assembly 2^nd June 2000 (Crete)

Athanasios Athanasiou and Thierry De Coster were made very welcome by EFOSA at their General Assembly in Crete.  The FEO President was invited to the EOS past presidents dinner.  Jim Moss, for EOS, and Paul Karvelas, for EFOSA, were guests at FEO General Assembly in Athens in February.  It had been decided not to invite them to the General Assembly in Florence since the interval between meetings was less than a year.  EOS and EFOSA will be invited to the next meting in Harrogate.  Athanasios Athanasiou said the FEO have tried to have excellent relations with the EOS but they have not invited an FEO Officer to attend their Council.

13.  President’s report and future proposals

Athanasios Athanasiou said the FEO seeks to represent all the scientific orthodontic societies in Europe.  EFOSA is different as it is political and represents specialist political orthodontic societies.  FEO differs from EOS too as the EOS is a society of individual members and does not represent the societies.

Athanasios Athanasiou said he wanted the General Assembly to consider expanding the contribution made by FEO to the international orthodontic community.  He proposed (a) presenting awards to the best papers published in members’ journals, (b) assist in exchanging speakers between member societies, (c) develop on the website a list of postgraduate orthodontic courses in member countries.

He has received a letter from Prof. Valentin Moutaftchiev which suggests that members should exchange their journals, should assist each other with advice on speakers and should work with EFOSA to validate the various postgraduate courses in Europe and identify those which meet acceptable standards.

In the discussion that followed several members spoke in support of the proposals.  Thierry De Coster supported the suggestion that members should recommend speakers and he approved of the suggestion to list the postgraduate courses. Andre Horn was very enthusiastic about the proposal to list speakers.  He pointed out that collectively FEO members hold about 20 meetings a year.  He suggested that speakers’ fees should be included.  The French society already list their speakers on their website.  Professor Campos Neves said there may be economical problems with speakers and Thierry De Coster warned that this might cause sensitivity.  Aldo Carano suggested that FEO should co-operate with the EOS on this.  Michael Kalavritinos thought FEO should set up a committee to review the best papers.

Andre Horn said that two European countries, France and Italy, have Orthodontic Boards and WFO are discussing the setting up of a World Board.

Athanasios Athanasiou summarised the debate: 

List of Speakers. The FEO will ask members to list their recommended speakers used in 1999 and 2000.  These will be placed on the website with name and subject. 

Orthodontic Boards.  The FEO will write to request copies of the rules for the Italian and French Boards.

Prize for papers.  Athanasios Athanasiou said the time has come to give back some of members’ subscriptions.  It was agreed to set up a Working Group to make recommendations to the Secretary General on the from of a prize for the best paper published in the Journals of members.  It might consider an age limit.  The members of the Working Group will be Professor Nick Haralabakis. Professor Andre Horn, Professor Giampietro Farronato, Professor Campos Neves and Professor Leonid Pershin.

FEO Sponsored paper.  Athanasios Athanasiou said the FEO should sponsor a lecture at a member’s conference.  He suggested a sum of perhaps 1,000 Euros.  It was agreed that the Working Group will also examine this question and report to the Secretary General. 

14.  Report on “Competencies in Orthodontics”

Chris Kettler reported on the decision made by the EFOSA General Assembly in Crete of a definition of a “Specialist in Orthodontics”.

15.  2005 World Conference

Athanasios Athanasiou said that all FEO members must give full support to the French.  The FEO has given a full commitment.  Andre Horn said that from the start the French position is that they want to share the World Conference with the whole of Europe.  Oliver Mauchamp said the role of the WFO is to promote orthodontics throughout the world and they see the holding of international meetings as a vehicle to this end.  The French have decided that the whole of Europe should be involved.  The two French societies have formed a new society, COCIO (Comite D’Organisation du Congres International D’Orthodontie), to organise the Conference with membership from all the European orthodontic societies.  They are holding a meeting in Paris next week.  A principle object of the meeting will be to agree the bylaws and especially the financial arrangements.  The scientific committee has representatives from every country and will work jointly with the WFO.  One day at the Conference will feature a “European Village” when national societies will each organise their own one day meeting, each in a different language and each one translated into English.  He said that the Americans should come to realise that Europe is not just one country.

Gino Madone said that membership of WFO is limited to specialists.  He thinks it is appropriate that there be a world organisation that protects specialists.  This presents a problem with the World Congress in Europe since many non-specialists will be participating.  Oliver Mauchamp said the WFO understands that some countries in Europe have not recognised specialists yet.  WFO allows generalists to attend their conferences; they just charge them more.  But in Paris, societies with generalist members are sharing in the financial risk and he thinks it would be unreasonable to charge more to generalist members of the participating societies.  Prof. Campos Neves said Paris is a scientific meeting and science is not about specialists.  Oliver Mauchamp said the WFO is considering holding a parallel conference for dental assistants at the same time. 

16.  Date for election of new Board

Athanasios Athanasiou said the Bylaws state that elections to the Board should be held every two years.  He proposes that the next elections to the Board should take place at the first General Assembly to be held after Harrogate.  This was agreed.

17.  Any other business

Gino Madone said he wished to make a statement about the analysis the Swiss Orthodontic Society have made of their options for co-operating with other orthodontic societies in Europe.  It has been agreed that from next year the Swiss state will co-operate more closely with the EU and this has caused the Swiss Orthodontic Society to review their own position.  One option would be to transform the EOS into an instrument for collecting information from national societies.  Another would be to take advantage of modern information technology and seek to use the Internet more widely.  Their third option would be to join the FEO.  He thinks the FEO has been greatly strengthened since the first meeting he attended in Paris.  He expects the Swiss Orthodontic Society will take a few years yet to make up its mind.

18.  Date and place of next meeting

Allan Thom confirmed that the next General Assembly would be in Harrogate, England on Saturday 29^th September 2001 on the day prior to the British Orthodontic Conference.  Chris Kettler said all the arrangements necessary at this stage have already been made.

19.  Close of meeting.

Athanasios Athanasiou closed the meeting with thanks to the Russian delegation, Prof. Leonid Persin and Ms. Ospanova for coming so far to attend their first FEO General Assembly.  The whole meeting showed their appreciation too. 

The meeting concluded at 3.45 p.m.  

Allan R Thom

Secretary General

November 2000-11-23 Feo\minutes\florence002