MINUTES OF EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF ORTHODONTICS (FEO)
GENERAL ASSEMBLY


The BOS Conference in the Swallow St. George Hotel, Harrogate, England
29th September 2001 at 11 00 a.m

Representatives present:    
     
Name   From  Position
     
Prof. Athanasios Athanasiou Athens, Greece President FEO and President GOS
Dr. Thierry De Coster Brussels, Belgium Vice-President FEO and President SOBOR
Mr. Allan Thom Tunbridge Wells, England Secretary General FEO International Representative BOS
Dr. Aldo Carano Taranto, Italy Treasurer FEO and Vice-President SIDO
Dr. Odile Steil-Hutereau Luxembourg Assistant Secretary FEO and President SLODF
Dr. Oliver Mauchamp Grenoble, France Chairman of World Conference 2005 and Board Member SFODF
Dr. Michael Kalavritinos  Athens, Greece Trustee GOS
Dr. Michel Steil Luxembourg Assistant Secretary-General SLODF
Dr. Jose Chaques-Asensi Spain International representative Spain
Dr. Alexander Moutafchiev Sofia, Bulgaria Bulgarian Orthodontic Society
Dr. David Barnett U.K British Orthodontic Society
     
Invited Observers    
     
Dr. Lee Graber USA President WFO
Dr. Sabine Ruff Germany Representative DGfK
Dr. Rafi Romano Israel  President IOS
     
Apologies were received from:    
     
Prof. Jose Dahan Brussels, Belgium Administrator FEO
Dr. Giorgio Fiorelli  Arezzo, Italy Past-Secretary General SIDO and FEO Webmaster
Dr. Andre Horn Montfort-L’Amaury, France President SFODF
Mr. Chris Kettler Bedford, England  Secretary BOS
Prof. Massimo Ronchin Past President SIDO
Prof. Juri Kurol EFOSA/Sweden President EFOSA and President Swedish Orthodontic Society
Prof. James Moss EOS Secretary EOS
Dr. Wolfgang Schmiedel  EFOSA Secretary-General EFOSA
Dr. Susanne Siersbaek-Nielson Denmark President Danish Orthodontic Society
Dr. Haye Jremmelink Netherlands President Dutch Orthodontic Society
Dr. Marti Pirttiniemi  Finland President Finnish Orthodontic Society
Prof. Peter Schopf Germany President German Orthodontic Society
Ass. Prof. Nick Haralabakis Athens, Greece International Relations Representative GOS
Prof. Dr. Mirjana Sasic Belgrade, Yugoslavia President Yugoslavia Orthodontic Society
Prof. Dr. Valentin Moutafchiev Sofia, Bulgaria President Bulgarian Orthodontic Society
Dr. Luis Beltrami  Madrid, Spain President SEDO
Prof. Valentina Dorobat Bucharest, Romania Asociatia Nationala Romana de Orthdontie
Prof. Anna Komorowska Poland President Polish Orthodontic Society
Dr. Gabriela Alexandrova  Slovakia President Slovakia Orthodontic Society
Dr. Gino Madone Switzerland President Swiss Orthodontic Society
Dr. Annlaug Stensland Noway President Norwegian Orthodontic Society

 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 by President of British Orthodontic Society.

3.       Welcome to observers.

4.       Apologies for absence.

5.       Approval of the agenda.

6.       Approval of minutes of meeting on 4th November 2000

7.       Matters arising from minutes not in agenda.

8.       Address by President WFO. Dr. Lee Graber

9.       Secretary General’s report.

10.   To discuss proposition of FEO Award [details previously circulated]

11.   To discuss List of Speakers [questionnaire previously circulated]

12.   To discuss letter from SIDO [enclosed for members]

13.   Orthodontic Education and Specialist Recognition

·         Letter from European commission  [enclosed for members]

·         FEO questionnaire on Past Graduate Education [previously circulated]

14.   Treasurer’s report including subscription rates.

15.   Vice-President’s report.

16.   Webmaster’s report

(a)    Appointment of website society representatives

(b)    Website costs

(c)    Updating, new sections

17.   Israel application for membership.

18.   Report on EFOSA’s General assembly 18th June 2001 (Ghent)

19.   Report on National Forum 19th June 2001 (Ghent)

20.   2005 World Conference

21.   Date for election of new Board.

22.   Proposals for next General Assembly after June 2001

·         Place and Time

·         Obligations of Host society

23.   Any other business.

24.   Close of meeting.

The meeting was opened at 11.00 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 asked all members to think upon the tragedy that had occurred in the USA on 11th September and reported that an e-mail of condolences had been sent from the FEO. He thanked the British Orthodontic Society for hosting the FEO General-Assembly and their hospitality.

2.      Welcome by President of British Orthodontic Society.

The President of the British Orthodontic Society, Dr. Neville Bass welcomed the FEO delegates. He said it was a pleasure for the British Orthodontic Society to host the General Assembly and wished all delegates a most successful meeting. In addition he welcomed the delegates to the British Orthodontic Conference, the largest dental conference in the UK with over 1400 delegates registered. He hoped FEO members would take the opportunity of visiting the conference and trade show.

3.      Welcome to observers

Prof. Athanasios Athanasiou in particular welcomed Dr. Lee Graber from the USA, Dr. Sabine Ruff from Germany and Dr. Rafi Romano from Israel.

4.      Apologies for absence

The apologies for absence were received and recorded.

5.      Approval of the agenda. 

The agenda was approved.

6.      Approval of minutes of meeting 4th November 2000

The Secretary-General reported 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.

7.      Matters arising from minutes not in agenda.

There were no matters arising.

8.      Address by President of the WFO Dr. Lee Graber 

Dr. Lee Graber thanked the FEO for the invitation to attend. He said there were many similarities between FEO and the WFO. The WFO now had 6300 members. The aims of the WFO were to:

  • Encourage high standards
  • Help Orthodontic Associations and Societies
  • Help and encourage Certifying Boards
  • To promote orthodontic research
  • The dissemination of scientific information
  • To set standards of training
  • To organise International Orthodontic Conferences

Dr. Graber referred to the 2005 IOC in Paris. He said it was a truly European venture in conjunction with the WFO and the French Orthodontic societies.

He referred to the need to promote IT and long distance learning particularly for colleagues in less privileged countries.

Following the 11th September tragedy Dr. Graber personally and the WFO had received hundreds of e-mails expressing concern and offers of support. These were all very much appreciated and meant much to American colleagues.

He conveyed the greetings of the Presidents and Executives of the AAO and WFO to the FEO. Dr. Graber thanked the officers of the FEO for the invitation and looked forward to staying throughout the meeting as many of the agenda items affecting Europe were similar to those discussed within the WFO.

Prof. Athanasios Athanasiou thanked Dr. Graber for his address and this was followed by spontaneous applause.

9.      Secretary-General’s report

Secretary-General’s Report.

Period November 2000  – September 2001

The legal status of the FEO has been published in the Belgium Gazette.

The bylaws of all member societies have been received and filed in the FEO archives.

 At the AAO in Toronto an informal Board meeting was held. Future developments were discussed and these are on the Agenda today.

Our President, Vice-President and Secretary-General represented FEO at the EFOSA General Assembly in Ghent and the Forum of National Orthodontic Societies.

Our Webmaster continues to update the web site and we thank Dr. Fioreli for the excellent work he is doing for FEO. It is important that all relevant information is provided to the Webmaster and this issue will be discussed later today. Unfortunately only the British, Greek and Italian Societies have updated their site.

Following the last General-Assembly Professor Farronato produced an excellent discussion document on proposals for the FEO Award. This paper was circulated to all member societies and remains under discussion.

The Secretary-General circulated a questionnaire on postgraduate training programmes in Europe. Replies have been received from Bulgaria, Britain, Greece, Spain, Italy, and Belgium. If any other countries wish to contribute please advise the Secretary-General as the details will shortly be posted to the FEO website.

The treasurer will make his report. However, we recognize the hard work involved in collecting the appropriate funds.

The Secretary-General has circulated all relevant information to member societies together with notification and agenda of this meeting to the president of every European Orthodontic Society.

An expression of interest in membership has been received from Israel and this is an agenda item at this General Assembly.

The FEO grows in strength and stature. Requests for educational and other support have been received from colleagues in less privileged countries and we must discuss how we can offer assistance to ensure a truly European orthodontic fraternity.

One country has already offered to host the 2002 FEO General Assembly and again this will be discussed.

Following the tragedy in New York on 11th September the Secretary-General e-mailed the WFO and AAO expressing the condolences and concern of all members of the FEO. A very appreciative reply was received and the text will be in the next issue of the AAO newsletter.

The Secretary-General welcomes items of interest which can be posted to the website.

I would like to express my thanks to all Board colleagues for their help and support and in addition colleagues of member societies who have been of assistance and responded to requests.

Allan R Thom

Secretary-General

September 2001

10.  FEO Award

At the last General Assembly the proposition of a FEO Ward was discussed. A preliminary draft was circulated to all Presidents on 16th March 2001. There was discussion over the wording of the award and in particular the level of financial reward. It was pointed out that there need to flexibility in the wording. It is anticipated that the recipient of an award will present the paper at a National Conference where the FEO is, at the same time, holding a General Assembly. The travel costs payable to the recipient will therefore vary.

It was agreed to ask Presidents to select a maximum of two papers published in 2001 in their national journal.

The agreed wording for the FEO Award is as follows:

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Federatio Europea Orthodontica

 FEO Award

The FEO Award has been created to recognise a scientific paper that has made a significant contribution in research and clinical investigation that has advanced Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopaedics.

Each year the FEO will appoint one award for the best paper published, in the previous year, in the national journal of an FEO Member Society. Papers are eligible provided that they are original.

The objective of the award is to encourage and enhance the publication of results of original research and clinical applications of orthodontic interest. The winner will receive a certificate and a financial reward.

The Board of Directors of FEO and the Presidents of the Member Societies compose the Award Committee. If the President or a Representative of the member society is on the Board of Directors of FEO the society will not appoint another delegate.

The Presidents of the Members Societies will be asked to select up to two articles published on the official Journal of the Society.

The selected papers should be submitted, in English, or accompanied with an English translation, to the Board of FEO for final adjudication.

Letters of nomination, describing the detail the paper in the context of the objectives of this award should be submitted to the secretariat of the FEO.

Selection will be based on:

1)      The scope of research, with special emphasis being placed on its impact on Orthodontics.

2)      The implication of the results on clinical applications.

11.  FEO List of Speakers

The list of speakers’ document [previously circulated], was discussed. It was agreed to ask Presidents of societies to circulate the document and seek members who are interested and willing to present lectures/courses to member societies.

The aim of this is to help small societies find speakers. The reimbursement will be travel and hotel costs but NO honoraria.

12.  Letter from SIDO

SIDO publishes two journals. One in Italian and one in English [Progress in Orthodontics].

A letter has been received by FEO from SIDO asking if FEO would wish to be associated with Progress in Orthodontics and as such nominate it as a FEO Journal.

The President outlined the current European structure, which resulted in the “Letter of Venice” which reached agreement between the European Societies.

As such:

  • EOS represents individual members.
  • EFOSA is a Federation of Professional Societies of the EU with affiliates outside the EU.
  • FEO is a Federation of Scientific Societies.

The FEO Bylaws record that the FEO can become involved in any scientific activity.

There was a far ranging discussion over the number of journals and the role of the FEO. It was noted that the future will lie in website journals and communication. In addition no Journal will be successful unless it has the backing of a scientific society.

It was noted that a conflict should not ensue with the present publications from National Orthodontic Societies. In addition if papers were to be reproduced the question of copyright would need to be addressed.

Some members indicated they would like to have a forum where papers in other journals could be made available or abstracted. Dr. Graber pointed out that there is an index of all journals on the Website.

The President of FEO pointed out that the Board of FEO has no definite view. However, publishing a journal would present both political and copyright problems. Of the 13 members of FEO 11 publish a journal. There are approximately 55 orthodontic journals world-wide.

It is recognised that SIDO is a very active and indeed founder member of the FEO. They make a significant contribution to FEO. However, FEO has to consider its principles and as such should not own or publish a journal.

It was felt a satisfactory compromise would be:

  • Each society to appoint one member to the Editorial Board of Progress in Orthodontics.
  • Each society may contribute a paper to be reprinted with respect to copyright.
  • The FEO would provide a list of members for SIDO to contact and approach with a view to subscribing to Progress in Orthodontics.
  • The FEO will endorse Progress in Orthodontics with no political or financial aspects.

It was agreed that the FEO would approach SIDO with these suggestions.

13.  Orthodontic Education and Specialist Recognition

The letter from the European Commission was received. It was agreed FEO would respond by stating the presence of FEO representing National Orthodontic Societies within Europe and offering any assistance to the Commission.

It was agreed to circulate again the questionnaire on orthodontic postgraduate training programmes in Europe. To date only a few countries have replied. It is planned to place the details on the FEO website.

14.  Treasurer’s report

Dr. Aldo Carano presented his report. The FEO finances are sound with a credit balance of 26,398.37 Euro on 25/09/01.

It was agreed in view of the circumstances in Yugoslavia, FEO would again waive the subscription fees for Yugoslavia The subscription rate for 2002 would remain the same as 2001.

The President thanked the Treasurer for keeping the books so well.

15.  and 16. These agenda items were taken together

It was noted that recently both Yugoslavia and Luxembourg have a website.

The FEO website has links but the link to EFOSA is to be arranged.

The FEO Webmaster has submitted his report as follows:

FEO WEBSITE REPORT by Giorgio Fiorelli

Arezzo Sept. 20th , 2001

Dear colleagues,

I am very sorry for not participating to this meeting. Very important personal reasons are precluding me to be there in these days.

As asked by our president, Prof. Athanasiou, and our General Secretary, Mr. Thom, I wrote a short report about the FEO website, its activity, its present malfunctioning and limits, and its possible improvements.

Present status of the web site

The FEO web site is at this time hosted by a server in Italy, where also the Italian orthodontic society web site is located. Our web address is www.sido.it/feo.

The site contains data about the FEO directory, meetings, bylaws and general rules. The most important information’s, on my point of view, are those related to the member societies and their activities. In our last meeting in Florence I had already mentioned that I had difficulties in keeping the site updated and it was agreed that: “each society should appoint a website representative who will be responsible for feeding up to date information to the webmaster”.

In the last year, however, I have collected updated data only by the British and Greek society. I therefore assume that other societies did not appoint a web site representative for this purpose.

Due to this lack of information our web site is heavily outdated and I imagine that its utility at the present status is greatly diminished

As decided in the last Florence meeting a page including links has been added.

Possible developments and improvements

  1. Feo web address
    I think it is important to have a proprietary domain for FEO. I recommend that we pre-register for the new global extensions .biz The domain www.feo.biz is still available and we could register for a small cost. This new address could be hosted in the same server as before.
  2. Feo updating
    I believe that the proposal, of having a web representative for each society that was done during the Florence meeting is still a very good one. However, it needs the co-operation of the single member societies. As I said before this co-operation has not always been good and this led to the outdating of our web site.
    I think is now possible to take advantages of new technologies that are available for free in the net. As I have communicated to the board I have created a FEO newsgroup within the newsgroup pages of Yahoo. This can help all FEO members to share information that can be edited directly by the member societies. In this way it would be very easy to keep an updated calendar of meetings. In fact all web site representative would be allowed to edit the meeting calendar, while the other members of members societies could just consult it. In order to see these pages and evaluate this technology please go to      http://groups.yahoo.com/group/feo-group/join  and join the group.
    However without a good co-operation by all member societies, even with the use of this new tool, the site will never be properly updated. This unless someone takes the commitment to search the needed information requiring them to all societies and pass these to me. This task was performed very well by Mr. Kettler 2 years ago, unfortunately I am not available to do it on my own at the present time, and if the assembly decides that we should go back to this old procedure, there should be a volunteer for this position of “data collector”.
  3. New contents
    I don’t think any kind of new content should be added at present time. Any extension of our web site functionality should be considered only when those functions, which should be working now, would be running properly.

Webmaster Position

I have been managing the site for two years now. It is the time extent for which I committed myself as FEO webmaster. I am still available to keep this function for the next two years. However, if someone else is willing to take this position or the board of FEO believes that someone else should now take care of the site I am available to resign.

Giorgio Fiorelli

There was discussion over the Web and the amount of work involved. Dr. Fiorelli’s contribution was noted and recorded in the minutes. It was agreed to offer Dr. Fiorelli financial assistance to employ a secretary/assistant to reduce his considerable workload.

It was further agreed that that a new section termed Corresponding Member Site should be set up and Israel, amongst other societies, should have the opportunity of contributing.

Each society MUST nominate a Webmaster and communicate with Dr. Fiorelli directly. Copies should be sent to the Secretary-General.

The Secretary-General will ask Dr. Fiorelli the cost of a new FEO website.

17.  Israel application for membership

Dr. Rafi Romano, President of the Israel Orthodontic Society, outlined the current problems and situation within Israel.

The Israeli Orthodontic Society has two categories of specialist membership. However all specialists have a Ministry of Health Licence to practice the speciality.

The Israeli Orthodontic Society has 195 members. Of these:

  • 135 are accredited specialists
  • 12 are post graduate students
  • 48 qualified in orthodontics without an accredited training programme and have not taken the formal Board Qualification. However, they are regarded as “specialists”.

Dr. Romano pointed out that General Practitioners in Israel carry out orthodontic treatment. There is at present a media campaign to highlight the role of specialist orthodontists.

The Israeli Orthodontic Society is seeking membership of the FEO. Dr. Romano said that although Israel is not geographically within Europe it is accepted within many European committees and organisations. Particularly in the world of sport.

Israeli orthodontists are members of the WFO and the EOS does not accept Israeli as full members.

Athanasios Athanasiou thanked Dr. Romano for hi