General  Assembly Meeting Of the FEO

Held on Sunday 11th May 2008

SIDO-SFODF at The Lido, Venice

1. Representatives Present

Dr Olivier Mauchamp, France           
President of FEO
Representative of SPODF

Professor Jose Dahan , Belgium           
Administrator of FEO
Representative of SOBOR

Professor Mirjana Sasic , Serbia             
General Secretary of FEO
Representative of SOS

Professor Francesca Miotti, Italy           
General Secretary Adjunct of FEO
Representative of SIDO

Dr Odile Huthereau, Luxembourg           
Treasurer of FEO
Representative of SLDOF

The meeting was opened at 9.00am by Dr Olivier Mauchamp, President of the FEO.

2. Call to order
The President called the meeting to order at 9.00am.  Welcome by the President of  FEO. Dr. Olivier Mauchamp addressed the participants, and thanked all the representatives for their attendance. Dr Mauchamp then introduced those members who were present, and also welcomed the participants to the joint SIDO-SFODF meeting. Dr Mauchamp informed participants that more than 1200 delegates had registered for the meeting, which he regarded as happy and successful.
Dr Mauchamp pointed out that this was also the first MOIP congress and that many representatives of the FEO had attended. 

3.  Welcome by SIDO President
Dr Mauchamp handed-over to Dr Carmela Savastano, Vice-President of SIDO, who welcomed the delegates of the joint SIDO-SODF meeting.  She wished the representatives of FEO well, and voiced her support. President Claudio De Nuccio also welcomed the FEO Delegates to Venice.

4.  Welcome by the FEO President.
Dr. Mauchamp, as FEO president, handed over to Professor Jose Dahan, who stated that he was pleased to see the large number of Societies represented at the FEO meeting. 

5.  Welcome to guests and observers.
Dr. Mauchamps welcomed all guests and observers.

6.  Welcome to WFO representatives.
Dr. Mauchamp commented that we were very fortunate to have three WFO representatives attending. Professor Athanasios E. Athanasiou, President of WFO; Mr Allan Thom and Professor Francesca Miotti, members of the WFO executive.  Dr. Mauchaump extended a warm welcome to these colleagues.  Professor Athanasiou was asked to respond: he extended his gratitude to the FEO for their support, and particularly in arranging a European Session during the World Village Day during the 7th IOC in Sydney.

7.  Apologies.
Three apologies were received, from Romania, Portugal and Turkey.  Jose Llamas, the representative of SEDO, nominated a deputy to be present at the meeting, Prof. A. Puigdollers, and also sent a message of support to the FEO, assuring the organisation of the Spanish Society’s strong support for the FEO.

8.  Approval of the Agenda.
Dr. Mauchamp put this to the vote, and there was unanimous agreement that the agenda should be adopted. This was approved without any modifications.

9.  Approval of the General Assembly in Cadiz, 2007.
Dr. Mauchamp asked the representatives whether they had any questions regarding the minutes, and there were none.  He then asked for approval of the minutes. There was one abstention from a representative who had not been present, but otherwise the minutes were approved and accepted unanimously.

10.  Matters Arising from the Minutes not on the Agenda.
There were no matters arising.

11.  Addendum to the Agenda. 
There were no items to add to the agenda.

12.  Report on FEO activities during the year.   
a)   President’s Report.
Dr. Mauchamp stated that one aim during the last year was to bring two of our member societies (SFODF and SIDO) together as joint organisers of a common congress along with the FEO, and this had been a great success.  Dr. Mauchamp stated that the FEO has two missions: one is to serve the member organisations and the second is to try to gather societies together to facilitate orthodontic events in Europe.  Dr. Mauchamp believes that FEO should act as a bridge to increase respect among societies.  Dr. Mauchamp also stated that on seeing the high quality of presentations produced at national meetings, he wished that all members could be aware of the work that is carried out in other societies.  Dr. Mauchamp hoped that in the future there would be increasing move toward shared meetings such as the current meeting in Venice.  He would furthermore encourage the presidents of the different societies to consider joining forces towards working together. Dr. Mauchamp also stated that although there may be a language barrier, the use of simultaneous translation at the Venice meeting had been straightforward to organise, and constituted only a small cost of the overall proceedings.  The President hoped that further joint meetings would continue to occur, perhaps not yearly, but perhaps every 2 or 4 years.  Dr. Mauchamp offered to write to the presidents of the different societies to consider a large joint meeting, perhaps in 4 years time.  Dr. Mauchamp saw this as a main aim for FEO and hoped that it would progress.  He then stated that the second main aim during his presidency was to liaise with Ian Watson and Rick Olive, regarding the FEO involvement at the 7th IOC meeting in Sydney in 2010.  There will be a world village day in Sydney.  Dr. Mauchamp requested that there should be a European Village during this day, and FEO should be in charge of this session.  Dr. Mauchamp felt that such a European meeting, with speakers selected from the constituent countries, would represent the best that Europe had to offer. The organisers had rapidly and enthusiastically accepted this suggestion.  Dr. Mauchamp has now written to all the constituent member societies in FEO, asking them to forward names of speakers.  It was decided to choose a particular theme for the day, and it was felt that since activators originated in Europe, the clinical and research aspects of activators should be chosen as the topic. Dr. Mauchamp indicated that this would be discussed further under item 14.  He also suggested the concept of a joint meeting with the AAO, noting that dr. Lee Graber, who is a good friend to the European Societies, would become president of the AAO in 2011 and   will be responsible not only for organising the annual spring conference, but also for the winter meetings.  These normally have an attendance of 600–1000 delegates.  Dr. Mauchamp would like to propose that such a meeting could be held in Europe, but the AAO wished to observe the Venice meeting prior to making a decision, and this would be put to the organising board in the near future. Dr. Mauchamp hoped that there would be a positive outcome, and that should such a meeting be held in Europe, all the societies in Europe would be able to participate.  Dr. Mauchamp reiterated that this is an important meeting, attracting some of the best speakers in the world, and where one specific topic was dealt with in considerable depth.
Dr. Mauchamp further reported that EFOSA has requested joining the WFO as a European Member Society.  The WFO had then asked FEO for their feelings on this subject. Dr. Mauchamp consulted the members of the Board regarding this and responded to the WFO.  Dr. Mauchamp then read out the letter that he had sent to the WFO in which he outlined the roles between EOS, EFOSA and FEO.  He concluded that “it is therefore our opinion that if EFOSA feels that they have an interest in being a member of the WFO, we do not have anything against their application”. The President stated that he had signed this in the name of the member societies of FEO.  This completed Dr. Mauchamp’s report.

b)  Secretary General’s  Report
Before presenting her report, Dr. Mauchamp thanked Professor Sasic for the tremendous job she has carried out as Secretary General for the last 4 years.  Dr. Mauchamp stated that the role of Secretary General is a very difficult one, co-ordinating a large number of different societies speaking different languages, and proposed that the society thanked her for her tremendous work.  Participants responded with a warm round of applause.
“Esteemed Presidents and delegates of FEO member societies; dear guests: in view of the relatively limited time available as we have a busy day ahead, and since you have all been circulated a report on FEO activities since our last GA, and as our President, Dr Olivier Mauchamp, has informed you in detail about all the important facts, my suggestion is not to read the whole report but to rather give a short overview of its most important segments. Firstly, I would like to state that, based on all our achievements over the last 4 years, FEO activities under the leadership of Dr. Mauchamp as its President can be evaluated as very successful. During the last 4 years, the newly elected FEO Board has had frequent meetings and its members have participated in all of the most important gatherings of orthodontists and orthodontic organizations (including WFO, AAO, EOS, as well as EFOSA-EOS-FEO and MOIP meetings). However, it has been decided to amend Article 18 of the FEO Statute, as communication by e-mail or telephone alone is not sufficient and it is optimal for the Board to convene twice yearly. As regards activities and events since the last GA in Cadiz, I will concentrate on the relevant items from today's agenda.

1. FEO Award

In Cadiz, the FEO Board decided to also offer an incentive to FEO members, to encourage them to nominate papers published in their own national journals over the previous 2 years. This idea has so far proven to be successful as, this year, we received the highest number of nominations to date -11 papers from 6 Societies. Orthodontic Societies from France, Turkey and Bulgaria have sent nominations for the first time. However, I have a concern which I had pointed out from the beginning of my term as Secretary General, and which has occurred again this year: the number of Societies which vote, on time, for the best paper remains under 50%. This seriously threatens the relevance of this Award, since it is always based on votes of a minority of member societies, regardless of the fact that the time for submitting papers has been considerably shortened by switching to e-mail and PDF format, instead of surface mail. Wishing to rectify this, on almost every occasion the deadline for voting has been prolonged. Thus, on behalf of the Board, I once again appeal to all of you here to actively participate in resolving this problem.

1. FEO Award

Dr. Mauchamp introduced this item by saying that once again this year many articles had been submitted for the Award. These were collated by Professor Sasic and disseminated to all Societies for scrutiny. The articles were then graded and one winner selected.  Dr. Mauchamp reminded representatives that it was agreed at the 2007 meeting in Cadiz that the winning author would be asked to present the paper at the following General Assembly Meeting and would also receive 1000 Euro toward his/her expenses.  Dr. Mauchamp reported that the 2007 winner, Dr Steve Chadwick, had presented his paper the previous day at the Venice meeting, and it was well received.  He also stated that Dr. Chadwick was particularly proud that the constituent society representatives from across Europe had selected his paper for the high quality of its research. 
It was reported that for this year 11 papers published in the national journals of the constituent societies between 2006 and 2007 had been short-listed for the Award.  These comprised 2 papers from the Bulgarian society, 2 papers from SFODF, 1 paper from the Greek Orthodontic Society, 2 papers from the British Orthodontic Society, 2 papers from SIDO and 2 from the Turkish Orthodontic Society.  These were scrutinised and votes were received from 11 societies.  The winning paper selected  was ‘Elective Orthognathic Treatment Decision Making’ a survey of patient reasons and experiences”, by J. Stirling, G. Latchford, D.O. Morris, J.Kindelan, R.J.Spencer and H.L.Becker, published in the Journal of Orthodontics in June 2007. The main author will be contacted and asked to present the paper at next year’s General Assembly.
A deadline will also need to be set for submission of next year’s papers, to coincide with next year’s General Assembly.  Normally, submitted papers are received four months before the meeting, and the responses from the individual societies should be received one month before the General Assembly.

14.  FEO Day during the 7th IOC in Sydney. 
Dr. Mauchamp handed over to professor Francesca Miotti, who outlined the programme for the 7th IOC in Sydney.  She informed members that there would be 2 days of pre-congress courses followed by a three-day conference, interspersed with a World Village Day.  Five groups have decided to organize a session during the Village Day: the Australian Society of Orthodontics, the British Orthodontic Society, the South American Congress, the Arab Orthodontic Society and the Asian-Pacific Orthodontic Conference.  FEO has also offered to organise a European Day and the theme will be the European perspective on Functional Appliances (Orthopaedics and Function: a Century of Research in Europe).Professor Miotti appealed for information and speakers from the assembled members. Furthermore, the Australian Orthodontic Society will be holding the Annual Congress during the 7th IOC and the British Orthodontic Society is also holding their Annual Spring Meeting in Sydney on that day, as indicated by Mr Allan Thom.  He also suggested that in order to prevent competition, particularly between FEO and BOS, there should be strong links between the two organisations in setting-up the respective programmes.  Dr. Mauchamp stated that he was very happy to work with the BOS, and asked that they provided the name of a responsible member to facilitate co-operation.  Jose Dahan suggested the BOS select a different topic than the FEO.  Dr. Mauchamp reminded members that the BOS cancelled their main conference also in 2005 to coincide with the 6th IOC in Paris, and knew that the Australians were pleased that the BOS were also supporting the 7th IOC. Dr. Mauchamp suggested that financial support should be forthcoming form the FEO on behalf of the speakers.  Professor Miotti agreed that the FEO should support some speakers, given the long trip involved, and Dr.Mauchamp suggested that following the treasurer’s report, a decision about remuneration could be made.

15.   Treasurer’s Report.
The FEO treasurer Dr. Odile Huthereau presented her report.  At the end of December 2007, the FEO holds 24,232 Euro. She said that there were very few costs, with modest costs for the website.  Most communication was sent by email, which incurred no expense.  There were also expenses for the FEO Award and prize.  The FEO award is currently 1000 Euro.  The bank charges were only 11 Euro for the entire year.  The FEO also holds 32,317 Euro in a deposit account.  This has increased recently to 43,000 Euro due to the subscriptions paid earlier in 2008.   Dr. Mauchamp thanked Dr. Huthereau for the report, and for looking after the accounts.  Dr. Thierry DeCoster raised the question of the fee for Belgium.  He stated that Belgium has 321 members, but was being charged only 295 Euro. Odile stated that she would amend this small discrepancy. 
Dr. Mauchamp asked that the accounts should be accepted.  This was agreed.
He then asked representatives if they were willing to provide financial support for the 8-12 speakers on the FEO World Village Day in Sydney.  Allan Thom requested clarification of the amount that would be provided and what level of travel costs would be covered.
Francesca Miotti reported that there would be 38 keynote speakers on the main programme, plus 76 invited speakers, and these will all be well-known senior researchers. There will also be two pre-congress courses, on TAD and on Aesthetics and Orthodontic Appliances. Most well known lecturers would be included in the general programme, thus some young researchers should also be selected and nominated for the World Village Day.  Further, the IOC scientific committee would prefer to have on the WVD speakers who were not lecturing on the main programme. Olivier Mauchamp indicated that the board and the scientific committee will decide on the speakers.  He requested that country representatives should send names of possible speakers to him within 2 weeks. 

16.  Auditor’s Report.
It was reported that the two auditors, Allan Thom and Abraham Kyriakides, had verified the accounts.  The auditors also accepted the treasurer’s report. 

17.  Website Report
Olivier Mauchamp thanked Julian O’Neill for being fast and efficient in his management of the website over the last year.  Julian O’Neill opened his report by thanking the individual delegates for providing information for the website.  He stated that the website was easier to navigate; however, some updating of home pages could be carried out and some further information would be required to complete the history page.  A report on website activities had been sent to Mirjana Sasic, the Secretary General.  The costs were approximately 150 Euro for hosting and updates per year.  The website hosts have suggested a new method of billing.  In the past, they have charged individually for updates as they occur.  It is suggested that we pay a flat fee to buy for example 2 hours updating at a fixed cost.  It is recommended that we adopt this method of paying for updates.  Julian O’Neill stated that the website was only as good as the information provided, and encouraged representatives to send in any news which could be posted.  Some updating of the links could also be carried out.   Jose Dahan suggested that a small history of each of the societies could be included on the website. 

1. FEO Newsletter

Jose Dahan suggested utilizing the website as a data carrier for the newsletter, hence avoiding editing papers that may be costly and often not read, from our societies and their members. This was unanimously approved.

19.  Reports from Member Societies.  
Germany:  Barbel  Kahl Nieke reported that they had celebrated 100 years of orthodontics in Germany.

Greece: Panos Skoularikis reported on the activities of the Greek Orthodontic Society (GOS). The Greek Orthodontic Society was founded in 1963 and has more than 400 members. The organization contributes significantly to the continuing education of its members by regularly organizing congresses, symposia, courses and other scientific activities. The GOS was actively involved in the foundation of the WFO and is also a founding member of the European Federation of Orthodontics (FEO). The GOS publishes biannually the scientific journal “Hellenic Orthodontic Review” in both Greek and English. Professor Athanasios E. Athanasiou, WFO President, Chairman, Department of Orthodontics, School of Dentistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, has been lately announced Honorary President of the Greek Orthodontic Society.
   
United Kingdom:  Julian O’Neill reported from the BOS that they too had celebrated 100 years of orthodontics in the UK.  On the political front, orthodontics has been cash limited within the National Health Service, with limited contracts given to orthodontic practitioners.

Italy:  Carmela Savastano reported that the next SIDO Congress will take place in November 2008, and the 40th SIDO Birthday will be celebrated on this occasion. The next Congress will be organized in Rome in 2009.  There have been some recent changes in SIDO’s Byelaws to reflect international requirements. SIDO is the largest group in the FEO, with over 3000 members.

Serbia:  Mirjana Sasic reported on the activities of the Serbian Orthodontic Society.

Israel:  Sylvia Geron reported that the Society had 150 members, including 45 non-specialists and students.  There are 2 congresses in Israel per year.

20.  Report of Joint FEO / MOIP Meetings and Future Possibilities.
Olivier Mauchamp reported that MOIP had not yet decided on the location for the next meeting in 2010.  He suggested that FEO could consider the next joint meeting with MOIP should take place in 2012. 

21.  EFOSA / EOS / FEO Relationship
Olivier Mauchamp reported that an account had been provided of this last year.  EFOSA have applied to become a member of WFO.  WFO had in turn asked FEO for their comments.  Olivier Mauchamp had responded that FEO had no objection to EFOSA becoming a member of WFO and had circulated this correspondence at the time. 

22.  Vote on the question of Full Membership of the Israel Orthodontic                                                    Society as requested in Cadiz
Olivier Mauchamp stated that membership of the FEO was restricted by byelaws to countries within the geographic limitations of Europe.  In order to welcome Israel as a full member of FEO, there would need to be a fundamental change in the byelaws, which would be untenable.  It was decided not to vote on the issue.  It was therefore concluded that Israel like any other “out of Europe” country should remain as corresponding member and that FEO will strive in the future to offer some voting advantages in specific matters like education, academic and scientific projects or programmes.

23.  Election of the Board 2008 – 2010
Olivier Mauchamp indicated 2 issues regarding the future of the board.  One was that he felt that the board should be larger, better to represent the increasing membership within FEO; the second was that steps should be taken to ensure that the board will meet twice per year.  At present, there are five members of the board: the President, the Vice-President, the Secretary General, the Adjunct Secretary General and the Treasurer.   Olivier Mauchamp suggested a modification in the by-laws, which currently read that there should be five members of the board, to be changed to five or more members of the board.  Some discussion took place and one question raised the maximum size of the board. This proposal will be put on the Agenda of the next Board meeting for discussion and will be presented to the membership during the next GA.

Election of New Board 

President
Francesca Miotti was suggested.  There was unanimous support for Francesca, who was duly elected. 

Vice-President

Barbel Kahl Nieke was suggested for this position, and accepted it.
Secretary General  
Julian O’Neill had been proposed by the British Orthodontic Society and accepted this position.
Treasurer
Odile Huthereau has completed six years as Treasurer.  It was proposed that as the accounts have been well looked after in Luxembourg, this position should remain in that country and Michel Steil was proposed and accepted as Treasurer. 
Secretary General Adjunct
Panos Skoularikis was proposed by GOS, and accepted the position.
Administrator
Jose Dahan agreed to remain as Belgian Administrator. 

24.  Election of the Webmaster
Olivier Mauchamp suggested that Georges Rosencweig could assist Julian O’Neill in running the website and undertook to contact Georges to ask him would he be willing to take-up this position.

25.   Modification of Article 18 of the bye-laws, to be submitted at the next General Assembly.
Article 18 states the Board will meet whenever necessary, or when specifically convened by its President.  An administrator can be represented by another administrator who does not already hold a proxy vote.  The Board cannot make decisions if fewer than 50% of members are present or represented.  Changes to this byelaw will be circulated prior to the next General Assembly meeting in 2009.

26.  Any Other Business
Olivier Mauchamp asked if there was any other business.  A question was raised with respect to European Membership of WFO.  Now that the FEO is a member of WFO, and EFOSA wishes to join, what was to stop other organisations purporting to represent Europe from joining?  Allan Thom responded that within the WFO constitution, any organisation wishing to join WFO would need the agreement of other members such as FEO and could not be done by the ‘back door’. 

27.  Applications to Host the General Assembly 2009.
 At the General Assembly in Cadiz, Mladen Slaj had kindly offered that the GA could be held in Croatia in 2009. Mladen needed to leave the meeting early to fly back, and asked Francesca Miotti to confirm the details.  Francesca reported that the Croatian Orthodontic Society will be organising a 2-day event in September 2009.  Both Vince Kokich and Bjorn Zachrisson have indicated that they will be retiring from the international circuit and would each hope to give their last lecture at this meeting to be held in Dubrovnik at the end of the first week in September in 2009.  Olivier Mauchamp asked the representatives whether they would be happy to travel to Croatia for this meeting, and this was unanimously accepted. 
The General Assembly 2009 will take place on September 6th in Dubrovnik.

28.  Closure of the Meeting
Olivier Mauchamp stated that he had been very happy and felt extremely privileged to have worked for the FEO, and wished the Federation a long life.  He will however continue supporting FEO as immediate past-president. He then closed the meeting.  Jose Dahan led the representatives in a round of applause and Francesca Miotti responded, thanking everyone for their confidence as she assumed the position of the President. 

The meeting ended at 12.00 noon.