MINUTES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
THE MEDITERRANEAN FORUM OF PHYSICAL AND REHABILITATION MEDICINE
September 19, 2008, 12.30-14.00
St. Bernardine Grand Hotel, Portorose - Slovenia,
Present: Nicolas Christodoulou, Polydoros Papadopoulos (Cyprus), Jorge Lains, Catarina A. Branco (Portugal), Amparo Martinez Assucena, Enrique Varela, David Hernandez Herrero (Spain), Gulseren Akyuz, Oder Kayhan, Tansu Arasil, Dilsad Sindel, Aydan Oral, Hakan Gunduz, Engin Gakar, Mehmet A. Taskaynatan, Mehmet Zeki Kiralp, Umut Akgun, Banu Kuran, Ilker Yagu (Turkey), Xanthi Michail, Marianthi Tzara (Greece), Alessandro Giustini, Franco Cirillo, Raffaele Gimigliano, Marco Franceschini, Calogero Foti, Stefano Negrini, Francesca Gimigliano, Tommaso Sciara, Gessica Della Bella, Enrico Di Paola, Salvatore Calvaruso, Sirico Felice, Fabio La Povia (Italy), Catherine Dziri (Tunisia), Sasa Moslavac (Croatia), Nachum Soroker (Israel), Alain Delarque & Monique Delarque (France), Crt Marincek, Klemen Grabljevec, Uzolo Tonozic, Breda Jsenjeh Papez, Ivka Fsis Smaka, Stanko Tomink (Slovenia), Milan Obrabovic (Montenegro), Fatmira Reci (Albania), Mihai Berteanu, Ioana Mircea (Romania), Milica Lazovic, Lazlo Schwirtlich (Serbia), Mohamed El-Abd & Tarek Shafshak (Egypt), Jonathan-Ioakim Mamo (Malta).
1. COUNCIL nominations: Firstly representatives of every Mediterranean Country which participate to MFPRM were determined. According to this: Dr. Nicolas Christodoulou from Cyprus, Dr. Jorge Lains from Portugal, Dr. Xanthi Michail from Greece, Dr. Amparo Martinez Assucena from Spain, Dr. Gulseren Akyuz from Turkey, Dr. Alessandro Giustini from Italy, Dr. Catherine Dziri from Tunisia, Dr. Sasa Moslavac from Croatia, Dr. Nachum Soroker from Israel, Dr. Alain Delarque from France, Dr. Klemen Grabljevec from Slovenia, Dr. Milan Obrabovic from Montenegro, Dr. Fatmira Reci from Albania, Dr. Mihai Berteanu from Romania, Dr. Milica Lazovic from Serbia, Dr. Mohamed El-Abd from Egypt, and Dr. Jonathan-Ioakim Mamo from Malta became council members.
2. General Issues: The President welcome everybody, thanked Pr. Crt Marincek for his excellent hospitality and congratulated him for the high standard organization of this congress. Before starting the discussion of the several topics, the president announced officially that the first honorary member of the Board, Pr. Haim Ring, has passed away on the 16.09.2008 and he asked the General Assembly’s members to honour the memory of the late Haim Ring and stand for a minute of silence. He then referred to all the efforts done for the promotion of the Forum. Now the Forum has 422 individual members coming from 24 different countries. Despite the fact that no membership fees are paid by the members, the benefits for each member are significant. A lot of thousands of money are spent for the operation of the Euro-Mediterranean PRM School, for the operation of the Forum Board, for the participation to our congresses of members coming from poor Mediterranean countries etc. Then he asked the Vice President to present the Portorose congress in figures. Pr. Crt Marincek, the Congress President of the 7th Mediterranean PRM Congress and Vice-President of MFPRM, stated that there were 715 participants from 42 countries. The number of talks was 205, including lectures and oral presentations in 3 parallel sessions. Daily poster presentation number was 70 and total poster number of the 3 days was 210. There were 36 invited lecturers.
3. MFPRM Action Plan: Dr. Nicolas Christodoulou informed the General Assembly members about the MFPRM Action Plan which was sent by him a few months ago. The Action Plan is reflecting the planned activities of the Board. In relation to this Plan the president and the members of the Board will define the several activities and working groups in the following committees:
1) Communication & Information Committee: a. Web-site, b. Journals, c. News-Letters
2) Scientific Events Committee
3) Research Projects Committee
4) Committee for Conducts with Disabled People Associations
5) International Activities Co-operation Committee
6) Mediterranean Clinical Guidelines Committee
7) Educational Activities Committee:
a. Euro-Mediterranean PRM School in Syracuse of Sicily (every November / October).
b. European School of Marseille for PRM in Marseille (every July).
c. Participation to the WAPIE (World Action Plan for the Initial Education in PRM).
d. Any other Mediterranean PRM School (? Every April / March)
The list was circulated asking the volunteers who want to work in any committee according to their interests and activities, to write their name at the proper place.
4. Proposals for statute changes: The proposed by the Board changes in the statute of MFPRM, which were sent to all members with the G.A. invitation were discussed and agreed unanimously:
a. The article 5.c was amended as follows: “The President’s election is done separately from the other members of the Board; at least three members of the Council can propose a candidate for the Presidency. President becomes the nominee who receives the most votes of the Council. Vice-President is automatically appointed the Organizer of the next Mediterranean Congress, unless he/she has already become president. In this case Vice-President becomes the nominee who received the most votes during the elections for the Board members. The posts of Secretary, Treasurer and members of the Council are given to the rest five winners-nominees by decision of the Board during the first meeting, soon after the General Assembly”.
b. The following paragraph “d” to article 5 was added: “From 2008 onwards, the “two years” terms of the President can be continuously, up to two”.
5. General Discussion: Pr. Nicolas Christodoulou announced his decision to organize a scientific prize during the 2010 Mediterranean PRM Congress called “Haim Ring Mediterranean PRM Prize”. The prize will be given to the best oral presentation of the congress. Besides the certificate, a symbolic amount of money will be given. Certificates will receive all the individuals of oral presentations, so as the name of “Haim Ring Mediterranean PRM Prize” will be spread to all the participants. He expressed his hope that this initiation will continue during the next Mediterranean Congresses. Dr. Jorge Lains suggested that this can be written in the article 8 of our Statute, so as to be adopted by the next congresses. It is decided this proposal to be presented at the 2010 G.A. Also, the president informs the members of the G.A. that during the Congress Gala Dinner it will be given the 1st MFPRM AWARD to Dr. Franco Cirillo for his contribution to the development of the Forum by operating the School in Syracuse for 4 continuous years. This was a proposal of the late Pr. Haim Ring adopted by all the Board members. On this occasion the president expresses the unanimous proposal of the Board to the G.A. Dr. Franco Cirillo to be inaugurated as a Honorary Board member. The proposal of the Board was unanimously accepted by the G.A.
6. 4th Euro–Mediterranean PRM School in Syracuse, 20-24.10.2008:
Dr. Franco Cirillo and Pr. Nicolas Christodoulou gave information about the program of the 4th Euro-Mediterranean PRM School. Franco Cirillo suggested changing the name of the school for the memory of Haim Ring. The name of the School was changed to “Haim Ring Euro- Mediterranean PRM School” by a unanimous voting in General Assembly.
7. “8th Mediterranean PRM Congress”: Pr. Nicolas Christodoulou presented the details of the congress, which is planned to take place in 2010, between September 29 and October 2, in Limassol. People from all countries are allowed to enter Cyprus without any restriction, except visa for some countries. For the colleagues from Turkey special arrangements will be planned for a convenient arrival in Limassol. He also, announced his candidacy for hosting the ISPRM Interim Board meeting in 2010 during the congress. Since the voting procedure will be electronic, he kindly invites all the ISPRM Board members, not to forget to vote before the end of November ‘08 and help his candidature.
8. “9th Mediterranean PRM Congress in 2012”: The president announced that he has already received an application from Pr. Raffaele Gimigliano to organize this congress in Napoli (Sorrento). He asked the General Assembly members if there is any other candidate. Pr. Tarek Shafshak announced the candidacy of Alexandria of Egypt and he will be the president of the organizing committee. Francesca Gimigliano and Tarek Shafshak presented their candidacies for Napoli and Alexandria. The Council members gave their secret vote. Napoli received 10 votes and Alexandria 8. It was accepted that the organization of the 2012 will be at Napoli by Pr. Raffaele Gimigliano.
9. Elections of the new Board:
a. Following the voting of the new statute changes, the election of the new MFPRM president will take place separately. The only candidate was Pr. Nicolas Christodoulou who was elected unanimously.
b. For the election of the New Board members, candidates were the following: Dr Jorge Lains, Dr Klemen Grabljevec, Dr Francesca Gimigliano, Pr Gulseren Akyuz, Dr Mohamed El-Abd, Dr Amparo Martinez Assucena, Pr Xanthi Michail. The election results of the Council votes were as follows: Dr Jorge Lains and Pr Xanthi Michail 12 votes, Pr Gulseren Akyuz, Dr Klemen Grabljevec, Dr Francesca Gimigliano 10 votes, Dr Amparo Martinez Assucena 9 votes and Dr Mohamed El-Abd 6 votes. The first six candidates were elected as members of the new Board 2008-2010.
Finally, the president thanked all for their participation to the General Assembly, wishing to see them in Limassol during the 2010 Congress.
Pr. Nicolas Christodoulou
President
Pr. Gulseren Akyuz
Secretary
