MINUTES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF  THE MEDITERRANEAN FORUM OF PHYSICAL & REHABILITATION MEDICINE

Assembly started at 13.40.
Present: Jorge Lains (Portugal), Nicolas Christodoulou (Cyprus), Amparo Martinez Assucena (Spain), Gulseren Akyuz (Turkey), Xanthi Michail (Greece), Alessandro Giustini, Franco Cirillo, Raffaele Gimigliano, Francesca Gimigliano (Italy),  Nachum Soroker (Israel), Elena Ilieva (Bulgaria), Crt Marincek, Klemen Grabljevec (Slovenia), Milica Lazovic (Serbia), Erieta Nikoliki Dimitrova, Faeyiz Orabi (Syria), Ziwad Hawamadah (Jordan), Tarek Shafshak (Egypt), Stephen Zammit (Malta), Natasa Tomic (Bosnia&Herzegovina).

1. Approval of the Minutes of the 8th Mediterranean Congress General Assembly: The issue was voted and accepted unanimously.

2. 9th Mediterranean Congress in Sorrento: Francesca Gimigliano gave information about the 9th Mediterranean Congress of PRM. According to this, the number of participants of the Congress was approximately 888 from 31 countries. There were 306 oral presentations, and 288 posters (Total 594). Jorge Lains appreciated to Head of SIMFER, Raffaele Gimigliano and Francesca Gimigliano for their efforts.

3. 10th Mediterranean Congress in Egypt, 2013: At General Assembly in Limassol, Mediterranean Congress of P&RM was determined to be arranged in single years. Dr. Tarek Shafshak was chaired for the 10th Mediterranean Congress of P&RM, 2013, Egypt. Nevertheless, existing economical and political situations of Egypt were not found sufficient enough to arrange the congress. Therefore, Dr Tarek requested the congress to be held over 2015. Dr. Jorge Lains found the situation of Egypt admissible and offered a new vote if there were other candidates. Dr. Jorge Lains declared Serbia was candidate MFPRM Congress in 2013 and invited Dr. Milica Lazovic for giving some information. Dr. Milica Lazovic defined there were 730 PMR specialists in Serbia. She added they manage internationally 500-person participated National PRM Congresses, annually. Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro and Republic of Macedonia were other countries participated in these congresses. She declared Serbia was candidate for organizing the 10th Mediterranean Congress of P&RM at Budva, Montenegro, in September 2013. The proposal accepted with unanimous approval.

4. Voting for the 11th Congress of 2015: Dr. Jorge Lains expressed the postponement request of Egypt for the 11 th Mediterranean Congress of P&RM in 2015. Dr. Jorge Lains said it was required to decide for the other candidates in General Assembly. Dr Stephen Zammit, Representative Member of Malta, said they were thinking about candidateship, but he also added that Egypt deserved one more chance.

5. Action Plan of MFPRM for 2013: Dr. Jorge Lains said that the action plan of MFPRM was done before. There was no election for this year. Dr. Nicolas Christodoulou emphasized it was required to determine who would be the chair and who would be members in Committees which had been cleared in Limassol. Therefore, that would be asked to MFPRM Board members who would like to be in charge of giving information and sending mails to other representative members. Labors were decided to be presented to MFPRM Board members one year after composing the committees.

6. Creation of the Committee of Students/Residents of the MFPRM: Dr. Maria Ribeiro Cunha from Portugal performed a presentation about establishing Student/Resident Committees. She expressed that PRM residents in Portugal were gathering and communicating in facebook. Dr. Amparo Assucena offered a link with ISPRM. Dr Gulseren Akyuz said, they have already had a Resident Study Group under the name of Turkish Society of PM&R. Dr. Jorge Lains offered an issue to be added. Dr. Nicolas Christodoulou emphasized it would be fine to send mails to Representatives of the countries in Mediterranean Forum to found a resident study group. He also said that Representative Residents from Mediterranean Countries should be determined by National P&RM Societies.

7. Other matters: Assembly was closed with nice wishes.

Jorge Lains
President                                                                              

Gulseren Akyuz
Secretary