EuGMS Second presidential address August 2014
Dear EUGMS Friends,
I’m writing this in my summer cottage looking at the warm sunset over the lake. I hope the summer has so far being nice to all of you, and many just beginning their holidays. I’m finishing my vacation, but the summer has so far been busy with all EUGMS activities needing urgent attention. There are many big changes going on, and we had important discussions during our latest Executive Board meeting in Treviso, Italy (to coincide with the EAMA 20th Anniversary).
At this stage I would like to inform, especially the Full Board (FB) members, what’s up in the EUGMS. In this letter I’ll handle Rotterdam and other our future congresses, our secretary and related activities in Vienna, financial and legal matters, EU and EC issues and cooperation, sponsorship issues, our new website, our Journal EGM, and finally, an important initiative from some FB members.
Congresses
The 2014 meeting in Rotterdam is nearing fast and at this stage I would like to thank the Dutch team for hard work. Some 2000 participants – maybe more - are expected.
An interesting new thing is the cooperation with a high-profile general journal, JAMA, whose Deputy Editor; Dr. Edward Livingston will attend our meeting. Dr. Livingston is interested in European geriatrics, so please help him as needed. From geriatric journals the Editors of JAGS and JAMDA will be present. It’s needless to say that our own journal, European Geriatric Medicine (EGM) has a very prominent presence.
We are going to hear about cutting edge science like new studies about pneumococcal vaccination, prevention of dementia, treatment of hypercholesterolemia etc.
The preparations of the 2015 congress in Oslo are at full speed and we’ll hear more about that in Rotterdam. The important issue during 2014 has been to decide and organize the place for the 2016 congress, and last June it was finally decided to be in Lisbon, Portugal. The 2017 will be in France.
Secretariat, EU, EC
Our new secretariat in Vienna has worked extremely well and devoted, and I think we owe a big thank to Andrea Hovenier and Georg Ruppe. It’s clear, however, that we must make adjustments to meet the increasing workload. One solution is to design new ways to combine secretariat work with EU projects, which will obviously be an important funding source for EUGMS as industrial sponsoring is diminishing and getting more complicated. EU projects are of course related to geriatrics and the important roles of EUGMS are information and dissemination of results.
However, great care must be executed when choosing where EUGMS will participate and permit its brand to be used. This is part of a bigger plan and guideline about cooperation. This guideline is being prepared.
It is important for EUGMS to be intimately involved with EC and EMA. This again requires transparency about funding, sponsoring and cooperation and these must also be expressed on our website. Also legal issues related to budget need attention and our treasurers – working on a voluntary basis – need more support. Discussions how to do this are on going.
In EU, EC and EMA matters EUGMS needs help and I would like to thank prof. JP Baeyens for valuable help. Another important person in EU matters is Mrs Christine Marking whose role has been discussed in the EB and negotiations are under way for her future contract.
Website, EGM
Our website has been under a transformation as decided in March in Vienna, and our Web Director, Arturo Vilches Moraga has been most devoted. Thank you Arturo, and also Georg Ruppe and Andrea Hovenier for this work!
Our Journal EGM has been devotedly guided its Editor, JP Michel, and interesting papers appear in every issue.
Both our website and EGM need support in order to prosper, and I urge all EUGMS members to contribute with material, as authors and as reviewers.
Strengthen the role of the Full Board
Last spring I received a constructive proposal signed by a group of FB members, concerning especially the role and meeting modalities of the FB and how to get the FB more interactively involved in EUGMS decision making. According to our by-laws the FB has quite limited tasks; practical decisions are to be taken by the EB and academic matters by the AB. This year with its many and complicated issues has clearly shown that. That said, EUGMS is its members, and a constant topic in the Strategic Group has been how to get Full Board really on board. We also discussed the initiative very positively in our EB meeting in Treviso. Therfore, I’m very appreciative of the proposal and plan to present its topics to the FB in Rotterdam. Furthermore, I suggest that we form a group of FB members to modulate the proposal into practice.
This summer has also been very sad in many ways, in Europe especially related to the situation in Ukraine. The horrible act of the airline crash has hurt especially our Dutch colleagues, and I trust you all join me to extend our condolences to those affected.
Nevertheless, I wish a pleasant end of summer and look forward to seeing you all in Rotterdam in September
Timo Strandberg, EUGMS President
