AO Trauma India 1st Council Meeting 2018
Date and Venue: 18.08.2018 Saturday at Mumbai Traumacon Attended by all members except Dr. John Mukhopadhaya (due to personal reasons).
Dr. P V Jayasankar, Trustee was also present DPS representative of India and Asia-Pacific were also present.
Chairman welcomed all the members and thanked Dr. Sushrut Babhulkar for making the arrangements for the same along with the TRAUMACON 2018.
GBM 2018 minutes were confirmed Education officer explained the program proposals for next academic session. Venues with chair/Cochair were decided and confirmed. It has been decided to continue to have AO courses distribution on a zonal basis. Venues within zones will be distributed among the states provided logistics permit.
Trustee explained the importance of proposing combined courses in order to increase the number of courses and symposiums.
Cadaveric lab requirements were explained and accordingly Bangalore and Chennai centers were accepted for the same.
DPS representatives confirmed the increase of seats to 108 with appropriate number of work stations / faculty in the basic and advance courses.
The seat sharing of delegates in basic and advance courses were agreed. As per the same- 80 seats for zone getting the course, 14 each for other 2 zones not getting the course venue.
Chairman explained how the financial matters are dealt in AO. The need of spending 47,116 USD from Hong Kong account was discussed. Accordingly, 20,000USD for annual conference at Chandigarh, 3,000USD for AOPEER at Chandigarh, 2,000USD for website restarting, 5,000 USD each for central and north zone for conducting symposium, 10,000USD for pelviacetabulaum workshop at Bengaluru,1,000USD for Delhi course. 2,200 USD for audit (as Dr. Sameer Proposed) was allotted. All these are pending with AO compliance and hiring the vendor. VAMA Events was considered as event management for AO Trauma India activities. The community development grant of 8000CHF shall be utilized for AO national meet 2019 at Chandigarh.
Dr. Sameer briefed about the AO India Society account details and submitted the same to the chairman.
Dr. Sandeep Kapoor briefed and assured that AO India website will be ready to use by the end of September 2018.
Dr. Saumitra Mishra briefed about selection criteria for AO Fellows and Visit the Expert. The list of fellows selected was circulated. Need for giving at least two fellowships to applicants from non- academic centres was discussed and agreed upon. It may be implemented from the following year.
Chairperson detailed that AO Foundation has strict rules for usage of the AO Trauma brand. In order to ensure maintenance of quality and standards across countries, member countries have only a little control in these events. Much forward planning is required and permissions have to be sought. Industrial partner has to be kept in the loop. Financial control is also strict as European Union standards have to be complied with.
Chairperson explained that when AO Alumni Association transformed to AO Trauma India, it had been decided at an early General Body Meeting, that the stipend paid to Chairperson’s of courses would be pooled and the money used for conducting Council meetings and other expenses. Dr. Jayasankar, Trustee, briefed that at the time he was Chairperson, since financial matters were still in a fluid state, council members used their own funds to travel to Council meetings. This generous act was appreciated by all.
Trustee emphasized the need of contribution to AO in the form of innovations, teaching materials, research field in order to get more recognition in the AO world, which in turn becoming the deciding factor of future benefits to the country chapter.
It has been stressed to report to the country chairperson and / or education officer about the courses by the course chair to rectify any deficiencies/irregularities in order to improve the quality of future courses.
Research officer thanked Dr. Vivek Trikha for his great effort in getting the maximum possible research grants for the year. This year a total of 7 members have been sponsored by the research grants.
As per the fellowship officers report, there were 107 applications for AO fellowships and 5 for meet the expert fellowship. For the available 18 fellowships, 25 applicants were shortlisted and sent for final approval. It has been approved to consider all the applicants for meet the expert fellowship.
It has been approved by the council to give 3:2 considerations in fellowship positions for the candidates from academic teaching institute to nonacademic teaching institute, in order to give an opportunity for the members in private nonteaching institutes.
A concern was raised that applicants for courses were not accommodated. Council has decided to ask all Chairs of courses to be extra vigilant about this.
It has been decided to conduct AO day at AOTICON 2018 at Coimbatore for half a day, which will be confirmed after the AOTICON executive meeting to be attended by Dr. Sameer Aggarwal.
The next executive meeting to be held at Chennai on 15 th December, Saturday and chairman requested everyone to be present.