GAreport

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EMSA European Board2009 / 2010

c/o CPMEStanding Committeeof European Doctors

Rue Guimard 151040 Brussels, Belgium

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EMSA General Assembly 20108.-12.09.2010, Athens, Greece

GA Report

European Medical Students’ Association

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Content

Message from the President

The new structure

The new board

The new Logo

EMS Council updates

EMSA - IFMSA relations

Financial updates

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♥

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Message from the president

State of AffairsAn overview of the organization in its last „teen year“

September 2010

Fellow Emsai,

It is my great pleasure to present you with this document. One that is not only an intro to the GA Update booklet, but also the first in what I hope to be a long, stable line of „State of Affairs“ - SoA documents. Documents that will combine an overview of our organization, list of activities of the European Board and a personal message from the President.

In this particular SoA you will read about what the new structure of the EEB means to us all and how it relates to our development strategy; how exactly will our Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), our pillars and the Work Group (WG) function in the years to come; what are our plans with the Department of External Affairs (DEA) and our Public Relations; how do we plan to increase the financial stability of our organization and use it for our internal growth; where does the new Training System and Human Resourcing fit in to the whole picture and more!

All in all, it will be an exciting insight to the world of EMSA. But before we analyse one point after another, I feel it is important to disclose the overall aim of the strategy that has been put into action some time ago and is now taken to a new level...

The term behind this curtain is „sustainable development“. It is the Grand Aim of every strong organization and EMSA is no exception. For years now we have developed our organization, but this development has lacked stability from time to time. Now, after achieving stability in the field of human resources, finances and projects, it is time to use this potential to develop our organization further. In fact, we have been working hard to do so in the past. However we have faced several structural and other problems that have inhibited us from further growth.

I am happy to say that after the GA in Athens those inhibitors have been... Inhibited!

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And as every good student of medicine knows, disinhibition can do wonders to an active brain!

So let us start with the first „medicine“...

1. The New Structure

As you will be able to read further on in this GA Update, the EEB has changed its structure.

We introduced new positions, new layers and new delegation of work. Our two new Vice Presidents (those of Internal and of External Affairs) lead two new departments.

You are guessing... That of Internal (DIA) and of External (DEA) Affairs!

Why is this so and how can it help EMSA?Well... Delegation is a very important part of every organization. When the workload increases, a stricter structure is needed. Which in no way means that an organization should not be flexible, adaptable and organic! On the contrary! If we truly want to achieve sustainability, we indeed have to be able to adapt! But just as organisms developed, we too must think about specialization.

There is also a second important aspect. Departments, delegation of tasks and autonomy of decision making... Those fosters leadership as well. And that is something that every project, every department and every organization not only needs, but also should empower!

Naturally, a brain is nothing without a body and so our Board needs a well developed international structure.

2. The EMSA Work Group (WG)

This is the structure that will sustain EMSA. It will be the core of our four pillars and will be guided by the same set of principles as mentioned above. Leadership, autonomy, delegation.

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To that end, members of the WG will be project coordinators and they will, in turn, lead project committees. To ensure flexibility and adaptability, the majority of those will be temporary and will exist as long as there is an objective need for them. However, some projects such as the TBH will be standing and will either be coordinated by a WG member or a Director should the WG position be temporary vacant.

As you can notice, most of the WG activities will fall under DIA (Department of Internal Affairs). So it is only natural to ask...

What of DEA? 3. DEA – The Department of External Affairs and Public Relations

EMSA has long struggled with its “political activity”. On one hand we are a politically neutral organization, but on the other we do lobby and we are politically active! Our special relations with the CPME (Standing Committee of European Doctors) and the CoE (Council of Europe) prove it!

The answer to this riddle is simple... Being politically neutral does not mean one should be politically idle! If we want to influence the Bologna Process, improve European Healthcare System, increase overall mobility and so on, we have to lobby! We have to be active! We have to act!

If you want to act, you need a structure! And for a long time we have had our LOs (Liaison Officers). After the Athens GA we now have a department of 3 LOs (towards Student Organizations – SOLO, European Medical Organizations – EMO-LO and the Formal Institutions such as the Council of Europe – FI-LO) lead by the Vice-President of External Affairs.

They will work on our resolutions, will support the EMS Council and will stay in contact with our partners and lobby for the causes EMSA supports.Naturally, since all foreign affairs require a PR side, DEA will work closely together with our PRO (Public Relations Officer) who will also make sure that we not only have excellent publications, an amazing marketing and a mind-blowing CI (Corporate Identity), but will also work closely on our media coverage and internet communication. Naturally, all of this cannot be achieved without...

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4. Financial Stability

I wish I could say this part is easy... In a perfect world, it might be...But we live in a world that just went through what will probably be recorded as the biggest economic crisis in the history of mankind. Having said that, it is easy to conclude that sponsors have become a rare species...

Nevertheless, we have worked hard on our financial stability and have introduced several changes about which you will read further on in this GA Update booklet...

We have also created a portfolio and a sponsorship package and are in the process of negotiations with several eager sponsors!

With just a hint of luck and a lot of sweat, in a few months time we will have had several international sponsors and will have received the Youth in Action Grant from the EU!

Admittedly, although all the things that we discussed so far are amazing ingredients for the making of an emsastic organization, we need to ensure that the potential is used and that sustainable growth indeed IS achieved!And no organization can do that without...

5. Human Resources and the Training System

Need I say more? ;-)We have an exciting year ahead of us! Human Resources Coordinator; TNT and T4T events; special trainings for EEB members...

If investment is the best way to ensure your future and if the best investment is the investment in your own knowledge and experience, then surely an investment in its human potentials is the best investment an organization can make!

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To conclude...

We have done much so far... We have much to achieve still!As one can clearly see, our organization has grown. It has outgrown our old structure and it is now ready to take the next step.

It may not be easy, but then again... If it were easy, it would not be a challenge!

And our biggest challenge for next year is consolidation. We have to ensure that everything we have set in motion not only works, but also achieves stability in a year!

Can we do it?Surely!

By joining forces and working together we can achieve much, much more! After all, our history teaches us that EMSA has always found a way to survive a crisis and to grow!

It is time to work together, to utilise the technologies at hand, to create a new communication platform, to stay enthusiastic, proactive and innovative!In a word... To stay emsastic!

Fellow Emsai, dear friends, I not only trust that we can make it, but I have my full faith that we will make it! Together!

The EMSA European Board is looking forward to another EMSA year and we hope you do too!

Stay well – stay active!

Tin KneževićPresident of EMSA EuropeChairman of the EMSA European Board

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The new structure

Dear all,

In this document you can find a short overview of the structural changes that were addopted at the 2010 EMSA GA in Athens.

Diagram of the new EMSA European Board structure:

Explanation of the positions:Executive Board (EB) – The decision making body consists of the President, 2 Vice-President, Secretary General and the Treasurer. The EB is the decission making body.

EMSA European Board (EEB) – Consists of the EB and the OB (Officials‘ Board; the 4 Directors, 3 LOs and 3 Officers).

Positions:

President – Coordinates the work of the EEB and works with the HRO on developing the EEB soft skills.

VP Internal – Leads the „department of internal affairs“. Or, in other words, coordinate the work of the 4 Directors.

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The new structure

VP External – Leads the „department of external affairs (policy making, lobying, working with externals partners)“. Or, in other words, coordinate the work of the 3 Liaison Officers and the Public Relations Officer and also works together closely with the Permanent Officer at the CPME in Brussels.

Secretary General – General EB and EEB tasks, in contact with NCs, LCs and OCs.

Treasurer – Accounting and other EB duties. Works on funds raising with the FRO.

Medical Education Director – Leads the medical education pillar. In short, coordinates the work of the WG members working on medical education.

Medical Science Director - Leads the medical science pillar. In short coordinates the work of the WG members working on medical science.

Medical Ethics and Public Health Director - Leads the medical ethics and public health pillar. In short, coordinates the work of the WG members working on medical ethics and public health.

European Integration Director – Leads the european integration pillar. In short, coordinates the work of the WG members working on european integration.

Public Relations Officer – Developing publications, marketing and online communication.

Human Resources Officer – Developing the Training System and EEB soft skills.

Funds Raising Officer – Financial stability of the organization.

For any additional question, please feel free to approach the EEB.

Sincerely,

Tin KneževićPresident of EMSA EuropeChairman of the EMSA European Board

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The new EMSA European board

Tin KnezevicPresident

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Sietke PostemaVice President for Internal Affairs

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Christoph PhilipsenburgVice President forExternal Affairs

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Anna DobekSecretary General

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Tim W. RattayTreasurer

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Sofia RibeiroEuropean Integration Director

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Süleyman YıldızMedical Education Director

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Sebastian SchmidtMedical Ethics andPublic Health Director

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Borislav ManevMedical Science Director

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Ingmar RinasPublic Relations Officer

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Elif KelesEuropean Medical Organisations Liaison Officer

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Iza EneHuman Recources Officer

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Tamara DarbyshireFundraising Officer

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Luis MachadoPermanent Officer at the CPME

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THE NEW / ADDITIONAL LOGO

Main colour: CMYK 100/70/0/50 RGB 0/26/75 Pantone 294C / 294USecondary colour: spot black CMYK 0/0/0/100 RGB 0/0/0secondary colour: 25% grey CMYK 0/0/0/25 RGB 33/33/33

+ both may be used!

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The EMS Council

Dear European medical students,

What is the EMS Council?

The EMS Council is a politically neutral and non-lucrative body. It is an important platform for medical students to discuss their opinions, exchange their ideas and also to broaden their horizons in matters of education and policy. Being a representative body of the rights and interest of European medical students, it assists the cooperation and communication of medical students’ associations and the medical students themselves.

Aims

The main objectives of the EMS Council are to:

1. Promote the discussion and creation of policies on issues pertaining to the studies and the life of medical students2. Defend the rights and interest of medical students across Europe3. Represent the interests and opinions of the medical students in Europe4. Discuss and form joint policies on issues surrounding medical students5. Improve co-operation and communication within the medical student organisations’ and medical students

The last EMS Council host was the Austrian Medical Students Association so the EMS C 7 took place in Vienna, between the 21-25th of April. The theme was European Health and the topics discussed were:

• The importance of management to improve the quality of healthcare• European networks for free movement of healthcare providers• European Continuous Professional Development (CPD)• Creating a pan-European healthcare program with well established co-ordination

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The EMS Council

New Board! Now we need an HOST country!

In our last EMSA General Assembly an extraordinary meeting of the European Medical students’ council took place.

In this extraordinary meeting the minutes of the previous meeting were approved and the Vienna resolution, regarding the last EMS Council, was adopted.

But the most important: a new EMS Council board was elected for one year term!

The elected are Sandor Ory and Ruxandra Dascalescu. Sandor was elected for the position of President. He is from the Netherlands and he is currently studying in Maastricht. For the position of Vice-President Ruxandra was the chosen. She is from Romania, from the Carol Davila Medical Faculty. Both of them are eager to work within the Council, representing our highest interests!

But the EMS Council board is not yet complete. We are missing the Secretary-General who will liaise with EMSA European Board (EEB), among other tasks. The EEB will send a call soon so be ready! Another call will be sent to find a host! Does your National Students Association want to organize an international event? An event to all medical students across geographical Europe? This is the time so pay attention to your email in the next weeks!

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A Leap Forward

Decisions and guidelines of the 20th ordinary EMSA GA on the development of EMSA-IFMSA relations

Fellow Emsai,

As you might know by now, the relations between EMSA and IFMSA have started very soon after the foundation of EMSA in the early nineties. Naturally, as relations tend to be, these have had its highs and its lows. They have varied from general cooperation, over a period in which EMSA was the recognized as the Regional Office of IFMSA in Europe to the most recent European Partnership that is still active today.

But recently our relations have shown both the potential as well as the need to change. To improve.

The main issue is… What does improvement mean and what change can ensure it?

A lot of ideas were coming in from all directions and were presented at this or that international event. Naturally, this in itself is positive, but it has also caused a lot of miscommunication and misinformation.

Below you can find a picture of the situation that the Board could have made to the best of our knowledge. We apologize for any possible mistakes. They were done unintentionally.

Having said that, we can start off with the unofficial vote that has been done last August (2009) at the IFMSA AM. The European NMOs (National Member Organizations) of IFMSA have stated that they feel that IFMSA and EMSA should improve their operations by a full merger on the European level.

Following this statement, and feeling that we as EMSA were not ready for such a decision, we have voted on several statements at our 19th GA in Heidelberg, Germany.

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The first of which was the following: “We, the GA of EMSA, think positive towards a future common organization of medical students in Europe.”Admittedly, this motion has caused much confusion in both EMSA and IFMSA.

The reason is that the sentence (and because of that the decision as well) is not clear and thus not definitive. Additionally, it can be understood in two ways:1. We are positive towards an actual merger.2. We are positive towards discussing the idea of a merger.

Following the GA the EMSA European Board has interpreted it as is stated in the second option because of the following reasons:

1. The words “think positive” are not definitive and give no direct guidance.2. As stated by the proposer and many representatives that voted for the motion, this sentence only showed positive relation to the idea of a common organization in which ever form it may be realized. 3. The general feeling was that the GA was voting on a possibility and giving guidance, rather than making a definitive decision. 4. The GA, in fact, did not reach a quorum to decide on a merger.5. Right after this motion, another motion was passed. One to create a TaskForce that would analyze the current relations between EMSA and IFMSA, its potentials and most importantly that would gather feedback from our FMOs and see what is the predominant relation to the aforementioned issue at the core of EMSA; in our FMOs.

During the term 2009-2010 the TaskForce was created, the EEB worked hard to uphold the European Partnership Agreement and our relations were based on professionalism and friendship.

Finally, at the 20th ordinary EMSA General Assembly in Athens in September 2010 and after a presentation of IFMSA, of the TaskForce and of myself, the following happened:

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1. The TaskForce results document was adopted as guidelines upon which the future Board, National Coordinators and FMOs will base their relations towards the International Federation of Medical Students’ Association. All our NCs and our LCs will receive this internal EMSA document.

2. An unofficial vote was made to see the preference of the GA on the type of collaboration they would like to see in the future. 22% of the representatives voted for a merger, 66% of the representatives voted for a form of closer collaboration (several forms) and 12% of the representatives were either against all forms of cooperation or have abstained.

3. Two similar motions were adopted. One stating that the EMSA European Board of 2010-2011 should try to work together with the international board of IFMSA with the aim of giving closure to this issue; and the other stating that a common negotiations Task Force should be created between EMSA and IFMSA with the aim of creating a definite proposal that could be presented and voted upon at our summer GAs.

To conclude, the new Board will take a proactive approach to this issue and will invite the IFMSA Board to do the same in order to find a solution that is not only acceptable by both sides, but is also in the interest of our members and of the students of medicine.

We hope to be successful at this!

Tin KneževićPresident of EMSA Europe

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Finances

As the reelected treasurer I want to give all our FMOs a short update on financial issues discussed and approved by the EMSA GA 2010 in Athens.

Financial Background

The main source for funding is an EU grant issued by the EACEA (Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency) which is named the YiA (Youth in Action) grant.

We applied for two years in a row, last year were granted about 30.000 Euro for EMSA Europe, this year our application for 35.000 Euro was cut down to 7.400 Euro.

Therefore in order to keep EMSA financial stable and running we decided to increase the membership fees to 120 Euro a year as well as to focus this year harder on our fundraising activities. The raising of the membership fees was also an inflation adaption his increase was also an inflation adaption since the membership wasn’t increased for a couple of years in the past.

Membership fees

As mentioned before the membership fees were raised from 70 Euro to 120 Euro a year.They need to be paid by November 1st in order to avoid the late fee.

Please clearly state your FMO Name as registered and your city of your faculty in the subject and send to the Treasurer at [email protected] an email with a receipt of your transaction.If you need an invoice or a receipt for your payment, please contact the Treasurer as well at [email protected].

The late fee was also increased by 15 Euro to now 40 Euro.If you pay after November 1st (day of the transaction arriving our international bank account), you will need to pay the late fee of 40 Euro as well.

Financial Updates

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The registration fee for registering a new FMO was increased as well to now 50 Euro (former 30 Euro).

Please transfer the membership fees of 120 Euro until November 1st to our account to avoid the increased late fee of 40 Euro:

EMSA International AccountAccount number: 005-4347393-39Fortis Bank nvAntwerpen - KielAbdijstraat 59-61Antwerpen 2020BIC: GEBABEBB IBAN: BE13005434739339

If you have any questions regarding the membership fees, or any suggestions for fundraising, or you want to become part of the Fund-Raising Team under the supervision of our newly elected FRO (fundraising officer) Tamara Darbyshire feel free to either contact one of us.

Tim W. RattayTreasurer 2009/2010 and 2010/[email protected]

Financial Updates

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Impressions from the GA

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Questions, Comments or Suggestions?Write an E-Mail to the EEB [email protected]!

European Medical Students’ Association

GAreport

Documents

Transcript of GAreport