Minutes of the IUPESM General Assembly

Room 301, Navy Pier Convention Center Thursday 27 July, Chicago, USA

The voting status of delegates was confirmed by Heikki Terio, Secretary-General of IFMBE with green voting authorisation slips and by Gary Fullerton, Secretary-General of IOMP with pink voting authorisation slips.

1. The General Assembly was opened by President Keith Boddy
2. The President asked for a motion to approve the minutes of the last meeting in Nice, France. Motion: Jos Spaan moved to accept the minutes with a second from the floor. The minutes were accepted unanimously.
3. Matters arising and not on the agenda were requested by President Boddy. At the request of the Chairman of the Nominations Committee the agenda was adjusted to allow him to participate in a scientific session.
4. The Chairman of the Nominating Committee, Niilo Saranumi, reported on the recommendations of his committee. He explained the procedure for election of officers, which occurs within IFMBE and IOMP and is automatic within the IUPESM. The Assembly elects the members-at-large from the nominees presented by the nominations process. The slate of officers and nominees for the positions at large were presented.
   • Medical Physics Council Members-at-Large (vote for two only).
     • Inger-Lena Lamm (Sweden)
     • Kwan-Hoong Ny (Malasia)
     • Peter Inia (Holland)
     • Fridtjof Nuesslin (Germany)
   • Bioengineering Council Members-at-Large (vote for two only).
     • Dan Adam (Israel)
     • Takeyoshi Dohi (Japan)
     • Zibin Yang (China)
     • Helmut Hutten (Austria)

5. Keith Boddy presented a detailed report of activities of the IUPESM over the past three years. The most important of these is the election of IUPESM to full union membership in the International Council for Science. The details of this report are in the attached (see IFMBE News, November 2000). President Boddy also presented a summary of a Consensus Workshop on the future of IUEPSM. The President requested a consensus motion from the Presidents of both the IOMP (Colin Orton, Oskar Chomicki was absent) and IFMBE (Jean Pierre Morucci) concerning the future of IUPESM. The Presidents and Vice-Presidents moved and seconded the following motion. Motion: "That, having been admitted to ICSU as a Full Member, having received reaffirmation of support from IFMBE and IOMP, the IUPESM General Assembly authorises the Council to take actions necessary to further this new international status." that the present IUPESM level of co-operation be continued and that IOMP and IFMBE continue the practice of holding combined World Congresses at three year intervals. This motion was approved unanimously. As a result of this the following proposal for additions to the bylaws of the IUPESM was presented for approval by the Assembly:

   Motion: That the proposed changes to the bylaws of IUPESM be adopted

   7. 1 The Standing Committees of the IUPESM are:
      • D. The ICSU Liaison Committee: the duties of the committee are:
        • build on established excellent relations with the ICSU Secretariat
        • establish and maintain a good working knowledge of existing and proposed programmes within ICSU
        • determine principal and secondary interests of other unions and bodies within ICSU and generate a spirit of collaboration
        • identify areas of potential future collaboration, especially global projects
        • stimulate and consider programme proposals within IUPESM ( IFMBE and IOMP) as candidates for grants either from ICSU itself or other international bodies, such as UNESCO, WHO, European Union, with the support (and stature) of ICSU
        • formulate grant proposals and recommend priorities to the IUPESM Council
        • participate in ICSU committees and activities
        • contribute "populist" articles to ICSU's journal 'Science International' on various aspects of medical physics and biomedical engineering
        • prepare proposals and contributions to be made at the ICSU General Assemblies
        The Committee will be chaired by the President and its membership decided by the Council according to needs.
      • E. Education and Training Committee: the duties of the committee are:
        • to promote the world-wide availability of educational and training materials and information, using Internet and other methods of publication
        • to identify, encourage and co-ordinate activities and specialist conferences of shared interest with the constituent organisations, especially to seek sponsorship
        • to recommend to Council projects worthy of support
        The Committee will be chaired by the Vice-President. Its membership will include the chairmen of the corresponding committees of the constituent organisations and such other members decided by Council.
      • F. Regional Development Committee: the duties of the committee are:
        • to promote the interests of developing and emerging countries, especially with respect to regional development
        • to liaise with the corresponding committees of the constituent organisations in identifying projects worthy of support by IUPESM or external sources
        • to publish the Bulletin for Developing Countries on behalf of the three organisations
        The Committee will comprise the chairmen of the corresponding committees of the constituent organisations and other members decided by the Council.
      • G. Public and International Relations Committee: the duties of the committee are:
        • to identify and implement means of improving public (and governmental) understanding of the benefits and contributions of the physical and engineering sciences in healthcare
        • to identify and implement means of raising the stature of the physical and engineering sciences through the development of relationships with other international bodies, where appropriate, through the ICSU Liaison Committee
        The chairman and members of the committee will be decided by the Council.
   Barry Allen from Australia moved to accept the report and with the report the proposed changes in the bylaws. Jean-Pierre Morucci, from France, seconded the motion. The Assembly discussed various changes and concerns to the proposed changes but were reassured that further refinements of the bylaws are contemplated and this motion will allow work to proceed. The motion was accepted unanimously.
6. The Chairman of the Congress Co-Ordinating Committee, Gary Fullerton, reported on progress with the 2000, 2003 and 2006 World Congresses for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering. The attendance for the Chicago Congress is in excess of 5500 and all indications are for the most profitable meeting in history. Congress Presidents, William Hendee and Willis Tomkins, were congratulated for a job well done. The negotiations for the 2003 Congress in Sydney are complete and a contract has been signed. The balloting to determine the host for the 2006 meeting was extremely tight but the winner by a slight margin is the consortium representing Switzerland, Germany and the UK. Colin Orton moved approval of the report and Jean-Pierre Morucci seconded the motion. The motion was passed unanimously.
7. IUPESM Secretary General Gary Fullerton presented a full report in writing concerning activities of the past three years. The two highlights of his report (see Secretary-General's report in this issue of IFMBE News) focused on the conversion of the IUPESM Secretariat to almost complete electronic communications. The second highlight was the participation of the Secretariat in the process of supporting the applications for membership in ICSU. The Secretariat communicated electronically with more than 25 Union Members and 76 National Academy of Science Members during the process. This method of communication now offers IUPESM as a Full Union Member of ICSU the ability of efficiently facilitating the consensus goals of the Union. An as yet unaudited financial report was submitted. This will be audited at the close of the three-year cycle 1998-2000. A budget for 2001 was presented. This budget was based on an increase of dues from IOMP and IFMBE from £2500 per year to $10,000 US per year. The intent of this change is to allow IUPESM to begin the process of establishing an IUPESM Secretariat at a sight yet to be selected. Presently the Secretariat resides with the Secretary-General. The end result of the motion will allow the Secretary-General to fund a quarter-time secretary to support IUPESM activities including maintenance of the IUPESM homepage. The motion to approve the report and with it the budget was proposed by Colin Orton and seconded by Jean Pierre Morucci. The motion was approved unanimously.
8. There was no report from the Developing Countries Committee as the chairman was not at the meeting.
9. 9. The Chairman of the Awards Committee, Fumihiko Kajiya, reported that the election of Professors Keith Boddy and Masao Saito as the year 2000 recipients of the IUPESM Awards of Merit. The recommendations of the Awards Committee were approved by acclamation.
10. President Boddy introduced retiring officers of the IUPESM, Professors Niilo Saranummi and Fumihiko Kajiya, and presented a plaque expressing the gratitude of IUPESM for their distinguished service. President Boddy then introduced the new President of IUPESM, Professor Jean-Pierre Morucci, who accepted the gavel of authority. As his first act of office, he asked the Assembly to give thanks to the Past-President, Keith Boddy, and they did so by acclamantion.
11. 11. President Morucci asked for a motion to close this meeting of the IUPESM General Assembly and the meeting was adjourned.

Gary D. Fullerton,
IUPESM Secretary-General
fullerton@uthscsa.edu