Minutes of the EAMBES Inauguration Meeting

Frankfurt am Main, Germany
June 14-15, 2003

  1. Agenda
    The agenda is in Appendix 1
  2. Participants
    The participants, together with their credentials, are given in Appendix 2. The apologies received are listed in Appendix 3.
  3. Opening Session
    The meeting opened at 13.10, Saturday, June 14th 2003.

    In the opening session
    • Prof.-Dr. Eckhart Hahn gave a welcome address on behalf of the German Society DGBMT.
    • Dr. Thomas Becks, VDE as the Secretary-General of DGBMT went through the practical arrangements for the meeting
    • Prof. Niilo Saranummi, as the chair of the ProTem Group introduced the agenda and presented an overview of the EAMBES process (slides in Appendix 4)
    • Prof. Joe Barbenel briefly introduced the Statutes of the Society Division (slides in Appendix 5).
    • Prof. Joachim Nagel briefly introduced the Statutes of the Academic Division (slides in Appendix 6).
  4. First Workshop: Constitution and Bylaws of EAMBES
    Prof. Niilo Saranummi introduced the proposed Constitution and Bylaws of EAMBES (Appendix 7). In the discussion the following issues were raised: (some of them leading to changes in the proposed text)
    Place Issue Result
    Preamble, Bylaws The definition of MBES needs more amplification of medicine and healthcare failed
    Article 2, Constitution Change wealth to prosperity and reorder words in the sentence passed
    Article 3, b) & Bylaw 11 The reference to IFMBE and membership in IFMBE should be deleted as unnecessary failed
    Article 3, to add a new moment as d) Add an objective on research passed
    Policies and procedures multiple votes with one person
    regular evaluation & assessment    		 TBD in policies and procedures
    Representation on the Council Change the number of represenatatives from the Divisions from 11/5/5/5 to 9/9/4/4 (Society, Academic, Fellows and Industry Divisions respectively) Passed
    Dues of AD members To be proportioned according to size Council to decide

    The Constitution and Bylaws with the accepted amendments and changes are in Appendix 5.

    After discussion Prof. Dick Slaaf moved and Prof. Ratko Magjarevic seconded the acceptance of the Constitution and Bylaws as amended by the discussion preceding it. The motion carried unanimously.

    The time of "birth of EAMBES" was 17.37.

  5. Election of the Interim Executive Board
    Prof. Dov Jaron as President of IFMBE spoke on the process of creating the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, underlining the key lessons of that process in the early 90's in USA.

    He then proposed to the meeting to accept, as the interim Executive Board, the following persons:
    • Joe Barbenel (UK)
    • Helmut Hutten, Interim Treasurer (Austria)
    • Joachim Nagel (Germany)
    • Niilo Saranummi, Interim President (Finland)
    • Jos vander Sloten, Interim Secretary General (Belgium)
    • Jan Wojcicki (Poland)
    The proposal was accepted by acclamation.
  6. Appointment of the interim Nominating Committee
    Prof. Niilo Saranummi proposed to the meeting that the interim Executive Board should act as the Nominating Committee for the Sunday elections. This was accepted unanimously.

    All participants were encouraged to nominate persons including themselves to the positions that need to be filled. A form was given to all to help in the process. The forms had to be returned by the end of business on Saturday.
  7. Second Workshop: Society Division
    Prof. Joe Barbenel introduced the proposed statutes of the Society Division. Several changes we made to these by motions and majority voting. The amended statutes are given in Appendix 5.

    Prof. Barbenel moved and Prof. Spaan seconded the acceptance of the statutes as amended. The motion carried unanimously.
  8. Third Workshop: Academic Division
    Prof. Joachim Nagel introduced the proposed statutes of the Academic Division. Several changes were made to these statutes by motions and majority voting. The amended statutes are given in Appendix 5.

    Prof. Nagel moved and Prof. Slaaf seconded the acceptance of the statutes as amended. The motion carried unanimously.
  9. Election of Officers of the Divisions and Representatives to the Council
    The Nominating Committee reported on the nomination process as follows:
    • All nominations were accepted
    • No new nominations were made by NC
    • Some nominees decided not to give their consent to be included and were consequently excluded from the voting forms
    • Delegates with credentials to vote for the SD a/o AD can vote on all positions

    Voting for the Chair of the SD and AD
    As there was only one candidate for each of the Chair positions of the divisions the vote was cast by show of hands (credentials).

    Prof. Joe Barbenel and Prof. Joachim Nagel were elected unanimously to the positions of Chair of SD and AD respectively.

    Voting of the other Officers of the SD and AD
    The nominees present in the meeting were asked to briefly present themselves.

    Voting was performed via a secret ballot. Delegates were given voting forms with the names of the nominees for the Vice Chair and Secretary Positions in SD and AD respectively.

    The results were

    Society Division
    Joe Barbenel Chair
    Nicos Maglaveras Vice Chair
    Thomas Becks Secretary
    Academic Division
    Joachim Nagel Chair
    Dick Slaaf Vice Chair
    Pierre Le Beux Secretary

    Voting of the Council Representatives of the SD and AD
    Voting was performed via a secret ballot. Delegates were given voting forms with the names of the nominees for the Council Representatives in SD and AD respectively.

    The results were

    Interim Council
    Dan Adam SD n 2 yr
    Norman Black SD t 1 yr
    Marcello Bracale AD 2 yr
    George Gimenez AD 2 yr
    Hiie Hinrikus SD n 2 yr
    Jiri Holcik AD 1 yr
    Eitan Kimmel AD 1 yr
    James Kirkpatrick SD t 1 yr
    Ratko Magjarevic AD 1 yr
    Marc Nyssen SD n 2 yr
    Dejan Popovic AD 1 yr
    Laura Roa SD n 1 yr
    Christian Roux SD t 2 yr
    Maria Siebes AD 2 yr
    Wen Wang AD 2 yr
    Marco Viceconti SD t 1 yr

    AD = elected by Academic Division, SD = elected by Society Division, SD n = elected as national society representative, SD t = elected as trans-European society representative, 1 / 2 yr = term of office of Council Representatives (determined by number of votes received)

  10. Ratification of the Statutes
    The newly elected Council was asked to ratify the Statutes of the two Divisions as required by the Constitution and Bylaws.

    The Statutes were ratified unanimously.
  11. Closing of the Inauguration Meeting
    Prof. Niilo Saranummi thanked the delegates for all their work, energy and devotion in establishing the Alliance.

    He also extended warm thanks to the sponsors and organisers of the Inauguration Meeting, the German Society and VDE, and particularly to Dr. Thomas Becks.

    The meeting was closed at 14.00 Sunday, June 15th 2003.

Appendices (to be published at www.eambes.org soon)

  1. Agenda
  2. List of Delegates and Participants
  3. Apologies for absence
  4. Slides of Saranummi in opening session
  5. Slides of Barbenel in the 1st Workshop
  6. Slides of Nagel in the 1st Workshop
  7. Slides of Saranummi in the 1st Workshop
  8. EAMBES Statutes as amended approved and ratified in the Inauguration Meeting
  9. Elected Representatives and Officers in EAMBES