Abstract
Twenty six members were present plus members of the ESFM Executive Committee - Myra Forster-van Hijfte (president), Danièlle Gunn-Moore, Albert Lloret and Claire Bessant, Chief Executive.
Apologies
Apologies had been received from Andy Sparkes, Stefano Romagnoli and Michiel Kraijer.
Minutes of the previous meeting
The minutes of the previous annual meeting, held on 22 September at the Hilton Hotel, Prague had been circulated and were agreed without comment.
Matters arising
JFMS Clinical
Claire gave details of the JFMS Clinical publication, the first issue of which is to be published in January 2009. It will be published alternately with the existing (‘classical’) JFMS so members will, from 2009, receive 12 journals each year.
Membership fee increase
Membership of ESFM is to rise by £20 from the New Year. This increase reflects purely the additional costs of journal production for the Clinical issues. Myra advised that the Executive committee is discussing ways of sending regular emails of abstracts of feline papers to all members.
Considerable work, including obtaining email addresses for all members, will need to be undertaken before this can happen. Information will be requested in the membership mailing October/November.
FVF
Claire reported that there are now a number of active cat groups within various European countries and a meeting for representatives of them all is scheduled for November, probably in Switzerland. Michiel Kraijer from the Netherlands is working on pulling this together under the FVF banner. Nestle Purina is kindly supporting the meeting.
Myra is keen for cat groups to develop in countries throughout Europe and beyond. A group can be founded on the strength of a group of cat-interested vets - it does not have to be through official veterinary organisations. There were some countries, for example Germany, which seemed to have many individuals interested in feline medicine but not a group. Meetings could be set up by interested veterinarians, for instance discussing cases. This would be easy to set up and not have major costs involved.
Conferences
Update on 2008
Claire outlined the study days organised by ESFM in Birmingham (BSAVA), in the Netherlands (Voorjaarsdagen), Dublin (WSAVA), Thailand and at Ghent (ECVIM), in addition, of course, to the Edinburgh Congress which was, for the first time, including a nurses' stream. Asked if there will be more nursing programmes, Claire said that although there are no immediate plans, because it would be more difficult in other countries where vet nurses may not even exist or to gauge the level of support, more will probably by done for nurses, under the FAB, rather than ESFM, banner.
New timing
The 2009 ESFM Congress has been brought forward from September to June and will take place in Cavtat, Dubrovnik. There are now so many veterinary conferences in the autumn that Claire and the EC members had decided to reschedule the ESFM one. How much difference this change in timing will make to the success of the congress remains to be seen.
Further qualifications
Danielle reported that she and her colleagues have been negotiating with the Australian authorities regarding the validity of their qualifications within Europe and progress is certainly being made in our aim to adapt this to become a European qualification. European vets could sit the Australian membership exams and become accredited practitioners, but they would have to be re-accredited after a period of five years for the European system.
Finances
Claire said that the ESFM finances are currently very healthy. Congress 2008 is proving very successful with around 500 delegates (compared with about 350 in previous years). Investment is being made in JFMS Clinical.
Any other business
Myra said that she would be delighted to see more non UK-Europeans on the Executive Committee. She knows of a German colleague who is likely to be an observational board member in Dubrovnik but the Committee would welcome non-UK vets in practice. Claire said that information to apply would be included in the final pink pages of JFMS Classical in December.
The meeting ended at 1.10 pm.
Wanted!
The ESFM is seeking a non-UK practitioner with an interest in cats to join its Executive Committee. The Committee meets twice yearly to discuss current and future activities of the ESFM. The next meeting will take place on Saturday, June 21, 2009 during the ESFM congress in Dubrovnik.
Please apply with CV, by Friday, January 9, 2009, to