Balkan Cities Association of Nephrology, Dialysis, Transplantation and Artificial Organs

BANTAO

 

Minutes-from-Antalya-2009

 

 

 

 

Minutes of the BANTAO General Assembly Meeting
Antalya, 21st November 2009

The meeting was chaired by, Prof. Basci (President Elect of the BANTAO and Founding Board Member), Prof. L. Djukanovic Prof. Polenakovic and Prof. Nenov (Founding Board Members). The agenda of the meeting included:
1. Report from the President of the 9th BANTAO Congress
2. Report from the Deputy-Editor of the BANTAO Journal
3. Election of new Editor of the BANTAO Journal
4. Proposal and approval of the BANTAO Statute
5. Approval of the Venue and President of the 10th BANTAO Congress

1. The President of the 9th BANTAO Congress and President of BANTAO, Prof. Ali Basci introduced the statistics of the 9th BANTAO, saying that there were 50 Lectures in Round Table Discussions and CME Course, 6 Keynotes lectures in 8 sessions of Oral Presentations and 2 Poster Sessions. The number of abstracts submitted was the highest of all BANTAO meetings, accounting to 241. submitted abstracts has been summitted. Each one of these Abstracts has been were sent to 8 different international reviewers, and after assesment of the submitted scores by the reviewers 19 abstracts have been were rejected, and considering also the preferance of the submitters 52 of these abstracts presented as oral presentation and 150 abstracts were presented as posters. The number of registered attendants were 744 and came from 13 countries. There were 549 from Turkey. Highest numbers of participants other than host country are were from Serbia (59), R. of Macedonia (29), Greece(27), Bulgaria(22), Croatia(20), Slovenia(13). The audience applauded congratulating Prof. Bacsi for organizing a very successful congress.
2. Prof. Basci asked Prof. G. Spasovski to report on matters of the BANTAO journal and praised Goce for the good work he has been doing to keep the journal going and improving. Prof. Spasovski said that the journal has been moving to the right direction and, although the application he had submitted to get the journal listed in the Index Medicus was not successful, he felt that this target could be achieved in the near future and asked for support and submission of good quality papers to be submitted in for publication in the BANTAO journal.
3. Prof. Basci moved on to the next item of the agenda and stated that he will step out as Editor of the BANTAO journal and proposed that Prof. Goce Spasovski should be the new Editor, because he is the most qualified person. He also said that although he was the Editor, Goce was the real force that kept the journal going on. Dr. D. Tsakiris seconded Prof. Basci’s proposal and by unanimous vote the Assembly accepted Prof. Spasovski as the new Editor of the journal, who proposed the appointment of two deputy-editors. The assembly authorized the new editor to proceed contacting colleagues who would feel and accept to work as debuty editors.
4. Next, Prof. Basci introduced the Statute of the BANTAO, article by article, commenting on the importance and necessity to have as a society a constitution ratified, the preparation of which started in 2002 by Dr. Ch. Stathakis and was completed by time consuming exchange of ideas by the current Board of BANTAO after the last meeting in Beograd. After the presentation there were several points raised by participating members in the Assembly.
Dr. Oreopoulos pointed out that in the composition of the Board members there was no treasurer included, and suggested that the secretary could act as treasurer also or the BANTAO representative in Varna (where the registered address of BANTAO will be) should be a member of the Board. This suggestion was seconded by Prof. A. Covic, who also proposed that the membership fee should be increased from 20 to 50 euro. Prof. Basci replied that the financial state of BANTAO was close to zero and suggested, for the time being, to leave this point as it is, and if the BANTAO property increases in the future we may consider changing this article of the Statute. He put Prof. Covic’s proposal to vote and the Assembly unanimously voted that the membership fee should be increased to 50 euro.
Dr. Tsakiris pointed out that in the aim of the association should be defined that “the collaboration of scientists and health professionals…” should be of Balkan countries instead of “… Balkan cities”. He also added that the Statute at its present form was prepared to tailor the needs and circumstances of BANTAO at the present, and he is agreeable to consider naming a treasurer in the Board at a later stage, providing that the constitution describes the procedures required to change or add articles of the Statute, which he missed during the presentation of the articles by Prof. Basci.
Prof. Dimkovic suggested that it would be a good idea to link the future prospect of BANTAO to the support of National Societies of Nephrology in Balkan countries and there should be sort of representation of Balkan countries in the composition of the Board. Prof. Covic seconded this, and proposed that it would be more democtratic that some members of the Board should be elected by the BANTAO members, instead of been nominated in a fixed manner by the constitution.
Prof. Basci, seconded by Prof. Nenov, proposed to leave the term “cities” as it is to avoid political frictions between countries in the Balkans. Prof. Spasovski reassured the Assembly that in the constitution there is a clause defining that in order to proceed to constitutional changes it is required ‘’… a two third majority of present votes at the time that changes are proposed”. He also said that BANTAO has been open to scientists of all Balkan countries and there has been an open discussion with colleagues from all countries and it is a matter of time that they will appear in the scene of executive bodies.
Dr. Oreopoulos proposed that, despite imperfections in the Statute, it is mandatory to vote and have a constitution for BANTAO after many efforts of years without it. Dr. Tsakiris seconded this constractive proposal. However, Prof. Covic insisted that in the composition of the Board should be included members elected by vote, without disputing his respect for past presidents of BANTAO. Dr. Oreopoulos proposed to go ahead and ratify by vote the Statute as it is in its present form, which was done and there was a unanimous approval by the Assembly.
5. Prof. Basci moved to the last item of the agenda and proposed that the next venue of the BANTAO Congress should be Greece, and asked if there was a positive response from Greek collegues. Dr. Tsakiris said that he was asked by the BANTAO Board to replace Dr. Ch. Stathakis after his serious illness in the Board. He was informed then that there had been discussions and an agreement that the next venue will be Greece. Dr. Tsakiris informed the Hellenic Society of Nephrology about this proposal and they approved that he could replace Dr. Stathakis and claim the next venue of the BANTAO congress. Dr. Tsakiris concluded that he would be honored to organize the next meeting in Thessaloniki. The Assembly approved unanimously the proposal that the next BANTAO Congress will be organized in Thessaloniki by Dr. Tsakiris.
Dr. Covic asked permission to speak and came back to the issue of the composition of the Board. He said that now that the next President of the Congress was elected it appears that the Board now is consisted by Prof. A. Basci, as President of the Society, by Prof. G. Utas as Secretary, by Dr. Tsakiris as President of the next Congress and President Elect of the Society, Prof. Spasovski as Editor of the BANTAO Journal, and questioned who is the 5th (?) member of the Board. He stressed that it was mandatory, since we are in the process of ratifying the constitution of BANTAO, that the composition of its Board should be clear.
Dr. Tsakiris said that he can understand the good point raised by Prof. Covic, but the constitution had just been ratified by a unanimous vote by the Assembly to stay as it is, and therefore, in effect was operational. Prof. Covic agreed to that comment. Dr. Tsakiris continued saying that the constitution does not define that the number of the Board members should be five (5). It defines that it is consisted by the four members mentioned by Prof. Covic, plus …” the Past Presidents of the Association”. This clause contains an apparent drawback as the number of past presidents will be increasing in the future. The number of the Board members should be limited to a certain number which could be decided by discussion and change in the near future. Until then, Dr. Tsakiris proposed that the Past Presidents who were chairing the General Assembly, namely, Prof. Djukanovic, Prof. Polenakovic and Prof. Nenov could also be included as members in the current Board. This proposal was accepted by a unanimous vote by the Assembly forming a Board consisting of eight seven members, namely, Prof. Basci, Prof. G. Utas, Dr. Tsakiris, Prof. Spasovski, Prof. Djukanovic, Prof. Polenakovic, and Prof. Nenov. and Prof. Nesic.
After this Prof. Basci concluded the General Assembly.