August, 2004 Executive Report Card
The following report is a brief description of the activities that the IFOMT Executive has undertaken since the conference in Cape Town, South Africa. Each Executive member is providing his/her own report in point form to keep you and your members / MO Executive informed.
It is anticipated that this report will be produced quarterly, every 3 months, and at times some member's component of the report card will be more or less complex, depending upon activities. I ask the Member Organization representatives to write back with comments, suggestions, and requests for clarification as needed.
Below are some of the issues which are being addressed by the Executive as a whole:
1) Familiarization of the website Forum mechanism for discussion. It is hoped that this electronic vehicle will improve the efficiency of our communications.
2) Discussion of the Spanish and Greek applications for full membership into IFOMT. As you are aware, neither country was accepted for full membership during the Cape Town conference, the usual venue for granting membership. Spain has asked for a special meeting to reconsider their membership, and the Executive believe that if this special meeting takes place, full consideration should be given to both the Spanish and Greece applications.
3) The Forum on the website has also been modified to allow for Member Organization representatives to have a special meeting, should this be the decision of the representatives. This will provide a unique experience to explore how the IFOMT community can communicate and decide upon our direction of growth.
4) Other countries have shown interest in joining as full members in IFOMT. We will keep the membership informed.
5) We are looking at the issue of feedback from IFOMT MO representatives regarding the Cape Town conference, to see how we can evolve our activities for 2008 in the Netherlands.
The Executive members, over the next few months, will review their mandates as regards the Strategic Planning Report. There may be the opportunity over the next two years to visit this issue for further refinement and evolution.
President's report - July, 2004:
Michael Ritchie
Responsible for:
Resources, Funding, and Administration
EC Americas
Assisted by:
Austria
Germany
Sweden
New Zealand
Tasks include:
Website management
Exploration of funding sources, including website advertising
Development of EC Americas
Present Activities:
Further development of website, including communicating with individual
website editors
Discussions with the Canadian and American Member Organizations regards
EC Americas
Planning in-person meetings in Canada and United States regards the EC
Americas development
Communicating with the secretariat, Vicki Reid, regarding day to day operations
of IFOMT matters
Future Activities:
Communicate with my four MO representatives regarding funding and resources
Develop a strategy to increase traffic at www.ifomt.org
Develop a strategy for advertisement development on the site
According to the present IFOMT Strategic Plan, we are on track and on schedule regards resources and funding, other than the website advertising as had originally been considered. I feel that it is important for the site to be fully operational (and it very nearly is!) before development of advertising on the site. Also, it is important to have visitors to the site!!!!! Perhaps that is one of the chores that my committee must consider now, how to increase traffic at www.ifomt.org!
Vice President's report - July, 2004:
Marina Wallin
Responsible for:
Education
EC Europe (ECE)
Assisted by:
Australia
Denmark
Finland
United States
Belgium (ECE)
Tasks include:
Development of Specialisation
Establishing criteria for IFOMT Conference Bursary
Activities in EC Europe
Present Activities:
Discussions with the assistant MOs regarding criteria for OMT Specialist
Discussion regarding further development of IFOMT Conference Bursary
Contact with the next ECE Congress arranger (Finland)
Future Activities:
See above.
Contact with European countries interested in becoming members in the future.
Treasurers report:
Annalie Basson
Responsible for:
Finances
Resource centre
Assisted by:
Switzerland
Denmark
South Africa
Tasks:
Managing finances with the assistance of the secretariat
Management (with the help of the website manger, Per Kjaer) the resource centre
Present activities:
Finances are quiet with just the day to day expenses.
The executive decided to spend money on developing a forum/ chat room for the website.
Assessing the information in the resource centre
Compiling a form for MO's in order to update the resource centre.
Future activities:
Update the Resource Centre. As we are thinking of changing the format slightly I
would really appreciate feedback and information from ALL MO's.
Executive Member One:
Lothar Joerger
Portfolio:
Advocacy and comunication
Assisted by:
Belgium
Hongkong
Italy
Swizterland
Present activities:
Contact with the past executive member to collect documentation about the existing contacts
Discussions with a friend of mine who is charged with PR activities in an internationally acting society
Surfing through the different homepages of MT/ Physiotherapie/ Medical/ Osteopathic and Chiropractic groups to generate further ideas to promote our work
First draft to adapt basics of such approach to our needs and possibilities -
asking the assisted MO`s to bring in their ideas to get an first and fresh collection of point of views to develop the strategic plan.
Future activities:
Finish the first draft establishing the objectives and try to arrange a time table and to stimulate the discussion how and with whom to achieve the objectives.
Executive Member Two:
Duncan Reid
Responsible for:
Research
Assisted by:
Norway
New Zealand
Australia
Tasks include:
Website management of research
Collecting research information from MO's
Present Activities:
The research section of the website is now functioning as is the guidelines section. MO's have been asked to update information but as yet the response has been slow
Future Activities:
Communicate with my four MO representatives the collection of information and continue to work with Anita Gross to ensure the information is updated and added as required
Continue to develop website links with countries that have published guidelines and also links to key research centres within Universities that are engaged in research into manual therapy.
