I wanted to share with you all a number of things that have been or are in the process of planning now. Firstly, we have a new Treasurer and Secretary, Jon Thorkelsson has agreed to take over the position of Treasurer and Caroline Bramwell has taken over as Secretary. Jon as many will already know is the President of the European Ostomy Association and Caroline is the Secretary of the IA (The Ileostomy and Internal Pouch Support Group) in the UK.
I want to say big thanks to both Ria Smeijers former Treasurer from the Netherlands and Ken Aukett from Florida as both have been heavily involved in the running of the IOA for many years and both have been of great assistance to me since taking this job on in fact it would have been a very much harder task than it has been.
I would also like to mention the 2022 World Coloplast Ostomy Award and thank both Coloplast for being so forward looking and also the Associations that entered the award irrespective of the outcome for them and I hope that it will get even more support incoming years.
On to the future now, the Asia & South Pacific Ostomy Association are holding their 2023 Regional Conference in Singapore in October this year and we are looking to hold the first ever IOA Executive face to face meeting of the current IOA. This is taking a lot of organising and fund raising but we feel that it is essential for the future running of the organisation. Further information on this will be posted as it comes to hand. As far as the ASPOA are concerned we would welcome registrations from any ostomates who would like to attend this event as the more people the better it will be.
Regards,
Richard B. McNair
Chairman
