Report of President IOA

Greetings from Mumbai, India. We will be celebrating the festival of Lights

( Diwali ) & beginning of Hindu New year from 3rd November to 7th November

 2010. My best wishes & greetings in advance to all of you on this occasion.

I was elected as a vice president of IOA in August 2007 in world congress of IOA in Puerto Rico & in August 2008 after Mr. Vladimir Kleinwächter relinquished his post as a president due to health issues, I took over as a president of IOA in August 2008. This report covers period from August 2007 till November 2010.

We had 12th IOA world congress in FAJARDO, PUERTO RICO from 8th to 11th August 2007.

IOA President Di Bracken opened the Congress and welcomed all.  Martha Velez De Nieves, Congress Coordinator, gave greetings in English and Spanish.  She introduced Aníbal Meléndez Rivera, Mayor of Fajardo, who welcomed this congress and their members to Puerto Rico.  The First Lady gave her personal welcome.

Susan Stelton, Vice-president of WCET, addressed the assembly and highlighted the increasing cooperation between IOA and WCET.

Kenneth Aukett, the last recipient of the Archie Vinitsky Award presented the award to John E. O’Neill for his outstanding contributions to the work of IOA.

Di Bracken informed the assembly that the recipient of the Professional Service Award was Afonso Henrique da Silva e Sousa Jr.

Tributes were paid to Heinz Wolff & Tom Kelly. There after usual IOA business meeting was continued. 33 members were present with 107 votes. Few constitutional amendments were presented , some were adopted some were not.

• Most important decision was taken for discontinuation of convening IOA World Congress Events in conjunction with the IOA World Council Meetings This was supported by the evidence & background information provided by  Kenneth Aukett, Past IOA President.

Following the above it was decided ( Motion by Deutche ILCO ) that IOA Executive Council shall appoint a task force for working out a concept for future IOA meetings.  Members of the task force shall be representatives of IOA Executive Council, IOA regional coordination committees, and member associations. Accordingly task force was appointed consisting of Di Bracken and Brenda Flanagan, and Barry Maughan.

 Election of the IOA office bearers were held

 Vladimir Kleinwächter was elected President

 Harikesh Buch was elected Vice President.

 Gene Zapf was elected Treasurer by affirmation

Prof. Carlo Pezcoller, Di & I conducted a stoma care workshop ( Under project Lions for Stoma Care funded by Lions of Modena & district 108Tb )along with Surgeons & ETs from Guanzhou, China in a city called Lanzhou in local Cancer Hospital in Central china. About 50 nurses & doctors from other hospitals attended the workshop. It was here we realized that stoma care program is well developed only in the major cities of East Cost of China & lot of work need to be done in rest of China with the help of local surgeons & ETs.

Di & I attended a stoma care workshop organized by Prof. Carlo Pezcoller in University Hospital of Modena, Italy again funded by Local Lions. Drs from Argentina, Peru & Paraguay attended the workshop for six days with the idea of organizing a further training for nurses in their respective countries in 2008.