The European Society For Philosophy Of Medicine And Healthcare

Attendants (48):
Ahlzen R (Sweden); Arnason V (Iceland); Badcott D (UK); Barbosa A (Portugal); Barnet R (USA); Battin MP (USA); Bengtsson KE (Sweden); Dekkers W (The Netherlands); Gelhaus P (Germany); Gordijn B (The Netherlands); Habiba M (UK); Häyry M (UK); Henriques A (Portugal); Heubel F (Germany); Hoedemaekers R (The Netherlands); Hofmann B (Norway); Holm S (UK); Kaldis B (Greece); Kimsma G (The Netherlands); Kontopoulou T (Greece); Lerner H (Sweden); Levitt M (UK); Liddel K (UK); Lötjonen S (Finland); Louhiala P (Finland); Lucas P (UK); Mallia P (Malta); Neitzke G (Germany); Newson A (UK); Nordenfelt L (Sweden); Nordgren A (Sweden); Nordin I (Sweden); Norup M (Denmark); Oduncu F (Germany); Ozaki K (Japan); Pegoraro R (Italy); Rossel P (Denmark); Sahm S (Germany); Sarton F (Canada); Sawada A (Japan); Simek J (Czech Republic); Stempsey W (USA); Szawarski Z (Poland); Takala T (UK); ten Have H (France); Widdershoven G (The Netherlands); Wulff H (Denmark); Zalewski Z (Poland).

1. Draft report of the 17th General Assembly in Vilnius.

The report is accepted without comments or corrections.

2. Report of the Executive Committee over 2003

1. The secretary reports that during 2003 the ESPMH membership has increased from 392 to 417 members, including 10 institutional members. Most of his time was spent in preparing this year’s conference. Several mailings were sent to the members, including materials for the Reykjavik conference. Moreover, first preparations have been made for the 2005 Barcelona conference and the call for abstracts was launched. There have also been talks with Pekka Louhiala to organise the 2006 conference in Valamo (Finland); this proposal is on the current agenda.
2. The treasurer distributed the final account for 2003 (in euro).
   

   ESPMH Income				ESPMH Expenses
   Membership fees	Giro acc	865.00		Giro costs	14.00
   	Runn acc	4238.47		Conf acc costs	96.94
   	Conf acc	207.16		Runn acc costs	232.91
   		Subtotal	19306.50		Subtotal	13111.44
   Conference fees	Giro acc	1670.00		Interest costs		34.08
   	Runn acc	12130.58		Conf costs:
   	Conf acc	5505.92		1. Vilnius	10676.62
   		Subtotal	19306.50	2. Malta	2434.82
   Interest	Giro acc	0.00			Subtotal	13111.44
   	Runn acc	2.11
   	Conf acc	1.86		Chamber Conference		38.30
   	Sav acc	162.50		Secretariate Nijmegen		4764.69
   		Subtotal	166.47	Treasury/ Westzaan		267.61
   Journal income			682.00	Kluwer/ Springer		10390.12
   		Subtotal	25465.60
   			3484.49
   Total			28950.09	Total		28950.09

3. Report of the Financial Review Committee over 2003.

Dr Simon and Drs Pijnenburg have sent a letter to the secretariat stating that they find the account 2003 in order: 'We have audited the books and accounts of the ESPMH and certify that except for a minimal difference of 0.30, which we cannot explain everything is correct.' This report is read before the GA. The Financial Account over 2003 is approved by the GA.

4. Election of Financial Review Committee over 2004

Dr Simon and Drs Pijnenburg have been re-elected as members of the FRC over 2004.

5. Society's fee

Since the financial situation of the society is sound there is no proposal to change the membership fee.

6. Preliminary budget 2005

The budget proposal (in Euro) made by the Executive Committee and distributed in the meeting is approved by the assembly.

7. Election of new Secretary of ESPMH.

A letter was sent to all members inviting them to nominate candidates for the position of President-Elect and three further positions of regular member of the Executive Committee. Further to this invitation, the secretariat received 2 nominations for the position of President-Elect and 4 nominations for the three positions of regular member of the Executive Committee. The EC discussed the nominations and decided to include all nominees in its proposal to the General Assembly. The election proposal for the position of President-Elect is therefore (in alphabetic order):

Soren Holm ( Cardiff , UK ; nominated by Matti Häyry and Tuija Takala)
Pierre Mallia ( Malta , nominated by Lennart Nordenfelt and Ingemar Nordin)

The election proposal for the three positions of member in the EC is (in alphabetic order):
Vilhjálmur Arnason ( Iceland , nominated by Lennart Nordenfelt and Ingemar Nordin)
Friedrich Heubel ( Germany , nominated by Nikola Biller-Andomo and Alfred Simon)
Tuija Takala ( UK , nominated by Matti Häyry and Soren Holm)
Zbig Szawarski ( Poland , already member of the EC and candidate for a next term)

Members unable to attend the GA were invited to request a postal ballot sheet. 3 Postal ballot sheets were returned before the opening of the GA.

A special counting committee (M. Levitt & R. Hoedemaekers) has been installed to count the votes. First the voting procedure for the new President-Elect was carried out. The committee announced the results of the voting. The counting committee received 52 ballot sheets, including 3 postal ballots. The results are as follows:

• Holm: 31 votes
• Mallia: 20 votes
• 1 no vote

Soren Holm is the new President-Elect.

There is some discussion about the voting procedure for the three members of the EC. There are three ballots - the by-law concerning the election procedure stipulates that every position to be filled requires as least one ballot - with the names of all four candidates on each of them. The board proposes that the three ballots are filled in all at once. Other members in the GA however, propose an alternative procedure. They prefer to fill in the second ballot after having heard the results of the votes for the first position and the third ballot after having heard the results of the votes for the second position. The problem with this procedure is that the members in the GA will then vote on the basis of information that was not there for the absent members who have filled in postal ballots.

The board proposes to vote about the voting procedure. 18 Persons vote in favour of the board's procedure; 27 persons vote in favour of the alternative procedure, and 3 persons have no preference. Hence it is decided that the election will go ahead via the alternative procedure.

The election of member 1 of the EC. The counting committee received 52 ballot sheets, including 3 postal ballots. The results are as follows:

• Arnason: 19 votes
• Heubel: 10 votes
• Takala: 8 votes
• Szawarski: 15 votes

Vilhjálmur Arnason is a member of the EC.

The election of member 2 of the EC. The counting committee received 50 ballot sheets, including 3 postal ballots. The results are as follows:

• Arnason: 2 votes
• Heubel: 12 votes
• Takala: 23 votes
• Szawarski: 13 votes

Tuija Takala is a member of the EC.

The election of member 3 of the EC. The counting committee received 52 ballot sheets, including 3 postal ballots. The results are as follows:

• Arnason: 1 vote
• Heubel: 20 votes
• Takala: 1 vote
• Szawarski: 29 votes
• 1 no vote

Zbig Szawarski is a member of the EC.

8. Composition of the EC

According to the Statutes, the number of positions in the EC has to be settled by the GA. There is no proposal to change the current number of seats.

9. Forthcoming conferences

Barcelona 2005. The secretary explains that the organisational efforts are on the way. The call for abstracts was launched; announcements were published in the journals; the first abstracts have already being submitted. A video by the team in Barcelona about the upcoming joint 2005 conference of the ESPMH and the EACME conference is shown .

Pekka Louhiala presents his proposal for the 2006 conference in Valamo , Finland . Valamo is the Finnish Orthodox Church's only monastery and it is located in the beautiful lake region of eastern Finland . There is some discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of Valamo as a venue for the ESPMH conference in comparison with Helsinki . On the one hand is Valamo a beautiful peaceful location, the prices are reasonable and the atmosphere is very special. On the other hand Valamo has no exciting nightlife and it is further away than Helsinki . The president proposes to vote about the issue. The results are: 28 in favour of Valamo. 20 in favour of Helsinki . This means that Valamo will be the venue for the conference in 2006.

10. Journal Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy

The president informs the GA that Henk ten Have will have to give up his position as Editor in Chief of the journal Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy . A European Journal because of his new position as Director of the Division of Ethics of Science and Technology in UNESCO. Henk ten Have has proposed Wim Dekkers (who has been managing editor from the start of the journal) and Bert Gordijn (who has been book review editor) as the new editors of the journal. The ESPMH board has accepted this proposal.

11. ESPMH prize for young scholars

Nikola Biller has suggested that the ESPMH start with awarding an ESPMH prize each year for young scholars for a scientific contribution on ethical, epistemological, or other philosophical issues relating to medicine or health care. The financial situation of the ESPMH would allow us to pay out 1,500 Euro for such a prize, given our financial basis as it is now. However, the future cannot be predicted. Our financial situation might alter. Hence, the board of the ESPMH proposes to decide about the prize each year anew and not to take a decision about the prize as a structural institution. If the GA were to agree with the idea of the prize (to be decided on by the Board of the ESPMH each year anew), the ESPMH would announce the prize for the year 2005, to be awarded by the President of the ESPMH at our next year’s conference in Barcelona. Papers for the prize should be sent to the secretariat by February 1, 2005. The ESPMH would announce the winning paper by March 1, 2005. We could then invite the author of the winning paper to attend the conference in August, 2005. The President invites the members to respond to this proposal. There is some discussion about whether there should be one prize, or rather two or three prizes. The majority of the GA is in favour of two prizes: the first prize is 1,000 and the second prize is 500.

12. A proposal by Friedrich Heubel: 'Better participation of the membership in elections'

The president explains that this point has been skipped from the agenda after discussion with Friedrich Heubel. The proposal will first be sent to all members and will be on the agenda next year in Barcelona.

13. A.O.B.

No remarks.