ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

IFEMA CONFERENCE CENTRE, ROOM ‘COLON’, NORTH BUILDING
MADRID, SPAIN, 14TH MARCH 2003

MINUTES

ITEM 1
Sue opened the AGM and welcomed the ESPUN members present, thanking them for attending. 55 Delegates were in attendance at congress, 41 ESPUN members and 11 non-members.
16 abstracts had been submitted, 12 were accepted for presentation at the ESPUN scientific meeting, 1 accepted as a poster presentation, 1 accepted in the main forum and 2 abstracts were rejected.

ITEM 2
The minutes of the ESPUN AGM in Budapest, Hungary, April 2002 were discussed and agreed to be an accurate representation of the items addressed. Apologies were given on behalf of Marie-Ode Bau, board member from Paris, France who was unable to attend the conference this year.

ITEM 3
Craig then gave a membership update. The ESPUN was at the start of congress 89 in number with further applications already being requested.
REMEMBER YOU HAVE TO BE A MEMBER OF THE ESPUN TO QUALIFY FOR THE REDUCED FEE FOR CONGRESS REGISTRATION.
Members have now been allocated a membership number. Craig will inform members of their membership number on dispatch of the AGM minutes. New members will not be allocated their membership number until their fees have been received by direct bank transfer. Catherine, the board treasurer, will in turn confirm payment with Craig who will then allocate the membership number.
It was agreed that the membership fee remains at 24 Euros payable by the 1st of January each year. Members who have not paid for two consecutive years were removed from the membership list. Members who have not paid for last year only will be given an extension for payment until April 1st 2003. Failure to pay on time will result in your name being removed from the membership list.
Composition of the board was then discussed and the voting for new board members addressed. No nomination forms have been received for election to the board. This will prove to be a great problem as existing members come to the end of their term on the board. Sue stressed the importance of recruiting new board members to ensure the continued success of the now extremely well established ESPUN group.

ITEM 4
Catherine then gave an over view of the financial report of the board. The balance is a healthy and positive one at present. It was discussed that monies remain available to support nurses unable to obtain funding to attend congress, and for payment of invited guest speakers. Danuta, nurse member from Poland, then thanked the board and the members for their support as she had received sponsorship to attend this years congress for which she was very grateful. The deadline for sponsorship application is to remain as October 1st of each year to enable the applicants to be discussed at the autumn/winter ESPUN board meeting.

ITEM 5
Margrethe and Sue gave an overview of the language course held on the day prior to congress. Overall it was a successful day with mostly positive feedback. It was clear that the course had been more difficult to arrange this year. There had been very little interest from EAUN members resulting in the morning language course having to be cancelled. Astra continue to very generously provide sponsorship for the ESPUN language course. All those wishing to attend future language courses must apply before the closing date, to be announced in subsequent ESPU mailings, in order to be considered. It was also stressed that course delegates must bring their letter of confirmation to be accepted onto the course. Any comments or feedback relating to the language course please contact Sue or myself.
If any one has any ideas relating to how they would like the language course to be run or the structure of the day do not hesitate to put your thoughts forward to any one of the board members before the end of July 2003.

ITEM 6
The web site was discussed. The new code for accessing the membership corner was confirmed as ****. The code changes yearly and you will be updated accordingly. If any changes to your membership details occur please amend your details by accessing the nurse corner to ensure that you receive all relevant mailings from the ESPU/ESPUN. The web site is also accessible for clinical case discussion where members can exchange information relating to specific cases. Web site interest has increased and of course this is an extremely useful forum for networking with colleagues world-wide. Please check the web site and get involved wherever possible.

ITEM 7
The dates and host countries of the forthcoming meetings were addressed. The meeting in 2004 will be held in Regensburg, Germany 22nd-25th April.

• Please follow the abstract submission guidelines very carefully as defined in forthcoming mailings from the ESPU
• Deadline for submission of abstracts is November 1st 2003 for the Regensburg meeting in 2004.
• Again this year only on-line abstract submission is accepted.
• Please ensure that you include VAT when registering for Congress in 2004.

ITEM 8
The 2003 BAPU Cambridge Course was announced for any interested members. (flyer enclosed)

ITEM 9
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Sue thanked the members present for their time and valuable comments during the AGM. Sue also thanked the speakers for the excellent papers given throughout the congress, the chairpersons, Christine Rhodes and Marian Van Der Weide, for keeping order throughout the day and hoped everyone enjoyed the remainder of their visit to Madrid both professionally and socially.

The meeting was then closed.