News

General Assembly of the Nordic Fertility Society
Minutes of the meeting held in Espoo Finland, August 4th, 2006

1. The General Assembly elected Anne-Maria Suikkari to chair the meeting. Viveca Söderstöm-Antilla for secretary and Karin Erb and Leif Hagglund for auditors of the minutes. In addition to Karin Erb, a professional auditor will be chosen as auditor for the NFS accounts.


2. The minutes of the previous meeting and the agenda for the present meeting were accepted.


3. Johan Hazekamp gave the annual report of the NFS board. The NFS web site has been updated with the purpose to include more interesting issues for the members. The Society is active in arranging educational meetings. A three-day course in embryology was in held in spring 2005. In November 2006, an educational course of nurses and secretaries will take place in Copenhagen, and a vitrification and cryopreservation course is planned in Stockholm, March 2007. All courses sponsored by NFS.
   
   An EU-directives subcommittee has been constituted. Two meetings have been held in December 2005 and April 2006. This was the first time a sub-committee has been put together. Unnur Egilsdottir, Iceland, is a new member of the Board representing the secretary group. Karl Gösta Nygren will leave the Board.
   
   A Need to revise the NFS By-Laws has arisen to define the rules in situations oif a member of the election committee is unable to attend the Board-election meeting, or if an elected Boar member retires from the Board prematurely. The proposed amendments to §4 of the By-Laws were presented and approved. A second approval of the amendments will be needed in the next General Assembly in Oslo in 2008 before it formally can be added to the By-Laws of the Society.
   
   
4. The Chairman of the Åre Conference KG Nygren made a short summary of the previous conference. The meeting was successful with an attendance of 567 persons. At this conference the Secretary group had its own session for the first time. Press was invited and a trinity discussion was arranged between representatives of patients, the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry. The abstract from the meeting were published in ACTA.


5. Christel Hydén-Granskog presented the current status of the Espoo Conference. The attendance was ~ 500 persons, 151 attendants from Sweden, 129 from Finland, 114 from Denmark, 66 from Norway and one from Iceland, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Italy and Estonia. The number of exhibitioners was 23.


6. The treasurer's report was presented by Julius Hreinsson. The balance of the Åre Conference showed a small deficit. The economy of the society is good. The General Assembly approved the treasurer's proposal that there would be no changes to the membership fees. The treasurer's report and the budget were adopted by the assembly.


7. The next conference will be held in Oslo, Norway in January 2008. Tom Tanbo gave a presentation of preliminary plans for the meeting titled "Building a bridge to society". Politicians and health authorities will be invited and an exhibition is planned for the public. A video presentation of the arrangements was shown.


8. No other issues were raised.


9. The chairman thanked the members and closed the meeting.