:: Indian Society For Pediatric Neurosurgery

MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING OF THE INDIAN SOCIETY FOR PAEDIATRIC NEUROSURGERY

The Executive Committee meeting of the Indian Society for Paediatric Society was held on 03 November 2007 at 11 AM at the PGIMER, Chandigarh.
The following members were present:

Dr C E Deopujari – President
Dr A K Mahapatra – Vice President
Dr B Chidambaram – Secretary
Dr N K Venkataramana – Treasurer
Dr Sandip Chaterjee – Executive Committee Member
Dr Uday Andar - Executive Committee Member
Dr Suresh Shankala – Editor of society’s journal
Dr S Bhagwati – Founder President
Dr V K Kak – Former President
Regrets were received from Dr D K Chhabbra - Immediate Past President.
The President called the meeting to order and chaired the meeting.
The President welcomed the members.
The President took the chair and invited the Secretary to present his report.

SECRETARY’S REPORT

The minutes of the last years Executive Committee was approved, proposed by Dr Andar seconded by Dr Chaterjee.
The Secretary began by highlighting this year’s meeting. He first placed on record the excellent work done by the organisers of the meeting in particular Dr Ashish Pathak. The organisation was excellent and hospitality left nothing to be desired. The scientific content too was superb. A record number of papers had been submitted. The appreciation for such a good response by the members and residents was also placed on record. He emphasised no paper had been rejected. A place was found in the proceedings for all the papers in some category – platform or poster. This, he said, was done to encourage those in training. The standard of papers was getting better it was observed by all.
The proposed amendment to the constitution by Dr SN Bhagwati namely to reduce the term of the President to one year and reelection for another term was presented. The President reminded that a proposal to reduce the term of the President to two years had been tabled in the last years meeting and it was pending approval by the members. The Secretary reminded that this had been uploaded on the website and there had been no response to this. Further the Secretary said the constitution of the society as it stood now had been drafted when the society was founded and since we have come a long way and grown substantially the whole constitution should be looked at with a view to make suitable changes if need be to redraft it. Dr Kak said redrafting the constitution would mean resubmission to the Registrar of Societies so it would be better if we can make the amendments and present it for approval. The secretary was authorised to look into it. The Secretary was empowered to look in to the matter and with the help of Dr AK Mahapatra and Dr Sandip Chateerjee to propose the amendments. The amendments would include categories of membership, term of office bearers, fee structure guidelines for meetings etc.This was to be done and submitted to be members and also be uploaded on to the website by the first of April 2008. After discussion and approval in the next annual general body meeting it would be adopted.
The Secretary brought to light the difficulties he is experiencing in updating the membership roster. The Secretary said he will be emailing to all members of the Neurologic Society of India asking for the details. (He emphasised that when emails were sent to the members of the Neurologic Society of India informing them about this years meeting of our society about 70 bounced.) This was approved.
The lack of response from the organisers of two meetings held earlier ( in Nagpur and Goa) with regard to submission of the audited accounts and the donation to the society were highlighted. The organisers of the meeting in Lucknow had given Rs 25,000/- but were yet to submit the audited account. It was felt this was not in keeping with the commitment made by the organisers and the Secretary and Treasurer were asked to get in touch with the two organisers regarding this. Further after discussion the members present were of the opinion that this trend cannot be allowed to continue. The members approved the proposal to debar the organisers of the meeting who do not contribute the dues and the audited statement of accounts to the society from participating the society’s activities, from contesting or holding office or presenting papers or voting.
The President felt the sum fixed now to be given as a donation to the society by the organisers of the annual meeting was too low in itself and also in comparison to other societies. After much deliberation it was agreed that the donation amount would be the same but an additional sum of Rs 25,000/- would have to be given to the society for subsidising the journal of the society. The interest free loan of the society to the organisers will continue to remain at Rs 25,000/-.This too would have to be paid back to the society. The submission of the accounts, the donation to the society and the return of the loan shall be done within six months of the last date of the conference. These will come into force from the meeting to be held in 2008.
The Secretary reiterated that the Editor of the journal should be made a member of the Executive Committee and this had been proposed earlier. This was approved.
Through the President Dr Venkataramana, the Treasurer, offered space free of charge to house the permanent office of the society in his hospital. The members appreciated the generous offer and accepted it in principle.
The application of Dr Siddarth Ghosh (Life Member), Dr Abhijit Hazra, Dr Shashank Ramdurg
( Associate Member) were approved they were welcomed to the society.
The venue of the meetings to be held in 2008 and 2009 were approved. In 2008 it will be Coimbatore and in 2009 it will be Kolkatta the organising secretaries will be Dr Murali and
Dr Sandip Chaterjee respectively. The 2009 meeting would coincide with the 75th anniversary celebrations of the Park Clinic. No application for the 2010 meeting had been received.
The President informed the members that a national data base on common paediatric neurosurgical problems can be started. To that end he informed the members that three sponsors have come forward to fund the operations. The three data base areas will be Hydrocephalus; Spina Bifida and Paediatric Neurooncology. The coordinators for the data bases will be Dr Chidambaram, Dr Deopujari and Dr Mahapatra for Hydrocephalus, Dr Venkataramana Dr Rajkumar and Dr Ajay Sharma for spina bifida and Dr Sandip Chaterjee Dr Ashish Pathak and Dr Suresh Shankala for Neuro oncology..
The President had made a presentation in Liverpool at the annual meeting of the ISPN this year on Goa where we will be hosting the ISPN meeting in 2011. This was highlighted and the members were informed by the President that in the meeting of ISPN to be held in Cape Town next year we will have to present the budget, arrangements, registration fees and the arrangements being made to host the meeting. The details are being worked out and a proposal was made that a few members of the organising committee will visit Goa in the early part of next year to inspect the various sites and to start liaising with the hotels. An organising committee has been constituted and the members are
Patrons: S.N.Bhagwati, A.K.Banerji
National Advisors: Kalyanraman, V.K.Kak, D.K.Chhabra
Chairman: C.E.Deopujari
Co-chairman : A.K.Mahapatra
Secretary: B.Chidambaram
Joint secretaries: S.Ponraj, Sandip Chatterjee
Treasurer: N.K.Venkatramana
Joint treasurers: K. Sridhar, V P Singh
Reception committee: Uday Andar, Milind Sankhe
Scientific committee: Ashis Pathak, A.K.Purohit, A Sharma
Publication committee : S. Sankhla, Raj Kumar

It was decided to enhance the travel fellowship awarded to the residents and fellows to
Rs 3000/- per person.
The idea of starting a fellowship in Paediatric Neurosurgery was also discussed and accepted. Dr Sridhar the organising secretary of the meting held in Chennai had given the proceeds of the meeting held in Chennai to the society to start a fellowship in the name of Dr B Ramamurthi.
It was decided to award the fellowship as a travelling fellowship to those in training or those who have finished their training but are less than 40 years of age. The money should be spent to visit and spend some time in centers recognised by the society for training in paediatric neurosurgery.
All the details would be worked our soon and presented to the members.

The report was accepted (Proposed by Dr.Deopujari, Seconded Dr.Venkat Ramana)

TRESURER’S REPORT

The financial status of Indian Society for Paediatric Neurosurgery is as follows:

The total amount is 14,59.60.42/-

The amount of fixed deposit is

Rs. 6,65,000/-
5 lakhs

The cash in the Bank balance is Rs. 2,94,060.42/-

Bank interest is Rs 28,194.16/-

Rs.44,595 has been collected from the membership fee

Expenses is 58,768.16/-

Majority of the expenses is for the journal and the awards.

The report was accepted (Proposed by Dr.Deopujari, Seconded Dr.B.Chidambaram)

EDITOR’S REPORT

Like last year, two issues of the Journal of Pediatric Neurosciences were released this year also. All together, 3 original articles, 1 review article, 1 operative nuances, 1 neuroimaging, 1 technical note, 14 case reports, and 6 short communications were published this year. The July-December 2007 issue also contained abstracts of the presentations selected for the 18th Annual Conference of the Indian Society for pediatric Neurosurgery, held in Chandigarh from November 2-4, 2007. In this issue, Dr. C.E. Deopujari wrote a special report on the 35th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery which was organized in Liverpool, UK, in September 2007 and was attended by more than 10 delegates from India.

The journal has definitely got increased number of readers worldwide now. This is obvious from the fact that some of our articles have been visited several hundred times in last few months. More international participation has also been observed this year. In fact, the last issue had three articles that were received from the overseas medical institutions. We also encourage the neurosurgeons from our neibouring countries to participate actively in this journal by providing them with free subscription for few years.

The editorial board has decided to release a topic-based issue next year. The first such special issue on “Pediatric Epilepsy” will be published early next year. Contributions in the form of personal experiences, original studies, research work, clinical studies, surgical techniques etc. from all those neurosurgeons, neurologists, and other neuroscientists in this country who are involved with the management of epilepsy in children are invited to make this issue a success.

With the progress that this journal has made in last two year, I am sure we should be able to get the journal recognized and indexed in next 1-2 years. To achieve that, we need to maintain regularity of the journal and quality of the scientific material for next few years. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to appeal to all our neurological and neurosurgical colleagues to send their clinical material for publication in our journal.
The report was accepted (Proposed by Dr.B.Chidambaram, Seconded Dr. Deopujari)

As there was no other matter pending the meting concluded with thanks to the chair and the members present.

MINUTES OF THE GENERAL BODY MEETING OF THE INDIAN SOCIETY FOR PAEDIATRIC NEUROSURGERY

The annual meeting of the Indian Society for Paediatric Neurosurgery was held on 03 November 2007 at 06:00 PM at the PGIMER, Chandigarh.
The meeting was chaired by Dr CE Deopujari, President. Also present on the dais were
Dr AK Mahapatra, Vice President; Dr Chidambaram, Secretary and Dr NK Venkataramana, Treasurer.
The meeting was called to order by the President. The President welcomed the members present.
The President observed that the number of members present was insufficient to constitute the “minimum number” required to conduct the meeting. Since there was no quorum the President called a recess of fifteen minutes to allow the members who were in the campus but not at the meeting hall to come. After the stipulated recess the President called the meeting to order and welcomed the members again. He observed that the number of members present still did not constitute the quorum. Since the members had been given due notice through the website and also through the conference announcements he felt it was in order to go ahead with the meeting. It was noted by those present this was a very regrettable thing to happen since the General Body Meeting is a very important part of any organisation or meeting. The President proposed that in future the quorum for conducting the General Body Meeting should be made 10% (TEN PERCENT) of the members on the roster of the society since that is the number needed to conduct the proceedings of the Parliament of our country. This was supported by the floor and he authorised the Secretary to introduce this as an amendment to the constitution when the latter was amending the constitution.(See the details on this subject which follow).

The minutes of the last General Body Meeting which had been uploaded on the web were accepted – proposed by Dr Milind Sanke and seconded by Dr Sandip Chaterjee.

SECRETARY’S REPORT:

The Secretary began by appreciating the extraordinary work done by Dr Ashish Pathak and the Organising Committee in conducting this years meeting. The appreciation of the members were placed on record and Dr Pathak was given a standing ovation.
The Secretary began by response to this years meeting. The number of papers submitted was more compared to the previous years. This good response by the members and residents appreciated and was also placed on record. He emphasised no paper had been rejected. A place was found in the proceedings for all the papers in some category – platform or poster. In fact, he added that with the Organising Secretary the meeting schedule had to be reworked and another session added to include the papers. This, he said, was done to encourage those in training. The members on the floor remarked the standard of papers was getting better.
An amendment to the constitution was proposed by Dr Bhagwati i.e. the term of the President be reduced to one year and reelection for one more term. This was discussed. The Secretary brought the notice of the members what had transpired in the Executive Committee earlier that day. He reminded the floor that a proposal to reduce the term of the President to two years had been tabled in the last years meeting and it was pending approval by the members. This had been duly uploaded in the website of the society and there had been no response to this so far. So the Secretary said this proposal may be discussed later. Further he said the constitution of the society as it stood now had been drafted when the society was founded. A lot of changes have taken place and we have grown in size and strength he reminded the floor. The constitution of the society should be looked at critically and suitable substantial amendments be made. The members present authorised the Secretary to look into it. The Secretary was to recruit the help of Dr AK Mahapatra and Dr Sandip Chateerjee in this endeavour. The amendments would include categories of membership, term of office bearers, fee structure guidelines for meetings etc. This was to be done and submitted to be members and also be uploaded on to the website by the first of April 2008. After discussion and approval in the next annual general body meeting it would be adopted.
The issue of updating the membership roster was brought up next. The members after listening to the Secretary agreed to the proposal that email would be sent to the members of the Neurologic Society of India to get the information needed.
At present the organisers of the annual meeting are to donate Rs 25,000/- to the society from the funds raised for the meeting.The President felt this sum was too low in itself and also in comparison to other societies. It was remarked that in some of the societies this sum is as much as Rs 75.000/- .It was felt that this sum should be enhanced The attention of the floor was drawn to what was discussed in the Executive Committee meeting held earlier. After much deliberation the members present agreed with the decision taken at the Executive Committee meeting i.e. the donation amount can be the same (Rs 25,000/- ) but an additional Rs 25,000/- should be given to the society for subsidising the journal of the society. The interest free loan of the society to the organisers will continue to remain at Rs 25,000/-. This too would have to be paid back to the society. The submission of the accounts, the donation to the society and the return of the loan shall be done within six months of the last date of the conference. These are to come into force from the meeting to be held in 2008.
The members recorded with regret the lack of response from the organisers of the meetings held in Nagpur and Goa with regarding the submission of the audited accounts and the donation to the society. Although the organisers of the meeting in Lucknow had given Rs 25,000/- but had not submitted the audited accounts. This issue was discussed and during the discussion the fact that the society is legally responsible to the income tax authorities was brought to the notice of the members since the meeting is being held under the aegis of the society. The Secretary and Treasurer were asked to get in touch with the two organisers regarding this. after much discussion the members felt this trend cannot be allowed to continue. The proposal to debar the organisers of the meeting who do not contribute the dues and the audited statement of accounts to the society from participating the society’s activities, from contesting or holding office or presenting papers or voting was approved.
The proposal that the Editor of the society’s journal be inducted as a member of the Executive Committee was approved.
Dr Venkataramana had offered space to house the permanent office of the society. At present the registered office is the residence of Dr Bhagwati. This has been so since the inception of the society. The space would be given rent free in the offices of his department in his hospital. The Vice President expressed some misgivings regarding shifting the registered office. This issue was debated and as per the suggestion of the President it was accepted that the office would be shifted till the ISPN meeting in Goa is over. This will serve the dual purpose of having a Secretariat for the meeting and also housing the offices of our society.
The application of Dr Siddarth Ghosh (Life Member), Dr Abhijit Hazra, Dr Shashank Ramdurg
( Associate Member) were approved they were welcomed to the society.
The venue and the organising secretaries of the 2008 and 2009 meeting were approved. In 2008 it will be in Coimbatore and in 2009 it will be in Kolkatta, the organising secretaries being Dr Murali and Dr Sandip Chaterjee respectively. Dr Murali made a presentation about the meeting , the venue etc. He said the registration fees would be approximately be the same as this year. The 2009 meeting would coincide with the 75th anniversary celebrations of the Park Clinic. In addition Dr Deopujari gave the good news that the 2009 meeting would also be “Friendship Meeting”. About twenty neurosurgeons from Korea sponsored by the Korean paediatric neurosurgical society will be attending the meeting. This will be at their expense. He wished this would be the start of a long meaningful relationship with other paediatric neurosurgeons in Asia and not only Korea. The members greeted this with enthusiasm.
A proposal to start a national data base on common paediatric neurosurgical problems has been proposed announced the President. To meet the expenses three sponsors have come forward to fund the operations. The three data base areas will be Hydrocephalus; Spina Bifida and Paediatric Neurooncology. The coordinators for the data bases will be Dr Chidambaram, Dr Deopujari and Dr Mahapatra for Hydrocephalus, Dr Venkataramana Dr Rajkumar and Dr Ajay Sharma for spina bifida and Dr Sandip Chaterjee Dr Ashish Pathak and Dr Suresh Shankala for Neuro oncology..
.
The President showed the presentation he had made in Liverpool at the annual meeting of the ISPN this year on Goa (where we will be hosting the ISPN meeting in 2011) to the members. In the meeting of ISPN to be held in Cape Town next year we will have to present the budget, arrangements, registration fees and the arrangements being made to host the meeting. The details are being worked out and a proposal was made that a few members of the organising committee will visit Goa in the early part of next year to inspect the various sites and to start liaising with the hotels. An organising committee has been constituted and the members are
Patrons: S.N.Bhagwati, A.K.Banerji
National Advisors: Kalyanraman, V.K.Kak, D.K.Chhabra
Chairman: C.E.Deopujari
Co-chairman : A.K.Mahapatra
Secretary: B.Chidambaram
Joint secretaries: S.Ponraj, Sandip Chatterjee
Treasurer: N.K.Venkatramana
Joint treasurers: K. Sridhar, V P Singh
Reception committee: Uday Andar, Milind Sankhe
Scientific committee: Ashis Pathak, A.K.Purohit, A Sharma
Publication committee : S. Sankhla, Raj Kumar
It was decided to enhance the travel fellowship awarded to the residents and fellows to
Rs 3000/- per person.
The idea of starting a fellowship in Paediatric Neurosurgery was also discussed and accepted.
Dr Sridhar the organising secretary of the meting held in Chennai had given the proceeds of the meeting held in Chennai to the society to start a fellowship in the name of Dr B Ramamurthi.
It was decided to award the fellowship as a travelling fellowship to those in training or those who have finished their training but are less than 40 years of age. The money should be spent to visit and spend some time in centers recognised by the society for training in paediatric neurosurgery.
All the details would be worked our soon and presented to the members.
The report was accepted (Proposed by Dr.Deopujari, Seconded Dr.Venkat Ramana)